a small part of Vietnam

South again

2011-09-24T22:43:00.010+07:00

Vietnam National Day (2 September) was on Friday this year, giving us a chance to take another short trip. Bảo had been thinking recently about his great-uncle, who is a great favourite with his family and the only sibling of his mother's mother still living. That settled it - we were heading south again, to Sóc Trang province.

The only difficulty with this idea? I was teaching on Thursday evening, which limited our choices in departure times and bus operators . In the end we opted for Hòa Hiệp company, leaving Vũng Tàu at 3.00am the next day. Sadly, this was not such a good choice. Knowing already that it would not be air-conditioned, we turned up at the bus station at 2.30am to discover it was a rather small vehicle that would become vastly overcrowded once we set out. Oh well, it served the purpose and delivered us to Sóc Trang city by 11.00am. And at least we had real seats instead of plastic stools.

There we ate lunch while waiting to meet one of Bảo's numerous cousins, who helped to engage two xe ôm drivers to take us to our real destination of Kế Sách district and the village home of great-uncle, his wife, sons and daughters and grand-children. (In the picture on the left Bảo is the same generation as the young girl - the woman is her mother.) It took a bit of asking to find the house, but it seems most people know great-uncle. Later we were to discover this is in at least part due to his skills/reputation as a traditional healer. I soon discovered why great-uncle is such a favourite with his family. His personality is so expansive and engaging, and at 85 he is still lively and active. I feel honoured to have been received into his home.

After dinner that night one of the uncles took us to drink coffee and then to eat bánh xeo miền tây. Walking back home he also pointed out some of the features of the village which sits at the junction of a river and one of the branches of the Mekong. The next morning we had breakfast of bún mắm in the market with uncle and great-uncle, who then took us on a walking tour of the village centre and the pagoda. Here we met the monk and found out about the work being done to renovate rooms behind the pagoda where old people with no family can come to live. The big community room behind the pagoda has many brightly coloured pictures of the various Buddhist hells.

Then uncle took us across the river (Mekong) to the island where he is a teacher. Here we visited many houses of colleagues and friends, drinking a huge assortment of beverages ranging from coconut juice to beer and coconut wine to iced coffee and nước ngọt. It reached the stage where we could hear the ice being chopped up at the next house and had to request "no more, sorry!".

Back at great-uncle's house we ate lunch and then met more family members, this time including the son of another deceased great-uncle, who of course Bảo should properly call "uncle" even though he is 7 years younger. They did do this when they were boys, but now the uncle calls Bảo "anh". While everyone talked I looked around the grounds of the house more, discovering the range of fruit trees, and learning that the tidal patterns of the Mekong are the reason that most houses in the delta stand on tiny islands surrounded by ponds. This had always been a mystery to me. By the way the scullery of the house is outside over one of the ponds and this is also where we brushed our teeth.

That evening we returned to stay at Sóc Trang, before venturing on the next day to Bạc Liêu, where (you guessed it) there was another cousin to meet and take us around. The idea was to hire him and his friend (they are both xe ôm drivers) to take us around but at the end of the day the cousin steadfastly refused to accept payment. Thank you so much for welcoming us!

Our first destination was a town half way to Cà Mau, the southern-most province/city of Vietnam. Here there is a huge - I mean gi-normous - church as well as a museum and chapel dedicated to the most famous priest of the area. From there we turned back towards Bạc Liêu before leaving the highway and travelling several kilometres through farmland to reach a large temple complex dedicated to Quan Am. At this point we were now almost at the sea, although I didn't realise it. Bảo relayed to me that in the living past the land where the temple now is was on the coast, yet all we could see in front of us was more land and then mangroves. It wasn't until we crossed a small river just to the north of the temple that I understood and truly appreciated the extent to which Vietnam is visibly growing each year as the Mekong deposits more and more silt into the ocean.
On the way back into the city we had time to visit the Bird Sanctuary. Looking at my road map book for Vietnam I now know there are a number of bird reserves in these southern-most provinces, established in mangrove areas and providing sanctuary for an abundance of water-birds, including herons and cormorants. Really the birds are free to come and go, but there is also a large netted area to give them safe haven, along with ground-dwellers, and we were in time to see some of the birds being fed.

Our final destinations were 1) the tomb of a very famous cai lương song-writer and singer. This style of music is the traditional one for the south but is not to everyone's taste! 2) the mansion of a man reputed (still) as the richest man in Bạc Liêu. A good place to read about both of these tourist features of the city is here.

Then all too soon our time was up, and it was time to travel 10 hours back to Vũng Tàu. Again not without its surprises. The manager of the hotel we stayed at in Bạc Liêu recommended using her friend's private transport service to get back to Hồ Chí Minh City. No problems there and it was a smooth trip using the new freeway alternative to highway one. However, we were dropped off a long distance from Bến Xe Miên Đông, and had to take a local bus - a new experience for me - from outside Đam Sen water park to reach the bus station.

Weekend Trip

2011-09-24T21:46:00.000+07:00

After close to 3 years, I no longer work on weekends! And that gives a chance to take weekend trips away on the motorbike + Monday if Bảo can have the day off. Our first destination: Phan Thiết, about 170 kilometres up the coast from Vũng Tàu. Mũi Né,- fishing village cum major tourist destination, is just a bit further from there (went there with David back at the beginning of 2009).

We worked out from looking at the map and advice from colleagues (Bảo's and mine) that we would not have to venture onto national highway 1 at all for the trip - a great bonus to stay away from the traffic. The route took us from Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu province, via Long Hải and Bình Châu into neighbouring Bình Thuận province, travelling parallel to the coastline to La Gi where there is an option to turn inland to highway 1. Instead we took the lesser road sticking with the coastline and travelling past what appear to be volcanic mountains and through the thanh long (dragon fruit) fields to the village of Kê Gà. Here we stopped - literally on the beach - to take a (still distant) look at the lighthouse, before continuing on in the southern approach to Phan Thiết city. This road in is also in the throes of resort development but hopefully will remain much more restrained than Hàm Tiên/Mũi Né.

As regular readers know already, Bảo has contacts everywhere! Phan Thiết is no different where one of his former colleagues from Kinh Đô company (Tây Ninh days) now lives with his young family. He helped us find a reasonably priced hotel in the city, next door to Co-opMart, and we met a couple of times more during the weekend for coffee, etc.

In the afternoon we tackled highway 1 so as to drive back out of the city to one of the biggest mountains in the area, Núi Tà Cũ. Bảo's previous visit was on pilgrimage when he climbed up the mountain at night so as to reach the pagoda by midnight. This time we had the cable car available to us - it leaves Vũng Tàu's in shame incidentally for length and price and it took us up one high slope and then partly down the next one to reach the pagoda complex. From here we could also look back to the coastline along which we had ridden earlier in the day. The photo shows clear weather, but this is rainy season and it set in with a heavy downpour on the ride back to Phan Thiết.

The next day we decided to head north to Mũi Né. Properly speaking all the development is in Hàm Tiên village rather than Mũi Né, but for some reason it's the second name that has stuck. I thought it was getting over-developed last time I was here; now it's just kilometres of resorts and hotels, with the beach getting eroded by the sea and the water itself polluted by the thrill-seekers on sea-doos. Very disappointing and we would have been better to stick to Phan Thiết beach ...

On the way back we stopped to take a look at Po Shanu Cham towers, a simple vestige of three Cham-era towers on a headland. Compared to other sites in the central-south of Vietnam, or at My Sơn, the towers are nothing much but the setting is still peaceful and beautiful.

Monday came it and was time to retrace our steps home.

Phu Quoc

2011-06-28T16:39:00.001+07:00

Phú Quốc is a beautiful, peaceful and relaxing island in the very south of Vietnam, almost closer to Cambodia than it is to mainland Vietnam. You can reach it by high-speed or slower boats or plane, and many people in Vietnam and from abroad do choose to come here. Yet despite it's popularity it remains relatively quiet and it is not (yet) over-developed as a travel destination. Perhaps one reason is that the airstrip is small, only Turbo-props and the like can land/take-off from here.

Last year, Bảo and I were almost within striking distance of Phú Quốc when we trekked south to Rạch Gía and Hà Tiên on the April/May national holidays. This year, together with An, and aided by the decision of Vietnam Airlines to put on additional flights, we took the extra step ...

... staying in a small, beachside resort along Long Beach. It wasn't plush and wide like it's neighbours but it was comfortable and clean and the right price for our collective budget. It was also just a couple of kilometres south of the main town, Dương Đông, a walkable distance.

On our first afternoon/evening we tried out the beach, encountering the first of many jellyfish that would be part of our visit. Then we walked into town to take a look at what is translated to English as Cau Castle, but which is in fact a tiny lighthouse combined with a temple dedicated to the goddess of the sea, and standing at the entrance to Dương Đông port. It is also adjacent to the town beach, which was crowded with swimmers, walkers and young guys jumping from the rocks into the sea. Finally, we had dinner in the night market - very hungrily as we had missed out on lunch :(

The next morning we rented two motorbikes so that we could explore the island further afield. Our intended destination was Bãi Sao (not to be confused with Vung Tau's Bãi Sau!) but with a visit to the pearl producers along the way. Pearls, along with fish sauce and pepper, appear to be the main products of Phú Quốc, and there are very many "factories" set up around the southern areas of the island. We spent a few hours beside and in the beautifully clear water - again in the company of many jellyfish, although I discovered if I swam slowly enough they were aware of me and would move away. Unfortunately I acquired a rather red skin as well (sunburn).

In the mid-afternoon we sought out the prison near An Thới town. Like many islands around the world, Phú Quốc was used as a political prison in the past - by both the French and the Americans. While the Lonely Planet website says otherwise, there is actually a museum here recording the crimes inflicted on the Việt Công and Việt Minh by the foreign nations and the South Vietnam government. We didn't linger because Bảo and An overheard some remarks directed towards me ...! Finally, we completed a round trip of the southern part of the island by stopping off at the national park, and then a pepper farm. An enjoyable ride, without a lot of traffic, but with a lot of red dust. There is also some massive road-building going on, leaving me wondering about expectations for the future population of the island.

Phú Quốc is actually famous for its fish sauce, and Bảo wanted to try and find the factory for the brand that his family prefers. After some driving around we tracked it down, and although really the factory was closed for the holiday, the owner gave us a look inside and told us a bit about production. This factory is different from many because they continue to use wooden casks for brewing? fermenting? the fish sauce in. Actually the smell was not too bad and it was interesting to see the process.

Afterwards Bảo and I rode north to Bãi Dài, another long, beautiful and only sparsely frequented beach. One of the lovely things about much of the coastline on Phú Quốc is that it is lined by pine trees that leave a blanket of needles on the sand almost down to the sea. Everywhere the water is clear and clean. Out this way there are a few resorts - imagine how it might be to stay in this tranquility.

And then ... the trip was over. Back to work.

Family visits

2011-04-28T17:51:00.001+07:00

Mum and Dad visit
In March Mum and Dad arrived in Vietnam on their first trip to Asia. They booked on a Macleay Valley Tour to take them from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang/Hoi An and Ha Noi/Ha Long Bay, but arranged to come a few days early so that they could also come to visit Vung Tau.

Bao and I met them at the airport on Saturday evening, after some delays caused by late connections and storms in Singapore, and took them into the city to the hotel and a brief orientation to the area. They seemed still very awake although their body clocks would have told them it was the wee hours of the morning, and they had been on the go since early morning Australian time.

The next morning we made use of Bao's past training as a tour guide to take them on a longer walking tour along Dong Khoi street up to the General Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral, across to Reunification Palace and back into the city centre. Then we visited Ben Thanh market, before taking a taxi to Bao's family home for lunch. After that we returned to the hotel for them to check out and then embarked on the ferry to Vung Tau.

The weather stayed fine throughout their visit with us, but it was also quite warm. Notwithstanding this they never wilted! On Monday morning we had breakfast at Garden Cafe then I took them to the orphanage to meet the children, visit the babies and see the various facilities. While we were there we arranged to take Bi, Hoa and Phuong out in the afternoon for a trip up Big Mountain on the cable car. (In the months since then Phuong has left the orphanage because he wanted to find his father again. We have had no word about him, but hope that he is safe.)

On Tuesday morning we walked down to Back Beach and along the road to Imperial shopping centre. My brilliant plan was to treat Mum and Dad to cappucino at Highlands Coffee, otherwise I wouldn't have taken us so far. But when we got there it was suspiciously deserted and turned out to be closed! :( So after a quick look around the shopping centre we took a taxi to Coopmart, where Mum bought a bigger hat and we had Lotteria for lunch.

In the afternoon we visited the White Palace and then came back home for them to rest, while I went off to teach a class. The next morning we had coffee with Anne (My Huong), went to the ferry terminal to book seats for the afternoon trip back to Ho Chi Minh City and took a walk along the seafront to visit a pagoda.

That night Mum and Dad joined the group of fellow tourists who had just arrived from Australia, and then embarked on a heavy schedule of visits to Tay Ninh, Cu Chi, My Tho, and Ben Tre in the south; Da Nang, Hoi An, My Son temples and Hue in the centre; and Ha Long Bay, Ha Noi, Tam Coc and Hoa Lu citadel in the north. I am looking forward to seeing their photos!

I asked Mum if they would consider coming back. Her answer: yes, they would, but they want to see fewer temples and museums and more about how people live. That can be arranged!

David's visit
A month later David arrived to spend some days in Vietnam and then take a trip to Siem Reap. His arrival coincided with the Hung Kings Anniversary national holiday which meant that Bao and I were able to go up to Ho Chi Minh City to meet him, stay overnight and then return with him to Vung Tau. Our friend An joined us in Ho Chi Minh City and provided an extra set of wheels for us to get around and visit different districts. David enjoyed the time a lot, especially the food!

Again, I had a work commitment during his visit in Vung Tau, but Bao took David on our usual walking route up Big Mountain, and then we met later for dinner. The next morning I took David to meet some of the children, and he also took the chance to have a chat with the Director of the centre, Ms Trang Dai. Actually, oral health is a real problem for the children at the centre and in the community, so I hope that we can set up some initiative to assist them with this with David's help!

What to write about?

2011-04-28T12:11:00.000+07:00

... after 4 months of 'silence'?

Spring (brings Tết and holidays)
I am watching a change of seasons move through the south of Vietnam. Longer days, warmer temperatures, slow springing of plants and trees back into green, the barren brown hillsides gradually covering over in foliage.

Two months ago we marked the arrival of spring (Xuân) by celebrating Tết for the year of the cat (the rest of the world knows it as the year of the rabbit). Bảo and I (along with another friend) flew out to Singapore on the afternoon of 1st day of the new year, but before leaving we spent a few days in Saigon.

We visited the flower festival in Nguyễn Huệ street by day and by night, but this year decided not to watch the fireworks there at midnight on the last night. Instead we went to another flower festival in one of the city parks, wandering through displays of flower and fruit sculptures, a variety of orchids, amazing bonsai landscapes, and many, many more flower beds.

On 1st day we joined the family on the annual round of pagodas in the morning before heading off to the airport for the evening flight down to Singapore. Our visit coincided with Anne's - as she does always, we were looked after admirably, starting with the honour of joining Anne, Serena and Steve for lunch on 2nd day. After lunch, Anne took us on a walking tour of Chinatown, telling us some of the history of the area, giving us an idea of how much the old town has changed over the centuries, and showing us some of her favourite places. She also inducted Bảo and Hiệp into the art of hotel foyer and toilet usage and threw in a quick tour of Orchard Road, before delivering us into the hands of Frankie and Jeffrey for the evening.

I counted that this was my fifth visit to Singapore and my sixth to Malaysia. For me, the plusses of coming to Singapore revolve around food and friends, and enjoying the reliability and access provided by the MRT; but travelling with first time visitors allows me to see the sights in a new way. Plus Singapore changes constantly. For example, Bảo expressed an interest in visiting the boat on top of the building. I had no idea what he meant, and strongly wondered whether he knew what he was talking about! But of course he was talking about the amazing construction at Marina Esplanade. We also had the chance to visit the Hongbao festival that takes place at the Esplanade, plus take all the usual cheesy shots at the Merlion Park.

To get to Malaysia (destination Penang) I had booked with Konsortium Bus company to travel on the Sunday after Lunar New Year. Then I found out the roads were likely to be busy with everyone travelling between Malaysia and Singapore to get home ready for work on Monday. I had estimated 8 hours travel time; the bus was 1 hour late reaching Singapore in the morning because of traffic, and in the end it was almost 12 hours before we finally checked in to the hotel in Penang :(

We had a very good time in Georgetown, walking around to see the different cultural and historic features of the city, and taking in buildings of all religious persuasions, from Islam to Buddhism to Confucianism and Christianity. We enjoyed the visit Khoo Khongsi Clan house and the Peranakan Mansion very much, for the insights they gave to different ways of life from the past.

Penang Hill has eluded me yet again, this time because the funicular railway system is closed down and the road entrance is on the other side of the island from where we were. But instead we followed a sign to the intriguingly named Bat Temple, which seemed in the end to possess nary a bat but a huge fish in a distressingly undersized pond. Further up the road we came across a ceremony to dedicate a Buddhist pagoda, and finally we climbed up to another pagoda that had great views back across Georgetown.

We also trekked up to Kek Lok Si pagoda complex. This mammoth edifice continues to expand, funded by wealthy patrons from around the globe. The latest addition is a huge statue of the Goddess of Mercy, sheltered by an even more immense canopy.

So this visit to Georgetown (my third!) brought a mix of new and already-experienced sights. One evening Bảo and I also came across a clan house from which a procession incorporating drums, marchers and a branch of a tree was starting. Bảo has a great video taken as we chased the procession down the road and onto a bus!

After 3 nights in Penang, we started the journey back south via KL. Since the utter confusion I experienced on my first visit to KL, I have gained a very rough idea of how the areas of the central city are laid out and connect, but the cardinal directions for travelling to the outer areas continue to bewilder me! KL's transport system is a little chaotic and woefully undersized for the demand but it works well enough when combined with foot. Of course, we booked in and visited the skybridge at Petronas twin towers - a bit of a coup for Bảo as a colleague had tried to convince him that it was not possible to visit any more.

Leaving Hiệp to his computer on the final day in KL, Bảo and I also set out to visit the Istana (Royal Palace). Having never been here but in possession of a map, I figured it would be relatively easy to walk there from Chinatown. It was up to a point: we discovered that the multi-lane highway adjacent to the palace gates had no place to cross. We braved running across - with our hearts in our mouths - but the thought of it was too much for trying to get back. Fortunately we were able to walk alongside the highway down the hill to a monorail station!

At Anne's suggestion we took the overnight bus back to Singapore. Puduraya Bus Station has now closed and most of the south-bound buses have supposed to relocate to a spanking-brand new bus terminal outside KL. Most have not, but ours had. It took the taxi driver (who learned in a kamikaze school of driving) three attempts to get us into the place because he kept missing the correct entrance, but eventually we were checked in. The staff have little to do here and so the individual attention to service is high. Wish the same could be said of buses in KL. The VIP standards of the past are declining, particularly in cleanliness, although leg room remains luxurious. We arrived back in Singapore early, took a taxi to Tanjong Pagar and drank coffee at an all-night shop while we waited for a decent hour to knock-on Anne and Serena's door. Little did we know they were already awake and waiting for us. But thank you again to them both for looking after us for the morning.

where have u been?

2011-01-01T12:54:00.000+07:00

Trời ơi! It's been three months since the last post. A period punctuated with the usual lackadaisical intentions to bring another view of life in Vietnam ... A quarter of a year.

So here are some of the highlights.

October ...
... brought a long-anticipated visit to Australia and Bảo's introduction to life, family, friends and -scapes of Sydney, Newcastle, Tamworth and the Blue Mountains. I spent two weeks before our trip monitoring Australia Network weather forecasts daily, hoping, hoping for an indication that we would arrive to balmy October days, but it was not to be ... The weather was variously cool, warm, cold, foggy but seldom wet.

What did we see? What did we do?

We stayed with David at Potts Point and did a lot of walking from this point. To the Domain, the Botanic Gardens and Circular Quay. To the city and through the Rocks. To Glebe and Newtown!

We ate well, but far too much, marvelling at the immense bowls of phở and hửu tiêu with which we were served, enjoying feasts at the homes of family and friends.

We were Sydney tourists, (re)discovering the Opera House, the Bridge, Sydney Tower, Wildlife World/Sydney Aquarium, the harbour and the ferries ...

We twice borrowed David's car (yes, it seems I do still know how to drive after 2 years absence from behind the wheel, and 2 years travelling on the other side of the road!). Our first trip was to Newcastle and the Lower Hunter, to visit Karen and her family, as well as friends and the vineyars. The second trip was to the Blue Mountains which sadly and determinedly remained shrouded in dense fog for two days. No vistas of the Three Sisters or the Megalong and Jamieson Valley's were ours to behold this time.

We flew to Tamworth to visit Mum and Dad and enjoyed the greenest scenery I can ever remember, courtesy of the rains that have since continued well past their welcome, and saturation, point.

Three weeks were like a life in another world. Time seemed to be our friend, marked out measuredly from a bottomless cup. Then all too soon the day of our departure loomed ...

(if you are a Facebook user please try going to Bảo's profile for his pictorial perspective on our visit)

November ...
Edwin (fellow teacher) and I took up a housewarming invitation to celebrate the extension of the family home of one of our most lovely teaching assistants, Kiều. This entailed a motorbike trip of approximately 50km to the town of Ngãi Giao in Châu Đức district.

We were very warmly welcomed by her family and neighbours and enjoyed some fantastic food prepared by Kiều's aunt. As I write we are still waiting to hear which of us her aunt has selected as her potential husband!

No party in Vietnam is properly formed without singing and dancing. In this we were very ably managed by MC Hải.

After the party Edwin and I took a detour via Long Hải so that we could go and visit the Centre for Social Protection of Children. We arrived in time for a karate lesson but also had personal escorts around the grounds. I was told many things about the plants - a few of which I understood!

The teachers at ILA in Vung Tau support the centre each month by giving food to assist the lunch/dinner prepared for the 110 children who attend school at the centre. Which brings me to ...

December ...
and Christmas. In November, the teachers and staff at ILA collected enough money to buy each student at the Long Hải centre a basic pair of shoes. We also put the December food collection towards making a Christmas treat for each of the students and on 20 December a group of us (teachers and teaching assistants) made a trip to Long Hải to present the shoes.

We met with the morning contingent of students (approximately 50) to share a little bit of Christmas culture - via singing a round of the chorus "We wish you a merry Christmas!" - and some good old-fashioned TPR (for you teacher-types in the know!) with the Vietnamese version of Simon Says (Tôi bảo). There were also several lucky number prizes to give, followed by the presentation of the shoes.

Assisting Anne (Mỹ Hương) and her cousin Mỹ, the orphanage volunteers joined in on the Christmas festivities for the 50+ children (this number doesn't include the babies or severely disabled children) living at P and N centres on Christmas Eve. We took advantage of fine weather and the space at N centre to have an outdoor party with races and games followed by some scrumptious food and the climax of Santa's visit (you will see who that was in a moment!) and two immense cakes.

Click here for all the pics.

Phnom Penh again

2010-09-15T18:26:00.000+07:00

National Day in Vietnam falls on 2 September and commemorates the day in 1945 when Uncle Ho declared Vietnam to be independent of French rule. This year it fell on Thursday with many companies giving employees Friday off as well to make a long weekend. So ... I also took advantage of it by accompanying Bao and An on a 4-day trip to Phnom Penh.

The border crossing at Moc Bai-Ba Vet was very busy, and as there were a number of foreigners on our bus it also took some time to get Cambodian visas issued. Unfortunately it was so busy that the leader on our bus forgot to submit my passport and fee to the visa office! I thought something was different from the previous experience but it took 20+minutes of queuing to get to the immigration counter before I found out what it was. Luckily I found him straightaway and was in possession of the visa and entry stamp in about 10 minutes!

Expecting Phnom Penh to be very busy with Vietnamese holiday makers we had already booked a hotel, which turned out to be within walking distance of most points of attraction. So essentially we spent a weekend alternating between walking a lot and doing very little. As with my previous visit to Phnom Penh the heavens absolutely bucketed down on two occasions for several hours.

We spent some time on Friday morning at the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Both are inside a large compound that includes the Throne Room and various other buildings. The actual royal residence is off-limits behind high walls, although visible. This is a peaceful sp0t to go and there are a number of exhibits detailing Cambodian culture and the political career of the King Father Sihanouk.

We also visited the Killing Fields at Choueng Ek which provide the counterpart to Tuol Sleng in commemmorating the terrible impacts of the Pol Pot era on Cambodia's people. While the classic image of Choueng Ek in the past was the wooden structures housing skulls and other bones of the people slaughtered here, they were actually replaced some years ago by a tall, elegant but sombre stupa. To date approximately half of the mass graves of more than 20,000 people have been excavated.

The graves were not dug deeply. With Cambodia's heavy rains bone fragments, teeth and even pieces of cloth continually emerge in the surface of the soil. In the small museum I was surprised to discover that at least one Australian had been killed and buried here - David Lloyd Scott. You can visit a couple of other blogs to learn something more about him: http://informationandaccess.blogspot.com/2007/07/week-6-in-phnom-penh-milestones.html and http://blog.andybrouwer.co.uk/2009/08/aussies-at-s-21.html. The records are a bit hazy on whether he and Ronald Keith Dean died at Tuol Sleng or at Choueng Ek, but they appear to have been at both infamous sites.

The legendary birthplace of Phnom Penh is Wat Phnom perched on the only hill in the city. This is the place to which Madame Penh brought some Buddha images she found floating in the river. There are a lot of cats here!

A little bit of shopping in the Russian Market rounded off our visit. Bao was keen to see the Independence Monument at night and also go to the Nagaland Casino/Hotel to help him recapture memories and photos from his tour in Cambodia last year. Unfortunately he had lost all the photos he took on that tour to Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh. Gambling wasn't on anyone's list of things to do, but the casino decor is quite impressive. One large room is decorated as though it is actually outdoors, with a 3-storey ceiling painted with sky and clouds and brightly lit. Quite the opposite to the experience of Sydney's Star City or indeed most gambling dens in the average Australian club.

Orphanage school

2010-09-15T17:55:00.001+07:00

It's now a year since the school program at the orphanage in Phan Boi Chau Street started. There have been some changes in faces all round - Vietnamese and foreign teachers and children - in that time. A few kids have been adopted and are living happy futures in France. New faces appear in class from time to time as new residents arrive and younger children grow up.

In this photo you can see Ms Trang, one of the current Vietnamese teachers. Bi is now wearing glasses and this seems to have done a lot to improve the general health of his eyes. Next to him is Phuong - a lovely older boy who is keeping his past a secret from everyone at the moment. This is not unusual for kids in his situation. Their past has not been fantastic and they just don't want to talk about it yet.

Some months ago the Sunday Night program on Channel 7 in Australia came to Vietnam to make a story called The Lost Children. It's about children who were adopted out of Vietnam after the American War, and their search for family back in Vietnam. It featured Anne (My Huong) who does so much work with the children's centres in Vung Tau, and is a touchstone for many past adoptees looking for their mothers now. I can't give a direct link to it here but you can find the video in the Sunday Night archive on the Internet.

A brief country-side visit

2010-09-15T17:21:00.000+07:00

In unrelated news ... we applied for Bao's tourist visa to come to Australia with me back at the beginning of July. A word to the wise if any gentle reader ever plans to do a similar thing. The information given to you in downloadable forms from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship is just the beginning of it all. I got hold of them several months ago, then thought to visit the Australian Embassy website for Vietnam. Lucky I did because I discovered a checklist of items and additional forms specific to Vietnamese visitors to Australia, and even then discovered that there is yet another form not listed with the checklist (only found that one by accident). Once we got them all filled in and documents translated + all copies and translations certified we went to the International Migration Office in HCMC which handles the Australian and Canadian Visa Application Offices, only to be told that in fact we were submitting the bare minimum of supporting letters and documents!

So it was a slightly anxious 4-week wait before the SMS came requesting Bao to return to the office and collect his passport. No hint as to the outcome, and the staff don't open the sealed envelopes returned to the office from the Consulate. Fortuitously the message came when I had already planned to take a weekend off classes and go up to HCMC. The outcome was a happy one ... and we'll be arriving in Sydney on 10 October!

Which brings me to ... A brief country-side visit :)

Friday afternoon and Saturday were pretty much a round of coffee shops and catching up with some of Bao's friends. However, on Sunday we made a trip down Highway 1 to Long An province and the familial home of Bao's sister-in-law. Remarkably this has been almost my first opportunity in 2 years to go into the country-side and get up close and personal with rice fields.

When we arrived in mid-morning there was a big party going on because one of the other relatives had just bought some land in the area. Many male acquaintances of the family gathered to eat and drink. This was effectively breakfast for us - drinking bia 333 is not the type of breakfast I really envisaged, and Bao and I eventually took the opportunity to walk around a little and indulge my love of ducks. I can't explain this ... they are dirty animals, but I just like seeing them swim and waddle around, or even experience the ignominy of being tied by the dozen to bicycles and motor bikes for transportation to market and back.

We also still had the trip back to Vung Tau to make, so noticing that the clouds looked threatening we made our thanks and excuses and left a little after midday. Unfortunately we didn't get very far down the road before the heavens opened and we experienced a drenching return all the way back to HCMC, a trip of approximately 50km.

Tempus Fugit

2010-08-13T16:27:00.000+07:00

The minutes seem to go so slow ... yet the months have accumulated so much.

On Wednesday evening I joined Bao and his former colleague, Huyen, at a coffee shop. While we were sitting and talking I kept wondering how long it had been since I last saw her? And where?

Eventually it dawned on me that I last saw her just before she left STX. We had an evening picnic on Ha Long road just below the statue of Jesus. I rode there after class - on my bicycle, which means I was then living at Vo Thi Sau street. I moved house to Phan Chu Trinh street at the beginning of May last year!!

Could it really have been more than 15 months since then? Could it really be 12 months since I came back to Australia for a visit? (August last year)

Bao and I are coming to Australia to visit everyone this October. When that visit commences it will have been two years, almost to the day, since I first left Sydney to start this life in Vietnam!

Time slips away so fast ...

Kien Giang

2010-05-01T14:29:00.000+07:00

Rach Gia
So the Huong Kings' Anniversary holiday has just passed again. This year it was on a Friday, so we planned another short trip (with a few working days off as well) and headed for the province of Kien Giang. Kien Giang is most well-known amongst travellers for Phu Quoc Island, but it's expensive to fly there and very popular at holiday times.

Instead we decided to go by bus to Rach Gia and Ha Tien. Foreign travellers usually only go to Rach Gia if they are planning to take the high-speed boat to Phu Quoc. However, during the time we were there I saw a number of people who looked a bit more settled in, perhaps staying for a day or two. Rach Gia is Bao's hometown. To understand this concept a bit more, especially as Bao was born and grew up in Can Tho, I asked why he says this. I learned that Vietnamese count their home town as the one where their father was born and raised. I knew that Bao's grandfather lived in Rach Gia, and that Bao used to regularly travel (alone) from Can Tho to visit during holidays. He still has uncles and aunts and cousins there, and it was to his aunt’s house that we headed on arrival off the overnight, sleeping bus from Vung Tau. (Interestingly, we discovered that a number of companies travel directly to the south, meaning that we didn’t have to transfer and spend some time waiting for a connection in HCM City.)

Bao found that the city had changed and grown a lot. Previously the area behind his family’s home was sand and mangroves. It is now extensively filled-in and built on with houses, shops, hotels and boulevards, and the mangroves have been replaced with a seawall. The guesthouse we stayed in was in this area, and we borrowed a motorbike to take a look around the city.

Other than visiting family, our purpose in coming to Rach Gia was to use it as a staging post to get to Ha Tien (rather than continue directly there on the bus from Vung Tau).

Ha Tien
Much of Kien Giang province has been disputed territory with Cambodia over the years, even as recently as the Pol Pot regime when the army of that government regularly invaded, attacked and massacred Vietnamese. Traditionally, the Khmers have regarded any area in which a particular type of tree, similar to a coconut palm but with a different type of fruit, grows as being Khmer territory. This is the case for the land around Ha Tien and further north at Chau Doc. It is from this tree – actually from the flowers – that palm sugar is manufactured.

In the 1700s Ha Tien was protected from the Khmers by a Chinese warlord named Mac Cuu. The tombs of his family are now a principal attraction in Ha Tien. Ha Tien, itself is a very very popular destination for Vietnamese tourists, and a scattering of foreigners. This is because it is also close to some beautiful beaches, and limestone outcroppings and mountains, riddled with caves and turned into temples.

So these attractions are what we travelled from Rach Gia to come and see. We offloaded from the bus and transferred into the town only to discover cup dien – no electricity, a familiar story in the south at this “sunny” time of year. It also took some doing to find a suitable place to stay – facility and price-wise. We discovered why later in the afternoon after returning from touring around the surrounding countryside. Every hotel was absolutely booked out, there were tour buses everywhere, and masses of people were setting up for the night on sleeping mats in the foyers and landings of hotels and guest houses – ours included.

We had lunch in the market and enquired about finding two xe om drivers to take us around for the afternoon, settling on a price of 150,000 dong for each of us. For this, we were taken around the district to Mac Cuu family tombs and pagodas - one to Mac Cuu and his wife, the other to Phu Dung, the daughter-in-law of Mac Cuu and wife of Mac Tinh Tich (Mac Cuu's son and successor in power). This pagoda was first built in the late 1700s, and although it has been rebuilt several times, it still has some original structural posts and the personal altar of Phu Dung.

Afterwards we travelled west to Thach Dong mountain cave pagoda and Nui Da Dung mountain and extensive limestone caves. Here we were very close to the Cambodia border, and looked across the fields from the Vietnamese side to see a typical Khmer style temple on an adjacent hill, as well as some traders avoiding paying duty by travelling through the fields to the Vietnam side! Nui Da Dung was not an easy climb for me - age? unfit? - yet Bao and one of our drivers pushed ahead without effort over the many steps and into dark caves. I was very grateful for our pitstop at the end and drank and drank! 7-up and then a drink made from the local coconut.

There was still no power back in Ha Tien until midnight, so the most comfortable place to be was outdoors along with everyone else drinking coffee along the river-bank. Sadly there was no breeze blowing across the water :(

The next morning we decided to engage the same drivers to pick us up early and travel to Hon Chong to walk through the Chua Hang Grotto and the temple there. Along the road to the grotto there are many beachside resorts, and we were among thousands of visitors with the same intention. Returning to Ba Hon to pick up the boat service, scheduled to leave at 11.30am, we were able to visit an interesting limestone outcrop that Bao had long heard of but never located. It is reputed to have been the home of a crocodile in the past. Now this huge rock sits in a field, showing unique water-worn channels and tunnels at head-height. The rock must have been several feet lower into a water source in the past.

Finally, we visited another very large outcrop, through which we could walk to a central open area. This site, yet again, has various grottoes and caves in which people pray. It was also a Viet Cong base in the past, where artillery were manufactured and where there was a hospital area under cover in a cave.

Hon Nghe
Bao had read and seen information about this small island on the Internet in Vietnamese tourism sites, and was moved to visit because it is a natural and mostly undeveloped place to go. It also rates a mention - alone out of all the small islands in this area - in Lonely Planet. Unlike the Lonely Planet travel suggestions, though, we used the daily regular transport/passenger boat service from Ba Hon. This boat, among one or two others, brings the day's fishing catch to the mainland and returns with all manner of supplies. On our trip the main cargoes were ice and cement. Women from Hon Nghe make the journey each day to buy vegetables for reselling to the rest of the island's population.

During the trip across we were mainly treated to a lightly developed land and seascape. We could see settlements on many islands, and presumed that each had a boat service to support the local fishing industries. Looking back at the mainland, though, was a different story. Cement works are everywhere in this area, taking advantage of the abundant limestone, and the bay near Ba Hon will soon change shape with landfill works extending far out into the water. Bao noted that the shore past Ha Tien has also greatly changed from the past.

Hon Nghe is not an island you go to for a wild time. We had been told, even at the point of embarkation, that there was a guest house to stay in. Lonely Planet, contrarily, advises that tourists are not allowed to stay on the island. During the trip Bao learned the truth from the boat driver: there are no guest houses, but the family that runs the cafe at the jetty sometimes take in overnight visitors. So that is where we stayed, in the front room of someone's house. The cafe owners also took care of our meals. We were well looked after, and not seen as an inconvenience at all.

Of course, though, we were asked why we had come to Hon Nghe instead of going to Phu Quoc, which is where tourists to this province usually head to. There isn't in fact much to do on Hon Nghe, other than to visit the temple on a high rocky headland. We did this three times!

The first time was with a man we met at the cafe. He showed us through the caves and took us down some rocky paths around the headland, before showing us the way to access the road that goes (almost) all the way around the island, a route of about 7 km. A rather hot and thirsty walk as it turned out, passing through numerous tiny settlements, with heads constantly turning to take in the amazing sight of this sweaty, red-faced foreigner!

Late in the afternoon I took a swim off the only, tiny and rocky beach on the island amongst the fishing boats, while Bao took in the sunset. After dinner it was suggested that we take a walk - up to the temple, which we did, catching the stiff breeze and taking the chance to cool down a bit. After that it was an early night, as life on the island really needs to move with nature and follow the sun.

The boat back to Ba Hon was scheduled to leave at 8.30am, though on this occasion people needed to be aboard before the cargo of seafood. So our actual departure time after boarding was about an hour later. During this time we watched baskets of prawns, barrels of squid and bags of fish being packed down in ice and hoisted aboard our boat from various fishing vessels.

Another excellent adventure!

Tet Holiday - Tiger Year

2010-04-30T21:59:00.000+07:00

I was very privileged to again spend Tet with Bao's family. They are always so welcoming of me. When I discussed this with Bao, he told me that even though they have now lived in HCM City for so long, their most significant friends are elsewhere, and they do not have close family to visit. At Tet I am their honoured guest. So much so that this year I've been included in the family portrait which now sits on the wall in their home.

