Moving to the Big City

Binh Huynh

Professor Silver

September 26 2016

Essay #2

Everyone always wants to live in a better place. A place where has high living standard and good condition. And usually, it should be a big city. Well, it’s not everybody thinks that big city is better than a small peaceful town, but my parent does and especially when there is a suitable studying program for me. At the age of sixteen, I went from Cam Ranh, a small town in Khanh Hoa province, to Ho Chi Minh city which is the largest city of Viet Nam. Since that time, my life has completely changed and turned into a new chapter, a chapter of adaptation and maturity.

Ho Chi Minh city locates in the South of Viet Nam, where is surrounded by many rivers. Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC) is also called as Saigon, an unofficial name but it sounds more familiar to me so I usually use it instead of HCMC. Since Saigon is below Cam Ranh on the map, the weather is the first thing that I need to adapt. The weather in Saigon is really erratic. It could be angry and pour a heavy rain at any time, even though it was muggy and scorching just five minutes ago. This kind of weather really annoys me. During the first months, I had been soaked for more than ten times just because I forgot to bring my raincoat. Nobody knows whether it’s going to rain or not. On account for that, the raincoat is always a must-have item in everyone’s trunks. Despite that irregular and annoying rain, generally, HCM is hot throughout the year. Winter outfits, thus never exist in my wardrobe. In comparison with Cam Ranh, although HCM and Cam Ranh both are tropical climates, the dry and wet season are more distinct in Cam Ranh. Cam Ranh is cooler than Saigon during the dry season because it’s near the sea. For that reason, I always try to visit my hometown every summer. I call that is “a trip to away the heat”. The intense sunlight and sea breeze in Cam Ranh have brought to me a dark brown skin tone which seems normal to my hometown people. However, it’s not normal as in Saigon. I, as a girl, usually get embarrassed about my skin tone when comparing mine to my city friends.

The second thing that I need to adapt is transportation. Indeed, Saigon is really large. It has more than twelve districts with more than ten million people. However, streets are narrow lead to traffic jam is an everyday issue for everyone. Most people in Saigon use motorbike and car. Public transportation such as bus is also widely used. On the other hand, Cam Ranh is just a small town. It may be just as big as one district of Saigon, thus, the bus is not available for traveling in town. As a result, it took me two months and many times of nerve breaking to get used to bus and motorbike well. If you have a chance to travel to Saigon, you will see the chaos. They occur in every street of Saigon. By the same token as Saigon, people in Cam Ranh also use motorbike as the major transportation, though car is not popular in here. For children and student like me, we use e-bike. These days we don’t use the regular bicycle anymore. Instead, we use e-bike because it’s faster and saves our energy.

Another difference between my hometown and Saigon is food. Food in Saigon obviously is not as fresh and cheap as in Cam Ranh, especially seafood. I hardly can eat fish in Saigon. Somehow it isn't tasty as fishes in my hometown. My aunt said it's because most fishes in here are caught from rivers or carried from coastal areas. Besides, the Southern savor is kind of sweeter and more diverse. For example, my favorite fish sour soup usually tastes sweeter and spicier. It was strange for me as the first time try. However, later it turned out delicious but it’s just not in the same way that I have had before. Speaking about the diversity of food in Saigon, it’s countless. As Saigon is the largest city of Vietnam also the economic center of Vietnam, people from many areas of the country flock into Saigon to settle. Hence, I can find almost every kind of cuisines of Vietnam in here. In addition, since the world is globalizing, many foreign cuisines are also introduced and established in the city. Many foreign restaurants and branches such as McDonald, Subway, Baskin Robin and so on have sprung like the mushroom. On the other hand, my hometown just has no more than ten characteristic dishes. For instance, my favorite food is the mixed rice noodle soup, the grilled rice paper and fresh boiled crab. Cam Ranh doesn’t have tons of new and interesting dishes for me to try out, but it has its own savor, its own specialties and that is what I always crave for.