day 6 of the reunion

sorry about the major time lapse. it's been hard to check email these days. it's been go! go! go!! this reunion is all about playing and eating with little sleep. after 6 days of it, we are rather beat. meals are sporadically upbeat.

let's see... highlights so far.

1) taking a mud and salt water bath with the family -- it was incredible -- we all looked like we came from swimming in a cup of cafe sua da (vietnamese coffee -- light brown colored).

2) morning chi tai on sand dunes

3) tug of war on sand dunes -- vietnamese versus americans -- 2 outta 3 games, and the US won! whoo-hoo! we have the bruises and rope burns to prove it!

4) going to an island resort off of nha trang -- the beach there was so clear!! clearer than any florida beach i've been to. they also claim to have the largest pool in south vietnam, and it sure was a big pool! it winded (is that the right tense? my english is really goin downhill -- my sibs and i have been making funny language mistakes in both languages, perhaps, because there's so much mixing in using both languages.) around and around and around. there were water volleyball games as well as soccer on the beach. there was just tossing the ball around in the ultra clear and still ocean. we enjoyed a meal that included american food, and boy was it about time. not for me, but for the rest of the family. hieu was craving steak and cold stone creamery. minh-anh's been craving chicken fingers. with that resort's buffet, people were able to eat all the american food that wanted. the best part for me was the dessert! so many viet desserts (che). i had 3! after lunch, it was back to the beach or pool, so naturally, we all were tan or burnt by the time we hopped onto the boat that would take us back to nha trang. aloe was passed to all the burn "victims" on the bus today.

5) bus games -- these people sure know how to have a good time on the bus. there are games galore, especially viet word games. how many one word fruits can you think of? left versus right side of the bus. and the prize system... it made people afraid to win because the first winner got a black and hot pink striped bra, which he had to wear and walk up and down the bus. the second prize was a large diaper, which again (same cousin) had to wear. the third prize was wearing an outfit which consisted of a plastic rainbow wig, coconut bra, and coconut covering the body part in between the legs. this "winner" was dolled up with this lovely outfit and was assessoriozed with lipstick and sunglasses. everyone was cracking up and took pics with our new found celebrity.

6) the first meal in dalat -- it was a 6 hr drive to get here through windy and bumpy roads -- we were hungry and tired -- the first meal... ah it was SO GOOD! just rice with fresh veggies, soup, and some salty meats. no meat for me, but i was cleaning my side of the table out with consuming all the veggies. by being in 2 coastal cities, we have had the same meals for about 3 days straight. that's too much seafood for me. there's a lot you can do with seafood, but we were eating about the same thing everyday... blah. so rice, veggies, and meat was such a sweet treat!

7) conversations about trash in vietnam. it's really hard to find a trash can here, which means people have a tendency to litter. in small villages, people throw the trash in the river. amy, my cousin from sf, experienced that first hand by paddling in a boat of black river water. my dad thinks that even though there is no recycling bins for the public or private sectors, there are people who scavenge thru the trash for recyclables for money.

cau 12 thinks that i should collect pics of trash can areas in airports to compare and find out who's the best. he thinks that the japanese system with four compartments is the best so far. i'm surprised that there's no recycling in the hong kong airport.

****

we'll be back in sai gon tomorrow night, and we're off to the north the following evening. i may or may not get a chance to blog before heading up to the rugged north. wish us luck!

poopers... my hour in the computer lab is up. hope all is well.

take care,
hanh

billboards

i think about these more than how i give back because they are everywhere. ads for diapers, cars, shampoo, electronics, you name it, there's probably a billboard on it somewhere in sai gon. it's such a juxaposition. buildings of all sizes. some tall as can be partly covered in a billboard. some short with rusty roofs, no commercial sponsorship for them. the subliminal messages start now. has business done vietnam good? somehow seeing these big companies take over makes me leary... but my uncles say things are getting better. has things gotten better for the quality of life for the people in china when it opened its doors to more trade and commercialization?

hanh's day 3

it's the 4th of july today, so what better way to start it off than to go the "independence palace" in vietnam. that's where the president would live if the commies didn't take over. we took the tour, learned that the commies call the day they took over "independence day." we saw the 2 tanks that ran over the gate, and hieu hung on it, next to the sign that read "please don't touch." we took funny pics. violated rules. got the guard to come over to where we were exploring. in the end, we stood in front of the "independence palace" and flicked the place off. we were scared that the commies would come outta the wood works and shoot us off, but nothing happened. whew!