Bao and I returned to HCM City on the last day of the Buffalo Year. We again visited the Flower Festival in Nguyen Hue Street in District 1 and waited for the fireworks at midnight before tackling the traffic to drive back to Binh Thanh District. In Bao's view the quality of the flower festival has gone down over the last couple of years. Major storms and typhoons in the months leading up to Tet destroyed many of the flower crops, and increased demand in the market by both city authorities and private consumers.

We spent part of first day at home, but also took a ride around a much quieter city, and stopped to watch one of the most famous dragon dance troupes in HCM City perform.

After exchanging li xi we headed out to visit some pagodas in the late afternoon. However, the big mission of visiting pagodas was scheduled to start at 4am the next morning. We joined a cavalcade of buses (at least 15) to travel to 10 pagodas. A few were in HCM City but most were outside the city on the road back to - guess where?! Vung Tau, hahaha. We came as far as Long Hai, where we had lunch and could look across the sea to see Small Mountain in the distance.

The temples were all very different. Some very large and well-endowed. One which is a major learning centre, not just for monks in Vietnam, but from around the Buddhist world. Some were very poor but still active in community work and supporting children without families. These children live and study at the pagoda as novices and have the option of joining the fraternity when they are 18 or going out into the larger world to work. During the trip money was raised for these pagodas.

It was a very long day, and although I am grateful for the experience - plus have now completed the Nguyen family commitment of visiting 10 temples each Tet - I don't think I will do it again, or at least not until I have become more competent in speaking Vietnamese. During the day in which we encountered thousands of visitors - we were not the only cavalcade involved in this significant pursuit - I saw just one other foreigner!

Bao Loc
For the remainder of the Tet holiday, before I had to return to work, we planned a motor cycle trip to go to Cat Tien National Park in the foothills towards Dalat. We were discouraged, though, when we arrived at the park headquarters to find that there are two price scales for accommodation and just about everything else, and that because he was with me Bao would be subjected to the same exorbitant prices as I would be forced to pay as a foreigner. In most places I've been to in Vietnam over the last 18 months this practice has been abandoned, but the management here were insistent. Bao was so disgusted that he refused to look at any part of the park.

So we came up with a plan B, of continuing on the highway towards Dalat and staying at Bao Loc, the tea and coffee growing town which is on the first plateau of the mountain range (see blog about Michele, Chaska and Killki visit). The main tourist attraction here is Dambri Falls,which Bao remembers from a previous visit as being a natural and quiet place, but which is now so heavily developed, beautified and concreted over that we were very disappointed. We also took a bit of a sidetrip to a minority village and interesting pagoda community. We also stopped off a large temple, before returning to taste and buy some excellent local coffee in the town.

Arriving in Bao Loc we had no knowledge of where to stay, though we could see plenty of hotels and guest houses. We decided to ride into the market area where we saw a number of nha nghi, guest houses. We chose one and discovered that in an equally random way it had been selected by another Australian visitor, who was on his way south but had stopped in Bao Loc to meet a girl (and her boyfriend) with whom he had been communicating over the Internet for some months. What a small world!

During this trip we arranged to meet up with one of the guys we had shared the ardours of climbing Nui Ba Den with. He works in the area and was on his way back from his family home to the town he was currently working in, and stopped off to spend the night with us, before sharing part of the journey back to HCM City. During the journey back I also finally got the chance to look more closely at something that has caught my attention every time I've passed through the town of Dinh Quan - the Buddha built on one of the massive granite boulders around which the town is built.

Tet Holiday - Hoi An and My Son

2010-04-30T21:58:00.000+07:00

Hoi An
Hoi An is generally regarded as the must-see town in the centre of Vietnam, even ahead of Hue. This is because of the historical record that the town forms, and for more consumer-driven reasons: Hoi An has built a reputation for 24 hour tailoring. This was not an attraction for us. We were there to take in the ambience, visit the nearby beach, and make the trip to My Son, the most intact vestige of the Cham civilisation.

In fact, we elected not to even spend much time in the museums, temples (visited one) and old houses, but just to walk and cycle around, and relax! So the record I have of Hoi An on this occasion is not the typical tourist experience, but enjoyable none-the-less, and informed by the advice of Tiep, a friend we made one night at the restaurant he manages. So here are some pictures of our time in the town, with a focus on food and lights! We also managed to find the Ba Le well, the water from which is an essential ingredient in cao lau noodles. Without this water, the noodle is not considered to be authentic. We also enjoyed black sesame porridge (a dessert) which left the watery substance I've eaten at yum cha in Sydney for dead. It was so good I had two bowls, and we tried in vain to convince another foreigner to eat it.
We cycled out to a pottery village, and during the boat trip back from My Son, visited some high quality wood carving shops. We did make it to the beach, one we were taken to by Tiep, where we enjoyed some local seafood for an early lunch. I was the only one to go in the water, though. The beach was almost deserted, though in a few days time it was likely to be crowded with holiday-makers.

My Son
Bao and I have both been to Angkor Wat and knew that My Son would not be on the same scale as that site. It's older and smaller, and suffered extensive damage during the American War. There is still unexploded ordnance in the vicinity, and it is very important to stick to the trails. Parts of temples have been obliterated by bomb craters.

These things aside the visit was still interesting. The temples are located inside a verdant valley overlooked by Cat's Tooth Mountain (Hon Quap) and other high peaks. Unlike Angkor Thom next to Angkor Wat, My Son was not a major residential centre. The Hindu priests lived here, and the king would visit to conduct annual important ceremonies. The kings were also buried here, but eventually the site was abandoned as the Cham people were forced to move south by Vietnamese, Chinese and Khmer invaders.

We had booked to go and return to Hoi An by bus, but took the opportunity to switch to a boat trip back that brought us down the river and around some of the islands that make up the greater Hoi An town.

Tet Holiday - Danang

2010-04-30T21:53:00.000+07:00

Back in August, Bao and I decided to take a holiday before Tet, and go to Danang and Hoi An. Arranging travel at Tet gets very difficult and planes and trains get booked up quickly. However, I was able to get a discount fare on Jetstar for the return leg easily. We had decided to travel to Danang by train, but ...

Train tickets can only be booked 2 months in advance. Not a problem, I thought. Just come back to the booking office on the right date. So I returned, only to be told there were no tickets available. To confuse things further, Bao had been told by a booking agent that there were tickets, and we had read in the Vietnamese and English language newspapers that to cope with demand the VNR had introduced an SMS booking system. All the information on all the steps to take was set out clearly in the papers. All except the number to send an SMS too!

In the end I was able to get the last two seats available on the last plane available travelling from HCM City to Danang, but at full economy fare. Here we come!

Danang
Danang is in the centre of Vietnam, a few hours drive south from Hue, and is the fourth-largest city in Vietnam. The government has always targetted the city for economic development, and it holds a major port as well as many factories and production facilities.

However, the main attractions for us were visiting the Cham Sculpture Museum, Hai Van Pass, the Marble Mountains and the beaches, which leave Vung Tau for dead. Danang is also the access point to Hoi An when travelling by plane or train. We had also hoped to visit Ba Na Hill Station but the road is very steep, and the chair lift which completes the journey was already closed for Tet. So that will be for another time ...

We spent the first day on foot. By the river we came across a large number of sculptures. Unlike Vung Tau, where the sculptures are in the park at Front Beach,this installation seemed temporary. We also visited the Museum of Cham Sculpture, which was established by the same French School of the Far East that initiated the explorations and restorations at Angkor Wat. The two civilisations were linked by religion and tradition, but the Cham civilisation in Vietnam actually predates the Khmers.

From here we crossed the river to visit some pagodas mentioned in the guidebooks and take a look at the beaches which stretch from Nui Son Tra (Monkey Mountain) at the northern end for 30km down to Hoi An. Westerners know parts of this beach as China Beach, which was a major R&R station for the Americans during the war.

Danang is a large city, and the weather was hot even though it was nominally winter. Actually Danang is right on the point where Vietnam's climate changes from two seasons in the south (sunny and rainy) to four seasons in the north. We decided that we'd had enough of walking and opted to rent a motorbike from the hotel for the following day's trip to ...

Marble Mountains
David and I made a fleeting visit to this popular tourist destination in 1999. Fleeting because we were en route from Hoi An to Hue, and because the moment we got off the bus we were swarmed by touts and kids, eager for money through legitimate and not-so-legitimate means. We abandoned all thought of visiting the mountains which are made of limestone and marble, and are full of caves and temples.

This time Bao and I rode south from Danang and had a completely different experience. The first thing that struck me, though, was that the small village of Non Nuoc has grown considerably and is just about absorbed into greater Danang as one long contiguous settlement from the city to Hoi An. There are still fields under cultivation but as you look out at the beach area you can see the sand dunes rapidly being subsumed by resorts and hotels, some of them massive piles. The other thing that we learned is that the marble that makes the site so miraculous has been so extensively exploited for sculptures and souvenirs that it is no longer used, for fear that the mountains and the tourist attraction will be gone. Instead the marble is now imported.

There are five mountains, each named for one of the elements in Eastern philosophy: water, metal, fire, wood, earth. The largest mountain is water - Thuy Son - and it is this one that we explored extensively through the caves and temples and climbing up to the highest points to look out over the landscape. Because it was a relatively clear day we could see way back up the coast to Nui Son Tra. The most recent cave development takes visitors deep inside the mountain and takes advantage of ups and downs to present the deepest hells and highest heavens in the Buddhist world.

Nui Son Tra and Hai Van Pass
In the afternoon we drove back north to visit Nui Son Tra, nicknamed Monkey Mountain by the Americans. We spent part of the time lazing beside a stream before driving around this massive peninsular that forms the bay of Danang, along with the Hai Van mountains on the northern side. Later we visited the gigantic statue of Quan Am that we could see facing the East Ocean.

The next morning we drove up the Hai Van Pass. This used to be the only route north, but in 2005 a tunnel was built under the mountains. This is now used by cars and coaches, but motor bikes and trucks must still use the pass which gives majestic views up and down the coast, and which had been a strategic military post throughout Vietnam's struggles for nationhood.

Trip to Binh Chau

2010-01-13T16:59:00.000+07:00

While my teaching schedule hasn't changed I have changed the day I do my weekend planning from the Friday before to the Monday after. I did this because I found at Christmas and New Year, I felt much better on Saturday having not being able to go to work on Friday (because of holidays). Also I'm still thinking more like a child on Mondays, after spending 16 hours with them over the previous 2 days!

So, this change of tactic meant that I had 3 non-working days in a row between Christmas and New Year. I finally took the chance to do something I've been intending to do forever - take a ride to Binh Chau, a town about 70 kilometres away along the nearest highway to Mui Ne (where David and I spent the first few days of January last year).

The main reason for going to Binh Chau is to visit the hot water springs. I found from my road maps book and from Lonely Planet that there is also a coastal road via Long Hai though I couldn't be sure how far I would get. Also I've never driven this way before or anywhere far by myself - so it was a bit of an adventure.

The road turned out to be very easy to follow, and also much quieter than the highway was (on the way back to Vung Tau in the afternoon). I discovered that there are very many resorts - some of them stupendously opulent - in existence or being built along the road after Long Hai. I really enjoyed this part of the journey and almost didn't want it to end.

Binh Chau is quite spread-out for a small town. The road took me into a commercial part of the town and past the bus station, and then suddenly I was on the other side with no idea of where to go, especially as I'd passed a large intersection near the bus station. Anyway ... on I went eventually hitting highway 55 which continues up the coast to Phan Thiet and discovered a sign directly me to the springs.

From there I promptly got lost, winding up instead back in another part of Binh Chau town. So I had to ask directions from a garage, turn around and head up a road I had mistakenly ridden past. To happen upon a very large resort which is the springs complex. Here you can stay, dine, drink, boil eggs (in the really hot springs), wander around the gardens, play in the amusement park, have a massage, take a mud-bath, and bathe in the warm springs which have been turned into swimming pools. Not quite as natural as I was hoping for :(

However, it was a relaxing place to be. Being still a working day it was quiet. A few foreign and Vietnamese guests staying overnight plus some day visitors like me. I spent more than an hour in the water, using the waterfall as massage therapy and generally soaking up the minerals and the sun. There was absolutely no-one boiling eggs, and that section all looked rather dilapidated, though since coming back various people (my manager and colleague) have told me what fun it is. By the way, you cannot bring your own eggs to cook, or any other food for that matter. It has to be declared at the ticket check and left there for collection on your departure.

Coming back, I took the highway route which goes through Dat Do and Long Dien to Ba Ria. Much busier but just as straightforward as the coastal road. The landscape of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province is quite interesting in this area. We have Big and Small Mountains in Vung Tau surr0nded by dead flat land and waterways. Behind Ba Ria is another mountain but then flat open land across to Long Dien and Dat Do, yet the land between the coastal road and the highway (and the back drop to Long Hai) is filled with more mountains. From the flat land the roads rise gradually to low hills around Binh Chau. I'd really like to go exploring much more to get a better feel for the land and what is in it.

Christmas no. 2

2010-01-08T12:41:00.000+07:00

The Christmas festivities for yours truly started, as last year, with the ILA Vung Tau party on 13 December. This year we went to the Palace Hotel, and enjoyed an extensive buffet dinner at tables set out around the swimming pool. The party continued well after the party, as people got into the singing mode already promoted by karaoke, and broke out Christmas song after song until past 11pm. God knows what the people in rooms overlooking the swimming pool thought was happening! Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.

From that event, my Christmas shifted strongly to a focus on the children at the residential centres in Vung Tau. On the evening of 23 December I went to the children's party hosted by Belly's Bar on the waterfront near Front Beach. The children from "P" and "N" centres all came along, and greatly enjoyed the food and fun. And of course, they especially enjoyed Santa Claus' visit!

The next day they had a second party, this time courtesy of APER. I was an accidental invitee to this one, only knowing about it because I had taken Bi out for the morning to go to the beach and a ride around on the motorbike. Here you can see Phuc with the plane he received, and Dung comfortably sitting to eat his lunch!

That night I went out with Bao and one of his students. Firstly, we went to Ba Ria and ate a great goat curry. After that we journeyed to Phuoc Tinh, a fishing town close to Long Hai, which has a strong Catholic population, and an even stronger compulsion to string up all manner of Christmas lights and displays, especially nativity scenes. In Phuoc Tinh town we stopped off at one of the big churches and watched an all singing/all dancing presentation of the birth of Jesus and the visits of the angels and the wise men. The end of the show had a very large cast of players on stage, including tiny nuns and a very small Pope! I was also interviewed by BRT television station and was asked what were my impressions of Christmas in Vietnam. I answered about the similarities that I was seeing between communities that like to put up and visit Christmas light displays.

On Christmas morning I met up with Angie (fellow ILA and volunteer teacher) for coffee and then we went to visit our class at the centre to had out presents. Many big thanks to Killki, Chaska and Rumi who decided that they would like to donate their Christmas money from me, directly to the orphanage, instead of giving it to them. I made Angie cry when I told her this :( Here you can see the building blocks that the kids have given to the boys in the class and the modelling clay for the girls, plus the big jar of lollies!

After that Angie and I set out for Tommy's 1 where a group of 12 of us from ILA were scheduled to meet for Christmas lunch of roast turkey and vegetables. After all that it was time to take a rest in the time-honoured traditions of Christmas Day afternoon.

The Great Outdoors of Northern Vietnam!

2010-01-06T16:39:00.000+07:00

Sa Pa
As I've noted elsewhere one of the big aims of my November holiday was to visit Sa Pa. I travelled up and back as the majority of western visitors do, by soft sleeper on the overnight train, and took a 3 day/2 night tour operating out of the very comfortable Sapa Summit Hotel. The tour involved a lot of walking with one night in the hotel and the other night as home-stay in a H'mong village.

I guess there is nothing remarkable about the tour I took. There is only so much to do in Sa Pa and thousands of visitors (domestic and international) come every year to do it, following much the same itinerary with only a few variations. However, events and staging were very well organised, even though at the beginning of each day the hotel reception looks like bedlam, with crowds of eager hikers and minority tribal women (always women, no men) waiting either as official guides or what became known as 'the travelling shop'!

The tribal people - women and girls - accompany you every step of the way, asking questions and warming you up for a purchase at the end of their journey. Having said that they are also extremely sure-footed on slippery muddy paths, even though they are wearing plastic sandals, and are ever-ready to lend a hand to prevent undignified falls. And just to let you know that the picture at the beginning of this entry records the only time in 3 days I saw the mountains. It came as a very big surprise to see how immense and close they are. The rest of the time they, and often us, were shrouded in mist.

Depending on the train you take from Ha Noi (there are 2-3 departures each night) you arrive at Lao Cai in the darkness of morning or at about 6am. From there it is an hour long bus trip almost straight up to reach Sa Pa and breakfast. If lucky the room is also ready to check into, but usually not. The tours start at 9am for a half-day visit to Cat Cat and Sin Chai villages, homes of the Black H'mong people. Along the path we visited homes to see how the people live as well as to observe weaving and dying of cloth. Much of the cloth is made from locally-grown, non-hallucogenic hemp and dyed using indigo plants also grown profusely as a crop in the area. We had an excellent young woman as our guide over the 3 days visit, with the most marvellous laugh and sense of humour. We returned to the hotel through the main market in Sa Pa, meeting our guide's aunt (I later also met her mother and her cousin here).

For the afternoon we were left to our own devices. By now the fog was getting close to a pea-souper and I was also learning that it was impossible to walk anywhere without the travelling shop joining in. I took refuge for cake and coffee at Baguette et Chocolat before returning to the hotel for dinner and a very comfortable sleep.

On the 2nd day of tours itineraries start to diverge depending on whether you are taking a second night in the hotel or a home-stay as I did. The morning involved walking down, down, down from Sa Pa into the Muong Hoa valley. At one point we had to take an alternative path because the main route was impassable. Just before lunch at Lao Chai village one iteration of the travelling shop departed, after gaining some sales from us (yes, from me! I bought a wall hanging).

After lunch of course we were joined by a new shop for the - now-flat - walk to Ta Van village which we reached at about 3pm. This was our home for the night. The house we stayed in was very large, because it had been extended or purpose-built to accommodate both the family and tourists. Morality is important in the tribal villages, to the extent that men and women must stay in separate dormitories (though in our case we were all male; joined at our accommodation by a married couple). Our dormitory was on the second floor: it really was just a succession of mattresses, pillow and blankets on the floor with mosquito nets. It was also extremely comfortable and warm on a night when outside temperatures fell quite a bit. Ta Van village accommodates Black H'mong and Red Dzao people. Each group keeps to its own traditions and cultures but also co-exist well.

The third day briefly promised clear weather but we set out again in a slight fog, climbing again to a waterfall before making our way back down to the river and lunch. From there we climbed back up hill to meet the bus for the trip back to the hotel, a shower, dinner and the return to Lao Cai for the overnight train.

Tam Coc
Before leaving Vung Tau a less certain aim I had was to travel to Ninh Binh and visit Tam Coc and Cuc Phuong national park. One of the interesting things since making this trip and telling people about it is that they all ask if I went to the nearby city of Phat Diem to see the cathedral. I knew about it and considered it, but clearly we have different concepts of what is most notable or attractive to visit!

