Anne's blog travel 06-07

Wednesday, February 7th 2007

Had such a lovely day today. I sat outside the hotel with my group of women this morning. One serves the Banh Khut which I often eat. She's always been so welcoming and nice and always gets me a large glass of steaming green tea as if she can read my mind.

A friend of hers is often there as well, sitting closer to the road. She's often observed me and even at times said things to me I could not understand. I wondered at some stage if she thought I could understand Vietnamese but pretended I couldn't. But occasionnally another young woman there would translate and we could communicate. Most of the time it's hard because they do not speak a word of english.

Anyway, this second woman has always been a bit more reserved about me, not quite accepting me. Yet this morning when she sees me sit on a plastic stool, she takes one out next to her and motions me to sit with her. So, of course I do. I find out today that both those women are 54 years old which is very surprising. The lovely one who owns the business would appear to be at most late thirties, early forties. I wouldn't have been surprised if she was thirty five but 54? The other appears to be mid to late forties so 54 is more plausible. She asks me if I have children and of course I say no. All this of course has to be translated through the young woman who is there this morning. Then she has her ask me if I'd marry a Vietnamese man. This is not the first time I've been asked by women-another one wanting me to marry her 35 year old brother. The lady this morning tells me she knows this nice gentleman who is very handsome and 58. And I laugh because in some really nice way, she's saying..."that way you could stay here." Just like the guys yesterday trying to tell me about the work I could do here.

In the afternoon, as I'm looking for lunch and going down this street and that, I stumble accross a lovely woman I bought Banh chung for breakfast from the other day. She doesn't speak english but I remember she was so happy that I wanted to eat it and that I seemed to love it. As soon as she sees me she asks if I want to try something else. And of course I do. She pulls out what looks to be an egg from a boiler opens it and serves in a tiny bowl with some greens, some dried "who knows what"and a little salt and condiments. It's called Trung Vit Lon which turns out to be duck egg which seems to be have fertilised because I'm eating something which is almost formed in there. But just the same it was very nice. Then she asks if I'll try Trung Ga Ngai Cuu which now is chicken egg cooked with herbs and served dipped in sauce. And I do because I'm still hungry and I'm actually really happy to find people who are helping me with some of the food here.

The lady (Tring), her sister and her daughter (Vin) are there and really enjoying sharing with me. Vin is the only one who can speak a little english. We all have a great time and when I leave they even understand my "See you later" (Hen gup la). I've had so much trouble with this short sentence, never pronoucing it right, never putting the accents on the right place and only drawing blank expressions in the people I've been trying to communicate with. So I'm ecstatic to be finally pronouncing it right. It's actually written "Hen gap lai" and the pronounciation indicated was "han guhp lai" which is totally wrong. It's Hen gup la with the proper accents. Sounds similar right? There's nothing easy about it I can assure you. Take it from me!

But just the same, it's all starting to open up and I'm starting to hear things and understand a few basic things. Not a lot really but it's exciting to see some links, recognise some things.

This morning running around the lake, I stop and chat a bit with Ton who has been there almost religiously in the same area between 7am and 8am every morning. He often says things to me like "Hellooooo" or "How many laps are you doing?" "Looking fit". He tells me he is a tour guide and his english is very good. Urges me to come and do a day trip or half day trip with him. Tells me about different things we could do and I'm tempted because it would be great to have someone would can speak both English and Vietnamese and to hear about the history and the culture. So I'll talk to him in the next few days.

That's all for now