HOW HEAVY SIR?
I admit I was surprised when I first encountered that famous siren song of Selecta when I got here, but to my greater surprise when I found out that they also have those talking Weighing Scales. You know them, those contraptions that you see in malls that measure your weight and height and sometimes spit out horoscope advice. Here they have a mobile version. Yes, these Talking Weighing Scales are being moved around street corners by the Vietnamese, occasionally intercepting locals and foreigners alike, asking if you want to have your weight measured. They cost only 2,000VND (or P6.50) per step.  Personally, I side stepped the offer to know my weight, because ignorance is bliss. ^_^

A HURL-O-FOIL RIDE
I traveled to Cat Ba, an island off the coast of Halong Bay, about 70++ kms from Hanoi.  I traveled first by bus to Halong Bay pier, then by Hydrofoil. Now this amazing marine machine can travel more than 20 knots (or about 50 kph if my conversions are correct) so that a normal 3 hour ride by ferry can be cut down to less than an hour. So for an hour the hydrofoil sped head on despite rough seas and for an hour I felt like being inside a washing machine set on high spin. I had to stand up and ride out the rocking boat just to keep my stomach intact. I looked like a drunken comedian in some silent slapstick movie. The onboard movie was on and it was showing two episodes of “Mr. Bean”.
Oh imagine the irony of my situation. I had no idea how much I appreciated firm solid ground when we arrived at Cat Ba. So from then on I refer to that “amazing marine machine”, with much affection, as the Hurl-o-foil.

PENTHOUSE PAINS
At Cat Ba, I had a taste of living in one of the island’s many hotels. One hotel in particular where we stayed was called the Pacific Hotel. This 6 floor hotel boasts two beds, TV, CR and Aircon in every room, a lobby Café that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner plus Internet/Gaming Station at the same area. And everything at an affordable price of 200,000VND (P660) a night. And we were given a room at the 4th floor
that gives you a great view of the bay from your veranda. Sounds great until you find out that they don’t have elevators. Each floor has two short flights of stairs so it means I had to sprint 8 short flights just to get that one darn thing you remembered forgetting when you were at the lobby. Oh well, it pays to be healthy.

INTERNET ET AL
Speaking of Internet, I noticed that two kinds of servers rule cyberspace: the private and the government. The government server dispense internet like candy.  Internet Cafés who use the government’s server can charge rental fee’s for only 3000VND (P10) an hour.
But there’s a catch: the government has set up countless firewalls preventing particular sites from being accessed. I would understand this as a cautionary move against piracy and pornography, but then the censorship also includes YahooGroups! O_O Chat online are practiced in the gov’t server but that’s it. There was this rumor that the government does not want groups talking to each other in large numbers because YahooGroups provide complete privacy from “big brother’s” eyes. Private servers cost double the amount but can access all available sites (yes, that includes porn).