Vietnamese Life
The Vietnamese language was impossible to understand and limited our interactions to those Vietnamese that spoke English. A small number of French, English and Vietnamese words and a numbering system from 1 to 10 were the verbal tools we used when someone did not speak English. The numbering system was a sham because if you were not #1 (good) then you were #10 (bad), if they used any other number, you were #10, but they did not want to tell you. I left Vietnam not understanding it and what we were doing there from the Vietnamese point of view. I saw they worked very hard and struggled to eat enough. My interactions were mostly with village and rural people so my comments apply to them.
The final 11 pictures were taken by a college roommate, Clark Chipman, when he visited Vietnam as a tourist. The first 4 are taken in the Cao Dai “Vatican” in Tay Ninh, the next 4 are traps for American tourists that want to “learn about the war” and the final 3 are the “Black Virgin’s” ode to tourism.