We had two days in Saigon before going to the family’s hometown. The first day, we spent shopping with Auntie Mom. Uncle Dad was visiting with his best friend. We all met up for lunch and were treated to a literal mountain of mangosteen and some food that they ordered from a restaurant his friend likes.

All the food I had up until this point was really good, but today was a REALLY good day. I had a mangosteen salad that Uncle Dad said is so special, you have to order 2-3 days in advanced. Young mangosteen is peeled, then cut straight through the seeds, creating discs of mangosteen. It’s soaked for a few that the seeds are soft to eat. It’s mixed with some lettuce and chicken and becomes a delightfully sweet and light salad

As for the mountain of mangosteen, Uncle Dad and I would just sit and eat it at the table. I haven’t had mangosteen as sweet as the ones I had in Vietnam. It was awesome, I feel like I ate 8 of them every time he and I sat down. Uncle Dad insisted that we had to eat them because it would be too bothersome to bring it to the hometown… And, more importantly, that mangosteen isn’t like this in the US. He’s right. You can squeeze the tops of the mangosteen and if the shell is soft enough, it’ll come apart in your fingers. A young mangosteen is so sweet and so delicious. I’ve tested mangosteen I’ve seen at the supermarket, they don’t do that.

We spent the day resting, as the tour had a lot of early mornings and tons of activity. Later that night, we had seafood and suckling pig. This was Tam’s sister’s request, and it was so good. The fat under the skin melted when it hit your tongue. I’ve never had pork served with fried rolls? Very tasty. There was also a ton of seafood, it was really a feast. Auntie Mom was heading to her hometown a day early, so this was the last meal we’d be having together in Saigon.

It’s still a miracle to me that I didn’t get any food poisoning or stomach problems the entire time we were in Vietnam. While I joked with Tam that my gut was like “Ah yes, the motherland,” it was more likely a result of my daily regimen of dietary fiber and probiotics every day. We had immodium and Pepto from the travel nurse, but we didn’t end up needing it.

We spent the next day with Uncle Dad. We had breakfast at a pho shop, then went to what I call the coffee building. It had a coffee shop on each floor of the store, and we were specifically visiting Arabica. The humidity of southern Vietnam was particularly brutal from 11am to 4pm. Early mornings and the midday naps and breaks makes perfect sense here. Living in that heat feels impossible. After coffee, we headed home to rest before taking off again in the evening.

Saigon transforms at night, I imagine it’s like this in many southeast Asian cities because of the heat. I already knew night markets were popular, I wasn’t prepared for the amount of people we’d see. We headed to the same area where the coffee building was, and the streets were packed. The once empty shops and restaurants were filled. The promenade had people performing and hanging out, and the road was stuffed with mopeds trying to squeeze forward. You never knew when it would surge forward, but you had to cross with confidence. No fear.

We walked down the promenade to the water, where the street was wider and there was more risk of potential collision… With mopeds and actual cars. Uncle Dad was a little more nervous crossing here, but we made it. Tam said he didn’t remember the skyline like this before. We looked out at the river and wondered what the economy looked like before development, and wondered how people lived? How did the rise and fall of the river change now that it was contained by concrete here? On our walk back to our Airbnb, we also passed a hotel that Uncle Dad said existed before the war and has been around for at least 100 years. Tam said his uncle used to work there as an AC repairman and took them to the rooftop bar to see everything 20 years ago. I wonder how much things have changed since.

I really appreciated the time we spent in the cities across all of Vietnam. It is frenetic, chaotic, and so fun. Some parts of it made me deeply sad, like how long people work each day just to provide for their families, and knowing it isn’t quite enough Yet other parts were so wonderful, like people hanging out with their friends and the small communities they build in night markets or the neighborhoods their shops/homes are in.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the family’s hometown, but I couldn’t wait to find out.