Family Power, Vietnam Adventure, Part 2

Day One: Arrival in Saigon
Day Two: Take a plane ride up north to the absolutely beautiful Vinh countryside.

About two weeks before my scheduled trip to Vietnam, my mother gave me some really upsetting news. My grandpa was lying in a hospital deathbed, barely able to move on his own, and without the ability to speak. Things weren't looking too good for him. So my mom booked a flight to see him that coincidentally coincided with my trip too. See, I have never met this grandparent before so this meeting meant a bit more to me. It would most likely be the last time my mother would ever see her dad and the only time I would see my grandpa.

We went on motorbikes to the hospital, a very decrepit and disgusting looking place with hard beds, the scent of urine, and the thick heavy air that follows sickness around. He was lying in a bed in a room filled with other patients. Family members surrounded him, and he was so tiny looking. He was frail like a tiny underfed child, an old man looking shrivelled and spent. He saw my mom and me and tears watered his eyes. His eyes beamed. My mom couldnt contain herself either and her eyes began to cry too.

I was feeling nervous, scared, and anxious. I have never met him before. I dont even think he saw me as a baby because after I was born, two weeks later, I was already gone. I wished at the moment I had better grasp of my native language so I could express myself, put proper words to convey my honest feelings. But it was hard and I just sat there, sometimes stroking his soft swollen hands.






From the weeks before and days after I arrived, my grandpa was visited by countless relatives, visiting him in the hospital, nursing him better, and saying potential goodbyes. Well, the day after my mom and I arrived, he was permitted to leave the hospital and return home. He had regained his ability to speak, could stand and sit with assistance. He had gotten a lot better. I guess the power and love of family and can really will you back to bettter health.

Vinh: A landscape uninterupted by powerlines, hi-rises, development, but just rice fields across the horizon.






I spent three days and two nights in Vinh, at my aunt's house. It was a lot like camping and it was one of my favourite spots in Vietnam. My relatives lived about an hour's drive from the main center I guess of Vinh, where there were dirt roads and endless upon endless stretchs of rice paddy fields. Young girls and women worked the fields pulling buffalo along, turning the soil, ankles deep in brownish moppy water.

Although dreadfully cold at night, during the day the weather was mild and the rain was minimal. The most captivating part of Vinh were the colours. Bright vibrant blues in the skies, soft white fluffy clouds, lime luscious greens in the grass, rusty brown dirt on the roads, orange yellow at dawn, and at night when riding on a motorbike along the bumpy road the sky is emblazoned with starlight. If you could imagine a a place so untouched by the hands of progress I think it would be Vinh. I have never seen so much land uninterrupted by powerlines, and high rises, and even houses.

My aunt's house had buffalos, ducks, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, everything you can name. They looked like happy animals, fed enough, tails wagging. (The buffalos in Vietnam were always wagging their tails!) The dogs were never chained.

I must also say, that from all the places in Vietnam that I got to travel to, from the bustling city streets of Ho Chi Minh and the subdued scenery of Hue and the beachy culture of Nha Trang, Vinh had the nicest and humblest inhabitants. I have experienced less begging and hustling from the people in Vinh than in any other part of Vietnam. And Vinh is an intensely poor village.