[yen, i had 2 sunny side up eyes and bread for breakfast. i would have the banh da cua, but due to the 2 headaches i've had after consuming it, i have refrained from eating the banh da cua.]

we are beginning to get the hang of crossing streets with oncoming traffic. this is what we had to do several times in order to get to the store that sells cds, dvds, and vcds. we bought a whole slew of legal and illegal ones.

then off to lunch at quan ngon (the place we ate at before). we had a table of about 20 this time, and some people had to sit at another table... and people came in groups. how crazy. we were the second batch to arrive. as i sit at the end of the table, looking at my family, watching the servers run about, feeling the fan on my face, letting my feet rest, waiting for my meal to come, the question comes back, what does it mean to live a priveleged life? i dunno... but i'm deeply grateful for everything i got.

so... what did we have? banh beo, banh cuon, banh khot, sweet soft tofu, more delicious shakes and fruit juices. we concluded the meal with coffee, vanilla, and taro ice cream.

there's 3 major shopping centers in sai gon. cho lon (translated as big store, cho is store, lon is big) -- sells food in bulk. cho an dong -- sells food in bulk as well as clothes, shoes, fabric, and souvenirs. cho ben thanh -- we went there yesterday. cho ben thanh has the most quality stuff.

i suppose today is the day of breaking rules because we broke the buying protocol at cho an dong. we told thy we wanted to buy something. she bargained, and then, we decided we didn't want it anymore. we walked away... usually the vendor would have yelled at us and made us paid for the price she agreed to, but luckily she didn't. thy gave us a bit of a reprimand for breaking the rules.

cho an dong is hella crowded. hence, the name -- dong (means crowded in viet). the space between the vendors or hallway so to speak was about a foot long. we were hot, sweaty, and feeling caustraphobic. a formula for irriabtility and not buyin anything. cho ben thanh is better.

minh-tu and minh-anh went to try on their ao dai's.

hieu, toni (uncle 11's kid -- 13 yrs old), michelle, vicki, be 2 (aunt 8's kid), bo (uncle 10's kid) went to a mall, which was a night and day difference from cho an dong. we felt much more comfortable there. then we went to the arcade. we raced on horses, fought, punched, shot away. i played air hockey. it was fun, but again weird. i'm not used such westernization in vietnam.

we drove thru chinatown on our way home. who would have thought that there's a chinatown in vietnam? but there is...

back to the uncles' pad. we had quite an event dinner. it started off by witness a man (thru uncle 10's connection) slaughter a cobra. slitting... blood in a cup... wiggling... moving about... scared faces... removal of gallbladder. uncle 3 takes it and swallows it, chasing it down with iced coffee. supposedly the gallbladder is good for your health.

one enters the dining room. this room usually has 1 table in it, now it has 4. the family has multiplied that much. tonight, we are going to a big partay! and a big partay in vietnam is not complete unless you have dog meat (no not really, but that's what we had). my dad was lovin' it. 4-5 different dog dishes. he fixed us bites and offered them to us. it was endearing. he was proud of his kids, who's not afraid to eat anything. then the cobra alcohol was introduced. my dad takes 3 shots... it numbs your tongue. burns your thoat. makes you feel hot. so the guys at the dog meat table has a couple of rounds of the cobra alcohol (it's a bottle of fermented alcohol with a cobra inside)... then the guy (my grandma's sister's sister's husband) went to all the guys at other tables and poured them a shot. hieu took the first shot. we were all cheering him on. chased it with some coke. he turned red instantly, felt a little sick, but in the end, it all worked out.

tonight was the night of werid meats... dog... snake chao (soup)... the rest was normal. steam crab. lemongrass crab. oysters. ginger chicken. pork.

then the auction -- who gets to have the snake tail (one of the best parts of the snake)? the men at the dog meat table auction for the snake tail -- whoever can do the most shots of the snake alcohol gets to have the tail. they go up to 3.5 shots. my mom, the sibs, and i band together to tell my dad to stop. luckily he listens... in the end, he got half the snake tail and took 1 shot because he shared the shot with the guy who claimed he could do the most shots.

things die down a bit. the women who prepared the meal sit down to eat. we take a break from our card games and enter the dining room in a parade of clapping hands. we thank them all in unison. we thank them all each by their name. we thank everyone who helped make the meal possible. lastly, we thank g-ma (grandma), and she did this boxer victory power move that brought tears to my eyes. it's the kinda move you make when you realize that you gave birth to 13 kids -- yes, 13. a move that exudes power! she's a super woman. yeah!

