You should've seen it with your own eyes...

But that wasn't the end to my moving experiences for the day, there were countless other small moments with families who invited me into their homes as I passed (its hot enough that their homes are very open with bare spaces where the doors and windows should be so you can see inside everyone's home) to join them watching TV and their children translated.

Despite a lack of language sometimes we seemed to communicate ok and they understood my mimings of TV dramas which was funny. Amazing how soap opera storylines are the same all over the world so you can understand whats going on no matter what the language is :)

I found the kids the easiest to communicate with as even if they didn't have good english they seemed to get the gist of things and we could communicate somehow.

I went fishing with some kids who clamboured round me wanting photos of themselves and then to take some of me. It's times like these that travelling with a little snap happy digital comes in handy as their sticky hand fumbled with the buttons, but I couldn't say no as they were just so stoked to be able to use it.

After I'd finally tired of strolling the neighbourhoods I checked out the beach again in the late afternoon in the company of two young teenage fisherman who took me on a tour and were very proud to show me their wee fishing pod that they'd built themselves.

I'd run out of battery on my camera by then, but I wish you could have seen it with your own eyes, the mastery of hadiwork on them is astonishing as they appear to be made from some kind of dried palm that been woven together.

Eventually, in the late afternoon I ate a vietnamese lunch with a particularly bright 11-year old girl who acted as my translater for her family who've now adopted me.

The grandmother said that she has six children, but now she has seven including me, because many tourists try to get a photo with her, but she liked me coz I didn't do that and instead had spent time sitting quietly passing the afternoon and sharing a drink of her bitter tea with her.

But actually it was me who was grateful because it was sooo nice just to be able to sit there with them and soak up the memories of my day as I watched the world go by and met various members of their family as they came and went.

One of her daughters in law is an English teacher at the local school (she taught herself from the radio) and she took over translating duties as I answered questions about my family and plans for the future.

Eerily enough the granmothers last name was Thuong (which means 'love' in Vietnamese). She was very startled to find that was my last name as well and had tears in her eyes as she hugged me goodbye.

I've promised to write a letter to her and she says she will send me baby clothes when I have children (her who has far less money than me offering to give me something!) and that I must bring my boyfriend to visit her in Vietnam.

She wouldn't believe me that I didn't have one. It's quite ironic that people in other cultures can find you beautiful when you're seen as ugly by those in your own.

Just goes to show that they are so kind Vietnamese people, they have such a STRONG sense of family and are so overwhelming friendly and GENEROUS. They have such big hearts. It really is a beautiful country and I'd say anyone who's been there will agree with me that it's the people who really make the experience there so utterly enjoyable.

Gosh, I was just so overwhelmed by the whole place. It's so nice to get off the tourist track and not have people trying to sell you things.

And I've walked around and explored every single neighbourhood in every country I've ever visited and never have I had people say hello to me, but here they ALL do.

God I'm glad I got out of Japan and didn't take that as the be all and end all of what asian people are like that's for sure.

Just goes to show why travel is so good for you huh, well for me anyway. I'm learning so much every day about the world and myself, it's just so incredible.

And now I understand what it's like to treasure the beach so much for people who never get to see it :)

Which is probably most of the rest of the world really huh!

Love always,
Fernleaf