cooperman88

Fish sauce – Been around in South East Asia / China for about 2000 years in some form or other. Phu Quoc Island is famous for it’s production, especially the small coastal village of Han Ninh

It is produced by fermenting vast amounts of Anchovies and brine for up to two years in large wooden vats made from coconut wood and bound with girdles of stout braided vines. These act in the same manner as the steel banding used in barrel making in the UK. I have no idea how they join/make the vines to exactly the correct dimensions to compress the wood together.

The quality of the Fish sauce is simply measured by the amount of dilution. It’s almost impossible to obtain a 100% sauce but the higher quality sauces are used for dips whereas the lower quality is used for cooking. A bit like Olive Oil.

I am currently reading a book about laos, in particular an area in the North of Laos called ‘The Plain of Jars’ which is a flat area surrounded by beautiful mountains. On this plain are many huge stone jars which were deemed to be funeral earns but no one knows who made them. During the American/Vietnam war the area fell under the control of the ‘Pathet Laos’ a Socialist / Communist group with close ties to Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh. The Pathet Laos were funded and supplied by Chairman Mao in China. During the years 1964 to 1969 Laos became the most heavily bombed country in the world, because the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail ran through it. Or possibly, as one Senior American Military Officer said after LBJ had stopped the bombing of North Vietnam. ‘We had all these planes with nothing to do.’ The total tonnage of bombs dropped on the plain of jars, this simple agricultural society, exceeded the entire amount dropped by the allies during WW11. One can only assume that they had formed the mindset that all occupants of that area were potential enemy.

The bombing was totally illegal as Laos was officially a neutral country. America did not disclose it had bombed Laos until the early seventies, even then it insisted they had only targeted military targets

Thousands of Laos peasants were literally blown to pieces, shot from gunships, peppered with cluster bombs or burnt to death with white phosphorous / Napalm.

Love and peace John (Always look on the bright side of life!)

Really annoying word of the week. “TO——TALLY”

Spoken by extending the first syllable to emphasise your emotion.

Don’t dig there, dig it elsewhere.You’re digging it round and it ought to be square.The shape of it’s wrong, it’s much too long,And you can’t put a hole where a hole don’t belong. Bernard Cribbins 1962 – and that’s that!

In the north of the island is a massive new resort complex called VINPEARL It has five star accommodation and every amusement you can think of plus a tropical sea to play in. The VIN group is engaged in every form of commerce in Vietnam culminating in the production of Vietnam’s first home produced cars called VINFAST. (They look very good). The same company also produces a very nice electric motor scooter. The road between the main town of Duong Dong and VinPearl is currently being upgraded with lights and proper flood drains so there’s a lot of digging going on.

Along this road is the entrance to a brand new very big Movenpick five star hotel, a year ago the directions would be – turn left just after the huge land fill site which is now a mountain of rubbish so bad that they tried to obscure it with high green metal sheets, was a haven for insects and smelt awful – Miraculously this has now disappeared.

Really annoying – “Upspeak”

Practised by super-cool young-ish academics with muscles (and maybe a tattoo) being interviewed as experts on the TV. Speech cadences are deliberately raised at the end of sentences. In effect making every sentence a question.

Try it – Boris Johnson is very intelligent.

The prison was established in 1949 by the French to incarcerate anti-colonial dissidents. It’s equivalent in Ha Noi was the infamous ‘Hoa Lo’ Prison which later became the notorious ‘La Maison Central’ whose most famous prisoner was the Airman John McCain. During the ‘American’ war Coconut Prison was used to house communist fighters, sympathisers and political prisoners. It was synonymous with torture and death.

And now for something ‘lighter’

According to the Complete Annals of Đại Việt (the bible of Vietnamese history), the custom of painting eyes on the boats started during the reign of Hùng Vương (2879 – 258 BCE).  When diving fishermen complained of being attacked by crocodiles, the Hùng King suggested that they tattoo their bodies with fish scales and paint the boats with fish eyes. This was to fool the predators into thinking that the fishermen and the boats were fish and parts of sea life instead of the invaders of their environment.

Most annoying phrase – “It’s gone viral” – when I was a kid Virol was a thick sweet malt extract / olive oil ‘gloop’ for kids. I was given a spoonful everyday.

Disadvantages – rotted your teeth, made you fat, made you totally incompetent at all sports or any kind of physical activity.

Advantages – immortality!