Exploring Bửu Long Park in Bien Hoa

     After the first day in Vietnam I began to adjust to the humidity. The air didn't seem as heavy, and I could almost breathe. Vinh's dad decided to take us to Bien Hoa, a city not too far from HCMC, to visit some relatives. After dining on an eel soup that fed all ten of us- and over 400,000 Dong later (less than twenty-five bucks including beer and appetizers)- we headed over to visit a family friend at Bửu Long Park.

Bửu Long Park

     Bửu Long Park is probably best known for the peaks and 'islands' that loom over the manmade lake. "Hidden Dragon Lake"- perhaps better known as "Mini Ha Long Bay"- is most likely the closest thing to a scenic waterfront that you can find anywhere remotely close to Ho Chi Minh City. An abandoned resoivoir, Hidden Dragon Lake was created from years and years of digging and carving with the intention of getting water in to the city. For whatever reason, the project was eventually abandoned and the resevoir was made in to an attraction instead.

     As we all piled out of the car a short man approached us. He wanted to be our personal photographer during our visit to Bửu Long. Being we all had our own cameras, at first we respectfully declined. We then declined with forceful tonality, as apparently 'no' was not in the man's vocabulary. He continued to stalk us until we hopped on one of the wooden motor boats for a tour through the lake.

     As it usually did in the afternoon, the clouds rolled in. We saw a groom running with his bride in the distance (one of the ten couples I must have seen getting married in the two weeks I was there... I suppose weddings are more of a public event). Despite the rain the lake was still beautiful. The hidden dragon made a very obvious appearance, and I wondered what inspired somebody to work a dragon in to a cliff in such a way.

 

Zoo and Dino Park

     Many people come to Bửu Long Park for the lake. Most leave without even realizing that there is a lot more to Bửu Long than an abandoned reseviour. As we walked farther in to the park we came across a small zoo. At the entrance of the zoo was a monkey. As we approached it, the monkey ran towards us- surely looking for something to steal or a leg to gnaw on. Caught off guard, we jumped back. Nobody had any desire to get bit by a monkey that day.

    There was a variety of animals- from birds and peacocks to an array of monkeys. We even witnessed a 'monkey jail break!' As we continued past the zoo we were transported to a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. A T-Rex loomed over us- no doubt wondering what white people taste like. Another lizard-looking dinosaur appeared more than happy when he saw baby was on the menu!

  Bửu Long Park no doubt instills peace in to the visitor- even the air seems lighter. The hustle and bustle of the city surrounding the park vanquishes and- despite the occasional stalking photographer- you can take a minute to breathe. As we said goodbye to the friend, we packed ourselves back in our car and cautiously merged in to the swarms of swerving motorists. It was hard to believe that such chaos existed around a place filled with peace and tranquility.

 

 

Have you ever encountered a wild monkey?

Where do you go when you need some peace and quiet?

Complete: Travel to Vietnam

     I've wanted to go to Vietnam since before my husband and I were married. He was going to go back alone earlier this year, but I begged him to wait until the baby was born. I believe that to truly know a person you have to understand where they're from. It shapes us in ways that are so subliminal we ourselves don't realize its impact until somebody points it out to us. So, I considered visiting the country he was born in a must.

 

     After Lela was born we began organizing our trip. We booked our tickets, reserved our on-flight bassinet, and paid our travel agent. After many years of anticipation, we were finally on our way!

 

Culture Shock

       Nearly twenty-four hours later we finally landed in Ho Chi Minh City. We gathered our luggage and walked through the doors to a crowd of people waiting for their loved ones. We arrived at night so it wasn't really hot, but it sure was humid! The heavy air was putting my lungs in to overdrive. Vinh's father gathered our luggage, threw it in the back of his truck, and we were off.

 

     Although my husband's dad didn't live too far from the airport distance wise, the average speed limit was about 35 MPH making our destination almost two hours away.  Motorists zoomed left and right, in between cars and other motorcycles. They drove on the wrong side of the road and backed up on rotaries. People from infants to seniors piled up on the motorcycles so that there would be up to four people on one bike. Although there were traffic signals, there didn't seem to be any incentive to follow them.

 

     Confession:     

     I've never been overseas. I've never even left North America. As we drove away from the city the miles upon miles of tiny shops and restaurants in people's front yards were never ending. I was suddenly reminded- I'm in a third world country. I'm nowhere close to home, and I can't go back to my comfortable little life if I find the heat, food, or anything else to be unbearable. As I continued to stare out the window, a slight panic set in....



Apologies for some of the small pics. Click for actual size.

Have you ever had culture shock?

Where do you still hope to visit someday?

 

 

Creating My Family's Coat of Arms

    Complete: Drop #69- Create my own family Coat of Arms

      I have to say that I miss doing art. I took an art and design class last spring, but in high school I used to draw/paint all the time. I was even in the National Art Honor Society, and participated in state art competitions every year or so. Ah, the costs of growing old. Anyways, something I've always wanted to do was make a family 'Crest'. I put it on my bucket list a couple of weeks ago and with school out, I decided it was a good opportunity to do something fun with my time. So, here it is!

The Nguyen Family Crest/ Coat of Arms

      This is a family 'Coat of Arms', if you will, for my husband and I. It was more for fun than anything, but each part actually does have a meaning that was fairly carefully thought out. I tried to incorporate my husband in to this as much as possible, but I found that the difficulty in this is that family Coat of Arms are mostly from Europe, so Vinh's family surnames, although the most popular in Vietnam, doesn't actually have a crest. Makes sense. So, although the parts of the crest encompassing my side of the family are more apparent, I did include his as much as possible, it's just that the inclusion is much more abstract.

     I used Wikipedia as a source for what should be included in a Coat of Arms. I am usually completely against using Wikipedia as a source for anything except a portal to potentially credible sources, but this is just for fun. It's not like I'm doing this as an art thesis or anything.

     The two fish on the side are the 'Supporters' of the shield. The supporter could be any animal, person, etc that is local to the area or means something to that group of people. I chose the fish because it is my (and Vinh's? debatable) zodiac symbol.


     The shield is designed with both my mother's and father's surnames in mind. The left is half of the design from the Unger family Coat of Arms, while the right is half of the design from the Moynihan Coat of Arms.   In the middle bottom is a turtle shell. For me, the turtle represents growth and stability, as well as having the ability to acknowledge the past while looking forward to the future.

Unger (Left), Moynihan (Right). Courtesy Ancestery.com,
Irishsurnames.com 

The bottom part is the abstract element that is a nod to my husband's ancestry. It consists of three parts: the Compartment, the Order, and the Motto. The Order is the star. It is often a symbol that is associated with the persons that the shield represents. The yellow star is in the middle of the Vietnamese flag, and although it is a simple symbol it is representative of that culture. The banner is red and yellow, another nod to Vietnam, while the shape of the banner itself is modeled on the outline of the country itself. Perhaps obviously at this point, the Compartment represents water, as in the water that borders Vietnam, and an appropriate landscape for the fish to 'stand' on. The words themselves are Latin, as is often traditional with Coat of Arms, and translates to 'Loyalty to the End."

     The last part worth talking about is the top part, which consists of the Helm, Mantling, Torse and Crest. The Helm is the helmet, and doesn't really have any significance. Coat of Arms need a Helmet. Similar with the Torse, which is the cloth on top of the helmet, and the Mantling. The only requirements for the Torse and the Mantling is that it is to be of the two main colors of the Shield. The Crest is the Dragon, which represents both my and the new baby's animal for the Chinese Zodiac.

     So that's complete! And it was a fun project. Gave me something to do, and allowed me to relax and do something I enjoy doing, but with a purpose.

Complete- Drop #25: Cook Bun Mam

     Once I got past the fact that this recipe does not exist in English, and varies so much in Vietnamese, I think I was finally able to figure out how to cook this thing! With that said, I am pretty sure this is the only English recipe for Bún mắm. I'm not for sure if this is the way it's typically done, or how close it is to the actual taste it's supposed to be since I have never actually eaten it elsewhere, but it passed the taste test.


     For the Soup:

Pork Bones
Mam Tom (a very stinky, purple shrimp paste)
Catfish
Squid
Shrimp
Aubergine (not pictured)
Pork Belly
Lemongrass (6 stalks did the job)
Garlic (however much. I used 4 large cloves)

Rock Sugar

MSG (Optional)

  Parboil the pork bones. Rinse, heat up a fresh batch of water, and put bones back into the pot. Heat to boiling and skim top as needed. Cut the bulb off the lemongrass, smash, and add to broth. Skim periodically. Add the Mam Tom (maybe about a quarter of the container... I put a bit more than half and it came out really strong... You can add more later) to the broth. After a few hours of cooking chop/food process the remaining lemongrass stems until very small. Do same with garlic. In a frying pan, put some oil in the pan. Cut up one of the pork belly, add to the hot pan, and fry up with the lemongrass and garlic. Once cooked, add to the pot. 
     When you think you're getting close to being done (you can let the soup boil as long as you want) get your seafood ready while you're frying up a whole strip of the pork belly. Slice the fried pork belly the same was as before, and set aside. Cut the aubergines so that the slices are circular, about 1 and 1/2 inch thick, and cut those in fours. Throw in the soup. cook until tender, then remove.


     Strain the broth, and remove the bones, lemongrass etc. Reheat the broth, and cook the seafood. While doing this, start your noodles (bun rice noodles)


Toppings:

   

Bean Sprouts
Culantro (similar to Cilantro but stronger...)
Ngo Om (Rice paddy herb)
Rau Den (Chinese Spinach)
He (Type of Chive)
Ong Choy (Water Spinach, stems only)
Bac Ha (Taro Shoots)
Thai Basil
Banana Flower
Scallion
Lime


     I found I had to pickle the banana flower after cutting it into thin rings in order for it to keep color, so don't slice this until you're just about to serve. The only other odd prep for the toppings is to remove the stems from the water spinach and to cut them in long, thin strips. Keep them in cold water so they curl.


     Put noodles in bowl, ladle broth on top, throw on culantro and scallions. Serve with the plate of herbs and a spoonful of the mam tom on the side, and you're all set!

     The smell of the soup, I have to be honest, was not pleasant. Once I was able to push past that, the broth itself was pretty good! Again, I'll have to check it's authenticity to another one (once I find it), but I am considering this a success!