Ho Chi Minh City - A Day With a Wonderful Family

Me, Linh, her father and brother at one of the many interior gates located inside the park. This gate leaded to a huge pagoda dedicated to Ho Chi Minh and Budda - honored with golden efigies of each inside the pagoda/temple!?


Linh's father (Phuc Vinh) and little (8 years old) brother (Hoang Long) picked me up at my hotel promptly @ 10AM. The 3 of us (on 1 motorbike) drove to the other side of HCM City where we met Linh and best friend (Nguyen Thi Van Anh) met us at a busy intersection. Turns out that Linh's mother was not joining us - she was staying at home to prepare our evening meal!
After meeting at the intersection, Hoang decided to ride with Linh and her girlfriend on their motorbike and I and Linh's father on his motorbike. We were off to destinations unknown to me!? On the way, Linh's father's motorbike had a rear flat tire. We walked his bike to one of the many flat-tire/bike repair shops found near any road throughout Vietnam. Ended up that the tire damaged was extensie enough to require both a new tube AND tire - a costly (for any Vietnamese) and unexpected $25 repair job! The bike shop owner/worker had never met an American before and wanted to buy a US $1 bill from me to mark the occassion. Unfortunately, I had no US dollar bills with me - which I felt terrible about.

I felt terrible about the unexpected tire/tube replacement expense. It no doubt was at least partially attributabe to my weighty US ass which probqbly was > or = the total combined weight of my 4 traveling companions!? Linh's father repeatedly turned down my numerous offers to pay for the repairs. At least they, Linh's father and the repair guy, did accept the bottled, cold green teas I had bought them at a nearby stand! It was a sweltering hot day.

Tired repaired - we were once again off to, for me anyway, still unknown destinations! After a litlle more than an hour, we arrived at what looked like a very new 20+ foot high replica of the great wall of China - that seemed endless as we followed it (at least 2-4 kilometers) to what appeared to be the main entrance of something like a major themed amusement park - which it was - the largest in Vietnam! Started in 1999 with building to continue through 2011, it a Vietnamese/Taiwanese themed park being built by a Taiwanese magnate - allegedly with "dirty money" which is always OK with and welcomed by the Vietnamese gov't. The interior of this huge complex is loosely modeled after the forbidden city with huge brightly colored and "gold leaf" decorated interiors/exteriors of replica forbidden city structures. There was a multitude of Taiwan-manufactured goods (from simple foods to watches to major electronics) "booths" throughout this huge complex. There were only a few rides (offered @ additional expense to a fairly stiff entrance fee - and very few "riders"). Being a Saturday, the park was fairly crowded - but many well maintained, AC buses efficiently shuttled everyone around. I appeared to be the only US tourist in the place!?

This is me, Linh's father and brother in front of what I thought looked like a replica of Vietnam's famed Marble Mountain - remember pic - located between DaNang and Hoi An!? You could walk through the mountain "caves" containing still-being-constructed stalagtites and stalagmites!

The 5 of us had lunch in one of the many cafe's located throughout the park. Fortunately, after repeated, aggressive attempts, I was allowed to pay for lunch. But not until after a heated argument (lead by Linh and her best friend w/all the men sitting silently) with the wait staff. Ends up that we were overcharged more than. 30%! Thanks to the ladies' persistence, the bill was appropriately adjusted!

Linh and her best friend departed immediately after lunch - Linh was going to return home to help her mother prepare dinner and her friend had a family commitment to attend. Btw - it turns out that Linh's friend's family just wrapped-up a deal for the sole Blackberry distributorship rights in Vietnam (they are currently not available here). She certainly knew all about mine! That's why there are no pics of her - she took all the one's contained in this email chain!

After Linh and friend departed, little brother father and I spent another couple of hours touring the parks rather extensive zoo. We then journeyed about an hour and arrived (just before dark) at what appeared to be some sort of very nice swimming/billiards/restaurant resort. The 3 of us spent 1+ hours showering and swimming in the cool, relaxing pool - discussing Vietnamese politics at length (subject of upcoming emails). We then left the pool resort and 30 mins later the 3 of us arrived at Linh's house for dinner.

Linh and her mother had gone to considerable effort to prepare this incredibly delicious, multi-course meal for us. Evidently great thought had gone into its preparation ensuring the dishes represented the cuisines of Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam. There were so many dishes - shrimp, pork, fish, a very fresh western style salad, delicious dipping sauces, rice, a soft-spun "angel hair" type of rice noodle, a crispy, fried type of bread upon which you put a mushroom/bean mixture that was out of this world! All this was followed by a fresh fruit dish of cold lychee nuts and those wonderful, intensely flavorful minature bananas (that I still remember from my early, early days in Vietnam).
Dinner conversation covered many topics - serious and humorous. Age differences came up often with me repeatedly pointing out that although I was older than Linh - I was half the age of her 53 yo father <-- this is an ongoing joke between me and Linh's father which he accepts in his good natured way. Btw - he is always pointing out to me how much "stronger" and "younger" I am than he - I'm not quite sure what that means - but I'll assume it's true! Of course - the Bruce Willis theme continued <-- many Vietnamese have said I look like him!?!

I intend to spend more time with Linh and the Phams before leaving Vietnam. I am having work-break coffee with her father @ 5PM this evening and hope to take Linh and possibly her family out to a western style dinner.

Linh has had a dramatic impact on my life - I would do anything for her but can only wish I had the chance to do so, and spend the rest of my days showing her the world and feeding her ravinous intellectual appetite. Perhaps someday I will be able to at least show her Ravens' Rock Cabin and introduce her to snow for the first time!

Yesterday was indeed a wonderful day made so and possible by the incredibly generous, gracious, intelligent, good-natured, open-hearted hospitality of a beautiful family that I cannot help but love. Yesterday's as well as my previous interactions with them certainly will be one of the fondest memories of my entire life.