Fun antique market - Photo: TBC
The big holidays are coming and bustling everywhere, but I am sick so I can't go far or go back to my hometown. I let my daughter come up with a fun program close to Ho Chi Minh City that she can have fun with, and then I will try to "follow" her.
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At first, she was surprised because "I'm so used to living in Ho Chi Minh City, how can I have fun, Mom?". But then she saw the reason when I analyzed that Mom's health could not allow her to travel far, and secondly, we have lived in this city for so long but don't know much about it.
The city is so familiar that I forgot to learn about this place, exploit - make a living - study within it but am indifferent like a boring long-term relationship.
So my child used his phone to search and create a really tight program.
Eat Michelin Pho 'you will find it delicious after swallowing'
My daughter requested: I have to leave the house on time on holidays. The first thing we discovered was a pho restaurant right in our old district. The restaurant is small, about 2m2 , but it is on the Michelin list. While waiting for the pho to be cooked, my mother and I were both nervous because we were worried that the pho would not be as bad as we expected.
I told my son that I had heard about the owner of this pho restaurant. She loved cooking so much that she was always thinking of new dishes to make day and night. The restaurant had a famous pho dish especially for teenagers with cheese fondue with fries and strange beef.
The pho served looked very ordinary. My son ate "Pho Tin" and I ate regular pho. But when you actually taste it, you will breathe a sigh of relief because it is a dish that "you will find delicious after swallowing it", like the feeling of falling in love after getting married, deep and gentle.
While we were eating, some Western guests came over. My daughter enjoyed the food and told me some funny stories. "You know, Mom, when we speak Vietnamese, it feels really interesting when foreigners don't understand what we say. I can't explain why, but I really enjoy it." I looked at her sparkling eyes as she told the story and found this moment of mother-daughter intimacy interesting.
Weekend antique market: shopping and listening to old love songs
My daughter took me to the next stop, an antique market also located in the old district where my house and the pho restaurant are. The house with the flower trellis is also small, but stepping inside is an incredibly beautiful and joyful world .
The stalls selling all kinds of old, slightly old and seemingly old souvenirs were designed close together in a very pleasant way. I tried on the huge rings and palm-shaped earrings, while my daughter liked to look at the weapons such as bullets, swords, and beautiful miniature knives, a somewhat "violent" hobby compared to her gentleness.
In the middle of this antique market is a stage with an orchestra and singers singing old love songs that are just my favorite. Everyone can choose a seat somewhere to watch others choose beautiful items or to sway to the love songs. "You can come here on the weekend to just sit and have fun, this market is open on the weekends," my daughter suggested.
Fun at the antique market - Photo: LAM
Lamp making workshop: joy comes from companionship
After lunch, it was time for my child to go to the "workshop". It was a high-rise cafe that offered "hands-on games" and my child chose to design a beautiful light box.
We bought a glass box and were given some small toys to glue, sandblast, build bridges, build houses, and position them so that when the lights were turned on, we would have a sparkling model to our liking. The journey was truly a joy. The sparkling lights were finished in a few moments, but the joy was when we created the results with our daughter, when she asked for her opinion, changed her mind, moments that I did not have easily as my daughter grew older and wanted to escape from her parents.
Achievements in making lamps at the coffee shop - Photo: TBC
We also visited Ha Chuong Assembly Hall, a cultural relic of the Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City. The architecture of this Assembly Hall requires a long time to see the elaborate carvings on the high walls.
"The fairies are looking down at me, Mom," my son said after reading to me that this temple worships the Holy Mother of Fishermen, and that the thousands of small statues up there are actually fairies.
Visit Ha Chuong Assembly Hall - Photo: TBC
Cinema in a coffee shop: watching a different movie, living a different life
And when night fell, the two of us ended our journey in a cinema located in a… coffee shop. The girl persuaded us: "Let's not go to the big cinema anymore 'too often'. At this cinema cafe we will watch an old movie, for something different."
We went into the shop to buy drinks and were led to a small movie room. There were only about 20 customers in the room and the owner allowed herself to give a talk about cinema, her passion, before the movie started.
On the way home, my child kept thinking about the main character of the movie: "I like the main character, Mom. She sacrificed a lot for love but was not chosen because her lover did not understand that love."
I told him that was the life he would experience. There are people who love each other but behave and think so differently that they cannot belong to each other. They will find the love that suits them.
My daughter asked me: "Mom, are you happy after a day of work?". I think I can see my happiness on her face without needing an answer.
The days of sudden illness turned out to be the lucky time when I could find joy with my child in a bit of silence compared to the cheers of the crowd and my friends. I was able to live with the city with its beats underneath the glitz and splendor, the rhythm of life of an urban area turned out to lie in the way people found each other, giving each other a quiet seat.
I chose a seat to watch my child, wishing that I would always be healthy so that I could watch him grow up, watch him adapt to his own life. I also sat to watch myself, the joys and sorrows I had gone through, the times of danger or joy, who came along and who left, what I loved and what I should leave behind…
Remember the lyrics of a song I used to like with Bao Yen's voice: Whose Saigon is it that you only ask now? Saigon, the city of depth/Looking from afar or looking close, it's beautiful/ Much more beautiful when you look at it for a long time.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/kham-pha-tp-hcm-quen-ma-la-an-pho-michelin-vui-cho-do-co-lang-nghe-minh-20250902220410866.htm
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