Monday, January 22, 2007
Monday, January 22nd 2007 
Well, it's funny what life throws at you without warning. When I get back to my room just before 6pm last night wondering if I won't just stay in for the evening instead of going out, my new neighbor who happens to be at his door as well asks me if I can recommend anywhere to eat. He's a tall Asian fellow who I assumed was Vietnamese but his english is perfect and he tells me he is American and lives in Hawaii. However he was born in Vietnam where he lived until 1975 when he was seven and the family bought their way out on a barge. But all this I find out a bit later. He's just arrived and I tell him that there are pl
enty of places to eat depending if he wants to eat off the street or out of restaurants. I show him a few places on a map but he then just asks me if I've eaten and whether I'd join him. He seems very nice and pleasant so I accept.
It ends up being a really fun night. I am the official guide for location as I know my way around the area now but he is fluent in Vietnamese and also knows about the food so what a treat it is to have him with me. We start out by finding a place on the street to eat a type of noodle soup I haven't eaten yet and we sit on the small plastic stools while eating this. Then it's off to find something sweet to eat. As my friend (I've forgotten his name which he told me at the very beginning and I've grown embarassed to tell him I have no idea what his name is) tells me, each place has it's own specialty and if you can't see it they are not serving it. He suddenly stops in his tracks at another corner and tells me that what we are seeing is desert. I wouldn't have guessed otherwise. I see balls of white stuff floating in a golden liquid. So, he orders a serving and they put three balls of what is rice flour cooked in the sweet liquid into the dish with that lovely liquid, pour a bit of coconut cream on top and put some diced cashews or peanuts on that.
Wow, this is great! Well my new friend who must have a name (!!!) is still hungry for some sweets so off we go in search of another little place to have something else. We stop further down the road and I see tall glasses of what looks like fruit salad (sounds boring to me) but suddenly the fruits salads he orders for both of us are transformed. The man serves them with coconut cream or something like that or maybe it's some other sweet concoction and puts a container of crushed ice between us. My friend tells me that you just keep putting ice in it as you eat and it's like a ice cone with real fruits and whatever that topping was. Well, that is yummy too.
After much searching around for a third desert we finally settle for fried banana (me) and plantain (him). And that will be sugar overload for both of us. And to think I never saw those places that sell sweet stuff before.
Anyway, this guy's story is amazing too. The barge they took back in 1975 (war time) was cut loose by the boat dragging it after about a week. They were hundreds of them in the boat and lost at seas for two weeks before a US ship came accross them. They took the women and kids on board and asked another boat to come and get the men (however none of them could understand english so the men thought they were stealing their wives and kids). The men were taken to Guam and the women and kids t
o another island before they were both reunited in Guam.
Anyway, long story short a Christian family sponsored his family to get to the midwest and they started a new life there.
This afternoon I'm walking the streets in search of food. I'm sort of wanting some rice dish but it's late in the afternoon and I can't find that. I try to talk to a women selling some hot food packaged in banana leaves but can't understand what it is. She sort of opens one up and I can see some congealed cooked rice flour and with no more information I buy one. Whatever. I'll eat it. Then I sit on the sidewalk with no utensiles I try to open the package and start to eat as I'm pretty hungry.
The thing is fairly jellylike and hot and fingers are not the right way to eat this. But just when I'm thinking of trying the chopsticks I have in my bag (knowing full well it won't really be easier) a lovely woman running a small cafe behind me comes out with a spoon and asks me to please come and sit at her cafe to eat. I'm so grateful and accept and come and sit on the lovely bamboo chairs she has made herself she tells me.
She quickly comes to the table with a pot of Vietnamese Green tea and a cup for me. And I long for green tea which I normally drink plenty of back home so once again I'm so grateful. She also brings me a cup of strong black coffee and urges me to drink. She sits with me and talks about her art and just life. Occasionnally she gets up to do something related to the cafe like serve someone else but she comes back bringing me mint candy and later an older woman brings me a bag with bananas and puts them on the table offering me some.
When I ask Phuong (the young woman) what I owe her, she smiles and says nothing. "Free. I just like you" she tells me. And, given the context...the fact that to most people here we are afterall a source of income. That most Vietnamese will overprice their goods to foreigners and possibly laugh at them if they accept the price etc, the kindness I'm privy to this afternoon is very humbling. "I'll come back and have lunch here Phuong so we can talk so more." I tell her.
And I walk away back to the hotel thinking back to similar experiences I've had in Africa where some people have touched me with their spontaneous acts of extreme kindness. And here this young woman Phuong has indeed touched my heart.
