Saigon, February 7 2001
I can’t remember what day it is anymore, as I’ve nothing really to keep track. I also can’t remember what I’ve already said, so if I repeat, please forgive. Did I tell you we’ve got apuppy in the house? Just a few weeks old and my aunt paid $3 USD for it – her butler/house guardian told her she overpaid. There are two pekingnese (sp.?) in the house too. One I call Quasimodo – it’s gotten into two fights and has lost an eye and its face is totally disfigured – it’s actually very cute in an ugly kind of way. :)

This morning when I got up, my aunt 9 joined me at the table and told me that since my room is upstairs, and my bed below the roofpeak, I should not sleep below the peak, as it is bad luck. Mom says that’s why I’ve been waking up with headaches. I’m supposed to sleep to the side of the roofpeak, rather than directly below it. The Chinese say so, I’m told.

Did I also tell you that I met lots of family? Last week I met my Uncle 2’s wife, Aunt 2, and their 4 children – my cousins – Pinky, Lily, Tu Bua, and Tuyet Dung. They’re very sweet, but shy, and I have trouble communicating. Pinky has 2 girls, and Tu Bua one, so they are my nieces. It’s very weird – the 8 year old was teaching me Vietnamese (they of course, all speak much better than I). Then last night, I met my dad’s first cousin, and her mother – my dad’s aunt (my grandmother’s sister/ my greataunt). She’s so cute – at 94, she still has perfect hearing and good eyesight, no teeth. I love old asian people – they are so damn cute. She recognized my mother easily and then looked at me and said I look just like Ong Cam – I don’t know who that is, but I think it’s a great uncle of mine.

Yesterday my aunt 10 decided she would buy a refrigerator to keep upstairs in her “apartment” – the entire upstairs has an open terrace with beautiful garden. She wanted a refrigerator up there so she and I could keep some food upstairs so we could have breakfast on the open terrace. Anyway, the guy who delivered the fridge delivered it on his 2-wheeled honda motorbike – with one hand holding the fridge on his seat and the other hand navigating through the traffic jungle. No bungees, no cords, nothing! They just carry the fridge with one hand! My aunt says they do the same thing with televisions, ovens, whatever.

This afternoon I have to go to the tailor. My new aunt (my Uncle Tony’s bride) bought some Vietnamese silk and brought it to him to make me a new ao dai, the traditional vietnamese dress. Mom took me to another place where I’m having another dress made. It costs about $30,000 VND for labor to make a silk shirt. That’s about 2 dollars and a few cents.

Had a lunch interview with a US Viet Kieu (it’s what they call vietnamese people who have “come home.”). He wants me to be the Marketing & Graphic Design manager of his company. I’m still trying to figure out what he does! I also just met a guy here from Chicago who has friends at J Walter Thompson, and I think Bates Worldwide. Never hurts to make contacts. It’s hard for me to do business in Vietnamese with my limited vocabulary, and in business, it’s certainly different! The gentleman I met this morning speaks English though, so he helps me understand. My aunt 10 joined us for lunch – she said she was embarassed because I eat so much – he said never mind, he likes that.
Can’t help it if I eat twice my weight. By the way, today we had fresh raw fish (along with about six other dishes). By FRESH, I mean FRESH. The fish had been sliced readily and the slices were placed on a bed of ice. The rest of the fish was placed on the plate, full fish (head and all), with it’s side sliced. What a shock it was to me when I saw the tail flop and the fin flap!!!! OI! I ate it anyway (It didn’t wink at me so…)

My sisters have been forwarding my emails to everyone for me, since I’m unable to send so many out myself, and have trouble connecting to hotmail. Anyway, sorry for the mass mailing, but it’s the only way I can manage to get this out. I will try to post to www.hanihong.blogspot.com instead, so you can read it freely there. My sister Souris is also going to post my alaska ride pictures for me on www.gatherround.com, so if you get check and only see a few pictures, try again when she has post them. There should be at least 40 images. Oh, by the way, please do not send me any forwarded mail to my email. It’s difficult to get through the email here, so I can live without. THANKS.

