Virtual-Doug

Trip to Hà Nội

Yes, even English teachers have meetings.  We had a long weekend in Hà Nội for some meetings, and I had a morning to sneak away and take some photos.  As regular readers know, I usually eschew the “tourist” pictures simply because you can easily Google things like Uncle Ho’s Mausoleum, or the Temple of Literature or the Old Quarter and see all you want of the city’s tourist sites.

It’s the end of winter in Hà Nội now, and that means yucky weather.  Not necessarily cold, but always damp and overcast.

Please be sure to click on each photo so you can see the full size version.

Hà Nội , like most Vietnamese cities, is a city of alleyways.  It hides the real city from the tourists who seldom venture far from the main streets, but life teems in the alleys.  Many are too narrow for automobiles and are better suited for motorbikes.  I merely stepped outside the place we stayed to catch this young lady returning to her home from the little market at the end of the street.  In another alleyway a mother walks with her child hand in hand, as mothers do around the world.  And homes are all along these alleys (we call them kiêts here in Huê.)  If one lives in a home that does not have a business on the ground floor, and if one can afford it, one will have a high wall built around the house – and most likely have broken glass or even barbed wire along the top to ward off burglars.  Can you guess what the ramp is for?  (I’m not sure what the prize will be if you are correct, but leave your answer in the comment section.)

I wanted to walk over to the nearby lake, which has a lovely park surrounding it.  But to do that, I had to brave the infamous Hà Nội traffic.  This is the intersection of two streets, each of which is a four lane divided road carrying heavy traffic.  As I have said many times, Hà Nội is not Huê – we do not have this kind of traffic - - - yet.  There are no less than 22 four-wheeled vehicles in this photo.

But the risk of crossing that intersection was worth it.  Merely walking through the gate brought me into a quiet, peaceful place by a small lake.  (For those of you familiar with Hà Nội, it’s the Thành Công Lake.)  I watched a class of budding photographers at work, spied on young lovers engrossed in themselves, and just gazed at the lake for awhile.  I noticed this couple sitting on a bench, waved my camera to ask permission, and was given a smile.  When I showed them the shots on the LCD screen of my camera – the gentleman smiled and said “Merci.”  I was startled to hear French.

I mumbled something like “Ah, Francaise!”, then ambled away thinking about all the hardship their love has seen, yet they’re still holding hands.

An Inability to Communicate

In case you don’t see any postings for awhile, or my friends don’t get email, its because once trusty IBM ThinkPad is dying.  It could be a real problem getting it fixed in Huê.

Việt Nam in Transition – The Countryside

It is conventional wisdom that the majority of Việt Nam’s growth is happening in the cites – principally in Hà Nội and Sài Gòn.  No argument from me on that.  Both cities are coming apart at the seams, as Antidote to Burnout pointed out recently.  Though recent hard data is difficult to come by, most figures from 2000 indicate about 80% of the population still lives in the countryside.  (EarthTrends Country Profile )

So – what’s happening in the countryside?

Undeniably, the standard of living in the countryside is lower than  it is in the cities.  It retains its bucolic beauty, yet change is happening here as well.  It is easy to find families still living in nasty little shacks with dirt floors, but they are rare.  Most people now live in a sturdy, if unremarkable, concrete home.

As you pass through small villages, you might notice beauty parlors.  Little ones with one or two chairs.  Not barbershops – but women’s hair salons.  Seeing these, you know disposable income is increasing.  Poor women don’t have the money to get their hair fixed.  A proud, but very shy, young lady showed me around her shop.  Somebody in her little village was spending dông in her shop.

The same is true with the Internet.  Though not as ubiquitous as in the cities, Internet cafés can be found in many villages.  Note there is only one motorbike outside, but lots of bicycles; another indication of transition.  Inside the only people you see are young.  Though they lack the sophistication of Internet users in Korea, Europe, North America, Japan, or other developed countries, they know chat, email, and finding web sites about popular singers.  There still are few web sites in Vietnamese, but that too is changing.

Where is this new money coming from?  Its not coming from traditional agriculture, which is primarily rice growing, nor from vegetable farming.  Its coming from new sources, as exemplified by these shrimp ponds.  Aquaculture is a major new sector of the Vietnamese economy, and shrimp farming is the biggest part of the sector.  (Business Briefs)  You need electricity for shrimp farming – the ponds must be aerated and water pumped.  But, you also need to get product to market, and new infrastructure is being built to help farmers do that. 

One more indicator:  the mobile phone.  No, you don’t see many people out there with a phone screwed into their ear, but change is still underway.  As I stopped for some fuel for my môto, I looked up - - and there it was - - the mobile phone tower.

Hey – they want to talk to Uncle Binh in Sài Gòn too!

Riding with the King

Mr Phan Cu is the king of photography in Huê.  I’ve bragged on him before.  His photos festoon the walls of his café.

These photos have detail you won’t see in the small version.  Be sure to click on each picture to see a larger version.

And – I had a chance to throw a leg over my môto and ride with him all day taking photos.  I had a whole day to learn by watching the Master.  The Master plays with serious toys.  He carried both a Canon Elan film camera and a Canon 350D digital camera, plus three lenses, one of which is worth more than my car.  I tagged along with my Konica-Minolta A2.  I filled up two 1 gig memory cards – about 225 shots. 

On the way to meet Cu, I saw this shot while crossing a bridge.  It portended a good day, even though it was starting out foggy.

Our trip took us through the country side along the coast, though we only saw the ocean once.  Small village markets are always great for picturesque shots, such as this lady preparing veggies for sale.  But, out of the corner of my eye I spotted another lady watching me with a wry smile.  So, with a wave of the camera, and smile, I asked for permission to take her photograph.

Butterflies.  That’s what I call high school girls in their white ao dai.  (Say ow yie)  These three were chatting away amiably as they rode home on the narrow country road.

I was unprepared.  We stopped at an old pagoda, and while shooting pictures, I noticed a man sitting in a wheel-chair.  I asked Cu to politely ask how he lost his legs.  The man had been a thiêu úy in the old southern Army – a Second Lieutenant – a fellow Infantry officer.  He’d lost his legs to a mine in 1974.  We chatted through Cu for awhile, then we exchanged a salute, and I left with tears in my eyes.

After a great lunch of rice soup with pork (I didn’t take a picture) at a typical village eatery, we rode to one of the most bizarre places I have ever been.  Cu called it “Cemetery City”, and that was apt.  No photo can do justice to the sea of ornate and very expensive tombs built in this place.  Frankly, the place is obscene.  Some of these tombs cost into the high tens of thousands of US dollars, and I understand most of the money comes from wealthy overseas Vietnamese.

Nightfall found us still on the road in need of some caffeine.  A little roadside café  served us cà phê sua (espresso type coffee served with sweetened condensed milk), then it was back on the road to home.

Obviously, there were a lot more photos taken, but not all posted here.  It was a great day - - but I had to get home, dump the photos to the laptop, and prepare the camera for a Vietnamese wedding the next day.

And – the bride was gorgeous !

Where Old Trucks Go to Die

A few years ago while on a trip to Honduras, we found out where all the old American school buses go to die.  They go to Honduras, often with the name of the school district still painted on the fading yellow.

I was startled to see this parked outside a large metals delivery yard near our guest house.  And – I couldn’t figure out why somebody had bothered to bring an old beat up American semi tractor to Việt Nam.  One sees many large trucks all day long – most of them very modern, and most of them Korean made. Of course, you see very few tractor-trailer rigs here (what Americans call 18 wheelers), but I assume that is because the road system does not yet support such heavy equipment.

Not only is there a large American flag still painted on the cab, but the old Department of Transportation and Interstate Commerce Commission letters are on it.  On the way back home from teaching, I noticed a change – some mechanics were working on it.  I figured they needed a sidewalk supervisor, so I peered inside to see them bolting the transmission onto the engine.  Once I told the men I was Mỹ (Vietnamese slang for American), they put two and two together and were all smiles as I puttered around the old truck.  The trailer was loaded with heavy steel wire, so I assume they were under pressure to get the rig back on the road.

But I still don’t know why they shipped such an old truck from America, unless it because they needed a semi and the non-trailer Korean lorries just aren’t big enough.

Wannabees and Thievery

As an American veteran of one of the wars here in Việt Nam, I sometimes endure the plague of “wannabees.”  These are people who like to tell war stories about their combat experiences, but in fact, never were in Việt Nam. 

Now I have been introduced to another wannabee.  People claiming to be veterans are thieves – they have stolen an identity that belongs to others.  This new wannabee is also a thief.  He has stolen pictures belonging to someone else, and with that act, has destroyed any credibility for the “re-energizing” he is allegedly doing in Việt Nam.

Recently I recommended a wonderful blog here in Việt Nam called “Streets Kids in Vietnam.”   The Aussie who runs both the blog and the foundation recently discovered one of his own photographs posted on another blog by a person claiming to be doing relgious work in Sài Gòn.  I too found the picture at a blog titled “In the Belly of the Dragon.”   How’s that for a melodramatic name for a blog from Việt Nam, eh?

But wait – it gets worse.  Looking at his blog, scroll down to January 13, click through the photos, and you will find a picture of Assumption Church in District 3. 

No its not – its a picture I took of the Catholic Church in the Gia Hoi area of Huê.  Find it on this blog here.

Such theivery casts doubt on everyting written on the blog.  For instance, he mentions a brief visit to Danang, stating that China Beach is just outside the gate of the airport.  Its not - it a good distance away, and you must cross a major river to get to China Beach.

I noticed he has not posted since March 10.  When (and if) he posts again, I expect an apology to both the author of “Street Kids in Vietnam” and to me, and I expect either the pictures be withdrawn or attributed properly.

