Walk around Ho Chi Minh City

Orchids welcome me to breakfast. Veggies for breaky! This vegan is happy with good coffee, too. I meet Paige and pose for photos by cute bellhop. See pics of my room and 'the window' for my fun people watching. Meet friendly Finnish woman in lobby. Dodge traffic. I realize that all the pushing away of cars I do while riding in the front passenger seat at home has been in training for crossing the streets of Saigon! whew! I run while Paige walks.We see this bustling city alive and hopping. Say prayers at the cathedral for Lisa...Queen of Peace. I get up close to another orange street sweeper. Paige loves the "snowball". They think it is winter here with ornate poinsetta lights and huge white wooden snowflakes. I am sweating and I know it is snowing real live snowflakes at home. So many faces, so many memories associate with the new I see. wow. Again I check the red flowers to make sure they are not plastic.

Good Morning Vietnam - first morning

Waking early with birds singing and early traffic buzzing, I see amazing views from my window on January 8th Saturday in Vietnam.

I arrive at HoChiMinh City airport at midnight. I am a midnight rambler! I love the orchids lining the halls as we walk to the immigration and customs lines. The white delicate beauty astounds me, I check to be sure the flowers are real. Remember I am traveling for 30 hours to get to the other side of the world.

Luckily Paige Stringer recognizes me as I gaze out at the swarm of people waiting for friends at the gate. I finally meet this amazing woman who invites me to join her Global Foundation for Chidlren with Hearing Loss. A van drives us through the quiet streets of the city to our nice hotel.

Out my ninth floor window, roof gardens, clothes lines, and new construction interest me. I can people watch! In the open doorways and windows that have no glass, I see a lady ironing, a man doing push-ups, and a mother reaching for her clothes pin basket. The construction workers start their tap tap tapping. A street sweeper dressed in orange drives his orange bike cart.He is up before the sun. He works so hard with his primitive grass broom. He inspires me like an orange sunrise.

On the way to Vietnam

In the seat across from me a girl writes in her notebook with great zeal. She is using a silver pen that clicks when she changes the color. I wonder what she is writing so intently at 6:20am EST as we both wait to board the United flight 835 from Boston to Chicago. The way she holds the thick silver shaft it resembles the big silver bird we are about to ride.

Jim just dropped me off at Logan. He made me coffe & oatmeal before he carried my bag to the car - thank you JIM! He forgot his cell phone so I an not call him with any detail of the check-in which all went smoothly, Thank God.

After two months of planning, I am starting my journey to Vietnam and Cambodia with a gorgeous sunrise.

Out the oval
pinks purples line the
sherbert oranges
waiting for brilliant glow
emerging
moments on the runway
like me ready for
what the sky can offer

These planes can appear so simple with their complexity hidden beneath the silver body. I am in an amazing contraption. With a few clicks and switches just like the girl with her pen - this plane takes me to see and understand another side of our world.

The engines roar and we take off. I look down and see everything familair slowly disappearing. Away to the west I fly expecting to become familiar with a new place.

The gold sun ball makes me smile as the silver wing covers it and dips - playing peekaboo with the sun - until the nose turns and we float high about the coulds to the west leaving my peekaboo partner in the east.