Christ’s Blog (beta-max)

Taken in “Disneyland Vietnam” (not really :p )
The huge Coke can is real ; not a fake made with photoshop : damn cloudy day !
I kinda hallucinate when i saw the huge can far away.
In a vietnamese (still red) touristic attraction park, symbol of capitalism proudly stands as being the symbol of the park !

Probably to promote Coca Cola when it entered into the vietnamese market ; early in that time, one of the condition to Coca cola to get into the market was a joint venture or so with the vietnamese government.

I think in that time it was like a year ago when Bill Gates or Intel wanted to invest in Vietnam ; those special guests trod vn soil on a red carpet

From coco leaders, it might was “woaaaa, Coca Cola comes to VN with millions and millions ; we have to be in !”

So Coca Cola Vietnam was a joint venture between the vn government and Coca Cola inc.

What happened next in that beloved wedding ?

Coca Cola was now in the vn’s market. That is all Coca Cola cares about.
Coca Cola is a worldwide company. Coke looses here few millions but earns billions elsewhere. For Coca Cola inc, it doesn’t matter.

So Coca Cola lost money during its first years. Therefore the vietnamese government also lost big money instead of making huge money hahaha
After years of debt, the government decided to get out of the none profit business wedding.

Since then, Coca Cola Vietnam makes profits hahahaha

By the way, those past 2 or 3 years in Vietnam, i don’t know what happened to Coca Cola but sometimes it was pretty hard to find a Coke ! Meanwhile Pepsi was everywhere !

Still wondering.

Give a look at the following and enjoy !
So Great ! (especially when you know how “boring” is Paris’ tube)

Notice the guy with the black coat and his walkman
Actually that is how parisians used to be when a single man get into the car with a guitar and sing ; just ignore the “artist” :p

Taken somehow in october 2001 (sat. 13th to be accurate)

In fact, i can’t really forget that day.
First birthday party in Vietnam ; first time i took a taxi in Vietnam and by night, Saigon looked like Paris (!) ; and first time ever i ate some “goat’s breast” (if literally translated from vietnamese) and first drinks ! ^_^

and a 15sec video

:p

It is a minute and half video taken in Saigon area (not downtown), Vietnam somehow in September …. 2001.
It is not really impressive through the video though.
But it was for me, as anyone who tread vn soil for the first time i assume, i was really impressed.
You have to be in the middle for real ^_^

At first, it seems like there is no rule at all but there is ; thanks my tickets to remind myself :p
In fact, it is quite easy and you just need to go with the stream ; simple ugh ? :p
It is definitively s-i-m-p-l-e ^_^

Exemple ?

From my dad’s place to Saigon downtown where i took some vietnamese classes, in normal time it was done in 20/25 minutes (less than 10km/6.5miles but at 10am, it is rush hour)
Class started at 10am. A day i woke up at 9:50. Time to get dressed, … i left at 10.

At noon, back home for lunch, my dad asked me if i was a half hour late ?
I said “no, i got 10min late”. :p

Be my passenger anytime, anywhere ^_^

About traffic circle in saigon (a small one in the video around 1:10), place de l’Etoile (trafic circle at Arc de Triomphe - Champs Elysées, Paris) is “fingers in the noise” (<<< is the idiom really used in english ? but that is the way we said in french ; I think it is a french idiom in french but for no reason, sometimes we said it in english ^_^ ; which means “a piece of cake” ).
A big one, during rush hour, sometimes i wanted to commit a crime :p

What an amazing city !

It was an afternoon walking walking and walking all around the city.
To have an idea and see how the city looks like, a day could be necessary ; just a short afternoon was really … short ^_^

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Picture took during a trip on the Seine river and realized how much Paris “has bridges”.
Yep that is a boat with plenty of tourists on it.

How much do you think those people care about the country lending a low interest 200 millions euros to Vietnam to built a railroad in Hanoi ?
I don’t have a penny in my pocket but still have money to lend ; i do really need an “economist” for more explanations ! Because in my every life, if i don’t have a penny, i can’t even get a piece of bread (or a tiny bowl of rice, your choice ) !!!! (yep, the country is poor as never they were ….. and it is going worse ! )
By the way, the weird thing is : Hanoi railroad might be “french made” ! In some other words, French government lends money to Hanoi but a French company has to be in (Alstom to not name it). The same who lost a huge contract (4 billions euros) on french railroads . Bombardier (Canada) got the contract and of course Alstom had to “blablabla” !

GG (good game) me, i found a way to talk about it ^_^

Back to the topic, those tent were provided by Medecins du Monde to homeless during winter 2005/2006.

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You know what is bad with “video uploader online” such “youtube”, “dailymotion”, “googlevideo”, ….. ?

You can spend hours and hours on those video research engines !!

Yesterday, i found out a tv show called : “j’irai bien dormir chez vous”.
It is french and it is about a backpack traveller going around the world meeting people and trying to invite himself in one’s house. That guy only speaks french and basic english.

Imagine ; you have never been to … Tokyo (for instance :p ), you do not speak japanese at all, you look weird with all your camera system ^_^ , … but you have to bump into other to start conversations. Or imagine a stranger telling you : “Where are you going ? Can i come with you ?” / “Me and you, we will have dinner together tonight at your place” / “Can i sleep at your place ?”, …… ^_^

Honestly, that guy “has a lot of nerves” (

Get a sit, it is a bit long (55 minutes) …… and it is half in french and english/japanese.

Thanks to those videos :
- i first saw how (part of) hostels are in Japan !! They look like a mortuary box !!
- i finally saw how those japanese “high tech” toilet works :p
We do not have those out here ^_^

Him visiting China was great too !

Since my “first” trip in Saigon, Vietnam, in 2001, each year the city looks “different”.
Year after year, no more cyclos or just a few.
In 2004, ATM poped downtown and just a few vietnamese people had a “debit card”. In 2006, ATM are everywhere (almost), and more and more vietnamese withdraw money from those ATM.
In 2005, i remember that “cyclo truck” carrying earth were still used. In 2006, they comletely disapeared. It was always painful watching any of those guys pedaling their “cyclo truck” with a huge charge under a heavy heat !
……

This year one of the most amazing building site was “the border” between the first and fourth district.
Here is a map to give you an idea.

(map from vietnamtourist.com)

The Bridge is down and no more water left ; the city has drained one of the Saigon River’s arm !

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First episode here

Second episode here.

So here the last ……. maybe.

It sounds definetely not good for Babe ^_^

PS destinated to any Animal Protective Associations :
Babe is safe ; he was there as a model for a day ; so don’t worry {{{whistle}}}