Family party Viet Nam stylee
on Lucy Otto (Vietnam), 11/Jul/2010 14:31, 34 days ago
About 4 hours ago, with a long empty Sunday evening stretched out in front of me, I thought I'd write a post about Vietnamese parties. Then, as I went downstairs to make some tea (you can take the girl out of England, but.....) I found myself on the back of a motorbike being whisked away to the beach for a.... family party.A feast for 27Having grown up in the Otto/Stephenson clan (both families being renowned breeders), some aspects of these gatherings are very familiar. We also enjoy large rowdy meals; with 30 or so family members ranging in age (and behavioural age) from 0 - 93, laughing, teasing, shouting, children dangling off chairs / trees / hammocks / roofs, lots of food and drink, someone sleeping on the floor etc....There are subtle differences though.Things I'm less familiar with including;- throwing all scraps and bottles onto the floor- scrawny dogs eating said scraps from around your feet- people pissing off the edge of the restaurant platform- being given the chicken's head as a prize delicacy- having whatever watery iced drink I have in front of me topped up with whatever someone else has at hand....beer, coke, or green tea, or worst of all, 'sting' (the local version of red bull)- hookers sitting at the next table eyeing up the younger guys- the lady who's drunk the most (apart from grandma) telling me she's due at work in a couple of hours. At the hospital.- grandma vomiting from her hammock after one-too-many glasses of said watery-iced-beers (granny, don't get any ideas!)The aftermathSo, I'm back at the guesthouse, feeling a bit bewildered by the last few hours, a bit tipsy, and overall very happy to have experienced another party instead of just sitting here typing about them :o)