I’ve travelled a lot in Asia, so my arrival in Vietnam didn’t cause any culture shock, but a couple of experiences surprised me. The first, on the drive from Saigon airport to our first hotel, was seeing guards (they looked like policemen) braving the heavy night-time traffic to drag barriers across the street. When my flight-dazed eyes managed to focus, I saw tram-tracks across the road between the barriers. Soon, a train with some twenty carriages flew out of the side street and across the main drag. Then it was gone, the barriers were pushed back into their slots, and the mayhem began anew.
The second, during our walk towards the river on the next day, was seeing a rooster chasing a hen around the motor scooters parked outside a shop. Unfortunately, I was too busy revelling in the surrealism of it to notice what the shop was. Why were the owners not taking any interest? Had they escaped or were they pets? Were they the main dish on tonight’s menu? Why did they stay so close to the shop rather than taking flight? Perhaps the answers will be revealed in the coming weeks.