Fresh markets

After 4.5 years of living in Malaysia, the wet markets didn't phase me too much. But for my daughter and my two brothers from the States, the smell of fresh meat, poultry, seafood with vegetables and fruits displayed in all manners proved quite overpowering.

The bustling wet market

Fresh grilled corn

Dried fish, cuttlefish, shrimp (prawns) in all shapes and sizes

These women work at least 12 hours day to sell their fruit



The famous durian- king of all fruits


The incredibly fresh vegetables can be bought whole or already cut up for you to use.



The absolutely beautiful dragon fruit- so yummy.

Although the smell of the wet markets didn't daunt me too much, the wide selection of items offerred for sale did. I saw many trays of fresh eels, frogs and turtles. I saw congealed blood as well as other animal organs...And I have to say that they are appeared incredibly fresh.

If you look closely, you will see fresh frogs, turtles, eels along with other fish



Congealed blood- thought to have many health benefits



For the Foodies out there

For all the foodies out there, Vietnam is food paradise. With influences from French as well as the surrounding Asian neighbours, the food in Vietnam is delicious. But what I really love about Vietnamese food  is its freshness. Vegetables, meat and fish are bought from the markets on the day it is cooked. Many people in Vietnam, including many of my Cham relatives also grow their own vegetables and fruits, especially jackfruit and bananas.

The jackfruit tree growing in the courtyard of my uncle's house- one of my favourite tropical fruits

 The bananas here are so delicious, sweet and fragrant

My cousin's husband, Hamileen, serving the food. Notice the symetry of the dishes. Everything is lined perfectly.

My cousin and uncle placing food on the "Cham table" i.e the floor. In Cham culture, men play an active role in helping set the table, serve the food and clean up.

A sample of our first family meal in Vietnam- the Cham famous beef curry, with marinated grilled fish and the mandatory salad.

I was obsessed with coffee sua da when I was here. Strong coffee with condensed milk. It is such a delicious and refreshing drink. I loved starting my day with it.

My relatives found out that I love banh xeo (savoury Vietnamese crepes) and made these for us the second day we were there.

Although many Chams have a bit of a sweet tooth, not many Cham sweets are overly sweet. My favourite Cham sweet is a pretzel shape biscuit, usually served at weddings.

Dean being fed fresh young cocnut by our aunty.

Just two weeks here and I have probably gained an extra 3 kilos. I couldn't stop sampling and enjoying the food lovingly prepared and cooked by family and friends.

More from the Mekong

The Mekong Delta left such an impression on me that I thought I would share more photos on this blog.

The colourful houses along the Mekong Delta

Amira after a swim in the Delta for the first time

My brother Dean relaxing after a long day of filming the documentary. My dad deliriously happy after a swim in the Mekong Delta.

Majestic Mekong

After days of visiting Grandma and the many relatives in Chau Doc village, we managed to squeeze in an impromptu boat ride on the Mekong River. And what a treat it was. Even though the boat looked quite weathered and none of us had life vests on, we didn't think twice about our safety.

For 2 hours, we were mesmerised by the majesty of the river and fascinated by the people who live, play and work on the river. We glimpsed the many homes floating on the river with the floorboards cut out to enable the catching of the basa (cat) fish. We saw the popular salted fish drying on the shores of the river. We viewed the beauty of the rice fields and we saw colourfull boats carrying rice and wheat grains.

Besides the houseboats, there are many floating houses on the Mekong which also act as fish reservoirs. The floats are empty metal drums. Like many homes in Chau Doc, many of the floating homes appear to be runned down and in need of repairs.

Houses along the river are built on very tall stilts in attempt to protect itself from floodwaters during the heavy, rainy monsoon season.

But perhaps the best part of the afternoon was when we stopped for 30 minutes to have a swim in the Mekong. My dad was like a big kid- ducking his head in and out of the water to find clams, rocks and even the odd piece of wood. We couldn't get him out of the water.

Absorbing the experience....

The Cham people of Vietnam

When I am asked about my cultural heritage I often give a hypenated answer- I am a Cham, Vietnamese, American, Australian Muslim. The last four labels are self-explanatory but usually the first label perplex people. Who are the Cham people?

The Cham people are one of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. They are the indigenous people who once ruled a country called the Kingdom of Champa, which encompassed what is now southern and central Vietnam.

Champa lost its capital, Vijaya, in 1471 and in 1697 it lost the southern area of Panduranga. In 1832, the Kingdom lost all of its land to the Vietnamese.

There are roughly 100,000 Chams in Vietnam, 300,000 Chams in Cambodia and another 5,000 diaspora in Austalia, Malaysia, Hainan, Thailand, France, United States, Indonesia and France.

The Cham people historically were Hindus and Buddhists. In the 10th century, Islam started making inroads into Champa, but it was only in the 17th century when many of the Cham rulers converted to Islam that the religion had a major impact on the Cham people. While there are no known statistics to indicate how many Chams are Muslims (both orthodox and Bani) or Hindu, Buddhists, animist, or a combination of all, Hakim Haji Musa (President of the Islamic Community of An Giang Province in Vietnam) estimates that more than 50 percent of Chams are Muslims.

There are 7 major provinces in Vietnam where the majority of Muslims live. My father's side come from Chau Doc, 6 hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City.

Chau Doc is a busy town in the An Giang District, bordering Cambodia and is home to the Viets, Khmers and the Cham people.

Chau Doc is known for its basa fish (catfish) markets, its different types of fish sauce and its special anchovy.



I have yet to experience this mode of getting around



The view of the Chau Doc markets (both wet and dry) from our hotel room (Trung Nguyen hotel).



Kids riding their bike back to school after lunch on the street I grew up in, where my Grandma, uncles and aunties and many cousins still live

This is the village cafe



And the local convenient store, right across the street from Uncle's house

Many Cham people are poor in the Chau Doc district and this is apparent in the homes in the area.



This house belongs to Grandma's cousin

A typical tin shed home. Some of the homes are no bigger than our backyard sheds.


And this home below is probably one of the nicer homes in the village. It belongs to the most important Cham man in the village, perhaps in all of Vietnam.

Enveloped by love

The heavily-lined face never looked so beautiful
So expressive, so gentle, so welcoming.

With unabashed tears running down our faces we greet her
The woman we nearly lost from our lives
The woman strong enough to defy the doctors
Alert and strong, she waited for the day she could see
the faces of her eldest son, her daughter in law,
her grandchildren and great grandchild.

With wide open arms, she lovingly welcomed us into her world
Her words gentle, her caress soothing.
It overwhelmed us- reminding us what we had missed out on when we were kids
never having grown up with a grandma around.
But all that didn't matter- she was here now, we were here now
to be enveloped by her completely.

Meeting her eldest grandson for the first time

 

Amira with her great grandmother

Four generation of the Amath women- left to right (my mom, my daughter, my grandma and me)

With Dean, her second eldest grandson