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Published: February 23rd 2008
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Watch for Overhead Powerlines
This is typical in larger cities, and makes it almost impossible to take a picture without powerlines in it. There is a different building code when it comes to electricity in VN. We are in Da Lat, and had arranged to go on a motorbike tour of the surrounding countryside today, but got rained out. With the tour rescheduled for tomorrow, we’ve found ourselves with a free day. Instead of watching another shitty movie starring John Cena on one of the two English TV channels, I would like to make a post telling and showing some of the funny and interesting things we have noticed or been enlightened about regarding life here in Vietnam.
- Vietnamese people love anything to do with romance. “Titanic” is by far the best selling movie, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi and Celine Dion get a lot of play as far as English songs go, and as you read in our last post, Valentines Day is unavoidable. Our students in our classes were ecstatic to discover that Krysta and I were married and wanted to know all about how we met, see pictures of our wedding, and were always reminding me how beautiful my wife is.
- In the countryside everyone buries their family members in their back yard. Religious beliefs are difficult understand here, but ancestor worship seems to be consistent throughout the population, so dead
The Recycling Station
These guys would come down the beach every day in Mui Ne collecting all of the tourists' empty water-bottles. We assume they must get some money for recycling them. relatives are kept close so their spirits can be properly cared for with prayers, incense and a nice clean tomb. Happy spirits are believed to bring good luck and provide support in the lives of the living.
- Both inside and outside the city, many people live in their workplaces. The waitress in the restaurant sleeps between the tables, the family that runs the hotel eats their meals with the guests (most hotels rates include some combination of meals) and sleeps in one of the back rooms, or in the foyer. It’s the same with the hardware store, mechanic shop, retail locations, etc. Exceptions include public/private office buildings and banks and a few others of the same type. We often talk about how hard we Canadians work in our daily lives, but the standards here are very different. This live-where-you-work lifestyle means these people don’t have days off, and work all day, everyday, some of them for their entire lives. One waitress we befriended worked from 6am - 11 pm (or later) everyday and got two days off every two months. Sometimes it’s almost embarrassing to sit around and do nothing in our hotel room.
- One result
Fresh
These are some ducks and chickens available at the market. You can also buy them live, I choose to believe the live ones are for pets. of the above is that there is a strong family orientation here. Often many generations and siblings of a family live together, take part in the work and have all their meals in big chatty groups.
- Outside the home = landfill. Especially after the religious cleaning of everything everybody owns that goes along with the new years festival, the insides of the homes we’ve seen are very clean. Garbage goes anywhere else. In the places that we have visited that are close to rivers or waterways, it is acceptable to throw anything you don’t want into the water. As you all know, plastic doesn’t really decompose, so there are bags and bottles floating everywhere. In the city, we spent 20 mins wandering the park looking for a garbage can without success. Walking down the streets you see people dropping what they don’t want anymore right where they stand, we’ve even watched people (men & women) stop and pee on the corner. We hope there is some kind of recycling as we separate our cans and plastic water bottles from the rest of our garbage for our hosts to take away, but have really seen no evidence of it
The Colonel Lives On
This is the hydrofoil station in Vung Tao. The KFC in VN is better than at home, I think there is still trans-fat in the cooking oil. It is also very popular with the locals, maybe its because he looks like Ho Chi Minh. going where we intended.
- Everyone celebrates his or her birthday on the same day. All Vietnamese get one year older on New Year’s Day (Lunar).
- Dark skin tones are seen as an attribute of the lower classes. In the beach areas we visit there are Vietnamese and other Asian tourists visiting there as well. While us white folks lie on the beach trying to get darker, the Asians stay inside when they can, and when forced to venture out, go fully clothed including huge hats and sunglasses. In the city, it is common to see locals wearing arm length gloves and sun-shading helmet accessories while riding their motorbikes.
- Vietnamese music is possibly the worst I have ever heard, both traditional and contemporary. This also includes their tastes in foreign music (see the selection on romance).
- Little is used in the way of preservatives or food growth additives. Everything we eat is “fresh today” or perfectly ripe. This leads to excellent food quality; I have yet to be served a piece of fruit that wasn’t just right. That being said, yesterday I confided to Krysta that I would pay $200 without hesitation for
35ºC
A winter decoration outside a clothing store in Saigon. a Big Mac Meal with a chocolate milkshake.
- Many restaurants have 40+ page menus, only ½ - 2/3 of which are available at any given time. As well, the food you ask for could come in any order: salads last, main courses first, appetizers in the middle. We have encountered some situations where we got things we didn’t ask for at all, or things we thought we ordered just didn’t arrive. My guess is that those were our mistakes though.
- All emotion looks like anger. The Vietnamese language is tonal; essentially each vowel can be said 6 different ways depending on how you inflect your voice. In English we use tones to indicate question forms, sarcasm, emotion, etc. In addition to limiting our use of correct Vietnamese, this significance of tone makes deciphering the emotions of the Vietnamese people very difficult sometimes. Unless they are smiling, it always seems like they are angry with us. Maybe they are, we are just stupid tourists after all.
We will be leaving Da Lat on Monday, so there will be a post about our experiences here soon to follow. It is a really unique city.
Miss you
Shower curtains are for squares
We are now in our 4th hotel and have our first shower curtain. The bathrooms are all tiled, so it OK when the water just goes everywhere. You are always provided with a few pairs of sandals to wear in the bathroom. Also always included is the "bum gun" (which you can see just above the sink), an alternative to toilet paper. all,
Mr. (& Mrs.) Smith
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katrina
non-member comment
hey
While I'm not nearly as creative a writer as the two of you, I just wanted to say how much I love reading your posts and sharing your experiences! It sounds like you're having an amazing time and I'm envious of all that you've encountered (well maybe not all, the abundance of "fresh" food I could probably do without!). Take crae, sure do miss you!