10 March – Vung Tau

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Ellen, Alex and I made our way back to Saigon especially because we have been invited to be guests of Loc to celebrate a milestone associated with the passing of Loc’s father the previous year. Normally the milestone is the first anniversary of the death and signifies the formal end of the mourning period. However in a perfect show of just how flexible Buddhism is, the family elects to slate the anniversary at 100 days because anything else would come up too close to the Viet New Year celebration of Tet.

The celebration is to take place in the family’s home town of Vung Tau, a favourite weekend getaway for Saigonese looking for some beach time. As proceedings are getting underway at 9am, we arrange to meet Loc and his fiancé Truc at 6.30am sharp at the Bach Dang wharf on the Saigon River across the road from the Majestic Hotel. In true Loc fashion, he leaves his phone alarm on silent and sleeps in. The 3 of us have made it to the pier in time and we meet up with Truc. After a series of anxious phone calls we bite the bullet and get tickets for the 6.45 hydrofoil. For Truc it’s difficult because her English language skills are limited, especially without Loc’s shelter, but we make the trip as pleasant for her possible and encouragingly she does test herself in talking with us.

The hydrofoil boat is a curious thing, a long vessel with three passenger compartments separated by a bridge and engine room. Each passenger compartment is rows and rows of seats, where you you sit and just stare forward at a TV screen, or sleep. When full the boat looks to be able to accommodate about 200 people. The really interesting thing about the boat is that when it reaches a certain speed threshold, the hull lifts out of the water and the vessel glides forward on a set of skids. In good Viet fashion the fleet of hydrofoils plying the Saigon – Vung Tau are ageing and appear to be fairly rusty. Despite all of this they reduce the 3 to 4 hour trip by car to 90 minutes in the hydrofoil.

Arriving at Vung Tau wharf we take a taxi to the family home. The home is set off a small street that comes off one of the major roads through central Vung Tau. Immediately evident as we approach the home is the marquee that’s erected at the front of the house taking up at least half of the street. This is typical of the way many occasions are celebrated in Vietnam where space in a typical home is limited so the only way to host a celebration is out on the street. The marquee is especially typical for instance for wedding celebrations, but on those occasions that marquee is very decorated in very bright colours. Today the marquee is more sedate in white and blue.

Ellen, Alex and I are invited into the house by Truc and we are greeted fondly by Loc’s family – two brothers, sister Linh, mother and grandma, various in-laws, nephews and nieces (Minh, Bo, Ni, Na and Su Si). Unsurprisingly they are all beautiful gentle people especially the mother and grandma. No one appears all that perturbed by the absence of Loc. We are guests of the whole family, not just Loc.

The celebration is actually two distinct events. The first is a Buddhist ceremony to be conducted by a monkess in the front room of the family home. It’s equivalent to the living room and is occupied by a large shrine to Loc’s father as well as tables heaving with mangoes and other fruit, and large incense holders. The centrepiece of the shrine is large photo of Loc’s father set at the back on the main wall. Off to the side is a small altar erected for the purpose of the monkess to perform her duties.

As the family were busying themselves for the ceremony, a small crew of women from a local catering firm had taken over the outdoor kitchen at the rear of the home. They were preparing the food for the second part of the event, a lunch for about 100 family, friends and clients of Loc’s father. The food looked staggering good, and Ellen in particular was very excited about what was coming.

As we were taking all this in, the ceremony in the front room was beginning. We watched on from the front and were soon lost in the chanting, chimes and the smoke of sweet incense. Loc’s immediate family were kneeling together in the centre of the room all donned in flimsy white cotton gowns - white being the colour of death. The ceremony went on for about 90 minutes, punctuated half way through by the arrival of Loc who joined seamlessly into the chanting and bowing.

After the ceremony was over, Loc and his brothers burnt paper objects representing everyday things in a small bin to the side of the marquee. The paper objects burnt represented the things that would come to you in the next life – a car, a house, motorbike, money and interestingly a shirt and tie. The white cotton garments were also burnt.

At noon a large clutch of guests had arrived and took their places in the marquee. There was no formality apart from greeting the family and may be leaving a bag of fruit at an offering table. No speeches – as soon as one table was full of guests, food would be brought out. The food consisted of large platters of green mango salad, fried shrimp, a huge roll of sticky rice encasing chicken pieces and a hot pot of pigs tongues and straw mushrooms that had been simmered for hours in coconut juice and spices – this last one was especially good. We were ushered to a table of family and clients and endured countless toasts of beer and an occasional rice whiskey shot. After getting all this food and drink down, Loc took us for a tour of Vung Tau, in particular the beachside and the hills overlooking the city.

We came back from our tour to find the street cleared up as if nothing had happened, marquee removed and all guests vacated. We peered into the front room of the house to see Loc’s mother, grandma and Troc huddled together fast asleep on the cool floor. With this image lingering, we said our goodbyes to Loc and hopped aboard the last hydrofoil service back to Saigon. A very special day for all of us.

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Comments

[Brendhan and Jo]

Looks like a great time
Hi Kromars We are enjoying reading about your travels. Looks like you are having a fantastic time! Best wishes for the rest of your trip Brendhan and Jo