July 16

Sick of exhaust smoke and fish sauce.
They’re permeating every pore
And impossible to avoid.
Could eat Lao food forever without tiring of it
But the food here in Vietnam, though good
Gets monotonous quickly and all tastes of fish sauce
Except at the veggie places.
Laos was a more comfortable, peaceful, enjoyable place to travel
But Vietnam is more interesting as a global phenomenon
A poor nation modernizing at a frenetic pace
And haphazardly, from the looks of it.
Smog, cell phones, wireless, plastic bags
Hand-made fishing nets
Home-made noodles
All collide on the street corner
Where people sit low to the ground on
Tiny chairs at tiny tables
(have I commented on this already?)
eating a bowl of phờ or drinking a beer.
Later, some will lie down more or less where they are
Moving a few feet to just inside the open front doorway of their home
And crash for the night.
At least that’s the way it looks to this insomniac
That people in this country lie down wherever they find themselves
And shut their eyes and that’s it.
I wouldn’t do too well here on a permanent basis.
As usual, the accommodations on this trip have been all about
Searching for silence
Without the advantage of being able to say
Away from the roosters, the restaurant, the other guests
Away from broom closet, the elevator, oh, and
especially the other guests.
Currently bedding down at the Hoang Anh Gia Lai hotel
HAGLE for short, it says it on the towels and soaps
Appropriately named as haggling is the name of the game here
(and everywhere in this country)
though pleasantly
by pleasant people.
Scoring a room up high and in a far building
Of a nearly empty hotel
required the persistence of a Hollywood agent.
But Bill insisted by pantomiming his crazy partner and her crazy sleeping
And maybe to shut him up they gave in.
We’re in a room with a balcony on the sea
And we’re comfortable
And laughing at the tacky take on ‘resort’
And enjoying being in a place that hasn’t seen much tourism
Yet.