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Journals: Pilgrimage to Viet Nam (2)
3rd Day
At eight ofclock, we left the hotel by bus, and headed for the convent of Mary Immaculate. At the convent, we asked if we could see a nun who was an elder sister of Father H. a well-known priest who works for Vietnamese Catholics living in Japan. The nun greeted us, and then showed us some places in the area where strangers were usually not allowed to enter, including a convent of Carmelite nuns and the main seminary where Cardinal Thuan used to teach.
Once inside the convent of Mary Immaculate, we felt as if were enveloped in an atmosphere of prayerfulness. I noticed a statue of our Lady wearing a straw hat, to protect her from the sun’s heat. “How thoughtful they are!” I said to myself.
There were some fruit and vegetable gardens inside the convent compound. The nuns were also raising chickens and pigs there. They had a fish pond as well. Several dogs barked at us, because they didn’t like strangers. Speaking in a gentle tone of voice, Fr. Ti said to the dogs, ‘Will you be quiet, please?’ However, I am sorry to report that the dogs didn’t appear to understand his Japanese! There was also a museum that used to be the bishop’s house, before the nuns found another use for it.
After the sister had shown us around, we attended a nine o’clock Mass. The sisters and novices sang hymns in Vietnamese. They sang so beautifully that we were all moved. We sang Psalm 148 in Japanese during the Mass. After Mass, they held a party for us, and offered us some dessert. We had some bananas, bean curd and oranges. Cardinal Thuan and some sisters from his parish then joined us, and he talked about the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Then he gave us some photos he had taken, and some crosses that he had made himself. The sisters at the convent gave us some rosaries that looked like bracelets, which they had made themselves, and some Vietnamese sweets. The rosaries were of the same kind that we had seen in the store in La Vang, earlier.
Two sisters accompanied us to our next destination. On the way there we saw the church where Cardinal Thuan was first assigned as a parish priest. It was on the left hand side of the street. We passed by the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor. Because of the traffic barriers there, we all had to get out of the bus and walk the rest of the way to the Cathedral of Hue, also known as Phu Cam Church. Statues of St Peter and St Paul stood at the entrance to the cathedral. They appeared to be guarding the church.
The family of Cardinal Thuan lived in the parish, and the cardinal himself often came to this church. A sister there remarked that he was like a big brother to her. His house was only seven or eight minutes’ walk from the church, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to visit it.
Next, we visited Hue Palace. The palace was a few hundred meters from the nearest bus stop. Our tourist guidebook advised us against taking any taxi rides, on account of quarrels which often broke out between passengers and drivers over fares. Our tour guide walked up to one taxi driver, and negotiated a fare of two dollars for our return trip. When we reached the palace, the driver kindly told us that he would wait for us, and that we could pay him later. He asked us to remember his car number plate, so that we could recognize his car more easily. When we got back to the taxi and paid him the two dollars he had demanded, he insisted that we should pay him four dollars instead. I tried to explain to him in English that we had promised to pay two dollars for the return trip, but that didn’t work. Then our tour guide arrived back at the taxi. He refused to give in to the driver’s demands. The driver then tried a new tack. He said that he had gotten thirsty while waiting for us, so he demanded an extra dollar. In the end, we paid him two dollars, and he quickly drove off with the money. Maybe he feared that the tour guide would lodge an official complaint if he hung around any longer.
We had a late lunch at a restaurant, at 2:30 p.m. There were some Japanese-speaking waitresses there, and the dishes they served were delicious. The ao dai dresses which some members of the group had ordered the previous day had already been delivered to the restaurant, so the people who had ordered them were able to try them on. I was surprised at how fast the tailors had sewn them. I wonder what would have happened if everyone in our group had ordered ao dai dresses at the same time. Would they have finished them all overnight?
We arrived at the airport and took the 5:10 p.m. flight to Ho Chi Minh City. They served a supper of sandwiches on the airplane. We were supposed to go to a Japanese restaurant once we landed in Ho Chi Minh City, so some of us politely declined the offer of sandwiches.
At Ho Chi Minh Airport a new tour guide met us, and we all took a bus into the city. The bus dropped us off at a Japanese restaurant called ‘Ohan’. The waitresses were dressed in Japanese costumes, and they greeted us in Japanese, saying ‘Irasshaimase’, which means ‘Welcome to Ohan’. Then they served us a bento dinner. As we didn’t start to eat right away, they then began to clear the table, until we stopped them. It looked like they were about to close the restaurant.
I couldn’t get over how big Ho Chi Minh City was! It was overflowing with people, motorbikes and cars. The atmosphere was quite different from that of Hue. The stores looked different too, because of differences in the two cities’ histories. The hotel where we were staying looked incredibly opulent. (to continue)
[by N.K.; A.T.; H.F; J.S]