The Vietnamese people are some of the finest people the world has to offer. Before I came to Vietnam, I was under the impression that the Vietnamese still held a grudge against the Western countries. This was not the case. Vietnam seems to have recovered emotionally, if not physically, from our Southeast Asian police action. But, in point of fact, the Americans were not the first Western country the Vietnamese have fought and expelled. The French dominated Vietnam for years before Dien Bien Phu. Indeed, Vietnam has been attacked by major military powers in ancient history as well. They staved off the Mongols when the Mongols rolled up all of China(no small task), and they threw a fleet fropm Japan back into the sea. Even now, Vietnam is surrounded by hostile and militant countries.

However, with regard to the conflict with the United States, it is as if it never occurred. In Ho Chi Minh City, it seems that every city dweller has at least a basic understanding of English. They love speaking English to Americans as well. Even outside of the cities, the pro-foreigner sentiment runs high. In the Mekong Delta, I was swarmed by Vietnamese children, all of whom were thrilled to pieces just to shake the hand of an American.

In general, the Vietnamese people are generous, just, friendly, and outgoing. More than can be said for most areas in the United States and Europe. With that said let me move on to the state of the country as a whole.

Vietnam is still in the seventies. As a matter of fact, in some areas it's still in the fifties. I might even go so far as to place large sections of the Mekong Delta in the late middle ages. I could list some of the benefits this provides such as being able to pop your car's hood and work on it yourself like some Vietnamese remake of American Graffiti, but most of Vietnam's anachronism has a totally negative effect. Sure, you can buy Coke and 7-Up in bottles, and enjoy the ridiculous fifties architecture in some of the cities, but the fact remains that Vietnam is a country where ice is a luxury.

It's the sort of thing I did not think about or really appreciate in my prosperous capitalist homeland on the other side of the world(literally. Vietnam is roughly the exact opposite side of the planet from Maryland). Furthermore, as beautiful as it is, Vietnam is rapidly deteriorating. I was speaking with our tour guide in the Mekong Delta, a former South Vietnamese officer named Captain Liam(pronounced Lim), and he revealed that the most profitable business in Vietnam right now is deforestation.

Vietnam is as rich in resources as any country ever has been, and one of the best ways to move valuable western money into Vietnam is by exploiting these resources. In addition, the Vietnamese do not care about conservation or pollution. In point of fact, they only care about recycling, probably because it saves them money. I suppose it also stems from Western exploitation of Vietnam. Everything on the face of the planet can be bought and bought cheaply on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. I have procured two art objects from Vietnam, one of which probably would have cost me at least eighty dollars. I paid a bit less than twenty dollars for it.

However, the Vietnamese are one of those cultures that enjoy haggling, and once you have gotten used to haggling, it is very hard to stop. The inherent problem with this is that invariably, the Vietnamese find themselves lowering already cheap prices simply out of necessity to obtain money, and lack of even the most basic knowledge of economics or foreign currency.

In the end, the Westerners are basically robbing the Vietnamese artists and craftworkers. Fortunately, these artists can obtain the materials they use very easily, whether they need wood, jade, tortoise shell, ivory, or any one of a number of rare(or endangered) commodities. However, I would rather not talk about such depressing things, although I will invariably have to come back to them eventually. Let me talk about Ho Chi Minh City.

If you have never felt particularly wealthy, popular, or powerful, Ho Chi Minh City is your kind of town. After I landed, and after a massage and a haircut, I changed my money. In the moment I changed my money into Vietnamese money, I felt like I had changed from an American student on vacation to a pagan god surveying the mortals of the world with all the power in the world at his disposal. In Ho Chi Minh City, you can't help but feel powerful and rich. Indeed, the most enjoyable thing to do in Ho Chi Minh City is throw money around. No matter how much money you bring, you will never seem to run out.

The Vietnamese currency is, without a doubt, one of the weakest in the world. Once I exchanged my American money, I found that I had become a millionaire. This came as a shock. There is a kind of thrill that comes from exchanging ten thousand of something for one of something else. Even bottled water, a product I have never supported, became worth it's four thousand VND price tag with the realization that while I was, in one sense, paying four thousand VND for a glass of water, in another sense, I was paying about twenty-eight cents. It made me feel like a coporate CEO, or some minor royalty. It gave me a kind of warm glow to know that I could buy and sell almost everyone in the city several times.

In addition to the exchange rate, it's generally a beautiful city. The one thing that I did not enjoy about Ho Chi Minh City was the traffic.

If you have ever seen Wile E. Coyote walk out on the road in a roadrunner cartoon, and turn to see the grill of a truck getting larger and larger before it hits him, you will have no trouble imagining how Ho chi Minh City's traffic looked to me from one of the seats in our bus. I can sum it up in three words. Absolute mortal terror. I found myself perplexed by many things in Vietnam, but none boggled my mind like the purpose of lines on the streets in Ho Chi Minh City.

At first I assumed they served the same purpose they serve in the West. To divide traffic that is coming toward and moving with you, and to mark lanes to move at certain speeds. How wrong I was. After observing traffic for a day, I formulated a new theory. It was my belief that the line in the center of the road served as a guide for cars to drive along regardless of which direction they were going.

Indeed, this did seem to be the most realistic explanation, as cars and bikes would only vacate the center of the road if collision was imminent, and it always was. My theory was disproved when I was almost run down by a motorbike on the sidewalk. It is currently my belief that the lines are simply a decoration, possibly of religious significance to mark Chi lines, or some such thing. As long as I am on the subject of my brush with death on the sidewalk, let me just say that the country is lousy with bikes.

Motorbikes, motorcycles, regular bikes, tricycles, bicycle powered rickshaws, etc. ad nauseam. I rode several of these types of bikes in Ho Chi Minh City, and if riding in a car or bus frightened me in Ho Chi Minh City, then riding on a bike or in a rickshaw left me gripping the seat with white knuckles, hanging on by my fingernails, and shrieking like a woman. However, I escaped Ho Chi Minh City with my life, and moved on to the Mekong Delta.

If Ho Chi Minh City made me feel like rich royalty, the Mekong Delta made me feel like popular royalty. When I was on land, I would be surrounded by people who wanted to shake my hand, and say hello to me. When I was on the river, they flocked to the shore and waved until I thought they might fracture the bones in their hands. It is easy to say something like "They worship the ground he walks on", but when you actually see it, it is incredible.

The Delta was a blur of Communist monuments, cemetaries, boat rides, and dead fish, but the people were really great. There is no place on Earth more welcoming and forgiving than the Mekong Delta right now. The only thing I have not covered yet is the group that I came to Vietnam with. If there is one lesson I have taken from the last two trips I have taken, it is that the value of a good group is immeasurable. There isn't much else I can really say about that. You just can't appreciate a good group too much.

I have to get going now, so just keep what I've said in mind, and come to Vietnam as soon as you can. Once I have left Vietnam, I will spend every waking moment wishing I was here again.

The sea is warm, clean, miles of white sand beaches, and it's deserted. People live in houses of thatch and bamboo.. These are fishing villages. They fish with nets in homemade boats. Up the road in town the industry is a little higher tech but not much. Interesting thing is, they're now widening the road that goes along the beach, making it three times bigger.

Today I watched as they felled giant coconut trees and bulldozers and backhoes came in to pave the way for progress. My feeling is that this almost untouched culture, with smiling faces by the sunny warm sea, the only "trash" on the beach being a few stray coconuts,is going to fall soon like a house of cards.

Love to all.