Travelogue :  Kyvan's Southeast Asia Adventure

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Nov 26, 2005
Vinh: Birthplace and Mysterious Meat
 

We're heading up to Ha Noi. But it's far. And we can't make it all the way from Phong Nha caves. So what are we to do? We stay in the city of Vinh, the birthplace of Ho Chi Minh.

We have an awesome hotel room here - Phuong Dong. Stay here if you ever go to Vinh because these people know what they're doing. We were on the 6th floor overlooking a cluster of red peaked roofs. It looked very European. A swarm of red dragonflies flew on our level. We had 2 rooms! One was a complete separate and private bedroom. This place is very clean and comfortable. However, there is one downside. You will, without a doubt, be woken up in the morning to a blaring microphone that echoes throughout the city. Every morning a person essentially says, "Get up! Start your day! Remember Bac Ho and what he did for you!" In Vietnam, they worship "Uncle" Ho Chi Minh.

In Vinh, we visited the villages of his mother and father, saw where he was delivered, where he ate and slept. He seemed to live a very simple peasant-like life: huts, straw roofs, woven fibrous hammocks, flat wooden table beds, hardened earthy floors. Not much to do in Vinh, but man, did I enjoy that hotel room!

Oh, one interesting thing happened. I ate thit lac da (camel meat). Now this is what the waitress said it was and I suppose she has no reason to lie even if it was dog meat, but I ate it. (Dogmeat is popular in Northern Vietnam). Of course I ate it before before she told us what it was. I was the first to try it thinking it was cubed, stir fried pork because it looked exactly like that! When I started chewing, I instantly knew that it wasn't, but I didn't spit it out. Because I always like to do and try new things. This is why I travel. So that I can absorb the cultures, sights, and experiences that this planet has to offer us. To learn from and treasure those differences that enrich the beauty of this world. So yeah, here I am eating my camel meat. The initial bite has the texture of very firm tofu, then has the texture of gio (compressed pork), but then it gets to be a size so small that the pieces no longer give to chewing and just bounce back to shape like rubber dipping dots. The meat itself seems tasteless and empty. There is very little substance to it. I have no idea why we would be served camel meat in Vietnam. Vietnam does not have camels. I think we should save this meat for Mongolians or Arabs, who have perhaps developed a taste for this tasteless meat. No one liked it. But I can actually say I have tried camel meat now. I never would have predicted I would in Vietnam. But I am hoping with a passion that it was not dog meat, because if it was, I would have felt cheated by being lied to.