These People Right Here . . .

. . . will be in Vietnam as of this Saturday night around 10:20pm. That’s my friend and former coworker, James, and his wife, Erin (and me and what appears to be a merkin on my chin).

Thao and I will pick them up at Tan Son Nhat airport Saturday night, after which we will get them checked into their hotel. Then it’s on to the rooftop bar on the Rex Hotel (which is open all night) so James can, in his words, “get [his] Walter Cronkite on.” (Apparently, the rooftop bar on the Rex Hotel was where a lot of correspondents, including maybe Walter Cronkite, hung out – read: drank – during the conflict/war/”disagreement”.

It’s also the place we started Mary Ellen and Tony’s trip way back in November – and those of you who have been following this blog saw how that trip ended up:

Enough. You get the idea.)

Anyway, here’s James and Erin’s itinerary:

Sunday: Explore Saigon;
Monday – Tuesday: Mekong Delta tour;
Wednesday – Friday: Phu Quoc Island with Thao and me;
Saturday: Boat trip to Cu Chi tunnels; Saturday night flight back to the U.S.

So that’s a pretty short trip (not as short as Rudy and Hayley’s recent trip – 24 hours but still!). We decided not to try to cram in a trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, etc., since we only have about 7 days to work with. The Mekong Delta tour should be cool – a chance to see some rural Vietnam, floating markets, etc. (a lot of the tour is by boat). And chilling in Phu Quoc will be great (provided we have some decent weather). I haven’t been there yet, but it’s supposed to be very nice and chill. We’re just going to rent motorbikes and explore the island, maybe go on a hike, eat a lot of fresh seafood, and drink a lot of beer. Finally, the boat trip to Cu Chi makes for a nice, relaxing day. Maybe James and Erin will get to shoot an AK-47.

Anyway, I’m very excited about their trip over here. Neither of them have ever been to Asia before, and it’s always fun to see how people react to their first trip to Asia. I’m also excited about having next Wed., Thurs., and Fri. off of work! Woo-hoo!

Haven’t seen The Dark Knight yet but I am sure the DVD will be out soon. I bought Batman Begins the other day and watched it last night. Pretty good, but I thought some of it was kind of cheesy. For one, I didn’t think the Scarecrow villain was all that great. And the actor who played him – Cillian Murphy – creeps me out – I can’t stand to look at him in any film. I think he was scarier without the Scarecrow mask than he was with it. I don’t know what it is about that guy, but I have a very visceral negative reaction to him. Also, the scene where the Batmobile was jumping from roof to roof and the subsequent chase scene was kind of cheesy. Finally, Katie Holmes was pretty terrible – I don’t usually like continuity gaps like changing the actress from Katie Holmes to Maggie Gyllenhaal in the new movie, but in this case it might be a welcome change. All of that said, I think Christian Bale makes a pretty good Bruce Wayne, I liked Liam Neeson’s character, R’as Al Ghul, and the tone of the movie is a hell of a lot better than the earlier, campy Tim Burton-directed Batman movies, which I thought were kind of ridiculous. Anyway, the reviews for The Dark Knight are uniformly positive, so I am looking forward to that one.

I also watched Get Smart with Steve Carell, which I thought was pretty funny (even though Carell’s Maxwell Smart is basically the same character as Michael Scott from The Office). And I’ve got Hellboy II on tap. Bootleg DVD Fest 2008!

Anyway, I’ll have a new camera when James gets here – one that Thao and anyone in her extended family are prohibited from touching, much less using. So hopefully I’ll start posting – as my friend Mitch recently requested – “more pictures of random Vietnam shit.”

Oh, one last thing: My flight back to the U.S. next year is currently set for May 31, 2009. As much as I hate to admit it, my 20-year high school reunion will be in 2009. I’m trying to get the coordinators of it to have it sometime between June 1 and 14 if possible so I can go. If I can’t go, no biggie, but I would like to if possible. If I can go, I’m seriously thinking about renting that same powder blue tuxedo and hot pink bowtie and cummerbund that I wore to my senior prom in 1989, renting a stretch Hummer limo for the night, and generally doing it up in high style (for Thomaston, Georgia):

Beverly, you out there? Beverly?

“Doin’ Time in ’89!”

“Mighty Fine in ’89!”

“Right On Time in ’89!”

I’m sure there were more of these, but I can’t remember. And in any event, the above should be more than enough to give you a taste of the creative juices flowing through the R.E. Lee Institute Class of 1989.

Here are a couple of lesser known sayings of our class that year:

“Old No. 7″

“My foot!”

“That damn tam.”

“Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout . . .”

“It’s so easy . . .”

“Buc is on restriction.”

“Jennifer [last name omitted] got caught . . . in Barnesville.”

“Varmint-Cong”

“L.P.G.N.!”

“Students Against Couch”

“We didn’t know about the kids, ma’am.”