Phu Quoc
As we said we were in Phu quoc last week. So was Frank Patterson the lucky so and so. Read his wee travel piece here.
The buildings of Ho Chi Minh City become matchboxes beneath us. Our plane lurches into cruise speed. My travelling companion shakes his head. It’s his first time on a propeller-plane.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Cog notes by mobile
Coming up to exam time in Vietnam and the pressure drop for students. Heard lots of stories of cheating over the years. It gets pretty out of hand with kids so terrified of failure - and not just the kids, the parents too.
One method I heard was pretty brazen. A kid would be paid to just waltz in and sit an exam for some dolt with money - a ringer or super sub. They'd take the kids ID or make a fake one. Over the years the examiners have got wiser so the cheats did too. This gang just got done in court for radio-ing in the right answers by mobile after finding out the right answers. The gang leader, got 33 months.
Sure whatever happened to cog notes up the sleeve, says you?
Well, in Vietnam they use, or used, a cog note method called phao (life buoys - or life savers) and according to this two-year-old article by Pittsop's old beer-buddy Samuel Taylor you could buy them at green tea stalls near the university!
The article claims the "long, thin pieces of paper full of answers written in tiny font, costing between 1.20 and 3.50 dollars apiece. Folded tightly, the cheat sheets can be concealed and discreetly consulted in the examination room." You just had to remember your tiny-wee magnifying glass.
Don't know if this still happens but funny all the same.
"Ba oi! Two Vina, a cup of hot green tea and a concise history of the Russian revolution."
What a service.
Coming up to exam time in Vietnam and the pressure drop for students. Heard lots of stories of cheating over the years. It gets pretty out of hand with kids so terrified of failure - and not just the kids, the parents too.
One method I heard was pretty brazen. A kid would be paid to just waltz in and sit an exam for some dolt with money - a ringer or super sub. They'd take the kids ID or make a fake one. Over the years the examiners have got wiser so the cheats did too. This gang just got done in court for radio-ing in the right answers by mobile after finding out the right answers. The gang leader, got 33 months.
Sure whatever happened to cog notes up the sleeve, says you?
Well, in Vietnam they use, or used, a cog note method called phao (life buoys - or life savers) and according to this two-year-old article by Pittsop's old beer-buddy Samuel Taylor you could buy them at green tea stalls near the university!
The article claims the "long, thin pieces of paper full of answers written in tiny font, costing between 1.20 and 3.50 dollars apiece. Folded tightly, the cheat sheets can be concealed and discreetly consulted in the examination room." You just had to remember your tiny-wee magnifying glass.
Don't know if this still happens but funny all the same.
"Ba oi! Two Vina, a cup of hot green tea and a concise history of the Russian revolution."
What a service.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Forgot the link for the man getting something out of his chest in the post below. So here it is here
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Wee break
The pittstop team took a sneaky week off last week and one of us was lucky enough to hit Phu Quoc - sweet Jesus is it a place and a half. More later, perhaps.
But the big news while we were away appears to be that someone in Thailand by the name of Songpol Somsri has invented a scent-free Durian. Come again you say? Sure what's a stinky fruit without the stink? Like Roquefort sans whiff.
First square watermelons now this.
Plus, I'd just like to point out how annoying I find it when I do a search for articles on Vietnam and find mostly articles on the Iraqi debacle and more tiresome comparisons between the two wars/ invasions.
Just had to get that last one off my chest, sorry, which reminds me of the fella who had to get something out of his chest rather than off it. Amazing.
The pittstop team took a sneaky week off last week and one of us was lucky enough to hit Phu Quoc - sweet Jesus is it a place and a half. More later, perhaps.
But the big news while we were away appears to be that someone in Thailand by the name of Songpol Somsri has invented a scent-free Durian. Come again you say? Sure what's a stinky fruit without the stink? Like Roquefort sans whiff.
First square watermelons now this.
Plus, I'd just like to point out how annoying I find it when I do a search for articles on Vietnam and find mostly articles on the Iraqi debacle and more tiresome comparisons between the two wars/ invasions.
Just had to get that last one off my chest, sorry, which reminds me of the fella who had to get something out of his chest rather than off it. Amazing.
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