Saying Farewell

I sink into my seat and settle in for the taxi ride back to Noi Bai Airport for my destination home. Rested after a final night out on the town last evening, which consisted of Italian street food, Vietnamese coffee, and the smoke and light show of the Saturday night street performers. It is quite a spectacle and everybody shows up for this weekly bit of fun; grandmothers with infants in tow, teens smartly dressed as hand-holding couples or giggling bunches of tenage girls, all screaming at the stage, and waving flourescent glow-in-the-dark plastic tubes. It is an easy event to enjoy because they have closed off the street to traffic so the very large and boisterous crowd can relax.

I find myself a little sad at the prospect of leaving, a predicament that causes my thoughts to come into sharp focus. Here on the early morning ride the city is awakening to blue skies and more insidious humidity. Store fronts begin to open their doors and I can see motor bikes parked inside alongside store inventory safely off the street. We pass by the flower markets decked out in a mass array of color, past the army guards changing shift at the Ministry of Economics, over a massive steel bridge with repeating geometric arches and cables that provide a visual perspective making it appear endless. Then on to the main highway, a modern road, part of the former Ho Chi Minh Trail. They are burning rice fields today and smoke billows around the taxi in a low cloud.

My visit here has been such a rich cultural and personal journey I can hardly believe I arrived here just 3 weeks ago. It seems like years have passed, during which time this place has become part of me in a way few places do.

But friends and family are what always bring me back with a smile, and soon I will be home again, chattering endlessly of the things I could not describe here. I look forward to that. Thank you again for sharing this journey with me.

Addendum: At my first connection in the US, the Customs Agent says, “Welcome back to America”. His words touch me like nothing else can and i have to supress my tears. Home!

Big honkin jungle spiders!

Butterflies by the hundreds!

Ferns as big as my house!

Lizards and things.

More big honkin spiders!

Can you pick out the Walking Stick?