I am no bus geek by any means, I'm no trainspotter. I do like travelling, however, and so I get to see my fair share of buses, in exotic corners of the world. I've slept on bunk-bed buses in Vietnam, fought the touts at muddy bus stops in Turkey and Nepal,
Floating Worlds
Remembering Vietnam
SOMETIMES YOU NEED A BIT OF TIME AFTER AN EVENT TAKES PLACE, BEFORE YOU CAN WRITE ABOUT IT. This illustrates one flaw I can see with blogging and that is that blogging is a form of instant analysis, lacking the perspective that brings about a deep understanding. Perspective needs time as well as space. I am still waiting for inspiration to write the definitive account of my time in lock up in Japan, and that happened more than a year ago. Someday I will see the whole strange and mysterious affair in its true and proper light, and then I will write that story. Until then, it is still a work in progress. On Friday, May 2, 2008, Nga and I caught a bus from Đà Lạt in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, back to Saigon (otherwise known as Ho Chi Minh City.) At the time I was suffering a dose of seconditis -- this was my second trip in Vietnam with Nga, and I was stalked by the nagging doubt, that it wasn't as good as the first time. We had been in Đà Lạt for most of the week, and it had rained hard every day. On Friday at last the sun came out, in the morning and midday hours at last, and I was served plenty of stunning pastoral views. Nonetheless, I didn't fully appreciate until today (July 6, 2008) what a stunning slice of Vietnam I encountered on that bus trip. Those memories took two months to ferment. I was walking along the river near my house (the Edo River, in Tokyo, Japan) this afternoon, down with a rainy season 'flu, when perspective overcome me. It was the contrast of those memories against the present, the color of Vietnam dazzling against the sedate, gray/green background of Japan. It made me think: was that really part of my life, it seems so out of place with my workaday reality now? But a part of my life lives in Vietnam now, and a lot of my memories belong there... (For the full account of my bus trip with Nga from Đà Lạt to Ho Chi Minh City, click here.)
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