Sunday, April 1, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Everywhere
What follows are mostly journal entries, and then pictures and captions I have inserted in later.
Vietnam is a developing country, which I learned has replaced "third world" country. As "developing country" implies, there are indicators of change everywhere, but for the most part Vietnam looks pretty poor. Being a tropical country however, it also just looks plain pretty.
I spent much of the trip in hotels and tour buses, going from temple to temple. We visited so many cities much of what's labeled is probably incorrect.
March 6th - Saigon
Wowoowow. From exiting the airport into a great funnel mass of Asian faces greeting the arrivals, to the muggy heat and palm trees (!), to the busy motorcycle no traffic law abiding flow of the streets, to the network of back alleys that finally lead to the apartment of the place we're staying at. Man I was just thinking about the economic level of this place (no hot water, large multi-function rooms instead of smaller purposeful ones, no AC units), thinking this particular residence to be pretty poor (relative to the US) and therefore average - and then my mom surprised me by telling me that they have a maid! Well, she said mermaid, but y'know.
This thing tastes like a grape with a giant seed inside:
March 7th
Went to breakfast with my uncle, who I had just met. Before leaving, my dad was adamant about me not getting on a motorbike; but I hopped on the back of my uncle's anyways with happiness. I've never been on a motorbike before. It was terrifying. Saigon traffic is fucking insane. There are lights and marked lanes, but people don't care. The traffic is heavy as hell, but everyone is bobbing and weaving out in front of each other, giving only 2 feet of buffer space and sometimes less. Red lights are suggestions. Lane directions only conventions. More than once we found ourselves going on the other side of the road, against traffic. Whichever way you fancy, I guess.
Cars honk not if you are about to collide into them, but as they are about to collide into you. They announce their presence - they say "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Saigon is full of honking.
Despite all this insanity, everyone has a look of complete nonchalance. This is just how you drive; you get used to it. My uncle adds to this perception by taking a phone call and only leaving one hand on the handle, staring at the caller ID and looking up every few seconds while still weaving in and out of traffic.
As I found myself bracing for impact over and over, I also found myself loving the experience. It was exhilarating. I could get used to it.
March 8th
My uncle, oldest of ten siblings, is a funny man. He's constantly lighting up cigarettes in no smoking areas. Like the airport. When this is pointed out to him, he claims there are no signs. When the signs are pointed out to him, he throws his head back and cackles, exposing missing teeth and browned remaining ones. He then smokes anyways.
He is our group's paid cameraman. He's always hovering around with the thing, pushing and prodding people into what I assume are better positions. While he's doing this he's knocking shit over, walking backwards into people and walls and poles, swinging around his camera bag and knocking over cups.
All moments are captured. He seems to like most the ones where nothing is happening.
Whenever just me and him are together he always makes me pay for him. I have paid for his food, his coffee, and his beer so far. Maybe it'll be cigarettes next.
I've only known him for about 2 days now, but I think I like him the most out of all my aunts and uncles.
I am by far the youngest in my mom's group of twenty that I'm traveling on the tour with. They are mostly in their 40's and 50's, with two bringing their mothers of 70 along. We are led by a Buddhist monk, which most have known for many years. He has given many of them their Buddhist names, and they all seem greatly indebted to him. Where ever he goes, they fawn over him. If he walks towards a door, two or three will fall over each other to rush to open it for him. There is always a crowd right around his near proximity, like flies upon dooky. He wears a smile and his being radiates warmth in return; but I suspect he's like this with or without them. He's very kind to me, knowing that I don't understand Vietnamese that well and speaks to me in English if I looked confused. We share a room together. When I was asleep I heard him rustle around; he later told me that he got up to meditate four times during a night, a leftover habit from when he ran a nursing home and had to be up at all hours.
Vietnam is a developing country, which I learned has replaced "third world" country. As "developing country" implies, there are indicators of change everywhere, but for the most part Vietnam looks pretty poor. Being a tropical country however, it also just looks plain pretty.
I spent much of the trip in hotels and tour buses, going from temple to temple. We visited so many cities much of what's labeled is probably incorrect.
March 6th - Saigon
Wowoowow. From exiting the airport into a great funnel mass of Asian faces greeting the arrivals, to the muggy heat and palm trees (!), to the busy motorcycle no traffic law abiding flow of the streets, to the network of back alleys that finally lead to the apartment of the place we're staying at. Man I was just thinking about the economic level of this place (no hot water, large multi-function rooms instead of smaller purposeful ones, no AC units), thinking this particular residence to be pretty poor (relative to the US) and therefore average - and then my mom surprised me by telling me that they have a maid! Well, she said mermaid, but y'know.
