Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
ESL Video for Children: The Tale of the Sun and the Moon
"The Tale of the Sun and the Moon" is a lullaby about why the sun is up during the day and the moon is out at night. It's somewhat of a platonic love song about two best friends who can't really be together as much as they would like. The song is from the CD, Snail's Pace, by Eric Herman (also available on his The Kid in the Mirror album), and was adapted from a poem by Kenn Nesbitt. The illustrations in the video were made by Lauren Wilson and the video was conceived and directed by Eric and Roseann Endres.
Eric Herman's website: http://www.EricHermanMusic.com
Kenn Nesbitt's website: http://www.poetry4kids.com
Lauren Wilson contact: laurenwilsonart (at) gmail dot dom
Friday, November 07, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Music for Children: Blackbeard, Bluebeard & Redbeard - A Pirate Story by Eric Herman
EricHermanMusic — September 17, 2008 — http://www.erichermanmusic.com/ytcds....
To celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th (and every other pirate holiday throughout the year), Eric Herman presents "Blackbeard, Bluebeard and Redbeard", a video depicting the story of three famous pirates who sailed together on a most colorful voyage. Definitely not as violent as the Family Guy pirate chase video, but funny tongue-in-cheek humor.
The full lyrics and chords for this song can be found here:http://www.erichermanmusic.com/Blackb...
This song, which was voted the "Best Children's Song" in 2006 by the Just Plain Folks organization, was written in collaboration with Kenn Nesbitt, a popular funny poetry author whose work can be read at http://www.poetry4kids.com The video was animated and directed by Eric's wife, Roseann Endres, and Eric and Roseann worked closely together to create the video.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Vietnam to Invest $1Billion USD on Internet Broadband
Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group will expand and improve the network over the next two years, said Bui Quoc Viet, spokesman for the state-owned firm.
The improved network will provide faster connections for Vietnam's nearly 19 million Internet users, he said. Roughly one-fifth of the country's 85 million people use the Internet.
"Vietnam is developing very quickly, and the number of Internet users is rising," Viet said. "We have to build a better Internet infrastructure."
The Vietnamese government wants to expand the country's broadband network into previously unserved regions of the country and link public high schools and government offices to the network.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
2007 Sailing into a New Year - Sicily to Malta
New Year’s Eve Pozzallo, Sicily to Malta
Travel Summary:
Although it would be very difficult to find out how to find how to take a train/ship trip to Malta from central Europe, it can be done with a bit of effort.
You would need to make your way to Napoli (Naples) first and assuming you came down by train, after arriving at the central station, go out to the tram stop in front of the station and take Tram #1 towards the port. Not that long a ride and actually it could be walked if you are traveling lightly.
This tram will go a few stops, take a turn to the right along the main industrial port frontage and after a few more stops, you will come to an open area on the port side where a large terminal building is and a café. You will also notice a booking/tour service building with the name “Ontano”. Get out at this stop (Colombo) and go to their office.
Here you can book a ticket to the eastern Sicilian port city of ‘Catania’. The ship’s name will be the M/n Partenope which is actually a huge truck ferry with passenger facilities on the 4th and 5th deck. A ticket can be purchased for the 11 hour night passage for 46 Euro with the ship’s departure at 21:00. It is interesting to note after I had a pleasant conversation with one of the ship’s officers that these trucks pay 25 Euro per meter.
It is possible to take a ferry from Catania directly to Malta but during the winter this ferry only runs once a week which is on Saturdays. If you miss that, you need to go further south to Pozzallo.
Unless you wish to pay 170 Euro for for a taxi to take you the remaining 140 kilometers, you need to take a bus. The only service in town that makes it that far south is called “AST” and you will find their ticketing office across the street from the main train station. Two buses supposedly make this journey each day, one at 11AM and another at 1:30 PM. The price is 7.90 Euro and the last bus will get you to the port town at 16:10, 10 minutes after the second ferry leaves for Malta at 16:00 (2 ferries a day, one at 9AM and the last at 4PM). Finding a place to stay in town is no problem and decent places can be had for 40 Euro or so. I stayed at a place called Hotel Ada and find both it and the people to be a very pleasant place to stay.
