Some pictures of our journey so far.
I know, I know; when did this turn into a travel blog, right? My apologies to all of you who are utterly bored by this, but I promise I’ll get back to writing about writing soon.
First off, here’s a photo of the pagoda ceremony, as described in my previous post.
And this is the beautiful altar from the same pagoda, complete with friendly gong-lady.
On the roof of the ‘Reunification’ Palace, former seat of the Republic of South Vietnam, President Ngo Dinh Diem’s private UH-1 helicopter still sits.
On the palace grounds, a replica of one of the Soviet-made North Vietnamese tanks that crashed through the palace gates in April 1975.
At the nearby War Remnants Museum, the U.S. Air Force symbol on a captured F-5 has been delicately crossed out.
A store offers a discount for ‘Women’s Day’ earlier this month — basically, Valentine’s Day just for women. The Vietnamese are an extremely romantic people.
The Pepsi corporation has moved in here, where even McDonald’s still fears to tread. KFC restaurants (owned by Pepsi) are now all over Saigon. It is a mark of station to be able to afford to eat at one.
The Vietnamese adore motorbikes. Virtually every shop is equipped with a small ramp to allow customers to drive their bike directly into the store, and every house has a small bike-port inside the front door.
A very odd political billboard near our house. The men in dark green are police. We have dubbed it the ‘Inform On Your Neighbors’ billboard.
Finally, a lone fisherman paddles his bucket-boat along the coast of Mui Ne, a fishing village turned resort town.
That’s all, folks. Hope you enjoyed it!
Cool photos.
I was waiting for you to make a witty comment about Women’s Day being the day you can actually *buy* women (based on the sign’s bad English), but you didn’t.
Comment by Konrad West — March 29, 2006 @ 11:38 pm
Thanks for sharing the photos. They were great! As usual, where U.S. arms failed, fast food succeeded.
Comment by Steve Peterson — March 29, 2006 @ 11:42 pm
Nothing boring at all Xander, actually wish you could post more about that country as it is today. I hope you are enjoying yourself.
Thanks for the photos, they’re great.
cheers
Dave.
Comment by Dave — March 30, 2006 @ 1:40 am
Meant to add, I find it funny that the clothes add has caucasian women on it, rather than women of asian appearance like the pepsi ad. It would be interesting to find out if there is any retail psycology behind that, ie western women on posters sell more clothes, etc. Just curious from a business perspective.
cheers
Dave
Comment by Dave — March 30, 2006 @ 1:42 am
Like that lost shot a lot. Thanks!
Comment by Warren — April 16, 2006 @ 3:45 am
These comments have been invaluable to me as is this whole site. I thank you for your comment.
Comment by Annerose — June 3, 2007 @ 2:05 pm