Vietnam Moped Mania

I will always remember Vietnam for what seemed like a near death experience when trying to cross the street with 200+ mopeds coming at you at full speed.  Veterans eventually learn that you just have confidently step out into the oncoming traffic and walk at a slow but consistent pace and the mopeds will somehow weave their way around you. The courage required however, is not for the faint of heart. Cables and wires dangle above every street (see first photo below). Last but not least I will never forget the warmth and friendliness of the people, despite for many, their existence in borderline poverty.

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Tags: .Vietnam Moped Mania..

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Vietnam - Ho Chi Min City - Hanoi City

From Phnom Penh we headed south and crossed the border into Vietnam where we arrived at Ho Chi Min City. HCMC is just a blur of motorbikes on the roads scattering like ants in bizarre sort of ordered chaos. I'd already spent a long weekend here back in April so I'll revert to the photos and previous post here

Ho Chi Min City

As we flew from HCMC to Hanoi in the north an unfortunate theme started to emerge. Quite a few locals were throwing up on the plane despite the smooth flight. As we jumped into a shared minibus the driver handed out puke bags for the 45 minute trip to the city centre. Sure enough, three locals serenaded us with a chorus of gut wrenching and stomach churning and dutifully filled their bags to the brim. As the waft of vomit filled the minbus another local would tag the next culprit to continue the game of puke dominoes.

The weather turned sour on us in Hanoi and threatened to cut the trip short as most of SE Asia was a wash out but after waiting a few days as the heavens poured down we took a gamble to move on to Laos. The gamble paid off but unfortunately the puke theme stuck with us a while longer. More on that cheerful topic next post.

Tags: ..Vietnam - Ho Chi Min City - Hanoi City..

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Hanoi City

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Paddy in Vietnam

Two weeks of networking events and meeting headhunters in Hong Kong has been interesting but the outlook is still pretty bleak. I think the tone of the last post ended up being more morbid than I intended so rest assured I am anything but depressed. I may have to reinvent myself in order to succeed in re-entry into the employment rat race and so I'm looking on that as a bit of an adventure in itself. Fellow Irish blogger Thriftcriminal has the right attitude. People should try and be a bit more constructive in the midst of this economic crisis.

It's very easy and very Irish to bitch and moan and complain but in the end do nothing about it. We're a pretty resilient bunch if history is anything to go by but how the frik we just shrug off decades of political and corporate corruption is beyond me. The politicians and big businessmen made out like bandits in the bad times. They made out like super frikkin' bandits during the good times and they ran the country with one of the strongest economies in Europe into the ground as they flew around on their private jets and lined their pockets with taxpayers money with scam after scam. Somebody should be held to account but more chance of me going to Lourdes on a pilgrimage than that happening. End of rant - I promised you positivity after all.

Since I'm out this direction and the job market is what it is, I figured I'd take a little diversionary side trip. A friend is visiting from New York so we've got a few weekend trips planned starting with Ho Chi Min City (formerly Saigon) Vietnam.
The visa process was somewhat chaotic on arrival and the taxi ride from the airport was the stuff made of legend. I think the driver had rally car aspirations or wanted to get back to the airport rank as quickly as possible so he was honking the horn and flashing the high beams and veering into on coming traffic while weaving and dodging between the hundreds of scooters and motorbike drivers that swarm around the streets here. Crossing the road as a pedestrian is not for the faint hearted.

One of the big attractions is the Mekong Delta boat trips and the floating markets shown below.
Another attraction is visiting the old Viet Cong tunnels and shooting an AK47 for a few dollars

It's not recommended to brush your teeth with regular tap water out here but out of habit and sleepiness we both did it so let the good times roll ...... outta the bottom of our world - or not ....time will tell!!!

Tags: ..Irish Vietnam..

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