Next week is Lunar New Year, often referred to (in the West and in Asia) as Chinese New Year, but known in Vietnam as Têt. It’s the biggest holiday of the year in Viet Nam, and I haven’t spent it there in over twenty-five years. Today I bought my ticket and received my entry visa to go and see my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins in Saigon next Wednesday.

This is the great thing about being in Singapore — or being in this part of the world, at any rate. A trip that would have taken me nearly twenty-four hours from New York instead clocks in, according to my itinerary, at just 01:55. I mean, wow.