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<hr>Ron, really: extremely dirty, noisy, jam-packed with people, full of litter, and generally filthy??? We must have been to a different Vietnam!<hr></blockquote>
Minimi, I don't think Ron is necessarily putting those words forward as his own: he's saying that it was part of Phred's report, obviously cross-posted on another forum, with the "offending" section removed. Personally, while I loved Vietnam, I'd say there is an ELEMENT of truth in the observation ... certainly noisy and jam-packed with people ... and even, I'm afraid, subject to littering ... less than Indonesia, but more than Australia, for sure ... I'm always interested to read people's impressions, if they are honest and thoughtful, even if they aren't positive ... You don't necessarily agree, but - well, it's like seeing an art class with 20 people, all sketching the same model ... remarkable how each person sees something different ... some see ugliness, others see ... non-ugliness ... Yeah, everyone DOES go to a different Vietnam ...
jakarta boy ... there you go getting deep again.... even profound ...mmmm
I have learned that when travelling in Asia ... you need toleave behind your values and measures of wealth and poverty... of privacy and tact... and check out why they do things the way they do ..
maybe my "eye" has adjusted... but I have to say that i find Vietnam very clean..... rubbish seems to be gathered regularly and burned in little piles ...or collected regularly ... and the way food is dispayed in markets... is a work of art and respect .... Hue market is an excellent example.
you need to be carefulll ... on my first visit there ... being a fire nervous OZ girl... I stepped on a burning piece of paprer one morning .... it was on the srteet in front of s house ... in my ignorance I extinguished the spirit offering for the day leaving the house in peril !!!!
Sorry Celestine ... not enough sleep and too much coffee does that to me ... I wasn't doing it on purpose... but I do agree about how your eye adjusts ... you know ... self-revelation time ... I do some work in a business that is peripherally related to tourism in Indonesia ... and after living here for many years, I realized that I had no idea anymore of how tourists who just arrived in the country saw a new place ... which inspired me to do this very rapid series of trips to the different SEAsian countries ... really, it was all about trying to see with the eyes of a newcomer to the region ... I find most photographers take their most interesting photos when they first come to a new country ... although sheer FUN has probably also been a major motivating force ... sorry for drifting off topic again ... did I say something about too much coffee and not enough sleep??
Ah, yes, trip reports: I was going to promote Somsai's blog again ... but that's Laos ... really, Somsai, this is embarrassing ... I might ask you to autograph a copy for me ... Also, Celestine herself ... she's the big red head ... with a sketchbook ... has some nice Vietnam and Laos reports to her credit ... interesting observations and useful information ... apart from an odd preference for yellow taxis that I never really got to the bottom of ... And look for the venerable Seat61 for anything on trains ... although he usually just puts in a cameo appearance, not full reports ... too busy with his own, absolutely excellent website, I suspect ... Mrmookie doesn't really do trip reports either ... more like Dorothy Parker ... the master of the sharp one liner ... (Best line - DP, that is, not MrM: "This is not a book that should be tossed lightly aside: it should be thrown with a great deal of force.") ... TicoTim brings a certain boisterous joi de vivre to his reports ... and sometimes includes useful information ... SweetRose is probably best for anyone looking for anything on travelling with a family ... HongHa gives maximum information value in terms of sound-to-noise ratio ... And there are heaps of others who just do one or two good reports and then go back to their day jobs ... All credit to the quiet souls who contribute in peace and then leave in peace ...
#10, isn't that the exact same point that I was making: that all observations are formed by the oberver and his (or her) frame of reference? This means that whilst I don't share aforementioned observations (which I incorrectly attributed to Ron - sorry for that! - although he does describe the observations as 'realistic' ), I'm not claiming to have the one true view of Vietnam. Because my views of Vietnam are also influenced by my frame of reference as much as everyone elses.
What is this new penchant for using three fullstops (periods, if you're american) where one usually suffices?
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<hr>What is this new penchant for using three fullstops (periods, if you're american) where one usually suffices?<hr></blockquote>
I don't have a copy of the Chicago Style Guide at hand, but three periods (or full stops if you're Australian) is a perfectly acceptable way of indicating a pause, or an ellipse. It is also used when quoting text, to indicate that you are omitting a phrase or several words. In this context, it's a pause, an indrawn breath, an indication that the writer is collecting his thoughts ... Something less conclusive than a single full stop, a trailing away rather than a sharp brake ... I used to use dashes a lot, but they seem a bit spiky... Anyway, either bear with me on that or skip on through to the next post ...
Ah! The Chicago Manual of Style is now available online! A great resource for would-be writers! It says this about three full stops:
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<hr>11.59 Deliberately incomplete sentence: Three dots are used at the end of a sentence that is deliberately left grammatically incomplete.<hr></blockquote>
Hope that helps! (The use of exclamation marks will be covered in the next lesson ... )
Bomchacha was a great report writer here. I wish he would go on another trip. He had such an open attitude and just reported what he saw and how he felt. Not just a source of information but a great example of how to get the most out of travel.
gingbouy, I saw the original report on Fodor's a fews months back. It created a big stir on the Asia and Europe boards.
Minimi, as you noticed, they were not my words. But can you really say you didn't see any of what they described? BTW, I'm not from the midwest and I lived in SE Asia for over 4 years.
That blog is very funny Minimi, cheers for the link.
Thanks for the lesson Jakarta boy, I've never seen it used in that way before, I've only ever seen it as a 'to be continued' or trailing away sort of thing when put at the end of a sentence, not regularly punctuating thoughts. I thought perhaps you were just stoned. On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd ever turn to an American book for guidance on English, he he. Two nations divided by a common language, and all that sort of thing. I'll stick with my Oxford companion I think...
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