THE Lowly Peon

saigon subtleties 
27 February 2008, 2:48pm

a few things i've noticed here in saigon (aka ho chi minh city) that i found to be particularly interesting:when some large buses back up, they play jingle bells instead of that "beep! beep! beep!" american buses play. how festive!i've seen at least eight people walking along the street around midnight rolling a scale that plays music (for guess your weight bets, i guess). yet i have never seen one that was not moving at the timecoffeeshops are a bit different heremany motorbikers will blast through red lights, feeling safe by merely honking the whole timesomehow, of the five times i've returned from work, i've arrived in a completely different way, yet every time going there has been identicali'm not as much of a freak here as in some other southeast asian countries. it's refreshing.they put ice in their warm beer, and repeatedly ask for more ice in a macho fashion, apparently unaware that they're diluting the hell out of the beer"thank you" sounds like "come on", so everyone says "come on" all the timei like it here a lot