How we met

When I was working for a bakery in Tucson, Arizona, where they had recently hired a group of Asian people, I took notice of the women in the group and began to talk to the one who could barely speak English, Van. I had always fantasized about Asian women, and found them to be very attractive, and Van was petite and adorable. I began hitting on her and she promptly let me know that she was spoken for. She was very polite about it though and it was through that politeness, that I eventually became introduced, through a phone call, to Ella (a lady of whom I had the pleasure of reuniting and dining with in the company of Chau last night at a restaurant). Ella then introduced me to Chau--the reason for coming to Vietnam and for this blog.

First, we talked with each other over email and then I introduced her to Paltalk. This is where we had the biggest part of our conversations and got to know each other really well. We talked about a variety of things, but once we got on cam and looked at each other, we knew it was forever. She always smiled with sparking eyes and dimples. I felt humbled that such a creature of beauty would even find anything of interest in me. I had never had a girlfriend and when the money was there and nature called, I took temporary comfort in call girls and hookers. I was in a state of cultural warfare with American women. I would boil in resentment towards them as they continued to insist that they have economic independence but at the same time, wouldn't want to pick up the tab when it came to social assertiveness. Either they should want economic AND social independence or they should all "go back to the kitchen and the bedroom."

Something kept pulling at my heart with Chau, though. "There is something very special about this woman," I would say to myself. Chau seemed to be able to soothe my anger towards "modern" women. She was trying to be "modern" in the best way that she could and that was simply beautiful. I could excuse Chau's desire to be like American women as purely a product of her economic situation and it wouldn't hurt me or cause me any inner conflict to be the socially-assertive one in a relationship with her. I could assume the traditional role of "man" and she could be as American as she wanted or did not want to be.

Now it took me a while to get over here. I was always hesitant about having enough money for her and I to have a good time on after purchasing the plane tickets. But this year, on November 30, I boarded a 747 which took me from Los Angeles to Taipei and then from Taipei to Ho Chi Minh City.

I walked around in the airport, looking for her, but she was no where to be found. Then I thought, "Well, I got her address. Maybe she and her mom had something else to do." I kept walking around, looking for a door that would let me go directly out into the streets. I asked one of the uniformed security personnel how I could get out, he then pointed to the document checkpoint stations that were directly in front of me with the long lines of people. I finally realized that it was the stations that I had to go through to get outside the building.

After going through the document stations and the luggage check, there was a huge crowd of people waiting for their loved ones behind a guarded fence. You could have heard a pin drop as I walked down the sidewalks. As I was about to go out on the streets, my eyes were fixed on the sidewalk, staring down. I thought, "What if this is all a cruel joke? What if I'm stuck here in Saigon with no place to go?" About that time, I heard the voice I had heard on my laptop cam so long ago.

"John." I looked up and there she was. I was so happy to see her. We hugged. Then her mom came and took me away with her in a taxi after having my luggage loaded up. Chau went back home on her scooter.

And that is how we met.