#dongxing

Aesthetic of the languages on earth : Vietnamese

Sorry it took so long to start finishing up my travel blog considering my circumstances, you'd understand. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2011

Well, after the disturbance from last night – I was able to sleep pretty soundly until morning.  We found out later that it was someone’s wife that was trying to get her husband out of the room.  The front desk said her husband was gambling in the room with his buddies.  However, something else makes me think otherwise. 

Well, there were a number of things have made me suspect that this “business” hotel offers more than just a nice room.  Last night as we were driving home, I noticed that the hotel has flashing/moving LED lights on the exterior.  I know when I was back in Hong Kong awhile back, neon lights outside an establishment meant it was a brothel.  Maybe this is the same type of thing? 

This morning as we were coming down the elevator, it stopped at one of the floors.  A woman walked in wearing a skimpy leopard print shirt and short mini-skirt.  Hmmm, she definitely didn’t look like she was staying there.  All she had with her was her wallet and that’s it.  And if you’re wondering, she wasn’t attractive at all.    

There’s also a little plaque bedside that has writing and a phone number – and shows a photo of a girl in a bikini – not going to ask my parents what it means, I’m thinking it’s an escort service. 

Also when I woke up this morning, my forehead start getting a little itchy and red and so was my left forearm... Little did I know this was just the beginning :-P

Anyways, we went to the “Chinese” Bánh Cuốn place again and it was still tasty

After that we basically spent the day hanging out with the family at the furniture store, since this was going to be the last day in Dongxing.  My relatives had also noticed that my forehead was not quite right and it started to swell a bit.  So my uncle went out to find some herbs to help.

We determined that I had caught some kind of poison ivy from going up into the mountains a few days ago - when I went to go see my grandmother's burial grounds.  Apparently, one of my cousin's husband cut me a walking stick, but the walking stick was a form of poison ivy :-P  It was super hot that day and barely any breeze...so I was sweating and wiping it all over my forehead and forearm... not good.  I was hoping that the worst of it was over... boy was I wrong..

Random Video – this has got to be a crappy job, you pick up trash in your cart, roll it to the garbage truck, drop it on the ground and shovel it into the truck… me thinks there’s gotta be a more efficient way of doing this – unless they are just looking to give jobs to people.

Lunch - yes more congee... lol. 

After the workday was over, all my relatives came in and they wanted to have some family photos shot.  I obliged of course. 

Then we went out for a grand feast at a nice local restaurant – where we happened upon the largest lazy susan I have ever seen!

This table was monstrous and we quickly learned it seems like a good idea, but in practice it kinda sucks..lol.  Anyways, it was impressive regardless.

Here's a video of everyone around the table...I really didn't know who most of the people to the left of me were, but I guess they are distant family...

So here are more images of the night...

I don't know who this guy is and what he was doing... old guy with a RAZR... either way, odd

With good food, drinks and company - a great night was had by all.  All the while, my face was starting to swell up... here it is just before bed.

THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2011

Only a few more days left here and I’m starting to realize that outside of working and eating – there isn’t much else for people to do around here.  Seems like they are working on getting commerce and housing situated first…fun stuff later, perhaps?

So off we go – one of the best meals of the day – breakfast.  Our stop today was the same restaurant we had gone for dim sum a few days ago – but this time…surprise, surprise – we had congee… Lol.  Can’t escape the stuff here in China.  I’m definitely growing fonder of it by the day… but I was happy I was able to revisit those tasty steamed buns.  Yum!

After that – we stopped by the older furniture store to hang out for a bit and see what we are going to do.  My mom and I headed out with one of my cousins to do a bit of sightseeing of areas that we didn’t get a chance to see before. 

Random photos - I guess in this neighborhood - the trash is taken to garbage truck and scooped in.  Crappy job, but it's a job.

Again, we saw the harbor where Vietnam and China meet – but from a different side.  It was more industrial and gritty, but cool nonetheless.  You can see people really working and trying to make a buck…

Then we went for a tour around the newest developments in Dongxing.   He showed us what could be called a convention center for international business.  It was very European looking and beautiful.  It’s honestly very crazy to happen upon this in the middle of this place.  As we continued on, he showed us other new developments.  It seems like this city is poised to become a center of commerce… hopefully that happens.

In general, there is just so much construction going on - it's amazing that they can work on all these projects at once and complete them.

[Star Trek Geek]This reminds me of a Borg ship...[/Star Trek Geek]

So this is where the “rich” people of Dongxing live, the houses themselves aren’t that terribly expensive, but like anywhere else it’s all about location...

The other types of businesses, which have a nice buildings and storefronts, are the various “karaoke” bars in town.  I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of the other two, but they were pretty nice… at least from the outside.  I wouldn't know anything about what happens inside… or would I?  (jk, I am curious however)

Here is Dongxing's City Hall

So then we end up hanging out drinking fresh coconuts by the harbor again…

This is the same Vietnamese girl that sold us the fresh fruit the other day while we were walking along the border - she tried to sell us more and a couple more girls flocked over to do a hard sell as well.I guess my cousins also love cars – maybe it's a just a universal guy thing.  I also love the Toyota Crown that they have.  It’s got all the options – seat warmers, parking sensors, navigation, reverse camera with park assist, and it’s even got oscillating vents! (I took a video of that, never seen it before)

BTW, did I mention they also run an electronics/appliance/tv repair company?  Hmmm, I guess fiddling with electronics also runs in the family, huh?

Random Photo - I guess along with "real" street sweepers (people with brooms) they have this truck that sprays high pressure water on the road...I'd be pissed if I had a freshly washed car.

Anyways – went back to the furniture store to grab my dad and his brothers to go out to eat down the street.  Again, it’s another sketchy looking place – but it’s good to know people where you are visiting, they know where the best places to eat and what to order.  As they brought out each dish – it was a brightly colored collection of food…and of course, congee made its presence yet again.  

There is one oddity that I have failed to mention in previous posts – at least with my family’s meals.  Coke and/or Sprite always accompany meals, but we’re drinking it in cups roughly the size of Dixie cups – so you don’t drink a lot at a time.   It was a little annoying at first since I’m used to slamming down a lot, but now that I’m used to it – I don't mind it at all.  Besides we also have tea and whatever soup we’re eating to keep us hydrated. 

There is something that I’ve noticed this entire trip weather wise.  In the morning, it’s always overcast and the temperature is very comfortable, even cool.  By the time you hit mid-day however, the skies clear up and bit and the sun starts baking anything in its path.  Then by evening, it gets comfortable again.  I suppose if I were used to it, I wouldn’t need to wear shorts and a t-shirt to be comfortable.   

Anyways, after lunch we headed back to the hotel for a bit of rest and then back to the furniture store for dinner in the evening.  It was an interesting scene - they setup a big table in a dimly lit open area right in front of the entrance.  The entrance is on the second floor of a stairway - which has people constantly going up and down.  I suppose there are also other businesses and living quarters here in the building. 

Random Photo - this is of the stairway just outside the entrance of the store - thought it was kind of interesting.

Yet again, our relatives did not disappoint with dinner.  Everything was tasty and no dish was left unmolested by me.  Lol.  After eating and while they were chatting, I managed to take a few night shots through the windows of the store. It's pretty lively at night here.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to end the night.  I never really got a chance to ride through the city at night - it's actually a little scary since there are few street lights and you still have to watch out for pedestrians, motorcyclists, scooters, cars, and everything else.  Remember, the rules of the road are just general rules here - so you have people driving down the "wrong" way all the time.  

