Vietnam memories
Something I wrote a few years ago, after moving to Vietnam and being completely blown away by Ho Chi Minh City and its wonders.
After a month of living off “broken rice”, pork and sugary sweet coffee, I have a newfound appreciation for my iron stomach! When you live in any place long enough, you start noticing the mechanics that keep every day on track. Those little nuances we take for granted in our home country, now glaringly obvious in our new routine in this foreign land.
My favourite thing about Vietnam is how kind the locals are. Perhaps not always to each other, but most certainly to any stranger who crosses their path. They will (and have done to me) invite you into their home without hesitation. Generosity, hospitality and tenaciousness; all the Vietnamese people I’ve encountered have me feel more welcome than I could ever imagine. There was my instant coffee shop friend, Sophie, who sat with me a short while before school on an early weekday morning. On another Wednesday afternoon I sat outside the school on a bench in the sweltering heat because I didn’t know what else to do on my three hour break - as was often the case, the school was quite out the way from any shops or cafes. A mom of one of the students took pity on me and insisted I come for lunch at her house. Though I’d already eaten, I politely tried everything she put in front of me and so discovered my favourite fruit (Bưởi - the biggest pomelo/grapefruit I had ever seen). We still keep in touch and hopefully I will see her on the weekend for a catch up. Then there’s Ms Huong, one of the teachers at my new school. This woman is definitely a force to be reckoned with, but she is as kind as she is fierce. She insists on picking me up at home and dropping me off when I teach at her school, brings me noodles instead of rice and we sit and talk about life in SA vs Vietnam in our mix of broken languages (with some help from Google Translate!).
That leads me to the next thing I’ve noticed about Vietnamese people. No is more of a suggestion, than a hard line decision. When offered with food, free rides or simply a small gift from a student, be prepared for a back and forth of “no, it’s ok, really, I’m sure, thank you so much”. And then you’ll notice how disappointed or confused they look, give in and accept anyway. I’ve learnt, it’s best just to graciously accept the offer from the start - it will make them happy to see you happy and vice versa.
The view from the back of Ms Huong’s scooter.
Although it seems like everyone can drive a scooter, this is not the case! Just like South Africa, you expect everyone on the roads to be a responsible and safe driver but then again, taxis and Golden Arrow buses still exist, and so the same is true for Vietnam. From my recent Uber and Grab experiences, there are…talentless…drivers all over this world. Whether it’s the guy who insists he knows where you’re going (until you end up at the wrong side of the city), to the one who cuts in front of a family of three on their way home after a long day. I think it’s best to make peace with the fact that these drivers exist, to try and stay out of their way and hopefully I won’t be same when I eventually get my own bike.
Lastly, though street food is delicious and super cheap, it’s time to start focussing on getting some much needed nutrients. The food industry here is like a sneaky mistress. Without going into too much detail, I was informed by one of my Gr11 students that my beloved cơm tấm is not beneficial to my health in the long run, so I’m down to one serving a week (I can’t go lower than that, health or no health!). I am also committed to getting at least one serving of fresh fruits at least once a day - I even trekked out to another district to get some greens sans chemicals (it’s the same as any developing country - “organic” is expensive and difficult to find). Just like the roads, grocery store aisles are always buzzing and in the fray, my trolley went missing in the time it took me to Google Translate the names of the fruits, trying to decide whether that really looked like a guava or not. Eventually I ended up with way more than I’d gone in for (that always seems to happen, whether it’s a grocery store or stationery shop) and I even got some useful tips on where to get my film developed...you’ve gotta love Vietnamese supermarkets!
We’ll see how long it lasts before I’m standing in front of the smiling lady around the corner, with the fragrant rice and charred meat. But, for this week at least, it’s been going well.
Disclaimer: that resolve didn’t last too long and in my second year I traded com tam for ramen in preparation for my move to Korea - at least, that’s what I told myself! The film developing coffee shop, Darkroom Lab, also became one of my favourite spots to hang out, as seen below.
My friend Emma and I outside the Darkroom Lab - a fellow film photographer asked if he could take our photo and for once I became the subject not the photographer.