Wandering silk village

We walked around the village with our guide. On a wall by a park was Communist Party slogans urging the locals to work hard. The Party flag hung in the streets. We wandered into a beautiful Pagoda and met the gate keeper, a 71 year old man . He asked our guide where we were from. I asked her to ask him if he fought in the war. He had been in the Army and had walked to South Vietnam on the Ho Chi Min trail and fought the Americans. I asked if he disliked Americans. He said no, the war was long ago. He invited us to tea and gave us a gift of packaged food. Over cups of tea he said Vietnam had a new enemy, the bully up north: China. Beware of the growing power of the Chinese !! He shook my hand when we left,