cooperman88

Well TET holiday is all but over, kids go back to school on Monday and the madness resumes. There is a street in the heart of the city called Nguyen Hue Street. Every year this is given over to amazing flower displays which take an age to create then after a week are gone. Below are a couple of photos, one this year and one in the 60’s.

Flowers are synonymous with the Vietnamese culture, the yellow chrysanthemum type flower is ubiquitous.

Flowers are also used for household shrines. We have one in the Kitchen – for the ‘Kitchen God’ and two in our living room for our ‘living room’ Gods. I’m not allowed to walk about naked in case the Gods see and are offended. On holidays such as TET food and drink is offered to the God before people eat it

Love and Peace – John

Saigon’s Water Bus service has to be the worlds cheapest tourist adventure that isn’t made for tourists. About £1.00 buys you a 40 minute river trip to a half way station called Thanh Da. It’s a bit scruffy but you only stay there for 20 minutes, just enough time to relax into an iced coffee or cold coconut freshly opened up and plastic straw stuck into it. (Yes it is plastic- this is Vietnam, change is slow but the drink is delicious.) Then it’s back on board for the trip back. It’s meant to be, and is used by locals, as an alternative commute to District 1, the commercial / tourist hub of the city. Alternative of course to motorbikes not cars.

Tet Holiday is now in full swing and it’s SELL! SELL! SELL!

Anything from golden coconuts to engraved water melons to flowers, trees and more flowers.

Everything is gearing up for TET holiday. (Remember the TET offensive of 1968). The Communist forces – Vietminh/Vietcong – attacked multiple targets in the south simultaneously. Militarily it was a disaster, nothing was gained and they were beaten back by the South Vietnamese AKA the Americans. However psychologically it was a success and became a pivotal point in the the American public’s perception and disillusionment with the war in Vietnam.

Flowers! Flowers! and more flowers, most pavements or parcels of unused land suddenly become garden centers as people buy flowers and small (Cumquat) trees for their houses. ( a bit like our Christmas tree tradition).

The main tradition with TET is the giving of ‘Lucky Money’, money given to children and young people in red envelopes. they don’t really do ‘presents’ or ‘gifts’. Birthdays aren’t really celebrated either but that – like a lot of western culture – is creeping in more and more.

They also believe that you shouldn’t drink coconut water in the evening/night. I’ve no idea why!

OK. That’s it for this week. Got to go shopping in the market, I’ll leave you with one image. What are they? Take care out there. J

Skill, hand eye coordination, manual dexterity, unfettered by ‘Elf and Safety’, a simple market place, you make it, I will buy it. No work, no money, no benefits either. That’s why the family is so strong in South East Asia because it’s the only support system there is.

There’s ‘no minimum wage’. Health care mainly revolves around the chemists/pharmacies which act as an unofficial clinic / doctors. Most Vietnamese take out government health insurance for about £25.00 per year. For this you get free hospital treatment but you have to pay for drugs (which are usually cheap). Hospitals are always very busy, not ‘clinically – clean’ but work. If you are hospitalized there is minimal ‘nursing’ care, your family are expected to move into the room (usually about 4 beds to a room) provide you with food/drink, change your clothes / bed linen and clean/tidy the room. a doctor will visit twice a day. If you have no money, you’ll probably die.

Tu Du Hospital – Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam The Peace Village dioxin ward is designed for the sole purpose of providing specified medical services. The hospital performs various medical functions, vocational education for disabled children and children born with deformities-victims of the dioxin known as Agent Orange. The U.S. military used Agent Orange and other herbicides during the Vietnam war.

These children are third or fourth generation DNA / Genetic damage caused by the dioxin poison called Agent Orange sprayed liberally over South Vietnam as a herbicide. This poison was manufactured and sold by Dow Chemicals and Monsanto, knowing full well its awful legacy.

If I ever made any ‘real’ money from my books I would support this hospital.

That’s all for this week – Love and peace – John

So! There we were, about 18 of us in a Mercedes Mini bus – which for some totally unknown reason the Vietnamese call a ‘Limosine’ – travelling from Ho Chi Minh City to the hill resort town of Da Lat when the vehicle breaks down in a small town about 3 hours out of Saigon, 2 hours out of Da Lat. out of sheer boredom I took these photos in a local rural pharmacy / chemist.

The two stuffed animals were on top of a sideboard type unit.

Not sure whether you buy the whole jar or whether they sell you some of the liquid or what you do. Medicine / health in rural areas is still quite ancient / traditional with implicit faith in totally irrational concoctions. One ‘cureall’ is a green fluid sold in a small glass bottle which is nothing more than Eucalyptus tree oil (smalls like vick). When my little daughter was smaller she experienced regular ‘growing pains’ at night causing her to wake up crying. My partner would rub this green oil on her tummy believing it would make the pain go away.

Another strange ritual I have witnessed is a new mother will urinate onto hot charcoal embers in a coconut shell. special green leaves are then held over the rising steam then the leaf is rubbed over the new born baby’s head. This ritual is to protect the soft spot on the babies head (Fontanel) and encourage it to become hard. Of course it cannot work, but the belief system embedded in it probably goes back hundreds if not thousands of years.

OR MAY BE!

Da Lat is a super-cool (meaning you need to wear a jumper at night) hill resort town used and made popular by the French during their occupation of French Indo-China, other wise known as Vietnam Cambodia, Laos and a bit of China. It has a very pretty lake you can walk around, paddle around in a big plastic swan, or simply sit beside and drink delicious Ca’phe Sua Da, an iced coffee drink sweetened with condensed milk. It’s a bit like drinking a cold, liquid mars bar. Definitely not good for your waistline or teeth. It also has a copy of the Eiffel Tower and some beautiful old french colonial buildings.