So head to bed... and that's it right? Wrong lol.  My parents and I were woken up in the middle of the night with what sounds like kicking or slamming into one of the room doors in the highway.  He wasn't yelling or anything, just hitting the door...this went on for a couple of hours.  We called the front desk several times and someone came up to talk to whoever it was... but then it continued after they left.  So finally I think the front desk called the police to escort whoever it was out of the building.  Crazy... I was almost curious to open the door and see what was going on in the hallway, but probably best I didn't. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2011

I started writing this last night after the long day, but was too tired to finish it before I passed out…

Today will probably be the highlight of the entire trip.  “So let’s take a look…” - DG

Random photo - played around with the miniature photo setting on the Canon 300HS

It started off great with a tasty breakfast.  Ended up going to a small restaurant that serves a thin rice crepes with stuffing (not sure what was in it), but it was very similar to my favorite Vietnamese dish, Bánh cuốn.  It was good, but I still prefer Bánh cuốn…well, when it’s done right of course. 

After that we ended up needing to convert more money over to Chinese currency.  I guess the bank gave an okay rate, but the street converters give a better one and they don’t require any paperwork… The first time it took over an hour to get money converted.   So we ended up picking someone up to go find a trusted street currency converter.  I thought it all seemed a little shady at first, but then found out he was the son of a family friend… plus his kid hitched a ride with us.  Guess I was wrong.  Lol.

Anyways, we stopped by the furniture store.  Yes, again – seems to be our daily thing to do – almost like a home base and we’re awaiting our marching orders.  After a bit of time, we were on our way back to my eldest uncle’s place yet again – we were gonna travel DDR (Dirt Death Road) once again.    

The road didn’t seem so bad this time around, there didn’t seem to be as much trucks.  In case I didn’t mention before, all the big trucks were hauling rock and dirt for road construction purposes.  Carving the materials out of a mountain and bringing them in for processing. 

Though there were fewer trucks rolling down DDR, we took a less luxurious ride – the previous time we had taken a Toyota Crown (it's a bit bigger than a Toyota Avalon in the States) and it road over the bumps pretty nicely.  However, today’s ride was a Toyota Camry – suspension wasn’t quite so friendly and didn’t absorb the bumps as well. Felt like we were getting rocked side to side quite a bit and we were bottoming out every five minutes. 

While we were traveling on the DDR, they had discussed if my father and I were going to visit my grandmother’s grave to pay our respects.  I was why not?  They said it was on top of a mountain and it’s a bit of a hike to get up there.   Well, if my dad can handle then I should be able to with no issues. 

So we arrive at our destination, and you can tell preparations for today have been going on since this morning.  There are already a dozen people there (with more to come) and they are preparing food and just activity everywhere on the property. 

Yes, this is a wood burning stove and wok...

I’m not too familiar with Buddhist traditions, and I remember seeing shrine growing up.  So I know I recognize that we pay respects to our ancestors at the shrine and burn paper representations of gifts to pass onto the afterlife.   After that, I guess Chinese people love fireworks because they lit off a string of pretty powerful ones.

The aftermath of the fireworks.

Next up - I was told to travel up the hill behind the house – my grandparents are buried up there.  I went up the hill, it was a bit steep, but definitely manageable.  There was a cleared area with a tombstone and a mount of dirt and then was told to go up even higher.  Again, a bit steep but wasn’t too much farther up to the next clearing with a mound of dirt.   So all the prepared items (I don’t know what they are officially called – someone please enlighten me) of food (chicken, roast pig, etc) – were placed and then we had a ceremony.  I had no idea what I was doing.  Then I was told to go back to the lower one.  They told me this was my grandfather’s grave – so I was like who’s the one up higher?  I guess it’s something like paying respects to the guardian of the mountain. 

So we had the ceremony at my grandfather’s grave and the youngest brother prayed that my family would have safe travels and have good fortune in our future – or something to that effect.  Then the paper objects were burned – a heck of lot of gold, Chinese money, and even US money – not sure if they have currency converters in the afterlife.  Anyways, I didn’t realize that the “paper gold” actually contained a small swatch of gold leaf in it.  The things you learn, huh? 

After the burning – they ended the ceremony with more fireworks – even louder this time – the ones at the end sounded like shotguns ringing through the countryside. 

