Just another midday Monday

Except today we found out that one of the Kiem Lam (Forest Protection sub-department) staff is leaving us for a job with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. So, like most noteworthy events that happen in the lives of the Soc Trangians, we've been celebrating by having a big  lunch which, of course, involved drinking beer. On a Monday. Starting at 11am.

It's now 1.30pm, I've left the lunch and am back at my work desk (admittedly I'm blogging rather than working, but the whole point is that I escaped the drinking). Dan, on the other hand, was not so lucky. Just as we stood up to leave the director of Kiem Lam said that I could go but Dan had to stay behind and keep drinking.

I don't know exactly how many beers Dan has had but he just rang me, desperately looking for an excuse to leave the party. Did I mention that the lunch/beer drinking is happening just outside our office? Dan is less than 10m away from where I am sitting. He rang about 10mins ago, there is still no sign of him, I fear that he has not escaped the clutches of the increasingly rowdy Kiem Lam men. I may have to send out a search party soon!

Leaving aside the copious drinking that is happening at our workplace today (I can still hear the men outside talking, laughing and cheers-ing, there hasn't been any singing though, so things haven't gotten too bad...yet...), let me tell you about my bizarre clothes shopping experience that happened here in Soc Trang yesterday.

First a bit of back-story. I've started playing badminton with Dan. I'm pretty terrible at it but at least I can now (mostly) hit the shuttlecock. The only problem was that I didn't have any suitable shorts to wear while playing - everything I owned was too long, too heavy, too tight or too short. So yesterday we decided to go badminton short shopping.

We went to a sports store and, sure enough, they had women's sports shorts. I tried to mime something along the lines of "can I try these on?" The stop assistants understood but no, they didn't have a change room. Now this is the bizarre part - the shop assistant showed me how to see if the shorts would fit - by somehow folding the shorts in half then putting the waist band of the shorts around my neck. If the two halves met at the back of my neck then the shorts would fit around my waist.

WTH?!?

I have never heard of this before and it never would have occurred to me to think that "hey, the folded waist band fits snugly around my neck, these shorts are sure to be a perfect fit!" Has anyone else ever heard of this before? Is this some wise old clothes buying technique that somehow completely passed me by?

Anyway, I tried them on when I got home (the shorts were about $2 - I wasn't too worred if they ended up not fitting) and they do fit. So now I'm tempted to drape the waist band of every pair of pants I'm contemplting buying around my neck. I'm sure it's a technique that will go down quite well in DJs, Myer and any designer boutique in Australia...

ETA - it's now 2.05pm. Dan just rang me again to ask if I would go out and drag him away from the drinking, guess I'd better go play the party-pooper girlfriend role...

2.15pm. It didn't work, after going out there and being made to down a glass of beer myself (with ice!) I tried to get Dan away by pretending I wanted him to drive me home. So one of the Kiem Lam staff offered to call me a taxi - anything to keep Dan there drinking! He's still out there but he is starting to slur and sway. I don't know how much longer he will last...

Tues. 26th Oct.
I ended up rescuing Dan by ringing him at about 2.20pm and telling him to just walk away while he was on the phone. Dan went home and slept for the rest of the afternoon - after I'd made sure there was a bucket by the bed 'just in case'! He was meant to go to another drinking session (we think for one of his tennis friend's birthday, but we're not sure) at 4pm yesterday. At about 5.30pm he went off on the motorbike, trying to find the party, he returned home not long after, having not understood the address or directions.

Clarence Valley / Mekong Delta - A photo comparison

Street view

 Main street of Maclean, Clarence Valley. Note the number of cars

and the relatively ordered power lines.

 Trung Hung Dao Street, Soc Trang. No cars, just motorbikes

and bicycles. Also some pretty dodgy wiring.

Street art

 Maclean - the Scottish town in Australia.

A highland mural on a pub wall.

 Propoganda poster, Soc Trang. I don't know what this

says but it looks very patriotic and inspiring.

Putting telecommunications to good use

 Maclean shows its Scottish heritage through

tartan decorated telegraph poles.

 Soc Trang's communications tower (or "Eiffel Tower") is in a park in

the centre of town and has a giant television screen attached.

The river

The Clarence River - a lot muddier than usual due to heavy rain.

The Mekong River, Can Tho. Yep, that's a pretty

big river!

Cafe culture 

 Ferry Park cafe, Maclean. That mocha and peach and

raspberry bread looks so good!

 Cafe 121, Soc Trang. Iced coffee made with

condensed milk. So, so sweet...

Local wildlife

 A water dragon on the banks of the Clarence River.

I reckon it could take on the gecko/monster lizard.

 The gecko/monster lizard. It has nothing on the

water dragons of the Clarence River!

My favourite person...

 ...in the Clarence Valley it's Miff!

...in Soc Trang it's Dan.

(This last one was really just an excuse to post a picture of Miff!)

Here 'tis

This is the quilt I ordered from Vietnam Quilts. We bought the batik fabric at the markets in Siem Reap, Cambodia and chose the other fabric from the samples at the Vietnam Quilts store in HCMC. This is a pretty ordinary photo, it certainly doesn't do the quilt justice, but you can see how much work has gone into making it. Apart from the seams at the edges it is all hand-sewn. All up it took about 5-6 weeks to make. Now I am in the process of ordering another quilt - this time I am getting a single bed quilt for my Nan. I think my family is single-handedly supporting this organisation!

A human life, a forest of trees

Curious about contemporary Vietnamese culture? It's all demonstrated in the video below:





It's all there...the singing, the mixed metaphors ('mixed' is too weak a word in this case, perhaps, 'whipped, pounded and beaten into submission' would be better), the random and completely confusing ideas thrown in for no apparent reason, the accolades and awards, the mangled, strangled English and, oh - did I mention the singing?

There are more of these videos on YouTube, watch them if you dare...