interesting fact about vietnam

im nearing the end of my trip here in saigon. in my  two weeks stay, i have learned a few things you would not normally read from travel articles:

brushing hair inside a car, bus or any vehicle is a taboo. i learned this from our tour guide to cu chi tunnel. they said this gesture is associated with cats. cats and turtles supposedly bring bad luck on the road.

they use plastic bags made out of cornstarch. these bags are biodegradable. i think we should start doing that in the philippines.

ho chi minh city is progressing, really really fast.  i would not be surprised if one day, vietnam will overtake our country. i dont sure if they already have. they don't have skysraper cities like makati and ortigas.  but they have mid-rise building sprouting all over. condominium constructions are everywhere. the first floor of these condos have restaurants and shops.

there a lot of expats who live in saigon. whenever im out, i always hear someone speaking in tagalog. most filipinos here have white collar jobs. thank God! at last a country where we are actually respected. there are also a lot of japanese, thai, and indians working here, but its the koreans who have really set their community here. this is evident in the international variety of restaurants and convenience stores around the city.

vietnamese people will freely touch or grab your arm to get your attention. this actually surprisesd me, coz back home, we do this by calling out pssst. im not really comfortable strangers grabbing me. ive read from travel blogs that touching is not acceptable, but the writer of the article probably hasn't been to cholon market.

saigon is a lot similar to (metro) manila,  just replace the jeepneys with motorbikes. ben tanh reminds me of cubao. this is where all buses lead to. they also have divisoria - cholon or the cho bin tay. they don't have 168 mall there yet, but i think in a few years they will have air conditioned stores. they have also mini greenhills - saigon square, but its a dwarf compared to our fields of tiange-s.  they also have jollibee here, but i think their counterpart is lotteria. but jollibee's chicken is way more better :p Pho 24, which we have in rockwell, is actually more like of a chowking here.

vietnamese are mostly buddhist, but they celebrate christmas anyway.  almost all shops have christmas decors. what's weird is, veitnamese people like to take photo-ops in the mall window decos.  maybe because christmas is just a new holiday here.

a typical ho chi minh resident have two motorbikes, - one china made for everyday use, and one fancy vespa for weekends and special occasions.  they wear very thin helmets, which are more of a fashion statement rather than for protection. women ride motorbikes in miniskirts and in heels.

they like eating out -literally - in the streets.  people drinking coffee and eating pho in sidewalks is common sight.

you can recognize who's vietnamese by their built. a chubby chinese looking person, that's probably korean or filipino :p  this is probably because they love pho and vegetables. :)