Waiting for the Saigon rains

It's hot, sticky, sweaty, tiring hot. The rains haven't come yet but they're on their way and meanwhile I'm prone to the odd, very ladylike, trickle of perspiration. Sitting is hotter than moving when the air is so still but if the breezes start in the evening it's pure joy to be up on the roof with a cool glass of wine. The plants are dusty and even the tree frogs are feeling the heat.

Of course, once the rains start I'll be back to moaning about how little I suit a rain poncho.

Shocking

The Ho Chi Minh City Power Company has sealed off and cut off power supply to 61 ATMs after a 10 year old girl was electrocuted by one in District 1 on Mac Thi Buoi street.

Investigations by police in District 1 found an electric wire running across a set of stairs leading to the ATM. The wire, which was set up by Agribank to provide power and light, had many open joints and was leaking electricity.

A total of 61 ATMs were found with electrical problems as of Sunday afternoon. Tran Dung, manager of technical and labor safety at the company, said the ATMs had been isolated and their power cut. Most of the ATMs were set up by the banks themselves, they've been have been asked to fix their machines.

Many ATM customers of Vietcombank have reported experiencing slight electric shocks at the machine on Cao Thang Street, some when leaning on the iron door, some when typing the numbers in, VOVNews reported Sunday.

Full story

Personally, I've had no shocks from ATMs except for the shocking bank rates compared to what's available at gold shops and money changers.

Annual trip to Nha Trang

It's that time of year when I haul 40 odd assorted kids to Nha Trang for a week. Mostly beach games, swimming and Vinpearl amusements. There's very little time to take the kind of pictures I like best but here's a selection of snaps from the seaside.

I was knackered after the week and it's taken another week to get these uploaded, I now understand why parents like amusement parks and all inclusive resorts.

Altar Images

On Calmette, in District 1, is one of many Shrine Shops where you can buy house altars, statues, lights and everything else you could possibly need for your at home devotions.

I'm tempted but bright shiny things do that to me.

Vietnam, Hair Today

The man who held the record for Vietnam's longest hair, and possibly the longest hair in the world, died of natural causes in the Mekong Delta earlier this week. He was 79.

Tran Van Hay stopped cutting his hair after several post barber incidents when haircuts were followed by bouts of illness.

Full story here but also widely reported in the world's press.

It got me wondering what other stories made the international press in the same day, not much really:

Vietnam's first death from avian flu this year New Straits Times

An article on the proposed increase in Vietnamese steel prices
in Commodity Online News and a report on Jetstar in Vietnam in the Sidney Morning Herald

The last story to get wide reporting was The Man Who Sleeps With His Wife's Corpse

One Big News story, widely reported and commented on, was the Facebook Troubles, we've still got the troubles but the coverage has gone. Clearly Vietnam is still firmly in the odd and quirky category of international news, either that, or very little ever happens.

Saigon Spawning Season

Back in August I posted a picture of a strange roof creature. A fish shaped air ventilator.

And this week I took a picture of the same roofscape, they're multiplying.

I'd quite like a shoal of fish on my roof too but our landlord hasn't suggested one yet.

Dancing dragons in the suburbs

As I've mentioned before we live in a pretty quiet part of town, our area is "up and coming" which mostly means there's a lot of building going on but on the 15th of February we had a bit of excitement. The dragons and lions arrived to bring luck to a new house.

Here's my first glimpse of them:

As for the rest of the pictures I'll let them speak for themselves, I'm not informed enough to explain exacly what was going on, suffice to say it was like a mixture of the circus and a dance troupe had landed in our otherwise quiet part of the world.

It took about an hour and a half to complete all the activities then they jumped onto their bus, truck and bikes and headed off leaving the street quiet and deserted again. Until the Karaoke started.

Tet Celebrations, Saigon's Year of the Tiger

When I'm in Ho Chi Minh City during Tet I always make a point of going up to Nguyen Hue to take pictures on the first day of Lunar New Year. This year was the busiest yet as the traffic bears testament to.

The rest of town was incredibly quiet. Here are some pictures of what everyone wanted to take pictures of:

Tigers of course.

Large and impressive tigers at the entrance to the floral display.

Well hell-lo! A debonair tiger with a touch of the Lesley Phillips about it.

A more traditional Vietnamese tiger.

And a Disneyesque tiger to complete the set.

At Tet everyone's a photographer.

There are flowers, tigers of course, calligraphers and family members to be captured.

And when all that pales there's always practicing walking in your new shoes.

Or talking your tiger for a walk through the streets of Saigon.

Chúc mừng năm mới.

Hello Tuk Tuks

Since Tuk Tuks, rather than taxis, are the main form of privately operated public transport in Siem Reap it makes sense to differentiate your vehicle. That way you're memorable, eye catching and easily spotted. One or two differentiated themselves so well I felt the need to share.

First the Red Bull Tuk Tuk or Bad Bull to further distinguish it. It's also advertised as a Luxury Vehicle, which indeed it is, it has a cooler on the back full of what? Red Bull for the hangover or Beer to create it maybe. Either way I suspect the market segment for this one is most likely to be Brit Boys Abroad.

Here's a closer look at how "bad" this bull is complete with a warning not to "do it two time a day"

It could be two bulls "doing it" or one and a very muscular cow.

For the movie going public and families with small bored children there's the Batman Tuk Tuk

I like the attention to detail on the Batmobile, even the helmet and motorbike are branded.

Finally, for the Korean and Japanese tourist girls what could be more perfect than this?

For the Hell0 Kitty obsessives out there, and I know you come here regularly looking at other Helly Kitty S#!% I've found and posted, here's another picture with more pink details.

Siem Reap, 2010

I'm just back from a visit to the Temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I'm officially all templed out. We took Tuk Tuks for bum numbing periods and saw sunsets and sunrises and all the hours in between, did the Small Tour, the Grand Tour and the Back-of-bloody-beyond tour. Climbed over, under and through things and got sore knees from that and sore shoulders and necks from the cameras and other "necessities" we carried with us.

It's going to be quite a job to pick through the hundreds of pictures taken, there're bound to be a few decent ones between them, but in the meantime, here's a few:

One of the large stone elephants at Mebon



Also at Mebon, stone balancing seems to be all the rage.



Intricate carving seen at a temple the name of which temporarily slips my mind - I'll need to look it up



The south entrance to Bayon at sunrise



The same entrance with local brushmakers heading out to work



A yellow flower in honour of Tet, I'll be out taking pictures of the Tet floral displays tomorrow so expect lots more yellow.

The man took pictures this time too, apparently it's marginally less boring than just waiting for me to take them, and so his first real contribution to this blog might appear very soon.