Xin chao!: It's happened to be in Vietnam

Photo journal, life stories of people who happened to be in Vietnam.

"Hi, i'm a young man who happened to live my 20s in Vietnam. Im having greatest years of my life and then it strikes me, what if the 2012 apocalypse thingy really does exist? i'll be dying before knowing every fine bit of this country. So i decided to make a blog before its being washed away by a huge tsunami by the end of this year.

There're about 88 millions people living in Vietnam, and i do believe that, everybody has at least one lovely story that makes they proud of talking about. So there's no way i could make a suck blog after hearing all those lovely stories :)

I dedicated this blog to the one and only amazing Vietnam, to all the nicest people on earth and all the crazy traffic photo that tourisms take :)"

(Source: http://www.facebook.com/itshappenedtobeVietnam)

Cà mên (Gamelle)

Photo: (Scroll down for english)
Sáng ngủ dậy thì thấy có cái này ngoài cửa gần chỗ mình, tính chụp lại vì lâu thiệt lâu mới lại thấy kiểu cà-men xưa xưa như vậy. Đang chụp thì có cô nhà bên líu ríu xin lấy lại, mặt đỏ hết lên vì ngượng. Hỏi ra thì mới biết là mẹ ruột của cô, biết cô tính hay quên, nên từ khi cô về ở nhà chồng, cúng kiếng giỗ hỏi gì cũng nấu sẵn và sáng xách đến nhà con gái để trước cửa, cô dậy sớm len lén ra lấy cà-men rồi chỉ cần bày ra mâm thắp hương thôi.

Nghe kể xong mình chẳng kịp đánh giá cô này làm dâu kỳ ghê, bà mẹ này chiều con gái quá ha, mà chỉ nghĩ tới một câu hỏi thôi: Mẹ thương con bao nhiêu? Chỉ cỡ chiếc cà-men này là cùng :)

***

I came across this old shiny mesh tin container ('gamelle' in French) replete with delicacies one early morning outside my door. Not letting this rare occurrence pass by, I jumped to the camera. It has been a while since the last time I saw such a historical, bona fide 'gamelle'. While I was playing around to get the perfect optical setting; the girl next door, appearing out of nowhere; softly asked for her food back. She could barely hide the embarrassment so evident on her rosy blushed face. I pressed on with a few questions, only to find out that her birth mother, knowing too well of her forgetfulness, had been discreetly preparing food for every ceremonious occasions at the in-laws. (It is worthy to point out that in most Vietnamese homes, the daughter in law has to prepare food for the husband's family, especially on ceremonious occasions.) At the crack of dawn, the mother would drop the feast, packed neatly in a 'gamelle', in front of the door so the daughter could set up the meal.

Before I could pass on any judgment -- what a carefree daughter-in-law my neighbor is, what an overindulging the mother was in pampering her daughter -- I asked myself a simple question: "How deep is a mother's love?". Must not be deeper than this 'gamelle'

I came across this old shiny mesh tin container ('gamelle' in French) replete with delicacies one early morning outside my door. Not letting this rare occurrence pass by, I jumped to the camera. It has been a while since the last time I saw such a historical, bona fide 'gamelle'. While I was playing around to get the perfect optical setting; the girl next door, appearing out of nowhere; softly asked for her food back. She could barely hide the embarrassment so evident on her rosy blushed face. I pressed on with a few questions, only to find out that her birth mother, knowing too well of her forgetfulness, had been discreetly preparing food for every ceremonious occasions at the in-laws. (It is worthy to point out that in most Vietnamese homes, the daughter in law has to prepare food for the husband's family, especially on ceremonious occasions.) At the crack of dawn, the mother would drop the feast, packed neatly in a 'gamelle', in front of the door so the daughter could set up the meal.

Before I could pass on any judgment -- what a carefree daughter-in-law my neighbor is, what an overindulging the mother was in pampering her daughter -- I asked myself a simple question: "How deep is a mother's love?". Must not be deeper than this 'gamelle'

New year in Hanoi