The "Rafi Look" (patent pending)

For years, I have spent the majority of my waking life perfecting the "Rafi Look" (patent pending). The "Rafi Look" appears to suggest an inner state combining bewilderment, confusion and puzzlement. General confuzzlement, basically. This facade has for years lulled people into a false sense of security, meeting me and believing that I am 'dopey' without discovering my hidden intellectual (!) depths.

Since arriving in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the "Rafi Look" has been inadvertently practised frequently. The first occasion was at the presidential palace. The wonderous oblivion with which I ignored a huge 'don't step on the [very expensive and historically significant Vietnamese - not stated, but clearly implied] carpet was confounded only by the fact that there was a group of passing tourists who I glimpsed out of the corner of my eye laughing at my misdemeanor.














Not a problem, I thought, as the advantages of travelling alone are the enforced brief interactions with people. I'll never see them again, I naively believed. Later in the day, it almost goes without saying, I found out that those 5 gigglers made up precisely half the group that I will spend the next ten days travelling with.

The "Rafi Look" has become common on the roads of Saigon too. There are over 2 million motorbikes in Saigon, each of which, I believe, is individually trying to shake me from my daydreaming. None have succeeded, despite coming at me from all angles, cutting across traffic, riding on pavements and the wrong side of the road etc. Traffic lights are a general principle to be followed when it suits and ignored at leisure, rather than a hard and fast rule. So I decided if you can't beat them (and two million vs one is not great odds), join them:




















Other occasions in which the "Rafi Look" has been brought out have been:

When meeting the Viet Cong for the first time:














When firing an AK47, in training to join the Viet Cong, who wooed me with their communist bravado:















When burrowing my way through the Chu Chi tunels, having become a fully fledged member of the communist revolution: