So I got invited to spend Tet (Vietnamese and Chinese New Year) with this guy's family out in the cuts. Basically, the plan is to spend the next 5 days on a Vietnamese family farm about 60km from where I am now, and follow them to the beach town of Muine afterward, where I'll get to learn to KiteSurf (for real this time). I think I've done pretty well for myself, anyway. In any case, I'll be completely out of communication for the next week so if you have something to say, say it now.


Thanks, Mat, for the advice about Saigon but unfortunately I already got the hell out of that city so it's a bit late. I guess I was just sick of being treated like a big bag of money, but with all that hustle I can imagine why a New Yorker would like it. Still, from my 4 days in Saigon I'd say Chiang Mai is way, way cooler if you're looking for a new place to teach English. Then again, I only stayed there for 2 weeks...and I guess the whole hippie thing worked there too.

I'm up in this really tacky resort town a few hours north of Saigon called Dalat, which was cool for a the first two days because I look like a cheapskate asshole in relation to all these Vietnamese tourists paying through the nose for the kitchiest things imaginable to give to their families for Tet. But the scenery would be beautiful, if it weren't for all the fucking Agent Orange we dropped on the surrounding area. I got to drive out for about 20km into the countryside, and virtually all the forests are made from identical 30-year old pine trees with tiny patches of jungle in between. To be fair, the US Air Force left some reasonable patches of old growth jungle intact, but the locals cut them down anyway for wood. It's all just depressing no matter how you slice it. Hopefully the farm I'm staying at was far enough from the fire zone to still be beautiful. Happy New Year again!