25 Thousand Miles

by Đinh Nhựt Quang

My first visit to the United States of America was a fascinating, thrilling and charming experiencẹ Having had a chance to present a technical paper at the Power Engineering conference in New York City, I was really excited to take the opportunity to explore and travel around the USẠ Departed from Christchurch (New Zealand) in early February 1997, the 7-week expedition brought me to New York, Washington DC (including Northern Virginia), Columbus (OH), Seattle, Houston, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas.

I was delighted to meet many "uncles", "aunties" and "buđies" in the world wide web of NZ-Alumni, and their wonderful hospitality made me feel right at home wherever I went. Whether it was in New York City, Houston or Little Saigon, the New Zealand stories and jokes, particularly "Chổng", lived on and never ended. A few 30 year old photos of the young and promising NZ-Alumni, which I had carried with me on the trip, brought back a lot of happy memories, laughter and surprises to the conversations. Most "uncles" were amazed, although proud, of their looks in the shining student era 30 years ago.

As I soon found out, there are so many nations with their distinctive culture operating under the USA banner. But more interestingly, the Vietnamese presence in the US spread anywhere from the East to the West Coast. You can find Vietnamese food, book stores, music stores, lawyers offices, doctors, mechanics, etc. almost everywherẹ The excellent facilities available in the US do help the Vietnamese thrive in every aspect of life quite easily, especially those with talents. It appears that the Vietnamese have built another "Vietnam" inside the USẠ You could possibly have the best of both world being a Vietnamese in the USA.

The USA, on the other hand, can be an awful place to live for the unskilled, under-privileged and the unawarẹ Losing onés job is the worst fear for most peoplẹ Since the US economic system is built on debt, having no income could mean going through a very tough time indeed. Everyone needs to be constantly on their toes in order to keep up with the competitions in the societỵ As a result, almost everyone reaches their stress level everyday.

For a tourist, the USA is definitely an interesting place to visit with its diversity and extremes. Some of the attractions that one should not miss include Manhattan with its impressive buildings, financial district, Broadway shows, China town and noisy cabs; Washington DC with its free museums and art galleries; NASA Johnson Space Center (Houston) with its space shuttles and rockets; the cable cars, Golden Gate Bridge and China town in San Francisco; Little Saigon in Santa Ana, just South of Los Angeles; Disneyland and Las Vegas.

Some of the best Vietnamese/Chinese restaurants or noodle houses are the Nha Trang, HSF (on Bowery Street), and "aunty" Hiền 's Kew Gardens in New York City; Taste of Saigon and Song Ho in northern Virginia (outskirt of Washington DC); Fu Kim and Phở Công Lý in Houston; Cà Mau (Bún Bò Huế), Bánh cuốn Tây Hồ and Boda in San Jose; cơm tấm Trần Quí Cáp and many more in Little Saigon; Phở Catamarca by "aunty" Diệp in San Diego.

Of all the destinations, my favourite places are Manhattan, Washington DC and Houston. Walking the streets of Manhattan is a unique experiencẹ Characteristic buildings are abundant in the Midtown area and the reasonable distance between buildings gives the feeling of spaciousness. There were so many people on the streets, mostly tourists as I soon found out, even on Sunday afternoon. There are numerous shops, cafes and restaurants on the ground floor of these buildings. The price range varies greatly, but with a little bit of shopping around you can find bargains on almost every block. For cheap and healthy lunches, salad bars are best. One can choose a variety of fresh salad, juicy vegetables and delicious roasts for $4.50. Lunch from the food stalls on the streets is reasonable for $2-3. On the other hand, it could easily costs you $25 in an exotic restaurant.

Riding the subway is an experience on its own. As driving in Manhattan is a real nightmare with pedestrians crossing the street, with cabs pulling over to the sides, with loading and unloading trucks parked on the streets any time, almost everyone uses the subwaỵ It is fairly safe, cheap and very convenient. However, people need to dress in an intimidating way in order to blend in with the locals. Do not look or stare at other people on the subway and do not give way at peak time or you might never get on a train.

The views from the Empire State Building are magnificent and watching the sunset there is a real treat on a clear daỵ Wall Street is unusually quiet with lots of security peoplẹ China Town is always exciting and buzzing. It is the best place to buy souvenirs and oriental food. Vietnamese shops can be found there, but not selling anything different from the Chinese, ịẹ T-shirt, sweatshirts, handbags, etc. Vietnamese books and CDs are expensivẹ Nevertheless, Nha Trang restaurant is one of the best in the US. Manhattan also has one of the best seafood buffets, HSF (House of SeaFood), where you can enjoy the very fresh, tasty and healthy seafood and salad selection.

