layover in saigon

2023, july, 27, saigon/ho chi minh city

as soon as i've landed, the air coats me like lotion. at the market, everyone thinks i'm vietnamese. they say i look like one of them. they even talk to me in vietnamese and react surprised when i don't understand. at a market stall brimming with buddha statues and mobiles, the market lady tells me the only german phrase she knows is “langsam, langsam!” it’s funny because u. told me just yesterday that “langsam, langsam” were her first words she learned in indonesian when she lived in bali, so she could tell the moped taxi driver to slow down. from the market, i head to another part of the city, a neighborhood i heard was very palm-green and vacationy with “bali vibes”. i’m peering out of the cab window. by the road, a man is selling goldfish. his motorbike is loaded with transparent bags filled with water, where the goldfish are swimming. i’m not really sure if they are goldfish, but from a distance, they look like the typical fish you would see in a goldfish bowl. under a bridge, someone has set up a space with a mattress and colorful blankets. above their sleeping space they had pinned a yellow poster on a pillar, saying “you can’t copyright vibe”.