The ticket for the ‘world’s fastest ferry’ (as it is advertised on their posters) can be purchased in the town of Pozzallo at the Virtu Ferries Office or at the port for 47 Euro. The ship is a large catamaran and the journey takes 1.5 to 2 hours depending on how rough the weather and seas are. Upon arrival, there are no customs or immigration anymore as Malta has now joined the EU.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Napoli to Catania - At Sea heading south into the Med
M/n Partenope – Napoli to Catania
By Teacher Charlie
The ship’s engines are winding up as the deck under me begins to shake and the passenger level I have set up my quarters for the evening begins to vibrate. It is 21:00 and the first leg of my most recent sea journey into the Mediterranean is about to begin.
This leg will take me south out of the chaos of humanity that the Italians call ‘Napoli’ (Naples) to the eastern port city on the Sicilian coast called ‘Catania’. Rumor has it that it should take about 11 hours, give or take a wave or two and get us there on the morning the day before New Year’s Eve.
Not sure what awaits me near the ancient city of Sycracuse, but thus far, from Rome to Naples, I wasn’t sure if I was in African or Europe as at times I seemed to have stepped into a central African republic. In this morning’s IHT there was an article about the serious problems the Greeks were having with their islands and the immigration flood but based on what I have seen personally from the Canary Islands to Italy, everyone along the southern tier of Europe is becoming overwhelmed with the influx of humanity.
It was only a few days ago that once again the EU added another chunk including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Baltic Republics and even the British speaking island of Malta. Cyprus also adopted the Euro but the immigration controls remain. (I also noted in the same week that the European Central Bank added another 500 billion dollars, but for what? To support this expansion or help slow the economic meltdown?)
Even though border and immigration controls are supposedly “ending’ and the frontiers expanding, based on the 3 passport controls I had on my train trip south out of Germany, two at one stop in Lugano by separate groups of police, the facts seem to be far different than the propaganda…and that was heading south! One can only wonder what it would be like on a night train heading north out of Italy.
As I continue to type these notes, a rolling motion commences and I am sure we have cleared the breakwater at the end of what is a very long quay. The mind numbing TV shows have stopped temporarily for a guide on how to rescue your butt should the ship start to sink. Hopefully there are no soccer matches on tonight for the crew to watch and everyone keeps tuned in to the tasks at hand unlike the occasional Greek ship that ends up at the bottom of the Med.
The ticket for this leg was 46 Euro although I got a sneaking feeling that the ‘local’ rate is a bit cheaper. One thing I did notice related to this at the train station was that when I started to buy a ticket from the ticket machines in Rome, that the ticket was 33 Euro but when an Italian guy came up and suggested he do it for me (in Italian), the same ticket on the same train in the same class was 19.50 Euro. I am use to this 2-tier practice in Asia but this was my first experience here in Europe (recently) for a two level pricing structure for locals and foreigners. The guy asked for money for ‘café’ and as I had just saved a considerable sum, I gave him 2 Euro.
Rome was pleasant enough with a few adventures along the way. Didn’t get a chance to see the German Pope, but honestly that would be on the bottom of my wish list of life’s adventures and things to do.
The 3 days there were decent at the beginning and end with a middle day of very light cold rain. Just as well, as I was exhausted and spent a good part of the day in my room working on photos and such. Have an album to upload called ‘Clocks of Rome’ but given the Internet paranoia the Italian’s have, that will have to wait for a more ‘user friendly’ environment.
It became obvious very quickly that the Internet in Italy is viewed as a evil tool of the devil. It seems that in an effort to control the ‘devil’, or the free flow of information and knowledge not controlled by the fascist state or the church, you have to register your use with the police each and every time you use it. Go figure.
The same country that gave us Operation Gladio, Mussolini, the concept of Fascism, the Inquisition, the Crusades, etc., etc., now want to make sure that the Internet is controlled by the same ruling elite….but there is no lack of sex and long legged dames on their TV. Sex and war is good for business. Same shit, just a different day.
