Ho Chi Minh – through a local’s lens
Picked up by Uncle Paul, Grand Uncle and Grand Auntie at the HCM airport, I’m ushered into the air conditioned van and driven through the city to Uncle Paul’s home. It’s chaotic, 10/15 motorbikes to every car. Bangkok was not this crazy. And there is absolutely no regard for traffic rules, yet somehow it all works. Rules appear to be: go and even if there isn’t enough room or time, go anyway and stop only when u must to avoid hitting anything/anyone. Driving is done on the right side of the road. Uncle Paul’s driving is amazing — he weaves through the traffic, honking, squeezing through, and pushing his way through the mess of cars and motorbikes just like a local. I’m impressed.
The city is noticeably shabbier than Bangkok and from the airplane the sprawl was endless. I didn’t expect it to be so big. My romantic imaginations of green pastures and little villages have so far been so far off mark it’s hilarious. Definitely resembles China. Give HCM another 10 years and it will look more like Shanghai and BKK.
At home, I meet my second cousins: Benjamin, Lillian, and Jonathan – the cutie patooty who immediately demands to know the password to my iPhone and proceeds to play Draw Something. Unfortunately his limited six year old vocabulary limits him a bit in this game. 10 minutes later I check back and realise he’s started some random games with random people…oops. Of the three, the only one I’ve met in the past is Benjamin. He was only a few months old when UP brought the newborn to Vancouver to meet his grandparents and celebrate the baby’s birth at a dinner. I was about 14/15 and ironically Benjamin is now 15 as well. Time flies.
All three kids speak North American English and Vietnamese and go to International school in HCM. The next day I get a car tour of HCM. Running commentary from both him and my grand uncle (with hotel California playing in the background) is an excellent way to see the city. Sounds like lots of development has happened in the last 20 years.
Uncle Paul came to Vietnam over 20 years ago and started a plastic geo-textile manufacturing company. They make tarp-like plastic sheets for various purposes. I get a tour of his factory on Thursday. My auntie aKoh is Vietnamese and speaks great Cantonese and English as well as Vietnamese of course. After 20 years in Vietnam, UP now also speaks fluent Vietnamese, in addition to English, Shanghainese, Mandarin and Cantonese. I speak to him in a mix of English and Shanghainese, with a little bit of Mandarin and he slips seamlessly between all 5 languages/dialects. His iPod playlist is just as varied and eclectic, with the occasional K-pop and Vietnamese song thrown in as well.
The factory tour was fascinating. As someone who works in an office dealing with emails and web based software on a daily basis, manufacturing, fabrication, and anything hands on and tactile is foreign and interesting to me. Post tour, I can loosely say that he takes plastic raw material and makes them into plastic “threads” which are then woven into plastic cloths. The geotextiles are used mainly in agriculture and road paving to stop soil erosion, etc.
It’s been a great opportunity to see Vietnamese life from a non-tourist perspective and I’m amazed by how much UP has adapted to life in Vietnam. He admits he prefers Asia and Vietnam seems to suit his entrepreneurial personality.
