Quello che segue è un altro dei racconti di viaggio di Consuelo, che ancora una volta ci porta in Vietnam. Non voglio aggiungere altro, solo: buona lettura.
"Dicembre 2003. Vietnam del Nord.
Lungo uno dei percorsi del nostro “mototour vietnamita” ci fermiamo in un villaggio a salutare la “seconda famiglia” (lui la chiama così’) della nostra guide. Living in one of those typical Vietnamese houses in stilts, with where we are held in large animals, where they chat while working on the frame where you rest when it's hot, where children play. Above is a single large room with bamboo floors so thin that I try to walk on the beams for fear of smashing the floor and find myself in the manger of the pigs. In one corner of the hearth, in the opposite corner of a wicker basket hanging from the ceiling that acts as a cradle for a small newly born. The young mother's kitchen or from time to time to give a gentle push moves to the basket so that continues to rock the baby who sleeps well.
We are presented to all members of the large family and obviously in a short time in the village spreads the voice of the arrival of two "foreigners" and that's a good reason to celebrate. The whole family is in turmoil, to prepare a worthy reception. Typical course dinner and drinks. One by one they all come to know us and greet us and at some point we take away his passport ... well tell us that it is the practice of local police. It will be so? Also arrives at an uncle with a liquor strong enough to burn rice goes everywhere. And the festivities begin.
We are seated on the floor in the middle of the great hall, all in a circle, our men and women of the family ... and after they eat separately. Only the grandmother sits with us and I embraces all the time. They serve many different dishes and the usual doubt creeps ... we are at the beginning of the trip and also running ... there will not hurt? It is not polite to refuse, and then try to force majeure enjoy the diversity of local food ... and what will be will be. The uncle then every now and we want to make a toast that we are almost at the limit "pretend" to drink with him.
Our guide and "his second family" have a lot of things to say and then we begged to stay there to give them time to talk about everything. How to say no? The beauty of this great and unique room, typical of Vietnamese houses, is that by day serves as a great room but at night is divided into many compartments by sheets hanging from the ceiling. Thus created for us a room, give us a mosquito net and blanket our staff. Below us feel the heat and noise of the animals that eat again. And the bathroom? You say ... ... ... the bathroom is outside in the middle of the field. The only thing you hope to not need it at night. But that wonderful night, only the quiet sounds of nature around us.
the morning we woke up with the "perfume" for breakfast: Servitec basically the same thing the night before. (In Vietnam, the typical breakfast consists of noodles in broth. In every corner of Hanoi from the earliest dawn we can see women with their pot serving steaming bowls of noodles to passers-by, who eat sitting on tiny stools or on the ground.)
This is very welcome: a cop who comes to greet us back our passports. Hurrah!
The greetings are always melancholy even among people who have just met. We are invited to move from their Chinese New Year to be held in February ... I think maybe!
We are told that in Vietnam is a good idea to make a gift to the guest who has stayed in your house ... the pool! We stare in amazement. It 's a huge quilt and being in motion, of course, we can not, though with much regret, accept this gift cumbersome.
We continue our journey ...
( As is often the most beautiful adventure in life, this journey began by accident . "Titian Terziani)
