-^-for posterity-^-

i'm heading home. i can't wait to set foot back in long xuyen. i can't wait to see the dog and julie again. jack's back in the states.

i never thought i would be like my dad. whenever we had to go somewhere he always said that he didn't sleep all night. he said he just sat around watching the clock. i thought this was all absurd. who on earth would sit up all night when they could plainly sleep? well, last night i knew i would have to wake up early the next morning to catch a plane. it was going to be a relatively complicated process because i knew none of the language and wasn't going to hire a car. i was taking the bus. i first woke up at two. then at two thirty. then at three. that continued every half hour until five o'clock arrived. i became dave.

i left at five thirty. things wake up a bit later here than they do in an giang. i had to wake the hotel clerk up and have him call me a taxi. i was taken to a street corner a couple of towns over and told by someone to wait for a red bus. he said, "blue slow, red fast. go bangkok red bus." that was it.

i saw a number of blue busses but no red ones. i had to check in for my flight at ten in the morning and the trip was somewhere around three hours. i asked someone if a red bus was coming. i gave them some money to help me. they smiled and said that they would wait for me. time was winding down. finally, a large white bus came and he told me to get on. being an amiable fellow, i boarded. i hoped it was heading to bangkok. i sat in the back and fell asleep only waking a few hours later in bangkok.

stumbling out of the bus, i saw something that looked familiar. it was a tacky mirage. it was pink and orange and brought back millions of memories.

dunkin' donuts. there was a tiny stand built into the side of the otherwise dismal bus station. the pink and orange did not beautify the building. i walked up to the stand with my brow furrowed. i was confused. i looked at the donuts sitting all perky and processed. i chose one bavarian cream. what else would you choose after not seeing a donut stand in nine months? the powdered sugar ended up all over my face and shirt. i ate it and was still confused.

i arrived in the airport and checked my baggage. i started out in a line with people heading to pyongyang. i moved a few places up before realizing where i was going. what would that trip have been like?

i headed up to get some real breakfast. i didn't know what was available but i saw lots of light and people. there was a burger king. there was a pizza hut. there was a dairy queen. there was a starbucks. they all looked like tacky mirages. they all looked so terrible and yet so inviting.

so, once again, i did what anyone would do if they hadn't eaten fast food in nine months: i ordered a double bacon whopper with cheese and french fries (or are you still calling them freedom fries?) i bit into the thoroughly processed meat and mulled it around a bit. i hadn't eaten a hamburger since before i was a vegetarian. the tastes all came back. i remembered being a freshman in college and heading out for late night snacks. i remembered stopping on the long drive out to bluffton for a burger king burger. the taste was exactly the same in bangkok.

the bacon even had that six-month-old-freeze-dried-texture to it.

after my ten o'clock whopper, i don't really feel like moving. i'm heading back to long xuyen and feel warm and independent. i'm sitting in the bangkok international airport listening to gibberish over the intercom. i have my passport, my ticket, my underwear and everything. what a crazy, crazy world this is. whoppers in bangkok at ten in the morning.