Today I go to the War Remnants Museum.

Direct beeline to the War Museum via motorcycle taxi.  Spent four hours there.  Four hours staring into the innards of war and horror.  Tough time but well worth the journey.

I took but one picture of the consequences of the uses of dioxins in Vietnam.  I took that one picture only because glare made it impossible to see.  You can google for your own images.  The so-called Rainbow Herbicides (including Agent Orange) were fucked.  Just fucked.  Let’s not do that again.

On my way leaving the museum I took another rest on a bench near the tanks.  (I took a few rests due to emotional fatigue.)  On the next bench over were some Vietnamese, three sisters and a guy.  We talked for a bit before I departed for a nearby park.

Leaving the War Remnants Museum I found this gem of a crosswalk.  You really have to wonder about the theoretical framework of these street planners.

The park turns out is a sculpture garden of some magnitude.

I passed a couple where she was learning to make the owl whistle with her hands.  I showed I know it.  She is progressing nicely.  He can get chromatic tones by wiggling each finger.

Met a French woman travelling Vietnam with her father.  We talked for a while.  Never pass up an opportunity to practice your languages.

Across the street was another park with this strange miniature model rock mountain.

Back out on the street.  Now heading toward a canal which may have restaurants and shops lining both sides.

These things are all over the city, some various bits of metal (like rebar) jutting out of the sidewalk and bent over, I guess for safety.

Walking along the canal many wanted pictures taken.

After taxi-biking back, B and I went in search of some food.

And this settles the day.  Maybe I’ll continue to randomly add images.  You can never guess these things in advance.

You start off a day looking out into the world to see what the world shows you.  Today started with a small visitor.

B and M needed to visit a bank so we walked along the highway toward a small mall at the other end of Thao Dien.  Follow the road that runs parallel to the highway and the one-day-to-be-finished rail line.

Then there was a fountain…

The basement of the mall contained a grocery.

On the way back I snapped a pic of the interior of that seemingly hand-made truck.

Each time you walk down a street you may notice something different.

Later that evening I sent them off to bed and went out to see some live music.

Place called Snap Cafe.  Same place Maria and I stopped for her coffee the week before.

After that I went to another place with folks I met here where we played foosball and there was more live music.  An expat hangout the name of which escapes me at the moment.  Then off to bed myself.

Today we go to the nearby island where there are some promenades and a large street market.

We taxied to a promenade at one end of a bridge over the canal.  From there B and M went running and I walked the promenade on this side of the bridge then crossed the bridge and walked the promenade on the other side.  Eventually, we reconnected in the area of the street market to get soup.

I met a number of people and creatures on my promenade.

Can you guess which one solicited my attention?

Since Sunday was a holiday (Teachers Day) most of the vendors were not working so the market was rather sparse.

The soup was amazing, of course.

Apparently I dove into the soup with such gusto that I neglected to shoot a picture.

We returned to the apartment and I remarked on our afternoon.

We are sitting here this Sunday with the tree lit, a fire on the TV, and Buble’s holiday album while Bill looks back through pictures from Albania and Maria irons things that like to be ironed.  Bill is telling stories of riding through that countryside and not getting attacked by dogs, poppies growing in the wheat fields, and finding a donkey skull.  There does come a moment in one’s life where one gets rid of one’s donkey skull.

Then I left B and M to have dinner with Dave (who lived in Seattle for a time) and Phuc (who will be my tour guide into the Mekong Delta).

Phuc will be my guide for an excursion into the Mekong Delta.

Having eaten our fill we departed and went to Pasteur Street Brewing for some beer.

I bought a small bottle of barrel aged barley wine to share and we caught some of the opening ceremonies around the first game for the World Cup (Qatar v Ecuador).

And finally walked home to sleep.

Today will mostly be getting ready for my excursion into the Mekong Delta.

A lady ran her slowing moving scooter into a large black pick-up truck and dropped like a sack to the asphalt.  Eventually they trundled her into the backseat of a car and departed, leaving her scooter to fend for itself.

I walked to Roast and Smoke to get their smoked brisket pho but since I lingered on my way when an old woman presumably had a stroke or seizure and ran her scooter into a parked truck, I was there at 15:05 just missing the closing of the kitchen (and the departure of my two friends in search of a new freezer).  I had to wander until 17:00 to get food.

Gin is the bbq dog.  Really good at licking fingers, one would suppose.

So eventually I went to Ralf’s for a bit of gelato (chocolate, mint chocolate chip, and a bonus scoop of mandarin sorbet) to beat the heat.  On the way I also had a cane juice to beat the heat.  Rest assured these are but temporary measures of relief.  There is no beating the heat.  Even walking into a place with air conditioning is but temporary.  Eventually you come to realize it’s just a wee bit cooler in than out but still too hot and still too humid.   And walking at the pace I do, I am often moist.

This portrait was made by chipping pieces of the concrete out of the wall (leaving the portrait in relief).

This little guys are everywhere.

Good walking and good food.  Good day.

Took a three day (two night) motorcycle excursion into the Mekong Delta.  No lappy.  I’ll post more as I am able.