While the tourists merrily tramp around grasshopper-ing from monument to monument, from Sapa to Mekong Delta; life is extremely different here for the Vietnamese. 95% of the tourists stay within the tourist enclaves and never have any exposure to REAL Vietnamese society and daily life.
It is forbidden for any non-family Foreigner to stay overnight with a Vietnamese family. The police register the passport of every Foreigner every night in each hotel via the internet. If you ever wondered how life was in Germany from 1935-1945; come here for a retrospect.
The police have been ordered to adopt a ‘hand-off’ policy regarding tourists. Any Vietnamese person caught driving without a helmet is instantly fined 250,000VND, but not a Foreigner. Police will ’shake-down’ Viet Kieu’ [overseas Vietnamese] when they come back here, but not Foreigners. Why?
Because if you’re Vietnamese, you are REQUIRED to OBEY! Obedience is RULE #1 here.
Equality is a completely ‘foreign’ concept to Asian cultures — everything in heirachial over here. One is either higher or lower; never on an equal level. One is strongly discouraged telling the truth if it causes one to lose ‘face’. Better to lie, which is completely acceptable.
I am constantly amazed at the passitivity of the Vietnamese. It’s taught from day #1 to obey and not question. At least not openly. Could this be why the Vietnamese are the masters of anything which can be done INDIRECTLY and COVERTLY. Winners during wartime; losers during peacetime.
How little Vietnam has changed politically over the last 30 years. More money doesn’t translate into more freedom; just more consumption.
We are in Siem Reap, Cambodia and have seen Angkor Wat for 12 hours on Tuesday, July 28th. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are really impressive. The smaller temples are also impressive, but after about 10 temples they start to look too similar.
On Monday, July 27th, we viewed the sunset over Angkor Wat from a 27 meter hill. The next morning, Tuesday, July 28th, we started at 4am and viewed the sunrise from Angkor Wat and then did the ‘short tour’ – 13 temples.
It was a hazy sunrise, not as impressive as the sunset the night before.
Megan lasted until the last two temples and I did the last one alone. I was extremely exhausted when I finally finished. Lots of climbing and walking and I carried my 25 or more pounds of camera equipment with me the whole way.
We finished at 4pm – 12 hours.The temples are quite impressive, but it makes one sad to realize that everything of value has either been stolen or purchased by museums or private collectors. All that is left is either what was too big to carry or wasn’t worth taking away like the broken statues.
I talked with a young lady who was in Cambodia two years ago and she said that Cambodia was much mellower and now all everyone wants is ‘dollars’. It certainly feels that way because everywhere you go someone is trying to sell you something – as a tourist you feel like a ‘mark’. Of course, we have not gotten much off the tourist track, so what can one expect.
Many young men come to Siem Reap from outlying towns to drive a tuk-tuk because it is the only way they can make any money for their family. Thus, tourists are forbidden to rent motorcycles (against the town law) – to protect the tuk-tuk drivers. The fares to/from Angkor Wat are fixed. Most of the restaurants have fixed prices also.
All-in-all, to come here for a day or two to see Angkor Wat is enough. We would have left if Mai had not gotten sick. Mai got her back wet and has developed a very bad cold, so we have had to stay here and not continue to Thailand. She’s feeling a bit better today since she slept most of the last two days.
Phnom Penh is rather uninspiring after Hue, Vietnam. I can say though that there is a tremendous number of very expensive SUVs being driven on the streets of Phnom Penh — Lexus, Toyota LandCruisers, etc.
Seems in Cambodia, there is either an extremely wealthy class or a a very poor class, not much middle class.
We’ve been eating in the local market where the food is more authentic Khmer and cheaper, although there are a lot of Vietnamese and/or people who speak Vietnamese in the market.
We visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda yesterday and they were OK, but not very inspiring. A couple tombs of the past kings, etc. For an entrance fee of $6.25, it was OK, but I would not go back again.
In the most beautiful buildings/pagodas, no photos were allowed — so one could take photos mainly of the outside of the buildings and a few artifacts in a couple of very small buildings.
We elected not to view the museum, etc. from the Pol Pot era — not worthwhile putting such horror into Megan’s reality. Mass killing is never nice.
Leaving this morning on the 9:30 bus to Siem Reap to visit Ankor Wat.
On July 23rd, we took the Cambodian Sorya bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh for $9.00USD. A Cambodian visa costs $20.00USD, however, the tour company charged an extra $5.00USD/person for processing.
I refused to pay the extra $5.00USD because I said I could do the visa myself. The tour guide threatened to leave us behind, etc. but finally gave me the visa forms to fill-out. At the border, I saw him secretly giving money to both the Vietnamese border guards and the Cambodian officials. He showed me where I had to pay and hand-in our paperwork to obtain a visa. Megan and I then had to take a motorcycle about one kilometer to where the bus was parked and the people were eating lunch. Since Mai had packed our food, it was no hardship for us that we didn’t eat there.
During the ferry ride across the Mekong River, I asked the guide to tell me honestly, with Buddha as our witness, how much I had cost him, he said $3.00USD. Since I rebel against government corruption, but strive to be as honest as possible with persons, I gave him $5.00USD. After that, he seemed to be much less friendly. Interesting.
Mai mentioned this morning that she noticed that the Vietnamese crossing the border did not have to pay any money, while she had to pay 20,000VND. Mai said that the tour bus line probably had to pay a flat rate/bus. So, if the bus was full, the tour company made a nice profit.
If that was so, the tour guide was less than honest with me, and that is probably why he suddenly became much less friendly after I gave him the $5.00. My first experience in Cambodia with a Khmer person.
Canon, Saigon took my 24-105mm f4 lens and camera and will have them repaired tomorrow afternoon.
They originally said 3-4 days, but after I talked and charmed the young lady at the repair desk, she said that they could have them both ready by tomorrow afternoon. Hip, hip, hooray.
Both the Canon ES 24-105mm lens and Canon Rebel XSi [D450] camera were purchased in the USA within the last 12 months, but Canon has two companies — one for Asia and the other for the rest of the world, so my 1 year USA warranty is not valid in Asia even though the lens broke within the 1 year warranty period.
So I ended up paying $130.00USD for the repair. Makes me consider the Sigma 6 year warranty as something to strongly consider for lenses.
The Canon 450D is priced $795USD here in Saigon, Vietnam, and I purchased mine for $700USD in September 2008 in Portland, Oregon.
We paid for the 4-bed compartment in the Foreigner railroad carriage. When we arrived there was no air-con and the temperature was 35C or 94F. When I opened the window the conductor tried to have me close it until I complained that we had no air-con.
After 90 minutes, they fixed the air-con enough so the temperature dropped to 28C, still quite warm. As the hours went on and day turned into night, the temperature slowly continued dropping to 25C or 70F and we had to cover ourselves with blankets.
We were on the end compartment and the undercarriage was totally worn out — the car bounced and swayed like riding a bucking bronco. Loud, cracking noises were heard each time the train went around a bend. Megan said it bounced like a ‘pogo stick’.
With the loud, cracking noises and the extreme bouncing movement, Mai became motion sick and could hardly sleep at all. It was awful. I slept in fits and developed a splitting headache.
All-in-all, it was a horrible train ride and we fell asleep very quickly after we obtained a hotel room in Saigon and turned in my 24-105mm f4 lens for repair and my camera for cleaning.
In case you’ve ever thought about investing, retiring or spending a long period of time in Vietnam, it would serve you well to click on the headline link below and read the complete ‘Asian Times Online‘ article to become aware of the ACTUAL legal situation in Vietnam.
Vietnam arrests a pragmatist [excerpted from front page section] The arrest last week of prominent attorney Le Cong Dinh on charges of spreading anti-government propaganda has drawn unwanted international scrutiny to Vietnam’s legal system. By penalizing Dinh’s arguments for free expression, including those uttered in court, the state is harassing the whole legal sector and leaving the nation defenseless. – Roby Alampay(Jun 19,’09)
Now ask yourself the questions:
How much/how little has the political landscape REALLY changed in Vietnam since 1975?
Under such a legal system, how much of your capital are you willing to invest and put at risk?
Woke up this morning and my internet connection was down. Tried all the tricks and finally had Mai call the VNPT (from whom I get my internet) and ask them if the internet was up or down in Hue. They said “up”, so Mai told them we were down. When Mai told them that we could not ‘ping’ both Yahoo.com and Google.com, the VNPT support young man told Mai, “Yahoo and Google must be down!”. When Mai asked when they could send someone out they said “Sometime today”.***
At that point, I asked for the telephone and asked, in Vietnamese, for someone who spoke English! As the gentleman got louder, I got louder. Finally, I handed the phone back to Mai, and she said they would have someone out shortly. Within 5 minutes, we had a nice 29 year old young man on our doorstep.
