Sureality in Modern Day Vietnam
Okay, out of all the wierd and whacky places we've been Vietnam is seriously one of the whackiest.
Here's why:
1) It's supposed to be communist but, like China, it only appears to have a few window-dressing-communist-statues. Other than that, everything is for sale and there are more coffee shops than there are propaganda posters!
2) The currency is called Dong and there are 14,000 dong to the American dollar, so we all became instant millionaires at the currency exchange place. Try getting your head around that converson....it led to many conversations along the lines of 'What is better? Dollars or Dong?" and "How much dong do you have?".
3) There are about 8 million people in Ho Chi Minh City, and there are about 4 million motorcycles. The roads are wide enough for 15 to 20 motorcycles to drive parallel to each other. There are no pedestrian cross walks, or at least, if they are they are totally ignored by the drivers. When you need to cross the road, you just step off the sidewalk onto the road and slowly walk accross while the dozens upon dozens of motorcycles drive strait at you without slowing down, but thankfully dodging and weaving around you...it's very surreal, but hey, at least you don't have to waste time waiting for the little green walky man to appear!
4) This one is the wierdest of all. About two days ago we went on a day trip from Ho Chi Minh City to the Chu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels became imfamous during the Vietnam war, as an entire community of Vietnamese lived in a network of 250 kilometres of tunnels for something rediculous like 20 years and caused much damage to hundreds of US soldiers by setting nasty spear traps, planting landmines, etc, etc. We began by watching a 'documentary' about the war which described the perfect and idillyc life that the people of Chu Chi lived before the war and how the "crazy devil Americans" came and ruined everything. It also mentioned the 3 or 4 individuals who were awarded with the "American Killer Hero Medal" for, yup, you guessed it, killing Americans. Not exactly politically correct, eh? So, with the script of the documentary ringing in our ears, off we trotted to see the bomb craters, tunnels and re-productions of traps. The craziest moment of the whole crazy day came when our Vietnamese guide showed us an American tank that had actually been used in this area of Vietnam (and so had probably killed and injured hundreds of his countrymen) and encouraged us to climb on the tank because, and I quote, 'It makes a great photo'. Like, what is up with that??? One of the guys on the tour with us, Dez from the UK, came up with the best decriptive phrase: "grotesquely inverted logic". By the time we came to the souvenir shop, which sold everything from t-shirts, to ice cream, to vases, to bullets (yes bullets), we were so dazed that we couldn't even be shocked.
Now, we are in Singapore, and it is really wierd here too! First off, we are in shell shock at the prices. $7 bucks for lunch! $2 bucks for a drink! It's amazing...we've been buying entire meals for $2 in all the countries we have been in for the past 2 months. Even stranger, was seeing a line-up, an actual line-up to get into the Gucci store on Orchargd Street (the main shopping street in the city). Now, where we've been hanging out lately a person can live for a year off the price of a Gucci handbag...and in Singapore people are lining up to buy said handbags - what a crazy divide.
There were about 20,000 other people also going for a walk along Orchard St, which made it a wee bit crowded as you might imagine. Now, Singapore is predominantly Buddhist with significant Muslim and Hindu minority groups, meaning that the vast majority of the population here does not celebrate Christmas, however, capitalism seems to be a stronger driving force than religion, because the whole entire street is COVERED with Christmas lights. And I mean covered. Fake snow, Santa hats, Christmas tree baubles are hanging off trees, street lamps, shop signs and just about everything else. What makes it really odd is that it is about 35 degrees and with 80% humidity, so the fake snow et al is wildly incongruous with the atmosphere.
So, my head is swimming with Christmas lights and my wallet is hurting from spending $10 on supper at Subway, so I am off to bed.
All being well the next blog will be from Australia, our final stop on our adventure before heading back to the genuinely snow covered wonders of Canada!
Later all
TK
Here's why:
1) It's supposed to be communist but, like China, it only appears to have a few window-dressing-communist-statues. Other than that, everything is for sale and there are more coffee shops than there are propaganda posters!
2) The currency is called Dong and there are 14,000 dong to the American dollar, so we all became instant millionaires at the currency exchange place. Try getting your head around that converson....it led to many conversations along the lines of 'What is better? Dollars or Dong?" and "How much dong do you have?".
3) There are about 8 million people in Ho Chi Minh City, and there are about 4 million motorcycles. The roads are wide enough for 15 to 20 motorcycles to drive parallel to each other. There are no pedestrian cross walks, or at least, if they are they are totally ignored by the drivers. When you need to cross the road, you just step off the sidewalk onto the road and slowly walk accross while the dozens upon dozens of motorcycles drive strait at you without slowing down, but thankfully dodging and weaving around you...it's very surreal, but hey, at least you don't have to waste time waiting for the little green walky man to appear!
4) This one is the wierdest of all. About two days ago we went on a day trip from Ho Chi Minh City to the Chu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels became imfamous during the Vietnam war, as an entire community of Vietnamese lived in a network of 250 kilometres of tunnels for something rediculous like 20 years and caused much damage to hundreds of US soldiers by setting nasty spear traps, planting landmines, etc, etc. We began by watching a 'documentary' about the war which described the perfect and idillyc life that the people of Chu Chi lived before the war and how the "crazy devil Americans" came and ruined everything. It also mentioned the 3 or 4 individuals who were awarded with the "American Killer Hero Medal" for, yup, you guessed it, killing Americans. Not exactly politically correct, eh? So, with the script of the documentary ringing in our ears, off we trotted to see the bomb craters, tunnels and re-productions of traps. The craziest moment of the whole crazy day came when our Vietnamese guide showed us an American tank that had actually been used in this area of Vietnam (and so had probably killed and injured hundreds of his countrymen) and encouraged us to climb on the tank because, and I quote, 'It makes a great photo'. Like, what is up with that??? One of the guys on the tour with us, Dez from the UK, came up with the best decriptive phrase: "grotesquely inverted logic". By the time we came to the souvenir shop, which sold everything from t-shirts, to ice cream, to vases, to bullets (yes bullets), we were so dazed that we couldn't even be shocked.
Now, we are in Singapore, and it is really wierd here too! First off, we are in shell shock at the prices. $7 bucks for lunch! $2 bucks for a drink! It's amazing...we've been buying entire meals for $2 in all the countries we have been in for the past 2 months. Even stranger, was seeing a line-up, an actual line-up to get into the Gucci store on Orchargd Street (the main shopping street in the city). Now, where we've been hanging out lately a person can live for a year off the price of a Gucci handbag...and in Singapore people are lining up to buy said handbags - what a crazy divide.
There were about 20,000 other people also going for a walk along Orchard St, which made it a wee bit crowded as you might imagine. Now, Singapore is predominantly Buddhist with significant Muslim and Hindu minority groups, meaning that the vast majority of the population here does not celebrate Christmas, however, capitalism seems to be a stronger driving force than religion, because the whole entire street is COVERED with Christmas lights. And I mean covered. Fake snow, Santa hats, Christmas tree baubles are hanging off trees, street lamps, shop signs and just about everything else. What makes it really odd is that it is about 35 degrees and with 80% humidity, so the fake snow et al is wildly incongruous with the atmosphere.
So, my head is swimming with Christmas lights and my wallet is hurting from spending $10 on supper at Subway, so I am off to bed.
All being well the next blog will be from Australia, our final stop on our adventure before heading back to the genuinely snow covered wonders of Canada!
Later all
TK
posted by TK at 4:56 AM
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