![love is on the way saigon love is on the way saigon](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81JfLbrm1UL._SL1194_.jpg)
I was vaguely interested in America’s history there, but primarily interested in my own history, the one I planned to invent in the coming future, the one in which I’d teach and write and experience, the latter in italics because, as my early journals reveal, I was quite aware that travel required facing life head on in a way I rarely had before. We knew little about the city, except that there were English teaching jobs that paid a good wage. I went to Saigon with Michael and two other friends to combat post-college ennui. My friend Michael called crossing the street the most frustrating way to commit suicide. As soon as it looked like one was about to end your existence, it would swerve, allowing you to take a step forward and become a target for the next moto. Motos clogged the streets and in many cases the sidewalk, zipping forward in an impatient stampede of buzzing machinery. Crossing the street in Saigon, we found, was like playing Human Frogger. The impossibly dense air, charged with the kinetic energy of some nine million people. There was the overpowering scent of fish sauce and gasoline. It felt like someone had suddenly unmuted my life. Saigon – known internationally as Ho Chi Minh City, but locally by its original name – is a visceral jolt.
![love is on the way saigon love is on the way saigon](https://traxxgallery.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/1539483421872.jpg)
![love is on the way saigon love is on the way saigon](http://carlbegai.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Saigon-Kick-1.jpg)
You don’t tame the bronco, you learn to ride. A man down, we emerged into the sweltering night and the taxi that took us into the heart of the city required us to push it to a roll and then jump in before it would start. This was evident right from the start when one of our friends was immediately deported. Landing in Saigon is like stepping off of a plane onto a bucking bronco.