Countryside Vacation

For Tet, the Lunar New Year, I traveled with DiDi and J.P. to DiDi's family's house in Bac Lieu, which is one of the southernmost provinces of Viet Nam. DiDi and I left early Saturday morning to get the bus (with J.P. following on Sunday). We were dropped off at the giant bus depot and stood with our luggage, inhaling bus exhaust, for almost two hours before boarding our small 15 passenger bus. I slept almost the entire way there and only woke up for the two bathroom stops. After eight hours on the bus we arrived at DiDi's house on motorbikes and her mom, third oldest sister and her husband and baby were there to greet us warmly. They immediately fed us and gawked over my high-bridged nose and my incredibly white skin, which are two beautiful features in Vietnam. We then spent a lot of time getting to know the baby, Thinh, who just turned two years old. Once he got used to us, he was very affectionate and I realized it was the most time I'd spent around one baby. It was surprisingly enjoyable, but don't get any ideas. :) I got him a soccer ball at the end of my stay. They have a big yard and a boy needs a soccer ball.





Here are some photos of DiDi's mom's house.









The house was immensely clean and DiDi's mom worked constantly to keep it that way. She'd cook amazing food, serve it, clean up, and then clean the entire house once or twice. She hardly ever sat down and would only let us help clean dishes or prepare food a couple of times. We had to earn our keep and it was difficult to watch her do so much work as we sat around. The interesting thing about the house is that there was no running water except for one well pump in the back room. The toilet was a squat toilet that emptied straight into the small pond in back of the house and the family takes showers by soaping up and dumping buckets of clean water over themselves. The giant brown jugs are for clean water and the back of the house has a beveled cement area for washing dishes and preparing/cleaning food. That area empties straight into the small pond too. I was fascinated and it all works very well. In fact, I prefer that way of life as it's a lot of work but very rewarding and simple.



On the first night I was taken to the nearby guest house where J.P. and I rented a room. It was an unfurnished apartment but had the necessary mattress and bathroom. It was clean and perfect for our purposes-- a place to crash at night. The bathroom did have a gigantic spider that watched us from its elaborate web on the ceiling and the "shower" was a hand sprayer usually found on a sink but it was all good. I slept like a baby except for one night where my anti-malaria pills finally induced vivid and disturbing dreams where I was a Jew in 1940's Germany. I'm not sure I survived in both dreams. In one I somehow escaped from a concentration camp and in the second I hid Lela and some other women in an attic. Anyways, my head was shaved in both dreams and I had trouble falling back asleep afterwards.




This is the brother-in-law that J.P. and I called "Macgyver" because he set up our mosquito net with the plastic wrapping from the mattress. Genius.

We paid for the room, checked it out, and then DiDi took me back to her house for the night as she didn't want me staying there alone that night. I slept next to her in the front room of their house under a pink mosquito net, of course. I awoke in the middle of the night by something crawling in my shirt and managed to catch the cockroach and release him outside the mosquito net. I was too tired to care and it's funny now. J.P. arrived on Sunday afternoon and we spent most of the week helping around the house in exchange for our favorite Vietnamese food for every meal. Dessert was always fresh fruit which was awesome. Everything was amazingly delicious and DiDi's mom made sure we ate until we were full. We usually napped and then awoke to food again. It was awesome. In fact, this particular vacation was very much like being a small child on a family vacation. We didn't worry about anything and the food and plans for the day just materialized. When I spoke Vietnamese to DiDi's mom she often rewarded me with a kiss on the head and a tight hug. I had always assumed that kisses were a pretty standard thing across the world, but Vietnamese kisses are given more with the nose and the smack we usually think of as the kissing sound is replaced with a sniff. Who knew?

One funny story about DiDi's mom-- I discovered that her cutting board was split in half and went out and bought her a new one. She loved the new one but put it on the shelf and said she'd be keeping it there on the shelf in the packaging for the memories. I tried to steal the broken one but that didn't work either. :)

DiDi and I accompanied her mom to the market a couple times and there were always interesting things going on there. Markets in rural Viet Nam often sell live animals, dead animals, fruit, and other household necessities all in one small spot of land. It was packed with people the day before Tet as everyone was scrambling to get the food they needed before the holiday.








(Hint: that pig head is not attached to anything but a rusty hook that suspends it over a meat stand)

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (the three days of Tet), we got on the motorbikes of DiDi's brother-in-laws and traveled through the countryside to visit their family and friends. It was really sunny and the air was very clean which was immensely enjoyable. The roads would begin as pavement and eventually deteriorate--from pavement to gravel to dirt. The bridges were interesting as well and at some times I wasn't sure they'd hold the motorbike, the driver, and me.





We would reach a house/hut and be offered soft drinks and traditional Tet candies as well as the roasted watermelon seeds that everyone ate like little birds. Vietnam is interesting in the way--we could drive about an hour in any direction and find some of DiDi's blood relatives. They tend to go to school nearby and then move to a nearby house, get married young (at about my age) and begin having children. We visited three out of four of DiDi's sisters' houses as well as many of her aunts and even her grandmother's house. They were all immensely enjoyable adventures and they even took us to visit their neighbors at times. We drank goat penis wine (it's a fertility thing), rice wine, etc. and had a lot of fun with the brother-in-laws and every visit was so much fun. We'd sit in a circle on the ground and eat, drink, and laugh. They thought our Vietnamese was hilarious and I enjoyed being with then all. DiDi's little cousins loved having smiling white people around and often held my hands while walking through their villages. The villages were the most rural I had ever seen and I asked DiDi's oldest sister, Anh, if I could come back and work in her backyard, which is a shrimp farm, in exchange for a floor to sleep on and some food. She thought it was hilarious but I was serious.

And if the United States Customs Bureau asks, I did not touch any farm animals in Viet Nam. :)






DiDi, her crazy little cousin "Nino" (pronounced Nee-Naw) and DiDi's beautiful mother)


Two of DiDi's brother-in-laws, J.P., and me at a nearby Buddhist temple. We visited a couple times during the vacation and lit incense and prayed. DiDi's mom is a serious Buddhist and our meals often began with her lighting incense and offering some food to her ancestors before we ate.




DiDi's father


the aforementioned goat penis wine


DiDi's nieces with a baby goat






DiDi (the baby of the family) and three of her four sisters


one of DiDi's crazy nephews terrorizing a duck


fun on motorbikes-- DiDi's sister Phien and one of her nieces




DiDi's mom and her mother, who is now 80 years old. She told us to come back next Tet with our spouses...


Silhouette of grandma


Four generations!


The best bathroom ever--it utilizes naturally running water. However, it might be a bit precarious to navigate in the dark of the night.


Note the dead rat in the lower right-hand corner. I love how one can take black and white photos of Viet Nam and they look like they could've been taken 60 years ago. :)

At home, neighbors came out to stare and even in town where DiDi's mom lives, people would pass by the house to look at us in action. It felt a bit like being in a zoo and I missed being ignored. One afternoon I was roused from my nap to appear in photos with some of the older neighbors' kids. J.P. and I were simply props which was a bit annoying to us. On the other hand, the neighbor's kids thought it was hilarious that I could talk to them in Vietnamese and I eventually played some ball with them.





That was pretty much the entire trip. On Thursday night we said a sad goodbye to DiDi's family and we promised to visit again. Her mom even packed us our favorite snacks for the road. I really did not want to leave the warmth of DiDi's family and realized that I'd hardly been homesick this week. Then DiDi, J.P., and I boarded another small bus and tried to sleep despite the crazy driving and uneven roads/bridges. We arrived back in Ho Chi Minh City at about 3 AM this morning and finally got back to the house and were in bed at 4:00.

Tonight we'll have dinner with friends and hopefully we'll clean the apartment tomorrow. :) Miss you all and keep those emails comin'!

