IT had been more than 14 years since Le Van Minh was last in Saigon, but his homecoming was three days too late.
Mr Minh, 31, had wanted to surprise his father, who put him on a refugee boat to Malaysia in 1981. Instead, he returned to discover his father had died just days earlier.
Mr Minh is one of about 20,000 Vietnamese Americans returning to visit for Tet - the first such return since the lifting of the US trade embargo.
'These things are not supposed to happen at Tet,' he said.
'My mother told me I had to accept it, that we were just not meant to meet. Now I feel very strange to be here. I don't know how long I'll stay.
'My culture and lifestyle are American. It is my home. But my mother must live here. I couldn't put her in a California suburb. The trouble is, although there is really little for me here in terms of career and opportunity, I had forgotten just how beautiful my country is. The friends, family, food and smells have stirred something deep inside me.' His predicament is common among many of those returning to Vietnam. More than 160,000 returned last year to Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhut airport alone.
Some young professionals settle quickly into jobs with foreign firms. Others, particularly those who fled as children or had ties with the old southern regime, feel uneasy about coming home, and plan to keep stays short. Many are low-level entrepreneurs, who are here to test the market at the request of the Government.