Malaysia's Loh & Loh eyes civil engineering projects in Vietnam

Loh & Loh eyes projects in Vietnam and Middle East

By SABRY TAHIR

KUALA LUMPUR: Loh & Loh Corp Bhd is eyeing lucrative water projects in the Middle East as well as civil works in Vietnam.

Expecting the group to make inroads into its maiden overseas markets by year-end, managing director Jason Loh said it would set up offices and scout for partners and sponsors to secure mostly water projects in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

"The water projects there are huge but they come with a lot of risks too,'' he said after Loh & Loh's annual general meeting on Monday.

Loh said water projects were one of the group's main expertises that also include railways projects and it would be leveraging on that strength to build it reputation abroad.

Previously, the group had been eyeing a number of civil and water projects abroad including those in India but none materialised.

Its foray into China's operation and maintenance was also unsuccessful.

"We don’t discount turning back to China. We always want to be in places nearby such as in China Vietnam and Indonesia," Loh said.

He added that in Vietnam, the group would be mainly involved in the construction of buildings and bridges.

At present, Loh & Loh has an order book valued at RM500mil that will keep it busy in the next 18 months and plans to top up another RM500mil worth of new projects this year.

For the year ended Dec 31 2006, the group's net profit had more than doubled to RM12.68mil from RM5.2mil previously, mainly due to higher deliveries of projects last year.

Revenue grew 55% last year from RM138.39mil to RM214.63mil, of which, according to Loh, 70% was driven by water projects, followed by buildings construction and other civil jobs.

New oil field found in Vung Tau sea

22-06-07 The Lam Son Joint Operating Company (Lam Son JOC) has found commercial oil while drilling two wells at the Thang Long field Lot 02/97 about 160 km to the east off shore the southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

The new oil field is located in Cuu Long sediment basin, 27 km southeast of the Ruby oil field and 80 km northeast of the Bach Ho (White Tiger) oil field.

As the Thang Long field has oil-bearing bed lying in a record shallow level in the Cuu Long sediment, it is considered to be a convenient place for oil exploitation.

According to General Director Nguyen Quyet Thang of Lam Son JOC, a joint venture between PetroVietnam and Petronas Carigali Overseas of Malaysia, his company has discovered oil in all three wells it has drilled so far. They are Thang Long-1X, Thang Long-2X, and Thang Long-3X wells.

Vietnam travel "dos" and "dont's"

Vietnam Travel Dos and Dont's

Last night as I was writing this up, once again, Saigon's power failed. This time for 40 minutes between 17:30 until 18:10. Thank God I wasn't in the elevator. Guess with all the power failures I have experienced across the country, one should add a small flashlight to the list of things you should bring but thankfully, I have a laptop with a 3 hour battery that serves as my portable/emergency power station! haha

These are just some loose thoughts pulled together. I hope they help.

Saigon Charlie

1. Do travel to Vietnam as it is an experience of a lifetime!
2. Don’t gamble in their casinos as they are all massively rigged.
   
3. Do travel by train in Vietnam if you want to see it and the locals through their eyes while meeting people, young and old.
4. Don’t use travel agencies for train tickets as the price you are charged is considerably higher than the actual price if obtained at the station window.
5. Do expect the trains to be considerably less comfortable than Thai trains and almost always behind schedule, even to the point of hours.
6. Don’t buy electronic goods in Vietnam as they are double the price you would pay if you bought your new camera or laptop at Pantip Plaza in Bangkok.
7. Do expect an effort to be made to steal whatever electronic item you have on you by what is commonly known here as ‘Saigon Cowboys’ who commit the grab and run while on motorbikes. Also expect less violent theft at train stations and other public venues. Almost everyone I have spoke to who has been here for any length of time as had his phone, camera, laptop, etc. stolen but it is somehow accepted as the way things are, very unlike Thailand where such things very seldom happen.
8. Don’t expect the police to assist you if you are robbed. They do not carry weapons and are totally ineffectual. They are a complete joke in Vietnam compared to Thailand; which makes a considerable effort to protect you and your personal belongings and security.
9. Do carry toilet paper at all times as you often do not have napkins or tissues available at restaurants and of course, for that run to the toilet afterward.
10. Don’t worry about malaria tablets. Toss them if you have them.
11. Do however carry Tiger Balm, bandages and Band-Aids along with some decent antibiotics you picked up in Thailand before heading to Vietnam. Make sure you take care of even the smallest scratch.
12. DON’T get sick in Vietnam as the price of medical care is ridiculously expensive due to a scam they run with travelers and their travel insurance companies. I guess it is OK if you got the insurance but if you don’t, are you prepared to pay $300 for a doctor’s visit? Better fly back to Bangkok if you are that sick as the ticket and medical care is less.
13. Do drink their coffee if you like to wait lengthy periods between being served and actually having the ability of drinking what will mostly be 3 good sips at best as it drips into the cup beneath it. I like all forms of coffee but this method is not appealing to me in either form or taste.
14. Do use Highland’s Coffee cafes in Saigon if you like an excellent cup of coffee, a decent breakfast or meal and a solid and free access to the Internet for your laptop via their WiFi networks.
15. Do expect free Internet and WiFi at most restaurants and cafes around Saigon as well as in Hanoi. Notebook required of course.
16. Do expect VOA (Voice of America) Internet news and sites to be filtered and blocked by the Vietnamese government (www.voanews.com ) Not sure what else they block politically.
17. Do expect to pay less for the local beer, Bovina than for a bottle of water. I have been in cafes where Bovina on the menu is 8,000 dong while the water was 15,000 dong. Other beers such as 333, San Miguel, Heineken, etc. are usually around 30,000 dong as they are beers that foreigners drink.
18. Don’t expect wine to be inexpensive as that is expected to be drunk by foreigners and as in Thailand, taxed as such.
19. Do expect hotels, guest houses, restaurants, café and streets to be exceptionally clean with few if any bugs.
20. Do expect many building’s exteriors to be brightly colored along with their trim. Radically different than in Thailand as most buildings there are dull, grey or black.
21. Don’t expect huge differences in prices between a backpacker’s hostel room with bunk beds and a very nice hotel with all the trimmings. The difference is usually only between $7 for the hostel bunk and $15 for first rate accommodations.
22. Do expect high quality postcards with very inexpensive rates for international mail. I have also discovered that all my cards reached their intended recipients in Germany in less than 2 weeks, but none reached the USA. Cheap rates however do not extend to sending items home!
23. Do expect all post office personnel to be amazingly friendly and helpful. Every place I went I was stunned with how professional and friendly they were.
24. Don’t expect your clothes to be ironed when you send them off to be laundered. Even when I ask for them to be ironed, they still come back wrinkled as hell. Seems the concept of an iron is Thai in nature, not Vietnamese.
25. Do expect to pay 9-10,000 dong per kilo in Vietnam for your wash. Two kilos worth of laundry is a couple of shirts, pants and underwear for a week.
26. Don’t expect to sleep late as Vietnam starts early (6AM) and noise is overwhelming all of the time.
27. Do get a room without a window which will cost less AND afford you some quiet from the noise of the street.
    
28. Don’t expect elevators to be a common item which is one reason the higher you go, the cheaper the room, unlike in the west.
29. Don’t expect Vietnamese to queue or line up at any public window or while boarding a bus, train, etc.
30. Do expect to have a wide selection of TV channels on your hotel’s cable system ranging from the Discovery Channel to Chinese TV in English as well as many movie channels.
31. Do expect to have hot water in your room from a central system instead of from wall heaters that seldom work as in Thailand. Also expect toiletries in your room such as toothbrush, comb, soap, shampoo, etc. which seems to be required by the government to acquire a ‘star’ rating of at any level. I have never lacked for anything with any hotel I have stayed in Vietnam EXCEPT for peace and quiet!
32. Do expect the traffic to be insane, far beyond what you might have experienced in Thailand. It is nerve racking both as a pedestrian and as a rider or driver. For me, I much prefer to be driving than riding. Sidewalks are no more than an overflow for street traffic and all are used in both directions. Bikes are constantly coming at you and whizzing by you as you walk on the sidewalk if you can. Most of the time you are however forced to walk on the streets as Vietnamese don’t walk anywhere and sidewalks are motorbike parking lots.
33. Don’t expect traffic lights, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings to give you ANY protection from vehicles. I have found it actually to be safer to hire a moto for a short distance than to walk there and I really like to stroll around cities.
34. Do expect to use dollars as your primary currency while in Vietnam instead of the dong. Many restaurants hand you the bill in both currencies. Fees and rates are quoted in dollar as well. Euro is hardly recognized and can actually be quoted at rates significantly less than the international rate. Dollar is king in Vietnam and the American’s lost the war???
35. Do expect to pay 10,000 dong for a moto ride just about anywhere you might want to go.
36. Do expect to be able to rent a motorbike but don’t expect the rates to be cheap like in Thailand. Usually double the daily rate I have found.
37. Don’t expect Vietnamese food to be anywhere as good as Thai food. It is also very ‘bland’ by comparison. I consider it much ‘heavier’ than Thai dishes.
38. Do stay in the Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel and Hoa’s Place on China Beach if you want to meet other folks traveling the world. Both places are incredibly unique and extremely friendly. Email Max at www.hanoibackpackershostel.com and Hoa at hoasplace@hotmail.com
39. Do use the Air France/KLM office in the Caravel Hotel in Saigon (next to the Sheraton) for some of the friendliest and most professional travel service I have experienced in Asia. Make sure you ask for ‘Diem’. www.airfrance.com.vn
40. Do have a beer and some damn good pub food at a place that has had its named changed to ‘The Office’ as I write this but has no signage yet. They are just down the street from the Sheraton in Saigon and have many different screens showing Rugby to poker playing. Michael the owner is a Brit and quite a character. Actually, every expat I met there is quite a character!
41. Do stay at the Orient Hotel in Saigon if you want to be in the center of the action with an exceptional room with breakfast for $12 a night. They are located in an area which is pronounced ‘fam u lau’ (Pham Ngu Lao) and are on De Tham Street in District One. orient-hotel@hcm.vnn.vn
42. Do visit Finnegan;s Irish Pub in Hanoi if you like to meet other travelers for a beer. Located on Duong Thanh Street. finneganirishpub@yahoo.com.vn
43. Do visit the Cho Dan Sinh Market not far from De Tham street if you want to buy US military memorabilia such as Zippo lighters.
44. Do expect visas in Vietnam to be much easier to obtain than in Thailand as well as being for longer periods of time. Unlike Thailand, but like Cambodia, they can be obtained through travel agencies here.
45. Do expect English teachers to make double that of what you can make for the same amount of hours teaching in Thailand.
46. Do expect ‘local grown’ motobikes to be half the coast of similar models in Thailand. A new, 110cc bike is no more than $500USD.
47. Do expect there to be many options for playing golf in and around Saigon.
48. Do expect to find ATM’s EVERYWHERE!!!! And often times they are air-conditioned!
49. Don’t go to any of the 100s of Western Union counters if you want to send money out of the country; only if you want to receive it!
50. Do visit Nha Trang if you want to hit the beach as well as party your ass off at night. Sex and the City has nothing on this place.
51. Do expect your electricity to be sporadic in places like China Beach and even Saigon at times.
52. Do expect to hear many conversations from travelers discussing a book called ‘Shantaram’ by Gregory David Roberts. Haven’t read it yet but it sounds pretty amazing.
53. Don’t expect Vietnam Airlines flights out of the country to be cheap as their ticket prices are double what you might expect to pay as are other airlines flying to places like Bangkok. Cheapest ticket I could find one way to BKK was $185.
54. Do expect internal air flights to be a bit dodgy. VASCO equipment ‘shakes, rattles and rolls’ with bald tires and hot shot pilots being the norm as with Vietnam Airlines. Expect bus rides from airports such as in Chu Lai to be the ride of your life!
55. Do expect to find a Mosque calling people to prayers in downtown Saigon next to the Sheraton and Caravel Hotels. Fascinating actually!
56. Do expect to see some of the most amazing colonial architecture in both Hanoi and Saigon with places such as the post office and opera buildings in Saigon as good as it gets.
57. Do expect an amazing day trip via Russian hydrofoil to Vung Tau at the mouth of the Saigon River. Way cool place if you arrange transportation around the area and peaks.
58. Do visit the ‘Ned Kelly Bar’ just across the ferry docks in Vung Tau when you arrive for a cold beer and a decent lunch. Also a good place to meet the local expats.
59. Do expect everyone you meet to have a business or name card. If you like to stay in touch with folks you meet along the way, good idea to get a 100 or so printed up with your contact information, web site or blog on it.
60. Do expect an unending harassment from touts selling things as well as ‘shoe shine boys and men clapping or screaming at you to give you a moto ride while anywhere near a ‘tourist area’. Not bad once in other parts of town or in towns where there are few white faces.
61. Do expect ‘fixed prices’ at many tourist shops on the main streets and no flexibility on price which shocked me. You however can bargain hard and should in tourist markets as they start 300 % higher than what is a real price. Also expect a lot of ‘touching’ and an effort to ‘block you’ from exiting when in their shop. Can be quite trying at times.
62. Do expect children to be very friendly and a simple hello will usually get you a wonderful smile and ‘hello!” back. Many want to practice their English skills as well.
63. Do expect many older men traveling to Vietnam to be here to obtain ‘brides’ or ‘girlfriends’ (…and I DO NOT resemble that remark!!!). Just the nature of the beast I guess and it is a major ‘industry’ of sorts with many web sites supporting these efforts. Not unusual to meet men in their 70s talking about their fiancée and their efforts to get her and her daughter/son a visa to this country or that. If you are older and lonely, guess this is the place to come…..
64. Do expect to be constantly offered ‘marijuana’, ‘pot’, ‘smoke’, ‘massage’, ‘boom boom’, etc. wherever you go, regardless of your age. Not sure what they are trying to sell to the women however…..
65. Do expect every single moto driver to have a plan to sell you something. One I hired for a few days eventually came up with a plan to sell me his neighbor’s motorbike for $350. I had to laugh as he hadn’t tried the other things….yet.
66. Don’t expect to find McDonalds or Burger King as so far, I have not seen one anywhere from Hanoi to Saigon although there are quite a few KFCs.
67. Do however go to one of the many ‘’Lotteria’ if you want a super-sized burger with three layers of meat. Super size takes on a whole new meaning there.
68. Don’t expect to find 7/11s on every street corner like in Thailand as there are none. The concept of a convenience store seems to be in its infancy here and for the person that gets in first here, an incredible money maker. Here however I would put a Vietnamese spin on it and make them a drive through!!!
    
69. Don’t expect motorcycles riders or drivers to have helmets. Don’t expect most of the bikes to have rear view mirrors as well as no one here is 'looking back', only forward! (….and do you honestly think they have driver’s licenses or have taken a test concerning rules of the roads?).
70. Do visit the very professional Tourist Information Center in Saigon on Le Hoi street to meet some interesting and intelligent young ladies who can help you along the way. www.vntourists.com
71. Do come to Saigon if you like watches, both new and used (originals, not copies) as there is no limit to what you can buy. Most shops I found were clustered around the Sheraton.

Midnight ramblings from Saigon

by Saigon Charlie

Midnight in Saigon

Well, it has been a long day here but I have opted to end the day in bed watching the Discovery Channel’s Travel and Leisure. As I don’t have a TV in Europe, kind of nice to take a break from the road and veg in front of the idiot box and watch who and what I am suppose to be. Today I am suppose to be rich and famous in Monaco and go experience the foods of Beijing. Cool. Let’s go!

The trip here in Vietnam is winding down a bit earlier than planned due to me no longer having a camera and a replacement here being twice the price of the same models in Thailand. Same goes for laptops. If you need electronic gear while visiting and traveling in and around Vietnam, make sure you get it at Pantip Plaza in Bangkok before heading out.

