A perfect Sunday

This day may go in my books as the most memorable day of March this year. It started like this.

Last week, Wati asked Khiem, the dorm security guard/manager, whether she could visit him in his village. Wendy and I quickly invited ourselves along on the trip thinking that it'd be good to get out of Hanoi. When Sunday morning came, the 3 of us hopped onto 3 motorbikes (driven by Khiem, his girlfriend and his brother). We thought that we would just visit Khiem's house, have some lunch and then return to the city. But instead, we visited 3 houses/villages, 3 pagodas and 3 caves. The guards and friends planned an entire day for us, not letting us pay for anything. They took us to each of their houses to visit their family. Then we visited pagodas and caves along the way - one of which required us to climb up a hill to the top of the pagoda and then climb into the center of the hill to the cave. They opened their homes to us and fed us great food. We saw cool scenaries. And it didn't even rain! It was a perfect Sunday.

(Well, near perfect. As I mentioned before, Hanoi is a dirty and polluted city. We were disgusting by the end of the day from riding on motorbikes and breathing in fumes.)

Lunch served by Khiem's parents. Lots and lots of food. And of course, Beer Ha Noi. Which we chugged. As did Khiem's mom. =)

On the top of the hill looking out to the rice fields around Hanoi. Aren't these hills amazing? They just randomly rise out of the earth.

My attempt at taking a cool picture. We were going about 40km/hr when I took it.

Some of the rice fields around Khiem's girlfriend's village.

The roots of an old tree that covered the entrance to a small shrine.