Travels with Andy

I'm winding down to my last two weeks in Vietnam. I just returned from a four day trek around the Dac Lac Highlands near the city of Da Lat, spending two nights with the Ch'il and Lac people who live in the mountains outside the city.

Over the last two weeks, since my sister departed for home, quite a few amusing/odd events passed:

• I got two bona fide marriage offers. Don't worry. I'm still single.
• I helped an old man track down his water buffalo which had wandered off. We did not find him, though.
• Drank enough rice wine with some mountain tribe men to convince me to sing a love song in Spanish. Call it outdoor karaoke.

I decided that there are three rules/sayings which describe almost all life and commerce in Vietnam. Some backpackers I met think that these three rules describe almost all of Southeast Asia and India and Nepal. They are:

1. "Same but not same." Used by Vietnamese for contraband or goods which are made to look just like the real thing, but they're not. The perfect example is the La Vie mineral water which is a brand of Vittel of France. The copycats with the exact same script writing and nearly identical label include La Vide, La Vile, and La Vitril. Then there is the real Tiger Beer and the copycat Viger beer. There's the pants that you have sewn with fabric that looks like the one you originally selected but is actually a reasonable facsimile. The other form of this rule (as used in Thailand I've been told) is, "Same but different."

2. "It is said so, but it is not so." Once, we visited a temple. Outside the temple, there was a sign expressly forbidding photography so we did not take any photos. Then, one of the nuns asked us why we were not taking any photos. Did we not find the pagoda attractive? We told her that we did not take any photos because the sign forbade it. So, she went and took down the sign. Of course, all of the other visitors were taking photos despite the presence of the sign.

3. "That which is not expressly forbidden is permitted." And, even so, refer to Rule 2 if there are no police around.

Before I sign off, I would like to tell you about a short poem that the South Vietnamese wrote after the Communists changed the street names in Saigon. I think this poem expresses the underlying sentiment felt by most Saigonese towards Communist rule.

Here are the old names of two streets and their meaning: Tu Do - Freedom and Cong Ly - Justice.

Here are the new names of these streets and their meaning:

Travels with Andy

Then, the poem: