Bye-Bye Vietnam

I came to the computer center Friday night and posted an entry to the blog. The screen said that it had published 100%. Because computers here are so slow, I didn't check it. Now I see that it did NOT publish. I won't go back and do it in detail. Instead, I will just post of summary here of my last days in Vietnam. I fly out at noon today for Bangkok.

Thursday, Sept. 21, I went to the Remembrance Museum, a place that commemorates the war with America. The main thing I noticed is that the section about protests in the U.S. has nothing about Jane Fonda. Guess she has requested that they not include her. Finished reading The Plot Against America by Philip Roth--3 stars out of 4.

Friday, Sept. 22, I went to the City History Museum. Stayed in the hotel all afternoon, because I was starting to have sinus drainage that made my thoat somewhat sore. Went out in the late afternoon to the sauna, however, and met Ban, a 32-year-old electrical engineer. We talked and talked and talked. His English is excellent. I invited him to dinner, and we ate soup with beef and noodles near the sauna.

Saturday, Sept. 23, I went to the Museum of Art in the morning and enjoyed some of the paintings. I especially liked the works of Dang Cat Han. (There are special accent symbols over all those a's.) Ate fish for lunch at a sidewalk restaurant along with greens, rice, and squash soup. Ban came to the hotel to pick me up around 3:00 and took me to a fancy coffee shop to repay me for taking him to dinner. The two cups of coffee and parking cost as much as the two dinners. I gave him the Roth book and my Vietnam guidebook.

Sunday, Sept. 24, Ban came to the hotel around 8 a.m. Then he took me to the zoo/botanical gardens around 10 and dropped me off. It was Huggies Day with children admitted free with a Huggies wrapper and with lots of organized entertainment and activities. I enjoyed watching the families. Stayed almost all day there. The zoo was rather nice. I saw two rabbits playing in a big cage and wondered why they were there; then I saw there was a tiger on the other side of a tree trunk sleeping. Wonder how long they lasted before he found them! Also went to the Vietnam History Museum that was within the park.

Will spend my time in Bangkok organizing my new ticket, seeing my dentist, and relaxing. I've seen the sights there, so there won't be very exciting reports. I'll figure out my spending in Vietnam and give an update from there.