Its cool...

The war might be 30 years gone, but its still a f@cking danger zone here, man. Hospital is full of xe may accident victims, with head injuries and amputated limbs, 2 to a bed.. theres a blistering issue with intravenous drug use, HIV and prostitution (in MY f@cking neighbourhood!) which no one seems to know about, and a culture that seems not geared up to handle the sorts of adjustments required to overcome it.. culled bird flue chooks are swarming over the border on the back of trucks and ending up on the dinner table.. at greatly reduced prices!! and typhoons are hovering over the bay..

other than that, things are quite wired up, anxiety packed, untrusting and riddle with panic for me here... Riding the xe MAy is fun.. after pulling the RISKIEST and most DANGEROUS thing i could have possibly done, I am now consdiering that I may as well try the less risky stuff, like riding the motorcycle in hanoi.

The living alone and studying part is now over.. I need to develop my social life a little more.. go out a bit.. see the sights... find a share house someplace ..enjoy my stay here... just in case it gets cut short dramatically through stupid or risky behaviours.. perhaps I'll buy a more trusty helmet...

more to follow.. OUT.

Reflecting Quang Tri

Not a lot of time here.... but wrote some stuff while I was in quang Tri. Very war ravaged province of Vietnam. Sits righto nthe demilitarised zone.... Dong Ha is the local town.... I never met no mama sans tho... anyway here are few excerpts from the dirary for y'all to read.....

20/4/06
Today we drove up into the Quang tri Hills. Very steep very luch. Folks are pretty poor here... easy to judge... just look at the quality of their batteries... I've purchased about 35 AA's today adn gained about 8 minutes of life out of them collectively. Its a fairly remarkable shift in the landscape... from broad white beaches with casuarinas .. dotted with beach dwelling locals... then a steep steep rise up into the hills.. all over a bout 50ks. Als the fish sause in the hills is more mild.. and the dunking sauces take on a more Laos/Thai flavour (we are rgith onthe Laos border). They eata lot of goat in the hills, and a lot of seafood in the beach..

23/4/06

Last night one of my counterparts witnessed his friend drown on the beach. Apparently this lad was a good swimmer, so i giess it was the booze.... there is a lot of death here.. i witnessed the after math of 2 accidents on the way down here... one had an old grandma who ahd broken a leg... she was ling right on the centre of the road, the other participant was out cold on his back on the side of the road with blood oozing from his side and head. . . we drove right n past... as did everyone else... apparently with this lad on the beach, they bundled him into a car and took him to his parents house.. .and thats that....



..... at dinner the bottle of voddy that we drunk (between 5 of us) knocked him for 6. He is quite amusing when he is drunk,... flopping about all over the place andslurring his words... anyway... good Ithinks to myself...... I went to his room at 10 just to ensure he wsnt up and waitning... sure enough... out cold...