PRELUDE

It is difficult not to draw comparisons as you wander round the world. Sure, each country may be having its own set of problems and negatives which the traveler journeying to that land may not be able to observe or experience in the short time he or she is there. But nevertheless, the experienced eye is able to see and assimilate a lot even in a few hours, leave alone a few days. For example, coming from Karachi it was impossible not to appreciate that the electricity did not go off once in the four days I spent in Saigon. Or notice that in spite of being crowded and noisy, Saigon was admirably clean and completely devoid of plastic bags or litter in the streets and devoid too, of the inevitable scavengers that litter attracts – feral cats and dogs and crows and kites.

NOTE FOR READERS: I had the good fortune to travel to Vietnam some 5 or 6 years ago. This article, in two parts, was written then and published somewhere that I cannot now recall. I am sharing it here pretty much as it was written up then and as such some things mentioned are already a part of history. Nevertheless the article is overall as relevant today as it was then. I hope you enjoy reading it.