Day 2

The day began at 7am, we got ready and ventured outside. After a short walk around the backpackers area by our hotel and buying our Sim card for our cell phone, we decide to eat at the infamous GO2. What was all the fuss about? Cheap beer, a great view of the street, and a legendary BBQ and beer discount after 4pm everyday. That figures. A comment on our breakfast? There's something about being in another country that makes drinking beer in the morning an accepted tradition. Well at least for Erika. ;-)



It was getting close to noon and the big moment. You should know that I have very little knowledge of my family in Vietnam, what my parent's life was like before the war, and that I don't speak the language. The reason for these fact will only be answere over alchohol and little sleep. Back to the story at hand, thanks to the very generous Casey Long, who was kind enough to setup my parents with Skype and a web cam while we were away, our day started with a video call to most of my family: Mom, Dad, brother Thanh, and adopted Casey Long. As much fun as it was to see our two smiling faces on their computer screen, my parents were much more moved when I held the computer up against our window overlooking their once named Saigon city in the morning. The stage was set. You see neither my mother or my grandfather use email and aside from a few phone calls and sporadic photos by snail mail, my mother had not seen and talked to her father for over 30 years. Our plan was to get them together through the magic of high speed Internet. We've been planning for weeks for my grandfather to meet Erika and I at our hotel. We called him this morning and confirmed. He was on his way. He'll be arriving at noon. We have the video call up and running, now we're just waiting for a knock on the door. Erika and I felt like we were on a reality TV show. We get a call from the front desk. They're here. The elevator was taking too long, so I ran down 10 flights of stairs to meet him while Erika kept my family company on the call. A young lady in the lobby introduces her self as my aunt. Through a bit of a language barrier, I came to understand that she had a taxi ready to take me to see my grand father at his home. Whoops. We told the taxi to wait as I brought my new aunt up to our room to explain. When we got to the door and knocked, I could hear the excitement from the other side, "He's here! Oh boy!" They opened the door and found... us. My aunt explained to my parents that because of his age, my grandfather thought it best to bring us there. She thought though that if we were to bring our laptop that we might be able to make the call from his house. So we quickly said goodby, packed everything up and jumped in the cab. The next 20 or so minutes during the drive we spoke with my aunt's husband, who speaks a bit more English. Eventually we pull up to a nondescript alleyway, get out of the cab, and follow Thoum (my Uncle) inside. The alleyway was narrow, concrete with some faded writing on the walls. You could smell incense in the air, lots of children laughing and talking, the odd television set and then we arrived at their home. A very nice, modest flat with a gated entry, which acts as a garage for their 2 scooters and a goldfish pond and then inside to their living room. We are asked to sit down and wait for Grandfather to come down from his room. As we sit we hear little gigles from outside and turn around to see many little children's faces staring at us. I think the combination of Erika's blonde hair and my lack of the language was very interesting to them and the rest of our time spent visiting was periodically interruppeted by little waves, giggles, and the odd "hello"!

The time was here. My aunt comes in from the main part of the house and behind her was grandpa. A man with a very kind face, wrinkled my his many years in the sun and heat, and who still had most of his teeth though the years of tea and coffee have definitely stained them beyond repair. Erika and I both stand and give him hugs. These next few moments were spent taking photos, hugs and introductions. Amazingly, my grandfather has more English than my Aunt and tried very hard to speak with us in a language he hadn't practiced in over 40 years since his brief education in New York and Chicago in the late 60's.

Thoum took me into the next room to show us their computer and to try and set up the internet phone. After many attempts to log in, we had to quit. There was no way to get their system up and running, so we packed everything up and sat back down in the living room. On the table we found two platters of fruit, artfully displayed with leaves and ice. There was mango, and 2 other natvie fruits that no one could translate for us and we hadn't seen or tasted before. Sweet and delicious all of them were and we sat there for the next half hour or so, learning about grandfather and my family. This is where we learned that grandfather had been to the United States. That my aunt has her own business making baby clothing for the local supermarkets, and how my uncle works for an import/export company. It was nice to see they were successful and living comfortably.

My grandfather then asks if we would like to go upstairs to see his room and we gladly obliged. We cross through two room that ar partitioned with curtains, into a small kistchen with a very steep wooden staircase on our left. we head up the stairs that are basically like a steep ladder with a handrail and make our way down the hall back to the front of the house and into grandfather's living room . The smell of incense is very strong up here mixed with a hint of marijuana in the air. As soon as you enter his room your eyes notice a small shrine hanging on the wall facing us with a large photo above. This is my grandmother. A lovely picture that reminded me so much of my mother. You could sense from my grandfather that he missed her very much. She has only been gone for the last 3 years. Grandfather rarely leaves the house now and is waiting to join her in "paradise". Such commitment and love for his wife was most endearing and heartwarming.

It was also very clear how much he misses my mom. I was asked many times how she was, why she hadn't come home, if she missed him. It was difficult to answer these questions. To explain how hard she works and that she only has one day off a week, how my father wasn't even able to take time off for his duaghters wedding, how my mother doesn't want to come until she can spend at least 2 months here. Trying to make excuses so as to help grandfather understand that she misses him too. It was then that he brought out his photo album. And there were photos of me, my mom, my brother and sister growing up over the years. Pictures I hadn't seen in decades. I had forgotton how beautiful my mother was and how ridiculous I looked as a teenager!

After some time upstairs it was decided that we should go back down to the living room to contiue eating our fruit and water. Going down those stairs was a task and I can't imagine my granfather going up and downstairs this way at his age. Just goes to show how well kept he is. He might be a bit frail but at his 75+ he is still quite mobile.

Back to the fruit. In true family tradition, it would have been impolite to not continue eating and drinking while there was still food on the table, and before we left aunt gave us 3 bags of fruit to take home with us!

It was decided that tomorrow grandfather would take the journey outside to come to our hotel and try one last time to hook my mother and him up on the computer. We'll keep our fingers crossed all goes well.

Their hospitality didn't even end there, after they called for a cab, they paid him and gave him directions to ensure that we got back to our hotel safe and sound.

After resting at our hotel for a couple of hours we ventured out to get the "best Bun Xeo in Saigon" Bun Xeo is a Vietnamese style crepe filled with shrimp, bean sprouts and meat. We were determined to have this treat and hopped into a taxi to take us there. Our cab driver spoke no English and we soon found out that he didn't know where the restaurant was and he ended up taking us to a different restaurant with the same name--- instead of Bun Xeo 49 we went to 52. There was a long line of people waiting outside to get in, so we figured it had to be good too, so we tipped the driver and got out. We weren't disappointed. After waiting for about 20 minutes we sat down and had some very good eats! The menu was entirely in Vietnamese and the proprietor was kind enough to take a moment to explain the choices. It was very clear that the tourist trade doesn't come in here much, or at all. Though the food was impeccable, it still didn't compare to my om's Bun Xeo. With very full tummies we head back outside for a walk and quickly realize it was time to get a cab home as we were both about to pass out after this very long day.

We were both out by 8pm.

We then started this blog about 3am this morning--- ah, jetlag!

More tomorrow after Grandfather and mom's phone call.