The Oldest Village In Vietnam

(PICTURE: The fourth oldest house in the oldest village in Vietnam.)

The second stop on our tour of Son Tay was to the oldest village in Vietnam. We strolled around the village while getting an excellent guided tour by Mai. After asking some locals, we headed towards the fourth oldest house in the village.

The owner of the house invited us inside and told us about the history of the house and his family. He is the 10th generation of his family to live in the house. His children are the 11th generation to live in the house.

(PICTURE: The home owner smoking from a traditional Vietnamese tobacco bong.)

The owner is actually a journalist and lives in Hanoi during the week and comes back to his village home on the weekend. His wife, the art teacher at the school in the village, and his children stay in the village year round. Here's a picture the wife drew of her husband:


As I was walking around the village a strange man wearing a leopard print winter hat gestured for me to come into his house.


I followed him inside and he led me to a little gallery where there were tons of picture of Ho Chi Minh and other famous Vietnamese officials. It turned out that this man was the grandson of the former Vice Prime Minister of Vietnam.

The other strange thing that I saw in THE OLDEST VILLAGE IN VIETNAM WAS this:


(PICTURE: Engraved above the entrance to one of the houses in the oldest village in Vietnam).

Road Trip: Son Tay/ Vietnam Vegas

(PICTURE: Nicky, Long and Me -- the road trip crew.)

The first stop on our five day Tet Motorbike Trip was Son Tay. Our friend Mai -- the head of the Hanoi Ultimate Frisbee club -- invited a bunch of us to her for the second day of Tet. All of us who were going agreed to meet at a shopping center at 9:30 to caravan to Mai's house.

The night before I slept about an hour and a half due to my stomach bug which first started to reer its head at Huyen's house. At 4AM I decided to start a cycle of Cipro and vowed that I would only go to Mai's if her family had a western toilet. At 8AM, approximately after my dozen-th trip to the toilet, I went looking for an open pharmacy. One problem with this quest is that NOTHING is open during Tet. Well, barely anything. As I drove around the city I saw a woman walking into a darkened pharmacy. The pharmacy was definitely closed but I happen to catch the pharmacist coming back to her house/business. I asked her for Smecta (it's like Immodium AD but 100 times better...and that's coming form a lifelong lover of Immodium) and got ten packets. I downed the first dose and decided that it was time to face my fear of a squat toilet.

All of us arrived at the predetermined location at 9:30. Well, all of us except for Nicky. We called Nickey at 9:45 and woke him up. We told him to meet us in Son Tay.

When we got to Mai's house the first thing I asked her is, "What kind of toilet do you have?" She said, "A western toilet." Well, my face must have lit up because she started to laugh. She said she's had never seen anyone so happy about anything in her life. A week later she was still laughing at my expression and told me, "I'll never forget how happy you were about my toilet."

Mai was a great host and took us around Son Tay to a few famous spots. Our first stop was at a pagoda which was holding a Tet Celebration. It turns out that the celebration was the Vietnamese version of Vegas...where the dealers and gamblers were slightly younger than at the Bellagio. There were all these little games for money. Check out this dice game:



I won 10,000 Dong playing this game...which made up for the 40,000 Dong I lost in other -- slight more rigged -- games.

The Best Job In The World

(PHOTO: Help me blog from here!!!)

Over the last couple of weeks I've received about a dozen emails from people telling me to apply for "The Best Job In The World." For those of you who haven't heard, Tourism Queensland is having a contest to become the caretaker for the islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

As many of you know, my time here in Vietnam is coming to an end. I've been contemplating my future and have a few ideas in mind as to where I'll end up later this year after my stint with my family back in New Jersey. However, if I can get the great barrier reef job, that would clearly trump all my other plans.

Having worked in casting for a few years, I know the likelihood of getting this job is slim to none. Tens of thousands of people are applying -- including those of you who are first hearing about this competition on my blog and now are going to apply yourself -- and only one will win. However, as all of my math teachers from Grade 5-12 can attest: I suck at math. I'm not gonna let simple odds stop me from trying!!!

