Travel Week

Blog Entry 20 Mar 2013

I have been on the road since Monday and the days are starting to run into each other.  I know it is only Wednesday but I was already recalling something that I thought happened yesterday, but, in fact, it was the day before yesterday.  Yesterday was a travel day, so I spent four hours on the road before stopping to eat and then boarding a helicopter to go out to a base camp site.

Anyway, the day before yesterday, I was in Kon Tum City with a Vietnamese Recovery Team. The visit was pretty uneventful, though we did have a dinner that included copious amounts of Cuoc Lui - a Vietnamese moonshine of sorts. At the dinner, through the haze of the Cuoc Lui, I remembered that it was the anniversary of my first day in the Air Force.  That is to say, the 28th anniversary. It is so hard to believe it has been 28 years since I enlisted in the Air Force.  That was the beginning of my manhood.

I was watching a movie the other day, though I can't remember the name of it, and in the movie one man asks three of his buddies when they became a man.  In the movie, everyone of them had to think a little before giving their answer.  For me, it is easy to name the day - March 18, 1985. I was nineteen years old and it was the first day that I had full responsibility over my life. I never regret having joined the Air Force, but often wonder what my life would be like now if I had not gotten out after a little over nine years of service.  I don't spend too much time wondering, there are just too many unknowns and it really doesn't matter anyway.

So I spent last night in Buon Ma Thuot.  I didn't get to spend it the way I wanted, but I really can't complain about the restaurant I was invited to.  AND, I got home early enough last night that I was able to wake up and get an early morning run in.  I managed four miles.  Two two-mile runs with a little break in the middle to walk around in the older part of the city.  This is a nice place, but I really don't understand what the tourists do here when they arrive.

I have a late afternoon flight to Saigon today and then we will be off into the Mekong Delta region.  Just a lot of travel and not much time for anything else. Maybe I can get some work out time once I get back to Hanoi.  Oh, wait, I will be in Hanoi for part of Saturday and Sunday, but I am heading off to Bangkok on Monday.  Things are crazy around here.  Diep says I like to travel because I was born in the year of the horse.  As I get older, I feel I long for those days staying home more.

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Saturday, 23 Mar 2013
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Things were looking up as I got into Saigon. I checked into the hotel, and because they were fully booked, they gave me a free room upgrade. This was good and bad, because I had managed to talk Diep into staying the night. Diep was already in Saigon because she had flown down a few days earlier to see her cousin who had just returned home after about three years in Malaysia.  Anyway, back to the room, it was good to have an upgrade because it included a desk and living room area, but bad because Diep now thinks that I live a five-star / rock star life on the road.  This is simply not the case... some of the time.    But, unlike most of the times we try to get together when I am on the road, this chance meeting was fantastic! We went out to eat with my boss and then broke free to have a drink at a cool local bar in first district.  We were in good spirits when we got back to the hotel and had a good night 's sleep.  I had a fairly late departure in the morning which made it easy for us both to get ready and have a leisurely morning together.

The rest of my Thursday wasn't so enjoyable.  The work wasn't hard, but the travel was a killer. We drove over two hours to our first site in Long An Province, and after about two hours of discussions and lunch with our counterparts - including Cuoc Lui - we hit the road for another four before reaching our final destination in Can Tho City.  I had arranged for our reservations at the Victoria Hotel in advance, but, even with an email confirmation from the Sales Department, no one could find our reservation at the reception.  Coupled with a dead phone and a headache, things didn't start well in the rice basket of the country.  After getting our room, however, things started to look up.  The boss and I had dinner at a corner, outside restaurant and retired after an early evening.

The Victoria Hotel in Can Tho is beautiful - if not a little expensive.  The entire Victoria chain creates an environment that makes me feel like I am in French Colonial Indochine... without the oppression and uprising of the people.  Everything is done in classic French style and the staff is well trained.  The only thing I can complain about - other than the dropping of our reservations - is the tendency of the staff to stop the sink and tub when they clean the room.  This may sound trivial, but when you add a very hot water "hot" tap in the tub and a difficult-to-adjust knob, you might be able to see how a tub filling up with scalding water as you are trying frantically to get the cold water going, while simultaneously weighing how you might be able to jump out of the tub without ripping the shower curtain off the rod might be something that would be bothersome to someone who is now nursing tender feet.

Yesterday morning I got another run in, though I only managed two miles before the humidity did me in. This is by far the most humid province I have been in this travel week.  After the run, I still got back to the room in time to get my camera and capture the sun as it rose, set against the Hau River and Can Tho Bridge.

I wasn't so energetic this morning, however, and managed only to get up and get these few word written on my IPAD before getting ready for the airport and my two hour trip home to the family.  This trip I brought along my logitech bluetooth keyboard that has proven itself to me in the advantages of using it rather than the virtual keyboard program on the tablet.

Cheers to me as I finally get back to my family!


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