Every hotel in Ha Noi is a travel agent as well, and they advertise tours of fixed duration to all of the popular destinations in the vicinity. The tour to Tam Coc and Hoa Lu Citadel is one day, as is the tour to Cuc Phuong but I knew that I wanted to go to all, and I didn't want to have to come back to Ha Noi in the middle of it. So I arranged instead to use the tour bus as a means of getting to Ninh Binh (as it turned out did some other people on the bus). In the end this also meant the opportunity to take the usual rushed visit to Hoa Lu Citadel along the way. (In fact I would have been better to plan to stay in Ninh Binh an extra night and go to Hoa Lu and Phat Diem under my own steam. As well as visit a few of the other scenic places near Tam Coc. You live and learn!)

Anyway ... we got dropped off in Ninh Binh and as the other people had already organised a hotel I followed them to check it out and ended up staying there as well. Another great place that I recommend to everyone - Ngoc Anh Hotel - along with the manager Luc. They organised a bicycle for me to rent for the afternoon, gave me a map and directions, plus a recommendation for where to eat lunch in Tam Coc (though I couldn't find the place) and off I went.

The ride was easy, and Ninh Binh people are very friendly and easy-going too. On the other hand the travel guides warn - and I had read on Elsbeth's blog, too - that there are a few tricks for persuading travellers on the river to part with their money (so I was prepared for this, thanks!).

Tam Coc is described as an inland Ha Long Bay. This is because, not just the river side but the entire region stretching way back up towards Ha Noi as well as further south from Ninh Binh, is impaled by rugged karst limestone rock formations. Many are quarried for building material and so sadly but inevitably it is possible to see how the landscape is changing at a rapid unnatural pace. The journey takes you some kilometres upstream from Tam Coc village passing through three caves. It is very peaceful, especially to start out later in the afternoon when the larger tours are already returning. The river is hemmed in by towering peaks and cliffs, scaled by mountain goats. It is reminiscent of the river-side scenery in Guilin, but on a smaller scale.

After returning to Tam Coc village I hoped to visit Bich Dong cave pagoda a couple of kilometres further out. It was another pleasant ride to reach the area, but unfortunately I was too late in the day to be able to make the journey up and back down the hill in daylight.

Cuc Phuong national park
I also decided along the way that I would visit Cuc Phuong national park (this link is to the park website). This is about 45km away from Ninh Binh so the bicycle was out of the question, and I wasn't certain enough of my map-reading and language skills to make a solo motorbike trip, so Luc arranged a driver/guide for me. He also recommended taking a less direct route, which is what we did.

The road took us south on the highway first and then inland past farms. Along the way we saw fields of passionfruit vines, pineapples and sugar cane. The driver also explained that there are two varieties of pineapple in Vietnam, the sweeter yellow ones and the Chinese ones which are more sour and whiter in colour (like the only pineapples that we used to see grow in Australia). Then we started to climb up into the hills, several times passing a group of cyclists on a supported tour.

I hadn't really worked out what the attraction of the park was for me. The highlight really turned out to be the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre. This is home to many species of gibbons, macaques and lemurs, some of which whose low surviving numbers put them in the highly endangered category. The centre's aims are to provide a refuge for these animals, encourage breeding and eventually to reintroduce them to the wild. My guide to the centre and for hiking in the park after lunch has worked there for over 13 years. He is a forestry conservator by education, but his passions are hiking and bird-watching, as well as building a pictorial record of flora and fauna in the park.

One of the other significant places to visit inside Cuc Phuong national park is the Cave of Prehistoric Man, just a short uphill walk and then a very interesting and dark climb/clamber up ladders and rocks inside. The cave was rediscovered in 1966 when human graves and tools were found dating back 7500 years.

The final part of a 1-day visit to the park is a hike, partly on a trail but often over very sharp limestone rocks, to the 1000-year old Big Tree. I'm glad to have made the hike, and it was the first time my driver had been there, but I sort of wondered what the fuss was, really!

Museums: Hue and the DMZ

2010-01-05T10:29:00.000+07:00

My visit to Hue was sort of a last-ditch decision when I found I couldn't get a plane to Pleiku at the time I had intended to travel there. I took the overnight train again - Reunification Express - but found it to be a bit less plush (relative terms here!) than the train to Lao Cai/Sapa. Still comfortable enough, though I don't think I would like to go end to end of the country without a break.

The Citadel
My objective in Hue was to visit the Citadel and Imperial Palace, as these were the main "unseen" sites from my previous visit here. During the trip south bad weather from China caught up with us and I arrived in Hue to almost constant rain. I also discovered that I had left my cap somewhere (Ninh Binh? Hanoi?). The very friendly and helpful hotel staff (I do recommend this place: Tran Ly Hotel on Le Loi Street) told me it had been raining for a few days already!

Eventually (after breakfast and a walk around the nearby streets) I decided I would just have to get out there anyway. So I bought a lightweight poncho and set off walking across the Trang Tien bridge over the Perfume River. First stop was the market for lunch and a cap!

The Citadel covers a very large area. Inside it are the Imperial Enclosure (comparable to the Forbidden City in Beijing) which contained the emperor's residence and the main imperial government buildings, and then inside that is the Forbidden Purple City, which was for the personal use of the emperor. At that point most comparisons with Beijing's Forbidden City complex have to end. Firstly, because the whole Citadel complex suffered drastic damage during the French and American Wars. Secondly, the complex in Hue has much more of a park feel to it. There are models which show the extent to which the Citadel and its enclosures were actually built up, but the use of the moat around the Citadel, the relative space that seems apparent between buildings, and the lakes and parks inside the Imperial Enclosure make a lighter atmosphere. Maybe it's really just a consequence of the first point ...

Much of my afternoon here was spent trudging around in the rain, with the camera getting progressively damper and damper to the point it almost stopped working altogether! Because I was a shutterbug yet again!

The main features of the outer perimeter of the Citadel are the 10km long walls, the outer moat, and the Flag Tower, seen here from the Ngo Mon Gate, which is the principal entrance to the Imperial Enclosure. The walls of the Imperial Enclosure are surrounded by an inner moat.

Walking through the Ngo Mon Gate you approach Thai Hoa Palace across a large pond. Behind this are the Halls of the Mandarins which have been restored, and beyond them (behind a broken down wall) was the Forbidden Purple City, now almost entirely destroyed.

From here I went on to the To Mieu Temple complex, which has also been restored. Here there are statues or pictures of the Nguyen Dynasty Emperors as well as a set of heavy, decorated bronze urns, intended to symbolise the power and stability of the Nguyen throne (although this was effectively distintegrated after 1883 and the death of Tu Duc). The buildings here were peaceful, beautifully decorated and restored, and only a few visitors. This generally is the situation in the whole Citadel because the tours make very cursory and rushed visits. So if you come to Hue - take your time!

Dien Tho Residence is one of the few other largely intact buildings (also under restoration). Around now the rain was falling again but the pavilions and walkways offered shelter as well as a close-up view of where the Queen Mothers lived and received visitors.

From here I skirted around the walls and along the streets of the Imperial Enclosure to make my way past Truong San Residence (in ruins but praised in 1844 by Emperor Thieu Tri for its gardens as one of the top 20 beautiful spots in Hue). Then past some administrative buildings from Bao Dai's era, and the Thai To Mieu temple complex which provides a counterpoint to To Mieu.

The next day I revisited the outside of the Imperial Enclosure making my way from a gate on the eastern side, around to the five cannons near Quang Duc gate, representing the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth. From here I made the 7km trek to Thien Mu Pagoda (yes, on foot!)

Thien Mu
David and I came here in 1999. It is an iconic site for the Vietnamese, and features in many idyllic paintings, poetry and songs. It also has political significance for demonstrations against the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem. From here the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set out in 1963 on his journey to Saigon and his death by self-immolation in protest against the treatment of Buddhists by the government.

There was much more to the pagoda than I remembered. Perhaps that is an accident of having visited the first time as part of a tour on the Perfume River to visit the Royal Tombs. I elected to return to Hue by boat, but the hotel staff were still amazed that I had walked so far!

De-Militarised Zone (DMZ)
On my last full day in Hue, I took a tour to the de-militarised zone. The itinerary promised a huge number of sites, but given that we also had long distances to cover from Hue up to Dong Ha then further north to Vinh Moc, then back to Dong Ha and up the Truong Son mountains to Khe Sanh combat base, I knew not to expect too much. The main thing for me was to visit the Vinh Moc tunnels. These are different to the tunnels at Cu Chi because their use was as much civilian as military.

Vinh Moc village came under constant and heavy bombardment from the Americans and the south from 1966. Many villagers left, but some remained with the encouragement of the Viet Cong. For about 4 years daily life moved underground. 17 babies were born in the delivery room in the tunnels, and families lived, cooked, ate, washed and slept here.

The other main visit of the tour was to Khe Sanh Combat Base. One of the other Australians on the tour joked that many visitors must come because of the Cold Chisel song, maybe expecting to see some links to the band or Jimmy Barnes. Here we were given an excellent commentary about the base and its history by the director of the base museum. This is the principal feature - evidence of the massive air field that was built here is almost extinguished, except for one thing. The outline remains distinct because nothing will grow on it.

Museums: Hanoi

2010-01-01T17:02:00.000+07:00

I arrived back in Vietnam (Ha Noi) in the evening of 10 November. The next morning I met up with Ellyn and Elsbeth (former colleagues at ILA Vietnam in Vung Tau) for brunch. Then Elsbeth and I went to the Ha Noi Museum of Fine Arts, conveniently located just across the road! Elsbeth's mission was to visit as many museums and cultural places in Ha Noi as possible before she left Vietnam to return to Minnesota later in the month. This museum was also part history, because it charted art, ceramics and sculpture in Vietnam from the earliest times. Some of the most impressive works I saw were modern, socialist-era pieces using traditional lacquer-ware techniques. The colours were used brilliantly to give life to the pictures.

Museums were really the recurring theme of my visit to Ha Noi, apart from walking many times around Ho Hoan Kiem (Returned Sword Lake). I tried mainly to visit places that I hadn't seen before, but in this time I revisited Van Mieu (Temple of Literature) as well as Ngoc Son Temple on the island in Ho Hoan Kiem. Van Mieu seemed very different to the first time I visited with David in 1999. This is partly because of a new, though traditional-looking, complex added behind the main Khue Van Pavilion, to record the contributions made by some of the most significant kings to the creation of the university.

At the Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution and again at Hoa Lo Prison museum I got some great insights into the long nationalistic struggle of the Vietnamese to gain independence. This journey started almost at the same time that France gained it's stranglehold in Indochina, and so (at the Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution) includes the resistance of some of the nationalist emperors, as well as the long list of revolutionary heroes throughout the 20th century. I ran out of time (because Hanoian museums have very early closing times and shoo everyone out at least 15 minutes prior to that!) so was still only part way through the struggle for reunification.

At Hoa Lo Prison the focus is three-fold: firstly, on the demolition and up-rooting of the community that lived here at the time the French decided this was the perfect location for the prison; secondly, on its use as a political prison; and thirdly, on its history as the Hanoi Hilton, housing American prisoners of war. Through visiting both these museums I started to recognise how many streets are named after revolutionary heroes - men and women.

One afternoon, I walked from the old quarter across to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum area. It was too late and the wrong day to go and pay my respects to Uncle Ho, but I did get the chance to look through the Ho Chi Minh Museum which has a great mix of exhibits combining Ho Chi Minh's personal/political history with the development of socialist Vietnam. Again, the closing-time wardens pounced just as I got through all the exhibits. Supposedly no cameras are allowed here (s0 I checked mine in) but I saw it happening all the time so took a couple of surreptitious shots on the phone-cam . Walking back I took a quick geek at the One Pillar Pagoda (I remember David's extreme disappointment the first time we visited - he expected so much more, and found an oversized bird-box!), and the Flag Tower in the old Ha Noi Citadel.

The other museum I visited was the Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology. This required a taxi ride because it's some distance away from the city. It was very interesting to come here after going to Sa Pa and it helped me to get a much more expansive idea of the different minority groups in the Vietnamese population. The museum has good indoor and outdoor exhibits. For once I agree with LP - it shouldn't be missed.

Museums: Cambodia

2010-01-01T15:45:00.000+07:00

One of the recurring things I did on my holiday was to visit museums. David would have been extremely bored if he'd been compelled to come with me!

I've already written about Tuol Sleng, a place outstanding and memorable for non-conventional reasons. While in Phnom Penh I also visited the National Museum of Cambodia, and Royal Palace compound, including the Silver Pagoda, and Wat Phnom.

The National Museum focusses on the architecture and archaeological history of Cambodia. It includes some of the best examples of Angkorian sculpture, which has been removed from the Siem Reap temples and palaces for safe-keeping. The building itself is made up of a number of pavilions with a peaceful garden courtyard. Generally a quiet and restful place although there was a very large group of Korean students visiting while I was there.

This was my first post-lunch stop on my second - dry - day in Cambodia. In the morning I had taken a tuktuk to Wat Phnom and then started walking through Phnom Penh, basing my route on the walking tour in Lonely Planet. This is easy to do - if rather hot - because Phnom Penh is small geographically. I tried checking out the central market Psar Thmei but much of it was closed for renovations and what there was to see was exceedingly bland. I also found the architecture vastly over-rated, given the guidebook descriptions of it as resembling "a Babylonian ziggurat". Say what?! I think the alternative description of "a concrete custard pie" is much more like it!!

Wat Phnom is the hill-top pagoda from which the city traces it's origins. There has been a pagoda here since the 1300s, although like so much of Cambodia's religious heritage, it suffered badly during the Khmer Rouge government. It's still a community focal point, with many visitors in the park around the hill, hawkers, stalls and many beggars, especially children.

After the National Museum I still had time to tour the Royal Palace compound. This is the official residence of the king so not everything can be visited, but I had the chance to venture inside the Throne Hall and the Silver Pagoda. Photography is not allowed inside either, so the pictorial record is reduced to postcards bought from a disabled street vendor. Printed and copied so many times much of the vibrancy of the colours has been washed out . However, there is still plenty of colour to see of and from the exteriors. The Throne Hall central spire is topped by a most unusual sight, a face. I have no idea if it is a religious or royal representation. Maybe both?

In Siem Reap, aside from the massive museum that is the whole Angkorian collection, I visited the workshop/school of Les Chantiers Ecoles. The school teaches impoverished young people the techniques of carving wood and stone, as well as teaching deaf people silk painting, and a group of young men how to make silver-plated objects. The products are very high-end in quality - with prices to match - but the principle is also to return a fair-value to the craftsmen and to bringing more teenagers into the training program.

During the 2nd day of my journeys to the Angkor Wat temples we also stopped in at the Cambodia Land Mines Museum. The museum was established by Aki Ra, a DIY but expert de-miner. His own history tells you something of the torment and struggle to survive that the older generations of Cambodian people all had to face. He was removed from his family in the early days of the Khmer Rouge and became a soldier for them, before later defecting during the Vietnamese-backed administration. During his life he has had many names, now going by his adopted Japanese name. Initially his career as de-miner - trained by the UN - was outside the work of any agency. Now there is an NGO supporting the museum as well as the education facilities and dormitory that Aki Ra and his family provide for disadvantaged (often extremely impoverished) children in the area. See Ottawa Treaty for some information about the international cooperation needed to ban landmines.

Siem Reap itinerary (temples and ruins)

2009-12-21T18:07:00.001+07:00

The temple and city complexes of the Khmer kings tend to get clumped together in public consciousness as Angkor Wat, though there is far more to see than just that famous behemoth. And seriously, although you will suffer temple fatigue after a while, there is a lot to be said for taking your time to explore the greater area beyond the Big (Grand) and Small (Petit) circuits of the central Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom complexes. And this means setting aside 3-5 days and forking out for a 3-day pass. Although my guide book says the days must run consecutively, I think that it is possible (perhaps with a higher cost) to buy a 3-day pass for non-consecutive days. A great way to enjoy "Angkor" to the maximum and be kind to your senses and feet!

Here is my itinerary with a glimpse of what I saw. The photos are all organised in a similar way on Shutterfly. The links here are to the Lonely Planet website. I used the tuk-tuk driver who took me from the bus drop-off in Siem Reap to the hotel. I didn't really haggle with him, so over the three days I paid $15, $30 (?) and $20. Maybe I could have got it cheaper, but he was reliable, friendly, and like so many Cambodians spoke English well. The lunch stops he took me to were well-priced and he was just happy to have the work.

Day 1:
Angkor Wat For a long time now I have wanted to come to Angkor Wat - meaning the gigantic temple complex of that name as well as having a more amorphous idea of other temples. Finally here I was, taking in the immensity of it all and feeling ... well, for some reason a little bit underwhelmed by it!

I'm not saying don't go, and I'm not saying you won't appreciate the architecture, art and scale of it. Angkor Wat really is top of the list. I think maybe it's just that I didn't find it to be breath-taking in the manner I had anticipated.

Bayon is where all those faces are looking down on you and out on the world. This was the second place on my itinerary and the start of a personal feeling of incredulity that we are permitted to tramp all over most of this irreplaceable heritage. Can you do that to other major architectural historical sites around the world?

Baphuon is a great example of how life can interrupt art. It was under a full-scale restoration, which had commenced by pulling the entire temple apart (the anastylosis method) and recording how each piece fitted together, when the civil war of the mid-1970s forced the team out of the country and led to all documentation being destroyed. Now, amazingly, the restoration is almost complete.

Thommanon, Waterwheel and Chau Say Tevada
Thommanon is a small temple, and is one of the places that I liked immediately. There are a few buildings with some fine stone carvings set in a grove of trees. Nearby is a large waterwheel. Chau Say Tevada is a companion temple to Thommanon although in worse repair.

Ta Keo is a very different structure to many of the Angkor temples because it was not finished, and so does not have the stone carvings found at most other temples. It is a steep but rewarding climb to the top to reach the central tower and has some good views over the land around.

Ta Prohm is different again because a lot of the jungle remains, although discreetly trimmed back . A great place to imagine you are re-discovering the temples! Ta Prohm also featured in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Banteay Kdei and Sra Srang. I came to Sra Srang twice: at the end of the first day and then again at about 5am the next morning to wait for the sunrise. A peaceful place and a good alternative to battling the crowds wanting to see sunrise at Angkor Wat, especially on a cloudy morning. The pool allowed for some fantastic reflections and amplifications of the light.

Day 2:
Kbal Spean is a unique piece of architecture because it is not a building, but instead a natural temple created by carving directly into the rock beds and boulders of a stream. A long trip from Siem Reap, I combined it with sunrise at Sra Srang and made it to Kbal Spean for breakfast at about 7.30am. We set out so early that I was the first visitor to arrive. From the parking and restaurant area it is an uphill walk for about 45 minutes to reach the carvings that start at a bridge across the stream and then work back down the stream to a waterfall.

Banteay Srei - another favourite place for the carvings and the use of pink sandstone, Banteay Srei is also unusual because it is all very low to the ground. There are no towers or enormous platforms supporting the structures here.

Cambodia Land Mines Museum (see Museums: Cambodia)

Eastern Mebon

Ta Som and Pre Rup

Day 3:
Preah Khan and Preah Neak Pean
Preah Khan was one of those places where I just kept taking photographs. It is one of the largest complexes - one reason for the photo-overdrive - but it also has many corridors and great carvings.

