I love Vietnam

Have a break. Have a guava.

Strictly washing machine (post-socialist ad campaigns)

New Vietnam
Last night, leaving a restaurant, we had to push our way through a throng of people who’d stopped their mopeds along the side of the road, forming a clot in the northbound lane that threatened to close the street entirely.

What had attracted their attention was a stack of bass bins, bright lights, and three heavily made-up women in sequined mini-dresses who were gyrating wildly to a pop song about how fulfilled their lives had become since they bought a new washing machine. Or at least that’s what I assumed because of the stack of spotlit washing machines next to the bass bins and the people handing out brochures – and the fact that it was in front of a white goods store.

Old Vietnam
Later last night, I was awoken by the haunting screech of a cyclo vendor selling some sort of cake. Instead of ‘crying’ their wares, cyclo vendors play distorted tinny-sounding recordings that sound like the last, throttled gasp of a sunken u-boat… on a perpetual loop. This one was so awful-sounding that it pierced my sleep and for a minute I thought I was in Das Boot.

p-p-preserved pigs’ ears?

Happy New Year everyone!

Credit: Goscinny and Underzo

Look what I brought home from the Coop for Noogie:

That's right, it says 'Pickled Pig Ear'

He was very pleased.