August 2007

When I’m not walking or riding on my friends’ scooters, I get around Saigon by means of the xe om, the omnipresent and omniannoying-until-you-need-to-use-one scooter-taxis. “Xe,” I am told, means “vehicle” and “om” means “hug”, which is an adorable if entirely misleading depiction of the experience. I’ll be buying a cheap used scooter in the next couple of weeks, so not many more vehicle hugs for me. In the meantime, I took a moment to consider the many means of transport I have used over the last six months (I’m sure I’m forgetting something):

Car; bus; ferry; canoe; rowboat; longboat; slowboat; raft; cable car; bicycle; trishaw; tuk-tuk; sangthiew; cyclo; pick-up; minibus; truck; plane; horsecart; horseback; stagecoach; ox cart; locomotive; elevated train; monorail; subway; motorcycle; scooter; elephant.

Five stories below, the wandering soup seller is making his nightly rounds, clanging a spoon against an empty bowl to advertise his presence. Up the road, masseurs coast on bicycles, shaking little clackers, ready to drop a mat right on the sidewalk should anyone require a midnight massage. Motorbike engines whine and rev, voices murmur and shout in the dark in a language I recognize but don’t yet understand. The sounds of Saigon are becoming familiar; Saigon, this weird sprawling city, part booming Asian metropolis, part Dickensian curiosity shop.

Saigon, where I’m going to live for the next five months.

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Today is my traveling semi-anniversary! I’ve been on the road for exactly six months.

Also, I just broke the 2,000 mark in posted photos (as always, viewable on the Photos page here or on my Flickr account). Someday I will project the longest and most boring vacation slide show in history, a grueling, Warhol-esque art happening.

Does beer count as a performance-enhancing drug?

More to say, but I am off to see The Simpsons movie with my new friend.