So, you reach a new place, a life trailing behind you and for a moment there is a sense of perspective. A confident, seemingly fulsome knowledge hiccups its way through possible tales of eclectic experience to eccentric bars; from the needy tug on a sleeve by a street kid to declaring pride in the importance of cultural exchange. Here we have the congratulation of something already celebrated. And then there is always later, the tipsy exit from such a cheap bar, the needy tug on the sleeve by a street kid, the nod of understanding and then the sliding along alleyways like they belonged to you, to cafes like you were crowned imperial surrounded by courtesans of the dollar.
This country should say to me, an upstart lyricist in a land rich in narrative, abundant in the force of talk, it should and it will say in its best Samuel L Jackson dub“ You don’t know me, you just think you. do.”
Condoleeza Rice is comin to see us; George Bush is coming to see us. When I arrived in Hungary in 1989 , Margaret Thatcher became the first Western leader to visit since the fall of their communism. The streets were lined with soldiers leaving, going back to Russia and a great white hairdo hope was coming to help those brittle and freezing Magyars who needed to be told to get off their Trebants and on their bikes.
Anyway, the photos say enough. Don’t wanna wax about palm trees, sultry evenings and dawn swims. C’mon. I came all this way to do that ? I guess this blog could be about being postcard; heightening the experience with consummate descriptions of travel in paradise, a vain and pedestrian emulation of Denton Welch. Please. Let me try not to do that. But it was pretty, sorry, it was peaceful and significantly a long way from the throb 0f scooters. Mui Ne, a less crowded, less resourced, less overdeveloped resort. Here endeth the advertisement for paradise. Finding it,holding on to it, losing it. It’s all pretty well documented. But for me the trick is always going to be recognising it.
Okay, here are some photos.
Archetypal Tropical Beach Photo #23A
Kate being noticed by visiting children
