Journey Story: Studying the Rhythm of Vietnam

By DAVID GRINSFELDER | Contributing Writer

Being elbowed within the rib cage by a Vietnamese grandmother was not on my bucket record once I set off for the Land of the Ascending Dragon, however simply 36 hours after departing from JFK, I used to be going toe-to-toe with a diminutive Hanoian woman as we jockeyed for place within the buffet line. What I initially took as a private affront was the primary of many classes I’d study Vietnamese tradition that fascinated and intrigued me.

We have been competing for the final two bach tuôc giòn (crispy octopus) that night. That savory dish got here with a facet of anthropology: Vietnam is a high-contact, low private house tradition in comparison with Western norms.

In a nation with 100 million folks and eight occasions the inhabitants density of the United States, crowds are the norm. Streets, retailers, buses and buffet strains brim with our bodies. Navigating them requires a form of bodily assertiveness that first feels aggressive, till you understand that everybody is doing it.

Moreover, older folks—particularly grandmothers (bà)—occupy a spot of respect and seniority in Vietnamese life. It’s commonplace for them to confidently stake their house since their social standing will often defend them from youthful challengers. No shock that our confrontation on the buffet caught the ire of each Vietnamese particular person within the neighborhood.

A quick apart: I traveled to Vietnam as a delegate with a New York-based international affairs group known as Network 20/20. Our mission via the Entrepreneurial Diplomacy Program was to conduct on-the-ground analysis to realize a holistic understanding of the nation, the place it stands within the complete strategic relationship with the United States and the way the nation navigates its balancing act between China and the U.S.

We took 4 to 5 conferences per day, moved between cities incessantly and did all of this whereas sporting fits within the interminable warmth. Naturally, our want for each day morning stimulation went past simply the jet lag we skilled upon arrival.

As destiny would have it, I stumbled upon the optimum elixir: Vietnamese espresso. As the world’s second-largest espresso exporter (trailing solely Brazil), the crown jewel of its espresso fleet is the Robusta bean—extra earthy than arabica beans and nearly twice as caffeinated.

I shortly realized that the nationwide beverage, Cà phê sữa đá (iced espresso with condensed milk), is a responsible pleasure on the lips and a diuretic sledgehammer within the gastrointestinal tract. It’s so highly effective that almost all cafes solely serve it in cups which might be three-quarters or half full. I’m not a constant espresso drinker, however a number of sips have been sufficient to show that Vietnamese espresso shouldn’t be underestimated.

The energy of the espresso paved the best way for the following realization I had about Vietnam: Everyone—and I imply everybody—embodies an industriousness that Americans would acknowledge and applaud.

Thanks to its agrarian heritage, financial reforms and acquainted obligations, the folks of Vietnam immediately are considered a number of the most hardworking of any society. Almost everybody with whom we spoke labored a full-time job and likewise discovered methods to earn a living on the facet, reminiscent of fixing bikes or promoting trinkets.

And one of the best half about their industriousness? You can see it. Although our analysis journey was full with behind-the-scenes excursions of conventional garment manufacturing and value-added manufacturing vegetation, what I discovered most attention-grabbing was watching the entrepreneurial spirit of common Vietnamese folks on the road.

In the town of Can Tho, the guts of the Mekong Delta area (referred to as the “Rice Bowl” of Vietnam), I noticed an older gentleman working his makeshift barbershop—a plastic chair, a barber’s package and mirror nailed to a tree on the sidewalk.

Kids in Da Nang earn pocket cash guarding seashore baggage for vacationers. In Ho Chi Minh City, freelance xe ôm (motorcycle taxi drivers) function in a quasi-legal grey space whisking folks across the metropolis, incomes considerably greater than they make at a conventional manufacturing unit job.

I liked that in Vietnam, life actually occurs on the road. The sidewalks are filled with avenue distributors promoting banh mì (Vietnamese sandwiches), typically contending with the omnipresent plastic stools supporting outside cafe patrons.

While avenue performers will not be as prevalent as they is perhaps in different international locations, anyone has often connected a microphone to a speaker for the ever-present karaoke that may be a cornerstone of Vietnamese society. It’s an amalgamation of chaos and power, however I feel anybody would take pleasure in a stroll via the ocean of individuals that may be a Vietnamese sidewalk.

In simply 10 days, the scenes of shared humanity I noticed in Vietnam dismantled my assumptions, delighted my senses and compelled me to regulate my tempo bodily and mentally. There’s a pulse to the nation that’s exhausting to place into phrases. It’s observable, however nearly extra one thing you may really feel.

The rhythm of life pushed by grit and household creates a collective power that transcends the person, and an unstated understanding that Vietnam is as a crossroads of immense alternative.

David Grinsfelder is a graduate of Palisades Charter High School (2015) and UC Berkeley (2019). He at present lives in New York and is writing a collection of journey tales for the Palisadian-Post. The Grinsfelders have been Highlands residents since 1989.