As I had to get back to Thailand before heading back to Europe, I hit the usual web sites, from Air France to Thai Airways, and eventually opted to head down to the Air France office where an extremely nice and professional lady named ‘Diem’ joked with me for nearly an hour as I made my travel plans and got my tickets.

If you come overland into Vietnam out of Laos or Cambodia as most due, it seems that most plan on flying back to Bangkok before heading home. Although a good plan, it might shock you to learn that ticket prices are twice as much as you might think for the 1 hour flight as all airlines are around $200 for a one way ticket from either Hanoi or Saigon to Bangkok.

Having spent over 60 hours riding local trains in Vietnam with what I estimate to be over 3,000 kilometers, I think I might be qualified to make a few final observations about traveling around Vietnam.

Everyone of course will leave with their own impressions, given age, place, sex differences, etc., but having said that, for me I am constantly comparing Vietnam to Thailand as that is the place I have spent many years and for me, has come to define the ‘Southeast Asian’ experience. And what are the major differences you ask?

1. Noise. It is EVERYWHERE here. Almost without exception, you are immersed in it. Even the hotels I have stayed in, it has been hard to find something that could be defined as ‘quiet’ with people coming and going and partying all through the night. The locals extend their room space into the hall. Doors aren’t closed, chairs moved into the hall and the party continues there between the parties in various rooms. Of course, if you have a window, the non-stop honking and beeping of motorcycles can try your nerves. As mentioned many times before, people here do not speak softly as they do in Thailand.
2. Unlike Thailand, you are constantly ‘assaulted’ by an endless number of touts for this or that when anywhere gets near a tourist hang out. From pretty ladies smiling lovely smiles selling you books at prices far above what they should be to young boys following saying ‘shoe shine mister?”, it is never ending. I have also found that it is not uncommon to have this endless stream of humanity follow you into a restaurant and continue their pitch as I have watched numerous times money given to these folks just to get them to go away, which is the worse thing you could do! Just keep saying “no!”. They eventually get it. Although you and I as westerners want to make eye contact, that is the beginning of the end for you as that eye contact is taken as a welcoming sign to establish the hustle. If you want to avoid these situations, keep your eyes down and don’t make eye contact with those making attempts to sell you something.
3. The moto driver outside your hotel has bigger plans for you than taking you to your destination for 10,000 dong. The better his English gets, the more sophiscated his plan will be. Not as complex as an Istanbul carpet salesman inviting you in for tea, but the hustle for something is part of where this conversation is headed, and depending on your sex, what that entails. If a man, obviously you will hear ‘massage mister?” or ‘boom boom mister?”. A bit younger, you will be assured you will get an offer for some type of entertainment in the forms of drugs. Often times, that person making you the proposition outside your 3 star hotel, is an ‘off duty’ cop. You figure out where this is headed.
4. The price of local transportation is 10,000 dong. End of discussion. Take it or leave and every single driver will but most, unless you look like a local or seasoned traveler, will start at 3 times that amount. Just be firm and walk away if they won’t take it. Seconds later they are next to you saying, “OK! Let’s go!”
5. Trains are always late. Prices are very cheap as long as you stay away from travel agencies that will book you a ticket. Even the ‘Five Star Train Service’ co-located next to the train station will always have a ticket for you BUT at a price double that of what it should cost. They figure, rightly so, that you the foreigner don’t have the guts to deal with the mayhem of the Vietnamese train ticket window and the crowd pressing against you or maybe you have arrived at the station when it is closed from 11:30 to 13:30 civil servant nap time.
6. I found that in Saigon the hotel will arrange a taxi for you to the airport for $6 but it is highly probably the taxi driver will bitch and moan and complain about accepting this rate and when YOU take your bags out of the taxi, expect him to have his hand out.
7. As I have said here in this blog before, theft is a huge problem although from personal experiences and observations, not limited to Saigon or that matter to white faces. Beyond my own experiences, nearly everyone here has a story to tell. Seems theft here Is a non-racial nor western vs. eastern event. Everyone that looks like they got something worth having is a target, even in remote areas such as Quang Ngai. If you got a laptop on you or a camera that is bigger than your pocket, somebody, somewhere has you marked and is most probably waiting for the right moment to strike. I am terribly sorry I have to write these words but they are true…
8. You will meet some wonderful people on your journey, including children and adults. There is an innocence at times that is priceless and the joy of talking to children, as well as adults, is one part of what traveling is all about BUT having said that, if you are male, and alone, somebody is looking at you with suspicion because unfortunately, there are a bunch of perverts out here from all nationalities.
9. I am constantly listening to conversations about health issues with one of the main discussion points being ‘malaria’ tablets. Simply put you don’t need them and if you take them, you are more probably at getting ill that if you don’t them, I also want to mention that health care in Vietnam is expensive. Save getting sick for Thailand. A trip to the doctor here or in the new hospital in Siem Reap is a $300 appointment as they expect you to have ‘travel insurance’ and will charge you as such. These are insane amounts and nothing more than a scam. “Up to you” as we say in Thailand but if you don’t have travel insurance, you better re-think how sick you are before walking through that doctor’s door.
10. One of the most comical things I see daily is what people are carrying. I just can’t imagine what people are lugging around in the huge backpacks they are carrying along with the other backpack strung over their stomach. Clothes in Asia are dirt cheap and often cheaper than what it cost to wash them at a hotel! Is it really necessary that everyone knows you wear designer, name brand clothes from Europe? For men, a pair of shorts with decent sized pockets and a pair of long pant is all you will ever need. When one gets dirty, wear the other and get it washed. A few t-shirts to keep the sweat away from a couple of shirts is all you will need. Do you really need socks when it is 35 degrees outside and your feet are constantly soaked from the rain. My rule of thumb is my total wash should never be more than 3 kilos, 5 maximum if you want to keep your tux with you…
11. You will acquire things along the way to take home for yourself and friends which is great but if you start off with your maximum baggage allowance, how are you getting those items back? Oh yeah, the post!
12. Not so fast buckaroo! Posting things back home to Europe or the States is expensive, whether in Thailand or Vietnam. If posted from Cambodia, you might as well throw your money into the Tonle Sap. Many men I know are mailing back those items that make your sex life a bit more stimulating back home with the lass you lovingly left, but if so, don’t be so stupid to put your name on it, as what you are doing is illegal!
13. Have a small medical kit. Make sure you get some Tiger Balm in Thailand (red not white) as well as some bandages and bandaids (plasters). Some tape with small scissors need to be thrown in as well. When (not if) you get cuts, clean them immediately with bottled water and use Tiger Balm and the bandage to keep it covered. Tiger Balm keeps the wound moist so sometimes, as with poison, that might not be the right choice and will make the rash spread. Tiger Balm is also good for sunburn but having decent lotion is also important from the intense sun. As said before, drop the malaria tablets as they are expensive and will most probably make you ill. An assortment of antibiotics can be bought over the counter in Thailand and cost nearly nothing.
14. Police are not here to help you! You need to get that concept out of your head! They are here to take your money if they are involved. If a crime against you has happened in Cambodia, they will expect $100 to do the paperwork which is a total waste of time. In Thailand, you have an accident, and they are called to the scene, they will be expecting a cut of whatever settlement is arrived at. In Vietnam, the crowd that gathers around the accident becomes the 'jury' to the event and its settlement. You kill someone on your motorbike drunk in Thailand, you aren’t going to jail but you will be expected to pay the family a rate that is appropriate for the person’s age, sex, martial status, number of children, etc. Run over a 10 year old girl, and the price is much lower than a 29 year old man with a family of 3 working as a mechanic. Simple enough but expect the police who ‘broker’ the deal to get their commission. No police, no commission. Simple as that.
15. If you are involved in an accident, sober or drunk, run as fast can and get as far away from the event as possible. State the motorbike was stolen and you were not on the planet that day. Staying at the scene while people are picking up the bodies even though you were not responsible and the person who hit you was drunk out if his mind, will not have an outcome you expect as they will blame you, the foreigner. If you witness an accident and go to help, you will be paying for it. You don’t listen to my advice in these matters, you will regret it for a long time as nice guys finish last out here.
16. In Vietnam they don’t have helmets and no one expects you to wear one. Shit, they don't even have rear view mirrors. In Thailand, helmets have come to be expected in places such as Pattaya only because they are a source of revenue for the police if you don’t wear one in the form of on the spot tickets and fines. Forget the fact that the helmets there couldn’t protect you from the impact of a fly hitting you at 30kph. It is a total joke but as in Thailand, show is what is important. Substance is not…
17. Theft in Thailand is different in some ways from Vietnam as a Thai will not steal from you for several reasons. Most won’t steal as they are Buddhist but even if they do, you can expect the police to beat the shit out of them if they get caught (and they will) stealing from a foreigner, as tourism is vital to their economy and they know it. The police in Thailand come down heavy on Thais stealing or committing crimes against us BUT having said that, beware of the new foreign friends you have just met on that long, 7 hour bus ride to a place where everyone intends to get trashed out of their minds. Single white woman have a mystical charm about them to these eastern boys (and horny white boys) and they are immune, even while filling their bags shoplifting at Thailand’s finest department stores. Hopefully they have had their fill before they get to you and your backpack…..
18. You have to be almost insane to survive out here and anyone who has been out here for any length of time has moved their ‘center’ so far to the right or left, that ‘normal’ to them will seem bizarre to you. Hang out here in Asia though for awhile and walk a mile in their shoes (or pumps if you prefer) and you might see everything through a different pair of rose colored glasses. People are here because they don’t fit in where they are from and as we say in Thailand, “you don’t fit in but you don’t stick out!”, as bizarre is normal!

Good night Vietnam!
Charlie

Train journey from Quang Ngai to Nha Trang Vietnam

Train Trip from Quang Ngai to Nha Trang, Vietnam

13:00

Pulling out of the station in complete and utter chaos. Man with his family with what appears to be 6 children, consume the seats around me and as he rips off his shirt, is now sitting bare chested in a seat in front of me. His wife has taken the chair directly in front of me and both have lowered the backs to what I call the ‘chaise back lounge’ position. Oh joy as this has barely left me enough room to breath.

Seems like over half the train is below the age of 18 which pretty much is a decent demographic representation of Vietnam today. On to Nha Trang!

As we pass rice paddies along the dike the tracks are resting on, I can’t help but marvel at the engineering feat they entail in their construction and upkeep.

If you look closely at them, you will notice they are structured in a tier system with water being pumped onto the highest level allowing it to naturally low out and down from that point.

I also can’t imagine the heat the men and women in the fields must be enduring on a day like today with the temperature hovering over 35 and the humidity quite high. Fully clothed in long sleeve shirts and pants and rubber boots, they must be baking under this mid-day sun.

People in my coach are sprawled out like we at a teenager slumber party. It is actually quite funny to see as teenage girls covered with their constantly worn surgical masks and floppy hats spread themselves across their other seats, poking their long legs and bare feat into the air. You sure as heck would never see such a thing in Thailand as sticking your feet at anyone is considered a very rude and unholy thing. What an amazing cultural difference.

I have been told that I am on an ‘express’ train which simply means in Vietnam that the train makes less stops and supposedly waits less on the side rails for other trains passing us. Once again, ‘express’ is defined as a comfortable jog as we make our way south. I wish my camera hadn’t been ripped from me in Saigon as there are so many great photos in this coach alone. The only thing that is missing are the pigs and chickens and the snoring is free!

Well, we did manage to leave only 20 minutes late which isn’t bad considering the previous ‘express’ train to Saigon scheduled to leave at 06:00 didn’t pull out of the station until 07:30. But unfortunately even after leaving near the appointed time, we are now parked on a side rail waiting I am sure for someone to pass us only 30 minutes after leaving Quang Ngai.

The snoring in the coach is now being balanced with the crying of a small infant just to the left of me. It is quite small and the parents are quite young and seem quite unsure about what to do.

Massive thunderheads with their anvil shapes are building up towards the western mountains on our coastal run to Saigon. I suspect we might be hitting some rain before this trip has ended.

I did notice before we left the station in Quang Ngai that the man who had his computer and documents stolen at the station around 7AM was now back and was sitting at Shirley’s café with an obviously very pregnant Vietnamese woman. I managed to ascertain from him he had not recovered his belongings and from his looks, I could tell he felt like his guts has been ripped out. Definitely not the self assured, almost arrogant strong man that had strolled into the station in the morning with shined combat boots. Actually now his face could only be described as a puppy dog who just got hit in the nose after peeing on the carpet.

As the train restarts after another train passes us heading north, the snoring and crying intensify. And to think, only 8 more hours to go!

But that is why I do this; the entertainment and fun of it all.

Other than me, there are no other white faces on this train.

Wow, that’s a first. Fields of watermelons being harvested with huge stacks being loaded into trucks along the roads.

14:00

We pass over a second river since Quang Ngai and as with the 1^st, a mere refection of its former self. I use the word ‘reflection’ as you can tell the deep and wide channels that the waters once cut haven’t been experienced in quite some time as now fences and crops are starting to consume the silty soil where the waters once flowed. Even fences for livestock are now frequently seen in these dying river beds.

I really haven’t had a chance to talk about ‘Shirley’ who took such good care of me during the 6 hours I waited for my train. As I said earlier, she rode in with a uniformed man a it after I arrived that I later learned was a police officer and her husband now.

She really wanted to tell me about herself and as I listened, she gave me an amazing tale of her working for the Americans as a combat nurse with the 91^st Evacuation Hospital in Chu Lai in the late 60s and early 70s. You sensed a lot of pride in her story and recollections and asked me if I could help her son find a job. I said I would do my very best.

I also played at length with her 20 month old grandson who is as smart as a pistol. I mean the kid took to my computer like a fish to water and after watching me shake hands with another gentlemen I had been talking to, put out his small hand and shook mine strongly! Pretty cool for a 20 month old I would say.

We stopped very briefly at a place called ‘Ga Duc Pho’ (poor duck I guess..) where thankfully the young couple and their infant left. After leaving this station the train started to pick the pace up and after entering a lovely valley, it is starting to sway back and forth with the familiar ‘clacky, clack’ that these trains make. God how I love that sound.

Although I think I have never told anyone my grandfather’s faite, the family story is that he died in a railroad accident from a pressure line that got uncoupled and snapped his neck. That supposedly happened when my father was 16 which contributed to his heading to Chicago where he worked as a drummer and started driving fast cars (for various unmentionable endeavors) Maybe it is because of the family but I suspect it is more because I like to ‘go’!

Although today has been a scorcher up here on the central coast, I have found Saigon to be constantly cooler and more pleasant even in spite of it being June. I can honestly say that of all my years in places like Bangkok and Phnom Penh and now Saigon, Saigon has been without a doubt the most pleasant temperature and humidity wise but maybe that is because of its constant breezes?

Another thing that one needs to understand in this part of the world is facial expressions. So much is communicated without saying anything at all and that could be one reason I feel so comfortable out here.

You almost have to be an actor to communicate here and making people laugh with your expressions and a smile is a key to that success. As an example of this idea is the tremendous success of ‘Mr. Bean’, which is actually showing here in Vietnam in the theatres with posters of his stupid expressions hanging everywhere.

They also love cartoons like Tom and Jerry which seems to be showing on just about every TV in every waiting room I have passed through. Obviously the message and the humor is being communicated without a word ever being spoken. Something to learn from the above if you live and work here.

We have passed an area along the eastern dike our track is on of huge salt farms where mounds and mounds of salt are captured from the sea in large, shallow evaporating pools. They look very similar to the thousands of similar pools I saw from the plane as we made our numerous turns back at Chu Lai while looking for the runway. Seems ‘salt’ is a major business along this coast as well as oil.

One thing that I have also been surprised with in Vietnam as I make my way up and down the coast is people here love colors! The brighter, the better with intense blues, greens, yellows dominating the exterior walls of many buildings and homes. Not quite Santorini but an Asian equivalent.

