I was on a business trip to Vietnam for 10 days last week. When my boss 1st told me he's sending me there, I really didn't know what to expect.
Vietnam in my perspective was just a poor country with nothing much to offer and isn't as happening as our KL. That all change during my stay there. I was converted in just 10 days.
When I landed at the Tan Son Nhat airport, Vietnam, The 1st thing that hit me as strange was the local time. Vietnam is located further to the east of Malaysia. Therefore, logically, Their clock should be faster than Malaysia. That however is not the case.; they are in fact 1 hour behind us. That is still something I wonder even till today.
Having been hit by this weird time reversal feeling, I suddenly felt I needed to explore this simple country more. I suddenly had the urge to wanting to see this country, not from a tourists point of view, but from a locals point of view. This was the start of my conversion as I quietly say to myself "Vietnam, here I come."
One of the very 1st things I noticed about the country is that their roads are filled with motorbikes. The number of cars on the road is less than what we have in Malaysia. I manage to capture this on my way to work.
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| The sea of motorbikes on the opposite direction. |
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| Zooming in. ..and I thought Penang was bad. |
The traffic there is crazy. Crazily unique =) Everyone uses the honk like its a musical instrument and everyone squeezes on the road. If I happen to knock you on the road and there isn't any injury, you'd just give me a stare and we'll continue our journey. No violence, no trying to eat each other, no suing, nothing. Just a stare and we're off . Is that unique or what =)
I talked to a local about the traffic condition and this is what he tells me. The number of bikes on the road is due to the cheap prices of bikes there; and with 10 million people living in Ho Chi Minh city alone, what do you expect the roads to be like? lol
The other thing is that, cars are special things to them. Owning one means you're rich. If you're rich, then you should drive a big car. Call them show-off =P
I asked the local, "What if you drive a small car?" he says a lady driving a small car is fine but generally, the locals are shy to drive small cars because they see it as a shameful thing. Also, if you drive a small car, most people will treat you like an outcast.
I thought to myself 'that serious huh?' Also, I came to understand that it is not very easy to get a bank loan over there as compared to over here.
Moving away from the busy traffic, Vietnam has lots of good food. I had the opportunity the dine with some locals to taste their local delicacies and drink their local beer. All these in the next posts. Goodnight for now =)
