C. L. Hoang - Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees: A Travelogue of Vietnam

Praise for

Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees

Whether you have been to Vietnam in the past or are thinking of going in the future, youll wish you had C.L. Hong as your traveling companion. His delicate, keenly crafted prose, his sharp eye for detail, his tender humanity and humility, make this travelogue a must-read for anyone interested in Vietnam, travel, or ancestry. He gives us tantalizing clues about his departure from Vietnam in the 1970s, his childhood, his parents younger years, and the emotions that rise to the surface during his trip back to what was once his home. The next best thing to traveling to Vietnam with C.L. Hong is reading his wonder-filled book, and seeing the country through his eyes.

Judith Fein, award-winning author of Life Is A Trip: The Transformative Magic of Travel and The Spoon From Minkowitz: A Bittersweet Roots Journey to Ancestral Lands

Aimed at first-time travelers to Vit Nam, C. L. Hongs Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees is a fascinating and highly readable account of one mans return to his ancestral homeland. Hongs narrative keeps the reader fully engaged as he describes the highlights of a 10-day visit to this intriguing country, with its must-see destinations and warm, friendly people. Packed with essential cultural background and illustrated with over 40 color photographs, Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees is the perfect introduction for prospective visitors.

Tim Doling, Author and Vit Nam Culture and Tourism Consultant

The travelogue, Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees, is a wonderful, informative, and heartwarming read! C. L. Hong achieves a perfect blend of narrating the sights, describing the tour experience, and relating family reminiscences while sharing moving personal impressions after such a long absence from his homeland. Whether or not youre Vietnamese, youll find great appeal and inspiration in this illustrated love letter to Vit-Nam.

Lynette M. Smith, Author, How to Write Heartfelt Letters to Treasure:For Special Occasions and Occasions Made Special

As a world traveler, Ive had the pleasure to visit Vietnam in the past. However, reading about C.L. Hongs recent visit there offers a unique perspective of Vietnam as can only be discovered through the eyes of someone returning to his homeland after many years. If you are interested in Vietnam, have visited Vietnam, or are thinking of Vietnam, I highly recommend putting Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees on your reading list.

Gary Arndt, purveyor of the travel website everything-everywhere.com
2013 & 2015 Travel Photographer of the Year, North American Travel Journalists Association
2014 Travel Photographer of the Year, Society of American Travel Writers

Rain Falling
on Tamarind Trees

A Travelogue of Vietnam

C. L. Hoang

Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees

by C. L. Hoang

Copyright 2018 by Chinh L. Hoang

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission from the author or the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Published in the United States by Willow Stream Publishing

ISBN (paperback): 978-0-9899756-0-5

ISBN (eBook): 978-0-9899756-1-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017912453

Cover Design and Interior Layout: Nick Zelinger

eBook Layout: Booknook.biz

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

First Edition

Printed in the United States of America

In loving memory of my parents

And

For all the people to whom Vit-Nam means something

By C. L. Hong

Fiction

Once upon a Mulberry Field

Nonfiction

Rain Falling on Tamarind Trees

All around me: sky, mountains, and blue sea
Alone am I with my secret yearnings

A 19th century poetess known as B Huyn Thanh-Quan as she crossed over a mountain pass from northern to central Vit-Nam

Preface

B y nature I am a slow planner, especially when it comes to long trips away from home. So imagine my surprise when in 2016 I was presented with an opportunity to join a group tour to Southeast Asia, with the main focus on Vit-Nam, and I heard myself spontaneously blurt out, Sign me up!

From what I gathered, it was going to be one heck of a trip. Seventeen days in total, beginning and ending with a 20-hour flight over an 8,000-mile stretch of ocean, across 15 time zones and the International Date Line and a wide scale of climate changes. Most significant to me, it would mark my first time to travel back to the ancestral homeland I hadnt seen in over four decades.

On several occasions over the years, I had entertained the thought of such a venture but had invariably faltered when confronted with the logistics. After all, Vit-Nam, having just opened its door in the last 25 years, is still a relatively new tourist destination in the midst of modernizing its infrastructures. But even more daunting than the challenge of mapping out a detailed itinerary, complete with hotel and transport accommodations, was a pervasive sense of uncertainty: Has the country healed from decades of brutal warfare, enough to welcome visitors with open arms? What is it like nowadays inside one of the last remaining communist regimes in the world? Would I find myself a lost stranger in the land of my childhood, thus confirming the perennial adage that one can never go home again?

But then when I learned that the tour in question was organized by an international travel company of good repute and that it would be headed by an experienced Vietnamese guide who would handle all the planning minutiae, I realized on the spot I had no more excuses. It was now or never: Time to discover the answers to my questions.

In the weeks that followed, I applied for the required entry visa through a service agency specializing in those matters, obtained the recommended inoculations, and began packing plenty of light clothing, sunscreen lotion, and rain protection gear. Then on a Friday night in late October 2016, in a fog of nervous excitement, I boarded a Boeing Triple Seven in LAX bound for Southeast Asiamy first trip home since I had left as a teenager.

This travelogue retraces the major segment of the tourthe final ten dayswhich took us through the length of Vit-Nam, from Si-Gn in the south to H-Ni in the north, stopping along the way in the central coastal cities of Hi-An and Hu and at H-Long Bay on the Gulf of Tonkin. I have tried not only to recapture the highlights of this whirlwind journeywith their historical background and mythical lorebut also to explore a few special sites that I wish we could have squeezed into our packed schedule. At times the travelogue may read like a journal because it is sprinkled throughout with all kinds of resurrected memoriesfrom my own childhood, in a time and place long since gone.

The book contains many pictures, 43 at last count. Most were taken by me on this tripso please kindly overlook any imperfectionsand the rest is generously contributed by family and friends who have visited there before. Color printing technology being where it is today, I have been forced to limit the total number of pictures and pages to reduce the setup and printing fees. This is so the book can be reasonably priced for a wide audience, even though my personal inclination is to share every relevant and worthwhile photograph I have.