Regardless of day or night, Vientiane (Laos) is not noisy and bustling but strangely quiet. There, thousands of Vietnamese people, many of whom view Vientiane as their second homeland, are earning their living.

Every time I visit Bao Vinh, standing at the Bao Vinh Bridge with the gentle quiet communal house, whose color has been fading with time, behind the old Bodhi tree, I am filled with mixed feelings beyond description.