Mission (Mostly) Accomplished.

Everybody stays away from the bus.

Hanoi, Vietnam – As the bus thundered past the sprawling Panasonic, Canon and Yamaha factories in Dong Anh, it struck me my time at the college designed to support these industrial park tenants has pretty much drawn to a close.

I had just commuted 45 minutes for a five-minute meeting, before pointing myself back in the same direction toward the centre of Hanoi.

I have one week left dedicated to a pair of workshops, a chamber of commerce event and debriefings, but I have otherwise completed my mandate – and my amended mandates – ahead of schedule.

As I watched the materials I have created get sucked into the vast tangle of a computer’s wires, I could only hope they will once again see the light of day.

And so, I sat, pinched into a tight seat with torn nylon and chipped paint, reflecting as a high-pitched children’s choir pumped through the bus’s tinny speakers. The driver opted to pass into oncoming traffic while crossing the bridge over the river.

Who is to argue? No wonder these buses are efficient.

The sun has finally been sprung from its shackles, and I have a fresh haircut. It’s time to turn the clock off and take in the transcendent splendour of Halong Bay tomorrow.