On the 2nd Day in Saigon

Vietnam is about an hour behind us. So rising at 8am wasn’t too bad, since it was actually 9am in my biological sundial. Thus began the 22nd of March, the 2nd day of the trip.
The morning was bright and warm, and after an average breakfast at the hotel cafe, we scuttled off, excited and unaware [...]

On the 1st Day in Saigon

And now, a vivid account of the Saigon trip from 21 – 24 March. I recall promising a comprehensive and lengthy account, and though I’m spirit-willing to keep to the deal, the flesh is mighty weak due to my aggravating back-injury and raging fever. But anyway, here goes:
Day 1
Set off for Saigon from Terminal 1. [...]

Speaking in Tongues

Stumbled upon an interesting report on CNA about the Mas issue. I’ve stapled the interesting bits:
The search for alleged JI leader of Singapore Mas Selamat Kastari will now become more targeted – based on specific intelligence on where he might be hiding.
More targeted??
Specific intelligence?? And we were relying on what previously?
Police and SAF officers [...]

The Circus Returns

Now that all the jacks are in their boxes, and the clowns have all gone to bed, Le Cirque de Voyages has returned. Sadly, the trip concluded in a bleak finale.
Lost items, a missing driver, overpriced Bacardi and a paranormal waiter.
Tomorrow, with a potent brew of weasel-crap-in-your-cup coffee, I will commence writing a plump and [...]

The Unreadiness Is All

3 days from the pinpoint now, Le Cirque de Voyages is scheduled to appear in sunny Saigon. Unsurprisingly, the bags aren’t packed and the itinerary hasn’t been fixed.
We shall take the air in a tobacco trance.
The online weather analysis of Saigon as of now is: 91 °F / 33 °C Scattered Clouds. Whatever that’s [...]

Weekend Suite

Lately, I discovered that I’ve mentally created a gulf between work-weekdays and play-weekends, so much so that both sides have become two separate polarities: light & dark, art & science, romantic and augustan. Perhaps this must seem what most sensible working adults do all the time; charting out a kind of chronological measurement of their days for the regular assurance of existence. I [...]

Cu Huy Can

Been mucking and digging about to find some translations of the works by the great Vietnamese poet Cu Huy Can, and I fortunately managed to stumble upon one. Entitled “Sorrowful”, the poem languishes in its own brilliance, and is undeniably a southeast asian answer to Yeats and Neruda. Finger’s crossed on a Ho Chi Minh bookshop that carries his collected works.
Sorrowful
As the late sun [...]

Lonesome Causeway Blues

A curious piece of mail popped thru the inbox today. Let me spew the contents:
To all our dearest customer, we would like to inform
you that due to the escaped terrorist Mas Slamat, the
Singapore Customs are conducting a 100 percent checks
at the Woodlands Checkpoint. This crisis has made the
delivery company to cease all delivery indefinitely,
for safety [...]

I Keed!

Meeting up with the ex-colleagues-old chums tonite…so got ta run. Heading way down south…groan.
Now that I’ve got my daily dose of Triumph…I can vamos.

Untable to Attend

Le Cirque de Voyages dropped by East Coast earlier for a hearty chomp at the infamous food centre. To our surprise, we met with a Chinese circus over there as well but the performers were of the diminutive range in terms of skill and showmanship (a notable standout however, was the boy acrobat, who gave [...]

Uncle Ho

Known to many as the rather humble Uncle Ho (blame it on the bush jacket and cheap sandals), the great revolutionary and his band of tattered fighters were the first to kick against the pressures of french colonist revival and the nixonites. Strangely, French and American forces assumed weakness of its enemy; while Ho Chi [...]

A Night of Fiction

Montermon sat in the old oak chair and pondered upon the slight silence of the late November evening; his buoyant mind relentlessly lifting and resting at the same moment like a piece of dry pigeon feather half-stuck in the supple moist dirt of an empty field. The book upon his kneecap declared the unfinished chapter [...]

Días de Fiebre

Evidently, the days of fever seem to be wearing itself out but not to take any chances, I’ll put myself out slightly earlier tonight (again).
The work on the farm continues to be ever-grueling and never ceases to punish. Also, I’m on a nirvanaic diet of cereal, water and antibiotics.
Cúlpelo de la gripe. Buenas noches!

Le Cirque de Voyages

I’m so tired, my mind is on the brink. But this post deserves to be written, nevertheless. I can’t go on, I’ll go on.
In about 3 weeks from now, our traveling circus* will land upon the bosomy earth of Saigon. Tat-taa! Taka-thun! And for 4 days, I will be granted a rare opportunity to immerse [...]

Malaccan Melodies

Although it’s been almost a month now, Malacca continues to sustain in my memory like a thick fog.
Quite frankly, I cannot comprehend my belated interest in the recent trip, and having been to the historical city more than a dozen times, makes it even stranger. But what startles me most is this inane [...]