Combined with the lush, vividly green rice fields, quite a panoramic of colors at times. Sure won’t see that in Thailand or Germany. Large concrete water ducts also crisscross the landscape as well as other dug into the earth by both man and animal. These arteries represent life to the these people, no different than the blood that flows through us.

On a not so serious subject, they love to play ‘Petanque" or ‘Boule” which are the common names around the world for a steel ball game. I couldn’t agree more as I have played 100s of game while living along the banks of Chao Phraya River with my Thai friends.

The game is simple and fun and involves each playing having 3 balls and 3 chances at getting as close to a pea some meters away. It is sort of like bowling but unlike bowling, you can throw the balls as well as roll them. From what I have observed so far, it seems Boule is more common the farther north you go with Hanoi having ‘Boule pits’ everywhere. Great game to play on a hot evening, underneath a large tree, while sipping a Mekong Rum with a bit of coke and ice.

The train continues to zip down the coast passing within spitting distance of the South China Sea. The sea’s waves along with some beautifully colored temples pass by and then we enter the total blackness of a tunnel with the feeling you are in a chapter of an Agatha Christie novel.

After the brief flirt with the ocean’s waves, we head further inland as we get close to the second hour mark of our trip. We are now immersed in coconut groves which have obviously been planted by humans but beautiful nonetheless.

I am also curious about the loudness of the people around me as it is constant wherever I go. The reason it is so noticeable to me is that I spent so many years in Thailand where public transportation is quiet except for some blaring music or movie and people talk softly and even when on their mobile phones in public, cover their mouths. That concept is obviously alien to this culture!

They also don’t seem to mind who sees them while doing their business in public facilities as I have yet to find a lock door and often times the door isn’t even closed. Sort of embarrassing to keep walking in on people on trains and waiting rooms but they don’t seem to mind.

Public norms here in Vietnam reminds me of living on a farm with a bunch of brothers and sisters. Guess that is sort of what communism and socialism has taught these people; we are just one big happy family, so little things like closing the toilet door isn’t necessary which might also be the reason everyone is screaming at the top of their lungs when talking on their phones as we are all related and maybe they think I am trying to hide something if I talk softly? I don’t know but it is another huge difference between Vietnam and Thailand.

15:50

‘Ga Bong Son’

We just made our third stop in two hours. Once again it was quick but not painless as I had moved to another seat where the seat in front of me was inclined into my stomach (and no wisecracks about me being fat!). A new family was boarded and I have the lost the capitalist luxury of a seat I can breath in.

Very shortly out of Bong Son we cross another river that has three bridges across it. Once again, and I know this gets old, but there is only a trickle of a channel and as before, large areas of the silted river bed are being turned into pastures and gardens.

That reminds me as I write it that a few days ago I was watching Chinese TV and say a very interesting news feature about the 3^rd largest lake in China reaching a state of pollution that now the millions of locals who rely on the water, have to now use bottled water instead. Due to soaring temperatures the lake’s chemical composition has changed and the sulfur and pollutants have reached a point where the water is unusable.

What was sort of interesting about the feature was not that the lake was polluted beyond human use and involved millions of people but the story’s slant that people were hoarding the water and that the government in Beijing was stepping in to save them by diverting bottled water from other provinces was a rather interesting twist to the real problem I would say. And you thought only Washington had ‘spin doctors’!

We enter another tunnel but this time a single light pops on. Now my visions of bloody daggers sticking out of bodies as we exit a pitch black tunnel have been erased from my head…

Wow! I just discovered there is a table hidden in the arm of my chair. I honestly don’t remember seeing that in the other 40 hours of trains that I have rode in Vietnam but I unfortunately can’t use it anyway, as Ms. Cool’s chaise lounge in front of me precludes that from happening.

The girl several seats up from me is seated so she is facing my way in a 4 seat table seating arrangement. Now try to imagine the image of a young lady, surgical mask in pink and white totally covering her face to her eyes, where you see two slits followed by your typical floppy hat pulled down low to meet the mask.

Her legs are propped up onto the small ‘dining table’ that serves the group of 4 seated passengers, with her naked feet and toes inches away from an elderly man trying to make use of the table to eat some food. Next to him is her friend, also similarly attired with her feet also propped up on the table. Doesn’t that make you hungry?

I thought at first when I arrived in Vietnam the ‘head to toe’ Taliban dress code was something to keep their young white skin from coming in contact with the sun. Now I am not so sure as I glance around my coach and notice every single girl, without children and not married and in their late teens, seems to be also dressed this way….while inside a train coach with the curtains drawn. Seems to be more a social status symbol which could be "I’m single", look at me!? Maybe it is the Vietnamese equivalent of body piercing? Don’t know what it is but there is more to the story here than just the sun.

I forgot to mention that the price for this seven hour excursion was actually less than my ‘1 hour = $1USD’ rule I use for ground and river transportation in Asia, with the rule only being violated when forced into transportation occupied only by foreigners. In today’s care, as I am the only one, the $1 rule applies.

The girl to my left has started to sing, even though she still has her surgical mask on as if she is performing an operation at a M.A.S.H. unit. The young lad sitting next to me has offered me his chips several times and to be polite, I have accepted twice. What is also amazing is his father has realized that maybe his wife’s chair is putting a bit of crimp in my seating arrangement and has told her to raise her seat. That is so cool as there are many more hours to go. I guess good things do happen for those that wait, and wait..and wait…

The train is really screaming along how and even the ‘clacky, clack’ has ended for more of a ‘metallic roar’ for lack of a better phrase. If we could keep the door closed to our air-conditioned compartment the sound might be a bit less but the hired help make sure that doesn’t happen with their frequent trips up and down the train selling something or the other.

The young man seated next to me seems like a bright young lad and obviously bored. As I really have nothing to give him, I pull out a couple of English language magazines about Vietnam I have on me and let him look through them. At least there are pictures he can look at. He is quite polite and says ‘thank you’ in English.

As I look up, I notice the mountains are to the east of us and between our train and the coast. I guess we have moved further inland as I don’t see mountains that were to our west for several hours.

We are now three hours into the run south and some pretty impressive Cham ruins appear towards the coast. Almost appears the pointed hills they are sitting on are man made. Need to look into that as a possibility and also take a peek at the area when I get back with Google Earth.

As we pass over stream after stream it suddenly dawns on me how exposed Vietnam is to bird flu as every place there is water, not far away down stream, there is an open air duck farm, and they are everywhere! I sure wouldn’t want to be the government official in Hanoi responsible for a lock down in this country.

I also have to laugh as the man in front of me realized that maybe ripping his shirt off as he settled into his seat was a good idea as he just got a whiff of his own body odor. Seems that was enough to make him get up and put his shirt back on. Comical to watch as he came to this realization…

16:00

We are starting to enter into an area that is obviously seeing some substantial growth with new warehouses under construction. Once again, another river BUT this one has water! Wow. Wonder why such an exception compared to the dozens of streams before this one? I also notice a road bridge crossing the river has a large diameter blue pipe strapped to the bridge which I know also carries water. Shortly after this crossing, there is another filled with water and then some more amazing Cham ruins right in the middle of some good size town we are passing through. Where the hell am I? I sound like I’m writing the script for a Carmen Santiago geography lesson!

16:15

A few miles from the Carmen Santiago mystery, a garbled speaker announces something which no human could ever understand in any language. It seems we are stopping at a rather large railway station called ‘Ga Dieu Tri’. I remember this from my last trip south from Hanoi and I know we are going to be here for awhile.

Once again the air conditioning stops when the train stops and the heat from the western sun trying to come through my curtained window is intense. Now I know what a lobster in a lobster pot feels like as they slowly turn up the heat. Once again, the boarding chaos commences but this time we have ‘cleaning ladies’ making a sweep through the train looking for anything of value, bottles to cans.

The children around me are so cute I can’t stand it. Bright, well behaved, curious and very polite unlike their older teen-aged adolescence elders. Wonder when and how they turn into the ‘ladies’ with their feet sticking up into the air in old men’s faces?

16:30

Two blasts of the horn and we immediately start moving again and the aircon starts. Whew! Really sorry for those in the other cars that are riding in the heat but I guess they do have the windows down so there is air flowing through the coaches. Once again, I am car ‘6’ which seems to be the airconed car on these trains.

The young lad just laid a carmel treat on my small table as I had my eyes closed for a moment. How can you not love these people in spite of all the things that make things here very difficult at times? I don’t even want to think about the war….

I just can’t help but laugh to myself as I stare down the coach and see all the thin, naked feet and legs peering over seats like seedlings growing over beach dunes. If you have been exposed to customs and culture in Thailand and understand a bit of Buddhism, this simply could not happen on a Thai train. I know teachers who have been fired from their jobs in Bangkok for putting their feet upon their desk while reading. Feet are so unclean and so very unholy…

As I watch male train staff move up and down the aisles doing their duties, I can’t help but wonder at the simplicity of their uniforms compared to what you might expect in Thailand. Here people in uniform, from police, to teachers to military is at best described as utilitarian. In Thailand on the other hand, it is hard to tell the Chief of Staff from the military from a parking lot attendant as they both wear pretty much the same amount of ribbons, lanyards and hats that would make Admiral Nimitz blush.

Another thing here is the police don’t carry guns-anywhere. Haven’t seen one yet except maybe a glance of a sidearm when I was boarding the plane with the police officer next to the plane while boarding to Chu Lai.

In Thailand, guns are everywhere and even the teachers in the south have been issued shotguns. Not saying that is a good thing but it is here that someone violently ripped an $800 camera from me while the police meters away only shrugged. I have never, ever, once felt unsafe in Thailand and seldom locked my doors to my apartments and homes there. Think there are any links here between guns and security? Most Americans sure think so.

Thailand is about show and the uniforms and the guns are part of that. Mirrors American thinking of course. But another thing in Thailand which is hyper-critical to understand is the concept of 'face', and of course the trappings of 'face', from watches, to offices, titles on business cards as well as the uniform you wear and the gun you might carry.

The concept of ‘pretty’ is also critical as well in Thailand, from building a tall tower, to the looks of the cars on the SkyTrain. Haven’t been here in Vietnam long enough to know the importance of either or both, but from the outside looking in, doesn’t seem to be important (at least for now) but I have a funny feeling that will change with time.

The coastal mountains are definitely getting larger as we progress south, with our train making a course which appears to be in a valley between two parallel ranges. Rows and rows of planted trees of some variety (rubber?) sway in the low lying foothills, while higher elevation timber appears to be older.

I have FINALLY got to see the face of the girl with her pink surgical mask. Now I know at least the reason she is wearing it. I would too.

As we progress into the ‘evening hours’, the people are starting to come alive from their listlessness. Women with their husbands seem friskier, the children are chattering away, girls now removing their masks and I can even hear laughter now and again.

Although there is no ‘siesta’ part of the culture, it does seem that one in reality happens due to the intensity of the afternoon heat. The public servants take one of sorts but it begins at 11:30, not really a response to the heat of the afternoon or what I would call a 'siesta'.

It has already been a very long day for me having been up at 4AM with a 6 hour wait at the station for my train. As the sun lowers over the low peaks in the west, the shadows are getting long and the colors are starting to dance their evening dance.

The bright yellows and greens of the passing structures almost twinkle as we whip pass them. This is what traveling is all about; the dance of the colors!

Now the young lady that was singing with her mask on has offered me some peanut flavored treat which I graciously accept. She has removed her mask to eat however!

I feel bad I have nothing to offer back to either her or the young lad next to me.

17:30

Dinner served! As the cart makes its way down the compartment, excitement builds and everyone gets prepared for dinner. Soy sauce bottles appear. These people are prepared!

My tray arrives and I once again have my central rice dish with three side dishes. You would have to be an old Asian hand to eat what I ate, but it was filling.

I also managed to return my young friend’s kindness as I remembered on my laptop, I have an assortment of games that came with the operating system. Cool, I thought. What child doesn’t want to play computer games and as it turned out, he knew immediately what to do and it wasn’t long before he was surrounded by his sisters and others telling him which box of this memorization game or another to turn over. They were having some serious fun and fun is something that is not allowed….at least with a foreign man on a train I quickly found out!

The rest of this story unfortunately takes a sad turn as the police turned up. And they got heavy. First question wasn’t if I was an American but confirming the fact that I was. The second was, “Is this your son?” No I stated, it the man who is sitting in front of the boy.

The police sergeant with decent English skills and a strong odor of alcohol on this breath continued with his interrogation by asking me where I was going. I stated I was departing the train at Nha Trang. Was I going to the festival there? Didn’t know there was one was my response. Apparently not the right answer as I am suppose to know where I am going and for what reason. It was obvious I needed to shut down the notebook and tell the children to go away as he continued to watch them play a game called “Purple Palace” and he was obviously not pleased.

I shut down the computer and he took an empty seat behind me a few rows back. I thought maybe I needed to take a ‘walk’ and went to the toilet but as I was coming back, it was obvious he was ‘debriefing’ the boy next to me. When he saw me, he stopped. I honestly felt they were going to pull me off the train and interrogate me as I have had two other conversations with travelers who have had this happen to them.

I have found out as I try to talk with people up and down Vietnam that they expect you to be married, have children and if not, it doesn’t fit into the profile they have been taught to expect. Even their English training entails these questions in their 2^nd and 3^rd position after “where are you from?”

Traveling alone, as I have learned long ago puts you in a class that is ‘suspect’ for whatever reason the culture has for single people traveling alone; gay, pervert, etc.

As it turned out the remainder of the trip had a heavy cloud over it and there was a 30 minute wait only a few kilometers from my intended destination of Nha Trang, which delayed my arrival until past 21:00 (9PM).

Needless to say a very long and tiring day but I did manage to collect my things and my thoughts and we parted with the kids and the children’s father shaking my hand as they were also departing the train in Nha Trang. I guess all in all not so bad a day as from Quang Ngai to Nha Trang, from a 20 month old child, to an ex-Army nurse, an old man, children and a father; many shook my hand this day. I guess for others, they would have preferred me dead……….

Throwing my rucksack over my shoulder, off I went into the blackness of Nha Trang….

Good night Vietnam!
Saigon Charlie

Nha Trang – Sex and the City

by Saigon Charlie

Sunday Morning

I have no idea what the guide books write about this place but in my opinion, the heading should read, “Nha Trang – Sex and the City”, because that pretty much sums up why white folks come here.

Where to begin? I guess at the beginning.

Yesterday, was Saturday and today is Sunday (so far so good). I needed to get some work done and the first Café near my hotel a bit off the beaten path was unable to get my laptop on the Internet even though it has connected each and every time from Bangkok where I bought it, through Laos, Hanoi, Saigon, etc. No problem. Thanks for letting me use your air conditioned VIP room with lovely ladies offering massages, but I really need to get connected and get some work done.

After paying that check, I headed towards what I figured was the beach after checking the sun's position, was soon on Nha Trang’s curving, wide horseshoe shaped beach/bay.

Yesterday, as today, was brutally hot and after a quick look along the beach, I headed towards the hotel and tourist shopping areas. Along the way, I met a Vietnamese/American who was dangling a huge camera around his neck and I warned him to take care. We talked for a bit about him and his past, shook hands and I was off again.

I eventually ended up by my lonesome self in a huge bar/restaurant where I needed to get a bite to eat as I had not had western food in several days, mostly living off rice and chunks of one boiled meat or another thrown on top. Although filing, not my cup of tea too many days in a row.

I looked through the menu and thought that the prices were quite high for just about everything. I almost walked out but the young man behind the bar was friendly enough and when he offered to put another San Miguel beer on ice, I thought in tune with the needs of his customers. I thought, ‘what the heck’ and asked for a Tropical Pizza.

