Cinderella story

The Cinderella story is such nonsense. Why would a well-experienced, highly educated, rich, powerful, cultured, intelligent prince want to marry a dumb peasant washer woman? They have nothing in common. The only thing the Prince wanted was to lay a pretty peasant girl, and what a prince wants, a prince gets. Hence the country wide search for the girl who fits the glass slipper. And don't tell me it was for love. A prince doesn't marry for love, nor does he acquiesce to love. What if Cinderella had been ugly? Would Prince Charming have even bothered picking up her glass slipper from the floor?

Rich powerful man, beautiful woman in need of rescuing.

Disney fantasies. Disney movies work by manipulating our emotions. Their movies (or all entertainment in general) are designed to bring us up, then bring us down, only so they can raise us up again and end the story/experience on that positive note. Look at Bambi, happy deer and his mom (happy), mom gets killed (sad), proceed to happy ending (happy again).

They call Thailand the land of smiles but i think Vietnam should be given that nickname. The people here are friendly and they smile a lot. But it is mostly in the context of selling you something. And I've found that the vietnamese are good salesmen. They will often touch you in a friendly way to gain your trust, like a hand on shoulder or arm type of touch. The prettier girls kept touching me on the stomach which I found charming, inappropriately intimate, obvious, and effective (not that I bought any 5 dollar shirt just cuz they touched my tummy). I don't feel like getting into the complex details, but they are generally convincing when it comes to prices.

I am staying at a tiny family run hotel in the backpacker's area of ho chi minh city. It's kind of weird because the family lives in the downstairs area, the lobby is their living room/living area. I got to see the son get whipped with a stick by both mom and dad as I sat here on the computer typing this. The other night the father was either asleep or drunk on the marble floor next to me and snoring like an orangutan was strangling him with a wet mop. I don't know if he sleeps like that normally or if he was having some kind of crazy drunk-sleep. I have video of him, and pics I'll post here when the family isn't looking over my shoulder. This place is a pretty good deal. US$12 for a private room with AC and cable TV, hot shower. the house itself is down a tiny little alleyway full of narrow walk ups. It only has 4 stories, and therefore, four rooms.