Reminds me also that while I was watching this same TV I discovered that Bhutto in Pakistan finally got her brains blown out (I was surprised it took that long), but the US government is trying to calm everyone’s fears by assuring us that Pakistan’s nukes are ‘secure’ and that US Special Forces will start entering the country after the beginning of the new year. For what purposes seems a bit unclear. Sounds perfectly normal in a totally insane world right?
Let me see if I am interpreting this correctly however. The US is helping secure the Pakistani nuclear arsenal while only a few months ago a B-52 bomber with nukes strapped under its wings loaded into operational cruise missiles is discovered ‘accidentally’ hours after it lands in a US middle-east staging base in Louisiana (like with 911, just forget all the technical details about how such a thing is impossible to happen with the explanations given).
“Oooppss…sorry folks….we misplaced them for awhile”, but when someone ratted on us and turned us in, we had to admit they were ‘missing’. Now we got the same boys ‘locking down’ Pakistani nukes. God help us all! I feel sooooo much better…don’t you?
But you know what? I suspect all these kind folks around me with all their smiling and happy families staring fixated onto the idiot boxes know nothing about any of the above. If it isn’t in the elite’s press or media and doesn’t serve their agenda, it simply doesn’t get reported. And since the Net is for those evil foreign devils and American conspiracy theorists (and we know all about how crazy they are), what you see is what you get….but sex and soccer seem real popular everywhere around here.
Of course it is this same thinking and control that brought us Mussolini and Hitler, but we all know that could never happen again…right? And remember their stories after the Reichstag was burned and the staged Polish attack.
I am passionate about the Internet and I fear that its’ days are numbered as we know it and grew to love it. 2008 will be a pivotal year for it and its demise is underway as we know it.
As the tall black man took my passport to control it in Naples when I went to use it today, he clearly stated it was the law by the police and what was wrong with that…in a rather funny, quizzical way? I asked him if he did the same thing for people placing calls in his phone boxes. The answer was “no”…of course.
I guess it is OK for one uniformed and unaware person to spread the word but we sure as hell want to make sure that we know who is looking at information from the outside. He also mentioned in a rather surprised way that the police can now enter your home anytime they want for anything they want here in Italy. New law here….same as the new law to do the same in the USA.
Hmmmmmm Hitler protected the Germans from the Communist (as did Operation Gladio in Italy) and today we are being protected from the ‘Terrorist’. I feel so much better and safer. Don’t you?
Oh joy…now the Village People’s song ‘Macho Macho Man’ is now playing on 4 TVs around me…..in stereo…and next to them are 5 amazingly sexy, long legged beauties in not much more than their birthday suits….sorry, I mis-spoke…there are a few straps of cloth wrapped around certain strategic assets. Guess you got to please every type of sexual persuasion in a properly ‘harmonized’ Europe. I have to admit however, it is hard not to focus on the screen's carnival!
I am literally sailing into a new year but I do wonder if the sheeple wonder, or even care about what lies before them in 2008? Naaaaaa….and those that do and care beyond today, are insane....
New Year’s Eve Pozzallo, Sicily to Malta
Travel Summary:
Although it would be very difficult to find out how to find how to take a train/ship trip to Malta from central Europe, it can be done with a bit of effort.
You would need to make your way to Napoli (Naples) first and assuming you came down by train, after arriving at the central station, go out to the tram stop in front of the station and take Tram #1 towards the port. Not that long a ride and actually it could be walked if you are traveling lightly.
This tram will go a few stops, take a turn to the right along the main industrial port frontage and after a few more stops, you will come to an open area on the port side where a large terminal building is and a café. You will also notice a booking/tour service building with the name “Ontano”. Get out at this stop (Colombo) and go to their office.
Here you can book a ticket to the eastern Sicilian port city of ‘Catania’. The ship’s name will be the M/n Partenope which is actually a huge truck ferry with passenger facilities on the 4th and 5th deck. A ticket can be purchased for the 11 hour night passage for 46 Euro with the ship’s departure at 21:00. It is interesting to note after I had a pleasant conversation with one of the ship’s officers that these trucks pay 25 Euro per meter.