today is cau 7's birthday, which lights out, candles lit, a birthday singing parade in viet and english, and a birthday cake with lots of icing. icing not to eat... but to smear on the birthday boy (though he's 45 yrs old)... he's all white in the face. but nothing compared to what happened to uncle 10. all the cousins got a hand of icing and ganged up on him -- all smearing uncle 10's face. he's white and pink (due to the icing) in the face, and he sought revenge. scary! everyone ran for it. even birthdays are a whole level better in vietnam. they sure know how to have fun.

but that's not the end, right now they are singing karaoke and having a grand ol' time. laughter, whoo-ing, and clapping fill my ears as i'm in this room in my uncle's house bloggin about my vietnam experience. better get back to the party. thanks for reading my meanderings. sorry for the poor grammar.

my family and g-ma are headed to vung tau, city where my dad grew up, tomorrow for 3 days, so bloggin the next 3 days may not happen. not to fear! i'll bring ya'll up to speed when i return. peace out, ya'll!

hanh's day 2 con't

after dinner, we played cards, and gosh, i never knew playing cards could be so fun. i've had great fun playin cards b4, but playin cards in 'nam is a whole level better. we added another game to our list. i don't know the name of it, but michelle introduced it, so i'll call it michelle's game. very interactive. instant entertainment. we'll all have to play it sometime. after a few rounds of michelle's game and egyptian war, we played spoons, or chopsticks rather. 2 decks + 13 people playin chopsticks = 2 broken chopsticks over wrestling for that last one. doode, we haven't ever broken chopsticks playin spoons before... guess it's because we haven't ever played with chopsticks. such good times cards bring!

when we got back to the hotel, i checked in with my parents. asked them how their trip was going. i shared how i want to help thy and tho come over to the states. we talk about how messed up the commies are and schemed how thy and tho could come over to the states. sure, life in 'nam is fun, but the education system is screwed up. lots more opportunity in the states. makes me think of the priveleged life i lead... how can i give back?

hanh's day 2

sorry about the delay ya'll, but last night both computers at the hotel were occupied by michelle and vicki (who just arrived from a week up north). they hadn't had email access for a while, so i thought it would be nice to have them have all the access they wanted.

so onto day 2... slept on the couch because hieu and tho slept in the room was sleeping in. ya know how my dad feels about family members of different genders sleeping in the same bed. so be it. i slept on the couch in g-ma's room. not the most comfortable, but when you are exhausted with 5 hrs of sleep a night. you conk out.

di van (the 4th kid, lives in orange county), dung (her hubbie), amy, will, michelle, vicki arrived from a 31 hr train ride from the north to the south. as we sit eating our free breakfast, they tell us about rat feces, train rides where the bathroom is simply a hole in the train, meaning whatever you elmininate falls directly onto the train tracks. eek! they went to sapa, which is a beautiful mountaineous part of hanoi. the gang interacted and bought some bracelets from mong people. they also visited hanoi, hai phong (where they have mouth-watering seafood), and the town that dung was born and grew up in.

my parents were so intrigued by what di van and dung shared about their touring experience in the north that we changed our itinerary to include sapa. ya know what that means? i'll get to see a part of joey's ancestry! who would have thought?! :)

afterwards, we went to ben thanh, a huge open market where you can get lots of souvenirs. it's a like a huge farmer's market, but less food, more stuff. shoes. chopsticks. tea sets. purses. bracelets. superfluous stuff. fun though. i remember being at the place. glad to have my aunt and cousin to bargain with us. it's a major tourist attraction because the open market has been there a little over a century.

what weirded me out about this experience is that vendors spoke to me in english. did i look american? or maybe korean (thy thinks i look korean, but she think minh-tu looks more korean, hieu looks the most viet, minh-anh is next in line)? i think it's because they want me to feel at ease, but it made me feel uncomfortable instead. why are they speaking to me in english when i'm in vietnam? their english was pretty good, but i responded in viet. sometimes, i responded in english, and i wanted to bust out into some fancy questions that they wouldn't understand, but i refrained such as "can you dry clean this purse if it gets dirty?" sigh.... viet is changing so much. so much commercialism. nokia, sony, vita, and other corporations strut their power with billboards that block my view of the blue sky.

after ben thanh, we shop for shoes for minh-anh and minh-tu on a street where there's endless shoe vendors reside. we experience an afternoon rain. refreshing but wet. we have lunch that's kinda like a refined buffet. women in traditional wear make food on the borders of the restaurants, customers walk around, see what they want, scribble it on paper... sit down at their table (in our case, it's a party of 16), then boom the food comes. it was supa fly!! i finally got a bowl of the bun rieu that i have been craving for months. damn, it was good. we had bun rieu, banh uot, banh cuon with grilled shrimp on a sugar cane, banh khot, banh beo, banh tom and some yummy fruit shakes. i had a sopodila shake, oh so yummy...

then we went to diamond department. a mall. felt like i was in the us. had some brands there that the mall in kc doesn't have. weird. very weird. at least they spoke to me in viet. we tried on shoes at the converse store. nibbled on some banana jackfruit ice cream with coconut juice.

then we took the hotel car back to binh dien (the 'burb so to speak that the cousins live in), and it was raining like crazy!! omg... felt so bad because tho was on the moped, and he only had a cheap rain poncho that we bought about a minute before our adventure. talk about privelege, yo. the sibs and i were all in this ford explorer. tho was on his modped fighting against the wind and rain. in retrospect, if we were to think a bit ahead, we would have left the moped at the hotel and he could have came in the car... we took a different way to my aunt's as well. a longer way... so that we would avoid traffic, which meant tho had to fight the rain for even longer!! damn we felt bad about it. when we finally arrived in binh dien, tho had a headache and was obviously super drenched.

we hung out at ba ngoai's house. you see, there's 4 uncles in 'namers. 3 of 'me live next to each other. one of 'em lives not too far away. dinner at my uncles' pad is so good!! we hung out for a while in ba's house.

gotta go. write more later.

have a good 4th!!

hey everyone,

i started off the day looking out of my hotel window into run-down orange and lime colored buildings riddled with rusty roofs on a backdrop of gray clouds. it would have made a nice painting or postcard. i did some stretching because being in a plane for 7 -8 hours sure does a number on ya.

i'm impressed with the hotel. 3 stars. reminds of a comfort inn. not ridiculously luxuriously but not a roach motel either. just right....

i joined my siblings, grandma, and cousin thy for our free breakfast. thy is superb at taking care of her american family members. she's knows how to sweet talk store clerks or ai dao sowers to get what she wants. she's a skilled haggler too. she hasn't changed a bit since five years back when she graced me with her hospitality. i had a bowl of banh da cua (crab flat noodle soup) for breakfast. so cool to get viet dishes for breakfast at a hotel. no more donuts for me!

my uncle (#3) came to pick us up promptly at 7:30 am. we went to mass at a church my dad often frequented when he lived here. he said the church hasn't changed a bit. we met up with thim lien's mom's sister, who was very cool and gave us recommendations on places to get a massage. a massage here is about $10. so incredibly cheap!

the currency ... 15,000 viet dollars equals $1 american dollar. can you believe that? we bought about 10 ao dai's today, and it cost a little less than $100 or 1,227,000 viet dollars (or something like that).

ba and my dad got some glasses made. my dad got a haircut. we munched on jackfruit, grapefruit, mango, oi, banh bo, vai, and watermelon in my uncle's van as he drove us to all our destinations. how cool is it to have a chaffeur?

we concluded our morning adventure with lunch at my uncle's (#3 -- the one that drove us around). omg it was so good!! we had oysters with sweet fish sauce, steamed crabs, fried frog legs with hot sauce, viet crepes. and you can't end a meal without a plethora of tropical fruit -- and so we did -- mang cau, xau rieng, nhan, vai, and banh da lon.

after lunch, we played volleyball, and it was so funny because we were particularly skilled. so... that means the ball landed just about everywhere but where it needed to be... in the pond... in the pond again... in the pond far away... it hit the guys working on the truck... it went over the roof and returned... it went over to the neighbors twice... it got stuck in between the metal fence... it was hilarious. we did manage to have a number of good rallies, and i have light bruises on my arm to show for it. :)

the next exciting thing we did was joined my older cousin tien (i think he's 30) to "big c," which is where wal-mart meets target meets a mall. kinda eerie. we went to run errands with him because he had to go buy a couple of outfits for his young daughter. we bought some fun pasteries and received interesting looks from viet guys... i bet it was minh-anh who caught their eye.

it's a lot cooler here than i would have thought. but one thing doesn't change -- bug bites! there are all over my foot and ankles. minh-tu hates them. one of minh-anh's foot is swollen so much that she can't even slip comfortably into her flip flops.

now for dinner... we had rice with canh chua, muc sau with mang, thit kho tau, and ca hop voi rau. for dessert, we had more tropical fruit, but this time we had mang cau smoothies! who-hoo! so delicious.

we ended the night with some lively egyptian war, which the cousins called "bai an giang" (translation: the cheating card game). i never knew how fun this game could be. d0oode, minh-anh was on fire! she got about every double there was. but we got to sharing the goods, and cousins got the cards. lots of yelling and red hands.

so now i'm at the hotel. writing in the dining room / internet cafe. the room is spinning, which i interpret was time for hanh to go to bed because maybe she's still jetlagged.