There's something very Vietnamese going on in Pondicherry

I went to  Pondicherry to scope out a bit of French influence and found it along with a surprising Vietnamese flavour.  I was working on two way influences, in the way that India brought Britain "shampoo" and "pajamas" while Britain left potatoes* and Gothic buildings.

Really I shouldn't have been surprised, after all the French Colonies stretched all the way to Vietnam but I hadn't banked on the cross pollination within the Colonies. I spent four years in Vietnam before moving to India and here I present my little slice of VietnoFrancoIndo Pondicherry:

 Typical street signs, very French and seen all over the old IndoChine empire.  The one on the left made me laugh a lot as it's a very rude phrase in Vietnamese.  This specific shade of yellow matched with white is also common in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia but did it come from France or was it adopted by the French?

Show this picture to anyone in Vietnam and ask them to guess what country it was from and I guarantee they would say "Vietnam".  Reclaiming the streets with ranks of plants is almost the law and not something that I have seen much outside of Vietnam.

The Lotte Choco Pie is so popular in Vietnam that I know some people who believe it IS Vietnamese (it's Korean),  it seemed right to see them on sale in Pondicherry.  British readers, think "wagon wheels".  Of course the Indian version has the green vegetarian dot on the packaging.

You get pretty used to the usual range of things for sale in tourist shops so it comes as a bit of a surprise to see the usual kind of thing offered in Vietnam on sale in India.

This is a Vietnamese house.  It could have been picked up in Saigon complete with the paint finish and dropped in Pondicherry.  It's four stories tall, narrow in front and deep.  It takes up the entire plot with only a tiny yard at the front, there are balconies on each floor a roof terrace on top and, to make it undoubtedly Vietnamese, parking for motorbikes on the ground floor.  I would put money someone who lives in this house being named Nguyen.

Now this could all be because I've spent a lot longer in Vietnam than I have in France but it's got me wondering about the Vietnamese influence on Pondicherry and cross influences in general.  I feel a google search coming on.

EDIT ; an interesting little article appeared in The Hindu newspaper looking at connections with Vietnam and Pondicherry.  Read it here



*I'm taking a guess at the potato but it does seem likely... or was it the Portuguese?

Vietnamese Wedding Photographer

In Vietnam wedding pictures are taken before the wedding. It's a fairly lengthy process usually requiring at least three costume and related hairstyle and make-up changes. What adds to the overall hard work of the day is that the pictures are taken on location, usually several locations.

There are some tried and tested favourites,the central Post Office, Notre Dame Cathedral irrespective of what your religious persuasion is, on the steps of the Opera House are all popular. More prosaic choices might be on a busy traffic bridge or posing inside giant rusting pipes or buying fruit at a market in full bridal regalia. There are props to handle too, violins, basketballs, teddy bears, and stepladders, I've seen them all employed to various effects.

The average wedding photographer has a team of helpers to variously wrangle the cameras, the props, the costumes and the makeup touch ups but ultimately it's down to him to snap the pictures. It's his, and the photoshop editor's job, to capture the glamour and it's not always easy.

If you fancy giving it a go, here is some advice from a Vietnamese wedding photographer "Wear Crocs; easy off, happy in water, solid floor, no smell"

Violet times in Ho Chi Minh City

I lived in Vietnam for four years before moving to India so it was great to go back to somewhere I was so familiar with and where I still have a lot of friends.

Sometimes, especially when I'm taking pictures somewhere I know well, I'll choose a colour and seek out things to snap that match it. The process is to have a quick scan about and the first photo worthy thing you see, that's the colour. In HCMC it turned out to be purple. Vietnam loves purple in all it's shades and flavours.

When you think of Vietnam or Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) it's likely that rice fields and conical hats come to mind and there are lots and lots of these:

Right there, keeping her Non La or conical hat on - purple. Now you will find lots of ladies in traditional dress but HCMC is a fast developing city. It's a great mix of new and old, foreign and local influences and like most cities it has a fancy shopping street. The start of this area is marked by the Louis Vuitton store on Le Loi Street. Here we have the Four Legged Lady of Le Loi and a purple dominated LV window:

Part of the tradition in Vietnam in general is the preponderance of public information propaganda posters, another is that everyone rides motorbikes:

If everyone rides motorbikes then you want yours to stand out from the crowd, if only to find it easier in the parking lots and in HCMC you can do that with style. Anything and everything can be personalised and here are two reconditioned Vespas demonstrating that:

Even the airport has purple seats, some people dress to match...

and some to blend in.