It is possible to take a ferry from Catania directly to Malta but during the winter this ferry only runs once a week which is on Saturdays. If you miss that, you need to go further south to Pozzallo.
Unless you wish to pay 170 Euro for for a taxi to take you the remaining 140 kilometers, you need to take a bus. The only service in town that makes it that far south is called “AST” and you will find their ticketing office across the street from the main train station. Two buses supposedly make this journey each day, one at 11AM and another at 1:30 PM. The price is 7.90 Euro and the last bus will get you to the port town at 16:10, 10 minutes after the second ferry leaves for Malta at 16:00 (2 ferries a day, one at 9AM and the last at 4PM). Finding a place to stay in town is no problem and decent places can be had for 40 Euro or so. I stayed at a place called Hotel Ada and find both it and the people to be a very pleasant place to stay.
The ticket for the ‘world’s fastest ferry’ (as it is advertised on their posters) can be purchased in the town of Pozzallo at the Virtu Ferries Office or at the port for 47 Euro. The ship is a large catamaran and the journey takes 1.5 to 2 hours depending on how rough the weather and seas are. Upon arrival, there are no customs or immigration anymore as Malta has now joined the EU.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Napoli to Catania - At Sea heading south into the Med
M/n Partenope – Napoli to Catania
By Saigon Charlie
The ship’s engines are winding up as the deck under me begins to shake and the passenger level I have set up my quarters for the evening begins to vibrate. It is 21:00 and the first leg of my most recent sea journey into the Mediterranean is about to begin.
This leg will take me south out of the chaos of humanity that the Italians call ‘Napoli’ (Naples) to the eastern port city on the Sicilian coast called ‘Catania’. Rumor has it that it should take about 11 hours, give or take a wave or two and get us there on the morning the day before New Year’s Eve.
Not sure what awaits me near the ancient city of Sycracuse, but thus far, from Rome to Naples, I wasn’t sure if I was in African or Europe as at times I seemed to have stepped into a central African republic. In this morning’s IHT there was an article about the serious problems the Greeks were having with their islands and the immigration flood but based on what I have seen personally from the Canary Islands to Italy, everyone along the southern tier of Europe is becoming overwhelmed with the influx of humanity.
It was only a few days ago that once again the EU added another chunk including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Baltic Republics and even the British speaking island of Malta. Cyprus also adopted the Euro but the immigration controls remain. (I also noted in the same week that the European Central Bank added another 500 billion dollars, but for what? To support this expansion or help slow the economic meltdown?)
Even though border and immigration controls are supposedly “ending’ and the frontiers expanding, based on the 3 passport controls I had on my train trip south out of Germany, two at one stop in Lugano by separate groups of police, the facts seem to be far different than the propaganda…and that was heading south! One can only wonder what it would be like on a night train heading north out of Italy.
As I continue to type these notes, a rolling motion commences and I am sure we have cleared the breakwater at the end of what is a very long quay. The mind numbing TV shows have stopped temporarily for a guide on how to rescue your butt should the ship start to sink. Hopefully there are no soccer matches on tonight for the crew to watch and everyone keeps tuned in to the tasks at hand unlike the occasional Greek ship that ends up at the bottom of the Med.
The ticket for this leg was 46 Euro although I got a sneaking feeling that the ‘local’ rate is a bit cheaper. One thing I did notice related to this at the train station was that when I started to buy a ticket from the ticket machines in Rome, that the ticket was 33 Euro but when an Italian guy came up and suggested he do it for me (in Italian), the same ticket on the same train in the same class was 19.50 Euro. I am use to this 2-tier practice in Asia but this was my first experience here in Europe (recently) for a two level pricing structure for locals and foreigners. The guy asked for money for ‘café’ and as I had just saved a considerable sum, I gave him 2 Euro.
Rome was pleasant enough with a few adventures along the way. Didn’t get a chance to see the German Pope, but honestly that would be on the bottom of my wish list of life’s adventures and things to do.
The 3 days there were decent at the beginning and end with a middle day of very light cold rain. Just as well, as I was exhausted and spent a good part of the day in my room working on photos and such. Have an album to upload called ‘Clocks of Rome’ but given the Internet paranoia the Italian’s have, that will have to wait for a more ‘user friendly’ environment.
