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sethomopod

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Posts posted by sethomopod

  7. Posted · Edited by sethomopod

    I suppose it depends if youre seen as an easy mark. I never felt I got ripped off, or tried to get ripped off during time spent in Vietnam. And in parts of India, in fact people's honesty when it came to money was startling. Somewhere like parts of Thailand though.... that's a whole other story. They have got deception of westerners down to a fine art.

     

    I gotta say, you must've been lucky. Either that or you have the face of some one not to be fucked with (doesn't mean you're not handsome :wink: )

    All up, I've spent nearly 3 years here, and what I've learnt is that the Vietnamese people occupy the broadest of spectrum's.. I have experienced the whole dynamic and within a short period of time..

    I have had the slimiest of slime try to squeeze me.. trust me.. I actually do business here, not just float from bar to bar to temple to bar. (not directed personally Psylo.. I'm talkin tourist types..) I see the scheming day to day.. Again, trust me, I can verify that the government themselves hold no value in a legally binding contract...(oh god I could go on....)

    I have also experienced hospitality not known to white Australia. I have been to many very poor farmers homes, where, while drinking and eating and talking about mangoes, I would look over at their garden and spot a nice cactus or plant and comment how nice it is..They always either gave me the whole plant or snapped off a cutting.. I have had poor farmers put on a feed of monumental proportions.. spending a months wages in one day...

    As I mentioned before, They will not let me or my father perform strenuous work.. Especially my father.. If they see him lift something heavy, they literally run to help him.. even small things like making sure my father has the coldest beer....

    They even treat my children as their own..When we go to restaurants, the owners will take our children and look after them while we eat.. Another positive, The Viet people adore children! You have to see it to believe it.. They way the dote on kids is heart warming.. The community spirit here is unknown to those how have not experienced it..

    Everyday, I see the best and worst of Viet Nam.. Probably not the absolute worst!, but the lower end of the spectrum. (Our 100 hectare farm is in an area that is very very rural..I mean a few hundred people using one well to wash clothes and cooking/ eating utensils.) And when I think about it,, When I weigh the pros's and con's.... I would rather be here than in Australia....It is very hard to describe unless you've been in my shoes...

    I can hear people rejecting my claims on humanitarian reasons.. Again.. very hard to explain.. Maybe Incognito can elaborate when I show him, Maybe we can write about his journey here.. seeing these things.....

    I want to write more but I have 3 more tiger beers in my belly than I want...

    Edit.... Talked to Incog.. He gets into Cambodia tomorrow. I hope he has a ball....

  16. Posted · Edited by sethomopod

    my brain matter poured out my ears and nose

     

    WOW! and your alive? WOW! :worship:

    That must have really damaged your skull. for that to happen and still live is a miracle!

  21. Posted · Edited by sethomopod

    That is just HECTIC!

    Does anyone know where I can find links/info on this museum?

    LOL yeah the beer hug analogy dosent make too much sense but sounds weirdly insane (from what I read goes on)

    Alot of other things I red about 'Nam is they constantly try to rip off Westerner's? Are many foreign country's like that?

    RF

     

     

     

    Didnt watch it.. but it'll probably have some info..

    The booby traps are actually at the Cu Chi Tunnels, outside Saigon.

    The War Remnants Museum is in Saigon..

    http://en.wikipedia....hi_Minh_City%29

    Basically, Bia Om is a place where pretty girls wearing little, serve you beer and sit with you.. The amount of intimacy allowed varies from innocent to "Having a beer with a hooker before you nail her"...

    Yes, They try to rip off westerners constantly.. You just have to learn how to deal with it..

  23. Posted

    Bia Om is another form of popular entertainment in Saigon for male travellers.

    You now Seth, I did think it was called the War Crime Museum, and was surprised when I looked it up and it had the new name. Thatmust have changed only in the last few years.

    Those howitzer-style big guns in the courtyard are amazing, well the information plaques advising of their range just blew me away. I had no idea they could fire a round over 50km with accuracy (more I think with the bigger ones).

    Cu Chi is good to see the brutal forest traps that the South Vietnamese created to seriously impair the invaders. The greatest irony is that these were made from the remnants of the B-52 payloads that were dropped on them. Sweet, sweet justice.

     

    Yeah, not exactly sure what year it was..I remember a local telling me it was because of the offensiveness perceived by American tourists.. The term "War Crimes".. Even though there are the photos of troops posing next to severed heads, throwing people out of helicopters when refusing to grass... Hell, if the use of Agent Orange isnt a fucking war crime, then what is? It's destroyed generations of innocents..

    Those booby traps are fantastic aren't they.. They used to smear shit on the barbs/spikes/nasties so they would hopefully die of infection..

    The ingenuity of the Vietnamese will never cease to amaze me..

    BEER HUG!!!!

     

    :wink:

    Although you dont hug beers, or vice versa..

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