Tag: Marche

I love

Our own Duc Huy has sung “Toi yeu…nhung loi noi thanh that, toi yeu ly ca-phe buoi sang” (I love sincere comments, .. morning cup of coffee). So do I. Especially when it’s cappuccino prepared with care and passion by our UVT Hospitality students. They even brought it up to my office (perk!).

I love “the dog says Good-night” in Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.

I love Shubert whom my Dad adored. I love “Ao Dai” my mom used to wear.

I love Good Morning Vietnam with the aerial shot of the chopper leaving the lush-green rice field.

I love little children with innocent eyes, arms wide-spread in front of mom’s Vespa (thinking it’s they who “fly” the vehicles).

I love the man- on the balcony across the alley- who squats and spreads his arms as if he were a Master of ancient martial arts.

I love Au Marche (Cho Hoa Hung) with “le poisson glisse” (fish that glow in the sun ).

I love grandma types who think her savings would make a difference in the clan’s future.

I love Security Guards (in Vietnam, it’s big business) who know everything that happens in the company.

I love back-stage Rockers who can’t wait for their set.

I love Accountants and HR, who feel important and needed when others are hired and fired.

I love people, places and purposes.

Let’s do it.

It’s a wonderful world.

The coffee by the way is cappuccino.

Can you imagine if I had had something else this morning.

TGIF.

rollin, rollin on the (Saigon) river

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.