When I told my friend that my travel blog would take a few week break during my trip back home, my friend simply asked “Why?”. He got me thinking. Yeah, why? Isn’t it a trip? It’s ironic that we talk about and pay a lot of compliments to a place we just visit once or twice while totally ignore the place which is part of our lives. But since I’ve blogged a lot about exotic places without a single word mentioned about my hometown, I think it’s time to do it justice. I wouldn’t say if it’s beautiful or not, ‘cause it’s so familiar to me that my opinion is no longer objective. It’s like when someone asks about my brother’s look, I would just say: “Take a look yourself.” So if you are curious about my hometown, take a look yourself and you tell me

I was born in a small town in Northern Vietnam, 135km away from Hanoi – the capital. My house is surrounded by a huge garden, three sides facing the rice field and one side facing a lake. I’m a country girl inside out. In my hometown, people can’t differentiate “l” and “n”, and pronounce them both as “n”. My friends used to make fun of it when I first moved to Hanoi. Hehe don’t worry, my Vietnamese is no longer accented.

In front of my house

The other side of my house

The lake next to my house

The small bridge between the rice field and the garden. Not for me lah, I’m oversized T_T

Talking about my garden, I think I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have my childhood secluded in such a wonderful garden. I lived my childhood through all kinds of fruits, all homegrown & organic

Pomelo or grape-fruit

Banana

Sweet star-fruit

Dragon fruit

Papaya

Longan

Jack fruit

Do you know that in Vietnam we eat flowers? The most common flowers are pumpkin flowers & Thiên lý flower. I don’t know how to translate Thiên lý into English, but I have it at home.

Is my hometown beautiful?

Tags: Childhood, Garden, Nam Dinh, Vietnam