Communist propaganda. It left a very very sour taste in my mouth. Although to be honest, for a communist country, Vietnam is incredibly capitalistic.
Beautiful French buildings:
Tainted with propaganda":
Uncle Ho everywhere:
And motorcycles. No regards for traffic direction, speed, signs, anything. Now we know why the speed limit in Ho Chi Minh City is 40 km/hour.
Visited the War Museum. It was quite impressive and I did not find it at all biased or full of propaganda as I was told before. War is cruel and it does hurt civilians, no matter what we think. And yes, napalm and agent orange are illegal according to the rules of war. However, things got a little bit out of hand in this respect on the second floor, where there was a room that showed how other nations rallied for Vietnam during the war. And in it we found this picture, showing a Pro-vietnam Romanian demonstration in the seventies. We all know that these were not spontaneous but thoroughly organized by the party.
Between work, the prof and us visited the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Viet Cong hid while the americans where having their way with their country - napalm, agent orange, the works. The viet cong answered with bamboo traps, among other things:
The tunnel we visited was enlarged for tourists:
But it was still damn crammed. On our hands and knees we went:
A lot of things can be transported on motorcycles. From goldfish:
To tonight's dinner in a fancy restaurant:
Could not go inside the Notre Dame Cathedral:
But we visited the Mekong Delta instead:
And a bee farm:
Who knew pomelos grow in trees?
Or starfruits? [Click to enlarge]
Got ferried on some canal by locals:
Wore the hat!
So did the prof!
Cobra wine! Pictured is a dead cobra holding a cobra penis in its mouth. Who cares about animals anyway?!
Everything was chocolaty: the mekong, my ice coffee, the palm flowers...
I wanna see more of Vietnam!
Pics available on picasa, as usual [hover for link].
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