Flying into Ho Chi Minh
Time in Philly: 9:30 am, May 7
Time in Tokyo: 10:30 pm, May 7 Time I believed in Saigon: 12:30 am, May 8 Actual time in Saigon: 8:30 pm, May 7 Time is relative, they all say. Never have I felt that more strongly than on this flight. In Tokyo, I changed my watch from what we call Eastern Daylight Time to what I believed to be local time in Japan, an apparent 13 hour jump. Midway to Vietnam, southwest of Tokyo, I bumped my Timex forward two more zones. Just when I was sure we'd be arriving in Saigon late to compound the fatigue of innumerable hours traveling, the flight data screens peppering the cabin scrolled through to the English information and dropped this on me: Saigon is two hours EARLIER than Tokyo. Time has begun to double back, taking us closer to the zone in which we began. Flying really feels like time travel. Will Vietnam be a journey to the not-too-distant past? Despite what some of my more skeptical relatives believe, no. It's only a few time zones and watch adjustments away -- maybe a few years away in economic development. We certainly haven't left the twenty first century. |