This is the approach to the Aries Hotel, our *** accommodations in Saigon. And this, believe it or not, is the buffed out end of the alley. The entrance, behind the photographer, is a little sketchier – motorbike parking, a woman on her haunches making Pho, low plastic tables where the men of the “hood” are drinking beer, and three scrawny cats keeping the other critters away. Marilynn has lived in Saigon off and on for the last three years, but it was difficult for her to even look at the hotel when we started into the alley. I think of it as part of our ongoing adventure. She thinks of it as part of my effort to put her in risky settings and make her into a Third World woman. In any event, I persuaded her to keep walking and at least look at the hotel. read more