Paradise Lost .... and Found

Paradise Lost.....and Found

We knew it was going to happen. The buzz in the alley months ago was about the widening of the alley, there was protest and petitions to The Committee. The majority of the residents didn't want it to happen, there was the disruption coupled with the cost but, to stand against the government was a hard task. After all...it is The Party. Our landlord told us it would be a few weeks, other residents said a few month before anything happened. We were worried it would happen when our visitor were here. I kept thinking "this wouldn't happen at home" but a distant memory of compulsory land requisition was hidden somewhere in the memory bank.
Letters were slid through the gate written in Vietnamese, so we had no idea what they were about. I asked the neighbour, she said it was about to start. The plan was that the alley would be widened, knocking about a meter off the front of every house. We just couldn't understand how they could do it or more to the fact ...why!!!
It started with our water meter being moved. Now, this is Vietnam. Phone call from the landlord, don't go out, we will be there. I change my plans and wait. Another phone call, sorry... not today, parts not available. Waiting, waiting. The jackhammer, chisels, thumping and bashing have become part of our daily life.
To walk outside the door is like stepping into Saigon in the 60's. There is rubble piled up and dust filling the air. We wake to this seven days a week, from 7.30 to 5. The workmen take the mandatory 1 hour for lunch, sleeping where they sit.
Men and women are toiling to create the new alley, they are knocking down walls, smashing brick columns only to rebuild them. Concrete is mixed by hand, a small mountain of sand and cement dust making a volcano into which a bucket full of water is poured, then mixed with a trowel. Gravel is moved down the lane in what we describe as a back to front ute, pedal powered by youths tanned by the hot sun but with strength that defies their bodies.
The view over our balcony shows the inside of our neighbour's house, their own balcony destroyed to expose the reinforcing mesh and the room below. Uninvited, I can see into their lounge room, a film of brick dust resting on the heavy wooden furniture. What a mess.
Before work starts in earnest on our house, the landlord arrives with flowers an incense, offerings to the spirits and a tiny alter is set up in our porch, just to make sure that all works are approved by all concerned.
We try to escape this demolition site, setting off every morning to sit in a coffee shop and read a book until it is time to return home and get ready for work. The weekend poses a bigger challenge because there is no refuge in the workplace. There are more hours to fill, where do we go, what do we do?
Paradise found....I had seen it on the map, checked it out on Google Earth. There is an oasis hidden in the bustle of this city and I know where to find it. This place is a gem. Among suburbia is a park, the brochure said a tourist park, but it looked like more local than tourist. As westerners we are one of the attractions. In a city where every inch is claimed for one reason or another, sits acres of land devoted to recreation and pleasure. There is a pool surrounded by palm trees where you can lie on a sun bed sipping coconut milk while the lifeguards keep watch over the children splashing. The perimeter of the park is studded with small huts with chairs and platform beds where you can laze away the day, small bbq's at the side where you can cook your lunch. A lake fed by a rather questionable river is central to the complex, with gazebo like structures sitting over the water and looking so inviting. You can book a table here and have a pleasant meal while cooled by the breeze that blows over the water. The food is not as cheap as we have come to expect at other Vietnamese restaurants, but entry to the complex is free and the cost of amenities have to covered from somewhere. This place is now on our list of escapes, somewhere that is just a few right turns from our house but miles from the noise of destruction of our alley.
There are undercover tennis courts, a toy shop with toys for the children to try, bicycles to ride around the wide paths and acres of grass on which to walk bare foot. I can't understand why this place has not been on the ex-pat hit list of places to visit. It is close to the city, cheap and very clean. No body else seems to know it is there.
What a gem, paradise lost but reclaimed.