This thing tastes like a grape with a giant seed inside:
March 7th
Went to breakfast with my uncle, who I had just met. Before leaving, my dad was adamant about me not getting on a motorbike; but I hopped on the back of my uncle's anyways with happiness. I've never been on a motorbike before. It was terrifying. Saigon traffic is fucking insane. There are lights and marked lanes, but people don't care. The traffic is heavy as hell, but everyone is bobbing and weaving out in front of each other, giving only 2 feet of buffer space and sometimes less. Red lights are suggestions. Lane directions only conventions. More than once we found ourselves going on the other side of the road, against traffic. Whichever way you fancy, I guess.
Cars honk not if you are about to collide into them, but as they are about to collide into you. They announce their presence - they say "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Saigon is full of honking.
Despite all this insanity, everyone has a look of complete nonchalance. This is just how you drive; you get used to it. My uncle adds to this perception by taking a phone call and only leaving one hand on the handle, staring at the caller ID and looking up every few seconds while still weaving in and out of traffic.
As I found myself bracing for impact over and over, I also found myself loving the experience. It was exhilarating. I could get used to it.
March 8th
My uncle, oldest of ten siblings, is a funny man. He's constantly lighting up cigarettes in no smoking areas. Like the airport. When this is pointed out to him, he claims there are no signs. When the signs are pointed out to him, he throws his head back and cackles, exposing missing teeth and browned remaining ones. He then smokes anyways.
He is our group's paid cameraman. He's always hovering around with the thing, pushing and prodding people into what I assume are better positions. While he's doing this he's knocking shit over, walking backwards into people and walls and poles, swinging around his camera bag and knocking over cups.
All moments are captured. He seems to like most the ones where nothing is happening.
Whenever just me and him are together he always makes me pay for him. I have paid for his food, his coffee, and his beer so far. Maybe it'll be cigarettes next.
I've only known him for about 2 days now, but I think I like him the most out of all my aunts and uncles.
March 9th
Plane to Hanoi
Airplane food hierarchy: Japan Airlines>American Airlines>Northwest Airlines>Vietnam Airlines
I am by far the youngest in my mom's group of twenty that I'm traveling on the tour with. They are mostly in their 40's and 50's, with two bringing their mothers of 70 along. We are led by a Buddhist monk, which most have known for many years. He has given many of them their Buddhist names, and they all seem greatly indebted to him. Where ever he goes, they fawn over him. If he walks towards a door, two or three will fall over each other to rush to open it for him. There is always a crowd right around his near proximity, like flies upon dooky. He wears a smile and his being radiates warmth in return; but I suspect he's like this with or without them. He's very kind to me, knowing that I don't understand Vietnamese that well and speaks to me in English if I looked confused. We share a room together. When I was asleep I heard him rustle around; he later told me that he got up to meditate four times during a night, a leftover habit from when he ran a nursing home and had to be up at all hours.
Hanoi vs Saigon
Hanoi is colder, about 50 degrees, what Vietnamese probably consider freezing. There are more white people here than in Saigon, where they seemed nearly absent. The fashion looks a little more modern, which might be due to the wider options that the colder climate provides. The streets here look newish, there is actually a highway (!), and there is much less traffic. Everything -buildings, traffic, people- is more widely dispersed.
As we got away from the city into the country I started seeing the truly impoverished side of Vietnam (and as poor as this looks my mom promises we haven't seen poor yet). There are tons of shacks: 4 concrete walls and a cutout opening for a door and corrugated metal roof and nothing else. Ironically, some of these function as internet cafes. The landscape I see from my tour bus window is made of these shacks, older decaying villages, stray dogs, oxen and cows, and lush green rice fields. The rice fields look like immaculately grown grass in neat little rows and columns, and the greens so vibrant I found myself questioning my eyes.
A temple on top o' a mountain:
Another temple:
Some workshop for disabled kids that the government has making art for tourists:
A typical shack/shop in the country:
Starfruit:
Umm, this fish cost a 100 dollars. Pretty sure they fucked with us on the price per pound.
The thing on the left tasted like a milder kiwi:
Somewhere in here, there was some tubular organ looking stuff that I think they said was chicken fallopian tubes:
A temple on top o' a mountain:
Another temple:
Some workshop for disabled kids that the government has making art for tourists:
A typical shack/shop in the country:
Starfruit:
Umm, this fish cost a 100 dollars. Pretty sure they fucked with us on the price per pound.
The thing on the left tasted like a milder kiwi:
Somewhere in here, there was some tubular organ looking stuff that I think they said was chicken fallopian tubes:
March 11
The Group
It's such a large group that I keep seeing people I haven't before. I think random middle-aged Asians are just joining and leaving the group at whim. Every time we goto a restaurant we seem to switch out a few. It's like a ball of lint that keeps picking more shit up. I hope to get to know some of these interchangeable Asians better.
There are a few I'm getting to know though. There is the loud lady who is not my mom. She is so loud she is louder than my mom, and thus she and my mom have many ego battles. The loud lady wins by sheer virtue of sheer loudness. They tease each other all the time, so they are friends.... loud friends.
There is also the short (even for an Asian) photographer, who has a badass camera and huge lenses that make him look even shorter. There were several occasions where other photographers crowd around him and marvel at his equipment. Here are some gawkers trying out one of his lenses.
There is a couple who sing well that I can also speak English too, but they are always making the group late by shopping too much. The husband has a tendency of wearing very traditional Asian shirts with a very American baseball cap.
There is the nun who for some reason became very attached to my mom, but she's cool anyways.
Then there is the Buddhist monk's mother, a cute little old lady with the most gentle smile I've ever seen.
There is a couple who sing well that I can also speak English too, but they are always making the group late by shopping too much. The husband has a tendency of wearing very traditional Asian shirts with a very American baseball cap.
There is the nun who for some reason became very attached to my mom, but she's cool anyways.
Then there is the Buddhist monk's mother, a cute little old lady with the most gentle smile I've ever seen.
Still, my favorite is my uncle. Everyday he wears a new hat. Most of them are of the color coordinated Gilligan type. He reminds me of that old crazy pervert sensei from Dragon Ball Z, always cackling and being goofy. Yesterday I think he changed his hat three times in one day. Someone in the group said that me and my uncle share the same nose. My uncle heard this, stared at me for a bit, and then finally declared that he looks way more handsome.
Da Nang to Nha Trang
Near the airport the roads are new, population even less dense than Hanoi, and it almost looks like any other surburban city in the night, except with a bit more neon. Towards the beach it starts looking more like the coastal city it is, not too far off from Galveston. This is a tourist city for sure - tons of white people and shops catering to the traveler like luggage and backpack vendors.
#7
Can you imagine 'going to the store' and being greeted with this mess:
Come to Daddy!!!
This woman was selling little birds in that cage. You buy it to release it (good fortune or something).
You aren't supposed to sit in this chair. There is a very large sign on it that prohibits anyone who hasn't paid to wear the traditional royal garb and for the photos to be taken to sit on this chair. My uncle hopped over the railing and ran to this chair and told me to take a photo of him, despite the employees yelling at him all the way.
My mom yelling at my uncle for this stunt. She did this alot.
My uncle then pulled aside this random tall white lady so I could take a picture of him with her:
He wasn't satisfied with this picture, so he had me take another, this time with a kiss on the cheek.
He seemed very pleased about this one.
- my uncle just told me as I was opening a coconut drink, "I like watching you. You are weird." LOL!
- fresh coconut is badass. I always thought I hated coconut but it's always been that shaved shit on candies and cakes.
- Saigon: riding motorbikes in Saigon is a sheer joy. I need to live in a big city. The sounds of riding around remind me of the movie American Graffiti - the sounds of motors all around, eaves dropped conversations of the night surfacing through like waves over the rumbling.
- Japan: beautiful and clean. Vietnam: beautiful and poor.
- before meeting my dad's family I would've said my trips to Japan and Vietnam were about equal, with Japan edging out Vietnam because of my friends. Right now though, I feel that this trip is more important in a personal sense. There has been a huge part of my identity that has been connected to me -whether I wanted it to or not- that I didn't know anything about, but now I want to know everything about. A good analogy is that it's like I had a missing arm and I just found it, but I don't know how to use it yet, but I want to teach it Vietnamese and put a conical rice hat on it and make it ride a motorbike.
Not all of the family:
I had to be introduced to most of these people who I didn't even know existed. "This is your uncle so and so. This is your cousin whatsherface. This is your grandfather's name." Of course, they all knew who I was. As the first son of the oldest brother, I am in some sort of high respect ground.
What made this even more shocking was that they had pictures of us all around.
My dad's parent's tombstone. It surprised me to see my name listed on the tombstone as the oldest grandson. Such an important position I guess. If you see at the base of the steps there are discarded candy wrappers. Everywhere you go in Vietnam you see litter. Many times I asked where the trash can was, and they told me to just throw it on the ground. It was one of the worst things about the country. I guess even graveyards weren't exempt - the candy was an offering for my grandparents. It really horrified me to see my family toss the trash on the ground as soon as the wrappers were opened.