It became obvious very quickly that the Internet in Italy is viewed as a evil tool of the devil. It seems that in an effort to control the ‘devil’, or the free flow of information and knowledge not controlled by the fascist state or the church, you have to register your use with the police each and every time you use it. Go figure.
The same country that gave us Operation Gladio, Mussolini, the concept of Fascism, the Inquisition, the Crusades, etc., etc., now want to make sure that the Internet is controlled by the same ruling elite….but there is no lack of sex and long legged dames on their TV. Sex and war is good for business. Same shit, just a different day.
Reminds me also that while I was watching this same TV I discovered that Bhutto in Pakistan finally got her brains blown out (I was surprised it took that long), but the US government is trying to calm everyone’s fears by assuring us that Pakistan’s nukes are ‘secure’ and that US Special Forces will start entering the country after the beginning of the new year. For what purposes seems a bit unclear. Sounds perfectly normal in a totally insane world right?
Let me see if I am interpreting this correctly however. The US is helping secure the Pakistani nuclear arsenal while only a few months ago a B-52 bomber with nukes strapped under its wings loaded into operational cruise missiles is discovered ‘accidentally’ hours after it lands in a US middle-east staging base in Louisiana (like with 911, just forget all the technical details about how such a thing is impossible to happen with the explanations given).
“Oooppss…sorry folks….we misplaced them for awhile”, but when someone ratted on us and turned us in, we had to admit they were ‘missing’. Now we got the same boys ‘locking down’ Pakistani nukes. God help us all! I feel sooooo much better…don’t you?
But you know what? I suspect all these kind folks around me with all their smiling and happy families staring fixated onto the idiot boxes know nothing about any of the above. If it isn’t in the elite’s press or media and doesn’t serve their agenda, it simply doesn’t get reported. And since the Net is for those evil foreign devils and American conspiracy theorists (and we know all about how crazy they are), what you see is what you get….but sex and soccer seem real popular everywhere around here.
Of course it is this same thinking and control that brought us Mussolini and Hitler, but we all know that could never happen again…right? And remember their stories after the Reichstag was burned and the staged Polish attack.
I am passionate about the Internet and I fear that its’ days are numbered as we know it and grew to love it. 2008 will be a pivotal year for it and its demise is underway as we know it.
As the tall black man took my passport to control it in Naples when I went to use it today, he clearly stated it was the law by the police and what was wrong with that…in a rather funny, quizzical way? I asked him if he did the same thing for people placing calls in his phone boxes. The answer was “no”…of course.
I guess it is OK for one uniformed and unaware person to spread the word but we sure as hell want to make sure that we know who is looking at information from the outside. He also mentioned in a rather surprised way that the police can now enter your home anytime they want for anything they want here in Italy. New law here….same as the new law to do the same in the USA.
Hmmmmmm Hitler protected the Germans from the Communist (as did Operation Gladio in Italy) and today we are being protected from the ‘Terrorist’. I feel so much better and safer. Don’t you?
Oh joy…now the Village People’s song ‘Macho Macho Man’ is now playing on 4 TVs around me…..in stereo…and next to them are 5 amazingly sexy, long legged beauties in not much more than their birthday suits….sorry, I mis-spoke…there are a few straps of cloth wrapped around certain strategic assets. Guess you got to please every type of sexual persuasion in a properly ‘harmonized’ Europe. I have to admit however, it is hard not to focus on the screen's carnival!
I am literally sailing into a new year but I do wonder if the sheeple wonder, or even care about what lies before them in 2008? Naaaaaa….and those that do and care beyond today, are insane....
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas Eve under a full moon and another train into the night
All for the love of a woman and dreams..........
Saturday, June 16, 2007
2007 Vietnam travel DOs and DON'Ts
- Do travel to
- Don’t gamble in their casinos as they are all massively rigged.
- Do travel by train in
- Don’t use travel agencies for train tickets as the price you are charged is considerably higher than the actual price if obtained at the station window.