Nearby is Preah Neak Pean a small temple which consists mainly of five square pools. I was lucky enough to arrive when the water was still and again benefited from using the water as a mirror.

Preah Ko, Bakong and Lolei are known as the Roulos group of temples and are some of the oldest large, permanent temples built by the Khmers. During my visit to Preah Ko and Bakong I met with a local man who works on the restoration of these temples. He showed me some of the work that he has been doing in replacing bricks and some carved stonework as well as the materials that are used to create the mortar, in the same fashion as was used originally.

Kompong Phhluk and Tonle Sap (see Water - in more than form!)

Water - in more than one form!

2009-12-21T15:49:00.001+07:00

I travelled to Cambodia - without knowing about it - on the last day of the Water Festival, only learning about it through some eavesdropping on the bus from Ho Chi Minh City. Over the three days of the festival the population of Phnom Penh, usually about 2 million, can double with visitors drawn to the major event of boat races on the Tonle Sap River. The races are in honour of the twelfth century Khmer naval victories achieved under King Jayavarman VII, but the event also marks the return of the normal flow (into the Mekong) of the Tonle Sap river, and the draining of the Tonle Sap lake.

In the afternoon of my first day in Cambodia I got dropped off in the riverside area by a tuk-tuk driver. It was impossible to drive all the way in because of vehicles and people everywhere. As I wandered along the riverbank, with no particular destination in mind, I got into conversation with a young guy who had come into Phnom Penh for the festivities from his home town back out on the National Highway 1 towards Vietnam. While we were talking the skies darkened and we experienced the water festival in a different way, as storms from a typhoon that had crossed Vietnam earlier arrived. The deluge persisted for hours into the evening, and we were effectively trapped under the awning of a temporary food stall, continually tipping water off the roof so that the structure didn't collapse.

Finally, I figured that I would have to make a break for it, regardless of getting soaked (again), and experienced the interesting situation of tuk-tuk and moto-drivers not knowing the city outside the tourist areas very well! (The second time this happened I had a better idea of which direction to go than the moto driver!)

While in Siem Reap I visited the waterways leading into the Tonle Sap lake near Kompong Phhluk village. At the time of this visit, the water of the lake was still high as the flow out and into the Mekong had just resumed, but when the water is lower it is possible to see the flooded forest . Although our boat was nominally under the command of an adult, his two young sons took the wheel for the first part of the journey along the channels into the floating village (actually mainly built on stilts).

Beyond the village is the wide expanse of the Tonle Sap - really an inland sea at this time with depths of up to 9m. The dry season depth is only 1m. There are some photos on Peace of Angkor website which show how high the houses have to be to cope with the differences in water level - truly astounding!

Phnom Penh: Tuol Sleng

2009-12-21T15:12:00.000+07:00

It's too easy in Vietnam and Cambodia to be aware only of the present time; the recent prosperity (for some), the relative invisibility of the poor (the majority); the similarities to our own 'home' environments with the local twist. It's too easy to let slip away an appreciation of how recent these things are, and a recognition that these societies were in very different circumstances not so long ago.

Tuol Sleng Museum - Security Prison-21 in the Pol Pot/Khmer Rouge regime - is a difficult place to visit. It's quietness and ordinariness don't prepare you at all.

You arrive with only an academic understanding of the horrors that took place here. But within minutes of glancing, even walking into the detention rooms of Building A you feel heavy with the souls of the tortured and dead. This feeling stays and stays... as you look bleakly at the rooms and rooms of photographs of inmates or contemplate the schoolrooms turned into tiny, dark cells.

Perhaps this was not the best place to start a holiday, and it certainly is not a place to consider visiting lightly, but I think, however dark its history and presence, that what Tuol Sleng Museum preserves is necessary for an awareness of what people have been capable of doing to each other. The personal recollections of a Danish man who visited Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1979 as well as his later reflections on what he believed he was being shown and the photographic record, are a strong lesson about the dangers of political idealism detached from social conscience.

Blogger's block :(

2009-12-21T14:09:00.001+07:00

It seems an age since I was journeying in Cambodia and the north of Vietnam. Each week since returning to Vung Tau in the last week of November I promise myself that I will write here about what I've seen ... Each time that I don't makes it more difficult to get started. And the intensity of teaching life - concentrated weekends and marathon sessions preparing - is warping my perceptions of time. The last 3 weeks seem to have had no beginning that I can recall.

So ...

at what points in time and space did my travels begin and end? My route proper began in Ho Chi Minh City on 2 November. I travelled by bus to Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, through the Ba Vet-Moc Bai immigration posts just to the south-west of Tay Ninh, and arrived in Phnom Penh for the last day of the water festival. I stayed in the city for two days before travelling on by bus to Siem Reap, and the ancient Khmer temple complexes, of which Angkor Wat is the most famous. I stayed for a total of five days/nights and then flew to Hanoi, arriving in the evening of 10 November.

At this point all pre-arranged plans ceased. I knew only that I wanted to go to Sapa in the northern Hoang Lien Son mountains close to China, and that I expected to catch up with some of the teachers who used to work at ILA in Vung Tau. Beyond that my objective was to focus on visiting places that I hadn't been to before.

Hanoi wound up becoming a base. I travelled up the Red River to Lao Cai (closest town to Sapa with a railway station) by overnight soft sleeper, after two days and nights in Hanoi, on a tour that included one night in a hotel and one night home-stay in a Hmong village. After returning to Hanoi by train (again overnight) I decided to pack a small bag and travel 100km south on National Highway 1 to Ninh Binh. This area of Vietnam is dominated by limestone karst mountains similar to Ha Long Bay and features the Tam Coc caves as well as the Hoa Lu ancient citadel. It's possible to fit all this into a one-day tour - and I used this as a means of transportation to reach Ninh Binh. However, I wanted to take my time and also to arrange a trip to Cuc Phuong National Park. So I stayed in Ninh Binh for two nights before returning to Hanoi once again, from where I then set out by overnight train to Hue. And eventually back to Vung Tau via a plane to Ho Chi Minh City on 24 November.

The hyperlinks I've put here are to Wikipedia entries. I've organised my photos on Shutterfly to roughly follow the itinerary that is set out here.

View Larger Map

Orphans

2009-10-26T16:21:00.000+07:00

I'd like to bring you a bit more information about the orphanage in Vung Tau. It's actually more proper to think about these two residential centres in the context of the support network that has been created around them, and in connection with foreign adoptions of Vietnamese babies and children.

A big part of the support network, though not the only factor in it, is the Association pour les Enfants Rizieres (APER) through which the residential centres at Phan Boi Chau Street and Ngo Quyen Streets are supported by sponsorships from France, and through which the many adoptions to France are coordinated. As well monthly financial support is given to many children living in the Vung Tau and Long Hai communities.

Anne (Le My Huong), a teacher at ILA, is the representative of the association in Vietnam. Anne is half Vietnamese (Vietnamese mother, Australian father) and went to Australia to live when she was only 5, along with her brother. She has now reconnected with her Vietnamese family and much of her time is spent supporting her local village (near Can Tho) and working with APER and the orphanages. It is Anne who started the pre-school program at the Phan Boi Chau Street centre (P Centre). This program is supported by the head of Orange in Vietnam, through his company's community arm. (Here is a link to My Huong's life story.)

APER and Orange re also among the main supporters of the new Long Hai centre, which opened last Friday 23 October. This is a day centre, providing schooling and other activities for many poor children living in the Long Hai community. Many of these children have not previously been to school.

My connection with the orphanage is small, but important to me! I go with Geoff - a fellow teacher from ILA, also from Australia - on Thursday mornings for 2 hours to teach English in the pre-school program. On Monday mornings (though not all of them!) I join the kids at the swimming pool and at the park.

I also now sponsor Bi, who you can see in the photo on the left, dressed in red. Bi is about 7 years old, but is learning through the pre-school program because he is HIV+. He is a keen student, very good-natured, and has already survived a lot in his life. The boy on the right is Phuc, who has 'adopted' me! Phuc is about 5 years old, also HIV+. He now lives with two of the staff at the orphanage but comes in with them everyday and attends the pre-school as well.

Richard and Bao's road trip to Tay Ninh: after the mountain

2009-10-23T20:15:00.000+07:00

At the end of the last post, we had successfully climbed and descended from Nui Ba Den, but we were very footsore. We got back to the motor bike and set out to return to Tay Ninh. Only we found that the problems from the morning hadn't resolved themselves. Several times the motor bike motor just cut out and was very difficult to get going again. All I could really think of was that there was something wrong with the fuel. Bao was more inclined to think that because I hadn't changed the oil before starting the trip that this was somehow creating a problem.

After a while everything seemed to come right again, and we got back to the hotel to the best shower I've had for a long time! Washing off the mud and sweat and effort of the day. Then we went out for dinner with Bao's former colleagues from Kinh Do. He and I looked like a couple of invalids by then because we were both limping. Dinner was followed by karaoke, but the plans did come unstuck a bit ...
a) because it seemed everyone in Tay Ninh was singing that night and we had to go to 3 different places to find room
b) because we got a very flat tyre on the Yamaha on the way.

As it was now about 9pm it proved very difficult to find somewhere to get the tube repaired. Luckily a couple of friends were still with us and helped to search around to find a place. But in the end it had to be done by Khoa borrowing the tools from a Bom Xe place and doing the job himself. We were very lucky and very grateful to him for this.

Bao has some enthusiastic karaoke singing friends - and he has a very sweet voice himself! I, on the other hand, can make an OK sound when singing with the kids at ILA but am entirely different, and not for the better, when amplified to 150 decibels and singing classics from the 70s and 80s. So it was close to midnight before we packed it in and made our way back to the hotel and a very welcome bed, limping all the way :( troi oi!

The next morning we had breakfast of bit tet banh mi (steak and fried egg on a sizzling plate with bread) and then coffee with some friends. Then took the Yamaha off to the dealer to find out what the problem was: a worn air intake hose had a hole and was preventing the petrol from burning properly. Just a routine maintenance thing, really, exacerbated by travelling over 200 km with the moderate weight of 2 rather thin men - plus the fact that this hose has probably already travelled 25,000 km!! The mechanic showed us how dirty the oil was so that got changed as well, and a new tube was put in the back tyre to replace the repaired one. The tyres themselves were ruled as being fine. The cost for all this? VND 150,000. The time taken? About 30-45 mins :) on a Sunday. Service like that in Sydney would be fantastic.

By now it was almost time to get to the Cao Dai temple for the midday ceremony, which draws all the tours from Ho Chi Minh City, but which the religious officials generously allow spectators and cameras. I've been to this mother temple before but not to coincide with any ceremony. I've been also been put in the know by Rob, an Australian friend of Linh, who runs cultural tours around the world including to Vietnam: all the tours will leave after about 15 minutes, leaving plenty of space in the gallery to watch.

Cao Dai prayers are sung. Upstairs there is a small band and a small female choir. The participants file into the temple, women on the left and men on the right, followed by the elders of the three sects, blue, yellow and red. I've attached a short and rather grainy video (taken on Mum's old Nikon camera so it's only about 3.2 megapixels I think). The ceremony actually goes for about an hour. There are a few more clips that I haven't posted anywhere, and a whole lot more photos on Shutterfly. During this time Bao stayed with the bike because we had our bags with us and couldn't risk leaving them unattended.

Afterwards we went for a lunch of com thit nuong - rice with grilled meat. I was so hungry I had two plates! Then we started on the return journey to Vung Tau. I am very proud of myself for driving 3/4 of the way home, including the part of the trip which skirts around the north-west of Ho Chi Minh city to Bien Hoa and the highway back to Vung Tau. Of course it rained again along the way but we were making good time, until ...

... the back tyre got a nail stuck in it and the new tube got a hole. It was just coming on dark but fortunately we were fairly close to a repair shop, although it was on the other side of the very busy road to Vung Tau. We finally made it back at around 6.30pm and immediately went out for dinner!

This was my first big road trip. It won't be the last!

Richard and Bao's road trip to Tay Ninh: Nui Ba Den

2009-10-12T17:01:00.000+07:00

Five hours driving time and about 200 km each way - I am now the veteran of a motor cycle road trip to Tay Ninh. Well two, if you count the day trip at Tet with Bao to My Tho. But this time I've been a driver and the trip was made on the Yamaha!

The motoring-minded of you will by now have done the calculations and concluded that we made very slow progress. However, you have to bear in mind that it's very unusual to travel more than about 70km per hour on the highway, and that for the most part motor cycles in Vietnam range in engine size between about 115 and 135 cc rather than the beasts we have in Australia. Throw in the weight of driver and passenger (or a Vietnamese family, a pig and half a dozen chickens/ducks). And while you're travelling at these speeds you don't feel like you are going slow, although you are conscious that the kilometres tick over more slowly than on a car trip on the open road in Australia.

Bao worked in Tay Ninh for about 1.5 years and the visit was a chance for him to catch up with old friends and colleagues and for us both to see the main sights, which are the main Cao Dai temple and Nui Ba Den (Black Lady Mountain). This is a mountain that rises out of the very flat land of Tay Ninh province. The mountain has both a legendary and a modern history, which result in its slopes containing both temples and shrines, and some traces of its importance to all combatants during the French and American Wars.

We left Vung Tau at about 1pm on Friday afternoon in sunshine but unfortunately soon were getting very wet, an experience that was repeated as we left Ho Chi Minh City on the road west. The dirty bike you can see above tells part of that story. So did Bao's shoes and our raincoats. But rain doesn't usually last too long in Vietnam and we made the final third of the journey on dry roads although it was dark (6pm) by the time we arrived and found the hotel, with a very welcome shower, that Thong had recommended. Then dinner, coffee with Thong and friends, supper and bed!

Oh, the joy of being able to sleep until 8am on a Saturday! Selfishly I didn't have a single thought of the classes I was not teaching! Instead we got up, went out for breakfast and to wash the aforesaid dirty bike and then ... Hmm the bike doesn't want to run properly! The engine keeps cutting out as though the petrol is dirty or maybe there isn't any left? Or are the electricals wet? Nope, these aren't the causes - and now it seems to be running OK again. So we headed out of town to Nui Ba Den.

I have only one rather shaky (taken from the back of a travelling motorbike) photo that shows the whole of the mountain, so it's difficult to get the idea of how out of place and immense it can seem. Travelling across the plains towards Tay Ninh the mountain is not visible and then suddenly it's there - very much there. I always liken it to the mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Kind just because of the presence that it has. The Lonely Planet guide says that the mountain is 850m tall - just to give you some idea. Throughout our visit the summit was covered in cloud - except for a brief period (read on, gentle reader!).

This was my second visit to the mountain temple complex. The first was more than 10 years ago with David and some of the family from My Tho. I think that visit was during the week and I don't recall many people being there. Even when we first arrived this time the parking lots were relatively empty so I didn't anticipate a large number of people but as we started climbing the steps it was clear that many people were using Saturday to make a visit. It was about 10am when we reached the complex and it was a hot climb (though nothing compared to what was to come!) - and just remember that everything used up here is carted up by porters. We passed a few on the way, zigzagging their way across the steps to conserve energy and pouring with sweat. Of course, there is the easy way as well - cable car and toboggan.

As well as the main temple complex there are now smaller temples and shrines higher up. Yes, we visited them all! One of the interesting things is that foreigners don't seem to come here - Lonely Planet says this, and the evidence plus the curious stares from everyone confirmed this. But so too have the reactions of teachers who I've told about the trip - they don't know where I'm talking about (with the exception of Rick who is a true Vietnamphile and has been everywhere. Rick used to sing - in Vietnamese - at Vietnamese weddings in California!) until I mention the Cao Dai temple. This is because the day tours from Saigon only go to Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple - OK but it seems that everyone is oblivious to the mountain! Do they not look out of the coach windows?!!

The views from Nui Ba Den at any point on its slopes and summit are fantastic. The side we climb faces back east, so it looks into Vietnam and Binh Duong province, but Tay Ninh province is also surrounded by Cambodia on three sides. We see rice fields and orchards and rubber tree forests, as well as the immense body of water that is Ho Dau Tieng. This lake catches and controls floodwaters, and releases water to Ho Chi Minh City when it's needed.

From the temple complex it's possible to keep climbing to the summit of the mountain. Bao has climbed part of the way before and is keen to give it another go. Last time was with Hiep and the climb ended because Hiep 'declined' to keep going. I agree to give it a go but don't promise to go to the top. I already have sounding in my head that concept that there is no top to the mountain!

We start out - there are properly formed steps, though obviously little used because there is a large build-up of leaves, etc. This is very unusual in Vietnam on oft-frequented pathways. The steps are steep, and the handrails are very welcome. A little way along there is a drink stall (and a dog), so they must be expecting at least a few adventurous people. But now the steps are giving way sometimes to boulders instead, clearly placed there or else nature has been extremely obliging. We see another two climbers coming up behind us ... and then we meet three young people (2 girls and a boy) coming back down. I'm not sure what's happened but I get the idea that they have turned back. Hmmm ... but then they decide to continue after all, so now there are seven of us toiling up.

Ahead of us we see the cliff faces of the main bluff. I look at them and seriously doubt the possibility of climbing up there. We are getting hotter and hotter, notwithstanding the cooler air, and we have no water or food with us! We rest several times. I tell Bao that I don't want to go any further. I'm already thinking about the difficult climb we've made and how it will be just as hard to get down. I say we don't have any water or food and it's already 12.30 (we started this adventure more than an hour ago). He says that Hiep only came this far last time and wins me over to try a little bit more.

Now we're walking through forest and the path is getting muddy - and slippery. We are starting to climb up into the bluff. We reach a point where there is shrine in the rocks, and a red arrow pointing us up. Where? Oh, we have to climb up the rocks! OK, we do that and walk some more. Another arrow pointing up. How? Oh, there are some metal hoops driven into the rock wall! We have to climb up this wall!!! We do it. More muddy paths, still winding and working up the mountain. We take a rest. One of the girls has brought along some sachets of Vinamilk. Sweetened warm milk has never ever tasted so good!

We come to another cave, with another shrine, but this one has something more. It's been a medic station during some combat. We walk some more - more mud, more sliding though noone has fallen over yet. Still climbing but the rocks and now even the trees have given way to grass. It seems we are getting close to the summit, though it's always, always just round that next bend or over that next rise.

Now we see radio masts! The summit must be near. We pass another shrine and then we see a fence and gate - Keep Out! There is a dog barking. A face appears. We ask if we can buy some water. We can! We ask if we can buy some food. We can! Instant noodles have never ever tasted so good. We rest. The sun is out, ... but now we see clouds rolling across again. We are told of another path we can take to get down. I think this is good because I don't like the prospect of sliding and clambering back down the way we came. I'm even more heartened when I see how the path starts with well-laid out stone steps. We start out, and also start to see that this path basically goes straight down! It's steep, sometimes it gives way to rocks but generally speaking it's a well-formed path all the way down the mountain, straight down the mountain.

Along the way there are banana trees. They have bananas. Some of the boys decided that they will take some bananas home. They are heavy and it's a long way to go but we do it anyway. Bao jars his leg. It hurts him to walk. He is in a lot of pain but he has to walk. I help to carry the bananas some of the way but the person I'm carrying the load with is walking quite fast and it's a struggle to keep up. I hurt my foot. Oh I forgot to tell you that my usual walking shoes have started falling apart so we've made the decision this morning that I would be better off to wear sandals. Some of the Vietnamese are wearing thongs!