He went into the computer room and tried to fix the connection. Finally he had to call VNPT and verify some settings. After calling several times (they most likely reset the card which controls our connection), we were online again. Read More…
Sitting at a sidewalk cafe in downtown Hue tonight, drinking a beer with a US friend, a young man from Norway came by with a new Canon EOS 50D camera hanging around his neck which he bought in Hong Kong. In Norway it cost over $3,500USD and in Hong Kong it was around $2,300USD with Canon 18-200mm lens (non-pro).
We bought him beer and talked for awhile. He was 20 years old and his first time in Asia. He was traveling with another 19 year old young man from Norway. I commented that he didn’t look Norwegian, and he said he was Colombian and had been adopted when he was 4 years old by a Norwegian couple.
We talked with him awhile — I’ve been traveling to various parts of Asia since 1982 and the gentleman I was with had lived 8 years in Asia. The young man was very nice but knew very little about traveling through Asia. He had is camera dangling and his money belt outside his pants under his t-shirt. Not yet travel-saavy.
He said that he and his young friend had gone into a bar in Hanoi and had two young women sit down beside them and talk with them, bring them fruit and pour their beers. At the end of the evening, the bill was $388.00USD (7,000,000VND).
In Asia, a woman’s company may cost money — always in a bar or nightclub. Men and women do not spend much time together unless it’s for sex. Men interact with men; women with women. Not like in the USA and Europe. Infrequently do men and women go out together. Mainly for funerals and weddings. So, if a woman is friendly especially during the evening, expect to pay at the end of the evening. Read More…
Well, finally made the move to another webhosting company — no more GoDaddy for webhosting. So far, so good — had some problems getting my photo gallery working, but finally solved the problem.
Now I have to upload some new photos to the website. Hopefully, tomorrow. Feedback appreciated.
Somehow, I also lost most of my captions from the photos. UPDATE:Fixed the caption problem. I’m very happy that I’ve finally made the switch in only two days of work to get 98% 100% of the site working. Hip, hip, hooray!
Today, I drove downtown to my Vietnamese friend’s shop and we walked across the street to the Internet cafe so I could show him my work. Didn’t display correctly, probably because the Internet cafe computers only had 512K of memory and the pictures in each post and even more so, the flash-based photo gallery would not load in Internet Explorer [IE]. IE just hung, but I could display a page of ony thumbnail photos.
UPDATE: Also updated the flash components to the newest versions which seem clearer and load faster — maybe will try the internet cafe again.
Tomorrow is Buddha’s Birthday. All of the temples are wonderfully decorated and the parents are buying lanterns for the children to carry in a procession.
Here’s Megan and Win with their red lanterns. No lights, just candles in the lanterns. Tomorrow they both will have a great time with all the neighborhood kids and their lanterns.
Buddha’s Birthday for Buddhists is like Christmas for Christians. Last year there was a parade in Hue and people lined up along the road for 5 miles.
Every even year is a larger celebration, so this year will be more muted than last year.
Children will float lanterns in the Perfume River and there will be big shows at the Pagoda for the next two days.
A few days ago, Megan looked out her window as she was going to bed at 9:30pm that the beautiful flower outside of her window was opening.
No one here seems to know the name of the flower, but it only blooms once a year around midnight. It is extremely fragrant and very intricate. It is a pearl white color with light yellow stamens.
Mai told me that in the ‘olden times’ the Vietnamese men used to sit outside the flower drinking tea and composing poems. (Those days are long gone — I don’t know of any Vietnamese men who compose poems now.) I can understand because the flower has a ’sensuous, haunting and elusive quality to it — especially because it only blooms for one night approximately around midnight.
Clockwise: Mai, Megan, Win, Hoa, Hoai — Mai, her daughter and her sisters all enjoying the uniqueness and fragrance of the ‘Midnight Beauty’ flower.
Yesterday was the hottest day of 2009 in Hue. It will be a bit cooler today due to the weather change — (85F to 90F) and rain today — thank goodness.
I don’t mind the heat until it gets above body temperature — then it’s a bit much — even the walls are hot-to-the-touch. It was 100+F** in my computer room yesterday. Walking up the stone stairway with bare feet and I could feel the heat from the stairway.
To get away from the heat yesterday, I jumped onto the 70cc moto and rode around the countryside taking photos. It was too hot to stay inside — better to have the breeze from moto-ing in the countryside. And having fun making the young ladies giggle and laugh. And taking some interesting photos.
