We arrived in Saigon yesterday and were positively surprised by our first superficial impressions. It certainly did not look like a socialist city in a developing country (except, maybe, for the thousands and thousands of mopeds and motorbikes).
It didn’t take long to realize that Big Brother is in control, though. I have used Facebook as a quick and easy (?) way of keeping our relatives informed of our daily movements during this journey on land in SE Asia. However, access to FB has clearly been blocked at the hotel were we are staying. After some quick research on the web, the following is apparently what is happening:
The Vietnamese Government has an Administration Agency for Radio, TV and Electronics Information that acts as a watchdog over Internet activity. In the name of public security, an official dispatch has been sent out to internet providers in the country, ordering them to block their users’ access to some websites, including Facebook.
Cartoon by Nguyen Thanh Phong (click on it for larger copy)
For an article about this issue at CNN.com click here.
We may now be unable to communivate via Facebook as long as we stay in Vietnam. So please check this blog here at Scorpiosail more frequently.