A week with family
By Lonneke — February 23, 2016 05:21 pm
Their flight got cancelled, so the boys had to wait another day before they could hug their grandparents and uncle. We explored the old Citadel of Hue together and the Imperial Enclosure within, with its Forbidden Purple City, fantasizing about the life of the emperor two hundred years ago.
Next day we rented motorbikes and my father and brother braved the traffic, following my love, who was our tourguide. The trip led by beaches, laundry drying on tombstones, vegetable gardens changing into templegrounds, pagodas, a Japanese bridge, ricefields, streams filled with buffalos, a small museum about agriculture, fishfarms and the Tu Duc tomb. It felt special to show our family some of the 'real Vietnam' and of our lifestyle on this big journey of ours. It was good to see this part of the world through their fresh eyes, when ours don't notice every different thing with the same intensity anymore. Looking at the ricefields it occured to me that the leaves of the ricegrass must have called dibs on the colour green, during Creation. Sure, there are as many trees and plants as their are shades of green, and I don't know if it's because these leaves are shone upon by the sun from above and from beneath, through the reflection of the water they're planted in, but there's just no other green that will beam at you quite like these ricefields.
After three shared days in Hue we travelled back south, to the beach town An Bang, six kilometers from Hoi An. We took the Hai Van Pass, a beautiful winding road through mountains, overlooking peninsulas and islands and stopping at a shot down French fort on the top.
My brother had booked this amazing place by te beach, called Lea's Garden and it doesn't get more luxurious than this. Three elegantly designed, spacious rooms, each with their own bathroom, a large garden with toys, a hammock, sitting area and kitchen. A short walk through a small forest to reach the beach and two local women at our disposal at (almost) all times, from the moment they served us breakfast at the large outdoor diningtable. Plus the gardner/security (?!?) man. We were laughing about the ridiculous contrast of the past 5,5 months compared to this all the time. And enjoying every minute of it. We just relaxed, went for beachwalks and visited Hoi An, where we ate streetfood at our favorite spot by the river. The boys played endless games with their grandfather, painted shells with their grandmother and were roommates with their uncle (the youngest one cuddled him as if his life depended on it). The last night together we made a campfire to end this togetherness with a proper celebrational feel, the boys dj-ed their favorite songs and danced on the table. What an exceptional feeling to have your family visit you at the other side of the world.
