2010: The Year of Living Vietnamesely

2010 was perhaps the strangest year of my entire life. I never expected to find myself living in a small city in the Mekong Delta, but that's exactly what 2010 held for me. It was certainly a challenging year - it's not easy living in another country so far away from family and friends and it's definitely not easy to live amongst people with such different backgrounds, language and culture.

Despite these hardships, I think 2010 has been a good year, I've got to experience things I never expected  to experience and visit places that I never even imagined existed. I've also learnt a lot about myself and I've done things that, 12 months ago, would have scared me silly (12 months ago the very thought of moving to Vietnam was enough to keep me awake at night worrying!). And while I've always known that I am very lucky in terms of where I grew up and all the opportunities presented to me, I now think I am much more grateful for all that I have.

I don't know what 2011 has instore for Dan and me. The only definite plan so far is to keep living and working in Vietnam until mid-April, then we don't know what will happen, where we will go or what we will do.

I hope that you all have a brilliant new years eve and that 2011 has lots of good times and joy instore for you.

Happy new year everyone! Now mot, hai, ba...dzo!!!

(translation: 1,2,3...drink!)

The Dangers of Taking the Sidewalk

I nearly got hit by a guy on a motorbike the other day. While I was walking on the sidewalk. Which isn't a place where you'd normally expect to get taken out by oncoming traffic, unless you are in HCMC. Which I am.

I'm staying in HCMC this week because I've got a couple of dental appointments. I'm staying in the backpacker area and everywhere I need to go is within walking distance so, whenever I need to go somewhere, I walk. But after a few days of walking around the streets of HCMC I'm starting to realise that tackling the sidewalks here is no mean feat.

Walking around HCMC requires your full and absolute attention. You need to be in a constant state of awareness of absolutely everything that is around you. In a city where dogs roam free, where public spitting is common and where the sidewalk may or may not be in a state of good repair (or even actually attached to the ground), you need to be conscious of where you are about to put your feet. It's also best not to think about what might be in that puddle of "water" from which you just got splashed by a passing motorbike. You also need to look ahead to see if your path is clear because it's more than likely that it is not; instead it is probably blocked by motorbikes parked (illegally) on the sidewalk, by street stalls, by ad hoc cafes or by tourists and/or locals milling around waiting for something or other. Even if the way is clear, you still have to keep an eye out for possible upcoming obstacles, like, in a crowded city of about 8 million people, someone stepping or stopping directly in front of you, someone riding their motorbike up onto the sidewalk (to park) or (and this is what seems to happen to me the most and is my biggest pet peeve) someone reversing their motorbike off the sidewalk without first looking to see if there is something or someone behind them.

Then there's the traffic. On the sidewalk. Sometimes, where there is a one-way road, or even if it's just a case of a red light or busy traffic, sneaky motorbike riders will decide to drive up on the sidewalk. Which is how I nearly got hit. I was walking along a relatively deserted sidewalk when a motorbike came driving straight towards me. The driver wasn't looking where he was going, instead he was looking behind him, so instead of going straight he veered straight at me. I didn't have time to get out of the way and the motorbike only very narrowly missed me. I only had time to make a quick, annoyed "tch" noise - which sure showed him!

Along with avoiding obstacles, you also have to deal with the locals trying to tout their wares. You can't walk more than 2 metres down the road in the touristy areas without someone trying to sell you a motorbike ride, a cyclo ride, a massage, a photocopied book, cigarettes, "designer" wallets, bottles of water...the list goes on. So while you're dodging obstacles and roadblocks and trying to plan a your path you also have to make a string of polite refusals. It's only so long before you give up on saying a "no thank you" and revert to the Vietnamese way of saying no - a dismissive wave of the hand - works everytime, though you do feel guilty about doing it to so many people all of the time!

So that was my gripe about trying to walk anywhere in HCMC. But there is at least one positive aspect to it - by walking around HCMC I feel like I'm doing something that I've never done before - I fell like I am participating in an adrenalin sport!