As I am finding out here, things take time. Lots of it and when it arrives, it is almost like you are expected to be grateful it has arrived at all. Another very odd thing was the comment of the cook who served it to me stating that it was the best pizza in town.

As I peered down onto the wooden dish it was sitting on, it looked rather sickly and as I took my first bite, I almost gagged as I imagine cardboard tastes better.

After several pieces of this delicacy, I was still trying to determine if the chunks of something that was on top were the pineapple. Honestly, after finishing it in its entirety, I don’t know what was on it. As I was really hungry however, and it was in the category of ‘food’, I finished it.

I paid the bill and as I was walking out I hear ‘Charlie!”. As no one is shooting at me, I guess that is a good thing and see two Danish girls that I have met along the way in my travels the past few months, the first time in a Thai restaurant the night before I crossed the Mekong into Laos at Chiang Khlong.

They were sitting at a table at the same restaurant but near the street so I went back inside and we exchanged pleasantries for a bit. It was obvious they had been doing some heavy partying the night before and it was almost comical to hear them talk about how much more money they were spending than what they had budgeted. Duh! Go figure. Asia is cheap but drinking in bars is not. Buying custom made clothes and shipping them home to Denmark isn’t either. Rules Number 1 and Number 2.

After listening to their tales from the road filled with partying and young men, I gave them some suggestions about how to make their way back to Thailand via Cambodia. Flying out of Vietnam is not cheap as they discovered so they were thinking of heading overland (over water?) through Cambodia. Even for a tough guy, that is no easy trip, as they already knew, so were somewhat between a rock and a hardspace with what to do.

We said our goodbyes again and I headed to the water front again where after a bit, I decided that I really needed to make my way back to Saigon (again) and as I had already confirmed the flights were full, that meant I had two other options; bus or train.

If you have read my previous stories, for me, bus is a non-option here so off to the train station I went on the back of my 10,000 dong moto.

We arrived there at exactly 13:00 (1PM) and all the counters were closed. Of course. It was the required 2 hour napping time for Vietnamese civil servants and behind each counter if you looked down into the darkness, you could see Vietnam’s finest sleeping on metal cots behind each position. Once again, it appears that nappy time is between 11:30 to 13:30 so I go back outside to pay my moto driver and of course he thinks he as a fish on the line and doesn’t want to be paid and he ‘will wait’. No. Take the dam money and thanks very much!

Back into the sleepy train station I head and plop myself down on a plastic chair. Nothing to do but wait.

Around 13:25 you see a head pop up from behind a counter and a woman begins to pull her hair back from. Another pair of eyes with dark hair appears and that goes on 2 more times. OK I thought….show time!

Of course while I had been waiting others have come to also purchase tickets and as I made to the counter and was ‘first in line’, a crowd formed around me. There are no such things as ‘line or queues’ in Vietnam; people crowd towards the door, window, steps, etc. Getting in a line is an alien concept here.

So I am 1^st in ‘line’ and after I establish to the others who are making an attempt to be first that I am first, the lady opens her window and we start what I now know is going to be the negotiations for a ticket.

How about Sunday I ask? Nope. Full. Funny I thought as with nearly 15 trains on the schedule, how can they all be full and how does she know this without even checking.

No problem. How about Monday? Sure. 3AM departure. 3AM I ask!!?? No, don’t think so.

This went on for a bit and I finally ended up, with the help of others around me, with a ticket for a sleeper ‘hard’ with 5 socialist comrades departing Nha Trang right before 11PM Monday night. That means “no mattress” if you don’t know what ‘hard’ means. Mattresses are a capitalist invention….

I left the station with my ticket south firmly in my wallet and sure as hell, who is waiting for me but my good friend, Mr. Moto. OK. No problem. Take me to my hotel where I grab my notebook from the upstairs penthouse suite I am staying in and as I come down I notice he is having a conversation with the man who is the owner. As they see me, the conversation abruptly ends and he runs for his bike.

We head back for the beach area where it is my intent to get my Internet work done. I had asked the folks at the ‘Crazy Kims’ if they had WiFi and was informed they did so it was my intent to head back there and get several hours of work accomplished.

Once again, Mr. Moto wanted to wait and was by now making his best effort at selling me something. Smoke? Girls? Massage? AK-47’s? (just kidding on the assault rifle.)

I pay him off and find a suitable table and away I go, hunched over my laptop for the next several hours until the beeping sound of dying battery starts. I move to a stool at the bar where the new girl plugs the cable in for me and away I go.

As I am getting a bit hungry and cardboard pizza is now not an option, I peer down the lengthy list of savory delights and opt for what has to be the safest thing on such a menu for foreigners; a cheeseburger with chips (for my American friends that is French fries.)

Once again, as always, the wait seems endless but that is OK as I am really getting a ton of work done.

It does arrive before dusk however and as it is placed next to me and something that appears like ketchup is set next to it, I am asked if I want a knife and fork.

Being the smartass I am, I asked, “does that cost extra?” which got a pretty good laugh from the gent across from me sipping on a coke chatting up the bar maid with lines “that he had no girlfriend.” How amazingly original I thought….

Ever heard the old Wendy’s expression, “where’s the beef?!”. That sums up my burger experience here entirely. As with the pizza, the bun was far larger than the undetermined meat that was between them.

Now I guess why I found all this very strange as this was obviously a HUGE bar for foreigners with all the trappings and signs and t-shirts that one would expect. The first bartender was making his best effort at selling me a ridiculous shirt that I am sure the proceeds would go to ‘helping the children’ (..and this is a place that also has a massage parlor…must do facials…..). I guess somehow they were also connected with a famous diving venue, according to their signs and had some thing going with the local ‘street children’ to educate them and get them money.

Sorry. I don’t buy it one bit and let me tell you why.

Long ago I learned that those that scream the loudest about this or that, are usually the guiltiest or are trying to hide something. The ‘tip’ jar had a sign saying the tips went to the children’s education. Signs everywhere screaming anti-pedophile slogans. The signs indicated that there was a night for the children to learn English as well with foreigners, but while doing so, those same foreigners consumed a lot of items from the menu at some of the highest prices I have seen in Vietnam for such a place AND when I did tip 10,000 dong (15%) for my ‘burger’ with a free fork and knife, the manager who gave me the check quickly shoved the amount into his right pants pocket and the girl behind the bar who had waited on me for the past couple of hours didn’t see a dong which is the way things work out here. WAIT STAFF NEVER GET THE TIPS YOU GIVE THEM!!!

How many times have I tried to tell people this as from Hong Kong to Saigon, it goes to the managers or even sometimes, the owners of the establishment as non-taxed money. My wife in Hong Kong who worked as a bartender in one of the best bars there NEVER SAW her tips from the tip jar as it went to management! Whether you are police or a bartender, money flows UP the chain of command. If you want to tip, which I do, make sure the person serving you pockets it.

As I was leaving I asked the young lady what she was doing so intently on her calculator. She said she was ‘calculating her salary’….

As I just didn’t have a good feeling about my social do-gooders as observed actions speak louder than words, so I went down the street after my Internet work was done to a place called ‘Guavas’. Nice enough. Good music. Pool table up front. Four or so interesting looking ex-pat types sitting at the bar. OK. What’s on their menu?

As it turned out this was a very good choice as they had my favorite vodka tonics at 25,000 dong which is a fair price. Unlike sooooooo many other places that pour such a cocktail with a jigger, this woman took the bottle, tuned it upside down until the ice was covered with the libation and with only a bit of space left (a very little), poured on a newly opened can of tonic! My kind of place! Seems happy hour there last until 8PM.

The next few folks I met came in and joined our crowd and people started to shuffle out while others shuffled in.

A man from Leeds came in with his Vietnamese lady that apparently was traveling with him around the country. Interesting character, working in offshore oil. Met the new manager of Guava next to him as well and although originally from England, he had been living in Australia and having come to Vietnam for only a month, was now here 6 months on. The reason for that appeared a bit later; as had the required tattoos and a very busy mobile phone. She obviously knew what she was doing...

And then in walked my long lost Danish friends and in tow, of course, were two young men. What had the cats brought home this time I thought? Oh, I see, a couple of nice juicy mice! Had to laugh as every time I see them, there are 2 different men in tow!

They came right up to me and started to talk with me like I was their long lost brother and the 2 men started looking at each other like what’s this all about? They were telling me how happy they were to see me as I always made them laugh (which is true I do…) and they were trying to get me to go with them to another bar called ‘Sailing Club’ (or something like that) and as I had nothing else to do, off we went AFTER another round of amazingly tasty shooters from the management. Free of course!

We strolled down ‘beach road’, their new young men in tow, in what can only be called total mayhem. I was surprised to see however we were walking towards the beach and not to the establishments on the opposite side of it, and soon discovered why as we walked into one of the largest bars I have ever been in, which ‘consumed’ most the beach’s width, including a stage area and ‘cat walk’ (that’s suppose to happen tonight).

Inside there were hundreds and hundreds of patrons with a huge number being either single women on the prowl or joined together in cat houses. Drinks were served in buckets and ridiculously cheap at 25,000 dong for vodka, pineapple and red bull.

As we settled back into our chairs and I started to talk with the young men, a lady pulls a chair next to me and sits down. Reasonably attractive I thought but I am ‘engaged’ at the moment. Be with you in a moment. Anyway…

I find out the tall lad is from New Zealand and is basically your south island beach bum type with curling blond hair from diving and surfing. I can see what Charlotte wants this one for.

The other was Israeli and I guessed correctly at 32. He was interesting but politics, history, etc. were not keeping my other, obviously very bored lady entertained.

We exited from ‘inside’ to ‘outside’ and the beach and now I am watching some entertainment from a Frenchman doing magic tricks. Tattoos can been seen poking out everywhere from under his clothes. Children following him around like the pied piper…

People are disappearing, Charlotte has disappeared again and I have discovered she is now dancing in the orgy of hundreds of dancers inside, with no one in particular.

She has let it be known to her big brother that she thinks the New Zealand guy is way too cute and has offered him a place to stay in their hotel as he as no room. How convenient I thought!

Did I mention that he had been traveling with his Czech girlfriend for many months that he had known for several years and because she caught Charlotte kissing him, she went ballistic and all hell broke loose? Geee….Sex and the City has nothing on this plot that is unfolding here in Nha Trang. No idea where that ex-girlfriend is but rumor has it she is still in Nha Trang looking for him…is that the white girl I see running down the street with a butcher knife???......no wonder she is called the “Queen of Drama” in Denmark (or is that 'Drama Queen'?)!

It is obvious the night is young for everyone and as it is past midnight and they want to move on to another place close by, they insist I join them. “Sure”, I say. Why Not? And guess what? That was the name of the place, “Why Not?” Talk about stupid humor.

I however opted to leave ahead of them to allow them to decide who was having sex with who or all together. We were suppose to meet up at a place just beyond ‘Why Not?” called the ‘Red Sun’ and then go to ‘Why Not”.

As I left, it was apparent that there was some serious partying going on with 100s now on what had become a dance floor. What little clothes on most were sure to come off in the throes of passion and the city’s heat before this night turned into morning. That was one thing you could be very sure of.

Red Sun reminded me of places I use to hang out in Cambodia. This was the after hours place on this sun strip and people here were to match up with those that hadn’t scored at other venues earlier in the evening. Although I had enough at 1AM and opted for a moto home, I did stroll past “Why Not?” and saw it was also jamming. Having had enough though, home and bed was it for me. I’m such a boring guy…..

Good morning Vietnam

Charlie

Gambling in Vietnam-Or how to loose all your money!

by Saigon Charlie

Some days ago I wrote in this blog that I had visited the Sheraton’s Hotel in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) where I tried my ‘luck’ at their Blackjack tables. As reported I lost, and to me, it appeared obviously rigged as the card draws from the dealer weren’t mathematically possible under normal circumstances.

It is interesting to note today that I heard from others that several casinos had been raided by local authorities for ‘irregularities’, including ‘signs of fraud’ in gambling and allowing locals to loose their money. Seems the government only wants stupid foreigners like me to do that.

My information goes on to state that four luxury hotels were raided as well as a single restaurant, with the police carting off US $1.5 million in cash as well as billions in dong. Ouch! I bet that hurt.

The places raided included the Equatorial, Duxton and Legend Hotels in Saigon as well as the VJC Star Hotel in Vung Tau. Seem several hundred were detained or thrown in the pokey.

What is extremely interesting to note from the articles I read is the following: “Police also found signs of fraud in the gambling, as no gamblers have ever won and some have denounced the fraud to police.” That statement sums up perfectly my observation at what was happening at the Sheraton casino in Saigon, although it seems they were not part of the police crackdown. In my opinion, they should have been!

I also came across some information concerning Vung Tau’s dog racetrack. Yes, you read that right, racing in Vietnam has gone to the ‘dogs’. Not sure if it is rigged or fixed but I suspect the dogs are real unlike the ‘chips’ and ‘cards’ at the Sheraton on their ‘virtual table’.

It seems the track's first race gets off at 19:30 every evening and is followed by another eight hounds bolting from their boxes every 15 minutes after that. For guys like me, you can bet up to 50,000 dong or if you prefer to loose larger amounts at a time, you can enter the VIP stands where bets are unlimited with odds reaching 60 to 1. Guess that means for a bet as little as VND 10,000, I can win VND 600,000!

It also seems that if you want to cross the border into Cambodia from Vietnam, hard core punters can cross over at the border crossing at Mocbai border point into Bavet, Cambodia. There you can find the ‘Las Vegas Sun’ Hotel and Casino. If you feel like loosing your money in Cambodia as well as Vietnam, their web site is at www.lasvegas-sun.com They say they have a ‘five star’ hotel, but I wonder who rated it….Hun Sen maybe?

Getting smarter at Quang Ngai Train Station

by Saigon Charlie

June 8, 2007 – Friday - Early AM – Quang Ngai Train Station

Awoke this AM to the sound of roosters crowing, horns blowing and bells and alarms going off around me; and all this before 4AM!

It wasn’t long after that I decided to forget my attempts at sleep and instead got up and showered. Shortly after that I was making my way down the 5 flights of steps onto the bottom floor where I knew the sliding, steel doors would be locked. I was right.

As I peered around the placed filled with the expected motorbikes, I noticed a woman sleeping on the floor under a mosquito net and as nicely as I could be, kept saying ‘hello’, ‘hello’ but to my surprise, the man who checked me in from the previous evening popped up from behind the counter. It was then that I noticed that he also had a mattress under the staircase also covered in mosquito netting. Given the fact that it was 05:20 AM in the morning and the sun was just coming up outside, he was amazingly polite, letting me out with his key to the huge lock holding the steels doors while patting me on the shoulder as I stepped through into the new day’s light.

Getting a lift to the train station, even at such an early hour was surprisingly easy as within seconds some entrepreneurial soul had pulled up next to me making an attempt to have me engage him and his motorbike for my transportation needs.

Even though I had the train station written down in Vietnamese, it quickly became apparent he couldn’t read as well as the half dozen or so other fellows we consulted on the same corner’s ‘café’ in trying to make a determination about where I wanted to go.

It was finally determined my destination with smiles all around when I went ‘Choo choo!”. Those were the magic words and seconds later after determining my chauffeurs fee by holding up 2 fingers (‘2’ what wasn’t discussed as it could have been 20,000 dong or $2 USD), we came to an agreement and 10 minutes or so later, I was being delivered to a train station just coming alive. Upon arrival, I pulled 20,000 Dong

Well, as usual, things just don’t go to plan and it was impossible to obtain a ticket for the 06:10 ‘express train’. As it turns out, at 07:30 AM as I type these words, the train hasn’t even arrived yet. Maybe my 12:40 train will come sooner?

Another thing that has come up only within the last few moments is a man who is obviously Asian but not Vietnamese has had his bag stolen while talking on his mobile. He is a BIG Asian, maybe Chinese, wearing shined military boots and a strict military haircut. I noticed him the moment he came into the station as his clothes and demeanor were way out of place for this part of the world.