We walk down and down and down ... and I note the sun getting lower and lower in the sky. Eventually we are down, and it's not yet quite dark. The car park is just up the road but we get a lift there anyway. The people living here tell us that they usually get up and down the mountain in 2 hours each way. We started at around 11 or 11.30. It is now past 5 in the afternoon. We rested for maybe 45 minutes at the top and took innumerable short breaks going up and down. We are never doing this again!

Typhoons and floods

2009-10-02T17:09:00.001+07:00

Just a very quick note to tell you all that Vung Tau has escaped any particularly bad weather related to Typhoon Ketsana (see example local English press story). We did have some very heavy rain and storms the other night lasting for some hours and for a few days we experienced quite strong winds on the seafront, e.g. at Front Beach.

However, we are fortunate in our location as Vung Tau is seldom inflicted with typhoons, whereas the centre of Vietnam routinely suffers storms and has flooding every year, and typhoons also more often hit shore in the Mekong delta. Our typhoon warning last year (see the storm that wasn't) was a precaution following the very unusual event two years earlier when a typhoon did come on shore in our vicinity. On that occasion people were a) not prepared for it and b) didn't believe it would happen. The latter is what led to fatalities here :( because some people went out along the beaches for their regular exercise early in the morning and were drowned.

Vung Tau orphanage

2009-09-04T22:06:00.001+07:00

Next week (10 September) I will start voluntary teaching at the orphanage in Vung Tau. There are 3 centres. I'll be teaching 15 pre-schoolers - yes, the age group that I have sworn off teaching at ILA - for 2 hours per week in company with one of the other ILA teachers, Geoff (also Australian). The kids will get 6 hours English teaching per week as part of the pre-school program that will be held 5 mornings per week.

This post is just to introduce the topic and show you a few of the beautiful kids at the centre. There are many babies here as well, aged from 1 week up, and altogether approximately 90 children are living here at the moment. Mostly they are under 6, but a few older children who are HIV positive also live here. The second centre in Vung Tau houses the older children, and the third almost completed centre at Long Hai, will be a day centre catering, in part, to people with a disability. There are also about 200 people living in the community supported by the organisation that runs the centres.

Sponsorship and donations are always welcomed as there is not a strong social welfare system in Vietnam and relatively little assistance is provided by the government. Overseas aid is always program-based and so cannot often be used to provide for the daily needs of the children.

'Mary' Mountain

2009-09-04T21:52:00.000+07:00

Although the statue of Jesus, Arms Outstretched (I think this is the name in Vietnamese) is the more visible and better-known Christian statue in Vung Tau, there is another statue and mountain climb on Big Mountain. This is known amongst the teachers as 'Mary' Mountain, and I took the opportunity of being a Vung Tau local to take Thanh there for a visit. (Although it turned out he had been before!).

'Mary' Mountain is a much larger complex than Jesus. There are extensive grounds, at least one large church, chapels, the stations of the cross, a large new building under construction, and Mary herself to see. And then there is the climb to a cross high up on the mountain.

This is the mountain climb to beat all others in Vung Tau, I think. Seen from the road the steps appear to go straight up like a ladder. Once on them, you find that they do wind, but the mountain and steps are very steep. The cross is at about the highest point I've been in Vung Tau, on a par with the old radar station peak, and offers a similar view on a clear day across the mouth of Ganh Rai Bay to the Mekong delta.

National Day trip

2009-09-04T21:22:00.000+07:00

2 September is the National Day of Vietnam and commemorates the date in 1945 when Vietnam declared its independence, forming the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The new nation almost immediately had a shaky start and ultimately its territory was constrained to the area known as North Vietnam (1954 to 1975).

This year National Day also coincided with 15 July in the Buddhist/Lunar calendar, which is an important day for remembering people who have died. For the teachers at ILA though it was principally a cherished paid-day off, the last one for the rest of 2009. Many of us spent it on a trip organised by the ILA centre to nearby Long Son Island in the immense Ganh Rai Bay, behind the Vung Tau peninsula and at the mouth of the Saigon River and the northern most mouth of Cuu Long (the Mekong).

As the crow flies our destination was very close - just across from our point of embarkation in Rach Dua ward. But the actual route - taken by a former navy vessel - brought us along the shipyards lining the bay towards Big Mountain and then out into the waters of the bay. In all it took us between 1 1/2 and 2 hours each for the outward and homeward journeys.

We did not depart from a particularly well-used or maintained wharf . It was low tide when we left and even lower when we returned. To reach our sturdy vessel we had to climb/jump down from the wharf onto one boat and then cross several others, then step down from the last one onto the railing of our own boat. A nightmare for our British former OHS officer!

Our destination was a floating seafood restaurant opposite the island (incidentally you can actually drive there - how prosaic!). Here we dined on crab, numerous large oysters, and fish steamboat. Being a holiday the restaurant was packed and diners were continually coming and going well into the late afternoon.

Kayaking (50,000 VND) and jetsky (sic - 700,000 VND) were available for hire by the hour, and a few budding whitewater sailors (including complete novices) took to the water for a time. All too soon, though, it was time to return. It was an enjoyable day out and we got to see the industrial side of Vung Tau, on which much of its wealth is built, but which is generally invisible to us.

There and back again

2009-08-19T14:57:00.000+07:00

When I arrived in Sydney a little over 2 weeks ago, I found the streetscape, the weather, the sensation of walking through the city and suburbs hugely, and unexpectedly, familiar. It was the first time in more than 25 years that I had taken a long absence from Australia and then returned. Somewhere in my mind I was expecting to feel unconnected with the place, but it seems that my Australian life is deeply ingrained although overlaid with a veneer of life in Vung Tau.

I spent the 2 weeks doing much as I expected - visiting family, catching up with friends, sorting papers, filing tax return. It was an enjoyable time and seemed to stretch more than 14 days, creating a distance of time as well as space from daily life and work in Vung Tau. People asked me was I happy to be back, and I was. At the same time I did feel like a visitor - it was very different to returning to a home space from a holiday abroad. And at the same time I could say with sincerity that I was looking forward to returning to Vietnam as well.

The experience of 'coming home' to Vung Tau has contrasted strongly with how I felt returning to Sydney. For a couple of days I felt very unconnected - the same sensation that I had expected and not felt in Sydney. I know my way around Vung Tau in a rough way, I got back on the motorbike without much hesitation, returned to the market, started eating at the same shops, but ... it's really hit home how far still I have to go to feel part 0f the place (let alone be part of the place). I commented to a number of people in Australia that not having the language makes life here very simple in terms of information and events. The many detailed complexities of life that roll on in every community wash past me unnoticed. It's striking home how much of a surface dweller I am in Vung Tau - shallow-rooted and easily dislodged, there is little to bind me here.

I'm not saying that language is the issue here - and besides I could be making much more of an effort to learn and use it. I think what I'm exploring/living out (or not!) is trying to move beyond just having a reason for being here, and instead work out whether this is soil in which I'm going to take root.

Vale Thommo

2009-07-22T14:44:00.000+07:00

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.

Bach Dinh mansion - the Vung Tau White House

2009-07-15T12:21:00.001+07:00

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

2009-07-15T12:05:00.001+07:00

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!).

My new favourite beach

2009-07-15T11:54:00.000+07:00

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.

What happened to Richard?

2009-07-15T11:39:00.000+07:00

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!

Transport (yet again)

2009-07-15T11:20:00.000+07:00

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) :)

Rainy season

2009-05-25T12:39:00.000+07:00

It seems that the rainy season is finally with us. Most days now for the past 7-10 days we have had at least one heavy downpour, sometimes with thunder and lightning or with wind. This morning it rained for about 3.5 hours, not always heavy but enough to dissuade me from going out to do a few jobs.

It's not so great for the washing, though. Last Wednesday was dry nearly all day, and Xe had been and washed the bedclothes. So they were out the back of the house to dry. I planned to get home at about 5pm (I had extra classes last week and so a lot more planning, including Wednesday - sob!), but it bucketed down at 4.30pm, and the washing got soaked. Xe has spirited the whole lot off somewhere to dry - I don't know where - and I guess will bring it back on this Wednesday.

The photo is a view of today's rain from the balcony. Jesus is rather shrouded by it all, and you can only see as far as the taller buildings near Back Beach.

Transport (again)

2009-05-25T12:37:00.000+07:00

Well, I have finally rented a motorbike - a Honda Spacey. More of a motor scooter, really, because a) it is an automatic and b) the wheels on it are tiny. I feel very low sitting on it after riding around on Bao's motorbike. This is not to say that the mountain bike is retired, but it is a great relief to be able to jump on something motorised at the end of Saturday or Sunday teaching or in the evenings after work.

The Spacey is the bike in the middle of the pic, standing on it's maintenance stand. I had taken it to get the tail light replaced.

A new home

2009-05-25T12:19:00.000+07:00

As you might know my old home at 34 Vo Thi Sau Street was sold. Initially I was told I would need to move out by the time rent was next due. Afterwards I was invited to stay on by the new owners but by then I had already arranged to move to Steve's house (he has moved on to Hanoi). I was happy about this because it is cheaper and a little bit more independent. I have a key to the gate and no need to bother a security guard each time I come home.

My new home is at 116 Phan Chu Trinh Street, still in Ward 2 of Vung Tau city. It is the last house in a block of 5 townhouses that reach up the hillside below the lighthouse road, so it is very secluded and has good views over the neighbourhood and across to the Jesus statue.

The house is on 2 levels. Downstairs is the entry, living room, kitchen, and a small guest room and bathroom (cold water shower only). The massive 10kg washing machine is also here under the stairs. Upstairs are the bedroom, bathroom (this one with hot water) and the balcony which goes around two sides of the house.

The house is a lot darker than Vo Thi Sau street due mainly to the dark tiles you can see in the living room picture, but it is larger - probably too big really. The other interesting feature of the house is the preponderance of naked women! Here is an example from the downstairs bathroom. The upstairs bathroom has a similar tile picture, and there is a plaster relief work on the bedroom wall.

Anyway, I am very comfortable here. I have a cleaner (Xe) who comes once a week to sweep, mop and dust, and who washes the bedding and does any ironing I have waiting. She is lovely, and has worked for the past two tenants as well. She also looks after the whole complex with outside cleaning and pumping water to the storage unit on the roof each day.

Trip to Can Tho and Soc Trang

2009-05-04T09:22:00.000+07:00

A couple of months ago Bao and I decided to exploit the fact that Liberation Day (30 April) and May Day (1 May) occur on Thursday and Friday this year, by making a 4 day weekend trip to Can Tho. I very quickly got my application for leave in before any of the other 'weekend warriors' figured out they could do the same!

To try and make an early start from HCM City on Thursday we went up from Vung Tau on Wednesday afternoon - me by bus, Bao by company car. Although I left Vung Tau more than an hour before Bao he ended up arriving at Ben Xe Mien Tay before me, thanks to some very heavy traffic jams. A 2 hour trip turned into 4 hours. We were being met by Thanh at the bus station so sadly he had a very long wait for me.

It seems that a lot of people had the same idea of making a holiday - because the experience was repeated the next morning when we (Bao, Thanh and me) set out for Can Tho :( - heavy traffic all the way slowed the trip down enormously. When we got to the ferry crossing to Can Tho we decided - like most passengers - to get off the bus and walk ahead to the ferry because the queue was so long.

Can Tho is Bao's childhood home town. We had planned to stay at a hotel, but when he contacted Thu, his friend since they first started school, to say we were coming she arranged for us to stay in her parents' house instead. She also booked a car for us to travel out to the countryside and arranged for one of her students to be our guide.

On our first morning we were joined by another friend, Tan, and our guide Thuy. We went out 0f the city a bit to a temple that is quite old and was built to honour a famous scholar, as well as some other cherished people from Vietnamese history, statecraft and culture. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of this temple and it's not mentioned in guidebooks. Both Bao and Tan had heard of it but never been there before either.

As well as the main temple there is a building set aside for members of 5-6 local villages to come and prepare foods for festivals. They each come at different times.

Our second visit for the day was to a house built in about 1870. Internally the main house is much the same as when it was first built. It is a typical Vietnamese style, for a well-to-do family. What we saw I would guess is the main living and reception room. There was an abundance of wood carving and tiling as well as a mixture of Vietnamese, French and Chinese-influenced furniture . Outside there is an orchid garden.

We had lunch with Thu, her husband Tran and their new baby boy, while a heavy storm fell. But by the time we finished eating the storm was over and we went back home for a rest.

Saturday required a very early start - up at 3am to get ready for the car and driver (thanks Mr Thien) to arrive at around 4am. We then took a drive about 45km out of Can Tho to the south to visit the floating markets at Nga Bay (7 ways). These are the more original markets in the area, though not so frequently visited by tourists who go instead to Cai Be, Cai Rang or Phong Dien markets closer to Can Tho. The markets were much different to the one David and I visited in Thailand many years ago. At Nga Bay the boats are on a major river, and although most are moored there are also boats trading and delivering produce between them. In the past trade was based on barter - only in more modern times has it become cash-based. We had a great time on the river here - the best way of thinking about it is like a land-based market. There are sellers of every type of fruit and vegetable, and then grocery boats, wholesalers/middle-men, and boats selling food from soup to banh mi. The river is still a thoroughfare for daily life - we saw people being boated across so that they could go to school. Thu told me the next day that although she has lived in Can Tho all her life and visited the markets at Nga Bay many times, she still finds it interesting to go.

The next stop was for breakfast in Soc Trang town in Soc Trang province further to the south. Soc Trang has a large Khmer population (approximately 28% of the population) and the main Buddhist temples in this area are Theravada school (Thailand and Cambodia). We visited the biggest - Kleang Pagoda. In one form or another this temple has been here in Soc Trang since 1533. It is well supported financially, but also is an important place for learning, with very many monks living or studying here.

The second temple we visited was established by a Chinese family about 200 years ago. It's real name is Precious Mountain Temple (Buu Son Tu) but it is best known as the Clay Temple, because nearly everything in it is made of clay, mostly sculpted by the monk Ngo Kim Tong. When he died a number of huge candles were created and have been kept burning.

The third temple we went to is known as Bat Pagoda for the fruit bat colony that lives in the trees in the temple grounds. The temple was destroyed by fire 2 years ago and refurbishment of the replacement temple is still going on. The Buddha image was made of stone and it was saved, but is in a damaged state with one arm detached and soot marks apparent where the gold foil has burnt away.

Inside the walls are covered with scenes from Buddha's life from his birth through marriage to his renunication of his wealth and throne and on to his enlightenment. The temple is also known for the five-nailed pigs that have lived here. Thuy, our guide, told a slightly different story about this to the one given in Lonely Planet (which suggests that the pigs are pets). By the way, pigs usually only have 4 toenails on each foot. According to Thuy when the original five-nailed pig was born the people were afraid of it because it was different so they gave it to the temple for safekeeping. These pigs are not for eating, they just live out their lives in the temple and then are buried with headstones recording the date of their death (see picture at the top of this story). At the moment there are still 4-5 pigs living at the temple.

Our final temple before going back to Soc Trang town for lunch and then back to Can Tho, was the ceramic temple. At first I didn't understand Thuy's description of it as being built from bowls. It was only after we saw it that I understood that when it was rebuilt, there was not a lot of money available in the community to decorate it, so they used a mixture of old plates, etc. as well as ceramic mosaic tiles to cover the outside walls and on the interior.

Saturday evening after a very big dinner we took a stroll along the riverside, with the intention of improving our digestion. But instead we snacked on grilled bananas and then stopped off for a fruit shake. While there Bao was approached by one of the women working in the shop with the line "don't I know you?". This was a surprise but the bigger surprise was that one of the other women working there that night did know him. Bao must have a memorable face because she took one look and got his name right, even after maybe 15 years of not seeing him.

On Sunday we met up with Thu, her family and her sister for breakfast before making the trip back to HCM City and Vung Tau. This time we were lucky - no traffic - although the bus ticket price was much higher (no explanation given!)

This was a great little holiday. Can Tho is the biggest city in the Mekong and I think it would be an interesting place to live, so long as you like the quiet life (at least compared to HCM City).

Visitors from home!

2009-04-29T11:44:00.000+07:00

Michele, Chaska and Killki have just returned to Sydney after 2 weeks in Vietnam.

I was able to get a few days off work to coincide with when they first arrived, so I got up to HCMC in time to meet them at their hotel. It was a very nice hotel (Tan Hai Long 3) but a bit more expensive than I am used to paying for but the management did agree 1) that for an extra consideration I could stay in the same room with everyone and 2) that we would be moved after the first night (when they were full) to a bigger room.

We headed off to the backpacker district for dinner - the girls were able to eat pizza while Michele and I could have Vietnamese food - and then we went to Sinh Cafe and booked the buses and hotel for a weekend trip to Da Lat.

Next morning we took breakfast in the hotel and discussed what we could do around Saigon for the day. Killki's vote was for a museum, and Chaska's was for the market - so we took a trip to Reunification Palace (the old South Vietnamese Independence or Presidential Palace). Once inside we went upstairs to the reception rooms and offices. Reputedly the Palace is still furnished as it was in April 1975 when the liberating forces arrived in Saigon. At the back on this floor are the private living quarters of the SVN President. On the next floor up there are a reception room for the first lady as well as a cinema and gaming room. You can also go up to the rooftop and see the helipad complete with a chopper. From there we went down to the basement - with its bunkers, tunnels, communications centre and war rooms - before we exited through the kitchen.

The next stop was lunch on the way to Ben Thanh market. Unfortunately I didn't think very carefully about the food and it cost more than I expected (thanks to a crab noodle salad that we would have been better to have the left the crab out of!), though not more than was probably reasonable. In the markets Chaska and Killki attracted a lot of attention from shopkeepers who recognised and were interested to know that they are twins. Then it was back to the hotel for a rest, and just in time! A very big storm blew up as we got back.

We decided on a day trip to My Tho and the Mekong f0r Friday. I've done this trip a couple of times now but I think it is a convenient way of getting a taste of country life in the Delta. This time the added feature for me was to see rice paper (banh trang) being made. We had lunch on Phoenix Island - former home of the coconut monk - and the girls acquired a taste for green tea, lemon and honey. We also took a ride in the hot sun by horse and carriage and were entertained with traditional southern music. Michele doesn't think she will be buying the CD, though.

On Saturday we made an early start to catch the bus to Da Lat. On this trip there were only about 9 passengers and so we had a small bus rather than a large coach. I found that the road has improved a lot in the mountains compared to 10 years ago, but the climb - which is in two stages (first up the Bao Loc pass, and then from the plateau directly up to Da Lat) - is still stupendous. The weather in Da Lat is much cooler and it was a welcome change. The city is also such a contrast to Vung Tau where everything is flat. Da Lat is built around the Xuan Huong lake and on many hillsides. Lonely Planet suggests that it looks more like Europe than anywhere else in Vietnam, and it's true.

