A recycling bicycle!A woman selling freshly made sweet waffles outside school. It’s getting towards midday and very hot in the sun but it’s even hotter on the back of her motor bike where there is a little stove merrily burning away.
– And there’s a thousand parts to play –
This is ‘Da Cau’ a popular Vietnamese / Chinese game dating back 2000 years to the Han dynasty. It is basically badminton played with a plastic weighted shuttlecock but only using the legs, body and feet, not the hands. Their skill is amazing, kicking from behind as well as the front. This is being played early in the morning on a wide public road that has been marked out with courts for free recreational use. Note that the motorbike is an essential component in that it is used to anchor the netFurther along we have conventional badminton, once again the motorbike is used to tether the net. All this will disappear about 7.30am when the road reverts back to – a road!It is a good day for exercise, dull/overcast/ cloudy, and thus cool. No sun here is a welcome relief!A women’s dance/fitness class 6 am in the morning! At this time of day the temperature is a comfortable 28 degrees.Ducks and chickens wait beside a very busy road for the inevitable!A street vendor selling ‘Sua Bap’ a warm/hot drink which is basically liquidized sweet corn and a lot of sugar. Delicious! Girls working in a ‘Pho’ restaurant (pronounced Furrrrrr) . The staple Vietnamese street food, just over a quid for a big bowl of noodles with thinly sliced beef blanched in a very hot broth made from beef bones. Add about four different herbs / lemon add chilly to taste and you could live for a day on it.
Streetlife – until you play your life away. –
And Relax! An evening cocktail and something ‘fishy’ to eat on the banks of the Mekong at sunset. But what country?A clue! Incomparable ancient beauty. But where in the world is it?
And finally! a very skilled man working on a very old (1950’s) Mercedes. – an artist!
It’s the awful double edged sword of competition that brings about the marvellous advancement in science that enhances the human condition and also the basic need to feel that I’m better than you. – No you aren’t – Yes I am – No you aren’t – Yes I am.- No you aren’t. – Yes I am, YES I AM! or so the song goes. Do rich successful people think that poor people are inherently lazy and stupid? But of course would never admit it. If you are poor is what you say or think of no value? Inequality – the fuel of all wars?
Love and peace John PS Might relegate SaigonSighs to once a month due to work / photo fatigue, depends what mood i’m in.
The magic of the morning sun! Vietnamese teenagers have never heard of The Beatles / Stones!Aeon Mall, an ultra modern concrete monolith at least half a kilometre long incorporating everything from a pet grooming parlour to ‘Gap’. There are five of these ‘things’ in Vietnam with plans for up to twenty by 2025. Aeon is generally taken to mean ‘eternity’ or at least a very long time. Guess the Japanese are here to stay. Parking is free and very strictly controlled by electronic cards and an army of security staff.A ‘super’ bike in the ‘super’ carpark of the ‘super’market! SUPER!Here are the designated staff who line up and bow to the first customers of the day. In front of them is a member of security with a temperature gun checking everyone who goes into the supermarketThese are not ‘Social Distancing’ marks, they are marks for the staff to stand on to BOW to the supermarket whenever they enter or leave to go into a restricted service area. Japan eh! Talk about know your place!But in the real world you can still buy your libido increasing Vietnamese wine complete with dead Cobra, off the back of a motor bike. Other additives include a tiger’s penis and testicles and bear paws.Or you can have plain old rice wine in an old Pepsi bottle!‘Snakebite’Also on the up is VINFAST, the first Vietnamese car producer. Made in a factory near Hai Phong in the north, they also make —- Electric bikes/scooters which are becoming more popular. they have a range of 80k and a top speed of 50k and hour (31mph) Trust me you don’t need to go any faster than that in SaigonAnd relax!And finally – I have a friend, yes really! His name is Andrew. He is a retired ‘Reverend’ In 1908 this vehicle – reputedly a 1902/3 chain driven 10 HP Wolseley, was waiting for his grandparents in Java during their honeymoon. So, this was in South East Asia, (Dutch East Indies) only 20 years after the first petrol engine Daimler car. Technology! don’t you just love it?