Bye for now
Well, it's funny what life throws at you without warning. When I get back to my room just before 6pm last night wondering if I won't just stay in for the evening instead of going out, my new neighbor who happens to be at his door as well asks me if I can recommend anywhere to eat. He's a tall Asian fellow who I assumed was Vietnamese but his english is perfect and he tells me he is American and lives in Hawaii. However he was born in Vietnam where he lived until 1975 when he was seven and the family bought their way out on a barge. But all this I find out a bit later. He's just arrived and I tell him that there are pl
enty of places to eat depending if he wants to eat off the street or out of restaurants. I show him a few places on a map but he then just asks me if I've eaten and whether I'd join him. He seems very nice and pleasant so I accept.It ends up being a really fun night. I am the official guide for location as I know my way around the area now but he is fluent in Vietnamese and also knows about the food so what a treat it is to have him with me. We start out by finding a place on the street to eat a type of noodle soup I haven't eaten yet and we sit on the small plastic stools while eating this. Then it's off to find something sweet to eat. As my friend (I've forgotten his name which he told me at the very beginning and I've grown embarassed to tell him I have no idea what his name is) tells me, each place has it's own specialty and if you can't see it they are not serving it. He suddenly stops in his tracks at another corner and tells me that what we are seeing is desert. I wouldn't have guessed otherwise. I see balls of white stuff floating in a golden liquid. So, he orders a serving and they put three balls of what is rice flour cooked in the sweet liquid into the dish with that lovely liquid, pour a bit of coconut cream on top and put some diced cashews or peanuts on that.
Wow, this is great! Well my new friend who must have a name (!!!) is still hungry for some sweets so off we go in search of another little place to have something else. We stop further down the road and I see tall glasses of what looks like fruit salad (sounds boring to me) but suddenly the fruits salads he orders for both of us are transformed. The man serves them with coconut cream or something like that or maybe it's some other sweet concoction and puts a container of crushed ice between us. My friend tells me that you just keep putting ice in it as you eat and it's like a ice cone with real fruits and whatever that topping was. Well, that is yummy too.
After much searching around for a third desert we finally settle for fried banana (me) and plantain (him). And that will be sugar overload for both of us. And to think I never saw those places that sell sweet stuff before.
Anyway, this guy's story is amazing too. The barge they took back in 1975 (war time) was cut loose by the boat dragging it after about a week. They were hundreds of them in the boat and lost at seas for two weeks before a US ship came accross them. They took the women and kids on board and asked another boat to come and get the men (however none of them could understand english so the men thought they were stealing their wives and kids). The men were taken to Guam and the women and kids t
o another island before they were both reunited in Guam.Anyway, long story short a Christian family sponsored his family to get to the midwest and they started a new life there.
This afternoon I'm walking the streets in search of food. I'm sort of wanting some rice dish but it's late in the afternoon and I can't find that. I try to talk to a women selling some hot food packaged in banana leaves but can't understand what it is. She sort of opens one up and I can see some congealed cooked rice flour and with no more information I buy one. Whatever. I'll eat it. Then I sit on the sidewalk with no utensiles I try to open the package and start to eat as I'm pretty hungry.
The thing is fairly jellylike and hot and fingers are not the right way to eat this. But just when I'm thinking of trying the chopsticks I have in my bag (knowing full well it won't really be easier) a lovely woman running a small cafe behind me comes out with a spoon and asks me to please come and sit at her cafe to eat. I'm so grateful and accept and come and sit on the lovely bamboo chairs she has made herself she tells me.
She quickly comes to the table with a pot of Vietnamese Green tea and a cup for me. And I long for green tea which I normally drink plenty of back home so once again I'm so grateful. She also brings me a cup of strong black coffee and urges me to drink. She sits with me and talks about her art and just life. Occasionnally she gets up to do something related to the cafe like serve someone else but she comes back bringing me mint candy and later an older woman brings me a bag with bananas and puts them on the table offering me some.
When I ask Phuong (the young woman) what I owe her, she smiles and says nothing. "Free. I just like you" she tells me. And, given the context...the fact that to most people here we are afterall a source of income. That most Vietnamese will overprice their goods to foreigners and possibly laugh at them if they accept the price etc, the kindness I'm privy to this afternoon is very humbling. "I'll come back and have lunch here Phuong so we can talk so more." I tell her.
And I walk away back to the hotel thinking back to similar experiences I've had in Africa where some people have touched me with their spontaneous acts of extreme kindness. And here this young woman Phuong has indeed touched my heart.
Bye for now
# posted by AdeC @ 2:04 AM 
