Wow – what an amazing set of cultural experiences we enjoyed today.

I have to firstly acknowledge that the reason for the experiences we had were to do with our son’s knowledge of this city and his connections with some very special Vietnamese people.

Through a love of eating Vietnamese pho for breakfast, my son and his fiancée met Troy and Anh, and Troy’s father Tien who was over from Vietnam helping them to open their new restaurant in Paradise Point called Pickle ‘n Pinch. Mick and I actually met them all as well earlier in the year. It was at that meeting that Troy’s father invited us to a meal at his home when we came over, and that meal happened today.

However, not to be outdone, Anh’s father heard we were coming over and insisted we visit his koi farm beforehand. So that activity was added to our itinerary for the day as well.

One thing I love doing when we are staying away from home is to go for an early morning walk before the crowds are out and about. I was unsure if that was even going to be possible in such a large city, but was pleasantly surprised when my son guided me around the streets near where we are staying. We were not disappointed as there were very few people or motor bikes on the roads at that time, and it was interesting to see the street stall holders setting up for the day. We actually spotted the one we would return to for our breakfast an hour later.

I needed an ATM to get some dong (VND) and was able to withdraw 6,000,000 VND at a CitiBank ATM (which converted to $405 AUD, less fees and charges by both banks). This was the maximum I could take out, while my son used an ATM adjacent to CitiBank and was only able to withdraw 3,000,000 VND.

We had been told that Vietnam is very clean – and I can attest to that now as well.

Our apartment is spotless and these people were tidying up the leaves that had fallen over night in our apartment complex.

At 9.00am we were collected by our driver and our guide – Rita – and we headed straight for the koi farm. The trip was very difficult towards the end as the road became so narrow, and our fancy bus did well to make it unscathed.

Mick looks a little uncertain in this photo – but we were very comfortable indeed. The seats even had a massage feature should we have wished to indulge.

We had no idea what we were in for. Our tour guide and driver navigated us “over the bridge and past the cemetery” as per the instructions where we met Sy (Anh’s father). Sy then called a boat across to collect us and take us to see his floating koi farm.

There were thousands of tiny fish in one pond, and in other ponds we could see fish of different sizes and colours. Most of the fish were farmed for sale as pets and displays, but some of the fish were very rare and expensive.

We watched as some of the workers tried to pull up the netting in one pond – we thought it was so we could get a better view of some of the larger fish. And boy were they large. But we soon understood that there was at least one fish in particular Sy wanted to show us – this big black one.

Later we learnt that this fish was a Siamese Giant Carp – a migratory fish found in the Mekong and some other Indochina rivers. They are critically endangered due to loss of habitat and over fishing. Through Rita, we learnt that the fish are sold for 1,000,000 VND / kg. Apparently this one is about 13 years old. My son reckons Sy has a name for him, and at that value he possibly does.

Sy then unexpectedly invited us around to his home to see his paintings. He paints mostly portraits in acrylics and they were jaw dropping. He does it as a hobby.

My son and his fiancée were given an original painting as gift before we left for lunch at Troy’s parents home.

Next stop was Troy’s parents home for lunch, and it was not what we thought.

There were at least 26 people there waiting for us – the important guests (us). Those not present in the photo below had either left before us or were doing the washing up.

Troy had told Tien that my son’s favourite dish was Bo Koh, so that was served along with fresh baguettes and several other dishes – spring rolls, pork sausage (my term), rice, sticky rice and freshly cooked (huge) prawns, where it was expected that you ate pretty much everything except the shell.

There were three tables. One for the guests and the senior male family members, the next table was for the women and other men, and the third table was for the teenagers and other children. Every few minutes, one family member would extend his arm and beer and yell out, and the rest of us would clink our glasses with everyone else at the table. The noise was quite loud and I’m not convinced there wasn’t a competition going on between our table and the second table. But we had the grandfather on ours and he was very happy to keep the yelling going.

There was only one mishap here, and that involved Mick. He was sitting on one of those small plastic stools during lunch, and bent down to pick up a lost serviette, and unfortunately toppled backwards onto the floor. The commotion raised everyone’s attention, and the youngest family member who was aged 12 months got such a fright she started bellowing. But good on Mick; he picked himself up, put on a brave face and gave the crowd a happy wave. Tien then brought Mick a “proper” chair for the rest of our stay.

After eating way too much and being treated like VIPs, we bid farewell and headed back home for a nap before our next activity – meeting more of our son’s friends in the city tonight for a ‘special’ dinner.

Before heading into District 1 to meet some of our son’s friends for dinner, Mick and I visited a wine bar across the road from where we’re staying.

We enjoyed a very nice bottle of red wine for 550,000 VND ($37 AUD) and then met up for dinner at this place.

There was way too much food, but we did our best. We said goodnight to one and all and caught a taxi back to our accommodation in preparation for our day trip tomorrow on the Mekong, leaving the ‘youngsters’ to enjoy the night.