Category: Vietnam-English

The coolheaded practical girl with the roast meat stall and the machete-sized knife at the corner of the square in front of the train station in the Vietnamese border town of Lao Cai

Just when I walked out of my hotel a brawl erupted fifty meters on near a meat stall. Blows and shouts and a plastic chair flying and then a guy getting away, limping but powered by adrenaline fast enough to stay ahead of the guys chasing him. For a bit, then they caught him after all, and the whole bunch turned around. At which point the girl calmly said ‘oh’ and hid the knife in the small built-in cupboard of her two-wheeled food stall and locked it.

Credit to the people of the consulate of Vietnam in Luang Phabang

While at the subject of people issuing visa’s: credit to those at the consulate of Vietnam in Luang Phabang who hand out a self-produced map detailing road connections between Laos and Vietnam, distances and border crossings open to foreigners.

Helpful, as as always I was of course traveling without a children’s book of Lonely Planet.