Uncertainty
It’s been two and a half months and many uncertain developments since I last walked the streets of Da Nang. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little worried about what I would find. My entrance process had changed, my visa requirements had changed, It was obvious that the Vietnamese government was a bit apprehensive. There have been mandatory quarantine zones across the country and visitors from many of the countries most heavily affected by the outbreak were barred from entry.
As things were beginning to spiral out of containment and prevention and more towards outbreak status back home in the US, I was desperate to get out before the US was also placed on a banned list. Even if just temporarily, a travel ban from home would have been devastating for me and my wife. I hadn’t slept well in a few days as my anxiety about getting home to Diem was beginning to mount.
The Arrival
I told you in my last post about the flight from Atlanta to Doha. The flight from Doha to Da Nang was highly unusual. The last flight I took to Da Nang was pretty full. This flight was empty. Eerily empty. There was only one other person on my row, a young African man sitting in the other window seat. A row consisting of three seats on each side and four in the middle. There were no travelers in the three rows in front of us or the two rows behind us. There couldn’t have been thirty people on the entire flight.
The Attendants were kind, attentive and the flight was quiet and uneventful. I ate dinner, took two sleeping pills and stretched out the length of my row of seats and tried to sleep. My plane would be landing at 6:45 am Da Nang time and it would be a rough day without any. I awoke about two hours before landing and ordered a cup of coffee. I settled into a pretty good movie called Driven. It is about the fall of John Dalorean. It was actually very interesting.
The attendants provided us with health declarations that are now required for all peoples entering Vietnam. It was a simple enough form, where have you visited in the past fourteen days? Have you exhibited any of these symptoms and so forth and so on. I of course had only been in the metro Atlanta area and have had no symptoms of any kind except the stress induced insomnia of the past few days. That, of course, was not on the list.
Diem had asked me, in a very concerned way, to please put my mask on before exiting the plane. The flight was early in and I missed the last 10 minutes of the movie. I’ll have to catch it on the return flight I thought as I grabbed my belongings, put on my mask and waited at the curtain for the signal to disembark. I was the first person not in first class off the plane and sprinted towards the exit. 26 hours in the air, I was ready to run.
I submitted my health declaration, received my approval papers and was waved past the temperature readers and physical station. I guess those are used for suspect travelers. My Visa was fastened to the inside of my passport and I headed to the immigration line. Most of the westerners arriving did not have on masks, but every local and anyone of Asian descent did. And so did I.
With so much stigma surrounding the outbreak Diem informed me that locals were very suspicious of foreigners in general not wearing masks as all the cases in Vietnam have come from elsewhere. I was assured that once I got into our neighborhood things would be fine. So I dealt with the mask and waited for my turn in line.
There were only two agents in immigration and it made for a very slow line. I’m sure they were running on smaller crews as travel and tourism had been hit hard in the region. It took about 30 minutes to get to the front, which I guess really isn’t that bad. As the gentleman in front of me handed his American passport to the agent, my line came to a stop. The agent kept looking past the line for several minutes when finally what he was looking for came into view. His superior. He waved him over and his boss took the passport and the gentleman and escorted him away.
Before the boss came over the agent kept pointing to a stamp in his passport. I have no idea what his issue was, I’m assuming it may have been about his previous travels. Who knows, it wasn’t my problem, it was now my turn. No issues. Click clunk, click clunk as my passport was stamped and handed back. Com On, (thank you) I said, gave a slight bow and rushed to retrieve my clothes and cooler of meat. The good news about the light amount of passengers was that my luggage was already waiting, usually it’s the longest part of the process.
I grabbed my boxes, threw them on a cart and rolled them straight through the exit. Also unusual as I usually have to run everything through a detector and security. I guess now there are other things on the local authorities minds.
An Angel
As I walked through the exit I spotted Diem immediately. Even in her covered face, her eyes will never betray me. It was so incredible to see her again. I grabbed her up in a heavy hug and twirled her in my arms. I gave her a kiss through our masks and she ordered our taxi. It was an amazing ride to our apartment.
