You talking to ME?
Nov 12: I know it's been 10 days since my last update....I've been - busy..preoccupied...yes.
But the good news is, you'll get a good fix of hoo-ray to make up for it. I'm talking the good stuff..namely your friendly neighborhood Jason McBride going Rambo with an AK-47 - sending hot lead deep into cuddly forrest dwelling animals (painted on wood planks) with not a shred of mercy accounted for. Good natured, big grinning, glass raising, back patting Jason R McBride scurrying through the Viet Cong tunnels like a crazed rat high on moldy cheese...living off chunks of tapioca root, sipping Vietnamese dirt tea - spitting grunts and growls into the winds of disdain and carnal ambivalence. Oh Jason, will you ever be able to fit back into this double blind expiriment we call humanity..and most importantly, could you do it in the next 5 minutes because our air conditioned tour bus is leaving just in time to get us back for that movie we want to see on HBO. Great, thanks, you're a pal - shall I order pizza?
Vietnam is an emotionally tricky place. Visiting the 'Museum of American War Crimes' is a perfect example. The U.S. has done some terrible things here - as have many others. The people are healing, but tourism, I'm afraid, is stunting that process. If you walk the tourist areas of Ho Chi Minh city, the wonderfully carved wood sculptures, silk clothing and other handicrafts go relatively untouched. Bullet key chains, re-production U.S. soldier zippo lighters and trips to the Viet Cong tunnels and bamboo traps are in demand. It's a country whose livelihood is greatly dependent on keeping the atrocities of war alive. Today, we took just such a trip to Cu Chi. It's a region to the Northwest of Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) that was a guerilla stronghold throughout the war. The U.S. was never able to capture the region, simply bomb it to sawdust, because of an intricate series of caves and traps the local liberation fighters utilized. The actual caves we went into have been reconstructed, but some of the original caves/traps were there to be seen, as were huge bomb craters. We also had the over-priced opportunity to shoot some of the guns used in the war. I gave a go on the M-60 and AK-47. Jay railed on the AK-47 too. They guns were loud and scary, but worth the experience I suppose. I figured this would be an apt way to try our first video clip. It's in MPG format, and for non-computer literate folks, I think you should just be able to Click Here. It may ask you if you want to save it or open it from location. Try open from location first..and this hopefully will play it. If not, save the file to the desktop, and then go to the desktop and click on it. Write if it doesn't work and we'll figure it out. It's only about 4 seconds long..nothing epic.
On a slightly less violent note, have a look at some of the faces of Vietnam that we encountered in the Mekong Delta. More soon!
It's not a Cat, but it's still cute
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