Encountering Hue on the sea in Nha Trang.

Báo Thừa Thiên Huế•04/06/2023

"Nha Trang, the day of return...", whenever I come to Nha Trang, I always feel like I'm returning to a familiar place, perhaps because the city also has many small streets with small houses, possessing a certain tranquility similar to Hue .

Nha Trang is bustling along the roads leading to the sea. Even at the beginning of summer, it's crowded, with many foreign tourists walking the streets. Tall buildings and large hotels stretch along the coastal road; Nha Trang truly is a city embracing the sea. With the advantage of having the sea within the city, Nha Trang has had a strong tourism industry from the past to the present. Now, the city boasts a modern beauty.

Just across the road is the beach. From early morning to sunset, the beach is always crowded. At night, the city sparkles with lights; the feeling of sitting in the city, listening to the sounds of the streets and feeling the cool sea breeze eases all worries. If you feel tired, the sea breeze gently carries it away. Is that why the people of Nha Trang are so gentle and open? Everywhere I go reminds me of Hue, especially encountering the gentle, quiet yet enthusiastic nature of the locals. I've heard many friends from afar who visited Hue praise the people of Hue for their dedication in giving directions to strangers, even driving alongside them to show them the way, and their charming way of selling, especially the women selling food on the streets. In Nha Trang, that same "quality" is strongly present in the ordinary working people I met.

I met her on the Nha Trang beach that morning. Initially, she spoke with a Nha Trang accent, but after a while, she switched to a Hue accent and, smiling, said, "My parents are from Hue, and I was born there too." The initial surprise quickly faded, and she chatted with me like a long-time friend. In 1962, her father moved the whole family to Nha Trang to start a business. Now, Nha Trang has become the second home of her extended family. "I try to visit Hue once every few years, you know. My finances aren't exactly abundant, and besides, now that I have grandchildren, I also have time to help my son and daughter take care of them," she confided.

She said that many people from Hue have moved to Nha Trang. There's even a small village on the coast in Nha Trang that's almost entirely inhabited by people from Hue; locals call it "Hue in Dai Lan." Back then, her family was struggling, so her father brought them all here. Nha Trang is a gentle place, and its people are kind, making it easy to do business. That was over sixty years ago; Nha Trang used to be much more spacious then, but now it's crowded. But "Life has room for everyone, you know. Now, anywhere is home, but the place where you were born and raised is always a sacred place of remembrance." Then she asked if Hue was hot this season, her hometown being Vinh Hien – a land of white sand and cactus flowers. Perhaps the heat was the most profound impression left on her from her childhood.

She also mentioned that a few years ago she returned to her hometown for ancestral worship ceremonies. Seeing the development of her hometown, she and her parents were very happy. Her parents knew that they wouldn't have many opportunities to visit due to their age and declining health, so on that occasion, their children and grandchildren took them to visit relatives everywhere. Her parents always said, "I'm happy for our people," whenever they saw houses being built, roads being improved, and villages being clean and bright. She also said she hasn't been able to do much for her hometown yet. She still hopes to do something for Hue, and what she and her parents can do within their capabilities is pray for Hue's safety during each rainy and stormy season, and hope that all Hue residents, wherever they are, will always be healthy and prosperous...

When her family moved to Nha Trang, they brought with them the Hue-style pastry-making craft to make a living. The banh beo, banh nam, and banh loc (types of Hue-style cakes) they made were well-received and praised by their neighbors. Shrimp, the key ingredient in these three Hue-style cakes, was abundant in Nha Trang, making her family's shop famous. From preparing the dough, simmering the shrimp and meat, wrapping the cakes in leaves, to mixing the dipping sauce... everything was done according to Hue recipes. Her mother only added a little sugar to the filling when simmering the meat to suit the slightly sweeter taste of Nha Trang residents. The dipping sauce also contained plenty of chili. Thanks to their hard work and stable business, her parents raised five children, built a sturdy house, and even bought land for their children when they started their own families. Now, she and her children continue the Hue-style pastry-making craft. "Wholesale business is also getting by because now there are many delicious, new dishes from many regions being sold here. Nha Trang is a tourist city, after all, so I'm trying to keep Hue's traditional cakes firmly established in Nha Trang so that they can be seen alongside the cuisines of many other regions, and that makes me happy," she said softly.

Before leaving Nha Trang, my friend and I sat at a riverside snail restaurant. On this side of the river, the closely built houses had become a hallmark of the town. Looking across, there were still old houses with corrugated iron roofs; upon asking, we learned that it was the Bóng neighborhood (somewhat similar to the back bank of Bao Vinh or the Cồn Hến islet in Hue). I didn't know if there were any people from Hue in this Cồn neighborhood. Whether there were or not, I hoped that our compatriots would have a stable life; in a foreign land, making a living is not easy. That's what I thought when I said goodbye to my friend on the Nha Trang beach, as well as many times when I met fellow Hue natives in Da Lat and Saigon.

A brief encounter with her on the beach in Nha Trang gave me a deeper understanding of the silent connection between the two words "fellow countrymen." I know that those who have left their hometowns for the sake of life, but still remember their ancestral land, still secretly pray for their fellow countrymen, for Hue, to prosper. Like me and many other people from Hue, when meeting fellow countrymen in a foreign land, we also offer the same prayer: "May you be strong and resilient," and "May you live and work peacefully" in the second homeland they have chosen.

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