My video application has just been posted:

http://www.islandreefjob.com/applicants/watch/jCnxC5G6s-w

The video had to be one minute or less. Mine is exactly one minute. If you've got the time go watch my video...and hopefully give me a five star rating.

I mean how freaking cool would it be if I can blog for six months from THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the help!

Meet The Parents

(PICTURE: Huyen's Dad showing me the house where he was born.)

I've met Huyen's parents before, but Tet weekend was the first time I spent serious time with them. Here's the top ten questions I was asked -- through translation -- by Huyen's Dad.

1. Do you like me? (He asked me this seven times. I said, "I like you very very very much.")

2. Are you comfortable? (He asked me this no less than 200 times)

3. When do you want to get married? (I said, "maybe two years or so.")

4. Who do you want to get married to? (I wanted to say, "Who knows, who cares!" but I thought I should probably say, "Huyen.")

5. What do you think of Huyen? (I said, "I think she's amazing." This was followed up by Huyen's sister saying, "How does she make you feel?" I said, "Really happy." She then said, "I mean do you think she's beautiful?" I said, "Yes, but I'm more handsome.")

6. Do you want beer or wine? (This was at breakfast. I went with wine. It was homemade with mullberries.)

7. Will you please move in to my house and help sell the goods? (I said, "Of course." Her dad then said, "How will you sell them if you can't speak Vietnamese?" Fair point.)

8. Can you support a family? (I think he was talking about if Huyen and I get married and have kids).

9. THIS IS NOT A QUESTION BUT A STATEMENT: Your hands are cold. You are weak. (This was said after asking to hold my hand and being shocked that it was freezing. In my defense, it was freezing out. But yeah, I am kind of weak).

10. Can you kill the chicken? (I said, "Yes, I can. No, I don't want to.")

Question #2 though really shows the type of man Huyen's Dad is. He tried so hard to make me comfortable and was such a great host. He constantly told me that he was happy I was spending time with their family and asked if I could stay longer. One of the other things he said to me was, "Even though we can't talk to each other, you make me feel very good." Well, he made me feel very good too...and not just because I was buzzed on wine and beer half the time.

Remembering The Deceased

On the first day of Tet Vietnamese people visit the graves of their deceased family members. Huyen's parents invited me to go along with them. We got on our motorbikes and rode out to the rice paddies where the graves are located.

The first stop was at a cemetery with about thirty graves. Huyen's parents burned incense and said a prayer for Huyen's great grandmother.














The second stop was in the middle of a rice paddy. This is where Huyen's father's parents are buried. They were the only graves in site.

(PICTURE: Walking through the rice paddy to visit Huyen's grandparents graves.)

The final stop was at an Army cemetery. My first thought upon seeing the cemetary was shock at the number of graves -- I counted about sixty. You have to keep in mind that we were just on the outskirts of a small village. If you want to relate it to America, her village is roughly the same distance from Hanoi that Livingston (my hometown) is from New York. The difference is that Livingston has around 30,000 people. Her village has probably 1,000 max. For such a small place, they've had a large amout of people sacrifice for their country and cause.

We went to this cemetery, because as some of you may recall from when my parents visited, Huyen's Uncle died in the war between America and Vietnam. While visiting the grave, I found out that Huyen's Uncle died in Cambodia during the war but his body has never been found. He has a grave at this cemetery but his body is missing. Huyen told me that there is an organization looking for her uncle's body as well as many other Vietnamese soldiers.

(PICTURE: The Army cemetery.)












One flag that has always meant something to me is the P.O.W. * MIA flag:

Every time I've ever seen one I always feel a strange sensation come over me. I've always thought how hard it must be for families who can't get closure because the body of their loved one is missing. One of my strongest memories as a child is when my family went to The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washingston, D.C. and thinking that there's really nothing more tragic in war than not knowing what happened to someone you love.

I must admit that whenever I've had those thoughts I've had American soldiers in mind. All too often when we think about war we only think about "our side." Being told about Huyen's Uncle just reconfirmed how terrible war is for everyone, no matter the outcome. As my father said a couple of months ago, "There are no winners in war."

