Culture Shock

Observations While In Vietnam

If you have not practice defensive driving, Viet Nam is a good place to start

Sometimes it makes me wonder if they have highway code tests

WHY?

The ratio of motorcyclists versus motor vehicles

WATCH OUT FOR THE MOTORCYCLISTS

- Safety helmets is a fashion item. They have all sorts of designs, most of them would not have pass our safety standards

- Talking on your mobile while riding your motorbike

- Sit up to four to a motorcycle (grown-ups)

- Motorcyclists or cyclists riding abreast as if they own the road

- Motorcyclists riding in the middle of single lane road

- Motorcyclists filtering from a minor road to a major road without looking out for oncoming vehicles. It is amazing as I have still not seen a single accident of such nature during my time in Viet Nam

BUS PASSENGERS - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Get on the bus as fast as you can as the bus driver does not wait for you to get on before moving off

- Get off the bus as fast as you can as the bus driver does not wait for you to alight before moving off

- The bus driver decides at his pleasure whether to stop and pick up passengers

PADESTRIANS

- Walking across a major circle/road crossing without a care to the world

HOW NOT TO "RUN OVER" ROAD USERS

- Blowing your car or motorcycle horn every five minutes (sometimes it makes me wonder if it has become a habit)

- Be ready to do emergency stop

WHAT ELSE?

- Passengers on buses get motion sickness. Plastic bags are readily available if you need one. What puzzles me if that when Vietnamese ride their motorcycles, they do not suffer from the sickness

- It takes more than nine months to resurface a stretch of road

AS ALWAYS IN A FEEL GOOD MOVIE, THERE IS A HAPPY ENDING

There is still some good like

Giving up your seats to the elder, expectant mothers, young children

National Science Museum

Who says that a visit to the museum is boring. Well, a visit to the National Science Museum in Tokyo changed my perception. In 2006, my wife and I brought our kids to Tokyo for holidays. Sure, everyone knows about Tokyo Disneyland. I love Tokyo Disneyland too. Actually, it was my second visit to Disneyland, the first was about seventeen years ago during our honeymoon. But you cannot survive just on Disneyland with kids in Tokyo. While researching on what to do in Tokyo, I changed upon the National Science Museum and decided to include it in my itinerary. I had some apprehension, of course, as I do not know how my children would feel about a visit to the museum.

Just a bit of history. The National Science Centre was established in Oct 1871 and went by the name of Ministry of Education Museum. It adopted its latest name in Jun 1949. The main museum is located in Ueno with a branch in Shinjuku. Besides being known as a major train station in Japan, Ueno is a nature locale signified by the spacious Ueno Park (which include the zoo). Of course, Ueno is also home to some of Tokyo's finest cultural sites, including the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, and the National Science Museum, as well as a major public concert hall (extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueno,_Tokyo).

Given the limited time (we went in the afternoon), we decided to focus on the new building at the museum. We were not disappointed as it is basically an all-in-one museum covering themes such as evolution of life to a look into the future -the mystery of space. I would say my children were definitely attracted by the dinosaurs display ranging from T-Rex to the genial plant eaters. In the section covering Science and Technology, there were many hands on experiments for visitors - young and old- to try out. This is something like our very own Singapore Science Centre.