Sunday, March 5, 2006
Hello from Calgary - Exploring the Kensington
Area and Meeting Kevin Nguyen: From Vietnamese Boat Person to Successful
Calgary Restaurateur
This morning after our lovely
celebrity breakfast, Nigel and I decided to walk along 4th Street
all the way downtown. At 7th Avenue we split up and he went to pick
up our rental car. I decided to take the C-train, a light rapid
rail system part of Calgary Transit.
Right off the bat I had two really strange experiences: I politely
approached a very nicely dressed woman to ask her how to get to
Kensington. She responded curtly "2 stops" and then she
started running away from me. She ran down the elevated platform
back in the direction she had come from and stopped several times
to look over her shoulder back at me to see if I was following her.
I knew it was a bad hair day today, but I didn't realize I looked
that scary......
Then, right after, an older Asian-looking man came up to me and
told me “I am looking for a woman, I don’t have a wife”.
I told him that I wouldn’t be able to help him in that department.
He was very short and not threatening-looking at all, and he really
seemed to be desperate for some female company. I wasn't at all
scared, but rather bewildered, somewhat bemused and almost sympathetic
to his plight. He then proceeded to ask me a few more questions
about whether I was married and where my husband was. At that point
he realized he wasn't getting anywhere with me. Then a young rather
dishevelled-looking woman came up on the platform and he tried his
luck with her, settling in comfortably in the transit shelter beside
her.
I stood there, puzzled, after two really strange encounters: one
nicely dressed woman runs away from me (I must have looked really
scary), and right afterswards an older man solicits my company (I
guess I must have looked good enough to him....). Every urban centre
has its interesting characters and experiences, and Calgary is obviously
no exception.
Then one young couple restored my faith in humanity. I took all
my courage together and asked them too how to get to the Kensington
Area on the C-Train. They explained that sometimes 7th Street can
be a little gritty and then took me to the automated ticket machine
and showed me how to obtain my $2.25 admission onto the C-train
to get over to Kensington. The world was sane again....
I was in the mood for a light lunch and right in the heart of Kensington
there is this recently opened restaurant called “Indochine
Bistro”, a bistro/ lounge serving Vietnamese food. After my
filling breakfast at the Twin Gables B&B I couldn't have handled
a big lunch, but by this time (about 2:30 pm) I needed a little
meal to tide me over to the evening, so I had a lovely vegetarian
noodle soup, which was just enough after my delicious morning meal.
.
Often my curiosity gets the better of me and I started talking
with the owner. It didn't take me long to realize I had stumbled
over a really interesting human story.
Kevin Nguyen is 31 years old and was born in Saigon / Vietnam (today’s
Ho Chi Minh City). He grew up in a well-to-do middle class family
and lived a very good life until he was 12 years old. Then his family
had to flee the country due to Vietnam’s political problems.
His mother, his sister and Kevin became “”Vietnamese
boat people” and spent about 2 years living in a refugee camp
in Malaysia. Kevin describes the living conditions as incredibly
difficult, hundreds of people were squeezed into long buildings
that were subdivided into different sections that each held many
families. In addition to the cramped conditions, there was never
enough food and Kevin’s aunts and uncles kept sending money
from Canada to help. Kevin summarized his experience as “living
in very poor conditions, but there was also a lot of love and humanity”.
Originally Kevin’s family wanted to move to the United States.
But because they had family members in Canada and Great Britain,
that would have meant that these two countries would have had to
reject their refugee status application first before they would
be able to apply to go to the USA. Kevin’s mom decided that
the wait would be too long and applied to go to Canada instead.
At 14 years of age Kevin came to Canada, more specifically to Calgary and his family settled in. Kevin said that to this day he is very
grateful that this country took him, his mom and his sister in.
Upon his arrival in Canada, Kevin went straight into Grade 10 at
Western Canada High School in Calgary and said that he never really
experienced rejection from his class mates as a newly arrived refugee.
He did say that he went through a major experience of culture shock
adjusting to Canadian culture, food and traditions.
After high school he went to the Southern Alberta Institute of
Technology and studied electronics and petroleum engineering and
graduated with a Bachelor of Petroleum Technology. He worked for
several oil and gas companies and consulting firms in Calgary before
he decided to partner up with a friend to open a restaurant.
Although that business venture did not work out, Kevin was hooked
on the hospitality industry. Despite the fact that there is a significant
amount of risk involved in running your own restaurant, he enjoys
being his own boss. He opened his own restaurant, Indochine Bistro,
in October of 2005 and he intended it to be different from the usual
Vietnamese restaurants that resemble cafeterias more than comfortable
eateries. The name of his restaurant is from the French word Ïndochine
which used to be the French name for Vietnam.
Kevin enjoys owning a restaurant and said he loves meeting people.
In particular he loves working behind the bar and calls it a dream
job. Kevin explained that the Kensington area is a great neighbourhood
for his restaurant since there are so many people taking a stroll
and it’s a really close-knit neighbourhood with the feel of
a real village. In the summer there are many street festivals so
there is lots of action going on.
Indochine Bistro features an extensive menu with 73 items of quality
Vietnamese cuisine. Eating out at Indochine is extremely affordable:
only one item was over C$10.00 and most of the dishes cost between
C$6 and C$8.
I enjoyed my little exploration of Calgary’s Kensington area,
it definitely had a very cozy, village-like feel to it. And it was
great meeting a young Calgarian who has made an amazing life transition
from living a comfortable middle class life in Vietnam to becoming
a refugee to making his mark as a successful young entrepreneur
in Canada.
Related Articles:
An overview of our discovery of the
Canadian Rockies
Arrival in Calgary and our
whirlwind tour of the city
Discovering Canada Olympic Park,
one of Calgary's most visited attractions
Our fabulous dinner at Il Giardino's
and a connection with one of Calgary's most successful entrepreneurs
- an Italian-Canadian immigrant success story
Comfort, luxury and our celebrity
breakfast at the Historic Twin Gables B&B
Calgary's Kensington area and a meeting
with a local entrepeneur who went from Vietnamese boat person to successful
restauranteur
Arrival in Banff & exploring
a local landmark: the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
Our first skiing experience: perfectly
groomed trails at Norquay
High altitude skiing on the Continental
Divide: Sunshine Village
Exploring Canadian history: the
Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
Skiing in the largest ski resort in
the Canadian Rockies at Lake Louise
A real adventure: dogsledding in the
Canadian Rockies
A gondola trip to the top of
Sulphur Mountain and discoveries of Banff
Our final walk through downtown Calgary
- discoveries of downtown
An interview with Tourism Calgary:
what to see and do in Calgary
An interview with Tourism
Banff Lake Louise
Useful Websites:
Tourism
Calgary
Tourism
Banff Lake Louise
Canada
Olympic Park
Ski the Big 3: Banff,
Lake Louise and Sunshine
Banff
National Park of Canada
Useful books about Calgary and the Canadian Rockies:
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