- Do expect the trains to be considerably less comfortable than Thai trains and almost always behind schedule, even to the point of hours.
- Don’t buy electronic goods in
- Do expect an effort to be made to steal whatever electronic item you have on you by what is commonly known here as ‘Saigon Cowboys’ who commit the grab and run while on motorbikes. Also expect less violent theft at train stations and other public venues. Almost everyone I have spoke to who has been here for any length of time as had his phone, camera, laptop, etc. stolen but it is somehow accepted as the way things are, very unlike Thailand where such things very seldom happen.
- Don’t expect the police to assist you if you are robbed. They do not carry weapons and are totally ineffectual. They are a complete joke in
- Do carry toilet paper at all times as you often do not have napkins or tissues available at restaurants and of course, for that run to the toilet afterward.
- Don’t worry about malaria tablets. Toss them if you have them.
- Do however carry Tiger Balm, bandages and Band-Aids along with some decent antibiotics you picked up in
- DON’T get sick in
- Do drink their coffee if you like to wait lengthy periods between being served and actually having the ability of drinking what will mostly be 3 good sips at best as it drips into the cup beneath it. I like all forms of coffee but this method is not appealing to me in either form or taste.
- Do use
- Do expect free Internet and WiFi at most restaurants and cafes around Saigon as well as in
- Do expect VOA (Voice of America) Internet news and sites to be filtered and blocked by the Vietnamese government (www.voanews.com ) Not sure what else they block politically.
- Do expect to pay less for the local beer, Bovina than for a bottle of water. I have been in cafes where Bovina on the menu is 8,000 dong while the water was 15,000 dong. Other beers such as 333, San Miguel, Heineken, etc. are usually around 30,000 dong as they are beers that foreigners drink.
- Don’t expect wine to be inexpensive as that is expected to be drunk by foreigners and as in
- Do expect hotels, guest houses, restaurants, café and streets to be exceptional clean with few if any bugs.
- Do expect many building’s exteriors to be brightly colored along with their trim. Radically different than in
- Don’t expect huge differences in prices between a backpacker’s hostel room with bunk beds and a very nice hotel with all the trimmings. The difference is usually only between $7 for the hostel bunk and $15 for first rate accommodations.
- Do expect high quality postcards with very inexpensive rates for international mail. I have also discovered that all my cards reached their intended recipients in Germany in less than 2 weeks, but none reached the USA. Cheap rates however do not extend to sending items home!
- Do expect all post office personnel to be amazingly friendly and helpful. Every place I went I was stunned with how professional and friendly they were.
- Don’t expect your clothes to be ironed when you send them off to be laundered. Even when I ask for them to be ironed, they still come back wrinkled as hell. Seems the concept of an iron is Thai in nature, not Vietnamese.
- Do expect to pay 9-10,000 dong per kilo in
- Don’t expect to sleep late as
- Do get a room without a window which will cost less AND afford you some quiet from the noise of the street.
- Don’t expect elevators to be a common item which is one reason the higher you go, the cheaper the room, unlike in the west.
- Don’t expect Vietnamese to queue or line up at any public window or while boarding a bus, train, etc.
- Do expect to have a wide selection of TV channels on your hotel’s cable system ranging from the Discovery Channel to Chinese TV in English as well as many movie channels.
- Do expect to have hot water in your room from a central system instead of from wall heaters that seldom work as in
- Do expect the traffic to be insane, far beyond what you might have experienced in
- Don’t expect traffic lights, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings to give you ANY protection from vehicles. I have found it actually to be safer to hire a moto for a short distance than to walk there and I really like to stroll around cities.
- Do expect to use dollars as your primary currency while in
- Do expect to pay 10,000 dong for a moto ride just about anywhere you might want to go.
- Do expect to be able to rent a motorbike but don’t expect the rates to be cheap like in
- Don’t expect Vietnamese food to be anywhere as good as Thai food. It is also very ‘bland’ by comparison. I consider it much ‘heavier’ than Thai dishes.
