NFL Week 8: Vietnam

Week 8 takes us to Vietnam - a fascinating country that was the first destination that Janice and I had split opinions on. I loved it; she would be fine if she never went there again. In summary, the country is Asia in miniature. It seemed to be overcrowded like China's cities; pulsating 24 hours a day like Bangkok; strove to be like the USA while "officially" hating it, and a government that was vainly and futilely trying to control the population.

It was alive. With tons of motorbikes!

I wrote a blog post earlier about Vietnam and my impressions - see here - and today I'll expand on a few things:

1. Motorbikes; when I first came to China, I was expecting to see motorbikes (or at least bicycle) everywhere I went. Not so in Guangzhou; motorbikes are outlawed, and bikes are somehow not that prevalent down here. (In the north of China, however....). The government has clamped down on motorbikes in order to control the pollution here in Guangzhou; in Vietnam, no such ordinance. There are 100 motorbikes on the road for every car. There are many families of 4 riding on a single motorbike across town. At a stop light, it looks like the start of a 100-cycle BMX race. 10 of them at the starting line, 10 deep.

2. How do you cross a busy street full of bikes when there is no cross walk? Easy - just raise your hand. Our tour guide led us across a busy street by raising one hand over her head, and walking straight out into the street. Immediately, the bikes moved left to give her room. It took us 2-3 seconds, but we then jumped into the street and followed here. She kept her hand up the whole time as the bikes saw her and veered out of the way. She was a modern day Moses.

3. Gambling! There is gambling in Vietnam! Our hotel had a "casino" in it that seemed to be a medium size conference room with all sorts of electronic games. I settled on the electronic blackjack - $5 minimums, and yes, the units were all in US dollars. They had the video screen that "dealt" cards - and there was an actual human dealer! The "dealer" hit the buttons to activate the computer dealing. No chips changed hands - the accounting was all on the computer. The "dealer" was just there for show to have someone official running the game.

I lost a million that night in blackjack....a million Vietnamese Dong, if the units were in the Vietnamese currency. The 20,000:1 exchange rate is still wild.

4. The Vietnam war memorials still creep Janice out, and they are discomforting. The government clearly wants to communicate that the evil Americans caused all this - but the general public (at least in the South) does not go along. I've gone back for work and heard this sentiment several times. They had the Agent Orange museum that the tour guide "forced" us to see - we left Warren and Martin in the day care center, while Freddie went with us. Somehow, Janice and I both lost track of Freddie and he got separated from us; we found him in one section staring at the victims with burned-off legs and arms. "What happened to them???" Uhhhhhhh.......

5. The food....spectacular. The French influence served them well.

6. They are on relatively the same longitude as Guangzhou - maybe a bit more to the West - yet they are an hour behind us. It gets light here early in the morning (I have had a 6:00 tee time here in GZ: now, the sun rises at 6:15).....so in Vietnam, it is very bright at 5:30 am. There is activity on the street at that time. it seems like the action never stops.

7. I won't go into the waterpark adventure we had again - but here were the waterslides we rode in the middle of a random Thursday afternoon....we were 5 of the 40 people at the park that day.

Vietnam just feels....alive and real. The motorbikes, the food, the craziness of the currency, the official party line of hating the USA while everyone is out to make a buck....it's fascinating, it's chaotic. I'd love to go back to Vietnam - the south part. I hear the north part is just like China.....

But chaos for a vacation is refreshing. Chaos for a football team....well, that's the norm with the Browns. We are not even into the third month of the NFL yet, but we are on our third quarterback! Hello Jason Campbell! To be a success, all you need to do is not fire 100 mph bullets as screen passes, and try to scramble for 5 yards once a quarter. That will put you ahead of Mr. Weeden for good.

If he can limit the mistakes........our defense is good enough to stop KC.....can the upset happen???? I will hope for it until it is 14-0 after 1 quarter again.

On to the games:

Det 31, Dal 24. I'm not liking what I see in the Cowboys offense.

SF 27, Jax 10. Mike A - I know you are reading this. Please stop me if I ever talk to you about taking the Jaguars again. You have permission to slap me.

NE 23, Mia 20. I read some stats on Brady - and I couldn't believe it. He is the 29th rated QB in the league????

NO 34, Buf 17. Boy, the Bills are tempting here, but the Saints are off a bye, and maybe this Rob Ryan defense is good.

Phi 30, NYG 20. Can we really judge how well the Giants are after Freeman's debacle last Monday?

Cin 24, NYJ 13. The Jets will be exposed by a superior Bengals team this week.

Oak 24, Pit 23. Don't these two teams play every year in Oakland? And don't the Raiders always win a wild one over a jet-lagged Steeler team?

Az 24, Atl 16. Where are people getting the idea that the Falcons are any good?

Den 37, Was 17. I had the Redskins last week, and their defense is horrible. 42 points given up to McNown and the Bears!! Manning will be out for revenge - he better, since he's the only solid player on my GZ fantasy team.

GB 27, Min 24. Honestly, I'm not that impressed with GB. Yes, they have a good running game - but with all the injuries at receiver, their passing game is not where it should be. And Ponder will be a decent replacement for Freeman.

Sea 23, StL 17.  I think something is missing from Seattle's offense. Yes, they played well against Arizona - but look at the games; they are in the 20s against teams with average or better D's. Is St Louis at that level? No, but Fisher will get a rise out of them for Monday night.

Best bets: 14 of them. Last week: 6-9; overall: 52-51-2
Det -3
Mia +6
NO -10 1/2
Phi -5 1/2
Cin -5
Oak +2 1/2
Pit/Oak over 40
Az - 2 1/2
Atl/Az under 46 1/2
Den -11
Was/Den under 59
Min +8
GB/Min over 46 1/2
StL +12

Supercontest: disappointing 2-3 last week. Overall: 15-18-2
Mia +6 1/2
Cin -6 1/2
Az -2 1/2
Min +9 1/2
StL +10 1/2