Bluetooth Risks

California drivers since the beginning of this month are no longer allowed to talk on the phone and drive at the same time. As a result, the market for handsfree headsets is booming. When a similar law was introduced in the Netherlands years back everyone bought corded handsfree sets or had expensive kits built into their cars, now Bluetooth is everywhere so cordless headsets are selling like hotcakes.

But opening up the wireless connection on your phone could allow for more than just handsfree talking. If you don't set your phone up right you may provide an avenue for miscreants or pranksters to access your phone and in the worst case copy your data, including phone book, e-mail messages and pictures.

Scott Budman of the Bay Area's NBC 11 News did a nice piece on potential security risks associated with Bluetooth. He came to McAfee and talked to me. You can see the short segment from the broadcast below. It aired on the evening news and shorter versions also aired again durint two morning news shows on NBC 11.

Mai Chau Valley II

It wasn't hard to shoot a postcard style image in Mai Chau. More pictures are in my private album for those of you with access.

Mai Chau Valley

The highlight of our trip to Vietnam. More pics coming later.

Halong Bay = Disneyland

The government of Vietnam has mounted a campaign to promote tourism to Halong Bay. The campaign includes omnipresent advertising at major tourist spots, heavy coverage of the campaign in local media and an effort to get the place elected to be one of the new seven wonders of the world. To help the election along, a government-owned Vietnamese agency has launched a national roadshow offering Vietnamese an e-mail address if they vote for Halong Bay. (We were told on our trip that this e-mail address often is used for a single purpose only: casting the vote.)

Halong Bay is a gorgeous place in the north east of Vietnam. Legend has it that the bay with rugged cliffs searing up from the ocean was created by a dragon defending the country of the Viets. It is a magnificent place to cruise through. However, the Vietnamese have worked hard to turn it into a badly run Disneyland.

Widespread promotion of Halong Bay as a tourist destination saw 130,500 foreigners make their way to the site in June alone, according to a recent Viet Nam News report. That's excluding the domestic visitors.

All the tourists start their trip at a badly run, overcrowded port in the town of Halong where they try to squeeze onto one of hundreds of boats, called junks. All these junks subsequently fire up diesel-belching engines and head to the same cave where the tourists are off-loaded. After a walk through the beautiful, but overcrowded cave the tourist hordes are directed to reboard the ships which motor on to a tiny, polluted beach. At the beach the crowds are once again brought ashore to bathe with all the other tourists. Also offered on the beach are para sailing trips, banana rides and jet ski rentals.

Those lucky tourists (on about 100 boats) who get to spend the night in the bay will be spending the night anchored within earshot of other junks. Many of the other junks will head back to port at the end of the day to drop off day visitors.

Mind you, we were there in the off-season, in July. During the winter (October-March) there are many more tourists on the boats and many more boats on the bay. As a result, I'd not recommend a cruise on Halong Bay to anyone who, like me, prefers a quaint cruise experience, solitude on the water, or some true relaxation away from the masses. (Which is what I was expecting from Halong Bay.)

My suggestion to the tour operators (including the friendly folks at Exotissimo who organized my trip), the Halong Bay management and the Vietnamese government is to take a close look at how Ecuador manages the boats in the Galapagos. There are major lessons that can be learned.

If there isn't any change, tourists may well stay away from Halong Bay and it won't be a natural wonder by any means. An alternative is to set the right expectations with the tourists, so they know that this won't be a relaxing cruise, taking them away from the hustle and bustle of the mainland.

Pagoda Money

We're having fun with our guides and especially like it if they show some insight into Vietnamese culture and thinking. "Pagoda Money" is an example.



Vietnam is packed with temples/pagodas. Locals go to these to worship, pray and make offerings, lots of them. The offerings include cash, to make luck happen (or even have a bad neighbor get sick, or worse.)



Vietnam is also a communist country with one party and party/government officials in all key positions. There's a lot of corruption, with bribes going to officials to avoid fines, get into a better school, buy a house and more.



These bribes are referred to as Pagoda Money :-)

Attacked by fruit

In two restaurants so far we've been attacked in Vietnam. These attacks weren't vicious or criminal, instead they were fruit dropping from a tree. In Saigon a small Jack Fruit fell down with a huge thud on the restaurant roof. In Hanoi several mangos shelled the restaurant, subsequently rolling from the roof onto the street. This is a nice way to be attacked :)

Uncle Ho

Tour guides in both Saigon and Hue have referred to Ho Chi Minh as "Uncle Ho." It is obvious that this figure in Vietnam's recent history is revered.



Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) is the founding father of modern day Vietnam. He was a nationalist, socialist and Marxist, according to the guidebooks.



Today I am off to Hanoi, where one of the sights will undoubtedly be Uncle Ho in his Mausoleum.



We're departing Hue, where the highlight for me was a trip on the Perfume river and the young monks at the Heavenly Lady temple. It was sad to see that Vietnam's "forbidden city" for kings inside the Hue Citadel was destroyed by war.