Snakes on a Train

As I boarded the train in Quang Ngai to Muong Mang with food poisoning last week, I made a crack on twitter about it being just like a Samuel Jackson movie, but without the really cool black guy. Or any toilet paper. Little did I know it really could have been a sequel to his movie, 'Snakes on a Plane.'

The story was all over the Vietnamese newspapers this week. Today its caught on in the international news media. A man tried to smuggle 45kg of venomous snakes (mostly king cobras) on board a passenger train in Quang Ngai. Here in Vietnam, wildlife trafficking is so common they don't count the number of animals--they count the number of kilos.

The deadly snakes were stuffed in mesh bags, apparently underneath the seat (or bottom bunk). When discovered, they caused such a commotion that the smuggler supposedly fled the scene without being caught. That or he paid someone off.

Some news media have reported that Vietnam is now 'on alert' over the incident, searching for other smugglers. I assure you, this is a gross overstatement. Local authorities mentioned that they would be keeping an eye out for similar smugglers on the train or highway for a grand total of... about one week following. Don't get your hopes up.

Other media have also reported that the snakes mouths were sewn shut and that after being confiscated, they were released into park land. According to sources, the cobras weighed about a kilo each. Can you imagine the smuggler sewing the mouths shut on 45 king cobras? How about untrained, probably unqualified park rangers removing the stitches on the mouths of 45 cobras? I sure can't. Lets use common sense. I don't really believe either of these claims.

Some have remarked that its really no big deal because the snakes must have been secured. In fact, train attendants never check baggage on the train. If they noticed the snakes at all, it means they weren't secure.

Cobras are protected under Vietnamese law. Yet we have a thriving industry selling bottles of rice wine with dead cobras stuffed inside, and serving cobras beating hearts and bile in glasses of wine to tourists. You can even ask all the most popular celebrity chefs, travel show hosts and guidebook publishers. They all recommend--put it on their TV shows and in their books. Yet these animals were all trafficked from the wild. Sadly the people who should be protecting Vietnam's last shred of wildlife are all turning the other way.

So before you buy that souvenir snake wine (which incidentally will potentially carry hefty fines should you be stopped by customs when you enter your country), consider the additional cost of that bottle: riding with, Snakes on a Train.

Quang Ngai's Cham Connection

The Province of Quang Ngai, home of Vietnam's "Great Wall," was once part of the Champa Kingdom. Apart from the hidden Chau Sa citadel walls, and some hard-to-find ancient temple ruins, the Cham connection isn't immediately obvious. On my most recent visit to Quang Ngai this month, I stumbled upon some interesting links though.

Above a Vietnamese shaman, or spirit medium, summons the spirit of 'the godess' (likely 'Tien Y A Na,' a deity borrowed from the Cham and known to them as Po Nagar) and dances around the room. Just a couple of weeks earlier, Cham holy men do exactly the same thing for the Cham New Year festival known as Rijanugan. I don't think this is a coincidence. Vietnamese have borrowed the religious activity from the Cham.

Thien An Pagoda, on a small mountain between the city of Quang Ngai and Chau Sa citadel, overlooks the Tra Khuc River. As such it meets the ideal conditions for an ancient Cham temple complex. Indeed, though the Vietnamese apparently destroyed the temple when the took over the area about 500 years ago, scholars have determined there was indeed a very large temple complex on this site. Interestingly, Vietnamese president Huynh Thuc Khang is buried on top of this ancient holy site.

This Vietnamese temple is kept by a local family, and honors the first Vietnamese governor of Quang Ngai, who ruled the area about 500 years ago.

His idol is pictured here. To his left (not pictured) is the idol of a man said to be his friend and assistant. Also honored and worshipped. The dark-skinned man in red turban and robes very clearly appears to be a Cham dignitary of some sort.

Quang Ngai, the Lost Photos

While in Quang Ngai I did some scouting to get photos from the Province's lovely countryside and visit their beautiful hill tribe villages. I'll just say it was a very eventful day.

