Still refocusing to being in the US from my ten day journey in Vietnam. Missing my morning rice congee ( a breakfast porridge) and the delectable Dragon Fruit (it looks like a huge Garden Snail, like the huge ones on the Northern California coast and other places) and it is bright scarlet with some green. Break it open. You find white black speckled fruit that is sweet and light beyond belief. Delish times infinity!!!! i am also still seeing the sea mountains of Ha Long Bay- giant sea stackss- hundreds of them, rising out of the water. We went there on a guided tour and stayed on the boat overnight. We also went to a huge cave ( you could fit -easily- the whole Northampton High School into this case and not break any of the hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites of clay and limestone. Of course it took me eight hours to walk up to the entrance of the cave while younger folks did it in ten minutes (the average) but hey thats old age and being out of shape ( I am exaggerating; it only took me FOUR hours; I had many rest stops. We had a fast paced vacation and I am proud of my wife and myself for basically getting it done at the age of 68. The main thing was some of the amazing people we met, including the famed Madame Binh, one of the main negotiators at the 1970s Paris Peace Talk. She is also former head of the Womans Union, former freedom fighter who was tortured by the French during Vietnams war against the French from 1945l-1954 when they defeated them and drove them out just as they drove out the US Army in 1973l, ending a totally illegal war never declared by Congress. Madame Binh also served as Vietnams Vice President and was instrumental in helping Vietnam rebound and move forward into the future with hundreds of building projects and invidtations to new businesses to start up in Vietnam. And years later, my family ( we went with my stepdaughter and her fiancee) saw the results of this- many new busineeses, building everywhere and a spirit of inquiry and positive thinking that is infectious. We stayed in the two main cities Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, each for a few days and met with many organizationsn. I got to meet with the Vietnamese Writers Association and talk with the poet Nguyen Quang Tri, author of The Woman Who Carry The River ( Curbstone Press) ( and IN our Northampton HS library along with eight other Curbstone Vietnam Writers Series books ( we may be one of the few high schools in the US that has the whole line of Curbstone Books ( that is now part of Northwestern Univeristiy press). OK. I can see some of your eyes glazing so I will stop here. More later. I think I just need to write an article about the trip
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 17:16:07 +0000
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