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Monthly Archives: March 2017

The changing lives of Saigon’s sidewalks

24 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by itsaphanlife in Saigon life

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W
hen he first visited Saigon in the late 1940s, the writer Norman Lewis made this observation of the sidewalk life he saw here, after a short amble through the city:

“It was clear from the first moment of picking my way through these crowded, torrid streets that the lives of the people of the far East are lived in public… The street is the extension of the house and there is no sharp dividing line between the two. At dawn, or, in the case of Saigon, at the hour when the curfew is lifted, people roll out of bed and make for the pavement, where there is more space to perform most of their toilet. Thereafter they eat, play cards, doze, wash themselves, have their teeth seen to, are cupped and massaged by physicians, visit fortune-tellers; all in the street” (Lewis, 22)

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A motorbike ride to Vung Tau

19 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by itsaphanlife in Saigon life, Uncategorized

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Halfway on the road from Ho Chi Minh to Vung Tau you turn from highway 51 onto Hoang Sa road, and the land opens up on both sides. You come upon salt marshes, with their mixture of sky, island clusters, waterways, briny sea and pungent drafts of dried fish. Views here are expansive: tufted grass, mangrove clumps, an occasional boat docked next to makeshift homes, become dots upon a larger canvas of sky and marsh water.

It took two hours to get you here on motorbike. Two hours splitting the road with careless cars, packed buses, delivery trucks loaded twice their heights with wood, metal shutters, construction sand and pebbles that bounce out their useless tarp covering and pelt you and motorbike the entire way there.

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Still life with 4 books I read in America over this long winter break (vertical) and 4 books I bought there to bring back to Vietnam (horizontal). Loved Bliss Montage, All That's Left Unsaid, and many of the stories in Afterparties, liked/appreciated Useful Phrases for Immigrants. Wrote a longer review of All That's Left Unsaid that'll be on @weare_dvan soon. Trekking round Manhattan #bigapple New York City continues to be the best city for reuniting with old friends. #nyc #brooklyn Trekking around Boston, Harvard, Boston Commons, and showing my wife my old hometown in winter. I actually missed feeling this level of cold! #winterinboston Fun with our niece Alanna on our last days in Florida. Can't wait to have our own...we think... #funwithbabies Beach hopping and night market shopping around Sarasota and Venice, Florida #beachesoflorida In spite of the fact that Trump and Desantis both reside in this state, Florida's been A-OK with us! #florida #summerinwinter Back in America. For this visit, our family has expanded by two! #floridayrusocold #florida

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