Hong Kong

Saturday, August 5 – Hong Kong

Many oddities in Viet Nam. When covering a brief module on sexual assault investigations, the words “penis” and “vagina” are part of an example I use to highlight a point. Well, it turns out there is no approved term for “vagina’ in Vietnamese. The term used by the translator is “her flower”. Of course, it’s a male dominated society to there are many terms for “penis”. All grand and flattering I'm sure.

A taxi driver will be playing old Boney M tapes (Rah, Rah Rasputin. Remember that one?) but look at you blankly when you ask to go to the most popular ex-pat restaurant downtown. All directions to cab drivers are given by handing over the business card of the place you want to go to (most have small maps on the back also). At the airport book shop, you can get English language versions of Uncle Ho’s writings on the war, liberation, and the military. General Giap's works on the war are also available in English. You can get many Agatha Christie novels in English, and the works of Dickens in English. You can get 3, 4 and 5 year old paperbacks in English. You can’t get an English paper, magazine or current best seller novel. But you can get the biography of Bill Gates in Vietnamese. You can’t buy a bottle of cold water, but you can buy boxes of duty free cigars or high end cognac.

Interesting place.

In Hong Kong now. A city apparently devoted to shopping and nothing else. Took the Star Ferry over to Kowloon just for the harbour view.

Home tomorrow.

Mark