Returning to the place where my mother gave birth to me was surreal. Meeting my relatives and grandmother after 16 years was overwhelming. Traveling around southern Vietnam was phenomenon. How do I phrase my entire experience traveling through Saigon, Mekong Delta, Can Tho, and Phu Quoc Island? – Words cannot comprehend my experience.
I woke up sluggish on a Saturday morning at 5:00 to get ready for our flight for Saigon (TPHCM). Even though, I only had roughly 2 hours of sleep before the flight, I was overly excited for what lied ahead for me – my family in Saigon! When I first got off the plane in Saigon, I felt nervous and anxious to call my uncle who was going to pick me up from the hotel that we were staying. My experience with my relatives was nerve-racking since I do not remember much since I left Vietnam when I was 5 years old. Therefore, my uncle had to introduce me to all my relatives and told me how I was related to them. Everyone was in awe at how much I have grown and they were extremely welcoming when they saw me. It was very comforting and it made me felt at ease to slowly have a conversation. I have never felt so ‘loved’ in Vietnam until I met my relatives in Vietnam. While I was at my uncle’s place having lunch, my head was wrapped around the idea of seeing my grandmother in the hospital. The anticipation of seeing her was killing me because she was the only one in Vietnam that I had first initially wanted to see. Why? Perhaps it was the fact that she is only person I can remember vividly out of all my relatives in Vietnam and she is the only one that I felt close to even though I have not seen her since I was five years old. She was recently readmitted back into the hospital for the past week because of health complication.
Walking down the hallway of the hospital towards her room, I doubted my memory image of my grandma and feared that I would not recognize or vice versa. However, the moment of truth came when I walked a room filled with beds and initially, I recognized my youngest uncle, cau Ut. As I walk closer, I saw his eyes glance down to my grandma and there she lies on a hospital bed… thin and fragile yet she still looks the same way that I remembered her. Up to this point in Vietnam, I was not very emotional to my experience but when I saw my grandma – everything change instantly. She was overjoyed and overwhelmed with emotions when she saw me that she started crying. She recognized me. She knows who I am. She is my grandmother and I am her granddaughter. After seeing her, I realize how connected I felt to my grandma although I have not talked to her at all since I left because I always felt I cannot communicate with her in Vietnamese when I was in America. I somehow felt emotionally connected to even though I only have a brief memory of her when I was very young. I visited her every day when I was in Saigon, not because I was obligated but I was drawn to this old feeble woman whom I addressed as “ngoai”. My entire stay in Saigon was memorable because I was able to connect with my relatives and hang around them… It made me really appreciate the family I never knew existed in Vietnam. It was heart-warming to know they are so welcoming and generous to help me. I love it Saigon for this very reason. Family = Saigon.
After Saigon, our next stop was Can Tho, which was a very small simply and quiet city. I was not very impressed with the simplicity of the city or anything about it… it was not like Quy Nhon or any other places I’ve gone to. Although the floating market was definitely interesting and fun to explore in the morning because we just floated along the river and all these boats go by our boat to sell us bun rieu or café sua da. It was pretty neat! After that we travel to Vinh Hanh village where we stayed for two nights with a friendly family. I can honestly say that I got really biten up in the village and it was difficult to sleep at night. However it was really interesting watching how they grilled the fish with dried grass/hay and fire. Then the following day, we were able to learn and catch a traditional way of fishing, which was looks pretty fun. In general, my home-stay experience in the village was living the basic life where humans are mosquito’s free meal and they don’t like it if your blood is filled with alcohol!! They were vicious in the village and it gets pretty darn cold at night!
Our next stop would be the beautiful island of Phu Quoc! The beach is crystal clear, the sand is super clear, the road unpaved, and the streets uncluttered! It was a mini paradise away from the crazy city life, where rich seafood can be found in almost every place! I cannot imagine how development will change Phu Quoc in a couple years since there are rumors that people in certain location will have to move because big investor are planning to change this rural undeveloped island into a tourist attraction –similar to Hawaii!? What will happen to the Mekong Delta villages in the next 10, 20 years? Will huge hotel and factories take over the simple basic life of fisherman? I really don’t know but all I know is that Phu Quoc and other undeveloped places will not look the same the next time I visit them again.
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