I have been looking forward to this trip for 3 years now, ever since it became evident that I had to do this. For three years the excitement has been building. Then two weeks ago it just disappeared and was replaced with a feeling of peace. Then as Susan, Dylan and I drove to the station there was such a pressure. I do not know where it came from, but it stayed with me on the train and at the airport. Then It became founded. The storm caused a delay and we took off 1 hour 40 minutes late. Since my lay over in San Francisco was 1 hour 29 minutes this means I would arrive 11 minutes after it leaves. I said a short prayer and spoke to the stewardess, both worked, Half way through the flight the stewardess stopped by and said that the pilot had told her that by the time we get to San Francisco we will have made up all but 20 minutes. The stewardess moved my bags to a crew storage area in the front and as we were descending she said I should come up and sit in an empty seat in the front row so all I had to do was jump up grab my bags and I was gone. I made the connection with plenty of time to spare. I remember someone saying, "I rely on the kindness of strangers to fulfill my needs". Sometimes it is so.

The second leg of my trip was on Cathay Pacific Airways. Cathay Pacific had a lot of recent movies and a lot of good nature and history programs. I saw more TV than I have seen in the last month. I also know why I do not sit and watch a lot of television. I saw Cinderella in Cantonese. Here is a fascinating bit of trivia. "Bibity, bobity, boo is spelled and pronounced the same in English and Cantonese.

I arrived in Hong Kong with time to spare. However when I went to the last leg of my journey I find that my Visa has expired. The Embassy who said they would make it out for 6 months accidentally made it out for 5 months and I did not notice. The first man I dealt with wanted me to go back to the US and get it re-issued. Fortunately his superior was a woman. Women are so much easier to deal with. She told him to get me the address of the Consul General in Hong Kong. She even came through immigrations with me, found a place to get some Hong Kong dollars. She took me to get my ticket confirmed for Tuesday, and directed me to the cabs. The cab takes me $350.00 dollars into Hong Kong to an area that tourists do not get to. It is ok they are Hong Kong dollars so it is not like real money. Arriving at the VNCG they are sympathetic and say they will put a rush on and have it by Thursday. I tell them this is not possible. We negotiate a special extra rush fee of $500.00 and they say it will be done by 5:00. This is still Hong Kong dollars. As I said this is not the tourist section of Hong Kong. It is also not where the movers and shakers of Hong Kong live. I decide to get a Coke at McDonalds and wander around the 30 or so blocks around the Consulate. Next I start looking for internet access to get a letter off to Hue who is now waiting at the airport in Saigon. 3 blocks from the Consulate is a restaurant with 4 PC's in the window. I go in and ask and the cashier says they are free. I get off a quick letter and write this first journal entry in my book. I am now out of ink, and since I am not buying anything, in the restaurant, I go up a few streets to a stationary store up an alley. I am now sitting across the alley from the store and several restaurants. The alley smells great. People are passing by. Isn't life great? Sitting here in this alley, on the other side of the world, watching people I would never have known. Most look, some smile none stare. This part of the city is dingy and worn but it is clean. As Dickens would say "In the next street but two" there are stands of produce, meat and fish. Also the Hong Kong version of the Reading Terminal Market, complete with tiled stalls. All over meat is being hacked and cut and hung to decorate the stands. Out on the street are fish stands. There are Styrofoam coolers and a circulating pump with hoses like so many octopi keeping the fish alive. This is a city that has no concept of a setback. Buildings rise 15 stories from the narrow streets and in some streets they are even cantilevered over the sidewalk. The streets wind and climb the hills leaving the city to look like so many canyons. The streets curve so that it is unusual to see a street straight for more than a few blocks. A little old lady has just hobbled down the street. She stops and smiles. Says hi, I say hello. She points at my pad and asks, probably "what I am doing". I say "just taking notes". She smiles and is off. In these 30 or 40 blocks I have not seen another westerner. It is almost 1:00 now. I think around 3:00 I will go back and annoy the VNCG enough that he will speed up the visa. Besides his office is overly air conditioned.

