ajft

Its hard when there's only half a day left somewhere before you leave. You don't want to waste it, but in the back of your mind you don't want to be late for the bus, or the train, or the plane...

One last big walk around district one, stopped to chat with a man who liked my hat. There's that big half-constructed concrete monstrosity in the middle of the multi-lane road, turns out its a major new shopping centre, supposedly opening in early 2004... I guess it didn't make that deadline! It appears that they've just abandoned construction and walked away.

Back to the café for a last beer. A last attempt by the booksellers and shoe-shiners to get our custom. Watch as a crew from the local telephone company untangle enormous lengths of phone cabling from above the street, draping it over and around a myriad of motorbikes, a mix of aluminium ladders and bamboo poles.

Finally time for the taxi, a last look through Saigon's streets as we head out to the airport, then all the queueing and stamping and examining of papers — including a surprise departure tax that can be paid only in cash, and after you've passed through all the other security checks and the only auto-teller machine!

Finally out into the aircraft, a last look across the airport at the old military buildings, the blast walls still in place for fighters, the construction work for the new airport terminal, then we're on our way — homeward bound.