Monday, February 07, 2005
good morning vietnam
the usual pre-posting conversation goes something like this...
P: you know it's your turn to do the posting
C: i haven't got anything good to write
P: yes you have, you've got these tunnels...
what do i have to write this time? i was planning on doing another 'pete gets grumpy' expose, since i know that's what my target audience likes - but i think i'll save that bit until the end - and cover the educational stuff first.
here we are in vietnam. characteristics of the place seem to be that every family uses a scooter instead of a car (even the taxis are motorbikes); people wear hats and face masks all day; and as we've arrived 3 days before the celebration of the lunar new year the city is full of flowers, ballons and such like.
of course, you can't go anywhere without tripping over something related to the war, and the reunification palace and war museum were rife with references to the colonialist french and the imperialist americans. unsurprisingly the vietnamese present history a wee bit differently than we are used to (and perhaps justifiably so). there is, however, a fine line between thought-provoking and gratuitous. I felt that the 2 headed feotus in the war museum and the kalashnikov you can shoot for a dollar at the viet cong caves crossed this line (and frankly were in poor taste). but perhaps when a war has been captured so graphically in the media from the beginning it deserves an equally shocking commemoration too.
anyway, let me step down off my platform and tell you about pete (which is more entertaining anyway).
we set off this morning to the cu chi tunnels (where the viet cong hid out for most of the war). in doing so we broke one of our cardinal rules (never go with large tour groups) and as a result i had to listen to pete engage in his favourite large tour group activity - bitching all day....
'i can't see in the hole', 'look at that man videoing the tree', 'this is so contrived' - you get the picture. in their defence the tunnels were still authentic enough to give me a close brush with claustrophia and our guide was a genuine ex-soldier. at first i thought of the shouty, facial-tick variety - but he turned out to be quite normal. his talks were for the most part entertaining... except for the 17th time we heard the 'american's have such big bums joke' - apparently a key contributor as to why they lost the war.
there is a silver lining to every cloud, and pete cottoned on by the end of the morning that travelling with a large group means having more ladies to ogle. somehow he was tranformed to benny hill on the bus home, when he advised the 2 20 year-old swedish girls sat next to us not to take their tops off (long story). matt you would have been proud - sorry we didn't manage to get photos!
i had my best laugh, however at the very end of the day, (at pete's expense as usual) when he stopped mid-rant to say 'help, i can't remember what i was complaining about'. priceless.
ps. sorry about the title, i know it's unbearably naff.
P: you know it's your turn to do the posting
C: i haven't got anything good to write
P: yes you have, you've got these tunnels...
what do i have to write this time? i was planning on doing another 'pete gets grumpy' expose, since i know that's what my target audience likes - but i think i'll save that bit until the end - and cover the educational stuff first.
here we are in vietnam. characteristics of the place seem to be that every family uses a scooter instead of a car (even the taxis are motorbikes); people wear hats and face masks all day; and as we've arrived 3 days before the celebration of the lunar new year the city is full of flowers, ballons and such like.
of course, you can't go anywhere without tripping over something related to the war, and the reunification palace and war museum were rife with references to the colonialist french and the imperialist americans. unsurprisingly the vietnamese present history a wee bit differently than we are used to (and perhaps justifiably so). there is, however, a fine line between thought-provoking and gratuitous. I felt that the 2 headed feotus in the war museum and the kalashnikov you can shoot for a dollar at the viet cong caves crossed this line (and frankly were in poor taste). but perhaps when a war has been captured so graphically in the media from the beginning it deserves an equally shocking commemoration too.
anyway, let me step down off my platform and tell you about pete (which is more entertaining anyway).
we set off this morning to the cu chi tunnels (where the viet cong hid out for most of the war). in doing so we broke one of our cardinal rules (never go with large tour groups) and as a result i had to listen to pete engage in his favourite large tour group activity - bitching all day....
'i can't see in the hole', 'look at that man videoing the tree', 'this is so contrived' - you get the picture. in their defence the tunnels were still authentic enough to give me a close brush with claustrophia and our guide was a genuine ex-soldier. at first i thought of the shouty, facial-tick variety - but he turned out to be quite normal. his talks were for the most part entertaining... except for the 17th time we heard the 'american's have such big bums joke' - apparently a key contributor as to why they lost the war.
there is a silver lining to every cloud, and pete cottoned on by the end of the morning that travelling with a large group means having more ladies to ogle. somehow he was tranformed to benny hill on the bus home, when he advised the 2 20 year-old swedish girls sat next to us not to take their tops off (long story). matt you would have been proud - sorry we didn't manage to get photos!
i had my best laugh, however at the very end of the day, (at pete's expense as usual) when he stopped mid-rant to say 'help, i can't remember what i was complaining about'. priceless.
ps. sorry about the title, i know it's unbearably naff.
// posted by courtney and pete @ 22:08 
