Last weekend one of our colleagues at ILA Vietnam in Vung Tau had an accident. His name was Andrew Thomson, a citizen of New Zealand and the world. Initially, he was knocked off his bike by someone who apparently didn't stop (this is a not infrequent occurrence in Vietnam, sadly). He probably was not badly injured at this time, but immediately behind him was a van that didn't have any chance of avoiding him. Thommo suffered broken bones and a punctured lung as a result of this second accident.
He was taken to hospital in Vung Tau and doctors there tried to treat him for some hours before it was decided that he would need to be moved to HCMC for more specialist, intensive treatment. The damage to his lungs was quite extreme, affecting his breathing to the extent that the blood flow to his heart was not being oxygenated. He suffered at least one cardiac arrest during Sunday, and this is likely to have caused brain damage. Thommo was unconscious and on a respirator during Sunday and into Monday evening, when his body gave up the fight and he was gone.
Thommo's mother and sister were able to get to Vietnam in time to see him. Today the Vung Tau teachers gathered at the centre to meet them and to share between us what we knew of Thommo and his life. Between us we sketched the life of someone who may be a bit of a larrikin, had a love of the world and made sure to see as much of it as possible in his 44 years. We learned that in teaching - both in secondary education and as an English language teacher - that he had found his vocation, and that he had intended to pursue it onwards in his working, and travelling life. Next stop was quite possibly Kazakhstan, after already have worked in the North Sea, Spain, Venezuala, the Indian Ocean, off Cape Horn and around Africa. We had confirmed for us the idea of Thommo as a gentleman-at-large, and while his 2 months in Vietnam has been too short to know all about him, we know we are farewelling a man who is well-loved, without an enemy, and without the capability of making one.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Bach Dinh mansion - the Vung Tau White House
Although all mention of it is strangely absent from my pirate version of Lonely Planet Vietnam, Vung Tau like many coastal cities in Vietnam is the site of a former imperial mansion. In Vung Tau, this is Bach Dinh mansion, the Vung Tau White House.
However, the history of Bach Dinh is a little bit different, say to the Summer Palace in Da Lat. Bach Dinh started life as a Vietnamese fort from which the French were successfully repelled in 1820. At the end of the 19th century, though, the fort was demolished and the site was used to build a summer residence for the then governor-general of French Indochina (the redoubtable Paul Doumer, who for a short time in 1931-1932 was President of France. He was assassinated at the opening of a book fair in Paris. You always knew books were dangerous things, didn't you!).Between 1906 and 1917 Emperor Thanh Thai having tried - like many others in the Nguyen Dynasty - to shake off French rule - was imprisoned here. Actually, he had a better fate in this respect than some of the other emperors, who got shipped off to French colonies in Africa or to off-shore Vietnamese islands.
Ask a Vung Tau local about Bach Dinh and they would say it's boring to visit. Sadly, they are right really. The ground floor is used as a museum of artefacts from a large Chinese ship that sank off the coast several hundred years ago. Upstairs is pretty much preserved with old furniture - beds, sofas, tables, etc. However, the house is in a prominent position, it's on the side of Big Mountain, and it's not unpleasant to look at.
Because there was a strong storm while I was there (having ridden on the mountain bike I had to wait it out) I didn't get a chance to explore the grounds.
PS - my actual visit was a month ago. I got so busy since that I forgot that I had even been!
An update on life in the rainy season
I wrote back in May that the rainy season seemed to have started.
However, the weather June seemed to suggest that this conclusion was either falsely reached, or that information about the rainy season in Vung Tau had been greatly exaggerated in its telling.
July has proved to be a different case. We are now experiencing days on which it rains - heavily and sometimes with strong wind or storms - on several occasions in one day. It is a little bit inconvenient because sometimes you have no choice but to be out in the elements. If that happens to be the case though, the roads are quite deserted. If it's a Saturday or Sunday night when it rains, then suddenly all the cruising traffic and groups sitting along Ha Long/Quang Trung/Tran Phu streets - the contiguous roads that go from Back Beach around Small Mountain to Front Beach and then onwards around Big Mountain - are gone. It's as though they've been flushed from the roads!
