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30 January 2011

Vietnam–part 2

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

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An initial picture, in case we’d have to id them later.

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Explaining the various ethnicities in Vietnam using a dirt.

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A funeral car, believe it or not. The custom is to throw lots of fake money in the air during a funeral. I guess if your relatives make it rain during your funeral, you’ll have plenty of money it the afterlife? We’re not sure.

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The original (and still the best) use of the swastika. This is an interfaith temple, where Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists are all welcome.

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Patching up the road, in his free time.

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A pineapple stand. Why pineapple? We were passing by a pineapple plantation. It’s like that all throughout the highways – a bunch of small stands with a specific snack, from snack-specific people. The owner kept repeating in Vietnamese how beautiful Abby was: “*gibberish gibberish* Miss Universe! *gibberish*” At one point, Abby was grabbed by the side and arm, and then even spanked. I decided to overlook it, since the owner is a 60-some-old lady who kindly machete’d our pineapples. 

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The kids kept shouting ‘hi,’ waving, and running after us.

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Local candy to local children. They bite.

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Tapioca to be used in animal feed. Drying.

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Dinner over soccer. All family style.

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Catholic church.

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The gathering hut in a village. Tribal on the outside…

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…Commie on the inside

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Playing an ancient xylophone with the tribal leader. He only speaks French.

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That’s an actual house. Notice – nowhere to plug your iPhone.

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Coffee is the local specialty. And it’s always drying.

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Watermelon stand this time. With the local coffee: strong coffee, cyphered  directly into the cup, mixed with condensed milk.  Abby’s new favorite.

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Rubber trees.

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Kitchen at one of the restaurants we ate in.

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Pepper trees.

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The workers are returning home after a day out in the field. They are driving some sort of a pre-industrial engine, controlling it by pulling levers and physically moving the machine to turn.

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Mushroom growing.

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A museum memorial to the Vietnamese political prisoners, tortured under the French rule.

 

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Home-manufactured rice paper, noodles, and English lessons.

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Small scale brick factory. Out in the middle of nowhere. Where the mud is just right.

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Notice the ping pong table. We camped out in this guy’s house and played two-on-two, after he put that Fred the snake away.

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House-stay at a village. It’s party night: the village leader’s daughter got a promotion and became a teacher, so we drank beers by the case, and barbecued squid and crawfish.

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The ladies doing the dishes after the party.

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Our accommodation. Not seen in the picture: mice droppings, bed bugs, foam pillows.

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After a rainy night we were woken up by an elephant going through our front yard in search of a snack.

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Geese shepherd. Not sure what the official term is, but the guy maneuvers geese with a long stick.

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The green bags, raincoat, and rainpants, all courtesy of Toni.

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A temple and a layer of drying coffee beans.

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Laughing Buddha. He’s never particularly sad, but this one is really happy.

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behind a waterfall. Soaked..

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Silk factory. Those things get stripped and then boiled.

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