A Chihuahua in a China Shop

When I first came here in 2002 and then returned to work in 2004, one of the things I loved most about Vietnam was just how silly it was.

The longer I lived here the less comfortable I felt about giggling. The more Vietnam developed, the less silly it became.

But on occasions there are still reassuring outbreaks of daftness. Today we headed to Uma to spend some gift tokens. Downstairs was wall-to-wall china. To make matters worse, staff were constantly unloading new stock through the front door and whole aisles became blocked with boxes.  At one point I found myself “walled in” and unable to move out of utensils.

Silly but not silly enough.  Running around constantly, to add an extra obstacle was a tiny short-haired chihuahua (apologies for bad pic).  At first I thought it belonged to some less-than-considerate customer, then as it stayed and they left, I presumed it had snuck in from the street.  It was only when it jumped up at the cashier and she didn’t recoil that I realised it was the china shop’s chihuahua.

I like the fact that Vietnam can still be silly.

Then we transported a bag full of crockery home on the back of scooter at rush hour.  Evidence that at least a little bit of the madness has rubbed off.