I go to the end of the lane for another coffee and cigarettes and arrive back at eight. Thay introduces me to Coney another friend of hers that will be coming with us. He is a thirty seven year old Taiwanese guy and they have been friends for six years, meeting when he stayed here at the hotel and keeping in touch. He works for a Chinese company selling building materials to companies from the Mekong Delta. Our car is a little late because Thay’s three year old niece who is also coming with us has slept in.
The car arrives driven by Thay’s sister’s father in-law who I meet along with Thay’s father and niece. We make the journey south out of Saigon chatting and getting know each other as the city crush becomes a suburban spread and into a countryside sprawl, picking up Thay’s mother along the way, a real family outing. We are going to visit Thay’s grandparents in Tung Vu. The concrete turns to pastures and trees and we arrive after about an hour.
A nice big country house about a ten minutes walk to the centre of this small rural town and after meeting the grandparents Hai, Thay’s father asks if I would like to go for a walk, we head towards town. He is a cheery gentleman of fifty four with reasonable English skills and we chat among other things about he taught mathematics here from 1978 – 1989. I become aware the closer we get to town and the more people that we see that I am quite the novelty, I don’t think they get many white boys here. I am greeted mostly with huge curious smiles and hellos. There is a few stern faces that find it hard to make eye contact with me but if I speak a friendly firm “hello” they jump and look and a smile comes.
After wandering from the one intersection of the town in each direction we stop back at the intersection to chat to a lady who owns the shop there and Hai informs me they used to teach together at the local school, he with his mathematics and she taught literature. She greets us warmly and gives us each a bottle of water. While they chat I take the opportunity to take some photos and generally enjoy this wonderful feeling of being centre of attention, the only white person within miles. Hai points in one direction and says that road goes to Cambodia
We walk back to the house where us men sit and drink tea while the women prepare lunch and my goodness what a feast! Grandpa cannot speak English but seems to have taken a shine to me and I to him. He has a warming smile and a face of many years of life, work and family. I compliment him on his beautiful house which Hai translates and I see a shine in his eyes.
We are called to dinner and sit around a table under the veranda full of wonderful traditional Vietnamese food and it starts to rain a steady shower that continues until the end of the meal. First we have fresh spring rolls with cucumber and all sorts of green leaf foliage (that looks like what we call weeds in Australia
After my nap I chat with Thay and learn a few interesting things about what westerners would call corruption but what is considered normal here like the police bribery I witnessed yesterday which by the way is called “coffee money”. One thing I found out that surprised me is that Loi, my favourite one legged beggar who I have mentioned before was befriended by an Australian policeman who comes to Vietnam
EX-LEPER: All right, sir. My final offer: half a shekel for an old ex-leper.
BRIAN: Did you say... 'ex-leper'?
EX-LEPER: That's right, sir. Sixteen years behind the bell, and proud of it, sir.
BRIAN: Well, what happened?
EX-LEPER: I was cured, sir.
BRIAN: Cured?
EX-LEPER: Yes, sir, a bloody miracle, sir. God bless you.
BRIAN: Who cured you?
EX-LEPER: Jesus did, sir. I was hopping along, minding my own business. All of a sudden, up he comes. Cures me. One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by your leave. 'You're cured mate.' Bloody do-gooder.
Towards mid afternoon we say our goodbyes and start the journey back to Saigon , well rested and fed. We stop a short way along at Hai’s brother’s house where I think we visit purely to parade the white boy. There is a table of men drinking lazy Sunday afternoon Heinekens and I am greeted loudly by the Alpha male of the group who immediately pours me a short glass of beer and insists I scull it down, here we go again! The glass is refilled straight away and Thay says I should drink it down so we can get back on the road. I stand and raise my glass to the table and chant “Mo, Hi, Ma, YO!!!” the traditional Vietnamese “cheers” and am joined by the table who cheer me away to the car.
The next hour is a sleepy drive back to District one for everyone (except the driver of course who did not drink at all) and when we arrive I cannot thank Thay enough for the day. I say farewell to Coney and head up to my room for a snooze.
Out to Anne’s for dinner, I have not tried her pizza yet, I bump into all the usual suspects. I chat to Lan for a while, I need a comb to trim my sideburns so she gets me one. Foo comes by with my cigarettes, I assure a couple of potential customers how good the food is and they should come in to Anne’s delight. The quirky looking waitress with the stutter asks me if I would like to teach some students privately on the weekends, I tell her I will let her know, it could be some good experience for some extra cash. The pizza is great as well as the beer and I walk home, happy, contented and refreshed.