- Do stay in the Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel and Hoa’s Place on
- Do use the Air France/KLM office in the Caravel Hotel in Saigon (next to the Sheraton) for some of the friendliest and most professional travel service I have experienced in
- Do have a beer and some damn good pub food at a place that has had its named changed to ‘The Office’ as I write this but has no signage yet. They are just down the street from the Sheraton in Saigon and have many different screens showing
- Do stay at the Orient Hotel in
- Do visit Finnegan;s Irish Pub in
- Do visit the Cho Dan Sinh Market not far from
- Do expect visas in
- Do expect English teachers to make double that of what you can make for the same amount of hours teaching in
- Do expect ‘local grown’ motobikes to be half the coast of similar models in
- Do expect there to be many options for playing golf in and around
- Do expect to find ATM’s EVERYWHERE!!!! And often times they are air-conditioned!
- Don’t go to any of the 100s of
- Do visit Nha Trang if you want to hit the beach as well as party your ass off at night. Sex and the City has nothing on this place.
- Do expect your electricity to be sporadic in places like
- Do expect to hear many conversations from travelers discussing a book called ‘Shantaram’ by Gregory David Roberts. Haven’t read it yet but it sounds pretty amazing.
- Don’t expect Vietnam Airlines flights out of the country to be cheap as their ticket prices are double what you might expect to pay as are other airlines flying to places like
- Do expect internal air flights to be a bit dodgy. VASCO equipment ‘shakes, rattles and rolls’ with bald tires and hot shot pilots being the norm as with Vietnam Airlines. Expect bus rides from airports such as in Chu Lai to be the ride of your life!
- Do expect to find a Mosque calling people to prayers in downtown
- Do expect to see some of the most amazing colonial architecture in both Hanoi and Saigon with places such as the post office and opera buildings in Saigon as good as it gets.
- Do expect an amazing day trip via Russian hydrofoil to Vung Tau at the mouth of the
- Do visit the ‘
- Do expect everyone you meet to have a business or name card. If you like to stay in touch with folks you meet along the way, good idea to get a 100 or so printed up with your contact information, web site or blog on it.
- Do expect an unending harassment from touts selling things as well as ‘shoe shine boys and men clapping or screaming at you to give you a moto ride while anywhere near a ‘tourist area’. Not bad once in other parts of town or in towns where there are few white faces.
- Do expect ‘fixed prices’ at many tourist shops on the main streets and no flexibility on price which shocked me. You however can bargain hard and should in tourist markets as they start 300 % higher than what is a real price. Also expect a lot of ‘touching’ and an effort to ‘block you’ from exiting when in their shop. Can be quite trying at times.
- Do expect children to be very friendly and a simple hello will usually get you a wonderful smile and ‘hello!” back. Many want to practice their English skills as well.
- Do expect many older men traveling to
- Do expect to be constantly offered ‘marijuana’, ‘pot’, ‘smoke’, ‘massage’, ‘boom boom’, etc. wherever you go, regardless of your age. Not sure what they are trying to sell to the women however…..
- Do expect every single moto driver to have a plan to sell you something. One I hired for a few days eventually came up with a plan to sell me his neighbor’s motorbike for $350. I had to laugh as he hadn’t tried the other things….yet.
- Don’t expect to find McDonalds or Burger King as so far, I have not seen one anywhere from
- Do however go to one of the many ‘’Lotteria’ if you want a super-sized burger with three layers of meat. Super size takes on a whole new meaning there.
- Don’t expect to find 7/11s on every street corner like in
- Don’t expect motorcycles riders or drivers to have helmets. Don’t expect most of the bikes to have rear view mirrors as well (….and do you honestly think they have driver’s licenses or have taken a test concerning rules of the roads?).
- Do visit the very professional
- Do come to Saigon if you like watches, both new and used (originals, not copies) as there is no limit to what you can buy. Most shops I found were clustered around the Sheraton.
- Do check out these web sites which I stumbled on while traveling around
2. news.vnanet.vn
4. vnagency.com.vn
5. www.cfvg.org
7. acethcmc.com
8. aisvietnam.com
10. www.ibo.org
12. www.ors.com.vn
13. www.das.vn
17. www.smesc.vn