Vietnam-Other Observations

We went to a nightclub in the Nha Trang and instead of bringing peanuts for munchies they brought fresh fruits like watermelon, strawberries and pineapple. They also brought salt to dip the fruit it to help wet our appetites for hydration.

In Nha Trang there was a seafood market next to a private beach. The customer selects the items by the kg and they cook it up and deliver it to your at the beach. The vendors are very good at tracking the customers. They spotted us 30 yards in the water. Dad and I of course were not wearing glasses in the water and were topless, yet they still found and recognized us. This was the first time I had ever has scallops in the shell. After we were done we left all the trash in bags by the gazebos for little local boys. The little boys took the bags. The boys separated the recyclable for money and then took the bags to some adults. They sorted through the trash and ate the leftovers. At the same time they looked like they were collecting the shells. I can only guess as resourceful as they were they were going to use the shells to make something that they could sell like tourist trinkets.

Relative to the large population I saw very few beggars. Most of the people try to be industrious and provide a good or service. Some of the efforts were not very logical from my limited perspective. There were quite a few people providing shoe shining. They were obviously not targeting locals because the locals were flip-flops. In my time there I really did not see very many foreigners with dress shoes that would need shining either although the vendors were persistent about offering to shine our running shoes.

I think the massive amount of people in the country has led to many of the people to pushing, shoving and a disregard for lines. By the 4th day in Vietnam, I had been shoved from behind four different times by someone trying to get past me in a line. One large group decided to try to shove past us in a line starting with a lady, that bugged me a bit. Then I got shoved again by her friend, and I turned this time it was her male friend and cronies. Very few things gets the alpha male testerone going more than a smaller male trying to shove him aside for position. With their behavior to get a few inches further on the platform when the transport car wasn’t even there, I recognized that there were going to try to bully their way past me once the car was there. So as the car approached I let the first of them push and shove past us then braced myself for the impact of the rest of them without ever changing my stride. I calmly sat down in the transport and effectively separated their group. One person of their groups could not fit on the transport and had to wait to catch the next transport, how unfortunate.

When I saw the monk wielding the chainsaw it was a bit of a disconnect. Since Buddhist monks are mostly poor it strange to think of them using technology because technology is usually expensive. I almost associate them with Amish, which I know is a very poor way to categorize them in. Seeing the monk with the chainsaw did help reset the association that they have not lost an appreciation for technology during their spiritual journeys. Sorry Lewis he appeared to be behind a private area of temple. While I did consider snapping a picture, I thought it might have been a bit disrespectful to be taking pictures of them in their private areas and I could not ask them if it was ok since I do not speak Vietnamese.

The Cu Chi Tunnels are the underground bunkers that the Viet Cong used to attack Saigon. There was about 150 km of tunnels with everything from kitchen to meeting rooms. They allow tourist to purchase bullets to use on the firing range. The heavy machine guns ammo would cost more than the pistols. All of the weapons were mounted with a little play for aiming but not enough to be dangerous. After firing the M60 light machine gun I realized that they were mounted so that you could not possibly hit the target. They are locked high. It dawned on me that if the foolish tourist could not hit the targets then they never had to replace them. I fired the M16 assault rifle anyway with this understanding just for the experience, but stopped after that because it takes a lot of fun out of it if you can’t ever hit the target.