Thought I’d share with you a few random observations I've made since touching down on Asian soil:
1. Vietnamese people
On the whole they're very friendly, have great respect for teachers, will say hello in the street and are keen to practise what little English they know. University students often sit in the parks in the hope of practising spoken English with the teachers and western tourists, some also asking you to complete short surveys as part of their studies.
Walking back from a bar in the wee small hours once I passed a taxi driver cleaning his cab – after taking a look at this tall, western girl wearing a short skirt and vest top he hissed, shouted and then threw something in my vicinity. Being alone at that time is generally safe unless you carry a shoulder bag (a magnet for bag snatchers on scooters), but my sceptical gland is enlarged here and there was no way I was about to stop, turn and look at this joker. More fool me, it was only when I got home I found a button missing from my skirt – the button the taxi driver was trying to return to me (albeit by hissing and throwing it) when it fell on the pavement! They’re a good bunch after all.
A small percentage do like to stare as you walk by. I can well imagine a tall, slim, pale western girl with wider hips and bigger boobs (I know I'm no Katie Price) than the average Asian woman would be cause to stare if I were Vietnamese, but during my ‘off-days’ I can't help myself but to stare back, returning the 'alien-like' look I'm receiving. And the lady who pointed at me as she rode past on her scooter in Nha Trang - well, what could I do but immediately point at her, opening my mouth aghast to show my shock at seeing a Vietnamese person in Vietnam – ‘cos Buddha forbid there should be a westerner in a tourist hotspot!
They are also fairly unaware of the world around them. It's probably mainly due to being a communist country and spending years in schools having opinions drilled in to them in line with government thinking. But even talking to well educated Vietnamese teaching assistants who have the desire to travel, it becomes apparent that they have little knowledge of the world and (more worryingly) see no reason to ever question anything (again probably due to their dictatorial style of education system). Free thinking is even frowned upon when studying degrees such a philosophy. So having a debate with my class of Intermediate level seniors took a while, but did eventually evoke some interesting free-thinking responses: who knows what it could start!
2. Spatial awareness
To be frank - it simply doesn't exist here: as in many Asian countries. People don't queue, nor do they move out of the way. Waiting and turn taking are also alien concepts (except where my students are concerned: they all forms lines during games and wait for their turn until I utter the magic word ‘go’! Gotta love having so much power!). There are few car parks here; those there are exist only under newly built department stores or blocks of flats. As a result scooters are parked anywhere and everywhere - usually on pavements next to barbers, restaurant tables, all kinds of street stalls and their sellers, xe-om drivers hassling you for business… the list could go on. The few who drive cars in the city park them 3 foot from the pavement as they have no idea what they are actually doing and are far more interested in flaunting their expensive motor as a status symbol, even though few can actually see over the steering wheel!
3. Exercise
Vietnamese people are told from a young age that participating in sports will make you taller (yes, really)! As a child who detested PE in school and now stands at 5’10”, I can vouch that this is not the secret to eternal lankiness. However, many of my students participate in badminton in the hope of growing tall and strong. Roadside gyms overflow with weedy men trying to emulate the posters of American body builders that adorn the doorway. But walking - why would you want to do a thing like that? Apparently, this action is not classified as exercise and it’s an alien concept that anyone would actually choose to put one foot in front of the other for more than 20 yards. Why do that, after all you have your battered Honda wave scooter to take you from A to A + 20 yards. So as I stride down the many pavements of Saigon (dodging all the aforementioned clutter found on them as I go) every xe-om and taxi driver I pass slows down/honks their horns/shouts ‘motto-bike miss’ and seem bewildered when I say I like to walk.
"You want motto-bike?"
I could go on, but I’ve no doubt you’ve better things to do than listening to my eternal ramblings.
A xx
