Letters from Vietnam 5

20 June 2006 – Tuesday – 09:48

I could not write for last few days. There are many notes in my notebook but it seems like there is no enough time to write. J came and we usually spend time to look for an apartment or to find some food which can satisfy both of us. Actually, I have slept more than 10 hours last night. This is my record in Vietnam. In the first few days, I had big problem in sleeping. This might be because of the constant noise coming from Pham Ngu Lao Road or because of the stress built in me due to the new job or new location. Now, I feel better and I think things will get all right soon.

I woke up with the heat on Saturday morning. The room was too hot because AC was not working. Later I noticed that there is no power in the whole building. I took shower and went down to ask about the problem. Ving –the maid in the hotel- told me that power was cut by the electricity company and it will be ok in a few hours. I did not mind much since my plan was to travel in the city for the whole day. I went out and began my all-day walking.

As I mentioned before, walking is one of the most challenging activities in HCMC. It is challenging because you are not allowed to enjoy it. There are spontaneous incoming invitations from motorbike drivers in every five seconds. Some give up easily; some follow you to ask more questions. One guy asked me where I was going and I told him “I don’t know”. I later understood what kind of mistake I did. He took a piece of laminated paper from his pocket and showed me all the potential places I may like to visit. There was a long list of museums, churches and other places which are worth to visit. I again told him that “I just want to walk and see the city”. This time, he took a large notebook from the basket of his motorbike. It was a customer portfolio. There were acknowledgments in different languages and there were pictures of the guy with different foreign tourists. He helped these people in the past and they wrote for him after the service. I have seen this kind of portfolios before in hotels or restaurants. They were proud of some famous people who came to their restaurant or hotel. This guy was doing exactly the same thing. Showing me this portfolio means saying “trust me! These people trusted me and they did not lose”. In fact, I did not have any problem in trusting him. My problem –if it can be considered as a problem- is more personal. I just want to enjoy walking. After rejecting one more time, he returned to the last weapon again. If I don’t want to go to museums with him, then I must be looking for only one thing: Women. He asked me if I want. I said “No” again, this time angrily. I walked faster as if I am escaping. I did not look back.

After passing Ben Tanh market, I entered one of the streets which connect other parts of the city to Ben Than circle. I walked a little and saw a small mosque beside the road. First, I have hesitated to enter since I don’t really have intention of praying. However, I know that muslim people always welcome other muslims and I thought I could make a few friends here. I entered the mosque and greeted a guy with ‘selamun aleykum’. He first seemed astonished since I do not look like muslim or I am not a member of the local muslim community. Once he realized that I could be a muslim, he took me inside the mosque. Some old people were sitting on the tiled floor and chatting. One old man approached me and asked me a few questions first in Arabic, then in English. I talked with him for more than 15 minutes about the muslim people’s lives in Vietnam. He told me that there are 25,000 muslim people living in only HCMC and there are 40 mosques in the city. When I asked him about the communist era, his answer was different from my expectation. He said, they were always free in choosing and living their religions and there happened no kind of any political pressure on them. After our conversation, he invited me inside the mosque for praying. I went in and imam started to read some known suras from Qur’an like Ihlas, beginning of Bakara and end of Amme. When imam started to read “salat-en tuncina”, it almost made me burst in tears. This was the short prayer we used to recite five times a day after farz of each namaz during my university years. Especially, when imam came to the point of saying “wel-afat”, I turned my hands down as if I was in one of those old days. This nostalgia took me back in years and I forgot where I was and what I was doing. I was in Istanbul, in a house, with a few friends. They were good days with no much thought but a lot of action in. There were days I was always busy with doing something new for others and leaving myself behind…

At the end of chanting, we went out again. There were some kind of food on the floor waiting for us. First I did not want to eat because there were no spoons and forks. We were supposed to eat by hand and I neither wanted to eat by hands nor wanted to demand spoon. When they asked me to sit and enjoy the food, I could not say no. I sat and ate as if it is very normal to me. The food was fried noddles and some goat meat. I used my two fingers and ate as much as I could. Actually, this was not the first time I have seen this scene. I also saw muslim people eating by hands at a mosque in Singapore but there we had an option of using spoon. Here, there was no option. After finishing the meal, they gave me some fruits. When I said no, they put the plastic bag into my sports bag. I realized that the traditions in muslim communities are the same almost everywhere in the world. If you are a guest –even uninvited- , you have to obey the rules of your host and the only job of the host is to make the guest satisfied in his/her visit.

I left the mosque with great feelings. I thanked them many times for the hospitality and promised them I would come to see them again.