Following the river along an ancient trade route into the mountains. It was used by Chinese merchants to trade with hill tribes like the Hre, Ca Dong, Cor, Sedang, Bahnar and others. These villages still exist.

The river valley extends in the other direction to the far distance, where a village of stilt houses sits on its banks.

This was one of the rare villages I've encountered where the residents spoke very little Vietnamese at all. I don't just mean they had their own, separate minority language. Thats normal. These people could hardly understand any of the Vietnamese my local friends were speaking at all.

Carving the road out of the mountainside and clearing landslides. Difficult driving.

Shall we cross?

I'm a little bit afraid to walk across the floor inside this stilt house. That's a 4-foot drop underneath the floor.

Beautiful storehouses in a hill tribe village. In other villages inhabited by different tribes, these don't necessarily serve a practical purpose. In fact they may hold offerings for spirits.

Inauguration Ceremony of the Long Wall of Quang Ngai

Earlier this month I was invited by the government of Quang Ngai Province to attend the inauguration ceremony of The Long Wall of Quang Ngai to become a National Heritage Monument. This included a seminar on 6-7 May about the development of the Long Wall for tourism, followed by the actual ceremony on 8 May. Below are photos from the event.

Here I am at a 500-year-old fort near the wall.

Local Hre ethnic minority members, invited to the ceremony and holding the National Heritage certificate.

The National Flag, adding some, perspective, to the event.

Exaltation of the National Heritage certificate.

Drummers imitating the ethnic Hre musical style.

Christopher Young from English Heritage making recommendations on preservation of the wall, based on his experience with Hadrian's Wall in the UK.

Here I am (you can see my bald head on the left in the middle) at the government meetings about The Long Wall. I'm so generously seated on the left, next to the VIP speakers. On the right are the 'old guard;' that is, the retired government leadership who still wield considerable influence. Standing up in the middle is Mr. Son, the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee (the governing board of the province). To his left is Dr. Hardy, the remarkable archaeologist who discovered The Long Wall.

Again you can just barely see me seated in the middle left. These two photos above come from the local newspapers.

For more, check out other entries on this blog for Quang Ngai, as well as the new website for the Long Wall at www.longwallofquangngai.com.

Starbucks Coming to Vietnam in Force

I heard today from Ben Chua at www.vietnam720.com, that the CEO of Starbucks mentioned on an upcoming CNBC interview that Starbucks will open up shop in Vietnam in 18 months.

There's been rumors of this for quite a while (along with McDonalds & Burger King, so I'll take it with a grain of salt). Nonetheless, welcome to Vietnam, Starbucks, if you do come. But I'll issue you the same challenge that I have to others, like Circle K--please show us what you can offer us that we don't already have here in Vietnam. We have a lot of great chains already--some of them home grown like Trung Nguyen and Highlands--and others are imports like Coffee Bean and Angel in Us (though that name always makes me think of a little pearl fish going in and out the rear of a sea cucumber). Please don't come with merely a famous brand name and expect that to carry you... Please also don't drive the price of coffee up through the roof and kill our local coffee industry... which is one of the biggest in the world--actually its second only to Brazil. Actually, I'd like to hear how you will directly support Vietnam's coffee industry by buying local as much as possible, investing in local farmers (not merely buying them out, of course), and supporting environmentally friendly and sustainable farming  (lets not chop down what very little is left of the forest). I also want to hear what kind of unique coffee or food products you will sell to cater to local tastes and bring the Vietnam theme into your cafes--whether that is merely in Vietnam--or even abroad.

Anyway, I'd love to hear more directly from Starbucks about their plans in Vietnam.

We've had quite a few fast food imports to Vietnam, especially recently. Carl's Jr and Subway have been great surprises. Good service and excellent food. Despite the question of whether a Subway could go head to head with a banh mi, well, Subways taste nothing like a banh mi but they are nonetheless awesome.