As I sit here I've just noticed my toes, I got a pedicure in Saigon, trust me the best pedicures in the world are done in Vietnam. It's purple of course, I don't even like purple!

New International Airport, Danang

I left Vietnam and moved to India a year ago, it was time to go back and see the old place while I could still get in and out on my multiple entry visa. First stop off was Hoi An. There's been a long standing programme to upgrade airports in Vietnam and Danang which serves Hoi An has also been built anew. Before it was what can be best described as a shed, quite a large shed but a shed nonetheless. The picture below is actually Vientien airport in Laos which was a good bit nicer than Danang but you get the picture.

It's actually a very nice airport now, comfortable seating a surprisingly good public address system which is pretty unusual in any airport, places to eat and drink and clean toilets. People management and security are quick and efficient. There's not a lot more you can ask for in an airport.

There are some surprises though, it has a bar. An actual beer selling bar! If you haven't travelled through Vietnamese provincial airports you won't understand how surprising that was to me. I didn't have a drink but if I'd wanted to ...

You can eat too, Big Bowl Noodle do a nice range of noodles in big bowls, surprisingly good airport fodder. Red Star coffee make a mean cafe sua da or any other coffee that takes your fancy, there's plenty of fresh fruit available. It's my firm belief that Vietnamese people are incapable of travelling anywhere without a big bag of fruit. A shock to my system after a year away though was this ...

I knew they were already in Saigon International airport but to see Burger King happily sitting in the middle of Danang domestics was a bit of a shock. Vietnam is still holding out against McDonald's and Starbucks but it can only be a matter of time.

It was good to see that not everything had changed.

This knock-me-down-and-I'll-stand-up-again doll has been on sale at the airport for at least five years. I know it's the same one because of the smudge of dirt on its face. At 1,100,000 Vietnamese Dong (over 50 usd) it's likely to stay unsold. I'd be quite sad to see it go after all this time.

Vietnam, return visit

I've had a bit of a blog break visiting the old "home" in Vietnam. Circumstances meant that there wasn't a heck of a lot of photography going on but there are more than enough Vietnam pictures on this blog to make up for that.

It's the first time I've left India since settling here exactly 166 days ago (acording the the man's widget on his phone). I never know how I really feel about a place until I leave and return to it. Vietnam was entirely familiar, like a comfy pair of shoes and it was great to go back to old haunts and old friends. It felt good to be back in India though but I realise that there's a long way to go before I reach the comfy shoes stage, still, at least they're no longer causing blisters.

Anywhere in the world by DHL...

...anywhere else by bus.

Pastures New and Old Stamping Grounds

By July we'll be off taking the same kinds of pictures in a different kind of place and I'm already getting a bit nostalgic and taking pictures of things I see on a regular basis but have stopped really registering.
Hence, The Post Office, The Virgin at Notre Dame, Uncle Ho and a coffee shop;

I still think this is one of the loveliest Post Offices I've been to and the service is great and charges are excellent value for money despite the recent hikes in cost.



This is the famous "crying Madonna" who caused a huge fuss just before I came to Vietnam. She wasn't crying today and hasn't for four years I've been here but the real novelty in this picture is the blue sky which made such a change from the horrible grey candyfloss that has been passing for sky recently.



Now, what I wanted here was a picture of Uncle Ho's statue in front of the Hotel de Ville with the Vietnamese flag snapping away in the breeze. This was one of the grey sky days hence the ridiculously cropped closeup.



Vietnam has adopted the fancy coffee culture with arms open wide. A fancy coffee has at least four components to its name in my rule book. This was an expresso freeze with cream so clearly not as fancy as some. Very good though and the first time I've been back since their rebuild, I noticed that they're hosting live music now, Regina Coffee, Nguyen Du St.

I didn't realise just how many puns I got into the title of this blog until I re-read it, I'm quite proud of myself if a little ashamed.

Hoi An break

We were off to Hoi An for a few days during the recent break. We'd toyed with ideas of setting off somewhere abroad but work and other commitments wouldn't let us do it and I'm glad of it. A relaxing time with good food and friendly people and a break from the city was just perfect. I also spent some time with the models of Hoi An who will happily either sell you fruit or pose for you for a very modest fee.

