As she spun, the city's night lights whirled drunkenly past . . . her eyes fixed on the sidewalk ten floors down, the last sound she heard was a boat's faint horn on the distant Saigon River.
The day has really been a bummer for Thuy.
First, she and Robert Anderson are involved in the death of a Ministry of Public Security agent.
Next, a detective interrogates her on the veranda of the Saigon Saigon Bar. Trying to escape, she doesn't notice the shiny floor tile where a customer's drink had spilled earlier. So she exits the story. Or does she?
The traffic (mostly Honda scooters) is headed down Dong Khoi Street from Notre Dame Cathedral and spilling into Lam Son Square. Across the square is the Continental Hotel, where Graham Greene and his buddies hung out while he wrote notes for "The Quiet American." The sidewalk cafe where Michael Caine sipped iced coffee just before the bomb exploded hasn't been there for years; Hollywood re-created it for the movie. The opera house is on the right.
Bits of history: It would be harder (but not impossible) today for Thuy to fall from the veranda. A few years ago, the hotel installed a ledge and second railing after a tourist committed suicide.
Being the swankiest hotel in town, the Caravelle naturally was where the American press corps hung out, including Hanoi's spy, Pham Xuan An (he lived in the building at upper-left). A North Vietnamese Army tank pulled into the square on April 30, 1975 and pointed its cannon at the hotel but didn't fire.
