Vietnam

6th April

Final thoughts. before I, hopefully, head off.

The Vietnamese are enterprising, hard working people, as in most of Asia.

They like to start their day with a Coffee & finish with a beer.

I have images in my head of the street sellers, their stuff laid down on the side of the road. 

The people bent over in the rice fields in their connical hats and the a man having his hair cut sat in a field.

In the city - crossing the street is an art in itself - a blind person is almost better off - you have to pick your moment & go for it, confidently, and keep walking. It's worse if you stop as the scooter drivers somehow calculate you into their equation, to miss you. If you stop or hesitate, they will hit you.

The 7 - elevens here in Saigon are not as good as those in Thailand and all shops are quite limited on what you can buy. For example biscuits are generally either oreos or the fake oreos. 

And, as in all Asia, savoury biscuits, even cheese ones, are sweet. Ritz cheese sandwich are the least sweet.  Some are even sweeter than the sweet biscuits. 

.......silly observations........

I was writing pretty much all day yesterday.

In the evening I went to the little cafe down the street for the third time - this time to have the little pancakes called Bánh Xèo. They cook them fresh on little frying pans with a filling - I had shrimp or tôm - and a handful of beansprouts.

It's this place's speciality and they serve them with salad, peanut flavour dipping sauce and oil, that you are supposed to mix, and rice paper to roll them up in, like cigars.

The guy serving, took great pains to show me how to do it - he took it very seriously - and I found it amusing & delicious!

Previously, when I was walking around the streets of Hoi An there was a very strong Japanese influence & connection there, which was interesting as its my next destination. 

I have found that a lot of my travels have interconnections.

The Colonial times in Indonesia, the Dutch influence, like the British influence in Malaysia.

In Australia, thoughts on what was happening there at the same times - the convicts sent there. The assault on the indigenous people.

Also, a lot of Asia was occupied by the Japanese during World War II and the Australian & New Zealand army who fought them in Asia 

And the ending for Japan that shaped their future - Hiroshima - my last 'port of call'

Last night I was in a weird, sad mood again, after writing about the museum & spent most of it listening to sad music before going off to sleep. 

The King of depressing music - Thom Yorke - fitted my mood. 

This from his new enterprise & a favourite scene of mine