I miss the U.S. and most of all New York (next to my dad, of course). Will write again.
Cheers.
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Saigon, February 6, 2001. So I’m sitting here in an internet cafe across from the ice cream shop. Connection rate is still 14.4 I think. It’s unbearably slow. I keep forgetting to mention all the funny stuff I see. For one thing, Vietnam is full of creepy crawlies – we’ve got lizards and ants and mosquitoes in the house – and it’s an air conditioned and luxurious house.
This morning we had a nice bowl of noodle soup (bun bo hue) and then fresh fruit - papaya and mangoes and vu sua (“breast-milk”) as opposed to sua vu (breastmilk). Vu sua is a fruit that has a milky flesh, hence its descriptive moniker. We then drank fresh coconut juice out of, well, coconuts. Oh, and yesterday, mom and I had fresh squeezed sugar cane juice from the street vendor. We had our taxi driver pull over on the street while the vendor squeezed it for us into plastic bags, complete with straws and banded shut with rubber bands. I haven’t gotten sick from any of the food or vegetables, or even the meat, but I’m going to steer clear of most meat we encounter. I happened upon the meat department in the huge Saigon market, a sight you should not see. People are on raised platforms with their slabs of meat hanging on hooks. It’s freakin’ 90 degrees outside. It’s an outdoor market. Needless to say, other bugs and mosquitoes all around.
Cyclo drivers sleep along the sidewalk when they’re off duty, and crossing the street is far more harrowing than in NYC any time of the day. There are no street lights, and no regards to the painted lines – you often find yourself facing oncoming traffic whether on foot or driving. Most amazing is the sheer number of 2-wheeled Honda motorbikes and cyclists who all “share” the road. No one wears a helmet, and sometimes, you see little 2 and 3 year old kids clinging on for dear life. I can’t even begin to imagine what might happen if they fell asleep in the back seat.
must run now.
xxo
hani
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Vietnam. February 5, 2001.
I'm well, I'm eating well, and everything is somewhat as expected. Di 10's house is beautiful and large, though her taste in art varies from beautiful to tacky. My room is a loft area with a living room, and cherry wood floors and a window facing the front yard. The moon shines directly through it late at night. The river runs behind the house, and the cross breezes are wonderful. Di 10 had an air conditioner installed for me the day I arrived. Whenever she wants anything - curtains, furniture, mirrors - she calls for custom orders. My coffee is made for me every morning. Espresso.

There are many things that are odd and most notably, the money. I traded my aunt a $20 USD for $280,000 today. It costs about 70 cents to have shoes repaired, and a bowl of noodle soup costs about 70cents as well. The employees at my aunt's restaurants work 28 days a month, 8 hours a day and are paid $50 USD a month. It is a much sought after job, because it is relatively high pay. There is a lack of respect for privacy. No one has any sense of personal space (they are very pushy people). Everyone talks very very loud (it must be in the genes), and we eat all day long.

The first day I arrived, mom gave me 2 bucks to tuck into my passport when going through customs (I told her not to try this at home). It helps reduce questioning, and then they let you through. When we picked up our baggage, all we had to do was explain that Di 9 (aunt 9) is Mme. A (My uncle A is a famous doctor) and we were let through. Also, to get through to my aunt's house, there is a toll booth - you have to pay 10,000 dollars to get through with a ticket (equal to about 70 cents) and then on your way out, they give you 5,000 back. If you just give them 2000 or so, they'll let you through, and pocket the cash so you don't get anything back on the way out again.

My second day here, we had to set up an altar to commemorate my great-grandmother's death and pray for her in her afterlife. The whole family came over, and we had a very large banquet. My aunt 9, who is a palm reader (my great uncle was famous for his sixth sense and used to read the President's palm) made a deal with me that if I teach her English, she'll teach me how to read palms. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Everyone makes fun of my Vietnamese, though they then contradict and tell me it's very good (especially for someone who left VN at 18 months). They also tell me that I look really young (I've heard anywhere between 10 and 20) and that I've got nice eyebrows. Funny people.

So the other interesting thing is that here in Vietnam, everyone looks alike!!! I'm not kidding. And the weirdest thing is that I look like them too! But I keep forgetting that I do. But as soon as I open my mouth, they know I'm a foreigner. The other weird thing is that in my family, my siblings and I used to use Vietnamese to talk about people in front of us. I can't do that here, because it's not a secret language over here. It stinks.

I think I might have a job teaching English at the university nearby. I met one of my aunt's business friends today at her ice cream shop and she happens to be friends with the director of the University so I'm going to hand her my resume. So far so good. Good food, good company, and maybe a job.

It's super hot here, but at night, we get a good breeze and it's nice and cool. It's not as bad as New York was in the summer of '99. I'm loving it so far, and think I might stay a while. We will travel to the north and central highlands after the wedding on the 18th. My new aunt (my uncle's bride) is ordering a traditional vietnamese ao dai to be made for me. Must be off now.
Ciao tutti.
hani