Beijing Opening Ceremonies

So I'm living in the future.. 'cause I just saw athletes' procession at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.  I'm watching it on Vietnamese TV because CCTV is not covering it for some reason.  

It's funny not watching it on NBC.  You don't get Bob Costas (or whomever is doing it this year) prattling on about the countries, pulling out random facts to beat you over the head with the fact that they are smarter than you (when in truth it's all about the research interns).  The local coverage for the most part is just comprised of announcing the country and the number of Olympic participants from said country.  

Some delegations are crazy small.. like two people worth.  Most of these countries coincidentally also served as set pieces for Survivor.  I think China had 600+ Olympians.  

The Vietnamese broadcaster didn't really say much about any of the countries until it got to the former Soviet Bloc - he was talking about Sergey Bubka when Ukraine was announced.  I guess all the communist countries know each other.   

A few interesting things from this 2008 Long March:

• Taiwan used it's IOC flag, not it's country flag
• Taiwan and Hong Kong got similar, hearty receptions from the crowd
• Russia's reception was close to Taiwan and HK's
• the USA got a nice crowd react, a bit less than Russia
• may be my American sensibilities, but Iraq also got a nice applause
• Sweden's outfits paid homage to the Beijing games in that the women were in Qipaos (cheongsam) and were carrying folding paper fans
• Yao Ming is freaking tall; he waved that flag like some sort of robot

The locals also did a live translation of the Chinese opening games speech into Vietnamese.  Dang, that female translator is good!

Brutal Beijing Olympics Crackdown

Oh my god, the brutal detainment!  This Reuters clip, courtesy of With Leather.  

 

 I just love it when people complain about "abuses" that they have no inkling of.  I bet you this is the first time they've been to China.  Are places like China, or Vietnam, perfect?  Of course not.  Could the government do a better job with respect to citizens' rights?  Of course it could - but all governments in the world usurp the power of the people.  It's about hitting the right balance.  Vietnam is not there, but neither is the US.

But, living here, that is hardly my concern.  I'm more affected by the economic hardships that I see daily.  The other day there was a Bentley Continental Flying Spur parked on the street - and across the street, a grandmother was laying out newspaper on the sidewalk for a kid about 4 or 5 to take a nap.  But that's not sexy enough for t-shirts and banners.  

Nearing the Olympics

It's a few days until the opening ceremony for the Beijing Games; I'm looking forward to it because I'm a bit tired watching all these X-Games reruns on the ESPN they show over here.  There is also a lot of EPL preseason and even wheelchair basketball on TV the last few days - who knew that wheelchair basketball was a big thing in South Africa?  It's a bit amazing that Murderball was such a hit a few years back in the US, yet, for all the ESPN channels, you will never, ever catch wheelchair basketball on TV in the States.  I think there was about four hours of coverage of some wheelchair league over the past couple of days on SuperSport, the Pan-African sports channel.

The good thing about being on this side of the world is that I'll be saved from the syrupy NBC coverage of the Games, and the 12 hour tape delay.  I'm sure I'll catch a lot of coverage on CCTV.  I wonder if CCTV, China's State Owned television, will be blacked out in the US due to NBC's broadcasting rights.  

Finally, for Vietnam's side, the local press seems to intimate that the team may be competitive in sports such as judo and weighlifting, particularly the women's side.  Dunno how accurate that is.  

Perhaps the Vietnamese diaspora will bring home a medal or two.  From this joke post on Deadspin, I discovered that Team USA has two members of Vietnamese descent, Amy Tran (field hockey) and Howard Bach (badminton).  Go Team!    

Alfa Shopping

This thing was just hanging out inside a shopping center. Some sort of
promo prize, but I couldn't figure out how to enter the contest.

One of the prettiest sub $50k cars in the world, but too bad you can't
buy one in the States.

Foodcourt Lunch, Saigon

Here was a lunch last week at the Diamond Plaza food court in D1. Roast pork and some bright orange Che.

Nothing too interesting, except for the fact that I had to get my drink from another vendor in the foodcourt - learn to cross-sell people!

Bun Mam, Constructed

Before I ordered this I wasunsure if I ever had this dish and was afraid it might be unpalatable. Afterall, the name suggested its soup base may originate from some Mam Tom - the infamous purple Vietnamese condiment made from fermented shrimp.

Mam Tom is so popular here that when the government warned that the cholera outbreak earlier this year might have been caused by some bad Mam Tom, folks still continued to eat it. And continued to get cholera. Generally I don't like Mam Tom, outside of using it as a dipping sauce for green peaches.

Thankfully this thing didn't seem to have any Mam Tom; it would've been rude to leave a bowl of uneaten food.

This noodle dish is really eclectic - there is shrimp, white fish, cuttle fish, cha (ie a pork sausage like thing), and roast pork. The soup base is dominated by pickled aubergine (nee eggplant), and the purple (and green) veggie on top is this reedy, celery-like contraption unique to SEAsia. I've had this veggie before by itself in a great, plain soup.

Overall, the Bun Mam had a bit too much going on for my taste buds.

Bun Mam, Deconstructed

Was at my standard weekend eatery and wanted to get something
different. Then I thought about my friend HmL and ordered some Bun Mam.

Stymied by the Rain

Was hungry, so I took a short walk to grab some dinner. Got a block
away from my destination and I encountered this flooded intersection,
just off Dong Khoi in District 1. Normally, you don't see this area
being this inundated with standing water.

I'm still hungry, because this was an impasse on foot. I might have
tried if I had flip-flops on, because I've got my shots and all, but,
alas, I wasn't on vacation.