Culture!

Okay.

 

Vietnam has motorbikes LITERALLY EVERYWHERE.  It’s their main form of transportation.  A single lane road in the US would fit about five or six of these things, and they go for it.  Five or six thick each lane if they have to.  Crossing the road is quite an adventure, but they’re used to avoiding pedestrians.  You just have to look forward, pick a spot, and COMMIT.  You can NOT stop once you start.  They’ll avoid you if you keep moving, but if you stop, they’re cutting behind your projected path and that means you get nailed.

 

There is also graffiti everywhere.

 

A lot of people live and work in the exact same building.  When business is done for the night, they pack their stuff up, pull out some cots, and sleep in the shop.

 

Vietnamese people treat each other incredibly well, in general.

 

They also treat Westerners really well in general, except trying to get your money.

 

There are Buddhist tabernacles in literally every single house and establishment.  Perhaps not churches but I didn’t care to check.

 

Fathers are extremely involved in family life.  And families are incredibly important in general.

 

There’s a pretty wide income distribution gap.

 

Cities are much, much richer than the country side.  Like, approximately 10x richer.

 

Vietnamese people have, for the most part, forgiven Americans for what our country did in The War.  They try to recognize that many Americans hated the war too, most of us took no part in the war, and that what’s done is done.

 

Their language is complex and very tonal but is written in Roman characters.

 

There are a lot of beggars.

 

There are a lot of open-air markets.

 

Now to Cambodia, the best I can…

 

People in the city kind of live underground.  More on that later.

 

It is hot as anything there, man.

 

Politically, the first thing on everyone’s mind is to never let the Khmer Rouge happen again ever.

 

However, some people feel like the government is a leopard… which can’t change its spots.

 

You don’t have to go to school, but it’s free if you want to.  But then you can’t work.

 

The Khmer language is non-tonal and extremely beautiful when written.  It has a kind of funny and half-way screechy accent within it. It’s not annoying to listen to, but it’s not as nice as, say, Spanish accents.

 

Mothers care for their kids more than anything I’ve ever seen anywhere in my entire life.

 

People get pretty excited when you speak their language to them and wave and say hello with a smile on your face.

 

Alright.  I think that’s all that I can quickly sum up for now.