Flood Videos: Day 1

On Friday morning I went out at 7:30AM for my usual pho breakfast. As I turned the corner though I noticed something -- the street was flooded. My little alley must be slightly elevated because it was completely dry versus the neighboring street which had about a foot of water. I looked at a girl who happened to turn the corner at the same moment as me and raised my eyebrows to say, "Whoah." She gave me an equally surprised look. I turned around and walked to my second breakfast spot in the opposite direction. When I got the restaurant choice B I was equally surprised to see that only three people were on the street. Why is this so surprising? Well, my second restaurant spot is in the middle of a lake-side market which generally has at least a hundred people buying and selling food. Luckily one of the three people there was my breakfast lady who served me a delicious hot breakfast.

A couple hours later I went back outside and noticed that my street was now flooded. Only about a thirty foot section of my street was still dry -- luckily my house was smack in the middle of that section.

Anyway, my camera has officially dried and is being recognized again by my computer. I put together this little two minute video of the first day of the flood:

Flood Pictures

So how bad is the flood? This picture was taken about fifteen feet from my front door:


Perhaps you're asking yourself what that is? Well, it is a dead fish. Yes, a dead fish. The flood is so bad that the local lake overflowed and fish were swimming on my street. This one must have choked to death on the garbage that was floating everywhere.

I'll have a whole bunch of video I took up on the blog soon. However, to hold over the tide (pun intended) here's some pictures I got off a Vietnamese news website.

(PICTURE: Our Mai Chau stilt house)

(NOTE: You may have read on the news that Hanoi is completely flooded. Well, it's the truth. About 60-80% of the roads in the city are under water at the moment. I've got some GREAT footage of it BUT my camera, which got pretty wet, isn't uploading photos/videos. Hopefully my camera will dry out tonight and I can blog about the flood of '08 tomorrow). But until then, back to Mai Chau:

The ride from Hanoi to Mai Chau took Justin and I about six hours. One thing I've learned a few times is that Honda Waves are meant for short trips/city driving. After about an hour or so my hands and feet became numb and my back was aching. To fight the body pain we were both experiencing we stopped a few times on our journey.

At one of the stops, a pretty strange thing happened. We went to this outdoor cafe and sat down at a table in a gazebo. The owner/waiter came over and asked us what we wanted. Using my best Vietnamese I asked for two iced milk coffees. The waiter looked confused -- clearly not understanding my accent -- until I heard somebody behind me repeat my order. The person's voice was pretty high pitched but the owner/waiter understood him and went to make us our drinks. A few minutes later I turned around to see who had repeated my order and was surprised to see that nobody was there. The only thing there was a PARROT. Yes, a parrot understood my Vietnamese better than any Vietnamese person I've met.

Anyway, we eventually got to Mai Chau and I decided to do something pretty stupid -- ride and film at the same time. Here's a little of the footage:



You can't fully tell, but I almost nailed that cow. I had a last second swerve to avoid it.

After pulling into the village we found the stilt house (AKA adult tree house) that Ryan and Jessica had stayed at a couple months ago (see the picture at the top). Overall it was a great ride to Mai Chau. There was tons of beautiful scenery and best of all, no accidents!

Back to Justin...

Over the next few days we're going to travel back in time together and talk about my five days with Justin. With the timing of my parents' visit, I wasn't able to blog about my adventures with my cousin. Well, now is the time.

The most nerve wracking part of anyone's visit are the first twenty minutes or so after they rent a motorbike. We always rent the bikes in the Old Quarter which is perhaps the worst place to begin learning to ride. The streets are really narrow there and there is exponentially more foot traffic/obstacles to steer around. Before taking Justin to the Old Quarter I gave him a quick tutorial in my neighborhood. I had no doubt that Justin would be an excellent rider since his only form of transportation over the last few years has been a bicycle in Boston. Furthermore, Justin is a pretty gifted athlete and has great coordination. My only concern for Justin was that he would start to day dream while on his bike and smash into something in front of him. I specifically told him, "Justin always keep focused on the road in front of you. That's the most important thing. Oh, and the second most important thing is you should really never be in first gear."

After a few laps around my 'hood, Justin and I went to the Old Quarter to get a bike from Mr. M, my bike dealer. Mr. M asked us where we were going and I said Mai Chau. He then informed me that he didn't have a bike available for Justin -- despite an unrented bike parked right next to him. Mr. M pointed us to a bike shop down the street and said they could rent us a bike as long as we didn't tell them we were going to Mai Chau. Translation: No bike dealer likes to put mileage on their bikes so lie. This is also clearly why Mr. M didn't rent us his bike.

So Justin and I went down the street and rented a bike from a travel agency. The bike Justin got looked brand new and by far better than my bike. The two of us then saddled up and began to ride back to my house so we could pack for our journey. On the way back I had one eye on the road and one eye on Justin in my rear-view mirror. I breathed a sigh of relief after just a minute because Justin completely had the hang of the bike. He was doing a great job AND staying focused on the road. We made it all the way back to my house without any gliches. When we got there I opened my front/garage door and rode my bike inside. Standing there was Ryan, Jessica and Huyen. They asked me a question when all of a sudden Jessica exclaimed "Oh My God!" I immediately turned around to catch Justin flying up my front walk, crashing into the wall between my neighbor's house and mine and falling over. Ryan, Jessica and I couldn't stop laughing along with Justin. Huyen was the only person to look shocked.

Turns out Justin put his bike into first gear and couldn't control it. In the end the only damage was to my neighbor's flower pot which was smashed in half. Luckily the neighbor laughed along with us and told us it wasn't a problem.

The only problem in my mind was that Justin and I were about to get back on our bikes and ride six hours to Mai Chau!

Safe Travels, Mom and Dad!!!

(PICTURE: Dad resting at the pogoda on Hoam Kiem lake)
(PICTURE: Mom, Huyen and I at dinner)

Perhaps the most overused cliche is that, "Time Flies." Well, it's true. This morning my parents left their hotel at 5am to go to the airport and fly to Hue. I can't believe that my parents arrived eight days ago and are already leaving. Frankly, time flew.

It was wonderful having my parents in town and I'm really proud of them for coming. For those of you who don't know, my mother is petrified of flying. However to come see me she braved-up and flew for over 24 hours. Not to mention, she's now flying all over Southeast Asia before getting on another 24 hour flight back home. She's a brave woman. Furthermore, I'm really proud of my Dad for making it out here. It was just eight months ago that he had open-heart surgery and although he's not in the best shape of his life, he's doing really well. And Dad, no pressure, but I expect you to be in the best shape of your life when I get back in seven months!

I also want to thank my parents for being so warm to Huyen. Huyen said to me, "Your parents are so nice and I feel very close to them." As most of you know, it is every Jewish parents dream for their child to marry a nice Jewish girl. Huyen has the nice part covered since she's probably the nicest person I've ever met. However, in case you haven't been paying attention, Huyen isn't Jewish. She's not even half Jewish. The thought of me dating a non-Jew, and potentially marrying one, can't be an easy idea for my parents. However, you wouldn't know it since they treated Huyen as kindly as they treated any girl I've ever brought home. So thank you for that Mom and Dad.

I'm filled with sadness at the moment since I won't see my parents again until next May. At the airport when I left America (blog entry #1) I cried when I said goodbye to my family. This time I was a little stronger and managed to hold back my tears...although I did shed a couple when I saw my parents at baggage claim when they arrived.

I love you Mom and Dad!

The Reality Of War

In nearly every house in Vietnam is a Buddhist shrine with pictures of relatives who have died. Ninety nine percent of the time there are pictures of someone's mother and father or grandparents. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how it works but the basic idea is you burn incense and fruit in front of the shrine for your deceased loved ones.

On Sunday I asked Huyen if my family and I could see the upstairs of her house. She agreed and took us upstairs with her father. In the one room upstairs was a bed (which Huyen and her brother and sisters sleep in), more ceramics for sale, and a little shrine. There were two pictures hung on the wall above the shrine. One picture was of Huyen's Grandmother and the other picture was of Huyen's Uncle -- her father's brother. On the way back down the stairs Huyen's father stopped at the shrine and told us (via Huyen's translation): "This is my brother. He died fighting in the American War." Huyen's father said this with no resentment or anger; he was just telling us about his brother. In the car on the ride home, Huyen said to me, "My Uncle was very handsome. However, he died before he got married or had children."

Seeing the picture of Huyen's Uncle hit my Dad pretty hard. The next day he was still thinking about it and told me it was on his mind when I first saw him that morning. He said that he knew Americans who died in the Vietnam War, but seeing someone from the other side -- and someone's loved one -- was bothering him. As my father has said before, "Nobody wins in war."

The thought that kept crossing my mind was how amazingly forgiving people can be. Huyen's family welcomed my family into their house with open arms despite us coming from the country which killed her Uncle. I keep asking myself, "Would I be as forgiving if the roles were reversed?"

Mom and Dad Meet The Nguyens

My family and Huyen's had a great afternoon together. Huyen's mother and sister prepared a huge meal for us and could not have been more friendly. There were so many great moments during our time together but here's the top ten:

10. Upon arriving at the house my father immediately saying hello to Huyen's parents and pointing at Justin's feet and saying, "dirty." (They were dirty, as were mine, because we got sprayed by the truck we had just helped push out of a ditch). Justin then said out loud, "Has anyone told them what just happened with the stuck car or do they think you're just saying I'm a filthy animal?"

9. Watching my parents sit on the ground to eat. I can honestly say I don't think I've ever seen my parents sit on the ground to do anything.

8. My Dad's back/legs starting to hurt while sitting on the ground (see #9 above) so we moved him into a chair. He sat above everyone else like a king (I think he's practicing for his Mayor of Livingston role which is scheduled to start in January '09).

7. Trying to explain to Huyen's family that my father doesn't drink beer and that my parents can't eat grapefruit because of the medication they are on. These just aren't things that translate in Vietnamese.

6. Huyen's father playing the guitar for us while we ate.

5. Managing to not break any of the ceramic goods scattered all throughout the house. Huyen's parents sell China and their goods are stacked everywhere. Between Justin and I, I think we banged into at least a half dozen pots and luckily not one cracked.

4. The Nguyen's telling us that, "Having [us] at their house is the happiest [they've] been in a long time."

3. My father singing "The Itzy Bitsy Spider" to Huyen's nephew instead of responding to Huyen's Dad who tried multiple times to do a cheers with my Dad's coke (see #7 in regards to the Coke).

2. Huyen's family telling us that, "They always thought foreign families were not close. But now they see they are." Huyen's parents also told Huyen that they can see my parents are very kind people.

1. The Taxi Driver asking in Vietnamese in front of everyone , and translated by Huyen, "So you want to marry a Vietnamese girl?"