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Other entries in Vĩnh Long

I'M the tourist

K. so I got some flak a while ago for that foto I took of all the other tourists taking pics of the dancing kids. the reminder was not to forget that I'm a tourist too. well, I'm here to say that yeah, that concept doesn't escape me. especially now with my smashed camera. so much for being polite and/or discreet - I now have to take 5-10 of every shot just to make sure one of them will turn out. I'm so snap happy I annoy myself.

anywhoo....the tour was great! funny, I met this aussie dude during the border crossing and all his advice has turned out to be wrong. you CAN find rooms for less than $10 (Im in the biggest city in viet nam for $3 a night), internet IS wicked fast, and he said the tour (I just took) was lame. what an idiot. he gave worse advice than lonely planet.

we saw floating markets, a rice noodle factory, a floating fish farm (10,000 fish underneath the house), weaving, I bought ice cream from a woman paddling her boat next to ours (3 scoops in a rice paper sandwich for 10 cents). we saw the tide come in and go out, we stayed with mr huan and his family, I fell asleep in a hamoc in the rain, their puppy nibbled on my ankle, we made fresh spring rolls, I talked american football and hockey with the french canadians (!) but in no time talk turned to the world cup and EVERYONE joined in (btw - it starts in a few days and is all the talk of backpacker land. for those of you totally not following, I mean football, as in soccer, it's in germany this year & starts 9 june. :), the chinese grandma sitting next to me on the boat fell asleep on my shoulder. I took pics when she wasn't looking. so did mr huan. we must've looked silly to get a local to take fotos of tourists. we crossed the HUGE mekong river on a ferry in the rain.

now I'm in ho chi mihn city (aka saigon). here for a few days to visit museums of more war atrocities - this time those that my own country played a huge role in. they call it the american war, here. makes sense.

some updates on aisan olympics:

seen on motorbikes: 2 guys + a sheet of glass 3 x 4 ft, a guy & a glass case full of bean buns, 2 guys + 10ft bamboo poles, ONE guy and 2 huge patio umbrellas. cathleens son wants to publish a book of fotos titled "so you dont have a truck?" - I love it!

and a new entry: "pimp my shack" - came up with this one while we were painting the school house. it'd be a tv show where they give 2 families from the slums $500 to spruce up their shacks, then the public votes the winner. in cambodia, you can do a LOT with $500, especially if you're a local, so the results would probably be pretty good. over time, you'd spruce up the slums without it being a full-on handout.

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