Vietnam sights & thoughs

Listed and noted in no particular order Vietnam things that we note and have  spotted. Not even sure if they are relevant, true or even noteworthy but as they were different from what we are used to, they stuck out and made us comment.

• Dog meat at the market, defiantly dog as it's sold with head.

• The Vietnamese believe in specialism, and then grouping the specialism. we passed 4 shops selling large safes today. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that this was the only place in Vietnam you could buy a safe; but if you did want one then here was certainly the place to go.

• This is not a tactile country, at least not between the sexes, you do not hold hands, you do not kiss in public.

• Bai Hoi (Lit. Fresh Beer) or draft beer is really one to try! It is made locally and only has a shelf life of a day or so therefore must be sold fairly cheap, it's between 6,000 and 8,000 dong a 1/2 liter. (nb this is an Italian pre-euro sort of currency; £1 = 33,000 dong You just have to get used to knocking three zeros off everything, it certainly helps with working out where the decimal point ought to go!) It tastes really good and was apparently brought over in the 1950's by the Czechs during the cold war. I also read that it was not a one way street as the Czecks now import a lot of Vietnamese hops.

• Dentists with a difference, i did not have my camera to hand - we were walking with full rucksacks from the bus station to our b&b  so I did not get a snap but we walked past about 7 dentist surgeries. We recognized them as such because all of them had the whole of the surgery  visible from the street... very clean floor to ceiling windows looking straight into the chair. Was this to provide the general population with some free entertainment, watch me torture this poor soul or the exact opposite... I never hurt anyone: stay watch and I'll prove it!

• We did the night bus from Hanoi to Hue.... and realised for all the geography geeks that this country is really a ribbon development, it is ling and thin and the main Highway 1 that links Hanoi to Saigon is really the only major road in the country. All through the night there were houses, shops, garages  restaurants  factories and workshops, there was hardly any green space, well green space next to the road..... Obvious when you think about it but I think Vietnam's Highway 1 could make a concerted claim to be the biggest ribbon settlement in the world.