Every day I walk Bella around the lake directly behind our house.
The lake is surrounded by cafes and houses, with a small park area along one side. Where there aren't cafes, there are ladies who have set up tiny little stalls to serve tea and fruit to their customers.
There are many people around the lake who I share greetings with on any given day - some I see almost every day and some are total strangers who say "hello" to this strange woman walking her even stranger dog.
There is also a temple by the lake, which faces stairs leading down into the water.
The lake serves so many different uses. Couples cosy up on their motorbikes and gaze out, lost in their own world. The cafe owner throws his rubbish from the morning into it. The roaming dogs have a drink from the edge. Men come with home-made rods and nets to fish.
But today I saw something I have not seen before. On my first lap of the lake, I saw a woman standing in the lake, with 2 large bags of laundry on the bank nearby, doing her washing.
On my second lap around the lake, the clothes all "cleaned", the woman herself was naked and scrubbing herself. I just couldn't believe it! It would have been 15 degrees, and the water, I'm sure, a lot colder. Having seen what goes in to that lake, I wouldn't go near it! But what also amazed me was the complete lack of any reaction from anyone around.
Vietnamese people can be incredibly prudish about some things. People of the opposite sex touching in public is a big no-no, for example. But about other things, they are incredibly unphased. It's interesting.
