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.

ANZ

ANZ bank have won a 99 year licence to offer full banking services in Vietnam. Full report here.

Good news for me because I use them already for banking and having more services available is always a good option.

Also good news because they have the best promotion and advertising in the form of Mobile Bankers who use liveried Vespas to visit customers at home to set up accounts and promote the bank's services.



My challenge is to get a picture of the live version.

Frog

Nothing more interesting than a picture of a frog but I was particularly pleased to capture it so clearly.

Hello Kitty Motorbike

Personalised motorbikes are big news. This is one of my favourites of recent times.



Hell-o. Note the tiny paw print on the back light.

Phu My Hung

The Vietnamese "city of tomorrow", clean and well designed it doesn't feel like Vietnam at all. Streets are broad and shaded and parks are planted between buildings and between roads.



Roads are smoothly surfaced and often deserted.



Shops and cafe's have sprung up all over the place with new ones opening regularly.





It's a safe and clean environment particularly suited to families. The place would drive me up the wall.

One, two, tree.

Tonight the frogs were lively and I happened to have a camera with me. There have been a lot more tree frogs around recently and I'm getting very fond of them.





I await three in one shot.

Domestic days

We have three floors and a roof terrace but often hauling it all the way to the top floor is too much to expect of a human so we spend a lot of time in our front courtyard.
It's 5m x 2m but packs a lot in.



Because we were heading out almost immediately we left the scooter parked outside the gate. At night it lives on the ground floor next to an armchair.



Our courtyard is home to twenty plants, 17 fish and assorted visitors.



We have tiny chairs that make it look bigger, if you look carefully you can see my first home grown orchid just starting to bloom.



And here it is, My First Little Orchid.




A view from three floors up with one still to go before we reach the roof.



You wouldn't want to forget anything you needed or to have suicidal tendencies. However, the climb to the roof space is worth the risk of being enticed to throw yourself down the stairwell.



As well as the view we have a fridge up here dedicated to beer and wine.

Shoes in the house?

I'm going to take some pictures of the house but haven't got around to it yet, To motivate myself I'm putting up a mini-posting which ought to shame me into being more productive. Time will tell though, I have a high shame threshold.

We are good tenants and don't wear shoes in the house, neither does anyone else so there tends to be a big collection at the front door at times.

On permanent display are the "gate shoes", rubber flip flops for shuffling back and forward the three steps from the front door to the gate when visitors or bill collectors arrive.

Hue Hey

Hue, pronounced something like "whey", was an interesting place for a couple of days stop off. It's got a much slower pace of life than Ho Chi Minh.



And a Citadel to see.



It was the hottest place I've been in Vietnam, some tourists took great pains to protect themselves from the sun.



While others tried hard to blend in:



...and if we go down here I think we can each get an Ao Dai too.


There were some interesting sights and the river was particularly picturesque. The local cuisine was excellent but we had some of the most awful faux-French food and an especially bland curry. I suppose it serves us right for not eating local.