He however is now one very, very pissed off man and this place has turned into a hornet’s nest of activity with police looking everywhere with no one understanding the other. At least here in Quang Ngai they are making an attempt to help while in Saigon when my camera was yanked from my hands by the high speed motorbike thieves, the police officer who witnessed the theft only meters away, only shrugged.

My words to those traveling here; if it can be moved, bolt it down somewhere when you aren’t using it. It the case of my camera, don’t know really what to tell you as I had the strap wrapped around my right arm and they still managed to get it.

Even today there is still a nasty scare as well as a nice and pretty black and blue mark from the force of the pull of the strap from my arm. Everything has a price and in my case, my camera here costs $800 USD. So I guess that is the price of these words. Not sure what was in the man’s bag here in Quang Ngai, but I suspect I got off light compared to him as I think I heard him say his passport, money and other documents were in there as well as his computer. Triple ouch!

Although no one that is an official here speaks English, the woman serving me my tea and coffee at the train station café speaks amazing English. Her name is ‘Shirley’ and I even noticed here as she rode into work on her friend’s motorbike who also appears to work here in some official capacity. It is obvious she has worked with or around Americans before.

As I write to this blog a bit later and after more lengthly conversations with 'Shirley', I find out she was a nurse with the 91st Evacuation Hospital unit in the late 60's and early 70's and the way she talked about it, you could tell she was very proud of her experiences. Now she sells coffee and tea to train travelers and is married to a Vietamese police officer who also works at the station.

Chu Lai's bus trip from hell!

by Saigon Charlie

Saigon to ‘Dodge City’ (Quang Ngai), Vietnam

Mother of Mary! I finally made it to what can only be described as the Wild, Wild, West! But yes, you are right I am in the ‘east’, or at least on the east coast of Vietnam, and what a place this place is.

Getting here was rather tame if you overlook the Vietnam Air Services (VASCO) ATR-72’s bald tires, high speed taxis and fast landing approaches, with what was most probably a student pilot onboard learning to fly the damn thing.

All that aside, we did manage to land safely at an airport with a name that isn’t even on a map, Chu Lai. It is so remote there are only a couple of sentences in the Lonely Planet guide that even mention the place.

That however doesn’t take away from the beauty that unfolded beneath me as we approached our destination, as the first thing that caught my eye, was a river with obvious waterfalls and rapids. Even from 6,000 feet or so, it was spectacular.

The second thing that made me blink was just how empty the miles of barrier sand beach coast was as our ‘training flight’ seemed to be at the hands of someone who obviously was not aware of where the airport was, as we were making bizarre turn after bizarre turn and it was obviously not due to traffic or air traffic control as there is neither!

It seemed to go on forever and I guess it is those same beaches that I have read will be hosting mega resorts according to the big boys in Hanoi, but as yet, there is nothing but water and sand. I have a feeling that this will change one of these days assuming the folks coming and going survive the journey in and out, but in my opinion, that change is a very long way off!

Not sure which of there is more here; sand or sun or sun and sand, but there sure is a bunch of both and the “airport” is obviously being overtaken by both, with the last remnants serving as a commercial aerodrome of what was once a massive US presence.

I am not sure of what the approach speed of an ATR-72 is but I do know we were significantly faster than what it was suppose to be; but maybe with bald tires it goes faster?? What do you think?

Thank God for such a long runway however as we were ‘hot’ and the ‘follow me’ car they sent out to us to lead us back was very reassuring, as I wasn’t 100% positive the boys up front knew where the terminal building was.

We did manage to find it however as it was nestled up next to a few dozen hardened aircraft shelters left over from the bad ole days and those nasty Americans. Honestly, really got the impression that someone up front was learning how to fly this thing as well as how and where to land it……

As I just said, the flight was pretty typical for this part of the world, (cough, cough..) with flight attendants being friendly and Chu Lai’s facilities modern and clean. It did take them quite a while however to find a truck to throw the passenger’s bags onto so they could get them from the plane to the ‘terminal’ ……..but oh my Buddha! The bus ride into town was one of the wildest in recent memories!

I guess I should have known that this was going to be ‘different’ when the bus driver kept honking at a luggage cart parked inches away from our left front bumper, while only a few meters ahead of us, another vehicle was parked blocking our escape path forward. I kept thinking to myself, why doesn’t he just get out and move it himself; problem solved!

Without it being moved however, and him seemingly unwilling to move it, it was becoming extremely obvious that the only way we were going to be able to exit our terminal parking space on the day we arrived was to:

(a) Move the cart out of the way.

(b) Wait for the vehicle in front of us to move.

(c) Backup and move around the cart.

Well, where I come from, options a, b, or c would seem like the obvious choices, but there is always option ‘d’ in Asia. And what is option ‘d’ you ask? Run over the cart! Perfectly logical for a local, Asian male driver in Vietnam.

As I have mentioned before in this blog, driving in Vietnam seems to be a very ‘macho’ endeavor reserved for ‘real men’ (reminds me of the bus ‘captains’ in Turkey who tell you to turn off your mobile phones while boarding). Thailand is pretty insane as well, but not what I call ‘macho’. Vietnam however seems to equate ‘size’ to the size of the vehicle you are captain of, the bigger the man…the bigger the vehicle….right?

Well since he had a bus, that made him a pretty big man and since he kept honking his horn with no one moving the cart, the only choice was to run over it as it would be beneath him to move it himself. Imagine the ‘face’ he would loose, he, the ‘captain’ of this bus having to move a baggage cart! How embarrassing! How demeaning!

Having now run over the cart, which is now jammed under the left front bumper, I see we aren’t going to be going anywhere soon because if this guy wasn’t going to leave his seat to move that stupid cart before he ran over it; he definitely isn’t leaving his seat to un-jam it after he has managed to put it under the bumper. So you ask, “what are we going to do?”

Me, being the ever practical kind of guy who likes to solve problems instead of creating them, jumped out of my seat, got off the bus, uncorked the cart from the bus, jumped back on, and off we went, to the sound of passenger applause! The other passengers were wide eyed as they watched all this unfold but applauded me, the crazy American! ….and people wonder why the oil refinery here is years behind schedule??!!!

Anyway. As we exit the terminal with Rocky the Squirrel at the throttle (I can see through the floorboard to the pavement as he shifts gears) it further becomes obvious this ride into town is going to be a ‘on the edge of your seat’ thriller as this man loves to honk his horn and come as close to objects coming from the opposite direction as he can humanly get. Can you say ‘chicken?!”

It soon becomes obvious that my friend with the floppy green hat and cool sunglasses is a certifiable lunatic as we are now driving in the left lane for shits and giggles, while ahead of us are two oncoming buses, side to side, with the one in “our” lane making an attempt to overtake the bus that is not in our lane, the oncoming one. Understand that?

You would if you saw it as we are moments away from mangled, burning wreckage heap. Think we move to our curb or to the right? No way! The name of the game is chicken and this guy thinks he is the biggest rooster in this barnyard, but fortunately the oncoming passing truck swerves in front of the oncoming bus he is passing and we edge over into the lane we were suppose to be in anyway. How thoughtful I thought. Anyone want to ride with me by bus the remaining 836 kilometers to Saigon?

As I take my hands from over my eyes from yet another near miss, I notice a marker on the side of the road stating it is ONLY 36km to my destination city of Quang Ngai, but those 36 kilometers became one of the wildest rides I have ever taken with ‘public transportation’(and this is on a road that is perfectly straight and flat). Not sure what this guy was smoking but maybe it is some of the funny weed that I was always being offered in Saigon. Personally, I think he was just a complete nut…..

Anyway, we finally cross a river of sorts and a town appears that looks like it should be where I am headed and I can find a hotel. Apparently some other well dressed Vietnamese with their luggage agree, and we all bolt for the door! No one pays any money and no one asks, so I guess the public buses are free in this neck of the woods, or maybe the real driver had a heart attack and this joker was a passenger?

Reminded me of a Harry Potter movie where he leaves home after blowing up his aunt and the ‘ghost bus from hell’ shows up to take him into London. And to think you have to pay good money at an amusement park to ride a roller coaster or see a Harry Potter movie to be scared out of your wits but here all you got to do is take the “Chu Lai Airport Bus” for free!

Ok. I made it and am now checked into a room on the 5^th floor of some place with no elevator (of course) which I have no idea what the name is. Hung, Dung, Huong…whatever….but the sign says 120,000 Dong for a single bed, 140,000 for a double and yes, it is in Vietnamese but I get the 140 rate (but I don’t need a double I say). No problem, that’s your rate anyway.

I have noticed this to be a pattern wherever I am at in local, non-tourist areas that the rate somehow climbs significantly although, clearly stated in Vietnamese somewhere, what the room rate is. Seemed in Saigon the ‘foreigner’ rate at such hotels was consistently 200,000 Dong for a single guy like myself, although the posted rates were considerably lower. Guess we white guys aren’t suppose to be too smart and definitely can’t read…

So here I am and I have no frigging idea where the hell I’m at other than someone told me that they were building a new city here as well as an oil refinery. I did get an indication that I might be someplace 'famous' however as they kept hollering at me 'Moto My Lai'! 'Moto My Lai'!, and having grown up in and around the war, I knew those words were connected to one of the worst American massacres of the war. I guess somehow I had entered a time warp of sorts into a dark side of American history. I simply shrugged my shoulders and said, "why in the hell would I want to go to My Lai?" and walked on by.

A sign along the road tells me Saigon is a long way away and there also seems to be a rail line that parallels the ‘road of terror!”. But other than that TinTin, it seems like I have fallen into one remote outpost!

Someone also told me that the Hanoi boys got the bright idea to build some power plants here as well, which rumor has it, are being built with the help by the good ole friendly folks at Siemens Power Generation (a place I use to work). And according to the Internet searches I did, seems like Chu Lai was also suppose to be turned into a ‘Shangri lai’ of sorts. Unless I am in another country (another planet?) with the same named towns, have the folks who write this trash visited this place? And I thought China Beach had a long way to go; but they are light years ahead of this ‘Chu Lai Open Economic Zone’ by comparison.

As I said in the beginning, this place is the wild, wild west with oil and steel trucks dominating the roads. Chinese shop houses hug the paved roads as well as the side roads that are mostly dirt but getting paved as time goes by. Bet that makes for a lovely site during the rains.

It is almost funny to see business one with motorbikes for sale, followed by mobile phones, followed by generator repair, followed by Ma’s noodle stand and than to see the exact same pattern replicated all the way down the main street. Replication is good, right?

There sure are a bunch of motorbike shops selling the usual Suzuki and Honda, but some are also offering a locally built bike which sort of looks nice. I stopped in at one shop and asked ‘how much?’ Got my notebook and pen out and they scribbled into it “$550 USD”.

Not bad I thought for this nice looking, 110cc bike, but what also amazes me about this place is that no one does any business in the currency of the country; dong. Seems the dollar is king here and even my Euro has been looked on with great suspicion everywhere I go; in spite of the fact that it has risen over 35% to the dollar in recent years. Makes no difference though, we do business in dollar and business dinners have Johnnie Walker Black scotch at the table. That’s the way the world works and I know I saw in the bible (Genesis maybe?), that the world takes dollar and drinks Johnnie Walker….and these are the people that ‘won’ the war? Unbelievable…

As I wondered around town on foot, it became apparent really quick that I was something of an oddity here on these streets. Some folks smiled big grins when I looked at them and said ‘hello’, others you could tell would slit my throat in a second if they had a chance.

I made an effort at a local café serving up some local blend of a fruit cocktail to get a cold drink as 'cold' anything did not appear to be on the lost of options at 'Ma's Noodle Stand' in town. Tried my very best to be friendly and did manage to pull off the desired flavor I wanted by pointing to a ‘strawberry’ on one of the signs. Of course, as with the hotels, prices are posted with said drink being displayed at 3,000 dong. My price? You guessed it; 6,000 dong. I just smiled and slurped my delicacy down.

As I could find nowhere that looked appealing to eat as everything appeared to be boiling in metal pots and knowing the ‘heavyness’ of Vietnamese noodles, I opted to head back to the circle where my hotel was which I had also noticed had the biggest hotel in town across the street. I figured there I could find something that might not come out the wrong way or the wrong end.

The hotel as I said was big….and empty. It took a bit of doing but eventually a nice young lady did come out to greet me as I placed myself at one of the huge room’s empty tables. As it turned out, ‘Flower’ went out of her way to help me and even was able to communicate with her English skills. It seemed she was also bubbling with pride as she was going to be opening her own ‘bar’ in the restaurant this week.

What she pointed to however was a place in the corner of the large room where a bar of sorts was located with about 4 bar stools. I guess you got to start somewhere and this was her shot at the big time.

She brought me a menu and I selected something called ‘seafood soup’ and ‘breaded shrimp’. Sounded really good but upon receiving my selections, once again, far less than expected and the shrimp were barely eatable with me having to take the ‘breading’ off to consume the shrimp. The soup was obviously canned. I kept smiling as she watched...

I was however very grateful at her efforts to make me happy and she even went out of her way to call the train station and find out the times of the trains stopping in Quang Ngai heading south, (which by the way are at 6AM, 9:30AM and 12:30PM with the 6 and 12:30 trains being ‘express’), with the bill coming to 89,000 Dong. I gave her a 100,000 Dong and told her to keep the change. She was a very happy lady. There is beauty everywhere but sometimes you need to turn over a rock to find it.

Quang Ngai is a sprawling town with the looks of a town trying to become something more than a sleepy backwater. If nothing else, it is clean (like just about everywhere in Vietnam) and from all appearances from the outside looking in, efficient as well. It however is NOT a tourist town in any way, shape or form. I think my buddy and friend, Han Solo from the Mos Eisley Cantina would fit right in however. Nobody appears poor but ‘poor’ is a relative term, as by western standards, these people are living on a small fraction of what we make in the west.

Recent articles published as recently as June 2, 2007 in local publications talk about Chu Lai and Quang Ngai as if they are happening places. Once again, have these folks been here? Articles state that three tourism projects worth US$100 million have been given investment certificates but I sure hope these boys have their own buses from the airport!

It is rather interesting to note that a company, Cadasa Research and Applications Information and Technology Joint Venture Co. (now that’s a mouth full) is to invest US$37 million of the above total in a five-star 300-room resort named , you guessed it, ‘Cadasa’. Now what gets my curiosity juices flowing is what in the hell is an IT company doing starting a 5-star resort? Guess they need nice digs for all those software engineers they will need as they outsource to Europe and the US. Or maybe it for all the managers coming to visit them to sign outsourcing deals? Hmmmm

The Mai Doan JV Company will also spend US$50 million on another five-star 220 room complex while the Quoc Viet Software JV will spend US$15 million on a 200-room resort at Tam Tien. See a pattern developing here? Software, IT, five-star, ….connect those dots.

According to the propaganda feeds, the ‘Chu Lai Open Economic Zone’ has 130 projects capitalized at US $1.43 billion (yes BILLION) dollars BUT only 58 projects worth US$560 million are ‘still effective’. What the hell does ‘still effective’ mean to you?

But yes, the authorities are still seeking ‘financial, banking, trade, tourism, and service centers’ here but of all the streets I walked for many hours, I failed to find even ONE travel related business or a bank. In Saigon both exist every few meters. Once again, who writes this stuff?

I didn’t want to end this part without saying that someone has also stated that there is to be an ‘entertainment area’ at Tam Hai, including a riverside villa, totaling a staggering US$2-2.5 BILLION dollars! Now what kind of ‘entertainment’ can you get for that kind of money in a place where pilots can’t find the airport and still isn’t on a map? I guess the guest are expected to speak Vietnamese as very, very few here speak English.

