Mei you yisi

I'm afraid this is going to be a very random and unorganized post, nothing new about that I guess. How about Castro?! Two stories, about the same event, from somewhat amusingly opposite perspectives. The parade in Havana commemorating the beginning Castro's revolution was attended by Vietnamese officials. From Vietnam News, the story on celebration and mutual memories I think, Vietnamese toast Cuban President’s birthday, forces. And from the BBC, Ailing Castro misses Cuban parade.

I have never really had much fascination for studying or experiencing communism just for the sake of it. I guess I grew up at the very end of the Cold War in a very sheltered place and was just never that fascinated by it. However, I have been to three of the remaining five nominally communist countries (China, Laos and Vietnam - I expect Cuba and North Korea are somewhat less 'nominal' in their ideology) I get a lot more news here, on the opposite side of the world, about Cuba than I ever did in America, all of 90 miles of Gulf away. I wonder if you can buy Cuban cigars in Vietnam? I wonder if Fidel knows about the Che graffiti in Hanoi's old quarter?

It has actually been cold here. The paper said 16 C yesterday. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit but I am voluntarily wearing long sleeves, and actually used my jacket today - for the first time I used my fleece that I carried from America. My fleece bought in Labrador, Atlantic Coast Canada, where in August it was probably colder than this. I do miss home sometimes. But photos like this help me get over that feeling! It might be cold enough here for me to shiver while riding my motorbike, but I don't miss the ice and snow. I can't afford to snowboard anymore anyway!


Today I went to my first ever Vietnamese wedding. I mean the first time I've ever been to a Vietnamese wedding, not 'my' first one. The idea of me ever having any kind of wedding is scary enough without calling it 'my first' one! Anyway, someone who is I think, an acquaintance of an acquaintance got married today. An early morning (for Saturday) van ride 50 k out of town to a village, a large tent with tables full of food, a lot of noisy people and noisy events, a few crystallized moments of comprehension separated by long periods of 'well I am here so I may as well eat and drink since I can't understand what's going on...' All in all, not a bad strategy, I think. Actually it was a good time to talk with the group of people I went with, even though I didn't really follow much of the ceremony, that was quite short anyway. The food, local rice wine and tea was worth the trip!