Yesterday, I met a young Dutch couple who rode bicycles to the Thien Mu Pagoda (few kilometers outside of Hue on very level ground). They were both exhausted even though they both rode bicycles everyday in Amsterdam and could easily ride 10+ kilometers when in Europe. They were not aware of how much the heat saps one’s strength and tires one out.
When you come to Vietnam from Northern Europe (or elsewhere) where bicycle riding or walking long distances is common and most people can do quite a few kilometers without giving it much thought — think again before riding or hiking far in the hotter weather of Vietnam, especially if you’ve only been in Vietnam a short period of time.
After being here for awhile, many tourists better understand why people in Mexico and other countries around the equator take naps during the hottest hours of the day.
I usually give myself several weeks to a month (depending on the time of year) to acclimate before doing any strenuous exercise when it is so hot — above 35C or 95F.
** It was 100.3F an hour later, but I didn’t take a photo.
Now I know why many Vietnamese men don’t wear underwear, it’s just too hot.
Note: Combined two separate photos to display both Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures.
I used to dislike most lawyers, possibly due to all those lawyer jokes that makes one laugh. And some of my personal experiences with lawyers have left a lot to be desired, even having been bilked out of several tens of thousands of dollars by an affirmative-action-educated, Harvard-alumni, civil-rights lawyer.
However, come to Vietnam where you have no recourse! When you buy anything, you have to take it like it is. If it’s broken or the batteries don’t work — tough!
If you buy food, you have no way of knowing what kind of pesticides, additives and chemicals have been put on the food — formaldehyde in pho, borax in the meatballs and fertilizer sprinkled on the fish to preserve them longer.
Many people around here are afraid to eat the food because they don’t know what’s in it.
We buy as much as possible ‘locally grown’ and even that’s no guarantee of anything unless we buy from the neighbors.
So many ways the gov’t, corporations and cultures cheats the consuming public:
The Vietnam currency value is artificiality controlled (Vietnamese dong is not traded in any currency market) and is experiencing a 25%+ inflation rate/year, so in 4 years or less, everything will cost twice as much.
Counterfeit goods — they are by far the largest percentage of brand-name items, i.e.Vietnam Gucci, Gap, Nike, etc.
Gov’t taxes everything (maybe more than once) so everything is over-priced relative to it’s poor quality. Computer items are taxed an additional 10% as ‘luxury goods’.
It’s more likely that you will get a counterfeit item than a genuine item (cultural-bias towards dishonesty) and even genuine items are very poorly constructed — 90% could never be sold in the Western nations due to extremely poor quality. Most everything breaks much more quickly than in the West because the quality is so poor.
Sometimes, I tend to believe that all of the above is ‘condoned’ and encouraged as long as the police get a cut of the action. It’s a form of ‘quiet theft‘ of value and quality from the local population.
Excluding the gov’t employees, the Vietnamese work seven days a week. Yet the gov’t/corporations recover most of what people earn from their work; through the above thefts and numerous gov’t/cultural encouraged addictions like smoking and alcohol, especially beer — probably Vietnam’s largest industry.
This website is a subjective chronicle of what we experience living with the Vietnamese people and government institutions — especially the police, here in Vietnam.
Thus, this website is for people who are thinking of visiting. living or investing in Vietnam and not especially for Vietnamese people themselves.
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The arrest last week of prominent attorney Le Cong Dinh on charges of spreading anti-government propaganda has drawn unwanted international scrutiny to Vietnam’s legal system. By penalizing Dinh’s arguments for free expression, including those uttered in court, the state is harassing the whole legal sector and leaving the nation defenseless. – Roby Alampay 
Tomorrow is Buddha’s Birthday. All of the temples are wonderfully decorated and the parents are buying lanterns for the children to carry in a procession.
A few days ago, Megan looked out her window as she was going to bed at 9:30pm that the beautiful flower outside of her window was opening.
Yesterday was the hottest day of 2009 in Hue. It will be a bit cooler today due to the weather change — (85F to 90F) and rain today — thank goodness.
I used to dislike most lawyers, possibly due to all those lawyer jokes that makes one laugh. And some of my personal experiences with lawyers have left a lot to be desired, even having been bilked out of several tens of thousands of dollars by an affirmative-action-educated, Harvard-alumni, civil-rights lawyer.
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