Mikes Thoughts

Saigon Stories

The last few days I have been seriously needing something. I’ve felt this painful lack in my life. Thinking back when I was walking it seemed to be this lack. This missing of a thing. Perhaps it’s ridiculous but it’s a place. I just cannot do without Vietnam. It’s like this addiction and I’m a sad dweller on some dark street jonesing for it. Needing to rewrite some story.

I also have Vietnamese friends. Yeah I do. For some reason I could always make friends with Vietnamese people. It was easier than expats there. Two or three live in or close to Saigon. I have not seen them in years. Since Tet 2023. It’s longer than I ever wanted to be away from my addiction. To be fair Saigon is nowhere close to my favorite place. I will go when I go not because it’s my favorite but because it fulfills the second thing.

Its Vietnam.

Yeah. That seems to be it. I can wander some district. Drink ca phe sua da. Back to the pho place with pho beef stew and cold beer. Lily will be there too. She’ll eat and drink with me. Laugh and cry. Tell me in her perfect English about her joys and tribulations. And we will share them.

That’s the dream at least. The one where I walk some city blocks in some district and feel this sense of having what it is I want and need at that very moment. But now is not then. So I’ll dream a little dream of Saigon stories and have some breakfast my wife will cook. It will be eggs and potatoes and sausage. I don’t normally do the breakfast thing but today I feel this sense to give in when she becomes more than demanding. I guess she loves me. After this interlude and some laundry to spice up the works, I’ll go for coffee down the street. Did not sleep so well so will walk for all of it. Coffee and Saigon stories next.

coffee will do

Lately been suffering a little with bad sleep so this morning I decided to do different. My wife made breakfast for me and since the rain seemed to promise a wet morning I left. Going in a PassApp for me is instant relief. The driver is a regular guy I get and he knows where I want to go. This morning is downtown at the river.

Noi Cafe has been this place for years for me. It is an open air place with big comfy chairs and decent WiFi. Looking out over the river.

Noi Cafe

It gives me time to think on going to Saigon. Going alone I guess. One of our challenges going places is my wife will settle on some place but then see photos of another place and instantly she wants that. What happens is we go nowhere then because we do the spiral around places. And we never really go to them.

This time decided I have to change that. I want to see Vietnamese friends in Saigon or nearby. My friend lily lives south of Saigon in Can Tho. For her it’s a bus ride to see me. She’ll spend the night in some hostel. We will do what we always do. Eat and drink and talk. Make up for over 2 years of not seeing her.

My friend Tom lives in Saigon now but we met in Hanoi during pandemic times. He loves street food and coffee and we spent idyllic hours enjoying food right down the street from the apartment complex or going to West Lake.

Missing all that

So I am. Missing it all. I miss the going. It used to be I just went. If I wanted Hanoi and was in Phnom Penh I’d just go. We cannot do that these days. A combination of my wife’s health issues and our constant changing places results in not going at all.

That part hurts. So I will remedy it and go spend a week in Saigon. Go walk there. Find some coffee and beer stops. See friends. Mostly it is always the going I need. The sense of not being here or there. I used to thrive on that. Now I miss the sense and feel of it.

So let’s remedy some. Saigon stories will commence here on the blog whether I start with it or not.

See you along my permalinks.