Vietnam

It's funny how different cultures work. We do things one way and other people do them some other way. Sometimes you look at something and think to yourself wow, that is a great idea. why don't we do things like that? And sometimes you look at something and think what the hell were they thinking? that is completely illogical. And then there are times when something is just different, not better or worse, just different. Like garbage pick up in Vietnam. The garbage trucks here drive around blaring music like the ice cream man but louder and more annoying. When the truck stops, people rush out, rubbish bins in hand, and throw it into the truck. Then the person on the back picks out the recyclable items like bottles and cans. We watched all of this go down yesterday morning at breakfast and we suddenly realized why we could never find garbage cans on the street. They just bring it out when the ice cream man, wait no I mean the garbage man, comes around. That way the mangy dogs don't get into the garbage like they constantly did in Thailand (a simple closing lid would solve that problem but maybe they wanted the dogs to spread the garbage out on the sidewalk- that is the thing about culture, I may be missing the whole point by wanting lids on the garbage).

Ok, so we made it to Vietnam, where tourism is much like herding cattle or sheep. They get you onto tour buses and just shuttle you around from one place to the next. They are really nice about it. They tell jokes and sing to you, but the whole experience feels a lot like Disneyland and not traveling. It's like we are on the Jungle Cruise and we can't get off. We went to Saigon and went on our first organized tour to tunnels the Viet Cong used during the Vietnam War. Once again, I felt like a total asshole for being from the US, but it was very educational. There is this strange phenomenon here (and in Cambodia also) of going to sites where loads of people were killed and having a shooting range where tourists can throw a grenade or shoot a rocket launcher. I don't understand how people can walk around and see the devastation and destruction that those very weapons did to actual people, and then want to go fire one off. It's bizarre. The next day we went on the next, and also our last, organized tour where we went on a boat to visit some islands. The snorkeling was phenomenal with amazing corals, interesting fish Ihave never seen before and warm water. Paco and I enjoyed the snorkeling while the rest of our boat got drunk. I don't think that organized tours are a good idea for us...

Now we are in Hoi An having clothes and shoes made, which will need to be a new blog so I will save that one for later.