March 1st, 2010

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March 1 Nha Trang

Monday, March 1st, 2010

This week’s, Feb 26 , Radio Nederland Cryptogram:

“Tegenover de achterdeur”

It took me 5 minutes to figure out. Laat me eens weten of het jullie ook lukt.

I have spent a good part of the day putting a letter together to the minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism bringing to his attention the frustrations we have as cruisers trying to visit Vietnam and documenting what obviously points to a bunch of corrupt bureaucrats here. At the same time I am flogging this to a few newspapers here.

Michel, the French American Viet-Vet I met on the beach told me about a daily “kaffee Klatsch” of a number of ex-pats. I met with half a dozen of them this morning at the “Beverly Hills” on Hong Bang street. Retired, mostly married to Vietnamese. There is one Dutchman, Gerard, from Lelystad a retired merchant marine. With the help of his wife he helped me on my search to find where I can observe the basket boats being made. Not in Nhatrang. So, I plan an excursion a 100 k.m.’s up the coast this week, to Tuy Hoa.

The below pre-nuptial photographs are a fairly common site. You saw some earlier at Kiem Hoa Lake in Hanoi. These were taken right in front of the hotel, this early morning.