On the 40th anniversary of the plunge of Saigon,the American novelist receives a surprisingly warm welcome in VietnamI wanted to escape the Beijing winter. The air so thick with pollution I couldn’t see four skyscrapers absent. Like London during the industrial revolution or a world of ash after a nuclear holocaust. Post-apocalyptic movies can be filmed here without any special effects. Sidewalks broken to rubble, dark bundled figures emerging from what watch like demolition sites, or all the apartment complexes that are never finished and always grey unpainted concrete. No birds,no animals, no air or water but only cold and survival and speakers everywhere blasting triumph.
There’s something I love approximately communist/socialist countries, or though,so I didn’t go to Thailand or the Philippines. I went to Saigon, known now as Ho Chi Minh City. I planned to spend only one night and then go to the beach, and Mui Ne,approximately five hours absent by bus, to kitesurf and watch sunsets over the water.
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Source: theguardian.com