A world away...

King Moto getting on one of many ferries needed to get across the many tributaries of the Mekong.

The only quiet street in Saigon.

The view of Sam Mountain, looking west to cambodia. The border is at the far end of that road.

The last town in Cambodia before the border. He took about 10 minutes to finally look and me and smile.

The Bamboo Island Beach, not what I had pictured when i thought of Cambodia+Beach

I'm writing all this nearby the beach in south central Vietnam. The city of Nha Trang.

Quite a bit has happened since I jumped on last. I'll do my best to fill in the gaps.

After PP I was off to Sihanoukville, on the beach in southern Cambodia. I wasnt sure what to expect of a beach in Cambodia. I know what the streets looked and smelled like and when it rains all that drain into the river at some point along with the dog, cat, rat, bat and human waste. The river then collects the runoff of hundred of miles of villages without any sewers or wastewater treatment facilities. This all then eventually drains into the ocean where I expected it to look like somthing from a post apocalyptic war movie. I was dead wrong. The beach was actually pretty nice. It had the dead fish and garbage that you expect in a place that has no governement to facilitate beach clean-up efforts, but it was still pretty nice. A shot boat can be hired to go to bamboo island (which is the generic name for pretty much every island i have come across) but there, the tourquoise waters and warm sand pretty much had me questioning if i was still in Cambodia. I never expected it to be this nice. Incredible.

A 10 hour bus trip through the greater Mekong delta brought us near to the town of Chao Doc, Vietnam. Flooded rice paddies and thatched huts dominate the landscape and once again shortly after the border everything changes again. The sweet smell of dried fish and bananas, the shape of faces and the landscape are just different again. How these things change so dramatically when a political boundary is crossed is a mystery. The land knows no political lines, yet inexplicably things DO change. That's a pretty lame description of how it really feels to just experience it. Maybe next time I'll do it a little better.

In Chao Doc I hired a guy a guy to take me to the top of Sam Mountain on a "moto". A little vespa like scooter that is the dominating mode of transport in Vietnam. Without traffic lights or lane designations, traffic here is pretty much a game of Russian Roulette. A chaotic go-anywhere dance of suprising elegance. Its amazing i havnmt seen more traffic accidents. Twice, i have seen a bus hit a moto and twice, the moto and its passengers get up, brush off, and get back on. Bumps and bruises are part of the game in Vietnam. The view from the top of Sam Mountain is really somthing to see. IN one direction you can see the road leading from the Cambodian hills through the rice paddies into vietnam and in the other, you begin to see the vast and uninterrupted life-scape of Mekong living.

There isn't much to do in Chao Doc but sleep and see a few bits of an "un-touristed" city. Vietnam is truly a land ruled by the Moto. With a nod to the occasional truck and Cargo van, Moto is the ONLY vehicle. Used for hauling everything from familys of 4 to a basket of chickens or even a half-ton hog, tied up and tossed onto a makeshift pannier on the back.

The next day was spent on a a bus....always on the bus it seems to get to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) or Saigon.

Saigon:
I thought the Chaos of bangkok was bad. May I please retract that statement from the record? Saigon is like a beehive in a bonfire. The same 1 to 1 ratio of moto to human exists here, but on a massive scale. There is plenty to do in the city when its not raining, but it was raining at least most of the time. So what does one do when it rains in Saigon? Go for a walk of course! It's just rain...right? Due to the pollution-infused clouds, the rain is filled with chemicals which burn your skin. I had never experienced this before, but I have also never been anywhere as polutted as this! The War museum was really an experience that everyone who was no yet born, or doesnt remember the Vietnam War needs to experience. Photos, displays and writings documenting every perspective of the war are found here. There is one exhibit which hit me particularly hard. It was a dedication to memory of the photo-jounralists who lost their lives to bring snapshots home of the reality that was going on so far away. Many died during surpise attacks and explosions, and seeing the "last frame" taken only moments before their death speaks to the indelible and everlasting power of a photograph. For civillians, this was the first war where radio could no longer "yellow up" the airwaves and shape the way we perceived things. It was a war where media was brought directly into the living rooms of people across the globe. We could finally "see and hear" the reality of war, and it changed the world.

A personal note: I feel like I have been suffering from photo-block, I'm just not seeing things and feeling things the way I like to. Im dealing with this as a temporary hiatus in creative living, and that this too shall pass in time. Keep your fingers crossed.

My time here is up today, but stay tuned for Cu Chi tunnels, and Nha Trang!