Another typical shop/home:
This wasn't bad, but man does it look scary:
This tasted like a spongier apple:
All that weird seafood was good, but the vegetarian was really fucking tasty. I suppose they've been doing vegetarian for so many decades now that they have it down to an art.
I like this inset a lot:
At the airport my uncle pulled aside another random white girl for me to take a picture of:
Waiting in the lobby I had this:
Yep, White Fungus Bird's Nest. It's sweet water with bits of tasteless white junk floating around - like bits of scrambled egg in sweet tea. Not too bad, but the idea of white fungus sliding down my throat made me stay away from this drink after this can.
On the airplane my uncle sat next to this girl on the left. I couldn't see him, so I assumed he was harassing her the whole time. She told me later that he kept pinching her cheeks, but she thought he was hilarious.
March 15
There is one thing that is very visibly different than America: the sense of community. If you drive through a neighborhood you will see everyone just hanging out in the front sitting in their little plastic chairs or squatting Asian style, just kickin' it. Sometimes they're conversing, often they're not. At first it looks like everyone is lazy and bored as fuck, but maybe this is a way of keeping in touch, similar to how students in dorms leave their doors open for stoppers by. Visibility and proximity keep it together. People aren't shut in their air conditioned homes, sealed off in their gated apartments, and separated by miles of road that must be driven by car.
Another striking feature of the culture that embraces community is the language. People refer to strangers as "anh" and "chi", the same words used for brother and sister. It is really odd for me to use the words I used for immediate family to say, the person selling me q-tips.
These baby wigs were everywhere:
More vegetarian food:
This woman broke down in front of our monk. She was one of three on the trip.
Caught kissing avocado :(
March Friday 16
- ate too many snails, got sick and missed the beach
- It's funny to see my uncle in cameraman mode. Out of nowhere I'll see a blur and a camera run past me, and I think to myself he must see something exciting. I look over and he's taping a calendar on the wall.
- Just stopped at a small store. The workers were impressed my camera had a video display.
- My aunt's didn't know what shampoo was
- Vietnamese language idiosyncracies: same words for "to eat" as "to win"; "green" and "blue". rice = meal.
Accents
Northern: the speech is sharp and distinct. It sounds similar to Chinese to me. There's a lot more Z's and V's and Q's.
Hue: this is like a Deep South twang. Hue is known for being poor, so maybe there's a connection.
Saigon: a bit mealy mouthed. Ex: vui ve is yui ye. qua is wa. This is the dialect that I am most familiar with.
- Vietnamese country side: houses of light greens, light blues, whites, and peaches. They don't paint the side of their houses for some reason.
This one temple we visited had such odd plants:
A peddler on the street selling grapes:
Poor injured baby mouse. After I took this picture someone came walking straight towards it. I yelled, "Watch out for the mouse!"
"What?"
Poor dead baby mouse.
March 16
We visited an orphanage/temple. Kids are adorable. Those you see in gray are to become nuns.
We stayed at the temple all day. This girl didn't come out until the very end, and wore this same exact sad little expression on her face the whole time. She didn't say a single word. I am not sure exactly what was wrong with her, but they said she had a disease where her most of her hair fell out. There were other kids there who were sick and weren't getting any treatment at all.
There was this one boy with messed up eyes, and you could clearly tell he was the one always being picked on. On many different occasions, I would see other kids walk up to him, punch or push him, and then walk away as if nothing had happened.
Sunday March 18
- Friday night: butt massaged by a blind man
- Sat: Went to my uncle's place.. it's smaller than my room at home. The cramped size of it made me kind of sad... but he's happy anyways; he seems to truly enjoy life. He proudly showed me all his little knick knack toys and his fish. But the size - how could anyone live there... I don't know. He doesn't seem like the homebody type anyways. My uncle left to go get his son and turned on the TV for me to watch, and there was a porn DVD playing. Nice.
- I ate hot vit lon with my uncle and his older son. I stopped when I got to the blood and feathers. Honestly, it was good up until then, but I couldn't stomach eating the rest. Gross. I would also say ice in my beer is gross too, but in the Saigon heat it's fucking refreshing.
See those little eggs? I ate one of those too. The weird part is that they kept around the baby birds that just hatched from these types of eggs, so while I was eating one of their brethren I was petting one of the alive ones. Oddness.
Later that night:
Get off me bitch!
Mmm fresh greens.
- Sun night: Nha Due - poorest of the poor. Commonly used as a disparaging insult. "This place is due". Everyone here stares at me more so than other parts of Vietnam. I guess I look that foreign. It's so weird to be in Japan and have no one notice anything different about me, and then to be in my homeland and attract all that attention. Some kids even came up to me and asked if I had starred in some movie. This place doesn't look like a huge step down from anything I've seen, but it has the highest concentration of poverty so far.