The smells, sights, sounds, textures, everything came rushing back into my brain and coalesced as if I had never left. My second home, my wife, the world, the air, it was wonderful. I held her hand as we crisscrossed the busy streets in the back of the taxi on our way to our new apartment. We, I should say Diem, had moved around a few times and each time I visited we were in a new apartment.
An Apartment
We had been looking for something more permanent, but struggled to find something that fit everyone’s needs. Diem almost refused to let me pay anything substantial for a nice apartment. On my last trip we visited a few rooms looking for something suitable for the long haul, but I was not impressed. One room in particular we looked at had walls made of the corrugated plastic used for campaign signs in the US. That just wouldn’t do. She had lived in less than ideal conditions long enough.
Though it was better than a lot of habitats in the country, I was not going to let my wife live in any kind of place. So, running out of time, I put her up in a nice hotel for a month the day I last saw her. In that time we were able to find a better place. She moved in when the month ran out at the hotel and the new apartment was seemingly perfect. Near both Su and Xu’s schools, near the church, near the beach, a coffee shop on the bottom floor and sweet landlords.
The only complaint Diem had, though not really a complaint, was that the apartment was just above the coffee shop and very noisy in the early morning. I assured her it was ok and if it was a problem we would work it out when I arrived in March. Then the virus hit. Tourism came to an almost halt and a recession began to set in in Vietnam. The building emptied out and the penthouse became available.
The Penthouse
We negotiated a relatively modest long term rental agreement and Diem, with the girls, moved into our permanent penthouse. A separate Kitchen, modern bathroom, air conditioned, a guest room available to us for a modest monthly fee when we have guests (wink, wink) and an amazing rooftop patio. Did I mention the patio. The Patio itself is worth the rent. A two floored rooftop. We have the upper patio for hanging clothes and for a 360 degree view of the city and the lower patio complete with a dining table, a bench, a hanging swing and water sculptures and plenty of plants. We can see the ocean, mountains and lady Buddha from our lower perch. It’s the most amazing place I’ve ever lived.
I mean no disrespect, I love my childhood home and residence in the states, but this is something I never thought I would have. A dream come true, a penthouse home in paradise. It is truly an incredible moment. In the past couple of years my life has evolved into an absolutely amazing thing. A wonderful wife, an amazing family back home in the states, an awesome in-law family here in Da Nang. Technology is an amazing thing as even with a massive language barrier I speak with my family here in Vietnam with relative ease.
Unpacking
The lady of the house and her family live in the building and run the coffee shop on the ground floor. They collected my luggage from the car as we arrived and I was sent to our apartment to settle in as they brought my luggage up the stairs shortly after. It was the first time I had seen our permanent home here in Da Nang and I was very happy with the accommodations.
A walk up on the top floor, it insured that I would at least get exercise everyday walking up and down the central marbled staircase. I unpacked, stored my clothes and packed the freezer with my still frozen solid chunks of boneless chicken quarters, rib eye steaks, short ribs, pork belly and pork shoulder.
Diem had already filled the pantry with Asian oranges, farm fresh eggs, rice noodles and countless seasonings and staples. As we walked in I could already smell something delicious as Diem had the instapot cooking chunks of pork for breakfast. After breakfast, a brief tour and some time just holding and loving on my wife, I showered and laid on the bed. It was still early morning in Da Nang, but days of insomnia and naps on airplanes crossing the globe had caught up with me. A sleep without worry or stress overcame me and I drifted off into a most beautiful dream.
Dinner
I awoke around 6 in the evening and realized that I was in trouble. I had slept all day and it would be nearly impossible to sleep tonight. It was a good thing I brought medicine for such problems and Diem and I walked to the market for some grapes and to stretch our legs.
We prepared a quick dinner of fried fish cakes, Pho and seared short ribs. We settled onto the patio for a delicious dinner in the cool night breeze. After dinner we talked and cleaned up the kitchen. It was wonderful to be by her side again. Afterwards we settled in for the night and I took some medicine to force sleep. I knew I had to adjust as fast as possible and that required sleeping through the night. It wasn’t long before sleep overcame me again. It was some of the best sleep I’ve had in months.
Click here for a quick tour of the apartment
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