Working for the man, every night and day… big wheel keeps on turnin,
River boat dining provides another view of Saigon Water front.
Hotel Majestic, Sheraton and Sun Wah guests look at you (dining on the river boat), while you look at them.
Tourists are still coming in drove and enjoying a night out.
From the gang-plank, I can see the unlit barge along side (and small speed boat, not Somalian though). Years ago, those barges carried human cargo. Mass of humanity, helplessly clung to the hope of a new tomorrow out there in the open seas. The “mini-mass” are trickling back. First as tourists, in cognito and blended in with Asian and Westerner counterparts.
Slowly, the feel of the place gets more at home: high-end hair salon and spa,
organized tours and menu in dollars.
District 7 now has Lotte Mall, Parkson Mall and Crescent Mall. The view from those District 7 shopping centers and supermarkets in South Saigon could trick you into thinking you were somewhere else but Vietnam.
Construction crew heck away. English classes plow away. And of course supermarket registers chuck chink on. Reminds me of a childhood poem Au Marche, with glistening fish (reflecting the sun in open air market).
The Rock and rollers are getting older by the day, pony tail or not. But “you’re still the one, I want” and of course, Proud Mary.
Rollin, rollin, rollin on the river. Tina Turner once said, despite her nth time performing that number, she has a way to deliver it differently each time.
I guess Saigon is like that song. You got to discover it anew, each time.
And who said you can’t swim in the same river twice. I just did, floating in the same river on two completely different vessels and traversing in opposite direction. Same river. that carries the process called Revietnamization.
Thang Nguyen 555 