(PICTURE: My mother-in-law in front of the amusement park.)
Full disclosure: I was not actually present for this episode of ADVENTURES WITH MY MOTHER-IN-LAW. However, Huyen borrowed my camera and told me some great blog-worthy stories that I'll recount over the next couple of days.
As you may recall, about a year and a half ago I went to the beach with my now mother-in-law. At the beach my mother-in-law, grandfather-in-law and all my other in-laws freaked out when they saw the crashing waves. Believe it or not new readers, it was their first time seeing the sea. Yes, they all have grown up and never left a country lined with water but never managed to travel to the coast. Sadly, this is the norm here. That's all to say that many people don't get out much so when you put them into a big city, lots of things seem odd to them.
Recently Huyen had to go back to HCMC to pick up her American visa. Huyen's mother expressed interest in visiting her brother in Saigon so we immediately bought her a plane ticket to join Huyen. Unfortunately we didn't check with Huyen's uncle to see if he was going to be in town though and he happened to be away that weekend in Hai Phong. The best laid plans...
Despite not seeing her brother, Huyen and her mom had a great bonding weekend which has entertained me with many stories. Here's the first one:
Huyen and her mother went to an amusement park just outside of Saigon. I've passed this park before but have never gone inside. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure it's no Great Adventure. Well, Huyen called me after going to the park and told me about experiencing the haunted house with her mother. To summarize, they took about two steps into the house of horrors before my mother-in-law was scared out of her mind. She tried to go back through the entrance but was stopped by the woman behind them. The woman told Huyen's mom: "If you are in good standing with Buddha then you have nothing to fear." Yup, there's crazy religious people who follow Buddhism too. Huyen said that her mother grabbed hold of the Buddhist lady and didn't let go until they exited the haunted house. I have been told that this is the last time my mother-in-law will go into a haunted house.