Season's Greetings from Soc Trang

Christmas is fast approaching, Santa is preparing his sleigh and reindeers and planning his trip to Soc Trang, the store-keepers in town are happily decorating their shops with festive aluminium foil and the priest at the local Catholic church is checking to make sure the neon halo around the baby Jesus' head will glow brightly on the special day. So Dan and I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas, merry duck and happy holidays - wherever you may be and whoever you may be celebrating with. Have a good one!

Dan with festive kiddies' costumes on sale out the front of Soc Trang's post office.

Possibly the cutest photo ever

This was at a pearl farm on Phu Quoc Island. They had a little pet monkey which was grooming their pet puppy - so cute!

Beaches, booze and boats

It's summer in Australia, which means sand, surf and seafood! Not wanting to miss out on the summer action, Dan and I decided to spend a few days beachside in Nha Trang - Vietnam's answer to the Gold Coast.

Nha Trang Beach - usually a lot more crowded than this but we were there in the low season.

 A new hotel was being built next door to where we were staying. Check out the scaffolding and the chairs up the top (probably for the painters) - it all looks very safe and secure!

We spent an inordinate amount of time at Louisiane Brewhouse - a pub which had everything we could possibly want: beer (made onsite - Dan fancied the pilsner but I prefered the wheat beer), a beachside location, a pool, Western food and even a sushi bar!

  The nights soon turned messy, there are hundreds of bars and pubs in Nha Trang, all selling $1-2 beers and $3-4 cocktails. This was taken at the Red Apple Bar, a backpacker favourite where all guests are greeted with a welcome shot. (Don't ask me what is in it, I have no idea!)

 We did a bit of sightseeing around the town of Nha Trang.

 Including a visit to a Cham Tower - an old temple about the same age as Angkor Wat. These nuns were praying in the grounds of the temple.

 Dan and Cam at the Cham Tower.

 This old lady was weaving in the ground of the temple.

 We also did a boat tour around the islands of Nha Trang. This included a visit to Nha Trang's Aquarium - a massive paint-splattered concrete structure made to look like an old sailing ship, possibly the ugliest aquarium in the world.

 Nha Trang Aquarium - where giant concrete marine creatures rise from the seas and live on the land.

 Nha Trang Aquarium Gift Shop - selling the world's scariest souveniers. This one is a brilliant Christmas gift idea - what says "Merry Xmas" more than a shell-encrusted, giant, evil rabbit?

 Our boat dropped anchor in the middle of a sheltered bay where we could go swimming. Dan did a most-elegant swan-dive off the top of the boat.

 For which he was awarded a glass of Dalat Red Wine from the floating bar.

My (long) weekend in Singapore

Last weekend I went to Singapore. It was great. I met my parents there and we did nearly every touristy thing possible. Rather than boring you with all the nitty-gritty details, I'll present to you my (long) weekend in Singapore...in pictures...!!!

We had dinner in China Town then stopped at the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore.

 

 We went shopping on Orchard Road and marvelled at all the Christmas decorations - which all seemed to have a distinctively wintery theme - very appropriate for tropical Singapore!

 We watched the buskers on Orchard Road.

 We went to Clarke Quay for dinner and locally brewed beer.

 We had the obligatory photo taken.

 I pretended to be a student at the Singapore School of Art.

 We had a ridiculously massive meal in Little India.

 We visited the Arab Quarter where, naturally, I had my photo taken with a robot.

 We went back to Clarke Quay for more locally brewed beer. And I played in the water fountain.

 We went to the Botanic Gardens where, unfortunately, their 3m-wide,

rotting-flesh-smelling flower had not opened.

But their orchids were spectacular!

Don't do that!

Part of my work here has been to create drawings which illustrate the co-management regulations for the mangrove forest adjacent to the village of Au Tho B. So I've done a series of drawings which show what the villagers are not meant to be doing in the mangrove forest. Below are a few examples. You'll just have to imagine the big red cross through them.

 Don't damage or destroy mangrove plants.

 Don't use chemicals to catch fish.

Don't set up long nets in the mangrove forest.

