Miscellaneous Vietnam impressions

I’ve been here too short a time to have anything meaningful to say, but here are some fleeting impressions.

One shop display included a Christmas crèche with fabulous ruby and diamond rings. This is not a scene that screams “communist country” to the casual visitor.

The street food is marvelous. Favorites so far: sticky rice buns topped in caramel, and small cupcake-shaped rice flour omelettes with shrimp.

Only two unpleasant experiences: the first a mysterious glutenous substance wrapped in a dozen banana leaves, where my best guess is shrimp paste in pork fat (not sure why I put that in my mouth); the second is a rice liquor marinated with snake that I assume is only consumed by moronic tourists and, I am told, Chinese men on their honeymoon.

There are innumerable clothing and houseware and scooter shops. While the literacy rate is 90%, I have yet to see a book store.

For someone who spends most of their time in Africa, it’s very unusual to see Western goods (particularly new clothes) three times cheaper than US prices rather than three times more expensive.

The scooter traffic more or less lives up to reputation. Why don’t we see more scooters in Africa? Probably low incomes and high transport costs and exorbitant import taxes. But I wonder if there’s a multiple equilibrium story here: you need a critical mass of scooters before it’s both affordable and safe.

In comparison to Uganda or Liberia, the agricultural productivity is overwhelming. I have hopes that Liberia can achieve something similar in future, but I am too untutored an agronomist to know whether that is possible.