American Life
A trip I've dreamed to have since long time ago-I
Without many expectations, my mom and I set on a journey to Vietnam with the potential of visiting my dad who's now working there. 'How nice would it be? I didn't even like Switzerland which people consider as one of the most beautiful countries.' That's what I thought before the trip. The reasons I went were because that my mom always need somebody to accompany her when going abroad since Chinese is the only language she knows and also I could see my dad one more time (maybe or maybe not) before I leave to the US. And the most important, the flight ticket was provided by my dad's company which was free!
That was an early flight at 6 in the morning on our departure date. I didn't sleep well the night before since I had to bring Bagel to my uncle's office where she had to stay during my trip. And since it's an office, there was no bed and I had to sleep on the floor. My mom's pretty nervous during the flight, seemed like she indeed needed someone to go with her otherwise she would get lost, miss the flight, etc. The airport of our first destination looked pretty.... simple. No fancy decorations, facilities. I could still see some Chinese ad at the airport. There were lots of Vietnamese wives from Taiwan took the same flight with us. I could tell from them that why there're more and more Taiwanese guys want to marry Vietnamese girls in our society now. All the people who wanted to pick up passengers had to stay outside of the airport, so did my dad. The first scene of Vietnam for me was quite amazing. Thousands of people were waiting outside of the airport which seemed like when there's a famous singer came from Japan or Korea and fans were waiting for them at the airport in Taiwan. My mom has quite good version, She saw my dad first. I could see how happy my dad was of seeing us but unfortunately, there's something wrong with the car which was supposed to drive us to the hotel and my dad had to call up another cab. I always thought that the traffic in Taipei was bad enough. Bunches of motor bikes occupied the street for the cars. Oh my, it's even worse in Vietnam. No bike drivers cared about cars and pedestrians. They rode wherever they liked, they blew the horn whenever they wanted. There's no single second that you didn't hear trumpet and it's not overstated. My dad said you could always see people died from car and bike accidents on the street everyday. And yes, I saw a dead bike rider that afternoon. A real died person... Under the wheel of a bus. That was awful... May God bless all the drivers in Vietnam.
Because of my tired body, my dad decided to wait for the company's car in a hotel lobby instead of going other places. After the car's been fixed, it drove us to a BBQ restaurant! Yes one of my favorites! I ordered the drink first. Tea of course, and I wanted iced lemon tea. Since the items were all written in Vietnamese with little English explanations on the menu, I had to take a risk of ordering what I really wanted. 'Bird's Nest...hmm... That's must be nestea, I want Nestea!' Few menutes later, the waiter brough me a small cup of tea, my dad asked me what I ordered, I said I ordered ice lemon tea. But I was wondering where's the ice and the tea tasted so... common...It's just plain tea and then I realized that it's just the free tea the restaurant served, not my Nestea. Finally, the waiter brought me my Bird Nest.'Wow, the bottle looks so different, they're golden.' After the first try...Oh... It's not Nestea, what's that disgusting flavor?!' After my mom tried it she said, 'isn't that bird nest? How come you ended up ordering this?'
The first impression of Vietnam was not so good because of the bad traffic, the broken car, the bad weather, the crowded people and the Bird Nest. However, the rest of the days were totally different and kind of affected my philosophy of life.
-to be continued-
That was an early flight at 6 in the morning on our departure date. I didn't sleep well the night before since I had to bring Bagel to my uncle's office where she had to stay during my trip. And since it's an office, there was no bed and I had to sleep on the floor. My mom's pretty nervous during the flight, seemed like she indeed needed someone to go with her otherwise she would get lost, miss the flight, etc. The airport of our first destination looked pretty.... simple. No fancy decorations, facilities. I could still see some Chinese ad at the airport. There were lots of Vietnamese wives from Taiwan took the same flight with us. I could tell from them that why there're more and more Taiwanese guys want to marry Vietnamese girls in our society now. All the people who wanted to pick up passengers had to stay outside of the airport, so did my dad. The first scene of Vietnam for me was quite amazing. Thousands of people were waiting outside of the airport which seemed like when there's a famous singer came from Japan or Korea and fans were waiting for them at the airport in Taiwan. My mom has quite good version, She saw my dad first. I could see how happy my dad was of seeing us but unfortunately, there's something wrong with the car which was supposed to drive us to the hotel and my dad had to call up another cab. I always thought that the traffic in Taipei was bad enough. Bunches of motor bikes occupied the street for the cars. Oh my, it's even worse in Vietnam. No bike drivers cared about cars and pedestrians. They rode wherever they liked, they blew the horn whenever they wanted. There's no single second that you didn't hear trumpet and it's not overstated. My dad said you could always see people died from car and bike accidents on the street everyday. And yes, I saw a dead bike rider that afternoon. A real died person... Under the wheel of a bus. That was awful... May God bless all the drivers in Vietnam.
Because of my tired body, my dad decided to wait for the company's car in a hotel lobby instead of going other places. After the car's been fixed, it drove us to a BBQ restaurant! Yes one of my favorites! I ordered the drink first. Tea of course, and I wanted iced lemon tea. Since the items were all written in Vietnamese with little English explanations on the menu, I had to take a risk of ordering what I really wanted. 'Bird's Nest...hmm... That's must be nestea, I want Nestea!' Few menutes later, the waiter brough me a small cup of tea, my dad asked me what I ordered, I said I ordered ice lemon tea. But I was wondering where's the ice and the tea tasted so... common...It's just plain tea and then I realized that it's just the free tea the restaurant served, not my Nestea. Finally, the waiter brought me my Bird Nest.'Wow, the bottle looks so different, they're golden.' After the first try...Oh... It's not Nestea, what's that disgusting flavor?!' After my mom tried it she said, 'isn't that bird nest? How come you ended up ordering this?'
The first impression of Vietnam was not so good because of the bad traffic, the broken car, the bad weather, the crowded people and the Bird Nest. However, the rest of the days were totally different and kind of affected my philosophy of life.
-to be continued-
posted by Jackie at 6/25/2006 11:47:00 AM
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