My Own Vietnam
Trip Start
Oct 20, 2008
1
23
29
Trip End
Feb 02, 2009
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Ho Chi Minh is busy, as busy as any we have seen. Motorcycles, mopeds,
scooters weave through cars and trucks on the crowded streets.
Pedestrians bravely cross the streets and both Ernie and I adeptly join
them (we are quite proud of our street crossing ability as we traverse
the world).
Ernie has joked that this whole world trip has been nothing more than a countdown for me get to Vietnam to meet up with my mom and in a small way, it has been
Family photo in restaurant
. A brief personal background: My mom is Chinese, but was born and raised in Vietnam. Her family was one of many Chinese that immigrated to Vietnam. So you see, this is a sort of ancestral trip. Both my brother and are so excited that this trip happened for us. We have grown up on her stories of her childhood, of her family and most importantly, of our grandmother, Popo, who long ago passed away.We came here with no itinerary save one; visit my Popo's grave.
After a quite happy meeting with my parents and brother, we riotously tramp around the city, along with my aunties. A description of my two aunties and their hilarious interactions including my mom, deserves a whole seperate entry! Our first day, we simply "sit and talk". "Sit and talk" really is just code for stuffing our faces as we make fun of each other, laugh, eat more, and laugh more. We sat in my aunties' hotel room and as we talked, yelled, and laughed, more food would magically keep appearing as my Sai-Yi (my middle aunt) simply asked people to go out and get more food, mostly tropical fruits. As we all reside in the States, we were all starving for the tropical fruits we grew up with in our respective home countries. Of note is that, my aunties don't really speak English and as neither my dad, Ernie, my brother, and I don't speak Cantonese or Vietnamese, a lot of our conversation is in pantomime, short English phrases, and mostly having my mom translate for us
"Bolt" already available on DVD in Vietnam
. In a chaotic way, it all works out because my aunties understand us and we understand them, minus the small details of prepositions, proper grammar, and such. At this first meeting our Tai-Yi ("big" oldest aunt) is also present. She still lives here. Her children had long ago petitioned for her to go to America to join them. She stayed for 4 months and decided that she didn't like it and promptly moved back here. She is quieter than her rambunctious sisters, preferring to listen and quietly offer food to us. That whole first day was dedicated to eating and that we did, until late into the night.
The second day, we walked around a little, to the market, the mall, some shops, but we all got together again for a late lunch. Our third day, 15 of us piled into a van and drove to the province to visit my mom's ancestral home. It was a loud ride as the aunties (including my mom) joked and reminsced. We arrived to a town (not the "province" I had envisioned). We stopped on a shop lined street. The narrow buildings attached to each other and not exceeding 2 stories. The first floor of each building was open, open as in no door; instead the front wall where a door and/or window would be opened as a store front. We stopped at one and as we emptied the clown car, my mom introduced us to her cousins and her aunt. After our pleasantries, we loaded up the clown car once again and drove to the family cementary. It was somber, happy, sad, and humbling.
A sumptious lunch awaited us back at my great-aunt's home. After our feast (thats really what it was) we hung about and chatted. We even were able to see the home where my mom was born
Piles of tropical fruit
!At my mom's cousin's salon across the street, Ernie and my mom recieved great haircuts from my mom's cousin as everyone else were recipients of relaxing and vigorous shampooing and head massages (I declined as I was busy lazily lounging about), others got manicures and other "pretty-ing" procedures.
This trip has been slendid. Its a rare and precious snapshot in my life. It's interesting that the snapshot encompasses past, present and future all in one.
A seperate food blog will follow. Till then, thanks for reading!!
We are off to freezing Beijing tomorrow!! Barring my fingers freezing off, we'll keep you posted!!