The Broadway shows are arguably the best in the world. "Uncle" Nguyễn Mạnh Huân 's praise on the Broadway shows heightened "uncle" Phạm Nhật 's (who also attended the conference) and my curiosity on them. We set out one night trying to get tickets for either Le Miserable or Phantom of the Opera, but predictably, they were all sold out. Thanks to the local knowledge of "uncle" Huân, we finally got Miss Saigon tickets for half the price in Time Squarẹ The show was not as good as we expected, even though scenes setting and changing were excellent. We might not have been familiar with the songs.

Washington DC and the surrounding areas including Northern Virginia and Maryland are very nice, and relatively warm compared to New York. Since "uncle" Nguyễn Anh Giao had exhaustedly described DC in the 1996 issue of 7ND, I will only ađ some more comments here.

The Museums and Art Galleries are fantastic and better still, they are free, including the White House tour. One of my favourites is the National Museum of Natural Historỵ The dinosaurs' skeletons and most of the displays are fascinating. The paintings in the Art Galleries are magnificent. I spent hours gazing at them and didn't get bored. Free parking space are plenty in the National Mall (the space between the Washington Monument to the Capitol ), particularly on Madison and Jefferson Drives.

Old Town, Alexandria, is definitely a good place to visit if you ever come to Northern Virginiạ It is full of specialty shops from clothes to sweets. Some shops were even decorated with very special European looks. If you have a few hours to spend in Old Town in the evening, having French cakes with a cup of coffee is very romantic.

Not to forget about the airport in Northern Virginia, Dulles International airport is the worst airport I have ever been to, in terms of the structure and organization. There are 3 separate terminal buildings in the airport that the flyers to and from Dulles should know about. Dulles airport is structured in a way that one could only get to another terminal by using the ugly looking buses, which I called Star War Vehicles. They are usually very crowded and time consuming. One needs to ađ an extra 20 minutes to their trip.

Houston is one of the best places for Vietnamese food and it is certainly the cheapest. In the South-West area of Houston, Vietnamese and Chinese malls are overflowing. I was amazed at the large size of the dishes therẹ The housing is also cheap, which could have made it the ideal place to live if it is not in the miđle of a desert. It is no surprise that people use fans in the winter time in Houston, and "uncle" Phạm Nhật confirmed that Houston consumes the largest electricity load for air-conditioning in the world.

The NASA Johnson Space Center is a great place to visit for a good one day trip. There are all sorts of displays of space shuttles, including the Apollo module that came back from the moon, a rock from the moon which you can touch, and even instructions on how to extract oxygen from moon soil. You can also see live demonstration of the zero-gravity environment, feel the rush in the IMAX theater, visit the Mission Control center and the astronaut training facilities. You can find out how much you would weigh on Mars, Jupiter or Venus, as well as what you would look on these planets through the mirrors displayed. I can easily weigh more than 200 kg on Jupiter and would look so fat from the mirror.

If you are interested in visiting the Space Center, you can contact Dr Nguyễn Hữu Khổ Thêm for more information. Dr Khổ Thêm announced at a buffet dinner in Fu Kim restaurant that his name has been changed after many years working for NASA and so many years of marriagẹ The honourable witnesses were "aunty" Ngọc Bích, "uncle and aunty" Nguyễn Phục Hưng, Nguyễn Văn Xá; Cát Linh, Lưu and myself. The food at Fu Kim was great, the conversation was endless and it was very interesting to learn of other NZ-Alumni private (but open for public discussion) lives. Due to the recent privacy act in New Zealand, it is wise not to publish the stories here.

The tennis challenge with "uncles" Ngô Minh Triết and Nguyễn Danh Ngôn in Westminster, Santa Ana, was very entertaining. As I have only played tennis for two weeks before the trip, "uncles" Triết and Ngôn gave me the advantage of having unlimited serves. I figured that if I serve a quadruple fault (not by choice), then the opponents would fall asleep and I could get easy points by using very soft serves. This strange tactic combined with the excellency of "uncle" Huân, my double partner from the local club, helped us steal a set off our opponents. The final score was 2-1. Ím sure I could do much better next time with a little more practice, or just teaming up with Dr Khổ Thêm (the current champ of the NZ-Alumni Houston tennis scene).

I wish to express my thanks, appreciation and best regards to all my friends and the NZ-Alumni who made the trip a memorable one; to "uncle" Giao for your suggestion of the title of this article; and to H.D. for your help with the editing of this article .

Christchurch, April 1997.