Well I've worked my way down Vietnam and have landed in Ho Chi Min City this morning. It's so much bigger, has much bigger streets and so many more cars and trucks than Hanoi - also not many bicycles. My new guide, Ve, told me there are 8 million people in HCMC and 3.5 million motorcycles and 4 million cell phones.

 

After I left Hue I drove to Danang and then Hoi An. I went to China Beach (see photo) but there were no more signs of Americans on the beach. The air base still has buildings standing and airplane hangers. I don't know if I mentioned in my last message that my guide, Mr. Sam, was an air traffic controller in Danang during the war and worked a lot with the American helicopter and airplane pilots. It was rather sobering to see the remains of the base there. So much has been torn down and built up. The marble mountains were intriguing. China beach stretches from Monkey Mountain to the Marble Mountains. It had rained and the caves in the Marble Mountains were very wet. I was doing well until going down some steps and my foot slid on some mud and down I went onto my derrière. The picture of grace I was not. I was covered with red clay dirt and Mr. Sam was SOOOO concerned it would stain my clothes that he insisted on cleaning me up. Very embarrassing.

 

Hoi An was a very charming touristy seaside town. The humidity was so bad that Mr. Sam went out and bought me a paper fan. The central market was amazing as was the silk clothes shopping. I ended up getting a jacket, two pair of pants and a skirt made. Then I got pulled into a shop here in HCMC and am having another dress made... I've been shopping up a storm... I found a great restaurant in Hoi An that's the brainchild of a Vietnamese man, Duc, who lived in Texas and then worked around the US in various restaurants. It's very upbeat and the food (fusion) was fantastic. I met some women from Australia there who had been coming there every night for dinner. The Australians are so friendly. I also met a violinist from the Sydney Symphony in Halong Bay at the beginning of this trip and I keep running into her! Already she's planning on me visiting her next April! Turns out she's had breast cancer twice. Her husband puts on an opera competition that sounds similar to the Met auditions I'm involved with in CA.

 

Well I better get back to the hotel. I'm staying at the Grand Hotel which is a lovely French Colonial building. I need to contact the people I'm supposed to see here and have been goofing off on the streets all day.

 

love,

Miss Saigon