I went out for a late night snack last night and was delighted to find one of my favorite mini cars parked right across the street. This is one of my favorites that I have seen recently.
it appears as if they got some upgraded wheels on this one and the roof rack and silly ladder that leads up to it are definitely after-market. The accessories for these cars is apparently a rather big industry. The roof ladder looks to me as though it would completely crumble the side paneling if a normal sized human was to put any real weight on it. The sides of cars aren't generally meant to be load bearing, especially not on a car that costs $10,000 brand new. The roof rack could be quite effective though seeing as how the vehicle itself doesn't have much in the way of cargo space.
With some bungie cords or ratchet straps if you really wanted to get serious, would ensure that any amount of luggage you put up there would stay in place. Of course the traffic in Da Nang is so congested normally that you likely wouldn't even need to secure it since you are never going to be moving fast enough for the winds to force a suitcase off the top. I think one of the biggest fears would probably be the cross-winds on a bridge that can get pretty high during certain times of year here.
Would you want one of these cars? If I had any real notion of driving I would probably consider one but as it is now I don't really see the point of having a car at all. I have a scooter and I barely ever use it because taxis cost next to nothing and then you don't have to find a parking spot or be worried about driving drunk - which is something I think is extremely uncool anyway.
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One of the big attractions of buying a Vinfast or any other e-car is that there are free charging stations located all over the place. This should be a little bit concerning though because how long do you realistically think that these will remain free? Car manufacturers even in socialist/communist countries like Vietnam will not continue to throw money at something that is costing them money and while energy costs are pretty damn low here they cost more than zero.
It wouldn't surprise me that this could be a "bait and switch" and as soon as a million cars are sold there will be limitations on how often you can use the free pumps. Maybe it will only apply to new vehicles. At the moment this craze is only a few years old but if they do transition away from free there are going to be a lot of angry customers.
You know who aren't angry customers though? People that enjoy ghetto canned meat products.
I spotted this while looking for something else in Full Market, which is Da Nang's sort of 7-11 kind of convenience store / small grocery. I knew that Spam still existed but I thought it was a niche product that only Koreans and Americans ate. At 119,000 VND per can this is quite inexpensive as well. I bought one of them and I have to say, Spam tastes pretty good but I take issue with eating anything that seems to never spoil. How can you put meat in a can and have it stay edible for 5 years.
According to one thing I read Spam has an "indefinite shelf life" meaning that it has so many preservatives in it that it basically stays good forever. That to me is quite frightening and I am not going to make Spam a part of my day to day eating schedule since I have easy access to real food. I suppose if you had a nuclear bunker somewhere that this would be an ok idea.
Have you ever had Spam? I think it tastes just fine and I am not one to worry about sodium just yet but the sodium content of this meat is so high that it might be some sort of expressway to making sure that you DO need to worry about sodium.
I think I'll just leave it alone. It was a gag purchase for the most part.