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Post by hwinpp on Oct 7, 2009 7:14:02 GMT
I left Saigon on the 8.30 Mekong Express bus punctually, the road is potholed for the first 20 km to just beyond Kien Svay then it's smooth sailing right on to Neak Luong. About half an hour before Neak Luong we nearly killed a cop standing in the middle of the road and a remorque without brakes ran into our side. Beer break.    I could have got my teeth fixed  Or bought a hat  The ferry at Neak Luong   Just before reaching Svay Rieng, water everywhere  Another couple of beers  Just after entering Saigon city limits  The traffic is more disciplined but there's too much of it   Saigon by night  And by day  |
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Post by imec on Oct 7, 2009 12:53:51 GMT
Thanks hw. I love these pics of everyday life - especially of a region so distant and exotic. The traffic is incredible - I can just imagine the blue smoke from all those 2 strokes. And great that there are so many opportunities for a quick cold beer! Just great, thanks!
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Post by fumobici on Oct 7, 2009 15:05:53 GMT
Very nice. I've got to get to SE Asia at some point. Isn't Saigon Ho Chi Minh City now?
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 7, 2009 15:08:08 GMT
Ohhh, this is so great, HW -- you make me feel as though I'm there!
Remorque = tow truck??
Neak Luong looks as though it could use another ferry, judging by the packed-to-capacity one you show.
When you say "the traffic is more disciplined", do you mean more so than Phnom Penh? Automobiles are so out-numbered by motorbikes! It looks like at least a third of the motorbikes carry a passenger.
Great night & day shots and you really snapped off a good one coming into Saigon. I love how much detail you gave us in all the pictures -- thanks!
HW, what do you do about language when you visit Vietnam -- do you speak Vietnamese?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2009 16:25:15 GMT
Ah, wonderful scenes that I recognize. I love those roadside restaurant and drink places. They will bend over backwards to get whatever you want. If they don't have it, they will run to the competitor, buy it for you and bring it back.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2009 22:55:18 GMT
Just splendid hw,you always seem to know how to capture "it'. The traffic shot ,quite something.
Someday,I'll make it over.
Thank you so much and welcome back. You were missed.
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 8, 2009 3:06:26 GMT
Yes, as Jack said, they'll even get it from a competitor if they don't have any. One thing I've grown to appreciate is that they put ice in it if they don't have a refrigerator. Keeps you going longer...  Sort of. The official name is HCMC but the locals (the southerners have never liked the northerners who did the name change) all call it Saigon. A remorque is a two- wheeled carriage towed by a motorcycle. The carriage could be transporting people or steel. Neak Long has 3 ferries, one of them is always in reserve. Just before and after public holidays there are huge jams, friends of mine have had to wait 10 hours to cross the Mekong there. The next bridge northwards is about 80km north, the next three are in Laos and after that there's a bridge in China... there are no bridges accross the main artery of the Mekong further south until it reaches the South China Sea. There are more vehicles in Saigon than in PP but at least they respect the traffic rules. In PP it's a free- for- all. And nope, I don't speak Vietnamese, maybe 10 words, 1, 2, 3, 'eat', 'thank you' and 'receipt'. And yet they're so, so different. Every time I go to VN I'm surprised at how quick meetings can actually go! It's refreshing when you can sort out something within 10 minutes instead of several days. I hope so. I'd have a beer and a good meal with everyone of you. |
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 8, 2009 3:09:29 GMT
Continuation: Breakfast was usually pho  Get your fresh pork here!   Another dinner, goat hot pot, 'lau de' in Vietnamese   The purpose of my visit  |
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 8, 2009 3:30:54 GMT
The purpose of your visit was to wear a monkey mask in front of a temple?! (you're so much shorter and much, much younger than I'd pictured you!)
That food! Are those all friends of yours? They look extremely happy. What's in the dish on the end of the table by the tray of vegetables? How about the ravioli looking stuff next to it? God, what gorgeous food!
Thanks for all the answers above.
I just looked up the Mekong river because I wanted to see all the difficulties involved in creating transportation across it. The "miscellany" section in Wikipedia is interesting:
* Balls of light are observable from time to time rising from the water's surface in the stretch of the river near Vientiane or Nong Khai. These are sometimes referred to as Naga fireballs. The locals attribute the phenomenon to Phaya Naga, Mekong Dragons.
* According to researchers the river houses more species of giant fish than any world river[2], most notably the Giant Mekong Catfish.
* The low tide level of the river in Cambodia is lower than the high tide level out at sea, and the flow of the Mekong inverts with the tides throughout its stretch in Vietnam and up to Phnom Penh. The very flat Mekong Delta area in Vietnam is thus prone to flooding, especially in the provinces of An Giang and Dong Thap (Đồng Tháp), near the Cambodian border.
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 8, 2009 5:33:00 GMT
The purpose of the visit, my dear Bixa, was promoting my new home country to travel agents and tour operators overseas  We had the nicest booth and the prettiest dancing girls. You'll see when I've uploaded the next batch. The people in the pix are colleagues and people I've worked with. In the hot pot pic from left to right, a Khmer colleague, a VN agent, three VN ladies who've been in the cruise business (just nothing big but with companies that tour Halong Bay and the Mekong) and a German friend of mine. We're eating goat, the main dish on the left being meat and beside it on the right being udder. And of course lots of veggies. Those little tit bits from Wikipedia are interesting though I think they have it wrong with the last point. If the Mekong were lower than the sea level at high tide the water would be salty, that's not the case in Cambodia, maybe in low lying areas of the Delta. I had giant Mekong catfish on my trip to Stung Treng in June (got a thread here somewhere) they served it in a blandish clear soup so that you could taste the flesh. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2009 5:33:40 GMT
I don't think I have ever heard a Vietnamese person in the south call Saigon 'Ho Chi Minh'. I did see TPHCM (Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) on some of the old French kilometer markers. (Oh how I love the old original ones! In France they have replaced them all with plastic versions because they are known to sometimes throw themselves in front of cars.)  |
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 8, 2009 6:01:44 GMT
How I love you, HW ~~ you can use the word "udders" in one paragraph, then move seamlessly to "tit bits" in the next!
That water probably is brackish -- should have some tasty oysters. The volume of water coming down would dilute the sea water backing up, right? As you say, it would be more pronounced down in the delta.
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 8, 2009 6:53:30 GMT
Agree, Jack. You won't see any sign put up by an authority calling the city Saigon, that's for sure. OTOH, I only saw one restaurant that had a photo of Uncle Ho on the wall, they seem to be slowly disappearing?
Re 'udders', the men actually ordered 'goat tits' without blushing... we didn't order 'goat testicle wine' though.
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 8, 2009 7:08:41 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 8, 2009 15:30:31 GMT
What an udderly adorable picture!
HW, was your pavilion set up inside of a real building? Surely that ancient stone is not fake.
Looks as though the working part of your trip was fun, too. Great!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2009 16:41:00 GMT
Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, etc., dances are complete and utter (and not udder) torture for me. I would rather watch paint dry.
To be less miserable, I close my eyes and just listen to the music.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2009 20:21:49 GMT
Great pictures, so colorful and capturing life just as it happens. Thanks for those.
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Post by imec on Oct 9, 2009 1:20:10 GMT
Wouldn't that be "Miss Saigon"?
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 9, 2009 3:10:32 GMT
She had a funny way of posing, her right arm was always at this funny angle everytime somebody wanted a photo. The stones are styrofoam, believe it or not. But people were always testing them... I like going to fairs, it's always great fun and a nice change from the office. I'm a culture freak Seriously though, I've been lugged to so many Apsara performances I can't bear them anymore either. They only hung out at the booth and I know a couple of them quite well now from other fairs. These are a good troupe, from the royal university of fine arts. There were a whole bunch of Miss' there. I just got her. There was Miss Manila, Miss Earthwalker etc., etc. all promoting their 'thing'. Somehow I don't believe the musical has ever been performed in VN, north or south ;D |
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 9, 2009 3:27:36 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 9, 2009 3:36:38 GMT
Whoa! This group of pics is fabulous, even with no dye on the chicks!
That river looks treacherous. In the photo of the three boats together, you can clearly see the rips and eddies.
The storm picture is magnificent! This was a GREAT trip you took us on, HW ~~ thanks!
(p.s. ~ have you tried tinypic yet? look at the bottom far right of any page here)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2009 4:07:35 GMT
The delta life looks as fascinating as ever, but I don't know how the people got some of their houses to stand up in the years before they were able to stabilize them with television antennas.
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 9, 2009 4:57:04 GMT
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 9, 2009 5:07:53 GMT
Whaddya mean? The chicks are spray painted? I thought chicks were yellow. They've got TV antennas but no body has sattelite dishes  Zat's it. The next trip could be in February. I'm trying to convince the boss of going to a fair in Brunei ;D |
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Post by imec on Oct 9, 2009 13:00:55 GMT
Fantastic hw! Some really great pics that capture a lifestyle so much different than ours (mine for sure!).
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2009 14:18:30 GMT
I recognize the delightful riverfront of Phnom Penh in the last photo. Straight to the FCC for an Angkor or a Tiger!
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