Pitt, Jolie spend holiday in Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY—Instead of stuffing themselves with turkey and all the fixings, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie spent Thanksgiving cruising around Vietnam’s largest city on a motorbike.
Pitt was spotted driving the motorbike through the city center with Jolie perched on the seat behind him Thursday in a country where virtually everyone travels on the two-wheeled machines. The couple later dined at a popular Vietnamese restaurant converted from an old temple. When asked by a local reporter from Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper about whether he was worried about navigating the chaotic streets, Pitt smiled and said, “There will be no problem.”
Pitt also said he and Jolie had a great time exploring the former U.S.-backed wartime capital of South Vietnam, known then as Saigon. It fell to northern communist forces on April 30, 1975, marking the end of the Vietnam War. “We had a wonderful day in Vietnam,” the newspaper quoted Pitt as saying. The couple toured the city just days after U.S. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush made a brief stop there on Monday to visit the stock market and tour a bird flu laboratory, after attending the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi.
Pitt and Jolie arrived unannounced in Vietnam after an earlier surprise visit this week to Cambodia where on Wednesday they toured a former Khmer Rouge death camp, which is now a genocide museum.
The 31-year-old actress, who has an adopted son from Cambodia, also met with officials to discuss a forest conservation project in the country’s northwest near Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold. She has pledged up to US$1.3 million over five years for the program. Jolie’s Cambodian son, Maddox, is 5 years old. She and Pitt also have a 1-year-old daughter, Zahara, who was adopted from Ethiopia. Jolie gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Shiloh, in Namibia in May.—Agencies