Saigon

Saigon is a genuine eye opener. It is noisy, polluted, crowded and wonderful. It has a range of extremes that will ring you like a bell. There is poverty in The Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese are wonderfully self assured, but then the current generations grandparents beat the Americans and that has to enhance your sense of "can do". I wouldn't like to be an American here...the Vietnamese aren't in the business of apologising for winning.

They adore children here. It is nice to be able to be nice to kids and not be treated like a paedophile.

It would be a mistake to judge all of Vietnam by Tay Ninh Province and Saigon. But, so long as I could find a place of quiet occasionally, I would live here. The Communist propaganda is quite interesting, there is a vigour to the statues in particular that I find very refreshing. The traffic obeys the laws of the oceans...all the scooters/mopeds are sardines and they flow around the bigger fish of buses and trucks. The other night I was watching a bus...a big one, turning at a round-a-bout and was amazed that no one was killed...the traffic just flowed around it.

The Vietnamese do not whisper and the streets are places for shouting. I/we am/are changing as a person/people and often wonder just how I/ we will fit in back home on our return.