Random photo - I guess even in the middle of nowhere, you need your satellite TV - though its probably the Chinese regulated one..better than nothing

It's an amazing view from here

So we then go to the bottom of the “mountain” back to the house and it didn’t dawn on me at that time that we still need to go see grandmothers grave.  I was like how much worse can getting to my grandmother’s grave be?  Ummm, much worse as I come to found out.   So since it's an arduous trek up a mountainside – all the women did not go and all the guys went.  So we took three carloads of people with the same prepared items out about 20 minutes from the house traveling down the DDR again.  Stopped at a farmhouse and there was a trail behind it that led up the mountainside to my grandmother’s grave. 

At first, I was like this isn’t too bad.  But it got real steep, real fast and it was pretty toasty out.  The woods are thick with brush so it prevented too much wind from blowing through.   On top of that, the brush along the trail’s ground was pretty thick as well…and of course that day I wore shorts – I scratched the hell out of my legs while traveling up and down that day.  Since I haven’t hiked up trails in a few years it really knocked the wind of me and I stopped several times. 

I tried taking video on the way up, but was going to be too dangerous for me to do so.  There were sharp stumps of small trees along the way up and would’ve been very bad to trip and fall on one of them. 

Along the way up – there were taps on trees that were collecting something.  It was definitely not maple syrup – they were saying it was used to build explosives or something – I’ll need to do some research on that. 

Finally, I saw a clearing and a gravesite – but no it’s not ours, continue on.  Then I saw another - again, that’s not ours.  So we finally get to the top and there’s a clearing - yup you guessed it, not ours – but that’s the guardian of the mountain and we pay our respects.  My grandmother’s grave was just down the hill on the other side.  Honestly, I initially thought this was crazy that people have been doing this – but it did bring me closer to my roots. 

We performed the ceremony, prayed, and then lit off more fireworks for my grandmother.   This time we had ones that shot straight up a bank of 25 of them…and for some odd reason, we were standing up hill from them… yes, I know not smart.  And they lit up some really large firecrackers – these sounded even louder than the ones back at my grandfather’s ceremony. 

As a side note, me being the connected geek that I am - had paid for a global data package - just in case I needed it.  And I used it to quickly GPS tag my uncle's place and my grandparents grave locations with my iPhone.  (can do it without data, just faster and more precise acquisition with data). 

Now it’s time to book it back to my uncle’s place to eat.  What’s interesting is that the clouds rolled it while we were doing the ceremony and cooled things down significantly.  Maybe she was giving us some relief? 

Down the hill was much quicker but felt far more dangerous since it was so steep.  I was able to take video of much of the descent and again, will have to post an addendum to show the video.  I felt like I was Frodo from the Lord of the Rings at some point.  I did however manage to fall, good thing it wasn’t on a stump and it’s clear when I fall in the video… lol. 

We get back to the cars and roll back to the house to eat.  When we got back, it was buzzing with activity trying to get everything ready to eat. 

Here's a photo with my dad, his older brother, and some family from different lines.

I don't know who this person is right now, but she reminds me of the creepy guy from the Phantasm movies

Mom told me to come with her down the way to a neighbor’s house.  We went to see the mother of my youngest uncle’s wife.  She had fainted or something the previous day (she’s 80-something) and was put on an IV to hydrate her.  Honestly, I still can’t believe people live in these kinds of houses in the countryside.  Crudely built with dirt floors, but yet they’ve been here for quite a long time.  There’s a certain charm to it, but I don’t think I could do it… at least for very long. 

Random photo - guess he was one of the neighbor kids, thought it was a good photo

 I guess we found out from her that she knew my dad when he was a kid (before he left for Vietnam) and apparently he was a hellraiser.  Lol.  I guess since my grandparents on both sides had passed away before I got to meet them – I never had the stories about my parents’ childhoods to identify with.  After a brief bit of time with her, we were told to head back - the food was ready.

Random photo - one of the neighbor's houses, a wee bit too close to the road

As we approached the house, there were several tables setup with food that looked absolutely delicious. 

I sat with my mom at one of the outdoor tables and my dad sat with my uncles and elders (I guess they were from different lines from previous generations) in the shrine room. 