There was not a single well kept dog that I saw.
Coconuts.
Vietnam's Finest Toilet:
This man had a stroke and the only person to take care of him is the old woman in the picture. She said if it wasn't for her nobody would take care of him, and he'd probably be dead.
March 20
In conversations. asking your age is mandatory, for the proper way to address you. Before asking my age, one girl kept addressing me as "em", which is reserved for someone considerably younger.
"Em try this". "Em have you had this before?" "Em did that taste good?"
She thought I was 17 or 18. Turns out she was only 21, haha. She seemed pretty embarrassed when I told her my age.
In Vietnam they eat all parts of the fish. They bite into the fins as if they were potato chips, and they slurp down the eyes and spit out any hard bits.
Hat rack;
This next temple was gorgeous. It was the most tasteful and elegantly furnished place of my whole trip. It was also an all nun temple. Coincidence?
They built beautiful gardens everywhere.
Sleeping quarters:
Other temples:
A typical toilet/shower for a temple (manual flush):
My uncle schooling some young whippersnappers:
March 24
- Today my uncle told me he has never been in an accident. "In 60 years?" Nope, never. Later, he bumped two people, one who was walking. I guess bumping doesn't count.
- I'm ready to go home. I'm ready to stay here for good. This trip has been exhausting. Non-stop, city-to-city, unexpected surprises like hiking up a mountain in the dark leaves little time for absorption and recollection. I'd like to go back home and catch up with all my friends, tell them of the shit I've been experiencing. I want to stay here and experience more.
I've been in Saigon for 3 days, the longest stop yet of the trip, and it makes me want to stay long enough to really experience what it's like to be a 20something in this city. When night falls, the youth literally take over the city. From inside my taxi I see masses of young people on motorbikes flood the streets going... where are they going? I'd like to know, too.
Vietnamese Food Summary:
- vegetarian > meat
- if you're gonna eat meat, you're gonna eat fat
- often when I had a delicious meal, the food ran out before I was full
- mornings in Saigon: bowl of noodle soup, 2 fried eggs, and Vietnamese coffee
- I love all the herbs and vegetables
- Vietnamese consistently distinguish between heavy and light meals
- like in Japan, they give wet cloth hand towels with food. As someone who is used to never-ending paper towels, I am a very messy eater.
- drinks are usually not drank until the end of the meal. while that really bothered me in Japan, I've stayed here long enough to acclimate.
Mar 26th
When I was at the Vietnamese airport it really hit me that I was leaving. I didn't want to go. On my last day, a monk had taken me to a cool bohemian cafe with live music and original artwork all over, and then on the way to the airport we passed by this large music even with a huge crowd. It all hinted at a cultural world I had only begun to scratch the surface of. I could easily stay for a few more weeks.
#7
Can you imagine 'going to the store' and being greeted with this mess:
Come to Daddy!!!
This woman was selling little birds in that cage. You buy it to release it (good fortune or something).
You aren't supposed to sit in this chair. There is a very large sign on it that prohibits anyone who hasn't paid to wear the traditional royal garb and for the photos to be taken to sit on this chair. My uncle hopped over the railing and ran to this chair and told me to take a photo of him, despite the employees yelling at him all the way.
My mom yelling at my uncle for this stunt. She did this alot.
My uncle then pulled aside this random tall white lady so I could take a picture of him with her:
He wasn't satisfied with this picture, so he had me take another, this time with a kiss on the cheek.
He seemed very pleased about this one.
Driving
I still haven't seen any accidents - which is mind blowing. It brings to mind two things I have read.
1) A Wired article discussed a city which had a problem with a particularly dangerous intersection. There was massive car traffic, bicycle traffic, and foot traffic. Managing multiple lanes and lights for each was proving to be a hassle. A transportation expert was brought in and he suggested a novel approach: no lights or lanes at all - just a one way circle for which traffic to turn. The logic is that the converging traffic compels people to slow down and be extremely cautious of each other. That theory definitely reminds me of Vietnam.
2) In my social psychology textbook it was suggested one way to reduce road rage and accidents was to install a "warning honk" in all cars. Regular honking in America is often seen as a harsh reprobation which can easily lead to increased tensions between drivers. As a result, American drivers mostly save honking for more extreme situations. Not so in Vietnam - you can't drive without your hand on the horn. Perhaps the nonexistent accidents I have noticed here are due to the warning honk style, despite all appearances of chaos.