F-F-F-Fashion

This post is about true Soc Trang style,  as demonstrated by the clothes Soc Trangians wear.

In my opinion, the greatest difference between Western  and Vietnamese dress-sense is the Vietnamese women's fondness for wearing matching tops and pants - outfits which, to us, look like pyjamas. These pyjamas come in every possible colour and with an endless variety of patterns - the bigger, brighter and bolder the better. The above woman is wearing a relatively inoffensive pyjama suit, though it's still not something I'd feel comfortable being seen out in public in! This photo also shows that the young Soc Trangian men live in jeans and shirts, though some of the shirts look like they are from the 1970s!

When the women get a bit bored with their pyjama suits, they start mixing them up. The Soc Trang women are bold with their fashion choices - they don't seem to follow any rules about clashing patterns, matching colours, or defining silhouettes. They're also not afraid to mix the old with the new, mixing modern clothes with traditional hats.

If traditional hats aren't their thing, then Soc Trangian women have plenty of choices when it comes to headwear. Big, floppy hats seem to be in vogue at the moment, as long as they are also brightly coloured and/or patterned.

 Another option is the motorbike helmet which has been cleverly designed to look like a floppy hat. If you look closely at the woman on the right, you can see her helmet strap, giving away the fact that her light pink hat is actually a helmet.

The women in this photo are also demonstrating another peculiar Vietnamse trend - covering up. Women here want pale skin so, any time they are outdoors, they will cover themselves not jsut with long clothing, but also with gloves, socks, face masks and sunglasses (though the last two are also meant to protect your mouth and eyes from dust). The woman at the rear of this photo is also modelling a typical outfit for a young Vietnamese woman - skinny jeans with a hoodie.

 Skinny jeans and a hoodie are the fashio staple of the young women here. It is almost a uniform. However, if you are in your teens, then you can replace the skinny jeans with a pair of short and tight (and I mean really short and tight) denim shorts. 

 But it's not just the women of Soc Trang who are unafraid of making bold fashion choices. The men get into it too, with their 1970s shirts and semi-tight jeans. Or they can go completely opposite, as the fashion-savvy gentleman on the right is doing, by embracing loose clothes and clashing patterns. (However, I note that old mate on the right here has cleverly matched his army camouflage pants with an army camouflage helmet - which also incorporates the American flag.) Love the shirt too!

 It's not just the locals who are getting into the Soc Trang fashion scene. Dan bought his favourite shirt (the 'party' shirt) at a local clothes store here.

Let's take a closer look at that fabric shall we? A blue baroque pattern on synthetic fabric with silver treads running through - very stylish, very Vietnamese!

In much the same way that style-conscious Westerners wear t-shirts and other clothing adorned with indecipherable Chinese/Japanese script, the Vietnamese youth are particularly fond of any clothing which has something, anything, written in English on it. I don't know who is designing these clothes but, in many cases, there command of the English language is not the best (to put it delicately). Throughout the year I've been keeping a record of some of the silliest, nonsensical or just plain strange English phrases that I have seen adorned on Soc Trangians outfits:

"This street you good choice" This is one of the phrases where I'm not even sure what message it is trying to convey.

"Ha teddy birthday" Happy birthday teddy! Though I'm not sure why that's funny. I didn't even know teddy's had birthdays.

"Zombie nation eats your head" Those damn zombies! And there's a whole nation of them now?

"Summer season - welcome to the paradise - lets go to the beach" This one kind of makes sense, it loses points though because there is no summer season in southern Vietnam and there is no beach in Soc Trang, not one that you'd want to go to anyway.

"Dear Santa it was my crazy mother's fault" It's true! Now cough up, Santa!

"Last absolute zero best show" Riiiiiiiiiight....

"Blacktie every" Blacktie every what? Blacktie every night? Blacktie everybody? Why would you want to do that?

"Merry Christmas, Merry Duck" My absolute favourite! Seasonally appropriate too. Because you're not going to have a merry christmas unless your duck is happy.

"Happy smile" Not too bad, except it was on the back pocket of a young woman's pair of jeans - I don't want to know what was going on with her jeans that was giving her a happy smile.

