MINH_TOM lives in Walnut Creek, California USA (May-Nov) and in Go Cong, Tien Giang Province, Vietnam (Nov-Apr) each year. He travels around the town of Go Cong by Cyclo (Pedicab) and he has a regular routine each day that includes working on the internet / photos and having beef soup (Pho) at XuanThang, his favorite restaurant in Go Cong. Work on the Rose Garden, MINH_TOM's garden in Go Cong started in 1999 and he has been assisted by several Vietnamese friends including Minh Dinh, art teacher at THPT-Truong Dinh High School in Go Cong, who crafted a statue for the Rose Garden/Photo. He also has been assisted by Minh Chau, BaSi Bong (Doctor of Flowers), who provided many of the plants and plant names; see MAP By MINH_TOM's cyclo driver.
MINH_TOM has five names that he uses while in Vietnam: TOM PREMO, MINH_TOM, THIEN T�M (Buddah Name), ONG MY (American), and ONG GIA NOEN (Santa). He is interested in CALLIGRAPHY and has been assisted by his Buddah Master, Thien Chieu, who gave MINH_T�M his Buddah name of THIEN T�M. CALLIGRAPHY is the way of creating artistic and impressive strokes � one of the highly spiritual and refined arts.
MINH_TOM and his family are World Travelers and we have made several trips to Vietnam. MINH_TOM is visiting Vietnam again in 2005-2006. During these trips we have attended Cao Dai services for LY-Huong's Father, Pham Van Ngu, and her Mother, Huynh Thi Nguu. We built our Vietnam home in 1998, the
Whitehouse East, in Go Cong, Tien Giang Province. You can read more about the MINH_T�M Family travel by going to these webpages:
World|
Vietnam|
USA/Canada.
Both MINH_TOM and then U.S. President Bill Clinton traveled to Vietnam in November 2000. MINH_TOM sent an E-Mail invitation to the president to visit Go Cong during his trip; however, the president and his family didn't travel there as his schedule in Vietnam was full, including a visit to Hanoi where he gave a speech/CNN before the Vietnam National University in which he mentioned the new chapter in the U.S.-Vietnamese relationship.
There were NO public internet facilities in Go Cong during MINH_T�M's 2001-2002) and he thought he would be able to get on the internet at the computer lab operated by Huynh Hieu/Photo, the IT (ViTinh) teacher at THPT-Truong Dinh High School in Go Cong. However, public Internet connections (ISP) are now available in Go Cong and Minh_TOM has been using the ones provided by NgocHuy, Huong Vu and other internet facilities in Go Cong. The Vietnamese government(VNN) has placed a block on Yahoo! Geocities websites so all of MINH T�M's webpages are NOT viewable in Go Cong but they are accessible by doing a Google Search for the website from http://chogo.com.
The MINH_TOM Premo Family also lives in Walnut Creek, California USA with our dogs, "Goldie" (1986-2000), "Taco" and "Mimi". Our three children (
Jackie|
Jeanine|
Robert) were born in Vietnam and attended schools around world; however, they all graduated from Ygnacio Valley High School
(YV) in Concord, CA. Jeanine
and Robert attended Diablo Valley College
(DVC) in Pleasant Hill and Robert went on to get a BA degree in Graphics Design from Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman. He was on the track teams in school and still holds the YV Track 100HH and
DVC Track 110HH and 400IM Hurdle Records. Robert is married and they live in Helena, Montana and have three children, Terryn | Courtlyn | Rafe. Jeanine is married to Gary Alexander and they live in Concord. He works for Arthur Beren Shoes on Union Square in San Francisco. Jackie is married to Robert Greene and the Greene Family, Kenneth, Danielle and Aaron (AJ), live in Canada.
MINH_TOM wears a Buddah Pendant that was given to him by his father-in-law, Pham Van Ngu, which was carved from a wild boar's tusk and it seems to bring him luck. He wears the Buddah pendant all of the time; the last time that he didn't wear it was just before Christmas, 1979 and he had a stroke!
MINH_TOM was an Internet Docent/Teacher for over five years (1966-2003)at the Contra Costa County Central Library(CCCLIB) in Pleasant Hill and he has developed several WebSites, including:
USA|
WalnutCreek|
Vietnam|
Amerasian|
Genealogy|
Bechtel|
HTML|
Florida|
Track|
Resumes|
Clinton|
Nhieu|
Hieu
Edna May "JACKIE" Premo, MINH_TOM's mother, passed away on January 10, 1997 in Walnut Creek, CA at the home of her family,
TOM and
Ly-Huong Premo. She had several Cao Dai (Vietnamese) religeous services in the Walnut Creek home, Pleasant Hill and Burney Cemetaries, and in the
San Jose Temple. She is buried in the Burney Cemetary with her husband,
Roy Thomas Premo, and her granddaughter, Debra (Debbie) Jean Premo.
Links to Vietnam related sites on the Internet (WWW)
GoCong.com |
Buddism in VN | Phi Nhung |
VN History&Culture
VN Factbook | Huynh Hieu |
Trieudola.com |
Graduates.com
VOA- English|Vietnamese |
VNToday | VN Statistics-TienGiang
VN Embassies: Hanoi|
USA |
US Visa |
VN Experiences | VN Schools
ThingsAsian.com | Stories By Minh T�M:
"Gypsy"|
Go Cong | By: JimM
Asiana |
CNN|
VIETnam onLINE|
VietGATE|
VN Provinces|
My Thuan Bridge
XuViet|
VN Avenue|
VVG|
Nam Viet |
VN BackHome|
VN Adventures
VN-MSNBC: Technical|
Economy |
VN Globe |
Saigon Times |
VNAT Info
VN Travel Info|
Internet Yellow Pages|
VN News(VNS)|
VirTourist.com
VN OnLine|
VietLinks|
MekongTour|Field Trip|Lonely Planet|
VN Tourism
VNN-Internet|
Yahoo VN|
Tien Giang Posts&Tele
WWW Searches:
Whitehouse East+vietnam |
Viet Kieu | Vietnam Travel | Google
Vietnam |
Walnut Creek, CA 94598
Vietnam Seasons: May-Oct(Hot&Rainy)|Nov-Apr(Hot&Dry)
Info