I'm glad Pizza Hut is here, but overall the pizza is rather tasteless, less than generous with toppings, and overall blah. But then it is in the USA too. I haven't had the pleasure of the new Dominos. Its not exactly in a convenient location.

Not so much so with Kentucky Friend Chicken. I'm a fan of KFC, and the food at their restaurants in Cambodia rocks, but in Vietnam, all I can say is YUCK. Did your secret herbs and spices get seized in customs, Colonel? Time to go back to the drawing board with you Vietnam operation. Popeyes Chicken, Vietnam on the other hand, definitely wins the taste test.

Some day soon I expect we'll see a Dunkin Donuts or Dairy Queen too... but there haven't been any announcements.

So Starbucks, show me what you got.

A few More Saigon Blackjack Mafia Photos

Below are 2 new photos of the Filipino "Blackjack Mafia" preying upon foreign tourists in the Pham Ngu Lao backpacker area of District 1, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Never accept invitations from people on the street in Saigon, Nha Trang, Hanoi, Phnom Penh or frankly, other cities in the area. These people offer friendly invitations that have led to drugging, kidnapping and extortion.

Could They Have Already Killed Someone? Saigon's Filipino Blackjack Mafia

As more and more tourists complain about being drugged by Saigon's Filipino Mafia after accepting one of their dinner and coffee invitations--it dawns on me that they may have already done their worst and nobody ever noticed. I always said that one of these days they are going to kill somebody. Someone's kids, in their gap year, young, naive, outgoing and yes, a little stupid, are going to go with them, and at just the right time do something unexpected, something threatening... and then we will all read about somebody's dead australian (or British or american or [insert nationality here] teen, found bloated and lifeless, floating in the river. I expected it would create a big commotion. Everyone would be crying about the fact that it was so tragic because we all knew the danger these criminals pose, and this senseless murder could have been prevented so easily.

Well, what if it's already happened and none of us realized it? It's occurred to me that over a last year there are more and more stories of drug overdose in Pham Ngu Lao. We've all heard them. Young foreigner with lots of potential just gets here--be they backpacker or expat--and now dead suddenly. No autopsy but the verdict is pronounced "drug overdose". Don't get me wrong--I know there are plenty of drugs for sale in Pham Ngu Lao--walk down the street at night and all the moto drivers will whisper their merchandise... but nonetheless--Its something that needs to be investigated. If they are indeed regularly drugging their victims, as is being claimed, and there are potentially several victims in a given day, eventual homicide is inevitable.

Royal Honeymoon Asia

There was a big surprise over the weekend when the palace announced, seemingly at the last minute, that Price William and his bride Kate would postpone their honeymoon. It ended a lot of ridiculous speculation by the media about where the couple would be spending their honeymoon--in such outlandish locations as Kenya, the Virgin Islands and Lizard Island, off Australia.

There was also speculation that they may have been planning to head to Jordan for their honeymoon. If there was any truth at all to that, then I would guess it was postponed because the UK government was made aware of the impending attack on the Osama bin Laden compound, and so the UK government advised the royals to postone in case of any terrorist reprisals while they were there.

However, I think the press had it all wrong on the royal honeymoon locations. After all, why trust a bunch of drive-by journalists and paparazzi when it comes to expert honeymoon travel advice?

Thats where I come in. You learn a few things over the course of working on 20 guidebooks.

There is perhaps a very vague Jordan connection to all this, but it really has nothing to do with Kate's schooling in Jordan--well, not directly that is. But make no mistake, the honeymoon won't be in Jordan.

I happen to know some exotic resort spots favored by the royals in Asia--which aren't on the media's radar--and I have a good guess which one they might choose. While I'm not going come out and cough up the country or the name of the resort directly--I have no desire to drive them away, nor ruin their honeymoon by throwing the paparazzi at them--I am however considering dropping a few hints and posting a few discreet photos of the resort. Once the honeymoon is over, if I am right, then those hints and photos will be crystal clear... stay tuned