I’m sitting here at their train station and have flown into their airport and taken their buses and walked their streets….and someone is blowing funny smelling smoke!

OK. Back to business. What is suppose to be happening here with the oil?

Well, apparently, someone got the bright idea to build an oil refinery and since that was such a good idea, someone said let’s build 5 more after that. Conservatively, 30 years worth of work for those alone I was told. I think the third one however is to be built down south at Vung Tau (a super way cool place!)….and oh yeah…..I forgot, don’t those things need power? You bet! So let’s build a power plant. “Damn good idea!”, I bet was said around that table in Hanoi.

So apparently, they decided to build one and that was such a good idea, someone said, “heh! Why not build 3 more?’ Everyone shook their heads yes and that is the plan, 6 refineries, 4 gas fired power stations….but did I mention a fertilizer plant? Hmmm...fertilizer??? Guess those rice fields get hungry year after year don’t they?

It all seems like a great idea but the 1^st refinery was to be online nearly 10 years ago and a local I met told me there is at least another 2 years to go. He also stated he came here 10 years ago to help with the training and should have been retired by now. Seems our friends the Germans are still working on power plant #1...

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung did instruct PetroVietnam to get their act together and expedite these major oil and gas projects which have slipped way behind schedule and told the state giant to quickly complete the Dung Quat Refinery and Ca Mau Gas-Power-Fertiliser Complex projects. Both projects were originally scheduled to be completed in 2005 but the refinery could take until 2009 while the deadline for the Ca Mau project has yet to be set.

Dung Quat a US$2.5 billion oil refinery project in the central province of Quang Ngai which, when complete, will refine 6.5 million tonnes of crude oil a year. I hear they have 5 additional facilities on the drawing boards. PetroVietnam has a collaboration for engineering- procurement-construction with a consortium led by France’s Technip Conflexip. Scheduled for completion in 2001 when first envisaged, several delays later it is now on course for operation also in 2009.

The Ca Mau project, in the southern-most province of the same name, envisages among others laying a 332km gas pipeline at an initial estimate of $322 million. The pipeline will have a capacity of carrying 1.25 billion cu.m of gas per year from Block PM3-CAA and the Cai Nuoc gas field off the coast of Ca Mau.

It will also include a power plant for which the Prime Minister asked PetroVietnam to co-operate with the Machinery Erection Corporation (LILAMA), the major contractor, and other agencies for negotiations with the sub-contractor, German engineering firm Siemens.

The 720MW gas-fuelled power plant is estimated to cost $385 million and will provide electricity for the complex, surrounding region and to the national grid.

For the Ca Mau Fertiliser Plant, PetroVietnam has been assigned to directly negotiate with the contractor based on the cost of the Phu My fertiliser plant. If the contractor fails to agree to the corporation’s terms, PetroVietnam should stop negotiations and start a fresh bid.

The $493 million plant will produce 800,000 tonnes of fertilisers per year.

The original investment estimate of $1.2 billion for the whole complex will be exceeded now owing to the euro’s appreciation against the dollar, according to PetroVietnam with most of the equipment has been purchased from European countries.

The Germans, Oil, Nuclear Power and Conspiracy (what a mouth full that is…)

But you know what makes me shake my head when I think about things like oil and power and Germans (they are joined at the hip)?

In the wonderful little town in Germany I live in, where I truly have some amazing friends, they have the largest oil refinery in Germany as well as France (place is called Karlsruhe). Of course the stated official policy in Germany is to shut down all nuclear power stations at some point in the not to distant future, including the nuclear station just upstream from Karlsruhe’s huge, 338,000 barrel a day facility….which is refining the oil using the power directly from the reactors only a few kilometers away (just ride your bike down the Rhine and follow the massive cables overhead to Phillipsburg’s reactors).

And just how is Germany planning on getting power to this refinery? Wind turbines? Solar power???….or maybe French nuclear power just across the border?? That’s the ticket!

We don’t do nuclear power but the French do! And they do a lot of it. How convenient. If their reactor goes critical and radiation spreads all over central Europe, we can point the finger at them….but until then, we’ll keep refining the oil from their nukes and let them worry about the waste. Perfect plan.

Also reminds me of another conversation with a young German intellectual in Hanoi some weeks ago when I asked him about the German submarines that had been sold to Israel. I was promptly told I was wrong. They had been ‘given’ to Israel! Ohhhh, “I see”, I said.

Guess that makes a difference when the Israeli nuclear tipped cruise missiles are launched at Iran from Israeli submarines GIVEN TO THEM by the Germans. Yes, I see….as that technically does not make you an ‘arms merchant’ like those evil Americans (but it is rather funny to read the Jerusalem Post which says they 'bought them'. Guess it depends on who edits which newspaper?) But anyway.....yes, I understand now. Thanks for clearing that up for me….

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Germans. I really do, and grew up saying ‘please’ when I didn’t understand someone (“please” is the English version of ‘bitte’ as those growing up in the German settled Ohio River valley know). I even snuck into many bars at 16 and 17 while under aged and using doctored IDs and was introduced to the pleasure of good ole German brews called “Burger’ and ‘Wiedeman’ from Hudepohl Brewing in Northern Kentucky bars. So Germanic ways come easy to me; especially beer drinking.

Even spent 4 years as a young lad in a bunker there (Wiesbaden, Ramstein, etc.) , protecting them from the evil Soviet Empire and their bad eastern German cousins (who are now all great friends…right!!??) You know what I mean……..God, honor, country and all that good stuff, but it sure is hard to find a German I meet that has ever spent any time in his country’s military defending his ‘homeland’, ‘fatherland’, ’motherland’, …..whatever land! Oh yeah, forgot. That was the poor, uneducated, drafted and duped American’s job to do that! Germans take their young men and make them into artists, poets and engineers who lecture Americans about how evil they are carrying a rifle to protect their (German) freedoms. Duh! Stupid! Yup! I finally get it!

So here I am and there you are. Another part of the world that makes me think, but sometimes I just ramble but it is my ramble. Writing clears my head and makes me understand why I am here, even in a place like ‘Chu Lai’. I wonder how many men before me kept their heads ‘clear’ here in the late 60s and early 70s, while writing home to their loved ones while serving on these same beaches in ‘Nam’? Yes, writing is a good thing…..and maybe Lord Byron had it right when he said, "If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad!"

But the Americans are gone and it seems the Germans are here. What a twist of fate.

I read years ago that the Vietnam War or if you prefer, the American War as it is called here, was all about oil with some cold war dogma mixed in, as Vietnam as well as its neighbors Thailand and now Cambodia knows, everyone is sitting pretty with oil. Think however the oil boys down LBJ way (Texas) didn’t know about it as he committed 500,000 men to combat? Probably Bush didn’t know about that extra 100 Billion barrels of oil in the Iraqi desert that just got ‘discovered’ either before he invaded to destroy all those weapons of mass destruction… Rightttttttttttt…….

Some believe Iraq is political. Bullshit. It’s all about oil as is the looming conflict with Iran. Peak oil has arrived TinTin, and a report from some top notch thinkers in London this month are saying in 4 years we are heading quickly down the backside of that peak. Scary stuff!

Current conflicts in Darfur and Somalia are about peak oil. The beef with Libya was too. The attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea has long fingers back to Halliburton (one of the richest oil nations on earth run by a total despot that got a bit to greedy for Cheney and his boys, Halliburton.) and of course Mr. Chavez and Venezuela are a huge thorn that must be removed according to some. Makes me wonder about Mexico and Canada next…but they got that one figured out as well with NAFTA….and most probably someday at an ATM near you, a new currency for all three! (A Super Dollar after the account deficient is wiped out due to the crash of this dollar!)

Oil. It is all about oil. I am a conspiracy theorist and so are some of the brightest men I have ever met and worked with; and I have met a lot of very bright humans! Things do not happen by accident or coincidence. No such thing. Things are planned and executed by the elite and sometimes, they go wrong, as those that are executing the plans are often picked to do so due to their ‘fanaticism’ or one sided or ‘trained’ beliefs. A good Marine is a perfect example as well as a radical cleric. Both are used by the elite for their own endgames, and that endgame without exception, is about power and money. Oil is a means to an end.

Years ago I watched an amazingly stupid movie called the ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle Movie’. Yeah, you remember; the cartoon characters but this time on the Big Screen with Robert DeNiro, as the evil villain. You know the plot; Cold War evil villains trying to blow up the world with the leaders on both sides using amazingly inept, incompetent, bumbling idiots to carry out their plans for world domination or salvation. Sound familiar? Even Dan Quayle’s name is on the PNAC web site. Vice President Dan Quayle!!! Remember him? Somebody missed a great opportunity not getting him a cameo in the ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle Movie’ for the good guy's side. Watch it sometime and put on a different pair of ‘rose colored glasses’ and you might catch what I mean.

Winding down and it is time to hit the sack. As I finish up these thoughts for the evening it astounds me just how loud Vietnam is wherever you go. Forget the constant horns which you can manage to block out after a while but what does amaze me after having spent so many years in Thailand with the Thais is just how loud these people are when they ‘talk’. If you didn’t know better, you would think everyone is mad all the time and maybe they are, but either way, they are one loud race of people. Even 5 stories above the ground, with my air conditioning turned on, I can perfectly hear the people ‘talking’ on the street below me. Wow…

Good night Vietnam!

The Germans, Oil, Nuclear Power and Conspiracy

Quang Ngai, Vietnam - Midnight Ramblings

But you know what makes me shake my head when I think about things like oil and power and Germans (they are joined at the hip)?

In the wonderful little town in Germany I live in, where I truly have some amazing friends, they have the largest oil refinery in Germany as well as France (place is called Karlsruhe). Of course the stated official policy in Germany is to shut down all nuclear power stations at some point in the not to distant future, including the nuclear station just upstream from Karlsruhe’s huge, 338,000 barrel a day facility….which is refining the oil using the power directly from the reactors only a few kilometers away (just ride your bike down the Rhine and follow the massive cables overhead to Phillipsburg’s reactors).

And just how is Germany planning on getting power to this refinery? Wind turbines? Solar power???….or maybe French nuclear power just across the border?? That’s the ticket!

We don’t do nuclear power but the French do! And they do a lot of it. How convenient. If their reactor goes critical and radiation spreads all over central Europe, we can point the finger at them….but until then, we’ll keep refining the oil from their nukes and let them worry about the waste. Perfect plan.

Also reminds me of another conversation with a young German intellectual in Hanoi some weeks ago when I asked him about the German submarines that had been sold to Israel. I was promptly told I was wrong. They had been ‘given’ to Israel! Ohhhh, “I see”, I said.

Guess that makes a difference when the Israeli nuclear tipped cruise missiles are launched at Iran from Israeli submarines GIVEN TO THEM by the Germans. Yes, I see….as that technically does not make you an ‘arms merchant’ like those evil Americans (but it is rather funny to read the Jerusalem Post which says they 'bought them'. Guess it depends on who edits which newspaper?) But anyway.....yes, I understand now. Thanks for clearing that up for me….

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Germans. I really do, and grew up saying ‘please’ when I didn’t understand someone (“please” is the English version of ‘bitte’ as those growing up in the German settled Ohio River valley know). I even snuck into many bars at 16 and 17 while under aged and using doctored IDs and was introduced to the pleasure of good ole German brews called “Burger’ and ‘Wiedeman’ from Hudepohl Brewing in Northern Kentucky bars. So Germanic ways come easy to me; especially beer drinking.

Even spent 4 years as a young lad in a bunker there (Wiesbaden, Ramstein, etc.) , protecting them from the evil Soviet Empire and their bad eastern German cousins (who are now all great friends…right!!??) You know what I mean……..God, honor, country and all that good stuff, but it sure is hard to find a German I meet that has ever spent any time in his country’s military defending his ‘homeland’, ‘fatherland’, ’motherland’, …..whatever land! Oh yeah, forgot. That was the poor, uneducated, drafted and duped American’s job to do that! Germans take their young men and make them into artists, poets and engineers who lecture Americans about how evil they are carrying a rifle to protect their (German) freedoms. Duh! Stupid! Yup! I finally get it!

So here I am and there you are. Another part of the world that makes me think, but sometimes I just ramble but it is my ramble. Writing clears my head and makes me understand why I am here, even in a place like ‘Chu Lai’. I wonder how many men before me kept their heads ‘clear’ here in the late 60s and early 70s, while writing home to their loved ones while serving on these same beaches in ‘Nam’? Yes, writing is a good thing…..and maybe Lord Byron had it right when he said, "If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad!"

But the Americans are gone and it seems the Germans are here. What a twist of fate.

I read years ago that the Vietnam War or if you prefer, the American War as it is called here, was all about oil with some cold war dogma mixed in, as Vietnam as well as its neighbors Thailand and now Cambodia knows, everyone is sitting pretty with oil. Think however the oil boys down LBJ way (Texas) didn’t know about it as he committed 500,000 men to combat? Probably Bush didn’t know about that extra 100 Billion barrels of oil in the Iraqi desert that just got ‘discovered’ either before he invaded to destroy all those weapons of mass destruction… Rightttttttttttt…….

Some believe Iraq is political. Bullshit. It’s all about oil as is the looming conflict with Iran. Peak oil has arrived TinTin, and a report from some top notch thinkers in London this month are saying in 4 years we are heading quickly down the backside of that peak. Scary stuff!

Current conflicts in Darfur and Somalia are about peak oil. The beef with Libya was too. The attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea has long fingers back to Halliburton (one of the richest oil nations on earth run by a total despot that got a bit to greedy for Cheney and his boys, Halliburton.) and of course Mr. Chavez and Venezuela are a huge thorn that must be removed according to some. Makes me wonder about Mexico and Canada next…but they got that one figured out as well with NAFTA….and most probably someday at an ATM near you, a new currency for all three! (A Super Dollar after the account deficient is wiped out due to the crash of this dollar!)

Oil. It is all about oil. I am a conspiracy theorist and so are some of the brightest men I have ever met and worked with; and I have met a lot of very bright humans! Things do not happen by accident or coincidence. No such thing. Things are planned and executed by the elite and sometimes, they go wrong, as those that are executing the plans are often picked to do so due to their ‘fanaticism’ or one sided or ‘trained’ beliefs. A good Marine is a perfect example (just ask Smedley Butler) as well as a radical cleric. Both are used by the elite for their own endgames, and that endgame without exception, is about power and money. Oil is a means to an end.

Years ago I watched an amazingly stupid movie called the ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle Movie’. Yeah, you remember; the cartoon characters but this time on the Big Screen with Robert DeNiro, as the evil villain. You know the plot; Cold War evil villains trying to blow up the world with the leaders on both sides using amazingly inept, incompetent, bumbling idiots to carry out their plans for world domination or salvation. Sound familiar? Even Dan Quayle’s name is on the PNAC web site. Vice President Dan Quayle!!! Remember him? Somebody missed a great opportunity not getting him a cameo in the ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle Movie’ for the good guy's side. Watch it sometime and put on a different pair of ‘rose colored glasses’ and you might catch what I mean.

Good night from Vietnam.....

Vietnam's Wild Wild West-Quang Ngai

Saigon to ‘Dodge City’ (Quang Ngai), Vietnam

Mother of Mary! I finally made it to what can only be described as the Wild, Wild, West! But yes, you are right I am in the ‘east’, or at least on the east coast of Vietnam, and what a place this place is.

Getting here was rather tame if you overlook the Vietnam Air Services (VASCO) ATR-72’s bald tires, high speed taxis and fast landing approaches, with what was most probably a student pilot onboard learning to fly the damn thing.

All that aside, we did manage to land safely at an airport with a name that isn’t even on a map, Chu Lai. It is so remote there are only a couple of sentences in the Lonely Planet guide that even mention the place.

