Day 17

Today’s a very important day in Chinese New Year so we head to the countryside to Xuan’s family temple. Xuan’s brother is driving; the kids are in the back with Chi Mi and Till and me awake trying to absorb all the landscape we can.

We stop in the middle of the trip for a fancy breakfast and Thach Tao and Phuc have a chance to run a little bit before we go back on the road.

As soon as we arrive to the temple, I see lots of people, the last 2 times I’ve been there we could count by the fingers of one hand the people. This time there’s also 2 “long noses” so Till and me are the new attraction and grown ups and kids pass by us without being able to take their eyes off us.

Xuan explains to me that today the temple will offer dinner to everyone who shows up and so all the female monks and some volunteers are already cooking for dinner. We have a vegetarian lunch and I’m just able to eat tofu and a couple of veggies with steamed rice as all the other food is really spicy.

After lunch we go visit Xuan’s old school teacher and of course as soon as we arrive we’re gifted with biscuits, fruit and orange juice with salt and sugar. After being there a little bit doing small talk, Till and I decide to go for a walk while Xuan stays talking with her teacher.

I can’t stop being amazed by everything the countryside has to offer.

It’s really beautiful, people are so much nicer than in the city and you can always find unexpected things as a showered cat or a lizard on a fence.

After our little walk we meet Xuan and head to Miss Thoa’s house where we’re going to have dinner. As we’re doing it by foot, once more we’re gifted with smiles, looks and some “hellos” from the Vietnamese. Chi Mi proudly shows us her house and even if it’s a poor place, her back windows go directly into the river and the view is amazingly beautiful.

Miss Thoa’s house is an atypical country house, as has more than a couple divisions. We sat at the terrace and we’re served a chicken soup and hot tea and it’s delicious. Laziness starts to install and we go for a little nap right there on the porch. It’s dark already and it’s time to go back to the temple and the celebrations.

At the temple, Mr. Truong has arrived and invites Till for a couple of drinks with the boys while I stay with Xuan talking and looking around how many people came for the temple’s dinner. Kids are impressed by my whiteness so they surround Xuan and me and only leave when I do a couple of pictures and show them.

It’s decided we’ll sleep at Miss Thoa’s place so we grab our stuff but we’re missing Till. Mr. Truong takes me to him and when I thought everything was lost and Till would be really drunk, I couldn’t be more wrong. The scenario is the other way around, a very sober Till and 4 drunk Vietnamese. I had forgotten Till is German and can beat the Vietnamese in a drinking contest any time.

As everything is ok, we leave our things at Miss Thoa’s place, take a quick shower and go for a nice ice cream in a coffee shop next to the freeway. We’re around 15 people so there’s a couple of motorbikes’ trips until we’re all in the same place.

Ice cream comes to the table and we have fun and laugh… and it’s so easy to live in the country (at least is what it seems for a city girl like me).

Time to go to bed and my bed and Til’s is a mattress in Miss Thoa’s terrace with a mosquito net above it. We’re going to sleep outside and why not enjoy a night in the countryside?

Night night everyone, don’t let the bedbugs bite!