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revisiting their homeland |
Revisiting
- Kim & Vinh Nguyen -
"And then we went back there, and we've got nothing left there except for the relatives, no more house, you stay in a hotel..."
Vinh: After we spent about eleven years here in Sydney and in Canberra and have two small children here: Karen and Neil, we went back to Vietnam for the first time after we left. It brought us to tears, to look down from the plane and see the paddy fields down there, 'oh this is home'. And then we went back there, and we've got nothing left there except for the relatives, no more house, you stay in a hotel, you stay with other relatives. After a while all the kids, they miss Australia, because they were born here.
Kim: And we realise that Australia is our home. Vietnam is our home country but Australia is our home.
"We were lucky we got to see some people. Like a grandpa or uncles, aunties - our older generation..."
Vinh: [We were] very, very excited and happy to see our families again after such a long separation. Of course some people have gone during that time and we didn't see them again and probably some people who left after that. We were lucky we got to see some people. Like a grandpa or uncles, aunties - our older generation, they have one foot in the grave already, so they can't last long so we are lucky to see them. And see our old friends and see our old schools again, and our old workplace.
Kim: And still we couldn't find the city that we'd left
Vinh: It was disappointing - you couldn't have all the feelings we had before, like drifting down the street on a pushbike in the night time, enjoying the scent from the milk flowers, feeling like the nippy, nippy feelings from the cold wind, that kind of thing. It's so noisy, busy now.
" When we were young, at night there were people who sell food, in the evening, they were walking along the street..."
Kim: When we were young, at night there were people who sell food, in the evening, they were walking along the street advertising. When we came back the first time we wanted to find such sounds. It's gone, no more.
Vinh: Life has changed so much in Vietnam. Before it was quite quiet. But when you go back there now: people everywhere. The population of the city is about 3 or 4 times more than before we left. Houses everywhere and a lot of new streets, new suburbs.
Kim: We couldn't find our way in the new area.
"...from time to time we gather together here, Hà Nôian people, and we just wade back in memory about that beautiful Hà Nôi..."
Kim: We still, from time to time we gather together here (in Sydney, Ha Noian people, and we just wade back in our memories about that beautiful Hà Nôi, with the smell of the flowers, and the colours in different seasons, actually beautiful colour around the year.
Kim: In Hà Nôi there is a very, very special smell, a kind of tiny, tiny white flower we call hoa sua, it is like a milk flower.
Vinh: Milk flower, the scent in night time.
Kim: And you can't forget it, it stays there forever in your mind.
