Pham ends up stowing away on a train to Hanoi, after contracting a stomach bug and realizing he can’t make it that far by bike.

All these old landmarks of his former life have naturally changed over the years, and Pham feels somewhat ashamed for seeking some kind of easy Hollywood resolution from visiting them. Similarly, his grandmother’s house has changed so much it’s unrecognizable to him until a former neighbor leads him to it. Again, he is disappointed when he seeks out his childhood home there: It is now a repair shop for motorcycles. From there, he continues on to his hometown, Phan Thiet. He bikes up the coast to a resort town, where a friend’s mother lets him stay in her beach house. This is the first in a series of disappointments for Pham when seeking traces of his former life.Įventually, Pham leaves Saigon. Pham also goes in search of his family’s former house, only to find that it is now a health clinic-and little else in the neighborhood is recognizable. He spends some time with them, getting to know Grandaunt’s three sons, who are roughly his age. Grandaunt bluntly says it is too dangerous and that he won’t survive the trip. They all discourage him from riding his bike through the country, however. His grandmother’s cousin-in-law, whom he calls Grandaunt, and her family welcome him in Saigon. Pham begins in Saigon, then makes his way up the coast to Hanoi and back over a number of months. After a brief stay with his parents in California, Pham hits the road again, biking up the coast to Seattle before crossing the Pacific to Japan and then Vietnam.

He first describes a shorter bike trip to Mexico, where he meets a Vietnam war veteran named Tyle, whose story sticks with him throughout his longer journey. It will be the first time he has returned to the country of his birth since his family fled in 1977. Pham, an American citizen, decides to take a cycling trip to Vietnam in a search for identity.

Catfish and the mandala