They’ve started playing Christmas songs here in Vietnam too. Right now, I’m listening to an eerie, theremin-sounding rendition of “Jingle Bells,” but I guess it beats the techno that most Vietnamese cafes start pumping first thing in the morning (usually accompanied by the television also playing at full volume.) Been busy, but things are going fine here. I have lots of photos to upload. Also wanted to mention that I touched the still-beating heart of a crocodile last week.
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November 27, 2007 at 7:04 pm
The Threadbare Ed Gein Jacket
Did you join up with one of those crocodile posses that were formed to hunt down the crocodiles who seized the opportunity provided by the recent flooding in Vietnam to make a break for it from the crocodile farms?
Or was this part of some extreme, exotic eating experience you’re tucking away for your travelogue magnum opus?
crocodile
November 27, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Brian
Phew. Long time no post. Thought a croc might’ve dined on YOUR still-beating heart.
November 27, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Alana
“Yeah, I know what you’d like to do. You’d like to find the guy who did it, rip his still-beating heart out of his chest, and hold it in front of his face so he can see how black it is before he dies.”
– Glen, Manager of Stan Mikita’s Donuts
Relevant! I am glad to see a new post! Merry Christmas… to your readers.
December 5, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Mark S.
Your post leaves many questions unanswered. The still-beating crocodile heart — was this experience medical, religious, or culinary? I mean, hell.
Or are you talking “touched” as in “by an angel.” Could be.
December 6, 2007 at 1:20 pm
The Threadbare Ed Gein Jacket
Maybe it’s part of his initiation into a notorious Sagion scooter gang…
Or the culmination of a ritual presided over by a village shaman who has promised to remedy his suffering from some long-lost love…
December 7, 2007 at 5:54 am
Thomas
My encounter with the crocodile heart was actually on a class trip to a place called “Mango Gardens”. Didn’t see any mangoes, but there were crocodiles and ostriches being bred–and slaughtered–on premises. Some kindly butchers let my intrepid friend Shannon and I get up close and personal with the process. It was horrifying and strangely compelling and I have repulsive photos that I am afraid to post. The butchers also insisted that I smoke from their giant wooden water pipe (filled with tobacco). But Shannon was not allowed to.
Also featured on this class trip were bears that I (or any young student) could have walked up to and touched in their wide-barred, unsupervised cages. Oh, and German Shepherds being loudly trained as attack dogs right out in the open.
Vietnam–Southeast Asia in general–straddles that fine line between charmingly informal and dangerously negligent.
Also, ostriches are the craziest things I’ve ever seen.
December 7, 2007 at 3:00 pm
The Threadbare Ed Gein Jacket
Can you get me a pair of crocodile-skin cowboy boots?