Preah Trapeng with love and heart break

I had the chance to go visit my relatives in my home village last weekend during of the Tet festival. This time was extra special because my brother and his wife also came along. My brother was surprised that half the village are our relatives. There were a few elderlies came by and asked if we remember them. Having left Vietnam since 5 years old and my brother left since when he was about 6 months – the answer is obvious.

It’s always great fun visiting aunty Dung’s house. She lives in a remote area surrounded by prawn farm. Her house basically a man made island. To get to her house, you would have to get on the boat to cross the river. We trekked down to her house without her knowing, upon arrival at one side of the river bank, we spent about five minutes calling her to bring the boat to take as across the river. Due to the low tide, we had to walk on the mud to get on and off the boat. It was fun.

I also had my first lesson fishing using net. I can’t believe how much muscle you have to put in to throw a net! I has huffing after two tries, maybe it goes to show how unfit I really am.

On the Sunday during my afternoon nap, I smell something burning and popping sounds. I ran out to find the neighbour’s house (about 300m away) was on fire. I felt helpless standing there watching the fire ragging. I started slowly from the kitchen and suddenly there was a huge wind that engulf the entire house within minutes. There were so many people trying to put the fire out but there were no quick access to water. The only water nearby was though a hand pump from a well. Though running water is available in the area, many were too poor to pay and choose the well alternative. Some have well with electric pumps. But in this case, there were no electric pump nearby the house. The fire also threatened houses nearby and were lucky that no other houses were burnt.

The house was completely destroyed. All their belonging were also destroyed including a motorbike. No one could enter the house the fetch the belonging because the door was locked and nobody was home. After the fire was nearly put out, I saw a young boy about the age of 10 and his little sister about 4 years old were sitting on the side of a dried shallow pond crying. I proceed to ask if it’s his house. His replied broke my heart – “Yes” he said.

The house that was burnt is next door to my family’s old house before we fled. The owners were also my distant relative and my mother’s friend. In the evening, me and my brothers and sisters went to visit them – homeless now staying with the neighbour (whom are so poor they couldn’t afford electricity). Being my last day spending there, I gave them all the money I had left – about $140 and my brothers and sisters also gave $100 as well.

One last note, although these people are living in poverty, they never forget to smile. They are grateful that nowadays they don’t have to starve any more. I guess that count for something.

Catching up

I arrived in Prey Nakor (Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon, I will use the name interchangeably but you know where I’m talking about) on the 16th September 2007. Time flies in the almost a month I have been here. I feel as though I have only been here for a couple of weeks. I had the chance to visit Hanoi and Ha Long bay, just a few days to relax before I started work.

I’m getting used to the heat, my skin are much browner now and I bet people now can tell that I’m Khmer. Talking about identification, I’m told there are a lot of Khmer in Prey Nakor but I could not identify any of them. I could guess that anyone with a darker skin tone are Khmer but I could be wrong as some Vietnamese are brown too, plus a lot of Khmers here have light skin tone also.

I was first overwhelmed by the traffic congestion but since learning how to drive a motorcycle, it’s becoming the norm battling through the busy street of Saigon. I had a few close calls driving around as I’m not 100% confident on the bike. I normally drive around at night because it’s cooler; during the day I sometime take taxi when it’s crouching hot and the pollution is bad.

The night life here in Prey Nakor is great. Discotheque, karaoke bar, live concert and so on keeps me entertain. Food here are cheap, I think I’m putting on weight. My friends said I would probably loose weight when I’m here, but I don’t think that will be the case

Last weekend I took a few days off work and went to visit my relatives in Preah Tra Peng (Tra Vinh) province. I was hoping to catch the Don Ta festival but apparently I got the day mixed but and turned up a couple of days early. When I was there, there were heaps of people who work in the Saigon return home to celebrate Don Ta, it was great to meet up – well…about 14 of us went to have coffee at the local market, it was quite dark and I couldn’t really see all their faces. I wonder why there were no street lights in the area or even in the market, I mean they have running electricity cable on the street. Even though it’s dark, kids still walk around and hanging out with friends. There’s a sense of security there, where in western countries you wouldn’t dare to walk in the dark where it’s quiet.