Top Gear In Vietnam

[Labcoatguy]

Send me a ticket to hell, but they could have him holding a tied-up John McCain doll.

[mclarensmps]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

lol, I wonder how they'll do that.

It's going to be a kid

..

I see Jeremy's changed his phone again, I think.

[eldiaoble]

They are infront of the restaurant Pho 2000. Dont know which one but when Bill Clinton came over there, he visited the one in Saigon.

Cant wait for this episode.

[Censport]

Originally Posted by Soup?

Quite right. I was wrong.
I do apologise.

Accepted. No harm done.

Originally Posted by Baxman

There simply being a 'Communist party' does not make it a Communist state, which in itself is an oxymoron. In a communist system, the state does not exist or exists in a small form purely to administrate, which is not the case in Vietnam.

As for the episode, I'm quite looking forward to it - should be a blast.

If the Communist Party controls the country, it's a Communist country.

[Permission to say cock]

Originally Posted by Censport

Accepted. No harm done.


If the Communist Party controls the country, it's a Communist country.

It is yeah, but with rampant capitalism as evidenced by the billions of moto's! I have been in the capital of cambodia for a couple of months, here this was bad already but people from Ho Chi Minh City told me it was ten times as bad there!

Shame I couldn't visit Vietnam then, but looking forward to this episode as well!

[Censport]

They have "billions of motos'" because they can't afford cars. Just because people are able to own something isn't evidence of "rampant capitalism".

[dnats]

To be clear, there's no such thing as true communism or democracy, there's something between those two. Vietnam now is more of a fascism rather than communism, kinda like Italy when Benito Mussolini was around. On the contrary, U.S is not a democracy that it tries to spread the idea around the 'world'. It is very much a republic rather than a democracy.

I'm very excited about this special bc I lived ten years over there hooray to see what they'll come up with.

[Miffy]

Hello all, first of all, I am Vietnamese, so I am really glad to see the TG crew going through VN. I really loved Motorworld Vietnam, and I think JC will find that Saigon (HCM City) has greatly changed since he last filmed in the country.

Yes the country is not a 100% communist state. In fact the official name of Vietnam is the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Lenin stated that Socialism must be the transitional stage before complete communism can occur. Under Lenin a group of individuals to lead the state was created called a politburo, and to this day Vietnam is lead by a politburo of people at the top of the Communist party of Vietnam. So you can say that Vietnam as it stands right now is oligarchic socialism, but that is not entirely true either.

In any event, communism in Vietnam is more a matter of convenience than any belief. The government is, to put it bluntly, shit, but it is slowly getting better.

I will ask some of my friends if anyone saw a group of three English blokes in TP HCM. =)

[Viper007Bond]

New post on TG.com blog: http://transmission.blogs.topgear.co...back-from-nam/

[philipman1]

Isnt this supposed to be a Car Column not a political column this really isnt the place to discuss politics

[minigolf]

Oh, kee[ forgetting to mention this, but for those who haven't read the comments section on the AUSmotive post, it looks like the Vietnam special will be included in Series 12 with a screening date of 28 December, presumably the last show of the series (or is S12 10 episodes)???

[Censport]

Originally Posted by dnats

To be clear, there's no such thing as true communism or democracy, there's something between those two. Vietnam now is more of a fascism rather than communism, kinda like Italy when Benito Mussolini was around. On the contrary, U.S is not a democracy that it tries to spread the idea around the 'world'. It is very much a republic rather than a democracy.

I'm very excited about this special bc I lived ten years over there hooray to see what they'll come up with.

Do the trains run on time?

[Blink]

Yep.

A mate just messaged me saying that his dad has just got back from Vietnam and got the boys to sign a TG Mag for him.

So they were still there semi-recently.

[MedigoFlame]

I can't wait to see season 12. I wonder what they're going to buy for the challenge in Vietnam.

[tedb43o2o3]

Richard Hammond eating pho? YEAHHHHHHHHH

[minigolf]

Good to see the Vietnam special got a few mentions in the series highlights teaser at the start of Episode 1 on Sunday night.

Here's a new pic I've been hanging on to since I started this thread.



Just for old times' sake, here's a few more images from when the story first broke...

[Archie411]

OO intresting

[Soup?]

Two things to add, if I may:

Firstly, the beeb says they're trying to travel the length of the country in eight days.

Secondly, from the "Coming up this series" bit, it looks awfully like the team are using motorbikes (duh) but modding them as they go along.

Should be good!

[NooDle]

In the "preview" shown in 12x01, is it Clarkson that falls of his motorcycle? Because whoever it was, it looked quite real and painful.

Also, if someone can put up a screenshot of the "bike converted into boat" thing, I'd be grateful

[Mineworksfine]

Originally Posted by Soup?

Two things to add, if I may:

Firstly, the beeb says they're trying to travel the length of the country in eight days.

Secondly, from the "Coming up this series" bit, it looks awfully like the team are using motorbikes (duh) but modding them as they go along.

Should be good!

Makes TG sound like they are doing a Scrapheap Challenge (aka Junkyard Wars) Scrappy Races type challenge. It has promise especially as it won't feature Robert Llewellyn who has turned into somewhat of a cock since playing Kryten in Red Dwarf.