Mom + Vietnam: Ben Tre 2

Tuesday

The day started with stew: bò kho for breakfast. It wasn't bad, but it probably isn't something I'll have again. My mom and I planned to go to the city center later on, but by the time I got done doing the things I needed to do, it was noon. Noon, in case you were wondering, is not a good time to go anywhere. Everyone is napping, and everyone is asleep. I decreed that our trip downtown would have to wait a few hours, and my mom reluctantly accepted. At around 2pm citywide naptime was over and we went to the bus stop with gray clouds rolling in. We crept under a nearby shop's umbrella to wait for the bus and wait out the storm that would follow the early trickle of drops. As the drizzle turned to downpour and the rain took on a sharply diagonal angle, the kindly shopkeeper (featured in Day 62 on the photo blog) urged us under her roof. The rain fell even harder and, even several feet away from the edge of cover, we couldn't stay dry. We were handed cooked bananas, which turned out to be cooked green bananas and tasted like boiled potatoes. We spent at least forty minutes waiting out the rain, maybe 100 yards from my room but unable to go anywhere. At long last, the rain began to subside, and lo and behold the bus (which is supposed to come every ten minutes) emerged, climbing the arc of the bridge. I do not question whether the strength of the rain and the timing of the bus were related. We were on our way.

On the bus. Oh, and that's not Yoda hanging from the mirror.

The school provided me with a bus pas that I haven't yet used as much as I should. Usually, when I do use it, it is met with consternation. I should explain, it's not just a standard issue card or something like that; it's a laminated document with my picture and lots of Vietnamese words. Most of the time the bus attendant reads through the whole thing, consults with the bus driver, and begrudgingly accepts the fact that I don't have to pay (and, I suspect, overcharges my companion to compensate). This time, though, the bus attendant glanced at it and charged neither me nor my mom. We thought the rain had cleared, but in fact we had just beaten it to the south side of town, and as soon as we got off the bus the ominous pre-storm drizzle began. We ran for cover in the market and did some window shopping while we waited out the storm, yet again. By the time the rain headed out for good, we were hungry. I took Mom to the bánh ướt place Trang took me to when I first arrived in Ben Tre. Like many of my food experiences these last few days, that meal exceeded my memory of its deliciousness. It was good.

Last time I took the bus, I had to wait an hour for the bus back, and even then it wasn't even a bus going back, they just consented to take me to the college. This time, Mom and I waited less than five minutes. Back on campus, it was time for the teacher's English club. It started as question time for Mom, and somehow transitioned into a vocab lesson for both me and my students, and vocabulary lesson is just code for pictionary.

Wednesday
We went on the river tour today, the same one I did on my birthday weekend, though this one ended up including more. This was probably the one thing I had been most looking forward to about the two weeks of my mom's visit. Just like last time, the taxi driver tried to take us to the wrong place, and I still don't fully understand why. When I called to reserve the tour my request for an English speaker eventually led to the same tour guide I had last time. I guess they don't get many Ben Tre 'locals' requesting an English speaker, because he asked if I was the person who had come back in September. He had been such a great guide I hoped/assumed he would be our guide again. However, we had a different guide this time around. At first I was a little disappointed, but he ended up being awesome in his own right.

I actually spent the whole boat ride sitting right about here

The tour was quite captivating

After making our way down the Mekong, we entered a meandering canal that eventually led us to an apiary. There, bees feed on the nectar from longan trees and make a particularly sweet and flavorful honey, which is used to prepare honey tea. Honey tea is actually tea, honey, and kumquat juice. My mom and I savored the whole experience (Morena sought refuge from the bees that buzzed around, wanting their honey back), and got to try pollen mixed into the tea and royal jelly mixed with honey. At the tea place, there was also a big ole python. They let me get cozy with it, but the python sounded more aggravated than snuggly. Is it a sign that I have been around snakes too much when I can infer when one is aggravated?

This snake was big, heavy, and kind of angry.

We walked for a while amongst the greenery and our multi-talented guide entertained us with tricks and games. He showed us how to shoot palm leaves at each other, make tiny vuvuzuelas out of a piece of banana leaf, pop a young leaf to make a loud noise, and cut young leaves that stick to your skin. He was quite the entertainer. We rode a horse-drawn cart to our next destination of fresh fruits and traditional music. There was another, smaller, python there.

