Cyclo Challenge 2009 and the Stealth Samba Band

This year the weather was terrible for the Cyclo Challenge, see earlier post for how lovely it was last year and this post for how awful it was in 209.

I was otherwise engaged so didn't take the pictures showing here but it was my camera so I guess I have ownership:



Muddy and churned up but people waited patiently to go strut their stuff.



This bunch of chancers turned up without a gold sponsor and still managed to blag their way into the opening parade.



Stealth Samba, like Banksy with drums.

Atlas didn't have any supporters so were weirdly happy to have the random samba band.



It was bloody muddy and ruined a perfectly good pair of shoes but it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Rotten Narrow Table Ox Depository revisited

It'a been a while since I blogged some random images of things that tickle me so I'll rectify that now. I still haven't eaten here but at least I now know that oop-la is fried egg.



Building is everywhere, sites are usually surrounded by drab green corrugated steel walls but this one near Pham Ngu Lau is particularly colourful.




Everything becomes normal after a while, see how normal five big boxes on a motorbike look.

But neatly packaged incense is pretty eyecatching.



And these guys are soon to become an extinct breed as the city authorities are banning them in the near future. If you want the thrill of an exhaust packed trip through traffic on a cyclo in HCM you'd better get a move on.



Finally, we bought ourselves a motorbike, well a scooter really, it has elements of a Barbie Bike about it but it's not a

Piaggio Super Best Fairy. I would have been tempted just by the name.

Saigon Cyclo Challenge

Saturday the 8th of March was the Annual Saigon Cyclo Challenge, a fund raising event for Saigon Childrens Charity held at the Taipai International School. As you'd expect it's a cyclo race sponsored by foreign and local companies with employees taking part.



It's not as easy as it looks and some of the participants take it very seriously. As well as prizes for winning races there's tough competition to win the Best Cheerleader competition. They strutted their stuff in the opening parade.



Stilts were very popular, traditional dress and more modern interpretations were on show.



I didn't see any of them fall.

The bulls shoogled their buttocks:



The cheerleader leader lead the cheering with inexhaustible enthusiasm



The girls from Catwalk dressed like cats



and walked



it was clearly hard on the feet.



Other girls from I don't know where dressed in gold tutus and tails and also walked in inappropriate footwear.



I couldn't work out the significance of the tiger and grass skirt combo



but it was all for charity so I can't be too critical.

I tried and failed to get a good picture of the professional cyclo drivers but they were too fast for me.



A good day and the unseasonal rain stayed off until the last race.

If I've got it right clicking on the title of this post should take you to Saigon Children's Charity site where you can see what it was all in aid of and see much better photographs of the day taken by a man in a pith helmet.