This morning, for example, I started my walk at 6.35am in slight cloud that soon disappeared into a sunny morning. I got home and showered just in time for Xe to arrive at 8am to clean. Then I went out on the mountain bike for breakfast and to shop at the market, and got home at 10am hot and sweaty. Xe was just leaving and showed me that she had hung the washed sheet inside because she expected it to rain. I didn't see any particular signs that this was going to happen soon, but within 30 minutes it was bucketing down and has lasted until about half an hour ago. Now it's cloudy but the breeze and sun will soon dry everything up. Quite possibly we'll experience the same event this afternoon.
I'm starting to appreciate the rainy season though. Really, the inconvenience is slight. After all, I could just put a raincoat on and go out (I keep it in the motorbike all the time). And everything feels fresh afterwards. Plus it's really good to see the mountainsides green again after they dried off so much during the dry season.
I did get a little bit stuck by the rain recently, though when I finally made an excursion to Bach Dinh mansion (the Vung Tau White House) by mountain bike (another story!).
However, the weather June seemed to suggest that this conclusion was either falsely reached, or that information about the rainy season in Vung Tau had been greatly exaggerated in its telling.
July has proved to be a different case. We are now experiencing days on which it rains - heavily and sometimes with strong wind or storms - on several occasions in one day. It is a little bit inconvenient because sometimes you have no choice but to be out in the elements. If that happens to be the case though, the roads are quite deserted. If it's a Saturday or Sunday night when it rains, then suddenly all the cruising traffic and groups sitting along Ha Long/Quang Trung/Tran Phu streets - the contiguous roads that go from Back Beach around Small Mountain to Front Beach and then onwards around Big Mountain - are gone. It's as though they've been flushed from the roads!
This morning, for example, I started my walk at 6.35am in slight cloud that soon disappeared into a sunny morning. I got home and showered just in time for Xe to arrive at 8am to clean. Then I went out on the mountain bike for breakfast and to shop at the market, and got home at 10am hot and sweaty. Xe was just leaving and showed me that she had hung the washed sheet inside because she expected it to rain. I didn't see any particular signs that this was going to happen soon, but within 30 minutes it was bucketing down and has lasted until about half an hour ago. Now it's cloudy but the breeze and sun will soon dry everything up. Quite possibly we'll experience the same event this afternoon.
I'm starting to appreciate the rainy season though. Really, the inconvenience is slight. After all, I could just put a raincoat on and go out (I keep it in the motorbike all the time). And everything feels fresh afterwards. Plus it's really good to see the mountainsides green again after they dried off so much during the dry season.
I did get a little bit stuck by the rain recently, though when I finally made an excursion to Bach Dinh mansion (the Vung Tau White House) by mountain bike (another story!).
My new favourite beach
I've been to Back Beach in the afternoons on days off a few times (though not since I moved house to Phan Chu Trinh Street) just to keep the incredulous people satisfied.
"You live in a beach town, that close to the beach! And you never go there?!"
About a month ago Phil (Phuong), a friend from HCMC came down to stay with me for a night (Sunday through to Monday). Phil is self-employed as a management trainer and so has some flexibility in his working life, which means he was able to match up to my strange working life without a problem. He was very keen to head off to the beach while he was here (Phil is one of the incredulous by the way!), and suggested going to a small beach, below a restaurant, below the Jesus statue. I never even knew it was there!
It's now my favourite beach. The water is cleaner and generally safer than at Back Beach, where there are currents at work all the time. It seems to be known only to a few regular visitors and so it is much quieter. Sometimes there are small waves good for body-surfing. I am the only person in Vung Tau who body-surfs by the way. The Vietnamese idea of playing in the sea is to jump over the waves. And when the water is calm it's a good place to swim some strokes because the beach is in a little bay between a headland and some rocks. I try and go at least once a week now.
"You live in a beach town, that close to the beach! And you never go there?!"
About a month ago Phil (Phuong), a friend from HCMC came down to stay with me for a night (Sunday through to Monday). Phil is self-employed as a management trainer and so has some flexibility in his working life, which means he was able to match up to my strange working life without a problem. He was very keen to head off to the beach while he was here (Phil is one of the incredulous by the way!), and suggested going to a small beach, below a restaurant, below the Jesus statue. I never even knew it was there!
It's now my favourite beach. The water is cleaner and generally safer than at Back Beach, where there are currents at work all the time. It seems to be known only to a few regular visitors and so it is much quieter. Sometimes there are small waves good for body-surfing. I am the only person in Vung Tau who body-surfs by the way. The Vietnamese idea of playing in the sea is to jump over the waves. And when the water is calm it's a good place to swim some strokes because the beach is in a little bay between a headland and some rocks. I try and go at least once a week now.
What happened to Richard?
If you're a regular visitor to this blog, surely you must be wondering what on earth has happened to me? Why haven't there been any updates for 2 months?
The sad truth is that working life opened its jaws and swallowed me whole. Since the end of May my weekly schedule was upped from 24 hours to between 26 and 30 (current status) hours per week, because I agreed to be one of two teachers on an intensive (10 hours per week) course with a corporate class. The eight students in that group are from Southern Service Flight Company (SSFC), a helicopter charter service that works closely with the oil and petroleum industry in Vung Tau, flying workers to and from the rigs - "off-shore" is the local parlance. They will then be heading off to Sydney - of all places - at the end of August for a 10-week course at AICL, which incidentally is a training partner with good old TAFE NSW - Sydney Institute. Part of my contribution to the course at ILA has been to give an Australian slant to the teaching - accent, cultural preparation, information about living in Australia, etc. It's been hard work to have the extra hours but rewarding to be with the class.
However, I fervently hope that when I come back to Vung Tau in mid-August (after my 2 weeks back home in Australia) that my schedule will be back to normal. That having been said, there is a possibility of another group from SSFC starting with us at ILA in September ...
Lately, though I have been clawing back a little bit of me-time. I tend to wake up very early nowadays - before 6am - and can't always get back to sleep. On Monday morning I decided to get up and went for a walk. The initial plan was to go just as far as my new favourite beach and back to take some photos. But I ended up walking around the whole base of Small Mountain and back home - a distance of 6-8 kilometres! This morning (Wednesday) I took a shorter walk up to the Jesus statue and back home, then got on the mountain bike and rode off for breakfast and a trip to the market. And now, of course, I'm making some time to bring you new and exciting stories from A small part of Vietnam!
The sad truth is that working life opened its jaws and swallowed me whole. Since the end of May my weekly schedule was upped from 24 hours to between 26 and 30 (current status) hours per week, because I agreed to be one of two teachers on an intensive (10 hours per week) course with a corporate class. The eight students in that group are from Southern Service Flight Company (SSFC), a helicopter charter service that works closely with the oil and petroleum industry in Vung Tau, flying workers to and from the rigs - "off-shore" is the local parlance. They will then be heading off to Sydney - of all places - at the end of August for a 10-week course at AICL, which incidentally is a training partner with good old TAFE NSW - Sydney Institute. Part of my contribution to the course at ILA has been to give an Australian slant to the teaching - accent, cultural preparation, information about living in Australia, etc. It's been hard work to have the extra hours but rewarding to be with the class.
However, I fervently hope that when I come back to Vung Tau in mid-August (after my 2 weeks back home in Australia) that my schedule will be back to normal. That having been said, there is a possibility of another group from SSFC starting with us at ILA in September ...
Lately, though I have been clawing back a little bit of me-time. I tend to wake up very early nowadays - before 6am - and can't always get back to sleep. On Monday morning I decided to get up and went for a walk. The initial plan was to go just as far as my new favourite beach and back to take some photos. But I ended up walking around the whole base of Small Mountain and back home - a distance of 6-8 kilometres! This morning (Wednesday) I took a shorter walk up to the Jesus statue and back home, then got on the mountain bike and rode off for breakfast and a trip to the market. And now, of course, I'm making some time to bring you new and exciting stories from A small part of Vietnam!
Transport (yet again)
A few weeks after I started renting the Honda Spacey one of the teachers at ILA (Anne) decided to buy a new motorbike and hers became available for rent. A very attractive opportunity because:
- she has been the only rider of it since new
- she services it reguarly and it looks and handles like new
- the rent is much cheaper (1,000,000 VND per month instead of 1,500,000).
Needless to say the Honda went back to its owner at the end of the first month, and now I am very happily getting around on the sporty-looking (red! - as you all know this colour is very important in motor vehicles) Yamaha Nouvo.The poor old Honda was like driving a cow. Now I'm on a fine steed that handles well, responds to the throttle, and is a great ride. You know, the wind in your hair, the dust in your eyes, the flies in your mouth (although sunglasses and a face mask help with the latter) :)
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