I was laying in bed the other night, listening to motorbikes clearing the way with their horns, and just revelling in how much i love to be on the road travelling.
General rant: We get asked by a fair number of people: why vietnam? or why whatever? but the real truth is we (OK, I, I'll let Barb speak for herself) just love to be out and travelling. You've heard the relevant quotes I'm sure, about it being the voyage, not the arrival, etc. I love being outside my comfort zone, I love being on the steep end of the learning curve, I really love having my assumptions, and perspective challanged.
Further digressions from Toby, rehashing thoughts lost in the ether once already:
Once before we travelled to a former Communist country, the Czech republic, and it was interesting to note the transitions required. Now we are in a communist country, with "free market oriented" policy, and it is indeed interesting. We in north america take it for granted like drinkable water, but there's a lot of underlying assumptions in our economy that are difficult lessons.
Be warnedthat this is a second attempt to frame the thoughts that were lost with a defective keyboard mentioned in a priormessage.
First, I want to follow up on my depressing air quality missive. I got a reply from our foreman, who was at Bin Hoa airbase in 1969, and he told me that then, the air in vietnam was clearer and bluer, that the air at home. Thank goodness for the clean air efforts of the last 35 years, and let's hope to hell the environmental laws aren't weakened like some would wish.
Cats: There's a fair number of cats here. They all are skinny as a rail like tropical cats all seem to be. They look like close cousins to Siamese cats except that they have a normal variety of catlike pattern, tabby, calico, whatever. In the countryside they are utility animals, rice protectors if you will. We got puzzlingly smiling responses when we asked what the cat's name was of a few people; the notion of naming a cat, or calling it anything but cat is amusing and definitely viewed as strange. There never seemsto be any kind of overpopulation of cats, I think that kitten mortality and limited food resources take care of that. We did actually run into a cat that had been bought when we were on an outlying island in Bai Tu Long Bay. This was an all black cat, and I was told that it was "very expensive". It is common knowledge that there is some organ in black cats (this didn't translate very well, so I don't know what organ) that is the best medicine for serious eye problems. This cat, mind you is 7 years old. Probably the only cat around who's age is actually known. Unbenownst to the cat, it is waiting for someone in the family to have an eye problem, and then.... I don't know what will happen if there are no problems, do you let the cat just get old and decrepit, or harvest it?
First a computer digression. We have beenhaving "interesting" times with internet access. I realize I have come to find net access to be partof my life, an assumed presence, a resource like running water. Like running water, I can live just fine without while camping or away, but it is part of the quality of life. Need a definition, remember a snippet of song lyric, bingo it's there in an instant.
We had a nice reminder of just how sweet we have it at home. Barb & I were on two different computers writing up a storm when the power went out. We have been getting in the practice of copying what we write as we go so an undependent connection doesnt fail and leave us with an unsent message. Power failure on a public computer, though, means everything just evaporates, thoughts considered and committed to a post just leave the ether, and trying to write the same impression twice is really difficult. I can just imagine how diminished computer usage and internet usage is with unstable power and connections.