March 12
Hue
- people here stare. a lot. if you walk down a street everyone will stare, from other pedestrians to the vendors to the motorbike riders. the stares aren't menacing, but it can be unnerving if you're not used to it. it's very different from japan, where making eye contact is difficult, even with someone you're talking with
- I just saw a fully clothed kid on the side of the road with his wiener hanging out his zipper, looking down and flicking it like there was no tomorrow.
- tamarind: looks gross but tastes like sour candy - a softer granulated laffy taffy
- Visited my dad's family. Holy shit is it poor. My dad always told me how impoverished his upbringing was, but it's hard to imagine and it doesn't hit til you see it. Even then I kept asking myself, "Do these people really live here?" Surely there must be some other place they live.
- My uncle confided in me that he ran out of tape and told me to take photos of an event that he should be taping so he could insert them in later. I took pictures dutifully, but then someone in the group shouted to him, "Make sure you're getting this!" He said, "Yeah yeah yeah!". Knowing full well that he didn't have any tape, he flipped out the mini display on the camera and pretended to record the rest of the event. He did a good job, too - ran up for close ups and backed away for mid range shots, jumped around to capture audience reactions, and panned over the river backdrop for a nice view of the night.
- Vietnamese music is badass. There is something, and I think it's Western conditioning, that seems very off in a bad way about the singing to me (perhaps it is too close to Western scales that it seems "wrong") - but once I accepted the differences it's really quite beautiful. It took a live show for me to see the elegance in it, and once I did, I also found an exoticness in it that I've never heard before. Something very fresh replaced something very boring.
- I must've watched Land Before Time too many times when I was little, because my mom told me when she took me to a live show of traditional Vietnamese music when I was two or three, and I asked my mom "Why does this sound like dinosaurs?"
- Hue: not as poor as I expected. Apparently the city has changed alot since 9 years ago, even 3 years ago as someone from our group commented. You can see taller building construction everywhere. Visting Vietnam is like a watching a documentary on cities in the process of modernization. The countryside, though, is still poor as shit. But, everything is gorgeous. The rice fields are lush, and there are always beautiful mountains and haze off in the distance.
Wed 14th
- Hue's accent is like a deep Southern twang. It's very difficult to understand even the basic Vietnamese words that I already know.
- Hue: known for spicy foods, ban beo, and I also see more darker skinned people hereMarch 12
Hue
- people here stare. a lot. if you walk down a street everyone will stare, from other pedestrians to the vendors to the motorbike riders. the stares aren't menacing, but it can be unnerving if you're not used to it. it's very different from japan, where making eye contact is difficult, even with someone you're talking with
- I just saw a fully clothed kid on the side of the road with his wiener hanging out his zipper, looking down and flicking it like there was no tomorrow.
- tamarind: looks gross but tastes like sour candy - a softer granulated laffy taffy
- Visited my dad's family. Holy shit is it poor. My dad always told me how impoverished his upbringing was, but it's hard to imagine and it doesn't hit til you see it. Even then I kept asking myself, "Do these people really live here?" Surely there must be some other place they live.
- My uncle confided in me that he ran out of tape and told me to take photos of an event that he should be taping so he could insert them in later. I took pictures dutifully, but then someone in the group shouted to him, "Make sure you're getting this!" He said, "Yeah yeah yeah!". Knowing full well that he didn't have any tape, he flipped out the mini display on the camera and pretended to record the rest of the event. He did a good job, too - ran up for close ups and backed away for mid range shots, jumped around to capture audience reactions, and panned over the river backdrop for a nice view of the night.
- Vietnamese music is badass. There is something, and I think it's Western conditioning, that seems very off in a bad way about the singing to me (perhaps it is too close to Western scales that it seems "wrong") - but once I accepted the differences it's really quite beautiful. It took a live show for me to see the elegance in it, and once I did, I also found an exoticness in it that I've never heard before. Something very fresh replaced something very boring.
- I must've watched Land Before Time too many times when I was little, because my mom told me when she took me to a live show of traditional Vietnamese music when I was two or three, and I asked my mom "Why does this sound like dinosaurs?"
- Hue: not as poor as I expected. Apparently the city has changed alot since 9 years ago, even 3 years ago as someone from our group commented. You can see taller building construction everywhere. Visting Vietnam is like a watching a documentary on cities in the process of modernization. The countryside, though, is still poor as shit. But, everything is gorgeous. The rice fields are lush, and there are always beautiful mountains and haze off in the distance.
Wed 14th
- Hue's accent is like a deep Southern twang. It's very difficult to understand even the basic Vietnamese words that I already know.
- my uncle just told me as I was opening a coconut drink, "I like watching you. You are weird." LOL!
