From Saigon we flew into Da Nang where we wanted to enjoy a beach day before heading to Hoi An which is famous for its super cheap and fast tailoring. From other backpackers as well as from our travel guide we learned that there is really nothing else to do in Da Nang besides laying on the beach. Though when we arrived there to do so we got deeply disappointed. The beach was dirty, the sky cloudy and the sea so rough that the red flag was up so we couldn’t even go into the water. We got some chairs anyway and started spending our “beach time” with reading and taking naps. After about two hours we got really cold though and left. Amazing beach day, huh? Our night program on the other hand was one of the highlights of our entire trip and definitely made up for all the previous letdowns.
Kayleen from Canada, who I had met in Kuala Lumpur, gave me the recommendation to visit “Tam’s Pub and Surf Shop” while being in Da Nang and since Mom and Dad didn’t raise any objections we took a taxi to Tam’s restaurant in order to have dinner there. Long story short: Tam is a 60 year old very agile, talkative and super sweet lady that worked for the Americans as a translator during the Vietnamese war when she was twelve years old. She told us everything about her life and work during and after the war and we simply couldn’t believe what she was telling us.
When she was eight years old, an American soldier, who saw his own little sister in Tam, always took her around the city and gave her candy and food she had never tried before. After some time he left without saying goodbye and never returned, so the little girl assumed him dead and was really sad about that. A couple of years later she got picked up by other soldiers again and eventually started working as a translator for the Americans after having learned English through the contact to the soldiers and selling drinks and food to them. She left her hometown, traveled around with the squad and was with them when they built schools, organized helicopter transfers to hospitals for very ill Vietnamese people and helped the civilians during times of war. When Tam talked about the American soldiers from back then, she always underlined that they were good and that they only helped the Vietnamese people and didn’t mean them any harm. Of course that’s only one perspective but it was great to hear that a lot of the local people actually appreciated the soldiers being there. And Tam said that she was in the position to judge that subject-matter because she knew both sides: on one hand her being a Vietnamese girl and knowing the other locals’ opinions and on the other hand being a translator and working closely together with the Americans.
After the war was over Tam was held prisoner but managed to escape and started selling soup on the streets of Da Nang in order to feed her son and the seven children she had picked up from the street. After a while she opened a food stall because she was really successful with her soup and everybody loved it so she didn’t have to carry her soup around anymore. By that time she already had a lot of regular customers and soon after she opened an actual restaurant. Throughout the following years many Americans contacted her and sought her help to find their Vietnamese girlfriends from during the war. She would travel all over the country for them and according to her she never failed to find their loved ones or at least find out what happened to them. Tam talked to us for almost four hours and there were so many other stories she told us but it would simply take ages to write down all of them so Mom, Dad and I will just have to keep them in our memory and move them in our hearts.
And that’s where Tam is today: she has her little restaurant, the walls covered with pictures from her past, American soldiers that she had helped to find their Vietnamese girlfriends, her as a little girl, as a grown woman and mother carrying around her soup and finally old friends and some random people visiting her restaurant. In that atmosphere we did not only enjoy her incredible stories but also her delicious (veggie) burgers and therefore her skills as a great cook. I think I can talk for the three of us when I say that we’ll probably remember and cherish this extraordinary encounter from a little back alley restaurant in Da Nang forever.
This, ladies and gents, was the amazing story of a Vietnamese woman, called Tam. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
lenacatherine 