January 10th, 2010

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Sunday Jan 10 Back in Saigon

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

Our parish priest presided at the Saturday 5 p.m. English speakers mass in Pnom Penh. I was not watching the time and at the last minute remembered that I had to pick up my recharged lap top batter before the shop closed. I missed mass. Next I had to turn in my rented bicycle and then had dinner by my self. My companions from St. Nicholas church left at 7 a.m. for Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat. I got up early to see them off and have my $1.25 breakfast routine, pork noodle soup with a good cup of coffee. First a funeral processed along the river side boulevard in front of the hotel and next a wedding reception was taking place at 6.30 a.m. across from my breakfast spot. 

I returned to the same neighborhood in the Bui Vien area of Saigon but a slightly better hotel room, $15.00 a night. My first matter of business was to book a flight for Iris and I from Hanoi close to her February 15 return date. I booked for the evening of the 11th at $59.00 one way. The distance is just over the distance from Seattle to San Francisco. That’s less than the cost of gasoline for two people. I was told that most flights in that period would be oversold because of the Lunar New Year, February 14, holiday. And if I had not been successful we would have had to reverse our marching orders, to start in Hanoi and this way we should be able to see the preparations for the Tet festivities in Hanoi, which is supposed to be a better viewing spectacle than Saigon. I plan to spend the next four days having the stitches removed from my foot operation. It is continuing to heal well. And I want to have some dental work done.

Tomorrow I will write a summary of the entire 5 day Cambodia visit now that I have my laptop charger back again.