More Family Outings Part 2

The next day I woke up to the sound of people scuttling about.  It was still dark outside so I promptly went back to sleep.  I woke up a while later, finding myself as the last person to do so.  I figured that it was probably around 8:00, but nope, I checked the clock on my cell phone: 6:30.  After eating breakfast, I grabbed my backpack and hopped onto a motorbike with my host dad.  We drove into Vinh which took about an hour.  On the way there it began raining pretty hard so my host dad pulled over at one point and bought us rain coats.  Before arriving in Vinh, we stopped in Hoang Tru Village, where Ho Chi Minh was born, and Kim Lien Village, where Ho Chi Minh grew up. 

My host dad and I took some pictures.  The results reminded me of how un-photogenic I am.

Ok. I guess those two aren't that bad.  However, my host dad paid a guy there with a fancy camera to take a picture of us and in the developed photo my eyes were closed.  Luckily we got two more where at least my eyes were opened. 

I found that the people in this area were much more surprised to see for foreigners and were more eager to talk to me than people in Hanoi.  I talked with a shop owner lady for awhile who, like a lot of people I've met, expressed her surprised that I didn't have a Vietnamese girlfriend. I asked about her family and she said that she had two children.  Her oldest daughter was five. She told me that if her daughter was 15 she would hook us up, but right now she was a little too young. She regretfully said that I probably wouldn't wait ten years. I think she caught my awkward face because she laughed and reassured me that she was only kidding.  I talked a little bit longer with her and some of the other people in the shop and then my father and I headed into Vinh city where we had lunch with his niece's family.  Later, some more relatives showed up.

My host mom showed up with them and after lunch we took a taxi to a temple, where multiple ceremonies were happening.  I talked with a girl my age there as well as some school children who enthusiastically came up to me to say hello.  I also enjoyed watching the ceremonies. I was a little confused about why there was a man dressed as a woman and dancing around but the girl I was with told me that he was being everyone.  Soon he changed clothes and became a minority group member.  Then a little boy.

Later, the man left with us and a group of people on a bus headed to Hanoi.  He changed into a suit jacket and chain-smoked cigarettes and acted very guy-like.  But I could never get the image of him dressed as a woman out of my mind.  The bus ride lasted eight hours.  Most host parents and I arrived at our house at 1am.  We were all very exhausted.  However, I was really glad I got to partake in this experience.  I loved being in Nghe An.  The air was clean, the scenery was beautiful, the people were very friendly, and there were no tourists.  I hope to go back soon.