I'm back from Pakistan and Vietnam. Any worries about safety in Pakistan ended up seeming rather absurd from the lounge of the luxury hotel we stayed in. It looks like the People's Party of Pakistan (the late Ms Bhutto's party) have won but will form a coalition with Nawaz Sharif's party. Read two corrupt families get together to have a party. I wonder what will actually get done for the people.
Vietnam ended meeting my expectations in that it was just enough like China to know the operating field and daily life from the beginning. It felt a little like old home week, with the same scooters and small shops as might be in any large East Asian city. Hanoi is filled with people trying to make money against a backdrop of propaganda posters. The hinterland is awash in local rice wine, somewhat incompetent officials and people who will go hungry over the next two months because a storm the Western media failed to report on wiped out their last crop. Kind of hard to report on development results when they were washed away in a flood, eh?
The people were kind but the dogs were not. Going to northern Vietnam as part of your adventure holiday? Invest in those rabies shots!
I will post pictures as soon as I have downloaded them from Mike's camera.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
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