One of the most memorable nights happened the night I slept over at Tri’s family home. First of all, the house was beautiful with a large family all living together. I could see the happiness from them and their surrounding community. Charlie and I were so grateful to be invited! They fed us like family. Everything was home made. The bánh tét was delicious.

After breakfast, Tri showed us around his community, explaining how his family was forced to move to this location after the Vietnam War. Their original home town was taken over by the communist party.

Each family that came here received a plot of land for their home, and a plot of land for farming. The farms are all concentrated to one location, with division of property not marked by fences, but with shrubs and raised walking paths. It’s quite beautiful.

Later in the afternoon, the three of us went on a motorbike ride to Nui Chua National Park. From there, we took a small ferry to an island to have lunch. Well, Charlie and Tri had lunch. I ate very little, if at all. Just not a huge fan of snails and seafood. Charlie and Tri loved it.

When we got back to Tri’s place, his family had already prepared dinner for us. Things I could eat! There was pork, chicken, vegetables, and some delicious fruit I’ve never had before. I ate so many that Tri’s mom packed me some to take home with me. Mom’s are so awesome.

After dinner, we said our thank you’s and bid our farewell. It was time for Charlie and me to head back to Ho Chi Minh. We took a Virgin Airline-like overnight bus and off we went.

Oh, by the way, this overnight bus trip wasn’t the Memorable reason for this post. The memorable night was actually the night before. Charlie and I slept fully clothed with long sleeves, long pants, and two pairs of socks to avoid being eaten by mosquitos. They got to us anyways, not sure how. Tri and his entire family slept with shorts and tshirts and didn’t get bit once! Anyways, we slept with the windows open (no screens) cause of the heat. In the middle of the night we started to hear a dog whimpering and crying. Went on for hours until dawn. Later that day, we mentioned this to Tri and he had a confused look on his face. He couldn’t remember hearing a dog cry and he wasn’t sure if any of his neighbors actually had a dog. Then a lightbulb went off on his head and he said “ah, you heard the pigs next door. They were being slaughtered to be sold at the market this morning. You actually had some during breakfast and dinner.” What. Wow. Farm to table, indeed. I will never forget that night.