The holiday starts in Vietnam… sans Ko Bu (my cousin for those who don’t know - sob) and despite the early start (up at 5.30, double sob) and Bangkok going nuts (state of emergency declared last night, the Reds taking over my street and shopping centres in downtown Bangkok for the 5th day in a row, etc etc etc), it’s not been too bad.
It would’ve helped to get a taxi driver who doesn’t look at me blankly every time I speak (it wasn’t like he didn’t understand, think he just specialises in blank looks) and suck the teeth sh*t (pardon my French, this is the literal translation of a Burmese phrase I heard when I was growing up to describe the action) at every traffic light, but hey, I’m on HOLIDAY!
My Jiddu Krishnamurti book (Total Freedom, $15.59 on Amazon but I got mine at Kino in Siam Paragon which has sadly been closed for the past few days as a result of the Reds, see above) is already bringing some interesting encounters too.
A fellow traveller saw it while I was rummaging for my Blackberry on the bus to take my flight, and spoke to me about it while waiting for taxi in Saigon. He’s apparently read another Krishnamurti book which was very good, so I told him this is gonna be reading material for the Trans-Mongolian trip before jumping onto the taxi waiting for me.
Five minutes later, I was stuck in traffic (which happens a lot in Saigon) with my driver happily making sucking sounds, and there was a couple of taps on the window. I looked around and there he was - the Krishnamurti reader. With his name card. Jumped out of the taxi behind me to hand me his details, with the word, ‘Call me’. I burst out laughing.
He’s a managing partner at an investment firm! Hmmmm….
Right, need to stop wasting time on the computer and get the real holiday going. Need to buy wrapping paper (wedding gift), beautify myself (for the wedding) and have some much-needed rest! Tomorrow, I head off to Danang in central Vietnam for pre-wedding celebrations.
(Photo courtesy of Chris! It’s 4-years old but Saigon at traffic light still looks the same.)