I guess we have a draw on this. I want 3:00 and he wants 5:00. He gives it to me just after 4:00. With my visa in hand, and thanking everyone enough to make them all smile, but not so much so that my insincerity shows through, I am off to find a cab. First thing to do is get my boarding pass. that done and my seat assured for tomorrow I am off to pass Hong Kong airport security. Back in the terminal I send a reassuring letter off to Hue, have an orange juice, a real squeezed drink, and I am off to the shower. They have a shower here for $65.00, Hong Kong again, but the way I feel I do not think it would stop me if it was $65.00 US. I am now clean, had a nice salad, some more OJ and a bottle of water. Having written this I am off to gate 1, which is where my flight to Saigon leaves from in about 6 hours.

Did I mention that the lady at the Vietnamese counter, who was so helpful, was really pretty and after some work she ended the day smiling. As did I.

I have finally arrived. I got in this morning and luckily Hue found me. I expected it to be like Philadelphia International with a few people waiting for friends. Instead there were hundreds of people waiting. We left Ton Son Nhut Airport and in 10 minutes we find a large truck, broken down in the middle of the road. There is a crew of men under it. It is up on blocks and the transmission is out in the street, in a puddle of oil and the men are working on it. Traffic moves around the truck and no one seems annoyed.

Since I was a day late my hotel was not held and Hue had to find a different hotel. She apologizes because this one is $12.60 US a day while the other one was $10.00 US a day and it was nicer. I am not sure what nicer could be since this is a great room. Nicer than most in the US I have stayed at. Tiled floors and the bath is all tile. Two Queen size beds and a beautiful dark wood wardrobe. Two chairs and a table. Television, VCR and refrigerator, and air conditioning.

Tin Nghia . . . . . This hotel has been sold and is no longer recommended.
60 Nguyen Cu Trinh Street
District 1
Ho Chi Minh City

This is just great. I have been out wandering the city. I am finding things I remember and things I had forgotten. There are also things I would have liked to see in 1967 thru 1968 and 1969 but did not know where they were.

Little has changed for those who live here, except the Internet. I am in an establishment, which sells access to the Internet. There are 10 PC's and it is approximately 60 cents an hour.

I was out till 10:00 just wandering the streets. This is such a beautiful city. The culture and the people are wonderful. The poverty is obvious just as it was 32 year ago, but even the poor are beautiful.

I went down to the Le Loi and Nguyen Hue. This is the center of old Saigon and as far as I am concerned it is the absolute center of the universe. I took my tape recorder and recorded the traffic and the people going by. One of the people was a lady of the evening who came by and asked where I was from and told me that she was lonely. She asked me if I wished to "go around". I said "no thank you". We talked a little and she left. Later I saw her, on Le Loi, walking next to a man, probably giving her sales pitch, and hurrying to keep up with him in her clogs with 4 inch heals. As I watched I felt such a sense of sadness

I was up at 5 but not out till 7. I went down to Ben Thanh market. It is a huge building with hundreds of booths. Most are about 5 X 6 but many are 4 X 4. Once again, as in Hong Kong, it is a lot like reading terminal market complete with tiled stalls. There are many goods grouped together by types. The fish market with live fish, crabs, eels and shrimp. Women are filleting fish and when they are done they scrape the bones. The meat section with hangers full of beef and pork and other things I do not recognize. There is a food court with every thing you can imagine cooking at once. The smell is so good. In the center of the meat section a rat about 10 inches long scurries across the floor. Most pay no attention. A nicely dressed woman coming towards me and I see it at the same time. We look up and there is eye contact and we at once shrug it off, smile, and continue on our ways. On the way back I stop for my two staples here. An orangena and some e-mail. While I was out Thuy stopped by and left a note and address. I will be seeing her and truc tomorrow at Truc's store. Truc was the one who found Thuy for me. Back at the hotel and another cold shower. I have been thinking of just getting a piece of ice in the morning and putting it in my hat. Then I am off to Khanh Hoi. After some wandering I find the Saigon Port Building. It was not changed much in 32 years. It is pale blue, just as it was then. I do not think they have even painted it in all this time. If you read my story "I never even knew her name", that is where it happened, or didn't happen depending on how you look at it. A little girl followed me all over Khanh Hoi, with a bowl of questionable peanuts she was selling. After 10 blocks I bought the peanuts, I did not really want them but I support Junior Achievement. She measures out the peanuts with a dirty old cup but has nothing to put them in. Two bystanders rush to help her by giving her a bag and helping measure them out and checking that I gave her the right amount of money and that she put it away. I really do not like boiled peanuts. It was nice to see the community interaction.

Back at the hotel Hue picked me up and we went to the bank to cash a travelers check. She hired a cyclo to take me and she rode her motor cycle with her niece on the back. The driver got lost and told me this is where she said he should go and I should get out and pay him. I said I have no money, we were going to the bank to get some. Hue has the money. He said where is your wife (Hue). I was going to say my wife is in Pipersville but he would not have seen the humor. He said where is she. I said she is where she told you to go. He said this is where she said. I said if this is where she said she would be here. The interesting part of this exchange is that he is speaking Vietnamese and does not understand English and I am speaking English and do not understand Vietnamese. The funny thing is that the conversation seems to be making sense. I tell him to go back to the hotel because that is where Hue will be. He is upset. We get back and Hue is there. She gave him the wrong address. It is all ironed out and we go back to the bank. I may open an account. The interest rate interest rate is 14.50 percent on 1 year CD's. After I got the money she said count it. I skimmed it and went to put it away. She frowned and took it and counted it. Then gave the cashier back 1,000,000 VND and asked the cashier to give me smaller bills to be more convenient. She counted those also and made sure I put them away.

During this trip to the bank I am learning more of the traffic procedures. We are in a bicycle/rickshaw combination called a cyclo. When the driver wishes to turn left from the right lane he simply moves left. I hear honking but he is in front and they may not hit him, this is the rule. Since he does not acknowledge them they do not exist in our reality. There is something very Zen about this. At one point we move into the left lane and there is the sound of a very large truck horn. I help the driver by also not acknowledging the truck and it works. The truck is quiet, it does not exist in our reality. We ride around and see the old presidential palace, which is now reunification hall. There is the Cathedral and a lot of really old French buildings. Some restored and some needing it badly, The Ford and Prudential buildings tower over the city.

We have dinner in a nice little restaurant. We are seated at a table that is covered with bowls. A large one of fresh cut seasonings. There are chopped peppers, bread sticks, chili, limes and a Soya paste. The soup is great however everyone else eats all the meat, vegetables and noodles and leaves the soup, which is really delicious. Hue's niece is watching the television and not eating. Hue scolds her. I wonder, when children in Asia do not eat, where do their parents tell them little children are starving. I should have asked.

After dinner she asks if I am going back to the hotel. I say I will go down by the waterfront and then back. She tells the driver and says goodnight. At the water front is a floating restaurant shaped like a fish. It is where the one was during the war but I am told it is new. The driver who is all of 80 pounds and older than I has been peddling hard for a while. I tell him to stop and suggest that we switch places since the rest of the ride is uphill. He agrees and we change. As we approach an intersection he is pointing at my bottom and since it is not on fire I figure it is nothing important. The intersection is my first test as a cyclo driver. As I prepare to slow I press backwards and realize that the peddles are direct drive and there are no coaster breaks. It is now apparent that he was pointing at the break, which is a loop by the seat. I pull it and we slow. I enter the uncontrolled intersection and look at the cars and motor cycles to the left. I see a break and let a few past then move in front of the slower ones and turn to the right to ignore the traffic to the left. Seeing the ones to the right all have plenty of room to slowdown or turn I pull out in front of the first car, a police car, and immediately look to the left to ignore him now. It works. As we ride my passenger is having a wonderful time. Every one slows down to talk to him and laugh. It is like Chris said about the escalator in Japan. The people here think things are so funny when out of place. He has given me a wrong direction to get back to the hotel. I turn down a small alley to get back on course. There are two westerners walking in the alley as if they own it. The old man yells at them and they move. As we pass he dismisses them with a wave of his hand. We arrive back at the hotel and everyone comes out. We have attracted a crowd. I can not understand how much he wants. Everyone from the hotel talks to him. He wants 100,000 VND, which is about $6.70 USD. I think this is ok for and afternoon of peddling. Everyone form the hotel thinks this is too much. They tell me he says that my wife told him 100,000 VND. I tell them she is not my wife, she is a friend. They say, "Cathy is not your wife?" I say no but it is Hue that talked to him. They ask, "is Hue your wife? I say no, a friend. Just then someone comes out of the hotel and says there is a message from Thuy, and, of course they ask, "is Thuy your wife"? Once again I say, "no, a friend, Susan is my wife". They ask, "Where is Susan?" I tell them she is in the United States. They all look at one another.

That evening the man from the hotel is coming down as I am at my door. He asks "Are you here alone"? He is looking past me into the room. I allow the door to fall open and say "Yes, just me all alone". He smiles and continues down the steps. I think he has it all straightened out now.

This started out to be a beautiful day. I have Thuy's address at Truc's gift shop and I am up early to go and see her. Thuy is my first pen pal in Vietnam. I found her by writing to Lutheran Hour Ministries Vietnam and asking for a pen pal. Truc has a gift shop of religious items, which is a front for Lutheran Hour Ministries Vietnam. Religion is tolerated here and little is done to regulate what goes on in a church. However outside the building religion is discouraged. One can not hand out brochures. Truc translates and prints these and other things, which he moves through an underground network. He is excited about his work and I have a copy of one of his brochures. I hope to get back to see him again. Today Thuy is out as her mother is sick. Truc takes me to her house. Thuy is the sweetest person. She does not write or speak much English. She says her English is not good enough. Truc says she is very shy. She works in his gift shop and for Lutheran Hour Ministries Vietnam. Truc has to get back to work so he leaves us and arranges for someone with a motorcycle to take me where I wish to go. Thuy and I have a wonderful visit though we understand little of what each other is saying. My ride shows up and it is Thuy's brother-in-law. He speaks a little English and interprets somewhat for Thuy's mother. She has something wrong in her chest but that is as close as Thuy or her brother-in-law can explain due to their lack of English and my absence of Vietnamese. Thuy's mother is frail but very bright. It is time to go and before I leave Thuy asks if we may pray for her mother and I will lead. I know they understand little of what I say but it does not matter her mother thanks me and so does Thuy and her brother-in-law. This is just amazing. Thuy's brother in law brings me back to the hotel.

Hue is there and she has found me a car for hire to go out to Long Binh on Saturday. She also has a brochure of tours that I may be interested in. Then she asks if there is anyone I wish to take to Long Binh on Saturday and I say would you like to go. She is so happy to be asked. After all she has done for me here.

After she leaves I go out to walk down along the river and stop at the Ho Chi Minh Museum. It is interesting but a little sparse and few of the things are translated into English. Next I walk along the river. I see a tractor trailer just like I drove. Now it is painted blue. I end up at the zoo. It is in bad repair and many cages are empty. It smells terrible. There is a stone bound canal running all through it that was beautiful at one time but is an open sewer now. Most animals are not looking too bad and the cages are pretty good except the otters that live on an island surrounded by a moat of sewer water. People through peanuts into the water and the otters dive for them stirring up the bottom sediment. It has been drizzling while I was out and being wet I have picked up the smell of the city. Which, in some places, is not real good. The city is much cleaner than Philadelphia though.

Back at the hotel, another shower and I fall asleep for a while. I am awakened by the phone. It is Hue. She has finalized the car for Saturday and says she will see me at 7:30 and we will ride to the car together. There is a band playing in the street next door.