Saigon at duskThis is SAP dancing the long bamboo poles are ‘clapped’ together – with considerable force in time to music, the banging together of the poles is integral to the drumming in the music. Your job is to hop and skip into and between them till you get to the end of the line. (Not easy) without getting a squashed foot/ankle. The dance originated from the North West provinces in Vietnam.There are many small ethnic groups in the north of Vietnam. the dance is ancient and popular at festivals and celebrations where it was a chance for young people to meet/ fall in love/ marry.The location is the famous ‘Pham Gnu Lao’ a large street / road in the very centre of the city. It is the tourist centre of Saigon and has a huge central park area running the whole length of it. this is where all events take place ranging from arts and crafts displays, traditional and modern music, dancing / martial arts and aerobics, sports and games. This is the place to be on any night. Nightingales! Vietnamese traditional singing sounds very strange to the western ear, almost like yodeling with discordant sounds that initially sound so wrong but then are right.Traditional Classical music. Pham Gnu Lao was a famous Vietnamese General – 1255 – 1320 who successfully defended Vietnam from two Mongol invasions. There is always a ‘Pham Gnu Lao Street/Road in all large Cities /Towns.Beautiful AO DAI costumes topped with ‘MAN’ hatsDecorative fans used in a classical dance.Traditional MusicNot traditional musicAnd relax!And finally. It’ll look OK after a good wash and polish! Sky News UK is constantly trumpeting Taiwan as the most successful country when it comes to controlling the Corona Virus, but it’s not, Vietnam is streets ahead. Less than 300 recorded cases and no deaths. It is, of course a Communist state so the government here can act quickly which they did, closing all borders immediately the Chinese balloon went up. Compulsory quarantining of all international entrants and an efficient testing, tracking, and tracing program. proved to be literally ‘life-saving’. Life here is rapidly returning to normal, kids are back at school as of next Monday. Most businesses, shops, coffee shops and restaurants are open, There is however a long standing tradition of wearing face masks, most people wear one on a motorbike. This migrated to check-out staff in supermarkets way before CV and I suspect is now part of accepted culture.
The Bitexco Financial Tower when it was completed in 2010 was the tallest tower in Ho Chi Minh City / Vietnam but was eclipsed in 2011 by th Keangnam tower in HaNoi. That was surpassed in 2018 by the 461m Vinhomes Landmark 81 Towerin Ho Chi Minh CityVinhomes Landmark 81 Tower took just three years to build, is the 14th highest tower in the world and was designed by British Architects.From the days when ‘Renault’ ruled, mainly because Vietnam was a French Colony.A boy and his boat! One side of the river is done, this side isn’t – Yet!But soon will be.These photos were taken in 2010, now the river is tamed, neat and tidy but the water is still pretty blackProgress! What ‘Elf -n-Safety’?Works canteen!Architectural Antiques.“Yu Gotta ‘ave FAITH! Even if they are building a huge dual carriageway in front of your house.And Relax!
The most boring famous books I’ve nearly read (So boring I couldn’t finish them) The winner has to be ‘Death in the afternoon’ – Ernest Hemmingway. A chronological account of his obsession with Spanish bullfighting trying to justify his macabre interest with his great knowledge. Constantly waited for the story/plot to kick in, it never does.
A good second is Graham Greene’s ‘Our Man in Havana’. Surely an exercise in what totally outlandish ridiculous rubbish can I write and get away with it. The only spooky thing is, he wrote ‘The Quiet American’ which in hindsight seemed to accurately predict the Vietnam War and ‘Our Man in Havana’, eerily mirrors the Cuban missile crisis some seven years after it was published. It seems once you have achieved ‘fame and fortune’ anything you produce is lauded.
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