Part 6….
Our journey on the other side of the world has begun…
The next day we went straight to our excursion on our own “junk boat” and spent the night on water.
After our first breathtaking introduction to the water at Ha Long Bay on our junk boat, which included a wonderful sea food dinner and a night sleepover in a private cabin, we soon found ourselves back on our bus to continue our journey on land.
Our luxury bus would be our best comfort on this slow and very rugged road from Hanoi to Hue located in Central Vietnam, where we spent the night. The memorable event in Hue is we ate in our first restaurant that served “American” food.
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| Mary was all smiled with Pizza on the menu! |
Maybe I should say the first memorable event for the kids, as they inhaled their food like they had not eaten for several days. Actually, because the local food was so foreign to their taste buds, they probably had not eaten much since we arrived 3 days earlier.
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| Jim enjoyed an American hamburger in Vietnam The next morning we were up and off early to reach our final destination up in the mountain area of DaLat City. We were about to take on the road made infamous during the Vietnam War, namely Hwy 1, also known sa the “Ho Chi Minh Trail”. |
How many young lives were changed or lost this trail during the Vietnam War? How many ghosts still lingered there as we, the new generation of Americans, traveled on this same road 30 years later?
James and I were thrilled to share this experience at the very beginning of our marriage with his 4 children and his daughter – in-law, Bonnie, who is married to his oldest son, Jim.
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| Bonnie |
My bachelor brother, Jason, was happy to be a part of my new family and the ongoing party atmosphere with the Swanson kids. He was also excited to meet up with his Vietnamese family. Since Jason was still a bachelor, his Mom was always trying to fix him up with the many pretty girls from the village. Always hopeful to find his special girl to love and marry, he always traveled back to America empty handed. Regardless, I believe Jason really enjoyed dating the girls while in Vietnam.
Hiep was in the orphanage with Jason and I, but he was much younger when we first met him. He came to America on the same boat journey as we did, narrowly escaping when Saigon fell to the communist. Like us, he was adopted to an American family in Texas at the very young age of 4. Jason & I knew very little of Hiep and his where abouts until this trip.
This trip was a profound trip for Hiep since it was his first time back to Vietnam to meet his parents, who lived nearby my Mom’s village. His Mom, also my Aunt Bon, was so happy to hear the news of Hiep’s pending homecoming with us.
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| Hiep met his mother & oldest brother for the first time in 2004! |
This trip was so much more than a vacation to foreign lands or about our very special wedding in the small village. It was really more about finding those “ family ties “ for each one of us who traveled on this journey.
And the journey will continue tomorrow… Part 7
With Love & Light,
Hai
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