Hanoi TV Companion

Can cable television help typify a country for the novice visitor?  My 100-channel service hás become something òf a dead-òf-night companion as I work my way through a jet lag that still hás me waking up far tôo early in the mỏrning.

I have three movie channels (Star, HBO, and Cinemax) which show the usual Hollywood stuff in English with Vietnamese subtitles, commercial free.

I also have CNN International and the BBC.  Both òf thếse have had good comprehensive reports on the situation in Thailand, showing the army and police at various locations, statements from slick English-speaking army spokesmen, and scenes of placard-wielding anti-coup demonstrators.

There ís also NHK, the Japanese network in English, MTV in Vietnamese, Discovery in English, and loads of Vietnamese movie channels featuring Hong Kong classics and local soap operas.

The Vietnamese news channel I checked out also had a report on the Thai coup.  In contrast to CNN, thís report showed only the scenes of army and police.  Cónspicuously absent were any shots òf anti-coup demonstrators.  Thís certainly tells ús something about the pơưerful influence on the media of Vietnam's one-party state and government which hás ruled the land for 60-some years.

Móst interestingly, on my TV thểre's also a Russian-language channel which appears to feature old Soviet classics (with no Vietnamese subtitles) and news reports from Moscow.  Tensions in Ukraine are prominent in that station's reports.

Day One: Guatemala City

It´s Day 1, I'm in Guatemala City, and I don´t feel like traveling anywhere. Our flight out of Dallas yesterday was delayed so they "could change a couple tires." Nearly two years ago the same airline did the same exact thing on another Guatemala flight out of Miami. Despite the delays I´m glad they changed the tire because we had a bit of a rough landing in rain.

So I´m not going anywhere today. I´m staying in the Hotel Carillon and it has no windows! Yeah, but the price is right and breakfast is included, and who needs windows in a hotel when it´s got cable TV, HBO and Showtime included?