SAIGON!

It's amazing that we live in a time that you can go to the other side of the world in only 24 hours.

There's also the experience of being timeless. Being in one place means that you're subject to the 24 hour clock, sunrise is at 6(ish) so is sunset, and that's the way the day works. Then when you're on a plane around the world, the whole system is thrown out of whack.

Anyway, myself, my father Mark, his lady-love Alisa and my brother Matt arrive in Saigon at 10am Saigon time, 10pm New York time. I feel well-rested but jittery from the flight. We catch a cab to our respective hotels (Dad & Alisa at a fancy one, Matt and I at a moderately priced one) and are shocked by the swarms of mopeds that dominate the streets. Nobody obeys traffic laws and it astounds me that there aren't constantly wrecks everywhere. Half the riders wear masks on their faces, nobody wears helmets, and sometimes you see two, three, even four to a moped (ie: a mother and three young children.) The cars share this space and politely nudge their way in and out of traffic.

We check in to the hotel, change our money ($1 = 15,000 Dong. Most food/drinks cost less than $2) and go out to explore the town. Like most cities in developing nations, everyone wants to sell you something, but I notice that they're more polite here than in Mexico for example.

If you think jaywalking across the street in New York is an adventure, you a'int seen nothing.

We went out for our first meal at a touristy restaurant, which was okay, and then visited Reunification Palace, which is a modern architecture recreation of the palace the French built when they set up shop in 1858. It was then where, after we got the hell out in 1976, where the North and South Vietnamese Reunified as the Socialist Replublic of Viet Nam. Dad had what he refers to as a "Historgasm" It also reinforced the whole question of what the fuck were we doing there in the first place? (We meaning the US Army)

It's also fascinating to see how they hold no grudge. From the early days of the war, the Vietnamiese people were informed that it was the US Government to blame for the war, not the US people. Everything has been forgotten, and now Vietnam wants everything to do with the US market. this is considering that we killed 3 million Vietnamese. 10% of the nation, 90% of which were civilians. It's totally heartbreaking to think of the enormous fucking mistake of that war and how touching it is that the Vietnamese can move past it with such stoicism.

Compare that to the current conflict and the mindset of the radical Muslim culture and the horrendous fucking mistake we're making now.

Anyway, I was in bed and asleep by 6pm, woke up at 6am and went on our trip down to the Meekong Delta. What a beatiful and wild river! I couldn't get the images from Apocalypse Now out of my head. We saw some island villages, sat and ate local fruit (papaya, pineapple, persimmons and some really wild looking/tasting dragonfruit) while the locals played music and sang to us, then I went on a shopping spree at the local market (yes there will be gifts for you lucky ones!)

The most interesting item was a large bottle of snake wine. Pretty self-explanitory, a bottle of wine with a cobra and a scorpion inside. It allegedly helps with "Rheumatism, arthritis, mental senility, physical fortitude, premature ejaculation, improper erechtness (thats how it was spelled)" and another number of ailments. The man who sold it kept gripping my biceps, telling me it would make me strong. For those tough enough, there with be a ceremonial tasting of snake-wine when I return.

The rest of the Meekong trip was lovely, exploring the friendly local villagers, watching the coconut farmers, the brickmakers, etc. There will be pictures coming out soon enough.

After we returned and took a nap, we went out to a fancy restaurant ate tons of delicious seafood and the total came out to about $8 each. I swear, if it wasn't for the $1000 plane-ride to get here, I'd take a trip like this once a week.

After that I strolled through the streets, glancing at the expected tight-jeaned prostitutes with fatigue and only the very mildest of interest. (No, that's NOT on my to-do list for this trip, thank you!!) and ended up at a very classy Jazz club called Sax n' Art. There was a quintet of very skilled jazz musicians, I bought a CD and sipped some cognac, trying to feel very classy in my sandals and adidas exercise shorts.

Well, I'm off to bed, and then tomorrow is a guided tour of the city.

More to come soon!!

Gid