Ba Hue

Village women of a certain age tend to blacken their teeth with lacquer. I'm not sure what the reason is - maybe some way of preventing the teeth from rotting. But it's a strange thing to see a broad smile full of black. Another habit of the older generation, especially women, is chewing betel nut which turns into a bright red mess that tends to stain the lips. I gather that it's just as addictive as tobacco, which tends to be the old men's drug of choice. I've never been tempted to try it.

I love this house. It was built in 1904, in a mixture of French and Vietnamese styles. The main living area is a huge, high-ceilinged room that is completely open at the front - onto a verandah facing a courtyard that is fenced off from the street by a high wall. The ceiling is in fact barrel-vaulted, like the roof of a cave. There are rooms off each side, but I haven't seen what they're like. They looked dark, though originally there were windows into the main room that would've allowed light in to the side rooms. Ba Hue has filled up the window space with storage boxes. Unfortunately, it's in a poor state of repair due to lack of funds, but she's hoping her children will eventually be able to restore it.