Day 23 - Cultural pondering

It’s official. We ate dog. We bought a Vietnamese-English dictionary and look up the word. Now we know what to avoid! It started raining again and our plans to keep moving have been postponed for now. We just couldn't face getting soaked again. So following breakfast and a few shots of local spirits with our friendly Czech speaking hotel host, we're back in our hotel room watching some TV, waiting out the rain with some cheap booze and junk food.

Given all the spare time we have on our hands, I thought I'd take the opportunity to blog about some cultural observations we have noted in our time in Vietnam so far, rather than rambling on about our activities as usual. No pictures in this one ;)

Vietnam is still a communist country. The American war in the 70's obviously didn't succeed in bringing about a complete democratic switch over. But what it did do is set the wheels in motion for a much slower process that has undoubtedly helped Vietnam move forwards as a nation towards a more successful society. The economy has obviously been set free, making free trade and the concept of personal wealth possible. However, people still have limited human rights; basic things that you and I take for granted such as freedom of speech and the ability to elect a ruling political party. These changes are recent, and actually opposed by elements of society such as the older generations who lived most of their lives under a harsher communist rule. The younger generation (which is much more plentiful due to increased quality of life and large numbers of the older generations loosing their lives in the war) are much more aware of the benefits of democracy and there seems to be an air of democracy-envy spread by those who travelled to places like Europe to study, returning home with tales of a different way of life. Consequently the younger generation seem transfixed on material possessions that seem to reflect our cultures through the media. Owning the newest motorbike and mobile phones take much higher priority over what we might consider more important aspects such as basic living conditions - a well built house that won't fall down, a clean and sanitary cooking environment and washing facilities. We have seen shanty town style accommodation made from driftwood and rusted corrugated iron panels on plot of sloping mud, probably less than 10m², that houses an entire family of maybe 3 generations, has a massive satellite dish on the outside and a home karaoke system inside (a massive fad here) you can hear bellowing out the open door. They nearly always can't sing for toffee- strangling a cat doesn't quite cut it :) But they love it!

Such a contrast seems strange to us and almost backward at first glance. But are simply a direct result of rapid cultural and economic change; a developing country existing in the same world as our developed nations trying to get itself to our level of development as fast as possible. A process that took us many hundreds of years, they are now trying to achieve in 50, as indeed you would having the benefit of hindsight of all developed nations processes, successes and failures. Being here you can imagine the level of change that might take place over the next 10-20 years alone, more than some people in already developed nation might see in an entire lifetime. The seeds of changes are in place, and the communist rule likely has a shelf-life soon to expire.

Differences in culture also become very apparent in regards to food. Cutlery as we know it is rare here, as the cultures in this part of the world obviously use chopsticks (that I'm happy to report we've become pretty skilled at using). Chopsticks as eating utensils far out date's any form of cutlery, obviously thousands of years ago we mostly used knives (that were also used for hunting), and bread to eat.

I read; “Chopsticks were strongly advocated by the great Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479 BC). He reasoned that, as a matter of advancement in civilization, instruments used for killing must be banned from the dining table. Therefore, knives cannot be permitted, and that is why Chinese food is always chopped into bite size pieces before it reaches the table.”

Eating with your fingers is impolite, but because of the food – sometimes unavoidable. Like yesterday I ordered some prawns, but they don't come peeled, local just eat the shell, head, tail, legs – everything. I tried it, but just couldn't get past the texture, so set about peeling them all...which took ages. The staff just stared at me eating. Found it interesting/amusing I guess.

Chicken is awful here. I'm so disappointed :( The poor birds just don't have any meat on them. You get what we're used to in a leg, in a whole bird. And the meat isn't removed from the carcass, instead the whole bird is cleavered into small pieces, meaning you have to spend ages getting the meat from the tiny pieces of bone... It can be hard work! Food in general is actually a lot worse than I thought it would be. Quality of ingredients is pretty low, and the combinations unimaginative. When they do spicy here – it's really spicy – have had my head blown off a few times :) They eat a lot of things even we're not adventurous enough to try (excluding the dog we accidentally ate). But we get by. And sometimes you do come across something really tasty. The only thing I really miss is the variation in diet I'd become accustomed to back home – a little something from all cultures, and the freshness and quality of ingredients we just pick off the shelf in a supermarket, surprisingly isn't as good here – wilting, less flavoursome, badly nurtured. But it's changing every time we move, there are subtle regional differences, and when we cross borders we're expecting some dramatic changes.

It's fascinating to see and experience these variations, and just as interesting to talk about why the differences exist. We're enjoying every step of the way, and looking forward to more change and amazing sights along the way. Hopefully the rain will stop tomorrow and we can get back on the road.