Cheers Etienne.

Dress Up Day

It's the annual book week and students dress as their favourite characters or books, so do teachers.



It can make teaching a bit distracting.



Not a normal school day.

Old Advertising, Saigon

On Tran Hung Dao one hotel has been knocked down to be replaced with another one. In the process old wall advertisements have been revealed for the first time in who knows how many decades. I like the juxtaposition of the old adverts with the new and that there are no power lines getting in the way.

Santa Time

The streets are full again of children of all ages posing in front of the Tax Centre Christmas displays. This year the photographers are liveried up in Noel 2010 shirts.

Red velvet ropes are set up to help keep people from climbing on the polystyrene displays which have an international theme courtesy of Hitachi.

Most of the Santa Babies have already learned the art of photo posing but you have to start somewhere.

There are new Santa fashions, the halter neck tiered dress...

and more and more fairies.

The decorations are up.

The Santas on sticks have arrived.

The balloons have been modeled

and Mickey and Minnie are available for you in their Military Fighter helicopter.

Merry Christmas from Ho Chi Minh City.

Traffic light behaviour

Just another picture of the amazing layering that takes place before your average Vietnamese girl can risk going onto her scooter.

This one also depicts the "sunny day traffic light strategy" - wait for the lights to change in the nearest patch of shade which might be some distance away and will be popular. On dull days or at nights it's full steam ahead to get as close to the lights as possible

Vincom Centre, Mall life reaches Saigon

The new mega-flash mall has opened complete with an Armani Caffe and a Jimmy Choo. It's all very impressive down Dong Khoi these days.

Stepping inside is like being transported to Singapore but there are significantly low numbers of shopping bags being carried around. On my last two visits the most popular activity was from groups posing for photographs outside shops. There's shopping going on, I'm sure, but not on a Singaporean scale. On the other hand, La Senza had completely sold out of medium sized knickers so some are doing well.

Not such great mall news from Phu My Hung where the wedding cake styled Paragon mall closed with little or no warning. It's always been a bit of a ghost mall in there. Completely unsubstantiated rumour which is likely to be entirely wrong, has it that Parkson will be moving in. I'll keep you posted.

Holland Village Saigon

Holland Village came to Saigon, an exhibition of all things Dutch. They set up in the park near the Ben Thanh roundabout. I took a wander through during the day when the finishing touches were being made.

Bitexco Tower with Windmill in front, an odd juxtaposition.



The finishing touches being put to the lighting rig, as always not a hard hat or harness in sight.

Red Saigon

It's been a while since I posted. Here's the Red Saigon version of the Blue Singapore shots I did a while back. I have some time on my hands now so more posting should follow.

Delivery Driver

I have absolutely no idea what is in the boxes, Google couldn't help me but it's gratifying to see that they come in different sizes.

Land Development

Saigon has a new and nearly completed landmark, the Bitexco Financial Tower. It can be seen from all over the city and surrounds and even has a helipad on one side. Alas my picture doesn't do it justice but I'll get some better ones soon.

Large swathes of the city centre are also earmarked for ripping down and "improving". Not everyone is in favour of course and I've been told that the flags flying from the residential buildings at the top end of Le Loi are in protest to the planned redevelopment of that area.

Such a shame to see buildings of character go under the jack hammer but I doubt the mild misgivings of one expat blogger are going to make the slightest difference.

Backpacker Bingo

Backpacker Bingo is a surprisingly popular sport. The rules are simple, prepare a ist of typical backpacker attributes and tick them off as they're spotted. The more advanced gameplay requires that you get a picture as evidence.

To get you started here are some of the things you might want to look out for:
too many wrist/arm/ankle bands, careful bed head, new dreds, novelty shorts , motorcycle leg rash, overly large bottles of water, overtly "dressing like a local", star t-shirts in wrong colours, inappropriate facial hair, new tattoos, beachwear as streetwear, unworn hiking boots dangling from well worn backpacks, unravelling extension, "on tour" t-shirts, front and back packs worn together augmented by carrier bags, an accessory or item of clothing from every country visited, robes of any description, walking with a staff.

It's a fine way to pass the hottest hours of the day while you sip on a cool one.

Blog Break Broken

It's been a busy time at work and the blog's suffered for it. However, the balloons have finally gone up so it's business as usual.