Thoughts on Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City:

• 10 million motorbikes for 10 million people: at first scary, then funny, then somehow inspiring. They move like the Mekong River, merging, diverging and blending at a slow, steady pace. They seem relaxed yet intent. And no one is an asshole! • War Remnants Museum: The exhibit of photojournalism was intense, sometimes gruesome and generally guilt-inducing, yet salvaged by the importance of the photojournalists’ role as observer. So many of them died as well, including many Western photojournalists as well as Vietnamese photojournalists on both sides of the war, many of whom died in action. The agent orange exhibits, about the devastation wrought (on the environment and the people) by the tons and tons of dioxins dumped on the landscape—also tough to view. I hope we’ve learned something from these mistakes. The war crimes room, covering My Lai and other events in which US soldiers did wrongs, was also tough. But I think it was also one-sided—the Viet Cong were not angels. I was relieved to arrive at the exhibit about war protesters around the world. It seemed redemptive to realize how many people stood up against this war.