Would you believed it that the newspaper girl above is 26 years old? I was surprised to hear that too when I asked about her background and where she came from. I met her few years ago, back in 2007 when we stopped by a Sinh Cafe (now called Sinh Tourist) and booked ticket for traveling, and when we came back waiting for the tour bus, she always there asking me to buy some newspapers or books to read on the trip. A typical newspaper normally cost$2,000 VND (about 10 cents USD), but I always gave her a $20,000 VND bill and told her to keep it. Ever since, whenever we showed up to book for a tour or return from a trip, she was there to greet us also.
This was the 6th time that we had been back in Viet-Nam and three time we traveled from South to North, and with some observation, I can say that after 1975, there were 3 immigration phases has been occurring: First, it was my generation - the Vietnamese refugee - after the fall of Saigon in April 1975, when million refugees had fled to foreign countries all over the globe. In the meantime, in Viet-Nam there was also an influx of Northern and Central Vietnamese moved south for a better life, and now is the last major phase of the migration is children of the upper class, highly ranking officers and party members, including rich people - are leaving Viet-Nam to travel or study abroad, and more likely not return (or return here with a different citizenship).
The newspaper girl I met above was from Quang-Nam, a province in central of country, where she said that life is always tough for people in her village, much so that many already left to find job or sell anything - like her - to survive in Saigon city, which it could meant selling their bodies on the street too. I've asked whether she will return to her village for re-union with family during Tet, a New Year's tradition in Viet-Nam, which she said she don't have enough money and even so, the bus ticket would be way to high or hard to get a ticket. I heard about this problem couple years ago and was not fully comprehensive of the phenomenal until later during Christmas holiday, when many workers left Saigon and return to their home town for a long weekend, then I saw the city was seem to feel empty, no more traffic congestion and pollution like any normal day. Thus, when Tet holiday came - as many of my cousins had stated - the city would "lost" about 1/3 of it population (totally "officially" announced that there are 11 million souls in Saigon city). Even during early December, newspapers here already alerted about black market for bus ticket, counterfeit tickets, and many stories about horrible treatment from the bus driver/owner to passengers, that often force them to eat at wherever they either colluded with the restaurant owners or owned by relatives, if passengers don't eat & pay there they will be beaten, harass or worse left them in the middle of the trip. Lucky for many that government lately has clean up and remove those bad driver/owner according to the Tuoi-Tre local newspaper.
Anyway, this newspaper girl couldn't make and save enough money to return home each year to see her family, and she told me that she even shared with 5 or 6 other young women ( also from the Central like Quang-Tri, Quang-Nam, Thua-Thien province, etc...) in the same house some where in city's slump area, in order to save their money , for companionship and to care for each others.
The above young girl is definitely from Northern Viet-Nam, easy to spot with her accent, pleading people to buy lottery tickets, while her other hand holding a stick to guide her blind father and lead him to wander all over the Saigon city, another "polite"way to make a living instead of become a beggar that government declared as illegal . As I mentioned above, I have seen so many "strange" accents from the north and central now living in the south and they represented two very distinct classes: either super rich (like owner major corporation, large business or hotel chain, restaurants) or being poor like this little girl and her father, in between is few middle class remain - which by the way - started to lose their purchasing power and shrinking population , due to rampage inflation and tough economy ahead, because of the global financial crisis couple years ago.
A night to relax with my brother & his fiance
at a piano club.
at a piano club.
We planned for 2 months stay in Viet-Nam, which I brought with me a large backpack with full of my camera gear, thinking I will have plenty of photo-ops and pictures to take. Well, my youngest brother, who worked and played in Viet-Nam just announced his wedding plan for Jan. 21th , as you see in the picture above. They both fell in love head over heel just after couple months before commit their lives together. This was one of the monkey-wrenches throw into my vacation, as you should see later, because before his announcement - Kathy's cousin also asking us to attend their son's wedding too - starting next week. So while waiting for the wedding event, I borrowed my brother's motorbike and roam around the city, then to Bien-Hoa (a suburban 35 km outside of Saigon city) to visit my father-in-law currently staying with Kathy's cousin.
Here are some of the imaged I captured from around city and place that we visited & lived:
In a so called "modern city", there are still many coal vendors like the women above, selling coal to buyer that still can't afford a clean gas stove or even an oil stove.
In a court yard of any other major hospital, many family members of patients can't afford to stay at local hotel, or even rent a folding bed inside the hospital, thus many of them camped outside in a court yard like this as long as their relatives still remained at the hospital.
Speaking of hospital, Kathy had some kind of sinus problem for the last couple years, which the western medicine couldn't get rid off, only provided some comfort and relief for her. We heard about this traditional treatment from an old man in Saigon city, very near to where my uncle house, whom many patients owed him gratitude for helping their illness. So I took Kathy to see him and watching the way he gives treatment, which normally similar to acupuncture (but not using needles) only using a dull metal pointer to poke around the vital spots, to stimulate the energy around it to heal whatever patient's problem, plus a heat treatment to force the "Chi" (energy force) to speed up the process. The healer only take donation, whatever the patient willing to give, and sometime even give patient free herb to take home for their treatment.
This was of course, another "monkey wrench" to my photo-op plan...oh well! C'est la vie!
0 comments:
Post a Comment