Journals: Pilgrimage to Viet Nam (1)

1st Day

Our group of pilgrimage left Kansai International Airport at 11:00 on Sep 1st, 2007. It was made up of 31 people from M Catholic Church and T Catholic Church. We were heading for Viet Nam. We were supposed to arrive at Viet Nam at 2:30pm local time. We have two-hour time difference. It took us five hours to reach Viet Nam including the time difference.

We used Viet Nam Air and we felt Vietnamese atmosphere as soon as we were on board. Fortunately they gave us a menu written in Japanese. It had some spelling mistakes but it was readable. They have prepared Japanese menu for tourism.

We arrived at Ho Chi Minh Airport and found Fr Ti in the crowd while waiting for our luggage. I suppose all of us felt relieved to see him. He led us from International Arrival Robby to the domestic terminal, which had been inaugurated just three days before. They were understaffed and Fr Ti asked them to open another door to customs and immigration for us. That helped us to finish paperwork quickly.

While we were waiting for this procedure, the tour conductor gave us some guidelines during the tour and then introduced all the members. At this point, Ms.K, who works for Viet Nam HIV Children's Funds, joined us. She took some days off for the pilgrimage and looked a little tired.

Some of us had lunch in a restaurant in the airport before we took a flight for Hue. They were not familiar with local food but they ordered and tried various dishes.

A Vietnamese tour guide met us at Hue Airport. He stood holding a sign saying,' Pilgrimage to Viet Nam with Fr Ti' He spoke Japanese well. He led us to a large bus.

We were offered ham sandwiches on the flight and some of us emptied the plate. Soon after we arrived at Hue Airport, we dropped in at a restaurant for dinner.

It seems to me that we had been constantly eating meals and it was almost like a torture because of the huge amount of the dinner. We had dinner while welcome music was performed. They used different spices from ours but I liked them. Considering two-hour time difference, it was midnight in Japan time. I thought a bowl of Pho was just enough for dinner.
After dinner, we got to a hotel. It was already the next date in Japan.

2ne Day

We got up at 6:30 and left for La Vang at 8:00 by bus. It was Sunday. There shouldn't be rush hours on Sundays but the traffic was so heavy with a lot of motorbikes. I was impressed that there were no accidents in that situation.

The bus conductor said that September 2nd was National Foundation Day and various events were held everywhere. We saw a boat race in the river out of the window of the bus.

We passed a large hospital, which was build with the support of Japan. The bus got out of downtown and headed for La Vang Church, which is located about 60 km north of the city. We drove along route No 1 through vast desert.

Most people in Hue are Buddhists and there are more than 130 temples. The population of the city is around 2 millions. Among them, there are about 64 thousand Catholics. Hue parish is a small one among other cities in Viet Nam.

Hue had been governed by Viet Nam since 13th century and it was the center of the middle Viet Nam. It was ruled by Hue Kingdom for 13 generations. Under this kingdom in 1798, Christianity was prohibited and Christians were persecuted. They ran away into jungles and many people suffered of Malaria and other diseases.

They fervently prayed with rosary and remained faithful. It is said that Our Lady appeared to them and the story of this vision was told from generation to generation for 210 years. This place is called La Vang after a kind of herb ‘La vang'.

In 19th century, Roman Catholic Church designated this place as a holy place and they built a church of bricks. The whole church was destroyed by bombing during the war except the bell tower. Strangely, the place where Mary appeared was not ruined and a statue of Mary was placed there. We saw a group of religious praying in front of the statue.

Fr Ti offered a mass in Japanese on the outdoor altar beside the statue, while local people were praying there. The place was already crowded with people praying as it was the site of the vision. Before the mass, Fr Ti talked to the people what group we were in Vietnamese, so that they understood us and joined us in the service.

The Good News was first read in Vietnamese and then in Japanese. The Lord's Prayer was sung in Vietnamese.

The priest told us that it was not necessary for us to follow the formal style of the service of standing up and down because some people might not be Christians. The people, however, followed the procedures of Roman Catholic Church. It was rather embarrassing for us to keep seated. So we all shared the service with more or less with the same movements.

I noticed some people praying there didn't receive the Holy Communion and later I learned that they had already attended the mass before and were staying there for prayer and meditation in front of the statue of Mary. I was deeply moved by faithfulness of the people. I was happy to share the service with them.

I should add another thing which stuck me very much. It was the attitude of an altar boy. He took care of the altar cloth by putting pegs so that occasional strong winds would not blow it away. To make a shade under the strong sun shine, he borrowed her mother's umbrella for the priest. He also gave a chair to a person who led the service. His kindness made us feel comfortable during the service.

There was a small shop attached to the church and they sold different kinds of bracelet type of rosary. I found some bottles of water from LaVang in the showcase. The price was not written and we were asked to donate some money for them. La Vang water and herb of La vang seem to be famous souvenirs.

After the mass, we got on the bus. The parish priest asked us to carry some bags of dried leaves of La vang to Ho Chi Min. While we were waiting for our members loading the bags, the bus was surrounded by children and old people who were begging for money. They kept telling us about their difficulties. Some children received alms from two members. It seemed that it was kind of job for them.

On our way back to Hue we often saw lightening and were often caught in a shower. The weather changes quickly. While we were having lunch, it started raining heavily. The sound of raindrops was like back ground music for us. The rain had stopped when we finished lunch and we got on the bus and it became stuffy again.
In the afternoon we visited Cai Dinh Castle, Tu Duc Castle and Myn Man Castle. The gorgeous architecture of the kingdom showed how the royal family controlled people for their fame and luxury. We also saw the history of persecution against Christians those days.

We also dropped in at The Embroidery Museum to see embroidery art works. We did some shopping at a store across from the museum for a short while. It seems that prices were lower in Hue than they were in Ho Chi Min.

Some women bought an order-made formal traditional dress, ‘ao dai'. They said they would stitch them overnight and bring them to the restaurant the next day.

On that night, we enjoyed royal dishes of Hue. All of us, including Fr Ti, rent costumes of Hue Kingdom. We pretended that we were the descendants of Hue Kingdom in different costumes such as public servants, worriers and town people. We put on Fr Ti the costume of a king. It was fun.

The dinner was wonderful. Vegetables such as carrots, turnips and cucumbers were curved beautifully in such shapes as peacocks and phoenix. Bulbs of garlic and leeks were curved in the shape of flowers. When we were going to eat them, the waiter stopped us saying, ‘They are not for eating but for decoration.' I wondered if they were going to serve them for other customers later. Anyway, I enjoyed watching fruit-carvings.

We didn't have enough time to visit all the sightseeing spots in Viet Nam. We safely finished our pilgrimage. Some male members took out left over from the restaurant for their second drinking party in their hotel room. At that night some members had leaking of rain from the ceiling of their room and for help in the party room. The king of Linh Family managed to fix it immediately. I suppose the ancient kings of Linh Kingdom also took good care of their people in those days.

[by N.K.; A.T.; H.F; J.S]