Too Old To Die Young

I am staying in Pham Ngu Lao district, the backpacker area of Saigon because it full of interesting people from every corner of the world and every kind of background.
 
The old guys who judging by their sun damaged skin have spent a lot of years living here permanently and enjoying the cheap beer and other distractions.
 
Tourists.
 
  • Chinese couples with their children.
  • Korean and Indian couples and groups.
  • Asians who when they speak English turn out to be American or Australian.
  • Young women in pairs with a big backpack behind and a small one in front.
  • Young couples on locally rented beat up motorbikes with a big seabag  tied on the back touring Vietnam.
  • Malaysians at a table on the sidewalk figuring out how to eat the Vietnamese version of tacos.
And there are the Vietnamese who on a slow evening come and drive down Bui Vien Street with their children and look, in a zoo like fashion at the strange foreigners.
 
 While I am enjoying my stay here in Saigon I am struck by how much everywhere increasingly looks and feels pretty much the same, be it Barcelona or Saigon.
 
In the centre of town the very outrageously expensive big name international hotels and stores;  Dior, Ferragamo, Coach, Versace and the rest for those Vietnamese needing to be defined by conspicuous consumption. See Thorstein Veblen for details. 
 
 And everywhere the spread of McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, 7-Eleven chains or local copycat versions of cheap mass consumption. In most instances it cannot be the quality of their products, locally produced  food here is tastier, cheaper and much healthier. It must be related to a kind  mass suspension of critical objectivity and the belief (it has to be advertising ? See Edward Bernays for details) that to be modern you must frequent their premises or be seen in the street with their product in you hand and maybe moving it toward your mouth.
 
In down town there are busloads of older folks, some European or N. American but increasingly Asian, being shepherded from one local tourist site and shopping opportunity to the next. The huge buses queue for parking spots, motors running to sustain the air conditioning. 
 
In Europe it is increasingly the same with cruise ships of older Westerners, but increasingly Chinese saturating cities like Venice and Barcelona. And Airbnb, I am staying in one, pricing out locals and destroying the ambience of old city quarters
 
So I am in agreement with the Vietnamese who drive through the backpacker area to look at the foreigners, one remaining pleasure in travel is observing the other travellers.
 
Could I be becoming aged, definitely and consequently unhappy with world as I find it today, probably.
 
Too old to die young.
 
John
 

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Blaise Pascal, Pensées

L’Etranger – The Stranger

I first saw him in the high rent district when I was looking for the Vietnam Airlines office around 18:00 a few nights ago. He is a Caucasian and was sitting in the semidarkness on a piece of cardboard on the kerbside of a major street with a sign in Vietnamese hanging around his neck and a couple of carrier bags with his belongings beside him.

As I walked slowly back to the backpacker area where I am staying in an Airbnb he kept passing me. I was walking on the broken, potholed sidewalks and stopping for red lights while he was walking against traffic in the street, not bothering with traffic lights and making better time. We nodded each time we crossed paths.

Finally after about 30 minutes I got to Pham Ngu Lao where I am staying and there he was sitting on the kerbside again with his sign. He waved, I said hello and he replied bonsoir. So I asked, in French where are you from ? Corsica, how did you end up in Vietnam ? I walked from India, across Myanmar, then across Thailand and across Cambodia and here I am in Vietnam. What were you doing in India and how long where you there ? Four years and I was studying spiritualism.

Keeping my son Patrick’s advice concerning my penchant for talking to strangers “if they look like they hear voices stay well back” I asked and what do you do ? I am a magician and I can solve many kinds of personal problems. Well you are the first person I have met that walked from India to Vietnam, would you mind if I take your picture ? I didn’t have a chance to shave, he pulled down his anti-pollution face mask, so its probably not a good idea. I told him it was dark and his not shaving would not be visible and also to date he was the first magician I had met. I asked where are you going next, he is after all in the south of Vietnam and up against the Pacific Ocean ? Oh I’ll just keep walking.
So here he is.

The sign says something like “I am broke and need money to get home”. I gave him some money and wished him well.

This morning I saw a well dressed Caucasian walking on a busy downtown Saigon street in bright sunlight and gesturing violently with both hands while chewing energetically on the right hand shoulder strap of backpack. I decided against trying to start a conversation..

Make Up A Better One

If you don’t like this one make up a better one.

For the TET Lunar New Year Holiday my goddaughter Chau and her mother Yen go to their Temple to pray every day. I have been there frequently over the years and have become friends with the Abbot.

Today Saturday Chau told me a Frenchman just came in to the temple and asked why don’t you say hello and see if we can help him. And I did and he explained he was visiting 30 temples around Vietnam and this one is on his list, and also he had studied Buddhism at Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village in France.

The Abbot joined us and said he had been feeling poorly for a few days, I translated this to our new French friend and he announced he is a Dr. of Asian medicine and asked if the Abbot would like to be examined and perhaps treated. He carries his tools of the trade and some essential oils in his backpack.

Fortunately his Vietnamese travel companion showed up from praying, and since she speaks French fluently she could describe the Abbot’s symptoms. The Abbot agreed to being examined and was duly treated.

And how was your day.

Who Knew

The home cooked  plat de resistance this year at every TET family gathering is  –  spaghetti bolognese eaten of course with chopsticks.

 

Sent from my iPhone