-^-for posterity-^-

floating down the saigon river, eating dinner, watching all the industrial zones pass quietly by.

we ate in a three story boat. it was covered with yellow lights that were arranged to look like a fish. tacky is a word that could be used to describe it.

ordering was chaotic and no one seemed to understand anyone else. there were twenty people and the head waiter had his own ideas and he listened without hearing and we were not speaking clearly. he stood and ordered people around and had a tie and a bit of a belly. it wasn't a lazy belly but rather a power belly.

we ate until full and then the boat began to move down the river.

normally a river boat tour at night (it was a beautifully cool night) should be full of romantically lit shore-line. the shores of the saigon river are covered with industrial zones. we passed countless numbers of boats all bearing different national flags and interesting names. the boats were all being loaded or unloaded. huge cranes would lift rough metal boxes and stack them like they were legos. other nets would be lowered and raised into hulls bearing bags of grain and rice. everything looked small.

the industrial zones were all well lit and tiny people bustled about. our boat reached an indiscriminate point in the river and turned around slowly.