That however doesn’t take away from the beauty that unfolded beneath me as we approached our destination, as the first thing that caught my eye, was a river with obvious waterfalls and rapids. Even from 6,000 feet or so, it was spectacular.

The second thing that made me blink was just how empty the miles of barrier sand beach coast was as our ‘training flight’ seemed to be at the hands of someone who obviously was not aware of where the airport was, as we were making bizarre turn after bizarre turn and it was obviously not due to traffic or air traffic control as there is neither!

It seemed to go on forever and I guess it is those same beaches that I have read will be hosting mega resorts according to the big boys in Hanoi, but as yet, there is nothing but water and sand. I have a feeling that this will change one of these days assuming the folks coming and going survive the journey in and out, but in my opinion, that change is a very long way off!

Not sure which of there is more here; sand or sun or sun and sand, but there sure is a bunch of both and the “airport” is obviously being overtaken by both, with the last remnants serving as a commercial aerodrome of what was once a massive US presence.

I am not sure of what the approach speed of an ATR-72 is but I do know we were significantly faster than what it was suppose to be; but maybe with bald tires it goes faster?? What do you think?

Thank God for such a long runway however as we were ‘hot’ and the ‘follow me’ car they sent out to us to lead us back was very reassuring, as I wasn’t 100% positive the boys up front knew where the terminal building was.

We did manage to find it however as it was nestled up next to a few dozen hardened aircraft shelters left over from the bad ole days and those nasty Americans. Honestly, really got the impression that someone up front was learning how to fly this thing as well as how and where to land it……

As I just said, the flight was pretty typical for this part of the world, (cough, cough..) with flight attendants being friendly and Chu Lai’s facilities modern and clean. It did take them quite a while however to find a truck to throw the passenger’s bags onto so they could get them from the plane to the ‘terminal’ ……..but oh my Buddha! The bus ride into town was one of the wildest in recent memories!

I guess I should have known that this was going to be ‘different’ when the bus driver kept honking at a luggage cart parked inches away from our left front bumper, while only a few meters ahead of us, another vehicle was parked blocking our escape path forward. I kept thinking to myself, why doesn’t he just get out and move it himself; problem solved!

Without it being moved however, and him seemingly unwilling to move it, it was becoming extremely obvious that the only way we were going to be able to exit our terminal parking space on the day we arrived was to:

(a) Move the cart out of the way.

(b) Wait for the vehicle in front of us to move.

(c) Backup and move around the cart.

Well, where I come from, options a, b, or c would seem like the obvious choices, but there is always option ‘d’ in Asia. And what is option ‘d’ you ask? Run over the cart! Perfectly logical for a local, Asian male driver in Vietnam.

As I have mentioned before in this blog, driving in Vietnam seems to be a very ‘macho’ endeavor reserved for ‘real men’ (reminds me of the bus ‘captains’ in Turkey who tell you to turn off your mobile phones while boarding). Thailand is pretty insane as well, but not what I call ‘macho’. Vietnam however seems to equate ‘size’ to the size of the vehicle you are captain of, the bigger the man…the bigger the vehicle….right?

Well since he had a bus, that made him a pretty big man and since he kept honking his horn with no one moving the cart, the only logical choice was to run over it as it would be beneath him to move it himself. Imagine the ‘face’ he would loose, he, the ‘captain’ of this bus having to move a baggage cart! How embarrassing! How demeaning!

Having now run over the cart, which is now jammed under the left front bumper, I see we aren’t going to be going anywhere soon because if this guy wasn’t going to leave his seat to move that stupid cart before he ran over it; he definitely isn’t leaving his seat to un-jam it after he has managed to put it under the bumper. So you ask, “what are we going to do?”

Me, being the ever practical kind of guy who likes to solve problems instead of creating them, jumped out of my seat, got off the bus, uncorked the cart from the bus, jumped back on, and off we went, to the sound of passenger applause! The other passengers were wide eyed as they watched all this unfold but applauded me, the crazy American! ….and people wonder why the oil refinery here is years behind schedule??!!!

Anyway. As we exit the terminal with Rocky the Squirrel at the throttle (I can see through the floorboard to the pavement as he shifts gears) it further becomes obvious this ride into town is going to be a ‘on the edge of your seat’ thriller as this man loves to honk his horn and come as close to objects coming from the opposite direction as he can humanly get. Can you say ‘chicken?!”

It soon becomes obvious that my friend with the floppy green hat and cool sunglasses is a certifiable lunatic as we are now driving in the left lane for shits and giggles, while ahead of us are two oncoming buses, side to side, with the one in “our” lane making an attempt to overtake the bus that is not in our lane, the oncoming one. Understand that?

You would if you saw it as we are moments away from mangled, burning wreckage heap. Think we move to our curb or to the right? No way! The name of the game is chicken and this guy thinks he is the biggest rooster in this barnyard, but fortunately the oncoming passing truck swerves in front of the oncoming bus he is passing and we edge over into the lane we were suppose to be in anyway. How thoughtful I thought. Anyone want to ride with me by bus the remaining 836 kilometers to Saigon?

As I take my hands from over my eyes from yet another near miss, I notice a marker on the side of the road stating it is ONLY 36km to my destination city of Quang Ngai, but those 36 kilometers became one of the wildest rides I have ever taken with ‘public transportation’(and this is on a road that is perfectly straight and flat). Not sure what this guy was smoking but maybe it is some of the funny weed that I was always being offered in Saigon. Personally, I think he was just a complete nut…..

Anyway, we finally cross a river of sorts and a town appears that looks like it should be where I am headed and I can find a hotel. Apparently some other well dressed Vietnamese with their luggage agree, and we all bolt for the door! No one pays any money and no one asks, so I guess the public buses are free in this neck of the woods, or maybe the real driver had a heart attack and this joker was a passenger?

Reminded me of a Harry Potter movie where he leaves home after blowing up his aunt and the ‘ghost bus from hell’ shows up to take him into London. And to think you have to pay good money at an amusement park to ride a roller coaster or see a Harry Potter movie to be scared out of your wits but here all you got to do is take the “Chu Lai Airport Bus” for free!

Ok. I made it and am now checked into a room on the 5^th floor of some place with no elevator (of course) which I have no idea what the name is. Hung, Dung, Huong…whatever….but the sign says 120,000 Dong for a single bed, 140,000 for a double and yes, it is in Vietnamese but I get the 140 rate (but I don’t need a double I say). No problem, that’s your rate anyway.

I have noticed this to be a pattern wherever I am at in local, non-tourist areas that the rate somehow climbs significantly although, clearly stated in Vietnamese somewhere, what the room rate is. Seemed in Saigon the ‘foreigner’ rate at such hotels was consistently 200,000 Dong for a single guy like myself, although the posted rates were considerably lower. Guess we white guys aren’t suppose to be too smart and definitely can’t read…

So here I am and I have no frigging idea where the hell I’m at other than someone told me that they were building a new city here as well as an oil refinery. I did get an indication that I might be someplace 'famous' however as they kept hollering at me 'Moto My Lai'! 'Moto My Lai'!, and having grown up in and around the war, I knew those words were connected to one of the worst American massacres of the war. I guess somehow I had entered a time warp of sorts into a dark side of American history. I simply shrugged my shoulders and said, "why in the hell would I want to go to My Lai?" and walked on by.

A sign along the road tells me Saigon is a long way away and there also seems to be a rail line that parallels the ‘road of terror!”. But other than that TinTin, it seems like I have fallen into one remote outpost!

Someone also told me that the Hanoi boys got the bright idea to build some power plants here as well, which rumor has it, are being built with the help by the good ole friendly folks at Siemens Power Generation (a place I use to work). And according to the Internet searches I did, seems like Chu Lai was also suppose to be turned into a ‘Shangri lai’ of sorts. Unless I am in another country (another planet?) with the same named towns, have the folks who write this trash visited this place? And I thought China Beach had a long way to go; but they are light years ahead of this ‘Chu Lai Open Economic Zone’ by comparison.

As I said in the beginning, this place is the wild, wild west with oil and steel trucks dominating the roads. Chinese shop houses hug the paved roads as well as the side roads that are mostly dirt but getting paved as time goes by. Bet that makes for a lovely site during the rains.

It is almost funny to see business one with motorbikes for sale, followed by mobile phones, followed by generator repair, followed by Ma’s noodle stand and than to see the exact same pattern replicated all the way down the main street. Replication is good, right?

There sure are a bunch of motorbike shops selling the usual Suzuki and Honda, but some are also offering a locally built bike which sort of looks nice. I stopped in at one shop and asked ‘how much?’ Got my notebook and pen out and they scribbled into it “$550 USD”.

Not bad I thought for this nice looking, 110cc bike, but what also amazes me about this place is that no one does any business in the currency of the country; dong. Seems the dollar is king here and even my Euro has been looked on with great suspicion everywhere I go; in spite of the fact that it has risen over 35% to the dollar in recent years. Makes no difference though, we do business in dollar and business dinners have Johnnie Walker Black scotch at the table. That’s the way the world works and I know I saw in the bible (Genesis maybe?), that the world takes dollar and drinks Johnnie Walker….and these are the people that ‘won’ the war? Unbelievable…

As I wondered around town on foot, it became apparent really quick that I was something of an oddity here on these streets. Some folks smiled big grins when I looked at them and said ‘hello’, others you could tell would slit my throat in a second if they had a chance.

I made an effort at a local café serving up some local blend of a fruit cocktail to get a cold drink as 'cold' anything did not appear to be on the lost of options at 'Ma's Noodle Stand' in town. Tried my very best to be friendly and did manage to pull off the desired flavor I wanted by pointing to a ‘strawberry’ on one of the signs. Of course, as with the hotels, prices are posted with said drink being displayed at 3,000 dong. My price? You guessed it; 6,000 dong. I just smiled and slurped my delicacy down.

As I could find nowhere that looked appealing to eat as everything appeared to be boiling in metal pots and knowing the ‘heavyness’ of Vietnamese noodles, I opted to head back to the circle where my hotel was which I had also noticed had the biggest hotel in town across the street. I figured there I could find something that might not come out the wrong way or the wrong end.

The hotel as I said was big….and empty. It took a bit of doing but eventually a nice young lady did come out to greet me as I placed myself at one of the huge room’s empty tables. As it turned out, ‘Flower’ went out of her way to help me and even was able to communicate with her English skills. It seemed she was also bubbling with pride as she was going to be opening her own ‘bar’ in the restaurant this week.

What she pointed to however was a place in the corner of the large room where a bar of sorts was located with about 4 bar stools. I guess you got to start somewhere and this was her shot at the big time.

She brought me a menu and I selected something called ‘seafood soup’ and ‘breaded shrimp’. Sounded really good but upon receiving my selections, once again, far less than expected and the shrimp were barely eatable with me having to take the ‘breading’ off to consume the shrimp. The soup was obviously canned. I kept smiling as she watched...

I was however very grateful at her efforts to make me happy and she even went out of her way to call the train station and find out the times of the trains stopping in Quang Ngai heading south, (which by the way are at 6AM, 9:30AM and 12:30PM with the 6 and 12:30 trains being ‘express’), with the bill coming to 89,000 Dong. I gave her a 100,000 Dong and told her to keep the change. She was a very happy lady. There is beauty everywhere but sometimes you need to turn over a rock to find it.

Quang Ngai is a sprawling town with the looks of a town trying to become something more than a sleepy backwater. If nothing else, it is clean (like just about everywhere in Vietnam) and from all appearances from the outside looking in, efficient as well. It however is NOT a tourist town in any way, shape or form. I think my buddy and friend, Han Solo from the Mos Eisley Cantina would fit right in however. Nobody appears poor but ‘poor’ is a relative term, as by western standards, these people are living on a small fraction of what we make in the west.

Recent articles published as recently as June 2, 2007 in local publications talk about Chu Lai and Quang Ngai as if they are happening places. Once again, have these folks been here? Articles state that three tourism projects worth US$100 million have been given investment certificates but I sure hope these boys have their own buses from the airport!

It is rather interesting to note that a company, Cadasa Research and Applications Information and Technology Joint Venture Co. (now that’s a mouth full) is to invest US$37 million of the above total in a five-star 300-room resort named , you guessed it, ‘Cadasa’. Now what gets my curiosity juices flowing is what in the hell is an IT company doing starting a 5-star resort? Guess they need nice digs for all those software engineers they will need as they outsource to Europe and the US. Or maybe it for all the managers coming to visit them to sign outsourcing deals? Hmmmm

The Mai Doan JV Company will also spend US$50 million on another five-star 220 room complex while the Quoc Viet Software JV will spend US$15 million on a 200-room resort at Tam Tien. See a pattern developing here? Software, IT, five-star, ….connect those dots.

According to the propaganda feeds, the ‘Chu Lai Open Economic Zone’ has 130 projects capitalized at US $1.43 billion (yes BILLION) dollars BUT only 58 projects worth US$560 million are ‘still effective’. What the hell does ‘still effective’ mean to you?

But yes, the authorities are still seeking ‘financial, banking, trade, tourism, and service centers’ here but of all the streets I walked for many hours, I failed to find even ONE travel related business or a bank. In Saigon both exist every few meters. Once again, who writes this stuff?

I didn’t want to end this part without saying that someone has also stated that there is to be an ‘entertainment area’ at Tam Hai, including a riverside villa, totaling a staggering US$2-2.5 BILLION dollars! Now what kind of ‘entertainment’ can you get for that kind of money in a place where pilots can’t find the airport and still isn’t on a map? I guess the guest are expected to speak Vietnamese as very, very few here speak English.

I’m sitting here at their train station and have flown into their airport and taken their buses and walked their streets….and someone is blowing funny smelling smoke!

OK. Back to business. What is suppose to be happening here with the oil?

Well, apparently, someone got the bright idea to build an oil refinery and since that was such a good idea, someone said let’s build 5 more after that. Conservatively, 30 years worth of work for those alone I was told. I think the third one however is to be built down south at Vung Tau (a super way cool place!)….and oh yeah…..I forgot, don’t those things need power? You bet! So let’s build a power plant. “Damn good idea!”, I bet was said around that table in Hanoi.

So apparently, they decided to build one and that was such a good idea, someone said, “heh! Why not build 3 more?’ Everyone shook their heads yes and that is the plan, 6 refineries, 4 gas fired power stations….but did I mention a fertilizer plant? Hmmm...fertilizer??? Guess those rice fields get hungry year after year don’t they?

It all seems like a great idea but the 1^st refinery was to be online nearly 10 years ago and a local I met told me there is at least another 2 years to go. He also stated he came here 10 years ago to help with the training and should have been retired by now. Seems our friends the Germans are still working on power plant #1...

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung did instruct PetroVietnam to get their act together and expedite these major oil and gas projects which have slipped way behind schedule and told the state giant to quickly complete the Dung Quat Refinery and Ca Mau Gas-Power-Fertiliser Complex projects. Both projects were originally scheduled to be completed in 2005 but the refinery could take until 2009 while the deadline for the Ca Mau project has yet to be set.

Dung Quat is a US$2.5 billion oil refinery project in the central province of Quang Ngai which, when complete, will refine 6.5 million tonnes of crude oil a year. I hear they have 5 additional facilities on the drawing boards. PetroVietnam has a collaboration for engineering- procurement-construction with a consortium led by France’s Technip Conflexip. Scheduled for completion in 2001 when first envisaged, several delays later it is now on course for operation also in 2009.

The Ca Mau project, in the southern-most province of the same name, envisages among others laying a 332km gas pipeline at an initial estimate of $322 million. The pipeline will have a capacity of carrying 1.25 billion cu.m of gas per year from Block PM3-CAA and the Cai Nuoc gas field off the coast of Ca Mau.

It will also include a power plant for which the Prime Minister asked PetroVietnam to co-operate with the Machinery Erection Corporation (LILAMA), the major contractor, and other agencies for negotiations with the sub-contractor, German engineering firm Siemens.

