He flies to Saigon, then moves to Hanoi and bikes back. He stays there for three weeks and after failing to find a cheap boat ride to Japan, takes a plane to Japan. This brings him to the end of his US leg of the journey. He begins the expedition at the Gold Gate Bridge and bikes north along the US Coast, as he moves along, he meets other travelers encounters the steep climbs into Oregon and Washington, and finally reaches Seattle, Washington. ISBN 978-0-0.The book is narrative in nature and begins when Andrew, fed up with his job as an aerospace engineer in San Francisco, quits his job, takes his bicycle and sets off on a journey that takes him to his native country: Vietnam. The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars. Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam. He chronicled this journey in his book, Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam.

After Minh's death, Pham decided to take a trip to the Pacific Northwest and then to Vietnam. His tragic death was the catalyst for Pham's journey to Vietnam and self-discovery. After several months, Minh committed suicide. After finishing high school, Pham attended UCLA to study engineering.ĭuring this period Chi, who had left home years earlier, returned as a transgender male with the name Minh. Nine months later, the Pham family relocated to San Jose, California. The First Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana flew the Pham family to Louisiana and sponsored them there. Pham's family spent 18 months in a refugee camp in Jakarta. As the boat was falling apart at sea they were rescued by an Indonesian freighter, which brought them to Indonesia. After Thong's release, the family decided to flee by boat to Malaysia.

He was eventually captured by the Vietcong and sent to Minh Luong Prison re-education camp for several months. Pham had two sisters, Chi and Kay, and three younger brothers Huy, Tien, and Hien.ĭuring the Vietnam War, Thong worked for the South Vietnamese Army in its propaganda department. Pham is a Vietnamese-born American author who is the founder of Spoonwiz.īorn in Phan Thiet in 1967, Pham's father Thong was a teacher and his mother a laundress. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Īndrew X. JSTOR ( February 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification.

Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Pham