So we ate and had a great time.  In case I didn't mention this before – I guess I “speak” a dialect of Chinese that isn’t quite Cantonese and every one of my family members speak it – so it was kind of weird to hear that many people speaking and understanding most of it.  But I feel like with a couple more generations and the Chinese initiative to make everyone learn Mandarin, it’ll probably end up going away. 

Random photo - this little guy was walking around looking for scraps... of course we obliged. 

The Tran family has big cocks... on our farm. Lol

Anyways, after the eating was done – we decided to take family photos.  With a little bit of coaching – a family friend took the family group shots for us.  And they turned out great (well, with a bit post from Photoshop). 

Here's the entire family

Here's my eldest uncle's family

Here are the dad and my uncles with their wives

So this was basically end of the day and we traveled down the DDR yet again – but in darkness this time.  It was ten times scarier traveling at night – with rolling up on people with scooters and motorcycles and trucks with their high beams on.  The narrow roads and dust reflecting your lights back at you was just plain crazy – especially at the speeds my cousin was traveling.   I guess he knows these roads all too well.

Well, the day ends… and I have to pause to reflect.  I never really had a sense of family until now – I visited my mom’s side of the family in Vietnam back in 1998, but never really felt the sense of family.  It seemed like all they were looking for was money, plus I don’t understand Vietnamese – so that was a huge barrier.  Here with my dad’s side of the family – they weren’t looking for money.  They were happy to see that we could finally visit after all this time.  They wanted to pay for everything and not accept any money.  They are hardworking, not looking for handouts – and I can identify with that. 

I’m happy to see this is where it started – and I could see how my life could have been if it didn’t arc the way it did.  I see my entire life up to this point in a different light now and I am grateful to have the life that I have now.  But now I am invigorated and have a sense of what I want to really accomplish in the future. I want to help my family that’s here and be able to help them and help upgrade our family’s farmhouse. And I need to utilize all the talents and tools that I have and not squander them.

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011

Well, today ended up being more of a relaxation day… which is good, since I was able to get additional rest. 

First thing to do? EAT!  We went to a dim sum restaurant that was great.  I sometimes forget how much I love steamed BBQ rice buns, and I discovered new buns!  Taro and Black Sesame, so tasty!  I wish we had them in Cleveland. 

After the meal, we decided to walk to the river that separates China and Vietnam in that area.  The Vietnamese city of Móng Cái lies right across the river from Dongxing.  Since they are right next to each other there are many Chinese and Vietnamese traders that walk to the opposite sides to sell stuff.  We were able to buy some fresh fruit from one of them… and get stopped by a dozen more trying to sell more stuff as we were walking - mainly cigarettes and “dead money” (or whatever its called). 

Here's the bridge that connects two cities

The riverside walk was pretty nice with some interesting architectural details.

The temperature was bearable until you got to areas with little to no shade because concrete was radiating massive amounts of heat…I was dying, I knew I should’ve worn shorts :-P  The riverside area was still being constructed and I’m pretty sure that if they had OSHA they would be in deep trouble.

To escape the sun, we ended up walking back to the furniture store, which thankfully was nearby.  Along the way I noticed that a lot of the stores surrounding the border crossing had Vietnamese language signs on them.  I would probably bet if we went over to the opposite side, we would see Chinese language signs as well. 

Here's a rendering of what the Chinese side of the border crossing is supposed to look like eventually... pretty impressive

While we were “chilling” in the store, my uncle brought out something interesting.  He showed us a family document that outlines the family tree of 20 generations, but it was first put together 5 generations ago… regardless of 20 or 5, its really cool.  I just wish I could read it.  It has information on things like birthdate, names, children, and careers – also what the next generations “Chinese names” should be.  My uncle gave me a copy of the original to keep for myself, which is awesome.  I also ended up taking photos of the original so I can create good pdf of it (I love the original look and feel of it).

After that, we decided go to back to the hotel and rest until dinnertime… at which point, I passed out for a few hours… 

Random photo - pretty sweet ride, I'd put some dubs on that.

Dinner! Yummy food once again! All smiles here. 

After that, just winded the evening down with more talk.  Here are a couple images of my cousins’ kids.