A New Life

In the past four days I've focused on the fact that I have to make a new life here. It's an odd idea, since the last time I had to do anything like this was when I began college at HWS almost four years ago. I have an awesome job so it was time to begin to construct my extra-curricular life. On Wednesday I began the search for a singing group here in Ho Chi Minh City and stumbled upon an ad for the HCMC International Choir. After emailing the director and receiving a prompt reply, I am going to a short audition on the night of Monday, February 2nd and hopefully afterwards I will practice with the group. They are preparing a giant Haydn piece for some June concerts and I'm really excited.

On Tuesday night I went with the roommates to a bar that was hosting a giant party to watch the inauguration live on CNN. We stood for almost three hours among so many ex-pats. It was exciting, and not because that was the most white people I had ever seen in one place in Vietnam. When FORMER President George Bush (has a ring to it, no?) appeared on the t.v., there was nothing but booing. And crying was soon to follow as President Obama's speech was inspiring and put forth quite a challenge to the American people. It's a different sort of rallying the troops- a helpful and less expensive one. So we watched the arrivals, entertainment, and speech and then came back home at about 1 am. This is DiDi and I in our excited state. And then there are all the housemates...





On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I took motorbike taxis, xe oms, to the backpacker's district of the city. On Tuesday I watched the movie "Defiance," which is the true story of a community of Jews in early 1940's Belorussia. They hide in the wood and make their own community. One of the giant themes was their very lives as defying the plans of the Third Reich and the constant choice between physically fighting back (killing German soldiers who stumbled upon their camp) or just running and remaking their lives in another part of the forest. It was a darn good movie. Just after the movie ended and right before the credits began to roll, a long-haired man of about 65 began to ask if anyone in the small theater could speak English. I caught his eye and he began to talk about how glad he was that this movie was made and is being seen by the masses. He explained that he was a Belarusian paratrooper and that more people need to know what actually went on there. He was happy to hear I'm a skydiver and then continued on to tell light war stories and about what he felt are the downfalls of globalization. I just sat there are he spouted all kinds of half-baked ideas about people moving to countries and having to accept the culture there.

On each day I took a xe om into that district I would walk back towards the giant market, Benh Thanh, and take lots of photos. The big park outside the market has been transformed into a flower market for Tet (the upcoming New Year) and it's a great place to meet people and take great photos. I've seen some very interesting things there--giant water buffalos (better known to the Native Americans as tatonkan) crafted from fruit, a small street boy being hit by a livid man toting a bamboo stick (presumably for trying to steal from the flower market), and lots of cute babies. I've also seen men taking their after lunch naps in odd positions on benches, a display with Santa Claus and seven dwarfs instead of elves, and had a short chat with a street kid carrying his baby sister. Here are some of my favorites.



























After spending time in the park/flower market, I'd walk past the giant Benh Thanh market and then into the square with the historic cathedral and the giant post office. I'd grab a Coke or a coffee and sit on a small stool by the side of the road either taking photos or writing postcards. By then it'd usually be about 3 pm and I'd take another xe om back to the apartment to rehydrate.







At night DiDi and I go out and meet with friends. On Wednesday night it was half-price mojito night at this great Spanish restaurant so we went and chilled out there. We also took awesome photos using the bathroom mirror. Reminiscent of junior high activities, I'm aware. From left to right it's Inny, me, DiDi, and Sarah. Inny and Sarah are German and we hang out all the time. In fact, Inny's having us all over for another barbeque tonight in order to have a last dinner before Tet. I'm excited because there's nothing like good friends and good food.



In other news, I have begun my anti-malarials and have had none of the expected side effects (dizziness, stomach illness, liver failure, etc.). Early tomorrow morning DiDi and I leave on a bus bound for her family's house in Bac Lieu, the southernmost province of Vietnam. I'm really excited to meet her family and eat well for the next week. I've been practicing saying the names of her four sisters and almost have them down. We'll have a review session sometime during the eight hour bus trip. Plenty of time. I'll be back to my computer at the end of next week. At that time another blog entry will appear and all of your awesome emails will be answered.

Happy New Year! Chuc mung nam moi! :)