The 720MW gas-fuelled power plant is estimated to cost $385 million and will provide electricity for the complex, surrounding region and to the national grid.

For the Ca Mau Fertiliser Plant, PetroVietnam has been assigned to directly negotiate with the contractor based on the cost of the Phu My fertiliser plant. If the contractor fails to agree to the corporation’s terms, PetroVietnam should stop negotiations and start a fresh bid.

The $493 million plant will produce 800,000 tonnes of fertilisers per year.

The original investment estimate of $1.2 billion for the whole complex will be exceeded now owing to the euro’s appreciation against the dollar, according to PetroVietnam with most of the equipment has been purchased from European countries.

Winding down and it is time to hit the sack. As I finish up these thoughts for the evening it astounds me just how loud Vietnam is wherever you go. Forget the constant horns which you can manage to block out after a while but what does amaze me after having spent so many years in Thailand with the Thais is just how loud these people are when they ‘talk’. If you didn’t know better, you would think everyone is mad all the time and maybe they are, but either way, they are one loud race of people. Even 5 stories above the ground, with my air conditioning turned on, I can perfectly hear the people ‘talking’ on the street below me. Wow…Good night Vietnam!
Charlie

Vũng Tàu, Vietnam - "An anchorage swamp" filled with oil

by Saigon Charlie

Well yesterday was a whirlwind to say the least but maybe not as bad as the cyclone hitting Oman and the Arabian Gulf; with some stunned by such a storm due to its extreme rareness. Here on this side of the world, Saigon, I don’t suppose such a storm is possible due to its proximity to the equator at 10 degrees and 46 minutes (10 degrees north or south is SUPPOSE to be typhoon free) but anything can happen I guess.

In all the news coming out of the region about Cyclone Gonu, the obvious concern was its ability to disrupt global oil supplies and its continued march into Iran and the Straights of Hormuz. After what I saw yesterday, one wonders if such a thing could happen here with the oil industry and if they even consider such a thing.

My day was spent exploring the Saigon River down to its mouth where the port of Vung Tau sits. Vung Tau has been around a long time with the Portuguese using it first as an anchorage and from what I saw from all the huge Catholic churches and iconic statues, apparently quite Christian although from looking at the temples/churches there seems to be a ‘marriage’ of sorts between eastern and western beliefs.

Anyway, I am no historian but am very interested on where Vietnam is headed with its infrastructure projects, with a particular eye on oil production. It seems from what I saw on what use to be called a ‘swamp”, that someone is doing extremely well and has BIG plans for this place.

When I write I try to reflect on other places I have been and compare those places to the new place. It the case of what local expats refer to as ‘oil city’, my first vivid comparison was to Hong Kong but not as it is today but as it was from old etchings from the 19^th century. One main reason for this is that Vung Tau has two ‘peaks’ that rise from the sea in a similar fashion to the peak in Hong Kong. Up one of these peaks an old ‘palace’ of sorts, which dominates the slopes with cannon sticking out through the tropical trees pointing their guns towards the colonial anchorage. Impressive to say the least.

I use to live in Hong Kong years ago and taking the one and half hour hydrofoil down the winding, freighter filled river, was a ‘déjà vu’ experience as I use to have to ride the same Russian built ferries to go home to Lantau island when Victoria Harbor wasn’t kicking up to much of a fuss. Riding hydrofoils are great….as long as the seas are calm but pay close attention to those ‘barf bags’ in front of you when seas start kicking up!

Anyway, Vung Tau has developed at an obviously rapid pace with modern and very impressive structures everywhere the eye turns. Can't ask for better roads either with traffic surprisingly light unless everyone comes out at night.

The names of “Stock Company’ this and that dominate many of these structures which are positioned next to large and beautiful done hotels and restaurants. It appears that many very large and new seafood restaurants wind around the coast with owners from nations around the world. Yes, all very exceptional.

I even went down to the working yards for their shipbuilding and repair facilities. Wow! …is a great word to describe the intensity of this area with men everywhere stripping, cutting, fitting, repairing and building new, wooden fishing trawlers, and I am not talking about small boats that ply Thai waters.

The men were super friendly and wanted me to take their photos and smiled and waved and were obviously very proud of their handicraft as they should be. Planking for the vessels was made right there in the yards with large diameter logs stacked in various places with men with circular saws cutting and sizing the logs into planks. Quite amazing really to watch this process from raw logs to finished ship planks. Other than the use to electric saws, I suspect much has not changed over the centuries.

My exploration of the area went deeper and deeper into the area and as my time was limited as I needed to get back to Saigon the same day, I headed back to the main hydrofoil ferry dock and with a little time to spare before my 14:30 departure, I had a bit to eat and a beer at what appears to be an expat watering hole called “Ned Kellys”. From the looks of the memorabilia on the walls, this place has been here a long time. Obviously the place to go if you want to meet the local expats.

I highly suggest you choose this as a destination if you visit Saigon, at least for a day excursion if nothing else. If you are here on business, an absolute must see to understand where Vietnam is at and where it is headed!

I wish I could share with the 400 plus photos I took about the island and the trip down and up the Saigon river BUT unfortunately as I was returning back to my hotel taking photos and as I wandered home to my hotel, a couple of blocks from the hotel and right across from the Saigon Bus Station, a couple of young lads who were obviously very skilled at motorcycle ‘grab and run’ hit me as I was aiming my camera at the circle taking photos.

I suspect they followed me from the ferry waiting for the right moment although I have zero evidence of this but in the lightning strike, they did manage to almost pull my arm out of its socket as the strap was wrapped around it...but fortunately I got off with only a cut to my arm....and a pained feeling deep inside for what has otherwise been an amazing journey with a wonderful people.

In 17 years traveling in and out and living in Asia, I have never been robbed violently like that (although brutally assaulted in Cambodia years ago for other reasons); actually, other than a girl who took my digital camera in an Internet café long ago in Phuket, that's been it.

I guess they needed it more than me and I wish them all the best with their new found wealth and prosperity. Karma however is a very, very funny thing and we all end up paying the price; maybe not now, but somewhere, sometime....and maybe not even in this lifetime....

Good night Vietnam!
Saigon Charlie

On to Chu Lai...

by Saigon Charlie

Bought a ticket from Vietnam Airlines for $52 this morning to head back up the coast to a place called 'Chu Lai', made famous during the Vietnam/American War as a massive Naval and Army base. Chu Lai is a a bit south of Da Nang (another exploding place) and about half way between Saigon and Hanoi. Not sure what to expect but whispers around me from the boys in the know, tell me to 'go north young man'. So north I go.

It seems PetroVietnam has huge plans there and my insiders here tell me 14,000 new locals will be employed there along with 2,000 or so ex-pats. Even heard they are building a 'new city' and everything is pretty much virgin ground in more ways than one. Investments numbers total in excess of $1 Billion USD. That's a lot of money for this part of the world.

Seems however that to reach this place by plane, you only got 2 options per week. One an early morning flight and one on Thursday morning, both leave at 09:20 from Saigon. An alternative is the train of course which I love , but I just did the 20 hour ride down from Da Nang and this time I think I'll fly.

Before I head out however I plan on taking the Russian built hydrofoil over to a place called 'Vung Tau' or more commonly referred to in English as 'Oil City. Rumors have it there is even a casino there with real cards and chips but my primary reason to head there is see what there is to see and see what they mean by 'oil city' although I think I know.

Visas here appear to be reasonably easy to obtain and I have been told from those in the know that a 6 month business visa can be obtained though a travel agency. Seems it is not a problem to renew but they would like you to leave the country every year or so as you are supposedly here on 'business". Fair enough...

Keep discovering more and more cafes with WiFi connections. Seems they are just about everywhere and seem to be free if you have a cup of java or a beer. Signals are very strong and I even read yesterday that Vietnam is getting ready to double the capacity of their primary north to south fibre optic link from 20Gbps to 20Gbps and prepare for countrywide Voice over IP services. Once again, they are blowing the doors off Thailand.

Made an effort to send money out of the country this morning as well as there seems to be a Western Union on every street corner but the 'gotcha' is you can only receive it, not send it. So much for my plan to send my daughter money for her birthday in the states on the 22nd.....

...more to come.

Good night Vietnam!

Gold trading, gambling and being stupid in Saigon

by Saigon Charlie

Doing my morning coffee/Internet thing at Highlands Coffee here at the Saigon Centre. It is Sunday morning and it was a loonnnggggg night that topped off a very busy day. Gambling, playing Blackjack with snots and idiots, gold dealing, discussions about Camus, existentialism, American politics and Vietnam’s business climate…just another normal day in Saigon!

I guess I have to start and explain I like to play Blackjack and have done so from Costa Rica to the Canary Islands, from Macau to Baden-Baden and now Saigon, but here it was like no other experience ever.

I guess I should also explain that I thought it might be wise to sell a spot of gold that I always carry with me (100 grams) and see how easy or difficult it might be here. Ok..go ahead and laugh. Gold?

Everyone who has lived or worked in this part of the world knows exactly what I am talking about; especially if they were in Thailand when the Baht went to 50% of what it was or can remember that the $ was 1:1 with the Euro not so long ago, and is now 35% less (I feel real sorry for the poor saps being paid in USD). Yes, go ahead and laugh all you want….

But anyway, I took my gold and went into a local gold shop and without even a blink of an eye, they said they would happily buy it from me. 100 grams, .9999 pure…..calculator…..care for a coconut??….yes thank you….and as I sipped on my delicacy, twenty one, $100 bills magically appeared. Hmmmmm….I like this. No electronic trails. No limits. Gold to cash, cash to gold. Life is simple and I like simple.

OK….now I got the cash and now it is time to hit the town’s casino I heard about in the Sheraton although nowhere do signs calls it a ‘casino’. Being a polite and politically correct town Saigon; they call it a ‘private club”.

I stroll into the Sheraton and look for the establishment. Hmmmm…no signs once again but signs for a place on what I, as an American call the ‘2^nd floor’. Of course if you are European, that would be the ‘1^st floor’ for you. And if you work for Siemens in Germany, the ‘3^rd floor’; go figure how something so simple gets so complex around the world.

Seems there is no dress code as I arrive at 2PM (14:00 for you military and European types) and saunter in. Hmmmm….loads of whirling, noise making, spinning, and flashing machines but what are these tables with people around them? Where are the cards? Chips?

You guessed it. All electronic with the tables being large ‘touch screens’ and what appeared after a bit of watching a very rigged, electronic theft going on.

But you are right, as anyone with a brain knows, a fool and his money are soon parted…but as I also like to say, ‘knowledge has a price!” Yes, gambling and stupidity runs in my family…..

But being removed one generation from the extreme stupidity, I laid only $200 of the newly obtained ‘gold money’ on the table. This was quickly gobbled up after a comment from the tart behind the table that “not a $1,000”, and a $200 credit appeared on the screen beneath me. She is putting here English to good use.

The guy to my left had a $2,000 credit on his part of the ‘screen/table’ but having watched him for a good 10 minutes before I set down, it wasn’t from winning, as he was asking for hits with 14, 15 and even 16 showing! Silly me, I never hit with 13 or more.

So the game begins. I quickly lost $130 of the $200 as you have to make a minimum $20 bet. I screwed up several times the amount I placed as I couldn’t get the feel of how much I was dragging to the top of the screen in ‘chips’ which are displayed in units of $2, $10 or $50 (...why not $20???).

I quickly learned that since the minimum bet was $20, the computer moved $20 to the top of the screen automatically even though the chips themselves were $10 units. Man am I stupid!

The hands went by and the idiot next to me (I was the idiot to the right of him) was down to $800 while I had worked my way back to $200. My rule is bet to loose or win 10 hands, and walk if you loose.

OK. Back up to $200 and I am sitting on a pair of Kings. Twenty. Not bad. House deals a 10, and then a face card. Shit! Push. Not a good sign of things to come and I was right as the next 10 cards the dealer drew on each additional hand was either a 10 or a face card (ten). Eleven cards in a row with the same value??!! And noone at the table even blinks? Everyone looses that many hands and everyone acts like their money is monsoon rain water.

I asked how many decks the ‘electronic shoe’ was and was informed ‘six’ but there was no way to know what was what and my strategy changes as the shoe size decreases but as my dear ole mother use to say, “in for a penny, in for a pound’.

Yeah, you are right. I lost and walked with $12 and I honestly think the nasty bitch behind the table expected me to tip her that! The guy next to me was obviously a ‘marker’ there to draw people to the table. The other two guys at the table might as well have gone to the head and flushed their money down the toilet as their chances of winning was zero, nil, nada…..

I ended up the evening at the ‘Eden Club’ (not to be confused with the Eden Club in Bangkok ;>)))). A way cool place with lots of ‘beautiful people’ which translates to tons of white girl backpackers in extremely short skirts and dresses along with English teachers wearing ties (I kid you not!) at 7PM on a Saigon Saturday night. Dancing started around 11PM, but unlike Cambodia, the large breasted ‘ladies’ managed to keep their tops on…at least until I left this time....

The place has a pretty cool drink menu with a selection of tropical smoothies with multiple libations to parch your quench for only 25,000 dong which is followed up as the evening progresses with free, rot gut, shooters. Mix in a few tequilas along with a very long conversation with a young lad from L.A. about existentialism and American politics and the next thing you know, the night is gone and the morning has come.

“Wasted days and wasted nights” could be a good theme song for Saigon.

Breakfast was from 7-10AM at my hotel….I missed my breakfast.

Good night Vietnam!

Saigon, Out and About

by Saigon Charlie

I have a ton of notes I need to type up but I have been so busy exploring and talking to people, I haven't been able to find the time!

But today finds me sitting at a Highland's Coffee shop in downtown Saigon using my laptop with free WiFi listening to Jazz! Life is truly wonderful and the more I see and learn about both Saigon and Vietnam, I wonder what the hell I am doing living anyplace else.

Even this morning as I strolled down the streets, walking into shops, talking to people, I am continually amazed at how 'tuned on' people are. A case in point was with several very bright young ladies I talked with at the Tourist Information Center on Le Loi Street downtown in District 1. We talked about Vietnam's growth, education, other nations including Thailand and where is Vietnam headed. They knew about Vietnam's entry into the WTO....

“If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad.”
-- Lord Byron

…and visits from the CEO of Goldman Sachs and the German President last week in Hanoi. They also seemed very interested in my opinions about the differences between Hanoi and Saigon and stated very clearly how big a difference there is between those in the north and here in the south. I let those comments slide by!

Everyone asks me where I am from and to each that ask, I clearly state, “I am an American”. Without exception, people smile and ask where from? At no time, anywhere, north, south or in between has anyone been less than very polite and in my opinion, genuinely friendly. If any American reads this and is considering a visit here, they have nothing to fear as the people are not ‘looking back’ and only care about the road ahead of them. Just look at the towers that dominate Saigon and if you stare skyward, you will see the names ‘Citibank, HSBC and Deutsche Bank’. Interesting group isn’t it?

I have moved from my hotel on Dao Thang to a hotel closer to the ‘action’, on De Tham street right off Duong Tran Hung Dao in District 1. Once again, I got really lucky and have managed to find a super clean, super nice room with air conditioning, fan, hot water (in both the sink and shower), toiletries, cable with over 100 channels, mini-bar with breakfast included….all for $12 a night or about 9 Euro! If you are heading this way, the place is called “The Orient”. I HIGHLY recommend it.

I also can’t help but reflect on the changes underway here and when I stare out and watch the multitudes on their Hondas scream by think that within 5 years those Honda 2-wheelers will be Honda 4-wheelers. The roads are being built to support this growth and transition and it is inevitable. Once again, this country is about the same size in population as Germany, all far younger and hungry for change and growth. Scary in some ways, with today's article from the Vietnam News pretty much telling the story....

Good night Vietnam!