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.

Vietnamese clichés

- apart from the water buffallo and a bowl of pho this hits most of the cliché buttons.

Things that happen in Vietnam

After any amount of time living in a country most things start to seem normal, which indeed they are.

Dozing on the morning school run:


Dressing for sightseeing:


Getting comfy in the airport, note the matching fake Clark's sandals:


Moving large pieces of equipment around during lunch service:

All perfectly normal.

Vespa Street

A trip to Vespa street to ooh and ahh at the pretty things.

Reconditioned Vespas are available all over town but Ly Thai To street in District 3 seems to be particularly well populated with refurbishing shops. Here's some pretty pictures:

Beer optional. Most of the pictures here were taken at Hoa Vespa .

Tet decorations

As we enter the year of the Ox or Bull I notice that unlike the pig and the mouse it's not the easiest animal to cute up.

I've also spotted that a lot of the blossoms are not all they seem to be.

It's a great time of year for taking pictures and rest assured, there will be lots more of them soon.

Suburban Saigon

What do you do when you get to build your own house and are limited only by the size of your plot?

Well this is an option:



Something a little more deco?


Fulfill your Barbie House fantasies?


Use up all the end of line paint in the shop?



Or go wild with stars, stripes and blocks of yellow:



Mine is a very restrained grey and white but maybe I could talk the landlord into a paint job. Tangerine and torquoise perhaps?

Mui Ne for Christmas

We escaped the city for a few days and couldn't get ourselves organised in time to go anywhere outside Vietnam so Mui Ne provided the perfect answer for a couple of days doing very little.

Saw a couple of sunrises:


Ate a couple of fish and fish friends:


Drank a couple of beers at the latest incarnation of Hoa Vien Brewhouse:



Found a couple of ruby slippers on a yellow brick road:



Good beach, good fish, good beer. The flip flops didn't fit.

On the up

Avid readers will know that our house has four floors.



You can count them. Last night we went to the roof with a bottle of wine and plans for a chilled evening in and found this...





Obviously I waited for daylight to photograph it because flash, chrome and me are an untried combination and the camera was on the ground floor.

It leads to the flat space where the water pump and air conditioner units live. I don't know why it's there, I don't know when it got there and I don't know what's coming next.

I'm off on holiday for a few days and slightly fear returning.

The mother ship has landed

Our quiet neck of the woods has been attracting little businesses for a while now. Corner stores, noodle shops and recently a couple of nice little cafes have arrived but nothing prepared me for the completion of Mori Cafe. It's a neon wonderland complete with DJ and multiple floors dedicating to getting the local populace all sugared up and doing a pretty successful job of it based on my one visit so far.



I stayed on the ground floor watching the football and didn't stray up further but I'll be there soon.

Lotte mart and a big shiny cafe opening in the same week! How much excitement can I take?

Inside Lotte Mart, Saigon

It opened! 33,400 square meters of shopping in District 7 less than ten minutes from where I stay. Of course I had to visit but I couldn't shake off the feeling that it was wrong to be excited, still a little guilt seasons pleasure.

It's a supermarket and shopping complex over three floors with a cinema, bowling and food outlets. It sells just about anything you could want from motorbike tyres to flat screen TVs and I know I've been here for a while now because I got bloody excited about it and had an absolute ball.

Alas the pictures are limited because the staff kept catching me with my camera and telling me "No pictures". They were firm and even a plaintive "But I'm going to blog it" cut no ice.



I'll be back but next time I'll be a little more furtive with my photography.



Also on site is a branch of the Lotte franchised coffee outlet Angel-in-us. True to the company that brought us Lotteria "We Love Hamburger" we get a little splash of bad English with our drinks.

Nothing says Christmas like pumpkins

Dong Khoi is already gearing up for Christmas but initially I was confused.



Pumpkins? What's that all about, leftover Thanksgiving or Halloween decorations?
Still, they were popular with the "pick up the props for a photo opportunity crowd".



A little further along the frontage of this high end outlet and everything became clear.

Cinderella, I should have guessed and yes, the manequins rotate.

There's a pumpkin coach too but I am going to wait to post pictures of that when I have pictures of it at night in all it's twinkling beauty.

Bikes I like

Brand new Attila Elizabeths coloured like cheap sweeties.


Why stick to the one theme when there are so many to choose from?


Purists may scoff but I love these old scooters all faffed up for today's modern motorbike driver.


Here scooters are personal.

Fake Mexicans at the Opera House

Sunday the 9th of November, 8:30 am at the top of Le Loi on the steps of the Opera House I spied (well I could hardly miss them) people dressed in sombreros playing vaguely Latin American music. Who? Why? No idea but it fairly brightened up the morning for me.

Here they are from across the road the better to admire the newly refurbished Opera House.



Closer so you can fully appreciate the sombreros.


For some reason windmill salesmen always get in on the act.



And since it's "nearly" Christmas the Santa baloons have been dusted off for another year.



I was starting to think I was getting a little complacent about Vietnam, how wrong can you get?

Phu Quoc

Phu Quoc. It's a Vietnamese island in the Gulf of Thailand just a few miles off the coast of Cambodia. It has clean beaches, warm waters, lovely scenery and incredible sunsets and you'd beter get yourself there now before the international airport the cruise ship docking facilities and the mega casino do.













A fifty minute flight from HCMC.

Shopping

A trip to Nguyen Trai today and for once I remembered to take my camera. I'm glad I did because I managed to track down the elusive ladybird motorbike helmets. I've seen them being worn but this is first time I've managed to photograph them in captivity.


Also available in blue:


Vietnamese shoes are wonders to behold, check out the ones below. Leopard skin fabric, gold spindly heel, equally golden platform sole, broad ankle strap and bloody huge faux jewel.



I'm prone to the odd fashion crime when it comes to shoes so there are times I'm relieved that my giant Western feet can't be forced into things like this.

While on the subject of shoes, you might think that Converse have a wide enough range of baseball boots and shoes to satisfy everyone. Not at all. They haven't considered the needs of the Glam Rock Seventies Revivalists.



Thanks to the Vietnamese knock off shoe industry their needs are satisfied.