A slow day today. I got up and went to Lutheran Hour Ministry Vietnam and saw the operation. It is amazing that they translate, design and print these brochures in such a sparse environment. I visited for a while and then went into town. I saw the museum of the revolution and the war remnants, formerly the war crimes, museum. The latter is our side as they remember it. I went in and there was an F5, a Huey, and about 8 canons and tanks. I drove most of them but I didn't mention it. I wandered to the market and got a few things I needed. It was a nice quiet day. People are generally friendly. Cyclo drivers are a nuisance. Museums all cost about $1.00 US. They have restrooms that are pretty clean. An interesting thing about the rest rooms here is that there is a common cup for anyone to use. Other than that there are really no public restrooms. This leaves a large group of people, including those who live on the streets, to use the street. In some areas this gets real unpleasant. In poorer neighborhoods they use the corners of the storefronts when the security doors are down. Many are rusted away in the corners from 50 years of this. Another common place is along walls that are high and run the length of a block. It is interesting that these places are usually government, military, or homes and business of the well to do. I am not sure if this is a coincidence or a political statement. I went to the big market today again and got oranges, a few tomatoes and something I remember that looks like a big grapefruit with real think skin. It is interesting that I have only had two meals since I have been here and I have not been tempted even though so many things smell and look so good. There are very few foreigners here and almost none outside of the few streets near the big hotels. Foreigners seldom make eye contact and never say hello. Locals almost always do, especially children. The little ones get so excited when you say hello and wave.

Tomorrow Hue is coming early and we are off to Long Binh. She got a car for half a day. One last thing. I was just in a store and found fish sauce. The bottle I got in San Diego was full of sediment, which is a sign it was not a first pressing. This stuff is so clear. I will tell you about long Binh after we get back tomorrow.

It was a nice day to go out to Long Binh. Hue arrived at 7:30 and the hired car and driver arrived shortly there after. Hue found out from someone that I wasn't eating so we had to go out to breakfast on the way out. Breakfast was really delicious, but it was a lot like supper. It was a mix of vegetables, meat, noodles and a shrimp. It came with several side dishes of limes, hot peppers and herbs. When asked what I wanted to drink I said OJ they had none so I said milk. Shortly I thought that a bad choice especially if it was not real fresh. I am amazed how even out of town in a little place the food is so fresh. The milk came in a glass with ice and, I think, a half-cup of sugar.

We continued out past Thu Duc. When we were in Thu Duc in 1968 it was a long way from Saigon but now there is no break in buildiing. I recognized a number of landmarks but did not see our base. I imagine it was torn down, as the buildings were wood and almost everything here is made of concrete to prevent rot. I think I recognized part of Philco Ford, which was next to us. I did recognize the intersection just up from us. I recognized other landmarks but even between Thu Duc and Long Binh, a stretch of about 15 miles there are now wall to wall buildings where there were once rice paddies. The barge site where our fuel came in is still there and is a receiving site, covered with large trees cut and ready for the mill.

Before I came I wrote to Cathy, who is still not my wife, and asked her if she knew of Long Binh. She went out to look and said it is a supermarket and an industrial park. I wondered if anything remailed of the base. When we arrived at the south edge of Long Binh, where the road to Vung Tau went out there was a super market to rival any of the new super stores around us. It also contained a department store like Walmart. Beyond it was the first of the industrial park which now covers all of long binh. I did not see anything that remained. Even our area, TC Hill was graded to be more level. The Sugar mill across the street was still there but almost nothing of Long Binh remains. I wish I had time to tell you all about our driver, but suffice to say, I think he has a New Jersey license. He constantly drove in the center of the two lanes, constantly honking at people who were not really in our way. He would slow to 5 miles an hour leaving the car in 4th gear and it was making that noise that transmissions do when being abused. He was so funny but he did get us safely home.

On arrival home I told the people at the hotel I would be there till the 30th. If I go to Vung Tau we will probably only go for the day. Most trips are day trips even Tay Ninh. I had a cut that was getting bad and one problem with being among people who do not speak the language I do is that they know some words, but not antiseptic. Then I remembered what Listerine was invented for. I washed the cut and put some on and in an hour it was less red and not so hot. I am now off to the bank to cash a money order to pay the extended rent.