Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Taking Boy Out of Country

Jeez, I’m so ambivalent about cities. I find it imperative to walk around a fair amount, scoping things out, and therein lies a major problem: eating fossil fuel fumes. My body pulls me to get out to the country, but my head is fascinated with the richness and complexity of a dense population. It’s my 3rd day in Saigon and I’m tuning into it a bit better. I just sat at a corner cafe and had two Tiger beers and spring rolls and watched thousands of motorists and pedestrians go by, stayed about an hour. many of the motos had 3 people, a few with four, and I saw one fiver — man, woman, 3 kids. There are 8 million people in Saigon, 3 million motos, and one million bikes. The way it all works is staggering; it’s a complex dance. Then wandered around, found 2 kind of obscure alleys in the backpacker/internet area of Pham Ngo Lau road, nice little hotels, cool little restaurants. Then wanting coffee to write this email, found a great little cafe playing hip hop and had iced coffee. There are so many scenes in a city, it’s a matter of finding enough of them to spend time at (or in) so you can get inspired and/or recharge. Right now I’m loving the city, but it wasn’t so this (smoggy) afternoon.

No comments: