SaigonSighs 27 ‘StreetLife.’ – It’s the only life I know’- (Randy Crawford 1984)

28 May
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 net
Further 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?

Love and peace John

Leave a Reply

Discover more from cooperman88

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading