Cleaning at the Golden Temple of Amritsar

Early morning is a great time to observe the amazing social management at the Golden Temple. Volunteers and permanent workers quietly go about the task of making it the cleanest and best organised place I've visted for a very long time. Here the pool is being skimmed of leaves and other small debris that falls in. I was surprised that there were fish here, giant koi or carp, I didn't see them being fed but there's undoubtely a well managed system for that too

Hoi An Images

The wet season seems to be coming to a close in Saigon, the wind has changed direction and it no longer rains every day. That's not the case in Hoi An. It bucketed down every day, usually two or three times a day. Umbrellas just didn't cut it so we got some disposable raincoats, the type that make you look as though you're wearing an ill fitting condom. They certainly keep the rain out but it's like wearing your own personal sauna and pretty soon they were sweat wet inside. Not a good situation so we fell back on plan B; when it rains go inside.

Going inside wasn't hard, there were plenty of cafes to shelter in, mostly serving good food.

The photo above was taken in a regular stop off point as we cycled to the beach. The observant amongst you will notice that it's not actually raining in this picture. But it did later.




The beach is a 4km bike ride away and despite the wet weather was lovely to visit. Maybe lovlier because of the wet weather as we had the place to ourselves and even the hawkers stayed away.


Hoi An is very pretty and well worth a trip. Food and shopping are top class and there's lots to see and do.

As always motorbikes are the main form of transport.

Bicycles are much more common than in HCMC


But it's boats of all shapes and sizes that are the most eyecatching transport.

Eye Spy

I asked what the eyes were for and was told it was so the boat could see where it was going, I can't escape the feeling that someone was taking the michael. However it's a nice image from around the neighbourhood.



There's a great deal of development in the area where we live, buildings are going up everywhere, from relatively simple houses through giant appartment blocks and modern mansions. As yet no supermarket but we have lots of little cafes and a floodlight tennis court for those who feel the need to sweat even more.