:: Vietnam (Banh Mi casa es su casa) ::

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Of all the "developing" countries I've been to, Vietnam seems to fit the description the most literally, as opposed to a euphemism sometimes employed to mean "stuck in poverty; please send money". Signs of development are rife, from the new skyscrapers and conspicuous luxury signaling that it's well underway to the ox carts and spaghetti infrastructure eliminating any doubt that it's unfinished. The long-term trend is obvious though, and I imagine if I revisit in a decade or two it will be a startlingly different place (standard caveats about political stability and macroeconomic meltdowns apply of course).

One trait it certainly shares with other developing countries is the tourist apparatus designed to separate the full brunt of local culture from visitors, exhibit it instead in a controlled environment, and in the process suck out disposable currency like the juice from the coconuts they so readily peddle with a smile and straw. Thankfully though this is confined to well-defined and escapable tourist ghettos, beyond whose walls lies a generally friendly populace, albeit occasionally guilty of aggressive salesmanship (but I am not one to discourage entrepreneurship).

There is one inescapable tourist marker, however, in the case of mix CDs used to appease foreigners during the long, but dirt-cheap, taxi rides. There seem to be two of these circulating around the entire country, featuring a haphazard bouquet of artists assumed to entertain the occidental ear. Upon the third or fourth time cruising past a row of rice paddies or a phalanx of motorscooters and hearing the exact same three opening tracks from Britney Spear (sic), Belinda Carlisle, and George Benson, one starts to wonder just who is being exhibited.

All in all though, not a bad way to ring in 2009. I took some pictures.

Posted by morland @ 05:58 AM

:: Comments ::

amazing pictures and observations. keep them coming. it's nice to travel between loads of laundry and evaluating business models and balance sheets.

Posted by: jay best on January 3, 2009 11:22 AM

you seem to love pics of stray dogs. please bring these mongrels to me when finished. thx

Posted by: vietnamese chef on January 6, 2009 02:38 PM

Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong.

Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong!

Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong!

Posted by: Alex on January 9, 2009 08:22 AM

nice pictures. looks awesome.

Posted by: alexis on January 10, 2009 05:56 PM

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