Walking around, seeing the difference in dress and the decrease in bicycles, etc., I felt very lucky to have been to a lot of countries, such as Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Bhutan, Uganda, Morocco, Kenya, etc., when they were not typical vacation spots. And to now get to see some of these places again, with considerable changes. The ads for new resorts in Vietnam in the airplane magazine were staggering to me, as there was only one resort that we saw on the beach in Nha Trang which was just opening the day we were there. They are even building one on one of the islands in Halong Bay.
Significant change was also evident to me when I went to China for the Olympics in 2008. When I had gone to Beijing in 1990, there were hardly any cars, thousands of black, government issued bicycles, and everyone was wearing gray mandarin attire, and the hotel where we stayed was the biggest building around, and was on the fringe of the city. In 2008, there were hundreds of thousands of cars, and an occasional bike, everyone was wearing jeans or other fashionable clothing, and I had trouble spotting that hotel amongst all of the huge, new, high rise buildings. Anyway, a bit of nostalgia! I'll have to see if I can do some photo comparisons when I get home (although that was before digital!)
Now it was time to have the jeep pick me up from central Saigon and take me to Sue's for a rest by the pool. When I called it her oasis in the city, I didn't know just how true that was.....what a wonderful place!!-
This isn't even the main house....we would maybe call this the carriage house in the US...
This is the inside of the main house....
So, time for a dip and maybe some reading.
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