- fresh coconut is badass. I always thought I hated coconut but it's always been that shaved shit on candies and cakes.
- Saigon: riding motorbikes in Saigon is a sheer joy. I need to live in a big city. The sounds of riding around remind me of the movie American Graffiti - the sounds of motors all around, eaves dropped conversations of the night surfacing through like waves over the rumbling.
- Japan: beautiful and clean. Vietnam: beautiful and poor.
- before meeting my dad's family I would've said my trips to Japan and Vietnam were about equal, with Japan edging out Vietnam because of my friends. Right now though, I feel that this trip is more important in a personal sense. There has been a huge part of my identity that has been connected to me -whether I wanted it to or not- that I didn't know anything about, but now I want to know everything about. A good analogy is that it's like I had a missing arm and I just found it, but I don't know how to use it yet, but I want to teach it Vietnamese and put a conical rice hat on it and make it ride a motorbike.
Not all of the family:
I had to be introduced to most of these people who I didn't even know existed. "This is your uncle so and so. This is your cousin whatsherface. This is your grandfather's name." Of course, they all knew who I was. As the first son of the oldest brother, I am in some sort of high respect ground.
What made this even more shocking was that they had pictures of us all around.
My dad's parent's tombstone. It surprised me to see my name listed on the tombstone as the oldest grandson. Such an important position I guess. If you see at the base of the steps there are discarded candy wrappers. Everywhere you go in Vietnam you see litter. Many times I asked where the trash can was, and they told me to just throw it on the ground. It was one of the worst things about the country. I guess even graveyards weren't exempt - the candy was an offering for my grandparents. It really horrified me to see my family toss the trash on the ground as soon as the wrappers were opened.
Another typical shop/home:
This wasn't bad, but man does it look scary:
This tasted like a spongier apple:
All that weird seafood was good, but the vegetarian was really fucking tasty. I suppose they've been doing vegetarian for so many decades now that they have it down to an art.
I like this inset a lot:
At the airport my uncle pulled aside another random white girl for me to take a picture of:
Waiting in the lobby I had this:
Yep, White Fungus Bird's Nest. It's sweet water with bits of tasteless white junk floating around - like bits of scrambled egg in sweet tea. Not too bad, but the idea of white fungus sliding down my throat made me stay away from this drink after this can.
On the airplane my uncle sat next to this girl on the left. I couldn't see him, so I assumed he was harassing her the whole time. She told me later that he kept pinching her cheeks, but she thought he was hilarious.
March 15
There is one thing that is very visibly different than America: the sense of community. If you drive through a neighborhood you will see everyone just hanging out in the front sitting in their little plastic chairs or squatting Asian style, just kickin' it. Sometimes they're conversing, often they're not. At first it looks like everyone is lazy and bored as fuck, but maybe this is a way of keeping in touch, similar to how students in dorms leave their doors open for stoppers by. Visibility and proximity keep it together. People aren't shut in their air conditioned homes, sealed off in their gated apartments, and separated by miles of road that must be driven by car.
Another striking feature of the culture that embraces community is the language. People refer to strangers as "anh" and "chi", the same words used for brother and sister. It is really odd for me to use the words I used for immediate family to say, the person selling me q-tips.
These baby wigs were everywhere:
More vegetarian food:
This woman broke down in front of our monk. She was one of three on the trip.
Caught kissing avocado :(
March Friday 16
- ate too many snails, got sick and missed the beach
- It's funny to see my uncle in cameraman mode. Out of nowhere I'll see a blur and a camera run past me, and I think to myself he must see something exciting. I look over and he's taping a calendar on the wall.
- Just stopped at a small store. The workers were impressed my camera had a video display.
- My aunt's didn't know what shampoo was
- Vietnamese language idiosyncracies: same words for "to eat" as "to win"; "green" and "blue". rice = meal.
Accents
Northern: the speech is sharp and distinct. It sounds similar to Chinese to me. There's a lot more Z's and V's and Q's.
Hue: this is like a Deep South twang. Hue is known for being poor, so maybe there's a connection.
Saigon: a bit mealy mouthed. Ex: vui ve is yui ye. qua is wa. This is the dialect that I am most familiar with.
- Vietnamese country side: houses of light greens, light blues, whites, and peaches. They don't paint the side of their houses for some reason.
This one temple we visited had such odd plants:
A peddler on the street selling grapes:
Poor injured baby mouse. After I took this picture someone came walking straight towards it. I yelled, "Watch out for the mouse!"
"What?"
Poor dead baby mouse.
March 16
We visited an orphanage/temple. Kids are adorable. Those you see in gray are to become nuns.
We stayed at the temple all day. This girl didn't come out until the very end, and wore this same exact sad little expression on her face the whole time. She didn't say a single word. I am not sure exactly what was wrong with her, but they said she had a disease where her most of her hair fell out. There were other kids there who were sick and weren't getting any treatment at all.
There was this one boy with messed up eyes, and you could clearly tell he was the one always being picked on. On many different occasions, I would see other kids walk up to him, punch or push him, and then walk away as if nothing had happened.
Sunday March 18
- Friday night: butt massaged by a blind man
- Sat: Went to my uncle's place.. it's smaller than my room at home. The cramped size of it made me kind of sad... but he's happy anyways; he seems to truly enjoy life. He proudly showed me all his little knick knack toys and his fish. But the size - how could anyone live there... I don't know. He doesn't seem like the homebody type anyways. My uncle left to go get his son and turned on the TV for me to watch, and there was a porn DVD playing. Nice.
- I ate hot vit lon with my uncle and his older son. I stopped when I got to the blood and feathers. Honestly, it was good up until then, but I couldn't stomach eating the rest. Gross. I would also say ice in my beer is gross too, but in the Saigon heat it's fucking refreshing.
See those little eggs? I ate one of those too. The weird part is that they kept around the baby birds that just hatched from these types of eggs, so while I was eating one of their brethren I was petting one of the alive ones. Oddness.
Later that night:
Get off me bitch!
Mmm fresh greens.
- Sun night: Nha Due - poorest of the poor. Commonly used as a disparaging insult. "This place is due". Everyone here stares at me more so than other parts of Vietnam. I guess I look that foreign. It's so weird to be in Japan and have no one notice anything different about me, and then to be in my homeland and attract all that attention. Some kids even came up to me and asked if I had starred in some movie. This place doesn't look like a huge step down from anything I've seen, but it has the highest concentration of poverty so far.
There was not a single well kept dog that I saw.
Coconuts.
Vietnam's Finest Toilet:
This man had a stroke and the only person to take care of him is the old woman in the picture. She said if it wasn't for her nobody would take care of him, and he'd probably be dead.
March 20
In conversations. asking your age is mandatory, for the proper way to address you. Before asking my age, one girl kept addressing me as "em", which is reserved for someone considerably younger.
"Em try this". "Em have you had this before?" "Em did that taste good?"
She thought I was 17 or 18. Turns out she was only 21, haha. She seemed pretty embarrassed when I told her my age.
In Vietnam they eat all parts of the fish. They bite into the fins as if they were potato chips, and they slurp down the eyes and spit out any hard bits.
Hat rack;
This next temple was gorgeous. It was the most tasteful and elegantly furnished place of my whole trip. It was also an all nun temple. Coincidence?
They built beautiful gardens everywhere.
Sleeping quarters:
Other temples:
A typical toilet/shower for a temple (manual flush):
My uncle schooling some young whippersnappers:
March 24
- Today my uncle told me he has never been in an accident. "In 60 years?" Nope, never. Later, he bumped two people, one who was walking. I guess bumping doesn't count.
- I'm ready to go home. I'm ready to stay here for good. This trip has been exhausting. Non-stop, city-to-city, unexpected surprises like hiking up a mountain in the dark leaves little time for absorption and recollection. I'd like to go back home and catch up with all my friends, tell them of the shit I've been experiencing. I want to stay here and experience more.
I've been in Saigon for 3 days, the longest stop yet of the trip, and it makes me want to stay long enough to really experience what it's like to be a 20something in this city. When night falls, the youth literally take over the city. From inside my taxi I see masses of young people on motorbikes flood the streets going... where are they going? I'd like to know, too.
Vietnamese Food Summary:
- vegetarian > meat
- if you're gonna eat meat, you're gonna eat fat
- often when I had a delicious meal, the food ran out before I was full
- mornings in Saigon: bowl of noodle soup, 2 fried eggs, and Vietnamese coffee
- I love all the herbs and vegetables
- Vietnamese consistently distinguish between heavy and light meals
- like in Japan, they give wet cloth hand towels with food. As someone who is used to never-ending paper towels, I am a very messy eater.
- drinks are usually not drank until the end of the meal. while that really bothered me in Japan, I've stayed here long enough to acclimate.
Mar 26th
When I was at the Vietnamese airport it really hit me that I was leaving. I didn't want to go. On my last day, a monk had taken me to a cool bohemian cafe with live music and original artwork all over, and then on the way to the airport we passed by this large music even with a huge crowd. It all hinted at a cultural world I had only begun to scratch the surface of. I could easily stay for a few more weeks.
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