On Sunday we took a tour to some principal landscape/sightseeing places - Datanla Falls with a trip down to the falls by toboggan, Quang Trung resovoir and the meditation monastery from where we took the cable car back towards Da Lat, Bao Dai Summer Palace, Crazy House (yes, David it's still there and is constantly being rebuilt and extended - maybe one day you will get your wish of staying!), the Valley of Love, and the Da Lat flower gardens.

Next day I had to make the trip back to Vung Tau so that I could go to work on Tuesday, while Michele, Killki and Chaska went on to Nha Trang for a few days. Then they came down to Vung Tau on Thursday afternoon, and spent some time relaxing. There's not really a great deal to do here - Saigonese come here on weekends because it's the nearest beach - so I think it was a fairly quiet time for them. However, the dogs here at the house were a hit with Chaska, and both girls got to take a motor bike ride thanks to Bao!

Unfortunately their trip back to HCMC on Monday was marred by the fact that the boat took 3 hours to get there instead of the expected 1 hour 20 minutes! The last report I had from Michele on Tuesday was that they were enjoying spending lots of money on souvenirs - hope you all get something nice :)

A day on Big Mountain!

2009-04-04T18:14:00.000+07:00

Today (4 April) is a national holiday in Vietnam, so ILA is shut and I get to have a Saturday off work! Woo-hoo!!

The event is the Hung Kings anniversary. You can find a bit more about this on wikipedia, but briefly Hung Vuong is considered the first king of Vietnam or Văn Lang/Lạc Việt as the country was known at the time. He founded the Hồng Bàng Dynasty which ruled for more than 2,000 years. Like Easter it's a moveable feast - the anniversary occurs on the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month of the year. The historic place to commemmorate the Hung Kings is on Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, Cổ Tích village, Hy Cương commune, Phong Châu district, Phú Tho province. There is a modern temple in Ho Chi Minh City as well, at the entrance to the botanic gardens and zoo, and opposite the History Museum.

Today the sun is shining and the strong winds that we've had for the last week have died down a lot, so I went for a ride up Big Mountain. The first part is all sealed road and the climb is manageable. Half-way up there is a military post and some houses and cafes. Then the road gets very steep and broken. I managed to ride a little way but in the end had to walk most of the way, with several hairpin bends. It was a very hot climb, and I had no idea what to expect at the top ( or even if there was a 'top'). I had vague ideas that the road would take me to the cable car station (long overdue for completion), but at the point I thought this was definitely where I would end up the road doubled back and went much higher.

It ends on the summit at the old radar dishes (war-time). These are a landmark in Vung Tau city. Now I've discovered they are not in service - very dilapidated with one badly damaged by wind?

The area on the summit is being developed as a garden. And of course it has some great views as well because it is pretty much the highest spot in Vung Tau. If you have a motor bike it is quite accessible and there were a lot of young people up there having picnics. I spent more than an hour up here walking around. There are a couple of little reservoirs that are being turned into water features, including some man-made stalagmites and stalactites (looking a bit like a dragon's mouth?).

Of course there are great views out over Vung Tau city, Front Beach/Small Mountain, and the fishing villages and ports, and the sea. But as well you can see across the bay to the southern shore and get a real feel for how the waterways around Vung Tau are laid out.

A little bit of officialdom

2009-03-11T13:23:00.001+07:00

I have a Vietnamese driver's licence!

There is a process by which I can "exchange" my NSW driver's licence for a Vietnamese one. I am still only licensed to drive cars but it is useful to have the document anyway even if I am driving a motorbike. Apparently ...

The process is:

go to the Department of Transport and Communication and collect the form
go to the Foreign Affairs office and get the NSW driver's licence translated (cost = 110,000 VND)
collect the photocopy and translation
fill in the application form, put a photo on it and get someone to authorise it (in my case I was able to ask ILA to do this)
get another 2 photos
take all these documents plus passport and visa and original licence back to the Department of Transport and Communication
submit the documents - get a receipt stating they have all the copies/translations/forms and have seen the originals
come back in a week and pay 30,000 VND - receive the licence.

Why did I bother? Well, Bao is trying to teach me to drive a motorbike, and we have all been advised by Anne (one of the teachers who is half Vietnamese) to get a licence even if it is just the car licence. It is possible to now also get the motorcycle licence by going for a driving test.

An odd sight

2009-03-09T16:29:00.000+07:00

I took these photos some time ago on an afternoon bike ride, but had forgotten about them.

I took a ride along Back Beach up to the Paradise Tourist Zone, which has resorts, golf clubs, etc - being a Monday afternoon there was not much going on. After that I had to come back into town a bit so that I could keep heading out. Eventually I went past the the Seaview 4 apartment towers which you can see from ILA Vietnam building. They are out in Ward 10 - but I digress ...

Before taking the long ride along 3 February Street, I went past this closed down/disused theme park. I haven't yet found out anything about it. It's not mentioned in Lonely Planet.

My ride continued along a major road past flower farms. I had this general idea that at some point I would be able to turn right again and hit the beach. But I started to find that my map of Vung Tau is partly accurate and partly imagination. Eventually, I could see I was way out into Ward 11, so I then decided to see if I could turn left and come across to 30 April Street. I figured that I would probably hit it around about where Bao lives.

But that didn't happen either. Instead I was cycling down a very wide, very under-used road, that eventually turned out to be a) not fully open and b) not yet connected back on to Quoc Lo, which is a major road that brings you back into Vung Tau on the other side of the airport (from 30/4 street). To make the connection all vehicles had to go off to the side and push/drive (if you are motorised) on to Quoc Lo. It was a useful trip for getting a wider view of Vung Tau, but it was a lonely and uninteresting ride in the main. VT can be very windy in the afternoons as well ... :(

Reptilian visitor

2009-03-09T14:52:00.001+07:00

This guy turned up behind the microwave oven! I assumed he came in through the kitchen window. He wasn't too happy about being removed (I used a pair of chopsticks to encourage him to go back out the window, in case you're wondering). He made a lot of noise about it!

A different teaching experience

2009-02-18T09:27:00.000+07:00

On Monday night I was a guest teacher at a community college nearby my home. It is an adult class with more than 30 students in a Vietnamese school classroom. Those of you who have been to school in Asia may recognise the description. There are two doors - one for the teachers and one for the students. Two large blackboards and a raised dais for the teacher and the desk. The students sit in rows of long desks - some on forms and some on chairs.

4 of the students in this class come from Binh Chau town which is 80 kilometres drive away, and they do this 3 nights a week, then return home to work the next day. They are secondary teachers. The ages of the students range between early 20s and mid-late 40s. I enjoyed the experience very much - I hope that they did too.

The real value was that they do not often have the opportunity to speak with and listen to native English speakers, so there were lots of questions before we really got started on the lesson I'd prepared. Seeing that Valentine's Day has just passed, I made this and marriage the theme for the night. We started by discussing whether Valentine's Day is important to couples and lovers, who should give (men/women/both) and what the expectations are, including what the students would like to receive. Before the groups reported back I also asked them to poll who is married and single in their group, so that they could consider whether there is a difference in views. Nope - Vietnamese are very romantic people!

Tet holidays - Buffalo year

2009-01-29T21:47:00.000+07:00

The week before Tet I was really unsure what to do with the time off (which had suddenly expanded because of a decision to close ILA Vung Tau centre a day earlier). Most of the teachers seemed to be leaving Vietnam and the general advice from most who had been here for more than 12 months was to go out of the country. Well, I thought it through as an option but I didn't really want to spend half the time travelling. The dilemma was more whether I would find myself stranded or alone because most businesses close and people travel back to their hometowns - which for a larger proportion of Vietnamese people is the countryside.

Bao had suggested that I come to HCM city. I liked the idea but I still had the same concerns - amplified by being in a hotel rather than at home. In the end though I was persuaded by Bao and Thanh assuring me that they had very few commitments over the holidays. Rather that for them like all Vietnamese the ideal Tet holiday is to have fun and relax.

So I gave up the concerns and instead planned a trip to HCM city. And it has been a fantastic time for me thanks to the generosity of these friends, and Bao's family.

I arrived in HCM city around midday on Friday (3rd last day of the Rat Year) by boat and was straight away whisked away by Bao to have lunch at his family's home in Binh Thanh district. His niece and nephew were particularly excited to see me and spent this and every subsequent visit testing my knowledge of English! They would ask me what something/a colour was. If I got it right they would tell me!! That afternoon Bao and I went shopping for sandals, then met up with Thanh for dinner. Later joined by Hiep (Bao's friend) for coffee.

The next morning Bao was busy with an old friend so Thanh and I took pho for breakfast then walked through the flower market and around the city centre before lunch. In the afternoon Bao and I had our first viewing of the flower show in Nguyen Hue street. That night I was able to catch up with Sharon and Irene, as well as 2 of Sharon's colleagues from the Vietnam Idol production, for dinner. This was their 2nd last night in Vietnam before Sharon returned to Singapore.

Sunday morning brought another invitation to lunch with Bao's family. Because it was the last day of the old year we had a number of special dishes, all delicious. Rest in the afternoon in preparation for a very late night then off to Nguyen Hue street again for the flowers and fireworks. Afterwards Bao, Hiep and I went for huu tieu in Cong Quynh street (at about 1.30am) along with many many other revellers, before crashing at the hotel.

The special event for first day of the Buffalo Year was to accompany Bao and his family to 6 different pagodas around HCM city. There aim is to visit 10 pagodas during Tet. This is also one of the days in the year when they all eat vegetarian food. So the day was spent partly tootling around the city on the back of motor bikes and partly visiting and praying at the pagodas. We started at 2 pagodas close to home but progressively roamed further afield. Here is a selection of photos from the day.

The last pagoda for the day was also the poorest one we visited - one monk with a great sense of humour. One of his stories was about the impracticality of some people. He regularly visits disadvantaged communities in the countryside, and had managed to secure the interest of a celebrity and a TV station in helping a community of blind people. But their proposal was to donate a whole lot of televisions!

On Tuesday (second day) Bao, Thanh and I headed off to Dam Sen water park for some wet fun on the slides. There were some truly scary ones and I have the bumps and bruises to attest for how fast and exciting they were!

On Wednesday (third day) we made a day trip by motor bike to David's home town of My Tho. Here we hired a boat and went out on the Mekong to visit some islands, taste the honey and the fruit, see the coconut candy factory and have lunch. We also got to visit Phoenix Island, which had been the home of a monk known as the Coconut Monk, and who started a sect with a vision for world peace. When David and I did a similar tour 10 years ago Phoenix Island couldn't be visited but there is now a hotel there, as well as an exhibition of photos about the life of the Coconut Monk.

I've included a photo of a bridge that the Sydney-siders reading this blog may think is closer to home! This is the new bridge connecting My Tho and Tien Giang province with Ben Tre province. Yes, it does look like the Anzac Bridge because like a number of bridges in south Vietnam it has been built to the same design. This one has only just opened and is a tourist destination in its own right as we discovered later in the day.

On Thursday I took a minibus back to Vung Tau, the first time that I've used this form of transport between VT and HCM City. It's a lot cheaper and not much slower when you factor out the time you have to wait for a bus load of people to gather (and the time spent establishing precedence in boarding - possible only because tickets are numbered as they are sold each day. There is no such thing as a queue in Vietnam.)

Tet and flowers (the show)

2009-01-29T21:08:00.000+07:00

Chuc mung nam moi! It's spring in the year of the buffalo (or ox if you're Chinese). Watermelons of all sizes are for sale everywhere for people to display in their homes - though none quite as these! They are part of the flower show in Nguyen Hue street in HCM City.

The show extends for 3+ city blocks with sections representing the north, centre and south of Vietnam. As a novitiate to Tet in Vietnam the show was quite stunning to my eyes. My more seasoned friends say it has been better in past years, and unfortunately the finanical difficulties of the world have bitten into the budget for the show a bit.

Bao and I joined the crowds late on Saturday afternoon and spent a leisurely time wandering through the displays before it got too dark.

The next evening - last day of the old Rat Year - we came back with Bao's friend Hiep with the intention of claiming a good place to view the midnight fireworks. We also got the chance to see the Lunar New Year lights in Le Loi street before claiming a vantage point around 10pm. The fireworks were pretty, but as an artistic display they didn't compare with Sydney's New Year fireworks.

But it was fun to be in Vietnam on this day. The people watching are very engaged - we all oohed and aahed and applauded in a way that I don't recall experiencing back in Australia. And another big difference is the patience and sense of fun with which everyone waited for 2 hours. Bao asked me whether I thought that Vietnamese people are peaceful - I had to agree. Everyone was good natured and when it was all over people dispersed in the same manner that they manage traffic jams and crushes. It all looks chaotic but somehow the 'dance' works and we all get where we want to! It was one of the events that has made Tet in Vietnam such an enjoyable time for me.

Tet and flowers (the prelude)

2009-01-29T20:53:00.000+07:00

The end and beginning of the Lunar Years marks the end of winter and beginning of spring in Vietnam. A couple of weeks ago I went for a bike ride out of Vung Tau on the road towards Ba Ria town and HCM City and noticed some flower farms along the way.

At the time I was just interested in seeing the farm and didn't think much past the fact that obviously the flowers are grown for sale. In the lead up to Tet, though, I started to see flowers for sale in the markets and shops, and remembered then how significant yellow is as a colour for this time of year. Then all the plant nurseries started selling pots of yellow and orange flowers, blossoming fruit trees and cumquat trees for people to decorate their houses.

On the Saturday morning before Tet, Thanh and I went for a walk through the big park in District 1 of HCM City, except it was no longer a park! Now it was the flower market for the central city, selling all manner of flowering plants, potted flowers, bonsai, living curiosities (such as the buffalo in the picture at the top), and some artificial flowers and plants as well. At the time there was still a lot for sale, and we wondered if everything would sell as there was less than 36 hours left before the end of the Lunar Year.

On Sunday night/Monday morning Bao, Hiep and I were walking back to the hotel after watching the fireworks from Nguyen Hue Street. We came past the park - there was nothing left of the flower market!

Friends

2009-01-06T15:52:00.001+07:00

so ... this is a short introduction to the great friends I've made over the last 6-8 weeks.

Linh was the first friend I met. He lives in Vung Tau, and has done so far for a very long time, but originally is from Hanoi and spent 5 years studying in Russia.

Separately I met Phil (Phuong) from HCM City and then discovered that he and Linh know each other. So small world #1.

Through Phil I met Bao, who has become my very close friend here in Vung Tau, and through Bao, Thanh. Here is a pic of the three of us on the night that Vietnam beat Singapore in soccer.

Also there is Khoa in HCM City who is a long-time friend of Long back in Australia. And April who is living in Hanoi and working for Unifem - known April for many years now thanks to Long as well.

Mui Ne holiday

2009-01-06T14:36:00.001+07:00

Mui Ne is an area that has grown as a holiday spot over the last few years. Now it's a very long stretch of guesthouses and resorts fronting a long beach between Phan Thiet city and Mui Ne fishing village. Properly speaking most of the resorts are not in Mui Ne but in Ham Tien, and there is a huge range in what is available price and facility wise.

Mui Ne is a surfer's beach rather than diving and snorkelling, and nowadays it's the kite surfing that people come for. We ended up staying past the Ham Tien area and Mui Ne village in the original resort area along a second beach. The red sand dunes were just up the road, and an international kite surfing area was down the beach.

David and I spent 2 nights at Nam Chau (5 continents resort) after a hiccup with the travel agent in Saigon (our advice - do not have anything to do with MTV travel. This has now been the experience of my friend Phil as well). Our first night was spent in Phan Thiet city. Ok the beach was opposite the hotel - just the wrong beach!! I think that the stay was long enough. Mui Ne is really a place to come and chill out - but it's not so great for swimming. There is a strong current running across the beach in front of the resort, but the water is warm and so long as you don't go out too far you can still have fun. The weather was great for the kite surfers the first 2 days! On Sunday morning the wind dropped and the sun came out.

This trip also reminded me that travel in Vietnam is exhausting! Motorcycles are still the principal form of transport, and although size is might on Vietnam roads, there is an optimum size for efficiency. Buses and coaches really exceeed it. What is marketed as a 3 hour trip routinely turns out to be 5 hours. One final pic for the record - this is one of the coach company employees. There was no room left for him to sit!

New Year

2009-01-06T14:32:00.000+07:00

Yay! After Christmas I worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday and then started holidays to coincide with David's visit to Vietnam. Our plan was to meet up in HCM City on 30 December, spend a few days there and then go for a relaxing holiday somewhere (Mui Ne), hopefully with a few days to spare so that David could come to Vung Tau as well.

I took the boat up to HCM City on Monday afternoon and checked into a hotel in the backpackers district on Bui Vien Street (but it wasn't all that nice and so I changed the next day to the hotel I stayed in when I first arrived in Vietnam. $1 US more and 1000% better, for no other reason I can think of except that it is just outside the backpackers district).

That night I discovered that there was music and food in the park across from Pham Ngu Lao. (When David and I visited in 1999 this area was waste ground.) The picture on the left is from a kids show - the one on the right was more traditional music, and included singers floating on the pond in boats.

On 30 December I spent some time exploring HCM City while waiting for David to arrive, and also arranged to meet up with Sharon and Irene for dinner. That night there was a huge storm, flooding the streets, and the planned walk to Le Jardin restaurant became a taxi ride, moving very slowly through the traffic. Afterwards we went to the bar on the 9th floor of the Caravelle Hotel.

Next day we met up with Phil for lunch then headed off to Ngon Restaurant near Reunification Palace for a great meal - here's the fish! Then we walked back to Pham Ngu Lao, experiencing first hand the traffic and the lights. For many people in Vietnam, going out driving on the streets is recreation. It doesn't seem to matter much that everyone else has the same idea, and that as a result you don't get very far!!

Next day we had lunch with Bao, Thanh and Khoa - at Ngon Restaurant again - before getting on the bus to Mui Ne.

Christmas in Vietnam

2009-01-06T13:53:00.000+07:00

Christmas is not really a holiday in Vietnam, but it is an event nonetheless. Shops, public spaces, hotels, etc all put up the decorations, and at ILA Vietnam we have a Christmas tree and competitions for the students - design a Christmas card, decorate a cardboard Christmas tree. And Santa came to visit the weekend classes as well. The reindeer on the left are part of the public Christmas display down near Front Beach in Vung Tau. The manger on the right is on display at the Vung Tau Tourist Hotel in Tran Hung Dao street.

On the other hand Christmas Day is not a national holiday. For ILA Vietnam we get the day off but officially it's an unpaid day, as is Christmas Eve when we close at 5pm (and hence no classes that day in 2008 because it was a Wednesday).

I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in HCM City, but then had to come back in the afternoon because I was covering for another teacher on 26 December. I stayed with a Vietnamese friend Phil (Phuong) who lives in a great apartment in District 7, a new town area of HCM City.

Then had Christmas lunch with Singaporean friends Sharon and Irene, and Sharon's mother Jane. Sharon is producing Vietnam Idol and has been here since July 2008. But what with our crazy schedules this was the first time we got to meet up.

We met up at Villa de Romaine which is a restaurant and boutique hotel on the Saigon River in the Thao Dien area of District 2. It serves Italian food but there are also a whole host of other pavilions next door serving a range of cuisines - Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese. It was a very pleasant - though very un-Christmassy - place to be, even when we got one of the unseasonal but frequent Saigon rain showers part way through our dessert! (Unfortunately this is a terrible photo of me!)

