Back in Hue Vietnam
While in a restaurant, we met a young couple in Mukdahan, Thailand from Oklahoma. He is teaching English. She seemed anxious to talk to my wife about the outside world - home. They had two small children and a pickup truck.
Heide and I took the long journey back through Laos. Only a few days in Laos gave us Third-World fatigue. We were so tired we ran out to an Italian restaurant in Hue, Vietnam and ordered a large Peperoni Pizza. Heide just about broke off the guys arm as he set the garlic bread on the table.
More Orwellian sightings from Laos: Girls on a night out all dressed up with high heels driving scooters to the one street in Savannekhet, Laos with a couple of night clubs. Cell phone usage is ubiquitous in Savannehket - yet running water is rare. There are satellite dishes by grass huts. You can look in people's tin shacks and see them watching satellite TV. There is sometimes a new pickup truck sitting in front of a grass hut. The society in Laos seems to have great intentions everyday at 7:00 a.m. but everything usually goes to hell by 10:00 a.m.
My friend John Troha has pizza sent to his place in Hue a couple times a week. For a guy who has lived and worked there for many many years I think he eats mostly american food. Go to the Mandrin restraunt and ask mr.CU to tell you about his days of living in a bunker under his house. After the tet offensive in 1968 there was not a house standing inside the Citidel. Mr Cu can tell you some interesting war stories if you can get him to talk about it. I think that you are probably traveling to fast to really understand the culture in Vietnam. I didn't have a clue untill I married Luong and I lived with the Vietnamese on their terms. It is much different then what the traveler sees. A point of interest is I was the first american to get permission to live with a Vietnamese family inside the citidel walls and only because I was married to a Vietnamese. Seems strange that after 11 years of going to Vietnam and living there that I hate the place so much but I am still sucked back there every year. If I could live life over I would not even want anything to do with that country. It's really something how a war can get under your skin and never let you go. I bled on their soil in 1968 and have become part of that country and just can't get it out of me. The Vets that go back there realy have a screw loose and don't know how to fix it.All though you don't see them there are still a lot of older Vietnamies that were touched deeply by that war.
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