Việt Nam in Transition – Change and the Youth

Rapid change is hitting the young people of Việt Nam.  Like teen-agers and twenty-somethings around the world, they want things to be different from their parent’s ways.  On the one hand, Việt Nam is bound by tradition, and most of the youth respect that.  On the other hand, they hear the siren song of The New – and they want it.  Huê is a  much more conservative city than either Hà Nội or Sài Gòn, yet the youth are adapting new ways very quickly even here.

An estimated 60% of the populace is under thirty years old.  Take a moment to digest that fact. This creates a veritable tidal wave of change that is being propelled by the young.  In their short lives, they have seen enough change to create rising expectations.  They are, and will continue to make social, economic, cultural, and political changes

This young lady is anything but traditional.  Looking at the red tinted hair, I suspect she enjoys watching Korean romance movies.  Korean fashion is all the rage so it is not unusual for the girls to forgo traditional long hair and color their hair to something other than black .  The very long dangling ear rings are not very traditional either.  However, she works in a local market, which is about as traditional as can be.

There’s a strong likelihood she bought her clothes in this store – or one like it.  There are a number of them in Huê, and of course hundreds of them in the big cities.  Most of my students dress like the young woman at an American university – a rather “studied casual” look of nice jeans or khakis, a nice t-shirt or top, and sandal-type shoes (with or without high heels.)  Their clothing transition hasn’t yet reached the point of being grungy, but they don’t dress up either.

Later that night, maybe our young lady and some friends will want some pizza.  Yes, you can get a pizza at Little Italy (where we had Thanksgiving dinner ) - - but, even better, you can have it delivered.  Okay – it ain’t exactly Domino’s, but it ain’t bad either.  Young Vietnamese in Huê still aren’t quite comfortable with pizza because they are not used to cheese – the texture is strange to their mouths.  But that is changing.  Its probably more of an issue with affordability than anything else.

Businesses in Việt Nam are no fools either.  Just as elsewhere in the world, companies recognize the power of youthful spending.  This picture was taken on campus.  Care to guess what they’re promoting?

ATM bank cards.  Can credit card hawking be far behind?

Việt Nam in Transition – Mobile Phones

12 million.

That’s how many mobile phones were in use in Việt Nam as of January 2006.  That means approximately 15% of Việt Nam’s citizens own a mobile phone.  As I was leaving class the other day, I looked at the back of the room and saw a student using her phone for text messaging.  Knowing there was a break between the end of my class, and the beginning of the next, she took advantage of the time to catch up with friends.

A couple of nights earlier, another student was visiting us in our apartment.  Can you guess?  Yep – the phone rang, there was a polite “Excuse me”, and she answered her call.

No – I wasn’t upset.  Mobile phones are so ubiquitous in Việt Nam, they are just an ordinary part of daily life. 

Our Guest House is in a newer area of Huê where some gorgeous new homes are located.  As yet, there are few (if any) zoning laws here, and folks have not made the leap to worrying about property values.  On my way to work, I pass by this huge new house – with a tall mobile phone antenna perched on top.  Hey – the newly rich of Huê must get their phone service somehow.

During a recent môto trip to the countryside, I was about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from Huê when I got curious.  I took out my mobile phone to see if I could call the Mystery Guest Blogger if I needed to.  Sure enough, I had five pegs on my phone.

It is much easier to bring telephone service to the countryside and remote areas of Việt Nam using wireless technology than it is to string wires to every home.  The growth is phenomenal.

And yes – you do see motorbike riders talking on their mobile phone while riding.

One Building’s Construction

I had noticed some nice new decorative brickwork on the outside recently, and that piqued my curiosity.  A visit was in order  – but nobody was on the construction site except the kind old gentleman who sleeps there at night as a guard.  I’ve never heard him talk, though he is very friendly, and always has a smile for me.  He waved me through the gate, and let it be known I was welcome to wander around as I chose.

I noticed that the layouts of the second and third floors are exactly the same, with small balconies off the bedrooms, and bathrooms for each bedroom.  Only a few of the windows and doors are not installed yet.  This shot gives you a look at the new tan brick as well as the metal railings for the narrow balconies, and the wooden window frames.

Work is starting on the kitchen.  This will be a good-sized room.  Most Vietnamese kitchens are rather spare with only a few appliances and furnishings. I will be curious to know if the sink is set up with hot water as all the kitchens I have seen in Việt Nam do not have it.

I’m having my doubts the house will be completed by the time we leave in June.  I guess I’ll just have to come back to see, eh?

Happy International Women’s Day (by the Mystery Guest Blogger)

Happy International Women’s Day !

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't remember this holiday having any large significance in the US.  I jokingly told a Vietnamese friend that Americans don't celebrate it because it doesn't have a tradition of eating.   :) 

At any rate, it is a huge deal in Việt Nam.  One of our friends explained that Việt Nam recognizes the importance of its women, and the country is grateful for the contribution of women in their society.  I can attest to that.  I know some mighty wonderful Vietnamese women.  In fact, every one I know is a shining example of womanhood.   

Happy International Women's Day!     xoxo - Mystery Guest Blogger 

Mystery Guest Blogger with some of her students.
(Be sure to click on the photo to see the full size version.)