Vietnam for the First Time in Five Years, Part 2
For the latter half of my stay in Vietnam, I went with Thu and the others to Nha Trang in the south.
It is about a two-hour flight from the domestic terminal at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport to Cam Ranh Airport (Cam Ranh Village), next to Nha Trang City.
On the flight, we were given mooncakes as souvenirs (the Mid-Autumn Festival is just around the corner, after all).
We stayed at a resort not far from the airport.
As it was just about lunchtime, we had lunch in the dining room.
Thu always tells me, “Please eat something more upscale,” but the Fifth Generation’s favorite Vietnamese meal is stir-fried water spinach (for some reason called “morning glory” in English) with white rice—jasmine rice.
I love it so much that I could eat bowl after bowl of rice with it (even with water spinach, it does not make me eat this much rice unless it is seasoned the Vietnamese way).
After eating and checking in, we headed straight to the pool to relax for a little while.
Of course, I did not forget to bring along a book.
Perhaps it is the dry season in the Nha Trang area at this time of year, as the sky was a clear, brilliant blue and the sunlight was intense.
Still, it is not the kind of heat that radiates from asphalt as it does in Tokyo, which is a relief.
After taking it easy until sunset, I felt quite relaxed.
At night, the moon rises over the sea.
With the full moon near, it looked especially large.
At night, I drifted off to sleep in silence, and in the morning I awoke to the calls of wild birds and roosters.
At this resort, chickens, ducks, peacocks, goats, and other animals roam freely throughout the spacious grounds. The egg dishes at breakfast are made with freshly laid eggs, and the vegetables come from the resort’s own farm.
So every morning, I had fried eggs or an omelet, along with plenty of salad.
And when it comes to breakfast, pho is indispensable.
The Fifth Generation’s favorite is pho ga, chicken pho.
The beef version is light and delicious too, but chicken is better in the morning, I think.
By the way, lunch that day was bun cha, served with dipping noodles.
According to Thu, both pho and bun cha originated in Hanoi.
In the afternoon, we took a car into Nha Trang City.
It is about 40 minutes from Cam Ranh Village, crossing one mountain along the way.
I had visited once before, but it was completely different from then—the city now seemed filled with high-rise buildings.
A leisurely walk along the long coastline, reminiscent of Kujukuri Beach, lets you feel the pulse of local life.
Older people exercise in the parks, and because it was once a Russian leased port, perhaps some Russians settled there; one often sees people of Slavic descent who have blended into the local community.
We stopped at a café for a break with an espresso.
You may wonder why I was not having Vietnamese coffee while I had the chance, but since I drink two or three cups a day, sometimes I crave coffee that is not sweet—or rather, coffee that is thoroughly bitter.
Here, too, we spent the evening chatting until late at night.
In the course of our conversation, he told me roughly about the path his life has taken so far.
He said that he had been very poor as a child, living without even electricity.
He would go to the river to catch fireflies, gather many of them in an empty bottle and bring them home, then study by their light.
It was truly the very image of studying by the light of fireflies and snow, and I was speechless.
After graduating from school, he began working at a Japanese restaurant, which was the third Japanese restaurant to open in Hanoi.
He always kept a sheet of paper with his goals written on it posted on the wall of his small home, and every night before bed, he would imprint them on his mind.
When his wish was fulfilled and he opened his own restaurant, it was the eleventh Japanese restaurant to open in Hanoi—and at the same time, the first Japanese restaurant in Vietnam opened by a Vietnamese person.
I did not ask him this, but I am sure his bedroom wall still bears his next goal…
There was a tall palm tree on the beach in front of the café late that night, and when I looked up, the full moon was hanging right over it.
It was a deeply moving full moon.
The next day, we returned to Hanoi.
More to come.
This has become rather long, but thank you for staying with me to the end.
I have also included captions below each of the following photographs, so please stay with me a little longer.
*From top to bottom, the photographs are…
○ My favorite stir-fried water spinach and jasmine rice
○ Bun cha, served with dipping noodles
○ Breakfast one day: fried eggs made with freshly laid eggs, pho, and plenty of fruit! And the bread was delicious! Vietnamese coffee is a must, too.
○ Free-range chickens. They race around as if having fun, and they are incredibly fast. They fly, too.
○ Sunrise over the South China Sea. Sublime.
○ The poolside is always sparsely populated. It is a wonderful place to read at leisure.
○ Plumeria, one of my favorite flowers.
○ Street performance in Nha Trang. According to Thu, it is something like Japanese kabuki. We were able to enjoy it at a leisurely pace.
○ Espresso at a café called NhaTrang Sailing Club along the beach in Nha Trang
○ On this day, everyone danced by the pool. I became friends with people from many different countries.
