• Travel
    • Travel stories
    • Wayfarer Guides
    • Photo diaries
    • Places
  • Life
    • Food
    • Notes
    • Journals
  • About
  • Design work
The Wayfarer Diaries

Travel stories for freedom chasers

Travel

Vietnam: Finding Family, If Only For an Afternoon

vietnam mekong delta travel blog

The road was slick and steamy with morning rain as we rode out of the city into rural Can Tho province on An’s cherry-red motorbike. Turning sharply, we zipped down a narrow path alongside the river, bright gold sunlight flashing through emerald leaves as big as elephants’ ears.

Long grasses swayed and bent like dancers in the rice paddies, iridescent insect wings flitting over the tranquil pools of moss-dark water in which they stood. Barefoot boys with almond eyes ran and shouted on the opposite bank. A slender girl crossed the bridge ahead on a bicycle, silhouetted in her conical hat against the yellow sky. All along the river, Baba Yaga houses perched on chicken-leg stilts in the shallows and women in patterned pyjamas squatted in the mud to beat armfuls of washing against the rocks.

The family house sat back from the river amidst an orchard of orange trees. Chickens scratched at the dust, burnt russet and copper feathers ruffling in the breeze that shook the leaves of the ancient willow standing by the door. Beneath it, An’s Grandparents offered warm smiles and crumpled paper handshakes.

The house was full of shifting shadows and dust motes dancing in shafts of light, family photographs printed in dark ink and heavy wooden furniture on straw mats and woven carpets. A scent of sharp citrus and umami-rich broth drifted from the kitchen, where the women sliced onions expertly with burnished blades.

I felt hesitant, full of my own un-belonging. An’s Great-Aunt, 101 years old; blind, deaf, bird-boned beneath a halo of white hair, touched my face with skeleton-leaf fingers and smiled a toothless, wordless smile.

We ate on the porch, river fish and glass noodles and a hot crunch of peanut salad, scooped from china bowls with rose gold patterns swirling like smoke over the surface. My own family thousands of miles away, I found myself an unexpected part of theirs; initiated through the most ancient of customs. Food, that shared language of raised glasses and broken bread, of plates passed from hand to hand.

Too soon the afternoon faded, the sky darkening like a bruise. As we rode away I looked back to see a 101 year-old hand, mapped with storylines that need no voice, waving until we reached the road and I could no longer see in the gathering darkness.

Share

Share
Tweet
Email
Pin
Comment

You might also like...

Previous
Next
  1. Allison says

    August 4, 2015 at 7:08 am

    Amazing photos! I’ve been dying to go to Vietnam and incredible experiences like you’re own only add to the Wanderlust!

    Allison
    http://www.headelsewhere.com

    • Clare says

      August 4, 2015 at 9:14 am

      Thanks Allison! Oh you should go. Immediately. Vietnam is amazing.

  2. Pinay Flying High says

    August 5, 2015 at 6:55 pm

    That sounds like a really incredible experience. I have only been to Ho Chi Minh and even then, I only stayed for 5 days. I would go back in heartbeat if an experience such as yours is guaranteed. 🙂

Meet Clare

The Wayfarer Diaries is a place for stories, memories captured in journals, and tales of faraway lands. There are stories of the exotic and unfamiliar, as well as the intricate fabric of the everyday. It's about the beauty of the journey as much as the destination itself. Mostly it's about chasing adventures, of all kinds; whether across the globe or at home.

NEVER MISS A POST

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search

Archives

Travelgrams

Instagram did not return a 200.

About

The Wayfarer Diaries is a place for stories, memories captured in journals, and tales of faraway lands. There are stories of the exotic and unfamiliar, as well as the intricate fabric of the everyday. It's about the beauty of the journey as much as the destination itself. Mostly it's about chasing adventures, of all kinds; whether across the globe or at home.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
the wayfarer diaries travel lifestyle blog

Oh darling… let’s be adventurers

Follow along for the latest adventures, stories + resources

Copyright 2021 The Wayfarer Diaries