KITES!!! KITES!!!

April 7, 2009, 4:34 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

Lately it’s been dry season in Tra Vinh. No rain, just hot windy weather. Windy weather = kites!!! That’s right kiddies, it’s kite flying season (ok, it was. It just ended, but I’ve been procrastinating on posting).

I was pretty excited because my first impression ever of Tra Vinh was that there would be lots of kites. When I first got posted there, I looked up as much about Tra Vinh as I could on the internet (which wasn’t much). On YouTube, there was like this 10 minute video on Tra Vinh that had nothing but kite flying in it. I was like “What is this crazy town with nothing but kites?”

(You don’t have to watch the whole thing. I haven’t even seen it yet in all its entirety.)

I was a bit disappointed when I arrived in Tra Vinh and nary a kite could be seen. Lo and behold, seven months later, kites at last, kites at last!!!!!

The green building in the back is My Lan Chemical Company. My Lan Co. is pretty fancy shmancy. Working there is like the Tra Vinh-ian equivalent to working for Google, from what I hear (apparently there are massages for staff, and a fancy restaurant that’s free for workers). Anyways, everyday from 3-6pm, it’s crowded with lots of people flying kites. I only ever flew kites once a year during elementary school, with my school’s annual kite day. Still, kites have a special place in my heart…

…In anyone’s heart, I’d argue. During Tet, when I went to Vung Tau, my mom also went with a bunch of her old friends from high school. We all went to the beach, everyone else went swimming. Since I didn’t have a swimsuit, I bought a kite instead. From frumpy 65 year olds to jaded med school students, everyone’s faces magically transformed into gleeful smiles and giggles once I handed them the kite.

Yay kites. My kite is a Phoenix. It kind of looks like a flying chicken, but I think that adds to its charm. In my few kite flying adventures, I have learned that white men and kites are a hazardous combination. This comes from my highly scientific research involving two case studies.

1) Toni. We went kite flying. When I was flying the kite, everything was happy and wonderful. I passed the kite to him. Within 5 minutes he instigated an airborne accident, tangling up with 4 kites and dragging them to the ground. I go to the scene and being winding up the string, only to see that our kite has somehow been severed from the twine and is now somewhere far away. Toni goes to look for it, returns to inform me that a gang of 10 year old kids have taken the kite and won’t give it back to him. I go to the kids and they demand 10,000 VND in exchange for the kite. I just take it and walk away, shaking my head in disapproval at the Spaniard.

2) Jeff. He went to fly kites with Tam and her niece. Apparently Tam handed him the kite for one moment, and in that moment the kite wandered in front of a lady driving a motorcycle and the string almost decapitated her.