 |
My 6-year-old nephew at Sa Huỳnh beach
My cute nephew is standing at Sa Huỳnh
beach (60km south of Quảng Ngãi city). We went to
this place after visiting my father's home village
and grandparents graves. |
This is Part 1 of my 7-day trip to the Central
Vietnam (from 3 Aug to 9 Aug 2012). On this trip I traveled with my parents, sister and nephew to
Quảng Ngãi province and visited the village where my father was born. It has been a long time since my last visit, so things have changed. My father was born in a wealthy family in the Central Vietnam and many poor people in the village worked on my grandfather’s land. However, my grandfather was a good man and he followed the communist party. In 1954, when my father was 19 years old, he traveled on a Polish ship to the North for training, hoping he would go back home as a cadre two years later. The American war happened and it lasted 21 years (from 1954 to 1975). During 21 years my father didn’t have any contact with his family, as Vietnam was divided into the North and the South. One of my father’s brother was also a communist, while another one was fighting for the Southern government. It is possible to say that in this war brothers in a family were standing on the opposite sides and they were fighting against each other. It happened in many families of Vietnam during the war time. Fortunately, none of my father's brothers was killed in the war.
 |
Sa Kỳ port (21km from Quảng Ngãi city)
This is the place where I took a boat to Lý Sơn island. |
My father stayed in the North and traveled to Russia for study, then he came back to Vietnam and married my mother who is a Hanoian. My name “Red River” was given in memory of Hanoi and my sister was given a name in memory of my father’s home land. My father also decided to spend the rest of his life in Hanoi and worked as a water resources engineer. When the country was reunified on 30 April 1975, my father traveled back to his home land. He needed a permit in order to cross the former border line of the North and the South (Bến Hải river). It was difficut to move around at the time and he said he even saw burning tanks on the way. My father told me that if he had stayed in his home village, as a communist he would be the first one to be killed. Quảng Ngãi province used to be one of the most severe places during the war.
 |
My nephew in Mộ Đức district
My nephew is standing at his grand grandparents
house in Mộ Đức district, Quảng Ngãi province. |
Every year we celebrate the reunification day, my father tell us “Remember that thanks to this day I had the chance to see your grandparents again”. At least, my father was lucky as he was safe in the North despite American bombing and could see his parents again. On the other side of a medal, four million Vietnamese died in the American war. Many people had to leave the country by boats after the war and they lost their lives in the sea.
Friday 3 Aug 2012 - We decided to fly from Hanoi to Chu Lai airport instead of traveling by train. Then we traveled by bus (45km) to Quảng Ngãi city. We were happy to meet our relatives again and had a big party. In the afternoon, I went to the Quảng Ngãi museum near my uncle’s house. There are many interesting things relating to the Champa kingdom, soil graves of the ancient civilization, traditional dresses of some ethnic minority groups (H're, Cadong and Cor) living in the mountain region, models of boats used for fishing and patrol on the sea during the 16th and 19th centuries, and sugar production (one of the local specialties in Quảng Ngãi is sugar). After visiting the museum, I went to Mỹ Khê beach with my relatives and enjoyed a great sunset over the sea.
 |
Sunset over Mỹ Khê beach
I visited this beach on the first day of the trip.
It's located about 20km away from Quảng Ngãi city. |
Saturday 4 Aug 2012 – We rented a car and traveled to Mộ Đức district for visiting Vân Hà village where my father was born. My grandfather passed away some years ago at age 102. I can say that he is a witness of history as he used to live in the Franch war, was tortured in the American war, and lived a simple life of a farmer after the wars. When I was a little girl, my grandparents house was so large and made of soil and wood. Now all the houses in the countryside are brick built and smaller. We passed by sugar cane trees and walked toward our ancestors graves. After burning incense sticks, my father said some words to the deceased people. This is the most important part of our trip.
We left the village and headed south to Sa Huỳnh beach (60km south of Quảng Ngãi city). I missed the chance of taking photos of great salt fields on the way.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét