Bits of Vietnam
While sitting in a cafe one afternoon, we watched this guy selling goldfish from the back of his bike. At first, it seemed kind of strange because who would be driving by on this busy road, see the guy and think, “Oh yeah, gotta pick up some fish”, then swerve to the curb. Yet, this occurred no less than five times while we were sitting there.
On the first day of our motorbike tour through central Vietnam, one of our guides answered some of our language questions over lunch. Among other things, I was curious about some of the signs I frequently saw whipping by that said “thit cay”. It turns out that this is an advertisement for dog meat for sale. And they weren’t few or far between. Even better were the signs advertising “thit cay to”, puppy meat.
We stayed one night in a small resort just outside of the city of Buon Ma Thuot. Over breakfast the next morning, we watched as some of the construction of the newest part of the resort was underway. At one point, the guy inside the digger that was perched on top of a small mountain of dirt, paused in his loading of a dump truck and beeped the horn. This was a sign for the dump truck driver at the table next to us to take a coffee over to the digger-guy. Carefully balancing the cup, he walked over to the massive shovel and stood inside it. The machine operator then slowly lifted the coffee-bearer up to window height where the cup was passed though the window.
Scooters in Vietnam can be used to transport anything.
We don’t have a picture, but we’ve seen pigs in bamboo baskets strapped to the backs of scooters, too.
We stopped in one tiny village in the mountains to visit some of the Montagnards, the descendants of the earliest inhabitants of Vietnam who used to live independently in the jungle. The kids were especially happy to see us (foreigners = candy) and one little guy peddled his younger sibling over to see us.
Near Lak Lake, we couldn’t stop laughing at this kid who apparently would take a nap wherever he stopped. His mother and aunt were making bamboo baskets nearby.
Outside the city of Hoi An, we learned about a religion known as Cao Dai. I just happened to notice a temple in a village we were passing through and, because it didn’t look like anything I’d seen before, I asked our guide about it and he took us through. The religion is a combination of “the best parts” of Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and others. The alter is topped with an all-seeing eye and a painting inside depicts Victor Hugo as one of the saints of the religion. Fascinating to learn about something of which I had never heard.