Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Leg 5 (Vietnam)- Non-Capp Thoughts

Got a good overdose of military over the time in 'nam- I wouldn't necessarily advise combining a lot of war literature, films and tours over a concentrated period of a few days, but at least you get a chance to move on quickly...

Other things-

Elaborate cons from taxi drivers the like of which we certainly didn't suffer in China (mostly in Hanoi). Even this laid back character started to get aggressive. And then remorseful. As is normal.

In Southern Vietnam a Buddhist temple is more of a Buddhist themepark- the selections of monkey gods and elephant effigies made them feel more like Lamaland. They certainly enjoy the overdevelopment- we got a rollercoaster down to one waterfall, and were offered ostrich riding, which was new to me.

Markets in the Mekong Delta were somewhat more macabre than China also- we watched a woman scissoring off frog's feet, while stopping her snakes making a break for freedom with the other hand. I looked on in utter bemusement round the corner at a toad- attached to two others by an elastic band- attempt to leap out of its bucket. I think the effort involved killed it, as it did nothing else of note thereafter.

Replica kits taken to the nth degree: black Viet Cong jammies in the Cu Chi tunnels souvenir shop, for a mere six quid a pop.

I'm sure there was a lot more to comment on than this- I'll add it when I remember...

No comments: