Loc Ninh, Home of the Rubber Trees

I never thought that I would ever meet my dad's side of the family in my life. I kinda just grew up realizing that I had only known my mom's side and since it's a very large family, there were no expectations to further expand on my family tree. So this comes as a very rare opportunity, with all of the opportunities I've gained from working in Hong Kong is the chance to do business in VN & thus the chance to visit my family in a remote town two and a half hours North East of Saigon. My destination was Loc Ninh, home to "rubber trees" where my grandma and relatives reside.

To my surprise, the entire family showed up in Saigon to take me back to their home town, almost all 15 of them! It was a long and cozy ride in a van packed with warm people that I had never met before,with grandma by my side, holding me from time to time and openly sharing her thoughts over the duration of the trip. About an hour in, the urban development thinned out and a horizon of landscape and rural dwellings started popping up. The fully paved 4 lane road slowly transformed into a two lane paved, then an unpaved 2 lane and finally a narrow one way red dirt road, filling the air with dust. Revealing the town's all natural, poor and rural setting.

The homes were surrounded by beautiful and natural forests, consisting mainly of what they called "rubber trees," what makes up a lot of Loc Ninh's landscape and thus its rubber production economy. Fruit gardens of all sorts were planted in very large land plots, inhabited with some small domesticated animals like roosters, chicks, dogs and other birds. So I realized that there was no turning back, I was going to spend two nights in a dwelling with no hot water and poor plumbing.

Spending time with my long lost relatives in their home town was the most humbling experience ever. I lived under the many hierarchical rules that the Vietnamese culture consists of, however being on the opposite end of it, I was treated with the utmost respect, however still as if I were a child. My cousins were all very sweet and caring, through their spoken thoughts, I was able to grasp my own parents'traditional views.

Getting to know my grandma was most eye opening. She just has soo much energy and charisma even in her old age. She openly shared her past with me, including some fond memories of being with my grandpa during the French colonization period. Her old photos were beautiful, showing her French-Viet influenced style & bold character. Her memory was sharp as she recalled stories of her past and never held back in sharing them with me.

The nights were most reflective of rural country life, as the sky darkens everyone stays close to their family yet outside at the patio. There is no other need other than to spend time together in this rural setting and within the two nights there I quickly got to know everyone. Bed time was way past by 9:30. And I struggled to fall asleep with all of the insects calling outside. The many roosters around the neighborhood took turns calling in the morning by 5 am. No matter how much I forced myself to remain asleep, I was up by 5:30. With no hot shower waiting for me, just a cup of coffee. And a huge bowl of soup for breakfast, which I neglected to eat since it was just too early.

My departure was full of sad faces, even after only two nights of knowing each other, my relatives were sad to see me leave. Almost all of them, once again accompanied me back to the city. Oh the comforts of urbanization. With a visit to my dad's childhood place and lunch, we parted with sad goodbyes. Sweetnest that would never be encountered in urban life, the all so family country bonding despite all of the distance and time that had kept us apart all my life. Bitter sweet goodbyes, yet I am glad to have finally met them.

Slowing Down

I spent my last 2 weeks working in Vietnam, where coffee shops open all day long and people take 2 hour lunches and leave the office by 5:30 on the dot. Completely going against the hectic daily routine I had laid out for myself, Hong Kong style was hard at first. However, settling into Vietnam mode put me back in touch with my softer side, you know, the one I left way back in Cali when I decided to work in Hong Kong.

Vietnam is a complete clash of Hong Kong culture. Talk about wanting to achieve perfection and go beyond "mediocrity" in my last entry, Vietnam opens up my perspective to well, enjoying life as is. People there, rich or poor, have this common ground by enjoying the little things in life. You can buy a cup of coffee at any price in any kind of place in Saigon. From street patios to platforms viewing the waterfront, ranging from 5000 VND to about 24,000 VND. Then, people just literally lounge around and relax while either talking or falling asleep under the shade. Happiness there is about the moment. People don't seem to save or plan too far ahead.