[Description: Travel - Group - Asia - Documentary]
15-07-07, 9.20pm [Current Vietnam Time]

For the past two days, I have done nothing but travel. That is nearly 48 hours of sitting in a plane or in a terminal waiting for a plane - sounds like nothing, right? Well, that is the problem. Nothing gets tiring.

But enough of my problems. I arrived right on time to meet Hai and Courtney at the departure gate outside of customs. No problems getting through there. Outside, everything was in an orderly type of chaos; taxi drivers vie for your attention as hundreds await friends and family at the gate.

We jumped into a taxi, and it immediately caught my eye that he did what many third world country taxi drivers will do; he covered up the last zero. For reference, the exchange rate is 16k dong to 1 USD. Most meters also use a decimal instead of a comma [1.000 instead of 1,000]. In this case, the last zero was covered up just enough to make it not stand out to the casual observer, but still allow for the driver to insist it was in plain view. [So, 1.000 would look like 1.00]. He didn't take advantage of us, though. The ride was relatively cheap.

We arrived at the hotel shortly thereafter, I unpacked,and we went out for food. Crab spring rolls made up my first Vietnamese meal, and it was delicious. After satisfying our hunger, we stopped in a cafe to go over our plans. And after lengthy discussion, here they are:

For the time being, we will be dropping the original doc, and picking up a new theme: Agent Orange. If you do not know what Agent Orange is, google it (first for pictures, then for info, and no, not the band). We are unsure how we are going to run with this theme, but we will be visiting "peace camps" in the coming week to observe and decide a course of action. The thoughts behind the change in theme stem from the fact that this film will be presented to a [chiefly] American audience - street children will not evoke as much a reaction as something that was caused by [our] American ancestors, though the street children do remain a strong story to different extents.

In case you have not googled Agent Orange yet, here is the short:
During the Vietnam war, the American army sprayed over 12 million gallons of an herbicide codenamed "Agent Orange" (amongst a plethora of other herbicides, collectively deemed the "Rainbow Herbicides") in order to eliminate the foliage which concealed enemy soldiers. The military ended up spraying 6 to 25 percent more than was recommended by the scientists who had developed it. Ultimately, it caused various health problems in both Vietnamese civilians and allied soldiers alike, and physical deformities in the offspring of those affected. The point of all this; the U.S. government still denies that Agent Orange causes illness, despite multiple documents (then unreleased, but still circulating) that labeled it as dangerous to humans.

I would love to post more, but jetlag is catching up to me. I need strength for tomorrow; much to do, and little time. At least I have a bed to sleep on.