Nha Trang, May 31st

I took a mini bus this morning to the coastal city of Nha Trang. As we descend from the mountains the heat and humidity begin to rise. The driver is going so fast around the sharp curves that I am beginning to feel sick. A few days later I heard from other travelers that there was a fatal accident involving several Westerners on the same route.

This afternoon shooting was such an adrenalin rush. Living quarters are cramped and it's so hot that people tend to live their lives in public. It struck me how on the street people are juxtaposed so close to each other. A group of five men, black grease covering their faces, one pounding away at a part on a broken engine, right next to a mother feeding her child. People sleeping, eating, cleaning, selling things all alongside each other. One's senses are constantly being stimulated. I was shooting too quickly to think. The street was packed with people, when all of a sudden I reached a bridge and saw a bright orange sunset over the water. Everything was quiet on the other side of the river. I am totally exhausted.

Nha Trang, June 1st

Up at five this morning. From the roof of my hotel I can see the outline of a small mountain chain rising above the South China Sea. Few people are out besides the women street sweepers, their faces all bundled up to protect their lungs. I hear the faint sound of Vietnamese music from a speaker mounted on the street corner.When I reach the ocean what a surprise! Thousands of people are already out playing, swimming and exercising. Teenage boys are playing a rough game of soccer on the beach next to a group of elderly women practicing their Tai Chi.

Larger hotels owned by Taiwanese and Filipino corporations are starting to spring up along the waterfront as investors tap into the potential of Vietnam. Will Club Med be far behind? Walking on the beach I met a Chinese-American architect from Hawai scouting locations for a new project.

Many of the cyclo drivers that have given me rides seem to have had similar past lives fighting alongside the American GI's during the war. They're called the "American War Vets". I met one of them today drinking tea across from the train station. He teaches informal English classes to younger drivers, enabling them to make a lot more money driving the tourists around. Often the drivers rent themselves out by the hour as tour guides. In a country where the average wage for a teacher is about $30 a month these Vietnamese style entrepreneurs can do fairly well for themselves.

Nha Trang, June 2nd

Had a difficult time getting to sleep last night. There's a Chinese holiday going on and the hotel is fully booked.The room across the hall looks like a dormitory filled with teenage boys. The noise finally simmered down around midnight. Precisely at noon yesterday the whole town had waded into the ocean, for good luck.

This morning I went to Nguyen Nguyen, a fishing village several miles south. Near the mazelike village are wooden shacks supported by long poles along the coast. It's like being under a boardwalk with the sun streaming in from the slats of wood above. Nearby groups of woman are selling the day's catch from the boats anchored ashore.

I am shooting so much film that it's impossible to recall what I've photographed. It's ironic that at the moment of exposure I am essentially blinded. Still my mind is full of images, past and present. It's a different kind of information overload from the one back home. Here the overload is from direct physical experience, while there it's indirect, from the media. I havn't been this content in a long time.

Saigon
Dalat 1 | 2
Nha Trang
Hoi Ann
Hue
Hanoi 1 | 2
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