Commuter tourism

We have been taking advantage of our renewed health this week to explore parts of Sydney. One notable outing was our trip to Cabramatta. I was intrigued by the enthusiastic reports of this strongly Vietnamese town. It was only a few suburbs away and on the way to the climbing gym, so we decided to give it a go and it was every bit as wonderful as the internet reviews proclaimed it to be. Sure, we too live in a very culturally diverse neighborhood - most of the folks we rub shoulders with are from Asian or Middle Eastern countries. When we sit and play in the grass in the town square (no joke we actually do this often) I am the minority conversing to my children in English and their arms look so inappropriately iridecent. But Cabramatta was on another level of cultural diversity. It is after all Australia's largest non-Anglo commercial precinct.

Why we would bother paying thousands to get to Vietnam when we have Cabramatta right here in Sydney is beyond me. Ok only joking, but it was nice to leave the country without having to switch trains. The main stretch of town is made up of cobbled roads crisscrossed with alleys. We played it safe at first and meandered on the main strip taking in the men jabbering away in cafes with their tables littered with Ca Phe Da's (iced coffee), throngs of people surrounding us and staring at the odd Westerner with a child sitting on top of her stroller, old ladies sitting on sidewalks trying to sell off oddly shaped gourds from their gardens, and wiry men sweating under big loads of sugar cane. And wanting more of this wonderfulness we began to venture into alleyways. We pushed our way through crowds to get to fruit stands hidden behind fruit stands. Most of the vegetables were unfamiliar and most of the fruit foreign. We had no idea what all those greens and leaves were on the table but we liked them a lot. We were pleased to find a whole new set of fruits, most of which looked familiar but we couldn't name. And so we filled bags with whatever caught our eyes. Aurora asked me why I got a fruit, I told her I liked it, she said what does it taste like, and I explained I had never tried it but liked it anyhow. The kids got into this culinary adventurousness and encouraged me to get the orange things or the fruit that looked like a pangolin. Thankfully they took our Australian dollars.

Exhausted from all the commotion we found shelter in a food court where we indulged in some nice Vietnamese drinks and noodles. Our avocado smoothie was dependably tasty and our rainbow drink was beautiful and full of jelly gems. We felt like we had struck it rich what with all the glowing gems and bags full of fruit. And then the monks starting streaming in. I am not even joking here. In full beautiful orange monk attire they went stand to stand getting their food donations to subsist on for the day. And it was at that moment that I knew for certain that I liked this place. How can you not like a town that imports durians, drinks ground up sugar cane and where only 11.6 % of people speak English at home?

Some of the bounty

Which to drink first?

 

That is some serious drinking

Playing with some basil seeds we bought in Cabramatta