The People and Culture.
I've been to Vietnam once before when i was 15 and revisiting everything again was such a shock because everything was so different.
Before no one spoke a word of English unless u were in the army,the toilets were the old ones in the floor where you had to squat, and there wasn't as much cars or air conditioning around.
but now everything is completely different, everywhere you go people knew English, not as much as Aussies, but they were able to sell you their product, before i would bump into someone and say sorry with them giving me weird looks.
when my uncle took us to the beach, the beach was completely empty, he told us that people usually go for swims when the sun isnt out, it was just so different from how it would be like for us in Australia, the beaches being packed out on a blazing hot day. my uncle and our driver woke up at 6am just for a swim that day.
Fashion
Everyone weres anything comfy like PJs, , they dont wear the clothes we do.. they wear long sleeves even tho its 30 degrees! but everyone is just use to the heat.. and they dont want to be so tanned that they are black. when we went to the water parks all the men were in underpants and the girls were in shirts and knee lenght shorts.. i was the only girl in a bikini.. lol!
my brother was like "Man! even at a pool they are covered up.." LOL
the only time they wear nice clothes are to weddings :)
thats my Aunty, shes awesome! =D
i asked my uncle and aunty weather they still have the women doing everything for the men in vietnam and my uncle said no, that stopped ages ago. my uncle works for the government but he only makes $85AUD a month, while my aunty who works at a high end hotel makes $600AUD a month, so my uncle said that when his free he cooks, when shes free she cooks, its all even.
in the north was so beautiful now, they now employ people to cut the grass and maintain the gardens every day now, i asked my cousin how much they get paid she told me the government pays them about $100AUD a month.
i asked quine, my boss that because Vietnam is still a Communist country then why are there rich people there? she said that the rich people there just dont say anything.. or cant.. i think? but i think what they have now is pretty good. they are able to still be equal and people are just okay with it.
everywhere you go, there will be street food, and most people i've talked to say that the street food is usually the best, im normally concerned about street food cause i dont want to be coming out of both ends like i was last time, but i have had some street food that did taste amazing.
The portions of food over there are so small.. but everyone eats breakfast, lunch and dinner there everyday.. unless your so poor..?
but i think how they eat is great.. they never over eat and it just balanced. no extra animal needs to die for someone to just become obese.
the traffic in Vietnam is nothing like Australia, but oddly enough it looks like we have much more accidents here then they do in Vietnam. Driving to tuyets area i noticed a lot of different things, when the driving wanted to switch lanes in the dark they would put their hazard lights on and go into the other side of the road, when there were no street lights on they would flick there highbeams to warn the cars in front of them, and they would beep to get people out of the way lol.
i was able to get a ride on the scooter when i was with my dads family, we drove for about half an hour to our fishing area it was so great cause you experience everything around you first hand (sort of) but it was really unbearable to keep my eyes open cause of all the wind, so i closed my eyes and you can smell everything, the burning wheat, the towns/suburbs we passed, the street food.. it was awesome.
my brother and uncle fishing, never seen a boat quite like that. though, the fishes my uncle cause were amazing! we liked it so much that my family bought us more fish the next day.. but it didnt compare to the freshly caught fish.
the money has inproved a lot since i was there last.. and when lana was there about 10 or so years ago, they money they had was made out of paper. she brought some back and my aunty said that a while back they had a thing on the newspaper that said that they will completely stop using the old money from a certain date, lana had so much old viet money that she was no longer able to use.
my aunty also said that Australia makes their money now, which sorta explains why it was the same as our money.
my aunties from my dads side, they are so sweet. the older aunty is my dads oldest sister, and when we met up with her it was the funniest thing! she saw my brother and kept screaming "OMG OMG!@! JAZ! YOU'RE SO BIG!!!" then she saw me.. lol.. and said i looked normal.. then went back to jaz.. haha she also kept squeezing my brothers boobs! whenever shes talking to someone else, shes touching my brothers boobs.. it was so funny!
we then lined up to see 'Ho Chi Minh' and dave was standing in front of my aunty, she was then going to grab daves ass with both hands and her son slapped her hands and said "No! no grabbing strangers butts" LOL shes so cute. i told me dad and my dad said that older people are just like that.
compared to the last time we were here there wasnt much people begging as there use to be, this guy was the only street performer i saw, he was holding a chair and all his stuff and walked straight into lana at first, i thought he was just being rude cause he completely bumped into her.. but we then realised he has no eyes..
he was so nice though.. there was also a police around him to assist him.. and i guess to stop people from stealing from him cause his blind.
My uncle also told me that when you fit a certain age you can not work anymore, so if you dont have your won buisness or a family to support you, you end up on the streets, either starving to death or trying to sell lottery tickets. Warren also told me that if you had a family and u were dying from an illness or something, your family can just leave you and find a new family.
My 3 year old cousin drinking beer.. over here the men are allowed to do anything, smoke, drink.. etc.. but i never see women smoking.. unless they are foreigners. i use to think that everyone these days were smokers.. and that you couldn't stop people anymore cause they were all just addicted. but when i went to Vietnam i was so pleased to see that all i was obsessing over were Australians. in a place where there are no restrictions people still chose not to.
we went to a cocktail bar.. which wasn't actually a bar.. it was a couple of chairs and tables outside of a park.. with a guy mixing up some drinks. he makes nice drinks i must say. there is also a bong at some street places, and its suppose to get you to a state of drunk with just one puff.. i think its funny cause it looks like a bong.
This was our first traditional Vietnamese wedding.. in Vietnam! its everything i expected. because warren was getting married, a big white guy.. lol, random peole driving scooters stopped in front of warrens house to watch.. there was such a big crowd of people watching warren!!
his wedding was so sweet though, the speech was so nice i wanted to cry.. lol!
but it was so tough for warren, it was so hot that day, he had to be in a suit all day and because he was so busy he wasnt able to eat or even drink anything.
the water parks has a thing to bring the floaties up!! WE SHOULD HAVE THAT!
cows in the country side :)
