Sai Gon, October 6, 2001.
I'm back from Hanoi, but busy at work. While away, it seems things were not taken care of and the onus has fallen upon me to design a magazine that I don't wish to design. I'll get it done, however, and in the meantime, anticipate my next vacation.

On Thursday when I returned from Hanoi with Chuong, we stopped in Di 10's Café ¤irectly from the airport. I saw a face I recognized, and instantly asked, "Xavier?" Upon the look of confusion I received in reply, I then immediately realized -- "Manu??" Sure enough, there was Manuel, the son of an old friend of mom and Di 10. Manu is Xavier's brother, and they are beautifully French-Vietnamese. I met Xavier for the first time in February during his visit here, and met Manu 15 years ago in Arlington when he stayed with our family for a month. As it turned out, Manu has been in Vietnam for a month, and was leaving that very day. Neither of us knew the other was in the country and unfortunately didn't manage to meet earlier (Di 10 was in Europe for a month, and she is our link). So we had lunch, caught up on life, and will hopefully meet again. It was incredibly nice to see Manu again after so many years. Our families share a mutual affinity for one another that transcend from our parents to us.

I'll write about Hanoi tonight and send pictures to post on Souris's site.
Till then. Bacione, H.