The Case for some Vietnamese Oddities 01

Here are some of the less serious photos I took on a Christmas / New Year trip to Vietnam. I hope you find them as entertaining as I did when I took them.

1. Yup, that is Brittney Spears on that tombstone. Do the people of Hanoi know something that we don't - yet?


2. This was actual supermarket fare in the chilled goods section in Hue. My travelling companions taught me the best way to take this photo sneakily, as it did need to be taken.



3. Getting on board an aircraft in Da Nang, its nice to have pictographic representation of what we can't take on board. But surely, in a Communist country, one's sickle is sacred?



4. One of those posters the Flight of the Conchords mock, in Hue.


5. Well, c'mon. I know it's childish, but just look at the sign (in Ho Chi Minh City).



6. Okay, so this one is staged, but my Travelling Bubbles just looked so cute ready to fire on helpless tourists from a helicopter at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.


7. No, don't let it snow, hotel in Ho Chi Minh City! I like the "warm" winter well enough, thank you.



8. The Vietnamese take great pride in depicting the means with which the local populace fought the American hordes, but I found this mural at the Cu Chi Tunnels exhibit just outside Ho Chi Minh City just perhaps a bit too... gleeful?


9. Perhaps its a cheese thing, but I love the use of the Laughing Cow at a night market food stand in Ho Chi Minh City to illustrate that Pho (basically the national dish of Vietnam and wonderful to boot) comes in Cow and Chicken varieties.


10. It took me several times to read the sign below, and I am still not convinced that it is meant to be written in English. How would one even say "nigth"?



11. I may have, in a fir of stupidity, deleted my image of the "Merry Christmas" Huey, positioned behind Santa and his sleigh in front of a Mall just outside Ho Chi Minh City's airport, but they obviously extended the display's life by changing its well-wishing purpose. I made it back just as they were taking down the "Happy New Year" Huey display - whew!



12. Okay, this is not really a "funny" picture, but rather the back of the head shot of a complete @r$ehole who, on the flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City, found that there was no space in the overhead locker to put his own bag in, so removed my travelling companion's and chucked it on the seat next to him so he could put his own in, and then left that bag sitting next to him. Our howls of dismay were just greeted with a very "suck on that" smile. A nice man in the row behind him resolved the bag situation, but there were many evil glares directed this man's way. Send your own evil thoughts to him though the medium of the cybersphere, please.



Verdict: There are more "amusing" photos that I will add at a later date. Boy, how I love travelling! Some photos out of a few more.