I returned to Vietnam in March 2000, this time visiting Hanoi, Haiphong, Ho Chi Minh City and Cantho. Vietnam is a country that is changing rapidly: this time there were more billboards, more tractors (purchased when people trade up from a water buffalo)--and slightly higher prices. But if there were golf courses and at least one casino (built by Singaporeans), there were also the traditional markets, people washing clothes in the Mekong, and water puppets, a Red River folk art, now moved into a theatre and, since tickets were $4 (expensive for Vietnamese), mostly for tourists. Vietnam is a mixture of the old and new, and it continues to be a place of wonderful smiles.