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< happy new year | posted at 1:18 pm on January 01, 2004 > well, i'm back.there is so much that happened to me on that trip that i can't even THINK of where to begin... maybe i should just begin with arriving at the airport. upon arriving we are met by my cousin who tells us that my mother's father has just died as we were boarding the plane, and understandably there was no contact until we touched down in saigon. it was the weirdest first day ever, so bizarre with the timing as he'd been in australia since 1985 and only returned to vietnam earlier this year. anyway, we postponed the tour for the funeral and family things, but that was a huge overwhelming piece of news that i think i've suspended because of everything that happened after. i've still yet to cry properly about it, each time i have to stop myself because i don't like to show emotion, i've been waiting to get back home into my room and alone before i do all that messy stuff. on lighter notes... so after that we flew to hanoi in the north, took a train up to the very trip of vietnam to a hillside mountain town called sapa, back to hanoi, then to various small towns and pagodas and caves and mountains... then flew to hue, which is beautiful, especially the imperial palace during the dynasty reign, to hoi an, to da nang, nha trang, da lat, and finally back to saigon for a week to meet all those people i never knew existed. it was so amazing... i can't even begin to describe all the things i learnt about the history and culture and most of all about my family... all the hardships that they faced during the wartimes and surrounding times, how fucking lucky i am that my parents got over here without being refugees - they both got a place in a joint aussie-vietnamese government scholarship system where they take 50 or so vietnamese students and educate them in australia. they were meant to return to vietnam after gaining their degrees, but, well, a year after they arrived, the war ended, so that government didn't even exist anymore. they couldn't even contact their families... the first contact my father had after six months was a telegram from my grandfather with just 'gia dinh binh an' ('family safe and well') because it was so expensive... that makes me cry every time i think of it. and the family over there now, still, it's hard going, and yet it's such a beautiful place and although i missed sydney so much i'm still adjusting to being here. it feels so strange coming from a place that is so full of culture and strength and resilience to a place that is so abundant with luxuries i never appreciated before. that's only the tip of the iceberg... i could go on forever... but i'm so tired - we arrived back 9am yesterday (5am by our saigonese body clocks) and got out of airport at 11, had to go home and have a quick shower (it was bliss, kind of like - 'oh my god! a shower recess! i can brush my teeth under the tap again!') before heading off to a NYE lunch, then straight to the night celebrations, returning home at 5am and just falling into my own bed for the first time in so long.... so i'll leave it there. but happy new year everyone! it's good to be home... even though i don't really want to be... those last five |