Time to set up a betting pool on how many me+snake
photo shoots I can amass while in Vietnam.

I even convinced my mom and Morena, neither of whom is a fan of snakes, to hold the snake. After the music and more tricks from our tour guide (juggling, flipping spoons into cups, disappearing fruits) we got into a canoe to go back to the main fork of the Mekong. Last time, this was essentially the end of the tour. This time, we went on to visit a coconut candy factory. I must say, the word factory is used pretty loosely. It was an open-air, roofed space with a few machines (one of each) and two women lackadaisically chopping and packing the hardened candy. We were told that this candy was 70% coconut milk, 15% sugar, and 15% malt, whereas many other factories make their candy using only about 30% coconut milk and way more sugar.

Hard workers at the coconut candy factory

Our next stop was Phoenix Island, also known as the island of the coconut monk, also known as a tourist trap. You can feed crocodiles, visit a sort of temple that looks like it belongs on a mini-golf course, and eat. We opted to try the elephant ear fish, native to the area. You can eat every part of it except for the spines. A deft waitress pried the deep fried meat off of it and spring rolled it for us, then tore it apart for us to crunch our way through the fins and tail and everything else that was left. It was good.

Feeeeeed meeee

Either mini-golf or giant pinball

Our fish post-spring rolling, pre-dismantling

Thursday

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." - Unknown

Today was a Vietnam love/hate day. After I taught class, Mom and I went to the supermarket to buy me a pillow that is softer than a bag of bricks. While we were there, I also took the opportunity to buy a jar of tomato sauce that my mom found. Now that I also have a suitcase-imported parmesan cheese I think my pasta nights will be even better. Across the street from the supermarket is a park with a massive statue of a woman. A few days ago Ms. Trang told us that it is a tribute to the 'long-haired soldiers.' Apparently, Ben Tre is famous for a historic contingent of female soldiers.

After that, we were going to catch the bus back to campus. Now, the last time I tried to catch a bus from outside of the supermarket, I watched one zoom by without stopping, waited a good half-hour for another, and eventually gave up and tried again at another bus stop. So, I wasn't all too sure that my plan to catch the bus here would work. (Part of the reason that I don't take the bus very often is that I have not had much success figuring out how to get back after I get to my destination.) My mom suggested that I ask someone whether the bus would be the right one, but my automatic reaction was to say 'I don't know how.' After a while, though, I realized that I did know how. I worked up the courage (and the appetite) to ask a nearby woman selling spring rolls about it. Not only did I ask her, she understood me, AND the clincher: I understood her answer, which was that the bus wouldn't go to the college but it would take us to the roundabout. I gave myself a gold star for the day.

In the evening we had a farewell dinner for my mom. We got to savor bò lá lốt (misspelled lốp at the place on my street, but not the place we went) at the best place in town (featured on Day 78). Mom loved it, and said she now understood why my favorite dish changes every time I eat. For me, it was even better than I remembered.

Now it's time to explain the quote. My stay in Vietnam has recently hit a pretty big snag. Many of my fellow ETAs had trouble getting their visas before coming, and have had to deal with a series of headaches throughout their stays. I was thankful to have easily gotten a year-long multiple entry visa. But perhaps I counted my chickens before they were hatched. A few days ago I realized that I may or may not have been in this country illegally for four months. Even though my visa gave me permission to be here through June of 2012, the official who stamped my passport decided that I only deserved to be here until August 10, 2011 -- less than two weeks after my date of entry -- and it seems that this stamp carries more weight than the visa. Who, what why how? Somehow, despite the innumerable times my passport and visa have been checked by airport personnel, hotel owners, and college administrators, no one had noticed until now. I guess I'm thankful that it was noticed by a hotel receptionist in Ben Tre and not somewhere where I would have been left stranded and shelterless. But for now I'm frustrated. My passport was taken to HCMC to get things sorted out and, even though I was told that I'd have it back this afternoon, this evening I was told I won't have it back until the 8th. I'm supposed to go to the Fulbright mid-year conference on the 9th. The times I feel most overwhelmed by Vietnam are the times when I am powerless to confront the obstacles before me. There is nothing I can do about this. As is often the case here, I don't even really fully know what's going on. So pray, cross your fingers, wish on 11:11. Help me overcome my obstacles, because I know this isn't a dead end.