2nd last day in HCMC

Thursday pm
It seems strange to be on our second last day here in HCMC. I came here in November 1992 and now it is my 6th time and probably my last. I am so familiar with the inner part of the city - despite the massive traffic, streets going in all directions and people everywhere its all very familiar to me and I will be sad to leave it for the last time. I have come to love the city and in some ways regret how fast it has grown and how big it has become but that is progress for you. We helped with the resus lecture given at the children's hospital 1 today and there were about 80 nurses there - everyone of them had a mobile phone and was busily reading sms's etc rather than listening to the lecture - it seems it is not just an issue in Australia - its world wide. I have a new iphone and Jane and I were doing something on our phones and Karen said that she had had enough and was banning phones from meal times - its true we are hooked on techniology. Today we went into a cafe that had just opened last year - it was full of  young vietnamese business people having lunch and 95% of them were either doing something on their phones or computers - are we going to lose the art of conversation? We can not stop progress can we!!!! Talking of progress we are taking out our interpreters for a special dinner and taking them up the tallest building in HCMC - it will be interesting to see whats up there.