To Vietnam I Go!

As many of you know, I’m leaving for Vietnam…for three months. It’s the day after my graduation and what better way to ride this post-graduation high than to jet off across the world to a distant land for which I am named after. The thought of it is exhilarating. For three months, I have the option to do absolutely nothing other than sit on a hammock, surrounded by lush jungle and drink coconut straight from a tree my uncles climbed and chopped down themselves. No PAPERS, no deadlines…just free time. SIGH.

But of course, I get restless easily and while sitting around doing nothing sounds awesome, I have plans that will hopefully keep me occupied until I return in mid-August and see (and party with!) all of you guys again. So, I made a list of activities I would like to do while there. Here are the highlights (from a very long mental list):

-Learn to ride a motorbike. This is priority numero uno. I have this romanticized image in my mind of me motor-biking through the Vietnamese countryside (where the traffic isn’t crazy and deadly like in Saigon), zooming by rice paddies, and taking in staggered gulps of that sweet country air. Very romanticized but I want to at least learn and I will, dangit!

-Find the best bowl of pho. I know, nothing beats your mom’s bowl of pho, but surely, in a country that thrives on pho, there has to be someplace that can rival mom’s bowl of goodness. I specifically want to visit the famed “Lunch lady” in Saigon, who makes different varieties of noodles on specific days of the week. Her street-served noodle dishes are supposed to be the best, known to lure flocks of locals and tourists alike. Anthony Bourdain featured her on his Vietnam show. And if you don’t know, as a travel show junkie I have an undying love for Bourdain’s quirky and sometimes crude insights, so what he says about food, is pretty close to right.

-Learn about Vietnamese folk music. NOT CAI LUONG, which is a descendent of Chinese Opera but a really annoying version of it. I want to learn more about Vietnamese folk music, from the sounds of the traditional instruments to the ‘60s folk singers I used to hear my Dad listening to.

-Immerse myself in the day-to-day Vietnamese life. A benefit of having family I could stay with is that I could really see what it is like to be a local. I could go to the open markets with my aunts every morning to buy fresh produce, wake up to see the country farmers herding ducks in the countryside, or attend school with my aunt and learn what it is like to be a schoolteacher in Vietnam. These are the experiences I am looking forward to, more so than visiting the touristy sites.

-Retrace my Dad’s life in Vietnam. I don’t know anything about my Dad’s life in Vietnam, other than the few stories my Mom shares with me. I know of their courtship, some terrifying stories of the war, and their eventual escape. Other than that, my Dad’s life in Vietnam is shrouded in mystery. There are many reasons why—the main being that he was a soldier and a war prisoner, who basically had to erase his past to survive. I know that he hasn’t seen his immediate family in over 30 years. I also know nothing about his childhood, so I want to make it a mission of mine to find out about his life, revisit his old stomping grounds, learn about the hardships he had to go through, and to basically understand the past so that I can understand my Dad better. He doesn’t talk much and the vestiges of war have left him with no nostalgia for the past. But for my sake, I would like to better understand my Dad and I’m sure by retracing his past, I will come back with not only a better understanding, but more appreciation for who he is.

-To simply, enjoy my time here. To learn more about my culture, be open to new experiences, and just…take this valuable time I have here and make one GRAND ADVENTURE out of it.