Day 3

It’s almost 10 am when I wake up, I hear the kids singing and talking and their excitement is contagious.  I take a shower and I’m ready in 30/45 minutes. Carlos comes to my door and tells me we’re going for breakfast outside and by motorbike. Carlos drives the first motorbike with Phuc in front of him and me in the back. Xuan the second one with her cousin and Thach Thao in the middle of  them.

Even if in my occidental mind I know that I should fear for my life when riding the streets of HCMC, these organized chaos isn’t that fearful. After a while you understand that everyone know where they’re driving at, doesn’t matter if they’re on the wrong side of the road or if there’s motorbikes coming from the left, the right and front.

 

For breakfast we have beef soup, known as Phó Bó. Noodles, soybeans, spices, raw beef and eggs. Too good to be true! When it’s time to pay, Xuan takes care of it.

The lady who receives the money it’s a character. Her lips are lip lined with black, in her hands she has so many Dongs that the first thought is: let’s play monopoly!

We leave the kids at home and go to the park to finalize the buying of the trees. After a while, and 5 guys to carry them to a truck, Xuan and me are ready to ride it till Xuan’s brother factory in the outskirts of HCMC. We’re on the freeway and weirdly there’s a freeway for cars and trucks and a freeway for... motorbikes, of course! 3 lanes for the cars near the river and the sun is shinning. The max you can go in the freeway is 100 so we take around 20 to 30 minutes to arrive to the factory.

Before unloading the trees, we drink tea and eat sweets. The boys unloading have round marks through their torso which I think is really weird but I don’t say a word (later I’ll ask what that is). More tea, small talk and heading home for lunch.

I’m still groggy from the flight so after the beef with green peppers, the steamed rice, the shrimps with coconut sauce and the mango, is time to rest a little bit. In fact is so hot that you just can’t go walk in the streets.

After our little siesta, we get ready to go to Xuan’s father house in the outskirts of HCMC (is already countryside). In this house lives her mum and her oldest brother, Mr. Lam, with his family and as we arrive tea is offered.


There’s chicken and roosters in the yard and a puppy and 2 stray cats... and there’s also a wild boar, well an embalmed wild boar in a table!

The rest  of the family starts to arrive, we’re around 20. Men at one table, women and children at another. The guests at the men’s one, even if I don’t understand Vietnamese. They think I’m funny! I have a “long nose” and tattoos and that’s not normal. Food starts to come to the table: Vietnamese rolls, dry fish, some soup with pork and sour vegetable. I’m told that I have to say the truth about what I’m eating, because if I don’t like and I say I do, they’ll continue bringing more. =)

They drink wine with ice and I drink red bull, a little can with different colours that doesn’t exist in Europe. Then the actual dinner comes and it’s cooked in front of me. There’s a soup boiling, vegetables are inside and Mr. Truong places inside raw fish, squids and prawns. The rice noodles are already at the table and when everything is cooked, the noodles and the fish soup go together to a bowel. With a little bit of limejuice and red peppers we start eating. 5 star food! ;)

After dinner it’s time for photos and I shoot and shoot and we’re celebrating New Year’s Eve. They’re shy and I have to play with the children and show the photos I’m doing to the grown-ups so they don’t see me as a weirdo. After a while I hear singing... the children are singing karaoke, popular around here. family houses have it, karaoke lounges have it, hotels have it and even groups of people in the middle of the street have portable ones too!

      Grandma with grandchildren and great grandchild

                            Mr. Truong and family

The weirdest thing I saw today was the chicken and the roosters. Roosters are white with big feathers and when it’s time to sleep, when it starts to get darker, they go to bed: they don’t fly but they climb the branches and sleep on the top of the trees!

When heading home we decide we’re not going to the centre of district 1 to see the fireworks as we have to get up at 6am the next day. According with the Vietnamese Buddhism, they’ have to pray at midnight for new year so there’s a table with fruit, yellow flowers and incense in each house.

We see the fireworks from the terrace, wish happy new year and the bed is calling.

                  Happy New Year = Chúc mừng năm mới

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