Wednesday

One of the things I actually did do last week, while not writing Updates here, was work to finish a handful of photographs (beginning here). These are the first few pictures I took in Vietnam in October and November last year. I was slow to start taking pictures around town because I had a towering backlog to work on, and I knew it might be months before I got caught up. I was right. So these are all pretty much taken out the windows of our apartment (or from the rooftop of our building) and generally illustrate my early attempts to get acclimated to our new town. It was handy, when moving here, to find myself located right in the middle of things. Reading through the travel guide, it is easy enough to look out our windows and actually see all the landmarks that are listed as tourist attractions. The Caravel Hotel is over there, standing at the corner of the former Catinat Street, now Đồng Khởi, in the area of the Opera House. The People's Building is a set of three lit spires dominated by the two larger lit spires of Notre Dame Cathedral to its immediate left. Reunification Palace dominates the skyline just below my apartment, the trees of the old park reaching all the way up to my feet as I look out the living room window. The "backpacker district" starts at the New World Hotel, an orange block of cement off to the right of the blinking Saigon Center skyscraper; between them, Bến Thành Market overflows onto Lê Thánh Tôn Street. Over those first months I was able to learn my way around pretty quickly, something I owe to being surrounded by this panoramic view every day. So naturally, that's what I was photographing. [Cavin]