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Dog Days

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

When we were in southern Vietnam I made a comment that I was glad to see so many dogs thinking this means the residents must not eat them.  As far as the stories that I knew, people reported not seeing any dogs in places where they are eaten.  Rod said that is not true because some have to be the breeders.  I definitely tried to ignore the issue and we saw no evidence of any dog for food culture.  I lulled myself into believing that Vietnam is not like China and Korea as far as Fido roasts go.  Apparently, northern Vietnam is where the action is at and it did not take us long to stumble over plenty of evidence of what I believe is quite a barbaric and disgusting practice.

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Monkey Balmed

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

Rod and I flew north from Hue to Hanoi.  Hanoi is quite different from Saigon as is north Vietnam compared to the south.  Hanoi is a smaller city with very few tall buildings and it has an older feel about it due to the architecture and lack of modernity.  Oddly, we are finding that north Vietnam has many hip coffee cafes, but there is no such creativity for the food establishments.  Of course, it similarly has the million plus motorbikes racing everywhere and basically everything spoken and written is in Vietnamese.  There is a central lake and it appears the same motorbikes go around it non-stop – Vietnam’s Le Mans!  As with Saigon, there is basically no street parking in Hanoi so that every inch of the roads can be used for traffic.  “Sidewalks” is a joke because the sidewalks are used as parking lots for the motorbikes and many businesses flow out of their buildings and onto the sidewalks for display, seating and cooking areas.  The next morning we took a car and a hydrofoil to Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay to try and find one of the rarest primates in the world – the Cat Ba Langur.

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Yakety-Yack There’s a Macaque

Saturday, June 28th, 2008
On Thursday, we left Saigon and flew to Hue.  Hue looks like a great place beauty and culture-wise, but we were headed for monkeys and we're not looking for them in cages.  After we struck out in numerous ways for ... [Continue reading this entry]

Disappearing Wildlife

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
I guess I should first explain why I am in Vietnam.  This isn't my normal visit to see the people and the sights/sites.  I am here with my friend, Rod, from South Africa who has a bird and primate safari ... [Continue reading this entry]

It’s Just a Name

Monday, June 23rd, 2008
I am currently in Buon Ma Thuot, Vietnam - a city of only 300,000 people and no real purpose for tourists.  Except for a couple of guys looking for some interesting monkeys come tomorrow at 4:30 AM.  I really do ... [Continue reading this entry]

Going to Vietnam, Remembering Greg Wilkes

Saturday, June 21st, 2008
In couple of hours I head to Kota Kinabalu's airport and I fly through Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  At the beginning of my trip I would have told you this was one of my ... [Continue reading this entry]