Hanging out with my new relatives

I got up early to do some reading and finish booking my accommodations for a few stops which I had not completely decided on.   Most of the guesthouses I am staying at cost between $10-13 Cdn per night for one double bed with a private bathroom.    The availability of hostels in Luang Prabang, Laos seem to be quite limited as far as what I can find on the internet.  The prices are also significantly higher than elsewhere in Indochina. Hostelworld.com only lists two.  After further searching, I find a couple for about $15-20 US per night.  I already inquired about one of the hostels a few days earlier only to find it was fully booked.  

After  finalizing  my travel plans, I head over to the pier.  I bought 1/2 kg  of fresh mangosteen and 1 kg of rambutans from a lady carrying a couple of baskets hung over her shoulder with stick.  I love the selection of exotic fruits here and couldn't resist the temptation.  While some of these fruits can be purchased back home, it is never quite as fresh. 

I caught the afternoon fast boat to Vung Tau.  The ride took 75 minutes.  As the boat approached the harbour, it is evident that Vung Tau is quite commercialized with many large cafes lining the bai truoc (Front Beach).   A local xe om (Honda moto) driver takes me to the buu dien (post office) to make a  phone call to get my brother to pick me up.  I could not get through after a few attempts so I decided to get the driver to take me around the peninsula. Along the drive, a beautiful stone and granite promenade can be seen all along the ocean drive from the Front Beach to the Back Beach (bai sau). The back beach is much wider with many hotels from 5-star accommodations to budget suites.  There were many Catholic churches but I only saw one Buddhist temple.  There were gigantic statues of Mary and Jesus on the hillside. 

We get back into town to find another buu dien to make a phone call.  This time with success!  My brother is just on his way to get me so we make our way back to the Front Beach. 

We meet up with my brother and two of the brothers from  his newlywed wife's side.  I got on the xe om and we make the trip back to my sister-in-law's where I stayed for the night.  Their house is 30 minutes out of town.  When we got there, I met my new sister-in-law and her family.  Her mother, two sisters and niece lives in the small, 3-bedroom house. 

The house is made of concrete walls, ceramic-tiled flooring with a corrugated tin roof.  The front of the house has a commercial metal collapsible door, typical of many store fronts.  

My sister-in-law's mom uses the front of the house to store metal.  She buys scrap metal and turns around to sell it.  It  makes her an addition 50,000 dong a month ($3.50 Cdn). The  local kids scavenge the metal from the depths of the ocean and river nearby.  On afternoon, I witnessed a kid bringing bullet shells.  They were are good 4-6" long.  It's amazing that some 32+ years after the war ended, bullet shells can still be found.  

The house is  considered shanty by Western standards, but it is quite comfortable for the locals.  Noticeably different are the lack of tables and chairs.  There is a small counter in the kitchen to prepare food, but otherwise most things are done on the floor, including washing dishes by hand on the floor in an area separated from the kitchen by a tiled ledge.  Meals are eaten on the floor as well.  If you are not very flexible like me, it is really hard on your ankles sitting on the the hard floor!  I have to sit with my legs to one side, but with my skin pressed to the floor, they get really sweaty in this humidity!   This is going to take some getting used to on my part!

I really need a shower after the muggy boat ride.  One has to shower at least three times a day in this heat.  The bathroom has a flush toilet, but like the guesthouse in Saigon, there is not separate shower.  In fact this bathroom doesn't have have a sink.  The only faucet is attached to an fixed overhead shower with an  additional hand held showerhead attached to a hose.  There is no hot water.  I am surprised there isn't a black storage tank on the roof to absorb heat from sun during the day like the have in Mexico.  The cold showers are really all you need here!

It is not long before it's time to eat (it seems like if you aren't resting and staying out of the sun here, you're eating).  We have a delicious meal with rice, fish, crab, prawns, and a lot of veggies.  Many Westerners would be squeamish of the unsanitary eating practice of sharing from a common dish for all the main courses as well as the dipping sauce.   While I can't help but stick to my Western practice of not double-dipping, I have otherwise grown accustomed to the Vietnamese way from an early age.  To the folks around here, it's no big deal.  I can't say that diseases here are that rampant from what I can tell.  The kids here run and play everywhere,  sometimes in bare feet on the hot ashaplt streets.  Sure there are more kids here with birth defects and abnormalities including those with missing limbs, but they aren't everywhere.  Plus, with a population three times the size of Canada living in an area half the size of the Alberta, they aren't doing too shabby.  I haven't got sick with diarrhea yet thank god!  I reluctantly had to brush my teeth using tap water and consume drinks with questionable ice.  I didn't want to offend my new relatives and question the quality of the ice.  Does one really need to ask if ice is bought from a store in blocks?  I am talking about a brick the size of a small TV.  The ice is chipped with it a wedged tool to break into smaller pieces.  Thankfully, there has been no indication the questionable ice has had any effect on me.

You can't be a germophobe and live in this part of the world.  I wonder if I am immune to some of the diseases from my brief  childhood.  If it's not that, I probably get it from my silly yet frugal habit of leaving expired food in the fridge.  What's a little bacteria  right?   Gross you might say, but the idiom that "If it doesn't kill, it'll make you stronger" certainly holds true here.

We hit the town after dinner and make the 30-minute ride back to town on the Honda's.  The ride seems longer than it is because the speed limit is only 30 km/hr, although many  people zoom right by us.  We stop at a cafe and to listen to the vocal talent of the locals.   There is a live band with an open mike.  People here just get up on stage and sing to their song of choice completely from memory.  It's karaoke, without the assisted lyrics.  There is something about the Viets that makes then a very musical bunch.  People sing all the time, while working or doing almost anything else, and most are  really decent singers.  I think the nature of the tonal language  makes it easier to sing than English.  That being said, I would have been booed off the stage even trying to hum a song without words!  Another strange tradition here is that people don't applaud after a performance.  People would look at you funny if you did.

March 27, 2007

It doesn't take long before I am asked if I am looking for a wife.  I reply that traveling and seeing the country is my goal, but I would not object to meeting a Viet girl.  So the wheels are quickly put into motion and my brother's friend who  is a hit with the locals in the neighbourhood, makes a phone call to ask his mom to introduce me to her neice.  They want me to meet her tonight and it's up to us where we want to go with it. 

The evening comes around and a bunch of us all go out.  I am introduced to Thi and we all head down to the cafe.  I must admit the beer and alcohol here is quite light.  333 is one of the local rice brewed beers here, as is Saigon beer.  Although 333 is 5.3% alcohol by volume, it tastes like water and has very low carbonation, as is the norm.  After a couple of drinks, we go for the harder liquors and even some  Black Label scotch.  Four drinks later and I'm not feeling anything.  By now my sister-in-law's brother thinks I'm an alcoholic because he's beet red and has a hard time drinking more.  Thi and I get along pretty well, but there is nothing shy of fireworks.  I invite her back to join us at my sister-in-law's, but being shy she turns down the offer.  I head back to more drink more at the house.  They bring out a rice vodka similar to saki.  I had about 1/2 dozen more shots and still not feeling anything.  By now I am even shocked myself that I am not drunk.  Although I ate way too much food today. 

They keep feeding me every two hours.   Breakfast here isn't normally light like Western breakfast, although I had a banh mi (Vietnamese sub) which is considerably lighter than the typical breakfast.  Lunch was massive with a hot pot of squid, prawns, pork and a lot of indigenous veggies.  They don't eat chicken here anymore since Vietnam was pegged on the map with the highest cases of the H5N1 avian influenza.  I had a delicious afternoon snack (I use the term "snack" loosely here)  on half a dozen crabs and a sweeter variety of crustacean called gum (pronounced "guum").  For dinner, we had more rice, fish, and pork chops.  I was eating better than a king.

March 28, 2007

I was having a lot of fun that I decided to stay in Vung Tau for an extra day.  Luckily, my schedule was flexible enough to allow it.  I still haven't ventured to beach yet.  It's way too hot during the day and this evening I had a date with Thi.  A late afternoon beach break would have been great, but being 30 minutes  from the beach, would leave much time and I would be late for dinner.  So I relaxed at the house and hung out with the girls.  Most of the women here sew at home.  They sew everything, from gloves to pillows to fine tailor suits.  

Tomorrow I will head back to Saigon and make my way down to Cantho to visit my hometown.