tam biet and adieu

im back in solo mode after travel homie flew home to bkk last night. its my last full day in viet nam and i was quite content to spend it in windowless rm #903 of the lan lan 2 hotel, sleeping in, catching up on my weblog and reading more of andrew x phams entertaining book.

but this afternoon mr hieu stole me from my hermetic retreat and we gobbled some yummy street fare (i passed on the pigs ear strips but the mushroom-y balls that explode into mini morsels were fun) and then made an obligatory stop at highlands coffee where i had the honor to meet cindy, a fabulous post-op transsexual who is vietnams lgbt freedom fighter. she became the first to publicly out herself to the media when she fought to have her id card changed to reflect her female gender identity (no word yet). i guess she has a german boyfriend who tells her shes more of a woman than anyone hes previously dated.

deep in my food coma, i napped while the bloomberg channel described perus stock market miracle. some minutes later hieu picked me up encore and i got my hair clipped helluh short (my ocd too acute) followed by a fresh milk facial (not that kind u dirty homos) along with an uncomfortable scalp massagẹ by a lady with really long nails. tonights plans are predictable: dinner with minh and make haste for one more samsara hurrah! somewhere in-between i want to check out all of the cute kids out en masse who are celebrating tonights moon festival.

i havent processed my departure yet (my scalp and face are awfully tight), but unless some hackneyed insight compels me to pen something manana, i guess nows a good time to bid tam biet and adieu to everyone who has viet nam such a remarkable pomelo patch of experiences: my travel buddy kris, our charming and gracious saigon host hieu, minh, binh, tony, my, playboy ngoc and the pretty pretty boys of samsara. up north, god bless hanoi lam, tii, anh, the halong bay kiwis and the irresistible staff of the hong ngoc 2 hotel. all yall will be missed. and dont worry, like the sign said, the world truly does support viet nam in its resistance.

tomorrow ill take an evening flight to hong kong and spend most of my 12-hour layover at casa de clarence before heading to bali in the morn. that sounds nice.
more viet nam photos here.