- They eat a lot of noodle soups for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- A million Vietnamese Dong does not get you very far (sometimes, not even as far as the next ATM)
- Beer is often cheaper than a bottle of water. And all local beers taste much like one another, just like water.
- Cocktails are cheaper than wine
- Diet coke costs more than normal coke
- They will put just about anything on the back of a bike or scooter (bar fridge, 100 or so ducks)
- If you want to use toilet paper, bring your own, otherwise be prepared to use a 'bum gun'
- You will never cross the road unless you bravely just step out and walk slowly so the traffic can swerve around you
- Beds here are like planks of wood with a sheet on top
- When you think you've had more of the heat than you can bare, it will get hotter
- The two most promising-looking businesses are in bike/scooter repair and selling electric fans
- For all of the hype about theft/pick pocketing/etc, it feels very safe. Noting that we never seem to be out later than 9.30pm....
- Kramas really work (wet cotton neck scarfs)
- The reputation of Vietnamese as persistent/pushy salespeople is entirely undeserved
- For a Communist country, Vietnam is not very Communist
- There are a lot of cats in Cambodia and a lot of dogs in Vietnam
- Long legged chickens are roaming the street everywhere, even in the middle of big cities.
- This is the land of the Very Neat Omelette
- Visitors are unusually diverse, in both age and country of origin. While there are some concentrations (eg Koreans in Cambodia, Russians in Nha Trang), it doesn't feel like this is only on the Hot List for one or two countries.
- While wifi is ubiquitous, upload speeds are largely lousy. Get yourself a bigger memory card for your camera - 16Gb or more should cover two weeks as long as you're not shooting RAW images.
- It's normal to feel a lesser person when you realise the locals aren't even glowing, let alone dripping litres of sweat every hour.
- The Vietnamese communist government persists with loudspeaker systems for "news" (aka propaganda). Andrew is fairly sure that he's learned the Vietnamese words for "correct dialectical interpretation of Ho Chi Minh thought inspires united, educated, patriotic people and guarantees unquestioned success of 2015-2020 Five Year Plan"
- for the amount of traffic and chaos on the roads, mostly it seems to work (no real traffic jams), though there are 20,000 road deaths a year.
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