A day off

2008-12-10T16:07:00.000+07:00

Yay! It's Wednesday - and I don't have to do anything related to work. I went for my first long bike ride today around the Big Mountain headland. Ok not very exciting but it was good to get some exercise, and the weather is a little cooler now.

I've seen some of the sights on this road before but I wanted to go back and take some photos. The peninsula that Vung Tau sits on faces into the South China Sea - or East Sea/Bien Dong to give it it's Vietnamese name. The peninsula looks a bit like a fish hook, and Big Mountain is the hook. The shipping ports are on the inside of the hook - this waterway is Ganh Rai Bay, and the Saigon River comes down into it. So if you take the ferry from HCM City when you come to visit me, you'll come down the Saigon River and then spend a very long time crossing the bay then out into the East Ocean and up the coast to the terminal at Front Beach.

On the bay side of Big Mountain there are a lot of dried fish places. The drying is done by the roadside.

There are also a lot of seafood restaurants out along this road. In the middle of a weekday there is not much business happening but I guess things change on the weekend, when Vung Tau becomes full of people. When you start to ride around the city as a whole, you realise how many businesses there are - everyone seems to have a living to make through commerce.

The road is an interesting ride. For some stretches there is not much habitation, and the side of the mountain looks like it has been quarried. There are many temples especially back on the north side of the mountain around the hook, and then again on the west around Mulberry Beach. Also some Catholic sites.

I've been to one of the temples in my first week in Vung Tau, but today stopped at a different one. There was only a gate down by the side of the road and nothing else to be seen, so at first I wasn't sure whether to go in. But you know how travelling in a foreign country makes you bold out of ignorance ... so I rode up the hill and around the corner and found this very beautiful small temple.

In the front is a pavilion with a statue of the goddess. Then up some stairs to the temple building. In here at the front is the Buddha. Behind is a shrine for a man who I think established the temple. His burial site is also nearby. The hillside is quite steep, but there are many gardens and it seems to be quite a few buildings for people to stay, although I only saw two people while I was there.

From here, just a short ride on to Front Beach.

My new home

2008-11-29T20:44:00.001+07:00

Hmm ... has been a while, so the news is getting stale.

anyway - I have moved to my new home in Vo Thi Sau street. I am very glad to be here. It is great to have some space and my landlords have set me up very well - new fridge, washing machine, microwave, rice cooker, iron and cook top. The gas bottle was connected up on Thursday, but I haven't started cooking yet.

The house is in a secure compound with two security guys, so I have to ring a bell each time I come home, so that I can get in the gate. They look after my bike (of the mountain variety) at night, and put it away/get it out for me whenever I go out.

This is the main house.

The apartment is a big studio, no separate rooms except for the bathroom. The promised new entry door (on the side of the house) was installed in place of a window, so it is massive! Huge bed, nice TV.
There is a big garden with many mango trees, a couple of coconut trees and some herbs and green vegies as well. The Vung Tau lighthouse is close by, and over the roof you can see the back of the Jesus statue.

The storm that wasn't

2008-11-19T20:34:00.000+07:00

Monday just gone (17 November) the hotel staff told me to expect that there would be a big storm in the afternoon. Big storm! Well, what they actually were referring to was a typhoon that was expected to make landfall in south Vietnam that day. When I came back later in the morning I was given a note - here's what it had to say:

Please be informed to all of you that the big storm will be coming to Vung Tau city at 16:00pm today 17 November 2008.

We would like to informed you some things as below:

Electricity may be cut when storm coming so we will send you the light and candle for replacement of power
For more safety we required all customer at 3rd floor from Room No 301 - 309 will moving to the second floor

Note: Please bring some valuable thing such as money, computer ... with you when you moving.

NB - I am on the 3rd floor in room 304 (having relocated after the roof leaked in room 306). Well, I packed up a few things in preparation for a move and waited a while. In the afternoon as 4pm approached I went and asked whether I should move and was given the key.

In preparation the hotel staff were filling sandbags and putting them on the roof to hold it down in the event of winds.

I got a call from ILA and later a text message to say that classes were cancelled (I wasn't teaching :( ). And so we waited. In the meantime the high-rise construction nearby continued unabated, people continued to go about their normal lives, and I started to get cabin-fever.

So I went out to Front Beach, looked at the sky, felt the wind (light sea breeze as usual) noted the absence of clouds, rain etc, and thought well ...

During this time David called and asked about the typhoon because he had been talking to someone in Ben Tre (further south) and learned about the preparations there. Later I met up with a Vietnamese friend Linh, and he was able to tell me that although Vung Tau almost never experiences typhoons 2 years ago one did come ashore here in the early morning. Noone had believed the warnings because it just didn't happen so they just went about life as usual. Unfortunately for the early morning exercisers this was not a very good idea. About 55 people were killed in Vung Tau, and since then the city/provincial authorities have figured precaution is much better.

And for the record although we didn't experience anything of it, the typhoon has come in further along the coast. Yes we are very relieved and a little bemused by the precautions but on the other hand ...

Getting set up - home and transport

2008-11-19T20:18:00.000+07:00

After many false starts as well as the invaluable assistance of David Vuong (travel agent back in Newtown) in finding some contacts, I have finally settled on somewhere more permanent to live. And it's a place that I looked at in the first week and initially decided against because ... well, because I didn't know any better I suppose. It is an apartment in a villa in Vo Thi Sau street close to Back Beach. It is actually a very nice - luxurious? - large studio, owned by one of the property tycoons of Vung Tau, and it seems that I will be the only other tenant in the place besides the owners. Don't have a pic to show you yet - I am signing the lease on Thursday and move next Monday.

Because I am moving to Vo Thi Sau street I have to do something more about transport than just my daily lift to and from work with Quang, walking and the hotel's dilapidated one-person bicycle (included in the tariff). So I asked Steve about Waltzing Matilda's - the hotel/bar/travel booking agent who he rents his motorcycle from - and went in on Monday to enquire. And to say "I can't actually drive a motorcycle - could someone teach me". After everyone fell about laughing at the prospect of this green round-eye wanting to learn, they have been very kind and given me 3 lessons - all the while I'm waiting for a motorcycle to actually become available. (I do wonder where there is a sub-text here!)

The thing is, the idea of riding the motorcycle is much easier than the act. In principle it's not that much different to driving a manual car, in fact there isn't even a clutch. But I have enormous trouble using the pedal to change gears down, and then there's the need to keep your balance, not veer into other traffic when you're trying to change gear and lane and get ready to make a left-hand turn (remember in Vietnam we are driving on the right hand side of the road, so it's the left-hand turns that take you across traffic), ... oh and slowing down for turns at traffic lights and intersections. The people at Waltzing Matilda's have been very patient and assure me that I'll get it ... but I think that I could make the roads of Vung Tau whole lot more dangerous.

Seriously considering buying a push bike instead and just getting a xe om driver when I need it!

The health check part 2

2008-11-19T19:55:00.000+07:00

hmm ... after the time that has lapsed since the health check this post might turn out to booorrrinnng.

So you've learnt about the urine sample, the dental check and the x-ray. We returned to Le Loi hospital on Thursday to complete the various checks. If you think in terms of an overall medical you could say that this is quite a thorough procedure. However, if you think about it in terms of the value of the various examinations, well ...

height and weight recorded. Nothing much that you can bodgy up on that. We all have mass and span!
ear nose and throat examination. Now this was an interesting one. We watched each other receive the examination which was over in about 60 seconds. It was a little bit more involved than 1. nose - do you have one? 2. both ears? 3. can you swallow? - but not much more. I think the essential thing was to check that they were all connected together and not blocked up!
eyesight test. We really didn't know what to expect with this. Noone was asked whether they needed glasses to read. Some of us had to read the letters on the tenth line of the chart, others on the sixth. For the tenth line we are almost certain there was a letter in Russian, so what is the right response when reading the line? Skip the letter? Say what you think it is as an English letter? Anyway all of us appear to have 20/20 vision - including Annabel who wears contact lenses. And the health of our eyes seems fine - we can look straight ahead and to the left and right when we're asked to
ECG. This was the real deal. However, it took place in the accident and emergency room, and around us were people who were in pain or suffering from various cuts and injuries, and it was a little disconcerting that once again we seemed to be using up resources that would be better given to the real patients.

Anyway - that was just about the end of the medical. We were asked to check all the records made - which was an interesting proposition what with the form being in Vietnamese - and they've now been sent off to ILA Vietnam in HCMC for use in applying for our work permits (along with four photos). There are some teachers who have been waiting for work permits for 15 months but we've been told that procedures and timelines have been tightened up. So stay tuned to hear whether I have to get a new visa in January instead!

the health check - part 1

2008-11-12T13:25:00.000+07:00

As part of getting a work permit a group of us had to go the Le Loi hospital for a health check. Noone knew exactly what to expect although when we were told that the five of us would have to go twice and to expect it to take 3-4 hours we knew there would be a lot of waiting involved.

Here's a picture of Annabel, Elsbeth and Steve doing some lesson planning while we were waiting for the fees to be paid to the hospital and the paper work to be collected. And here's a picture of Mr Dat from ILA (in the middle) paying the fees and collecting the forms.

We had to bring a passport sized photo to be attached to the paper work. (This was medically very important as you will soon read!)

Actually I should start by saying that anyone who comes to the hospital has to fill in forms and carry them around with them to various treatment rooms, so we weren't any different.

The first stop was a dual thing - blood was taken for testing (we presume) and we had to give a urine sample. The urine had to go into a very small test-tube (I wish I had the picture for this! I think that Elsbeth has one.) and then was left in a rack - identification for the blood and urine was via a number - but without being sealed!?

After that we went upstairs for a dental check. However, none of us made it into the dentist's chair. Probably a good thing because every treatment room we went to there lots of genuine patients waiting. The thing is our dental records were assessed via our photos. Now seeing that my photo was one taken for a passport, and seeing how for Australian passports you are not allowed to smile or show your teeth, I'm not quite sure how the condition of my teeth was assessed.

The other important stop on this day was for a chest x-ray. We are not quite sure what this was looking for - maybe to check lungs - but we are each now the proud owner of an x-ray which we can give to our doctor or throw away (Mr Dat's advice). Mine has a big white area on it - anyone able to diagnose my problem?

(Stay tuned for what happens on the second visit to the hospital)

Seafood hotpot

2008-10-27T15:58:00.000+07:00

Yesterday was Elsbeth's 23rd birthday (one of the Minnesota girls. There are as many people from Minnesota at ILA as there are from Australia!)

Last night we (Elsbeth, Ellyn, Steve and I) had a great seafood hotpot at Ganh Hoa restaurant, along the road around Big Mountain driving away from Vung Tau town on Front Beach side. We also saw two cruise ships setting out from the Saigon River.

30,000 VND haircut

2008-10-27T15:53:00.000+07:00

today I had a haircut.

here's the 'before' shot on the left
and the 'after' one on the right.

Yes, I know you're asking what's different! well I felt my hair looked messy and I have to get photos for my work permit!

Deluge

2008-10-26T18:39:00.000+07:00

well, it is the wet season ....
Last Friday morning 24 October we had a very heavy storm and then continued rain. When I woke up the rain had eased but a drip - not much of one - had started from the ceiling over my bed. Just an occasional drip. Then another one started. I put a glass under the drip and found there wasn't much water.

Got up and ate some breakfast. Sat at the desk looking out the windows and started thinking about the lessons I needed to plan for the weekend. Heard a sound of running water and turned around to find that there were waterfalls down the walls, including one over the wardrobe and into a drawer!

Went and reported it to the hotel management. Hmm .. is anything going to happen? Hung around, came back to the room, and eventually the 'attendant' (this is his title - he tightened up the power socket for me the other day so that the plug converter would stay put!) came and looked and started drying out the puddles. Hmm ... is anything more going to happen?

Went back to the reception and suggested that I move out. Could I stay put while the attendant fixes the leak? We don't think we have another room for you. Hmm ... it's still raining and if fixing means going outside and putting sealant on some holes then I know he can't fix it today. Attendant eventually gets a ladder and looks in the ceiling. Gets off the ladder, goes and gets a screwdriver and pokes a hole in the ceiling over the bed! Holds a bucket under the hole! Water is pouring out!!

Went back to the reception and said that I am moving into another room. Ah - room 304 is available, same price. Ask for the key and go and look to make sure I'm not jumping from frying pan to fire, or from bucket to lake!! Agree to take the room and move. This requires not inconsiderable packing first.

So much for a day dedicated to planning my 6 lessons for the weekend!

First week of teaching

2008-10-22T11:22:00.000+07:00

I've already posted briefly about my assigned teaching schedule. Now for the gory details!

Tuesdays and Thursdays
A Seniors class which is ages 11-14 from 5.40pm to 7.25pm
This class has 12 students - 6 boys and 6 girls. They are graded as pre-intermediate, but they are in the second half of the coursebook. I will be teaching them this course through to mid-January next year. These students still have plenty of energy at this time of night, though they are not so keen on concentrating! Some real characters in this class.

An Elite class which is ages 15-18 from 7.40pm to 9.40pm
this class has 8 students - 4 boys and 4 girls. They are graded as intermediate and are at the end of the course, sitting their end of course test next week. Students of this age are already studying for long hours at school and at their teachers' houses. By the time they get to us in the evenings they are often tired and lethargic. Getting them energised and participating in the lesson is a challenge.

Saturdays and Sundays
3 Juniors classes which is ages 6/7-10
The classes I have are at different levels.

Level 1B start at 7.45am to 9.45am
The students in this class range a great deal in age and in size! I have a little roly poly student in this class called Hellen. On Sunday we started with a warmer called Bonk! The kids were in a circle around me and had to quickly think of the names of animals. If they were too slow or if they repeated the last student's word they got bonked on the head with a soft toy and had to sit down. Hellen won the first round and almost one the second one!

Level 2B start at 10.00am to 12.00noon
This is one of my favourite classes. They love singing and luckily the course book we are using has quite a few songs. When I did introductions on the first day I used a little toy koala holding a boomerang and a little toy kangaroo. The koala almost went home in Harry's pocket - he fell in love with it. This is the smallest of my Juniors classes - 12 students, only 3 girls who are very quiet but starting to come out of their shells.

Level 4A start at 2.30pm to 4.30pm
Another class with a big range in age and size. Katy is my little student in this class and Stella is the biggest girl. Then there are sisters (maybe twins?) Mary and Maria, dressed alike but very different in personality. And John who, alone out of all the students in all classes, stands up whenever he is asked to respond to something. This is something the kids have to do in school, and it's obviously drilled in to him.

On Monday I (foolishly) took 2 fill-in classes for someone who had taken a few days off. So today (Wednesday) has been a long-looked for DAY OFF!

update on Getting set up - transport to school

2008-10-17T08:39:00.000+07:00

I have a new driver, Quang. At first I thought this was a temporary arrangement but Lao has decided that he is too busy to drive me and has passed the job on to his friend (I'm sure there is a commission involved). Quang does speak more English which helps, and is reliable and punctual. And I continue to see Lao around the streets to chat!

teaching schedule

2008-10-17T08:32:00.000+07:00

firstly a note that I've been off air for a couple of days due to internet failure at the hotel. This morning they seem to have reset the whole network - wasn't able to get an IP address before - and maybe changed provider as well.

On Wednesday I finally got my teaching schedule, which has me taking over from a teacher who had a baby girl on Thursday morning!

My schedule is Tuesday and Thursday evenings - 2 groups on each day - and Saturdays and Sundays during the day - 3 groups each day. So I am teaching 5 groups altogether, all kids. There seems to be relatively little adult teaching from this centre at the moment. Some classes may be coming up later in the year. This is basically a full-time schedule although with comings and goings, there will often be cover teaching to give on top.

In theory then I have 3 days off per week. In practice I'm using a lot of time, including today (a day off) for lesson preparation, 'cos I'm painfully slow at it!

some numbers

2008-10-13T20:15:00.000+07:00

the number of times I had to sign a form today - 11
the number of forms I had to sign - 3 different forms in duplicate, and one other
the number of ILA teachers I met - 8
the number of classes I observed - 1
the date I am likely to start teaching - 16 October
the number of induction meetings still to go - 2
the number of class observations still to do - 2

Getting set up - a place to swim

2008-10-13T10:25:00.000+07:00

Have found a swimming pool/sports centre nearby to the Lam Son Hotel, on Quang Trung near Front Beach. Went there for the first time this morning. Cost is 12000 dong (about $1 AUD), and the pool is about 20-25 metres long. It is open for swimming most of the day, then has sports like water polo in the evening, and kung fu in the courtyard next door.

Swam for 40 minutes then stopped off for breakfast of bread, omelette and iced coffee on the way back to the hotel.

Getting set up - living arrangements

2008-10-13T10:02:00.000+07:00

Over the weekend I've looked - at no great pace - into various options available for longer term accommodation - house, apartment in a villa, apartment in a large block. Getting started in this not easy without some contacts.

The search started by riding around with Lao looking for signs on houses and for posters on walls advertising places for rent. Not the most productive way of doing it, although it did yield a $300USD per month 2 bedroom house in the Vo Thi Sau area back towards Vung Tau town from Back Beach. Currently rented by an Australian guy who came to teach English in a primary school but is now moving on to the Mekong delta. Bit too dark and dingy for my liking but is a fairly good price.

I chanced on an agent outside a 4 level, 3 bedroom house for rent in the same area . The house was $800 USD per month, plus electricity, bottle gas, etc and out of my budget. Hanh has since shown my a very large studio apartment in a villa and secured a reduction in rent from $400 to $350 USD per month, but it is still rather a lot to pay for 1 bedroom. The price reflects the mod-cons that come with the place.

Also showed me something more suitable - $400 USD for a 2 bedroom apartment in a large complex directly opposite ILA Vietnam on Nguyen Thai Hoc and above Coop Mart Supermarket. Has some great views over Vung Tau from Front Beach, across Nui Lon (Big Mountain) and the Thich Ca Phat Dai temple complex and across to the port. The only downside is that this area is a fair distance from Vung Tau town and either of the main beach areas. Besides I've lived close to work before and we all know what happens then!!

Another option in the same area is $200 USD for a 1 bedroom unit in a smaller complex.

However, knowing that I'm a teacher is getting some favourable response. Hanh's son is a student at ILA Vietnam, and she understands that our salary is comfortable rather than big-end of the expat spectrum.

The intermediate decision has been to stay on at the Lam Son Hotel for one month at 4 million dong plus electricity and take a bit more time getting settled.

PS are you bored yet? How can I dress up this story? Well, the end of the round of visits was that Hanh took me for breakfast - banh khot - and then for coffee. At both stops we were joined by Vietnamese clients of hers, including a couple from HCMC, the husband being a feng shui consultant. At one stage talk turned to the SOS Villages in Vietnam, and I was able to say that I did know what they are via my involvement with IVP because we have been sending volunteers to work in them - check the list of workcamps available through the SCI workcamp search engine.

geckoes and Buddha

2008-10-12T21:42:00.001+07:00

taken at Thich Ca Phat Dai temple complex, Vung Tau - reclining Buddha statue

geckoes and Buddha
Originally uploaded by DaveRick