"Godisgirl" It's true - despite the lack of spacing and the missing word 'a'.

"The gentle and soft woman is the most beautiful" Not true, but a very Vietnamese attitude.

"Gsus says im frankie" Another favourite - mostly because my mother's cat is named Frankie, and he probably thinks of himself as some type of Jesus (Gsus) figure.

"sniffing glue won't keep families together" A very strange message to put on a t-shirt.

"In the arithmetic of love one plus one equals everything and two minus one equals nothing" So, no pressure or anything, potential boyfriend...

"F*%k R Forever" I edited this one to make it slightly less rude. I don't think the poor girl knew what the back of her t-shirt said.

"I asked to fate wong" Huh?

"I will dry if you help me" Very domesticated, but not something I'd want to declare publicly on my clothing.

"The great fish eats the small" Very philosphical. Or biological.

Evil skeksis dinner

Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate our collegue's birthday, we had a lavish dinner complete with fresh beef spring rolls, deep-fried frog, rice cakes, crab and chicken. On closer inspection the chicken turned out to be an evil skeksis!

 The evil chicken-skeksis

The similarities were obvious!

Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out the video below.

Needless to say, I spent a large part of the night holding the chicken-skeksis with my chopsticks and making "mmmMMMMmmm" noises.

Drawing competition

Part of my volunteer role here has been to help organise the participation of students from Soc Trang Province in the annual GTZ Mekong Delta drawing competition. We received approximately 3000 entries just from Soc Trang Province. From this colossal number of drawings, 20 were chosen as best representing this year’s theme of ‘biodiversity’. Last Sunday was the award ceremony for the winning 20 students. The award ceremony was held at our office, followed by a celebratory lunch at Restaurant 36 where, naturally, all the government staff and teachers escorting the students, participated in quite a few beery rounds of nam-moui/nam-moui (50% -meaning you should scull half your glass of beer) and tram-phan-tram (100%).

It was good to meet the kids who won the drawing competition and, while I’m not sure that they enjoyed the beer-drinking session, I hope that they enjoyed the award ceremony (featuring karaoke!) and the massive lunch afterwards (also featuring karaoke!).

From the 20 winning drawings from Soc Trang, 5 were chosen to be included in a GTZ 2011 calendar. So there will be another award ceremony later this year for all the students from around the Mekong Delta whose drawings will be in the calendar. This ceremony will be in Bac Lieu, but I’m not sure if Dan and I will be attending. If we do it will mean more karaoke, another big lunch and yet more beer-drinking. Can’t wait!

The 20 students from Soc Trang Province who had winning entries in the drawing competition. Dan and I are at the back left and Mr Xe - the Director of Kiem Lam - is towards the back middle.

Dan and I had our photos taken with nearly all the students and teachers from each of the seperate districts of Soc Trang. (I can't remember which district this girl came from.) Standing next to Dan is Mr Khuong - Dan's boss from Kiem Lam.

More winning students from another district. There were an awful lot of photos taken that day!

My pretties

Much to Dan's eternal disgust, I am always taking photos of the plants here, especially the flowers. There are some amazing flowers here, so colourful, so vibrant and so many different varieties!
Anyway, if you like flowers, then read on. If you don't like flowers then it's probably best to ignore this post, because it's flower power all the way, baby!

 Singapore orchids in Singapore (obviously).

 Orchids and bromeliads in Singapore.

 More orchids in Singapore - the white orchids are just stunning!

 I don't know what this is called but it's part of some kind of palm tree. This was at the resort we stayed at in Mui Ne - it had the most amazing garden, the nicest one I have seen in Vietnam.

 Water lilly at Mui Ne.

 More bromeliads, probably in Singapore, I can't remember...

 A fern in Mui Ne.

 I'm not sure what this is either, is it related to a bird-of-paradise? Whatever it is, it is pretty spectacular, this is growing in the grounds of a cafe in Soc Trang.

Another one that I don't know the name of. The yellow and orange flowers are so bright and cheerful. This plant is growing out the front of AgriBank in Soc Trang.