S S S S Saigon Saigon
haha, now in saigon, sorry, thats ho chi minh city, (renamed to increase employment in the signpost sector). Have spent last few days in phnom penh waiting for my vietnam visa to become valid, so took the opportunity to brush up on my pool and pint lifting skills.This morning i quit the madness of cambodia for the uplands of organisation which is vietnam. A 2 hour coach ride (that could rather dispointingly be called, comfortable and uneventful) deposited us at the border. I think i may have made some disparaging comment on Loas style communist buerocracy when i was there (if not i should have), however, i was being unfair, the vietnamese have inefficiency undoubtably mastered. Now in SE asia it always takes at least 4 people to accomplish any task. In most places this means 1 doing the work, 2 watching and 1 in charge, only in vietnam have they altered this time honored method (due to the necessity to maintain the appearance of communist equality) by dividing the same job into 4 parts and having making sure that all 4 people can participate. The result of this is that is takes a full hour to get from the start of passport control to the end. Let me explain the work flow process:Join queuereach front - person number one hands you formleave queue fill in formjoin queue (the same one)reach front hand in passport and formperson 2 checks photo page, passes to person 3person 3 checks visa page, passes to person 4person 4 enters detail into computer passes to person 2person 2 hands back passport to youcongrats you now have made it to customshand form and passport to person 5give bags to person 6retrieve stamped form from person 5 and bags from 6go to person 7recieve stickerand then to person 8 for final checkyou have now lost an hour of your life oh i forgot to mention person 0, the one who checks your passport before you get to passport control......Anyway, Saigon seems nice - have only been here a couple of hours, am staying at a guesthouse that consists of someones spare room, its quite nice actually, 4 floors up. My entrance was celebrated by a torrential downpour and rolling thunder, the sounds of the storm mingling with the ceaseless chorus of the motorbike horns. Dinner was noodle soup with minced pork tail kebabs on a half foot high plastic stool, down a side alley, the 2 foot width between my back and the opposite wall offering no obstical to the scooters buzzing past. OK thats about all 4 now, no photos sorry!none of them received a standing ovation
posted by justplainnigel @ 2:13 PM
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