Tet

Tet is the new year in Vietnam. Like our new year in the states, it begins at midnight. Being that we were in the country and that they're illegal in Vietnam, there were only a few fireworks when the clock struck twelve. What there was a lot of though was food.

In the Vietnamese culture the families put A TON of food in front of the shrine at their home which honors their deceased loved ones. They cook meals for the deceased and have it sit in front of them for hours. At midnight we then eat the meals and a ton of sweets. I took this picture of Huyen bringing food to the shrine. Eventually, there was literally three times as much as you can see in this picture. Also for perspective, check out that very round basketball looking watermelon. I brought that and it weighed 18.8 pounds.

The next morning we ate the leftover food and a whole bunch of other food we cooked that morning. What's really unique about this picture are three things:
1. Everyone is sitting in chairs. This is the ONLY time of the year the family sits in chairs and at a table. Usually everyone sits Indian-style on the floor upstairs.
2. This is the only time the family eats downstairs. Usually the spot we ate in is covered in ceramics. The night before we moved all the ceramics to another area so there would be room for the table.
3. Huyen told me during Tet is the only time of the year her family can usually all eat together. Her parents work 362 days a year from 5AM till around 9PM. Her father mans the shop in the house and her mother works their stall at a local market.

Let me get back to the food for a second. Being a Jew, I've heard the "Jewish moms make you eat" thing a billion times. Well take it from me, Jewish moms don't have a thing on Vietnamese Dads. Huyen's Dad stuffed me like a pig.

I really can't emphasize how much Mr. Nguyen made me eat. Just to give you an example, he forced me to eat three HUGE bowls of beef noodle soup for breakfast. Usually I eat one bowl of pho for breakfast and I'm full. These bowls at her house were twice as big...and I had THREE OF THEM!

The irony is that her Dad told me on the first day that, "You shouldn't think of yourself as a guest but as a friend. This means you should help yourself because we won't serve you." I told him that was great because I don't like being catered to. Well, it was a good idea in theory. Every time we sat down he proceeded to drop food into my bowl (along with Huyen and her sister). There were two problems with this:

1. I'm a fast eater. Always have been. I ate what I got pretty fast and then they'd drop more into my bowl. If I told them I was full they would say, "You ate very little. You must have more."

2. The day before going to Huyen's I was pretty sick. I had a high temperature and felt really weak. The two times I've felt like this in Vietnam I had a stomach bug. I'm 90% sure I had a stomach bug when I went to the Nguyen's house which meant my appetite was about 50% of what it usually is. I literally felt nauseous the whole weekend I was there...oh, and I had the runs.

That said, the food was amazing and the Nguyen's were fantastic hosts.

Sleeping With A 17-year-old

As mentioned a week or so ago, I had to share a bed with Huyen's 17-year-old brother Su at the Nguyen house. Su's a really great kid who's getting ready to go to university next year. The experience of sharing a bed with him was uneventful....except when:

...at 3:04 AM Su screamed out "ZOY ZOY ZOY!!!!" inches from my ear. I don't know what he was dreaming about but that translates to "YES YES YES".

...at roughly 3:45 AM when Su kneed me straight in the square of my back.

...at 12:15 AM, 2:23 AM, 4:10 AM and possibly twenty other times during the night he stole the blanket from me. This wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't FREAKING FREEZING.

Huyen took this picture of Su and I shortly after I passed out on the first night. Notice the layers I'm wearing because of the cold. And no, I'm not talking about the layers of chins.

The next morning I gave Su a lot of crap for allowing me to sleep about an hour and a half. Huyen laughed and said that Su is always the worst of her siblings to share the bed with. Thanks for the warning, Huyen!

The next night as I was going upstairs to bed, I noticed Su was in his parents' bed. He had felt so bad that he was going to give me the bed by myself and sleep with his parents. I told Huyen to tell him that I was only joking with him and that he should come share the bed with me again.
I regreted this decision when he kicked me in the back of the knee at 3:58 AM.