Saigon, December 4, 2001
I’m at the office – on another deadline as we send films out day after tomorrow. I plan on working till around the 21st and then, if all goes as planned, head down under. If I can help it, I’ll spend Hanukkah in Vietnam, Christmas in Australia, and New Years in… New Zealand? Flights from VN through Bangkok are only about $600 to get to Australia. That’s as cheap as NY-CA!

Last week I went to see the London Festival Orchestra at the City Opera Hall. It’s a beautiful building, built in 1900 most likely by the French. It’s very western and made me feel (a tiny bit) like I was back in NY listening to live orchestral music (and I wasn’t in a loud horns/soft strings dead spot like in Avery Fisher Hall). There was a bird fluttering around the dome near the upper tier of the hall – I actually wondered if it was a Vietnamese stunt or a poor trapped bird. By the time we were through with Tchaikovsky, the bird disappeared just at intermission.

Life goes on in Vietnam. It’s still hot, though it’s winter. That means bearable heat, opposed to unbearable heat. Much construction continues in Vietnam, including the main road along the Saigon river where we live. They’re working on expanding the road and gentrifying the area over the next two years. It also means that a lot of people will lose their businesses and their homes (on property that actually belongs to the government anyway, but then again – the government owns all the property in Vietnam).

Oops. Mike just popped up on messenger. I’ll finish up later!