Friday Smirk

J&M pointing out that there's more to life than "feelings".

Communist opulence

Pretty soon it was time to leave Hoi An and we headed up to Da Nang international airport for an internal flight down to Saigon. In around an hour and a half we found ourselves landing, officially it's called "Ho Chi Minh City" these days, at least the airport has this name, but the locals all seem to refer to it still as "Saigon", we went with the latter as it was much less of a mouthful to say!

Saigon is a whole different ball game than the rest of the country, it's a huge city, some 12 million inhabitants and a sprawling footprint that, when viewed from the air, seems to go on forever. In the city itself there are many glorious old French colonial buildings and wide boulevards, it's a strange dichotomy to see such opulent facades with the red communist standard flying above and a statue of Ho Chi Minh in front!

Saigon is also very hot and very humid, it was 38C and 80% humidity when we were there, you can only walk 100yds before sweat starts running down your back, it took a while for us to get used to it and initially it was quite draining until we discovered the places with air-conditioning that we could use to recuperate (pond hopping style) while walking somewhere. The traffic is even more manic than Hanoi however the rules of the road seem to be adhered to a little more seriously here, zebra crossings were a tad more than decoration, as they were up North etc.

The public buildings here are something else, this one (above) is the central post office, it's like something out of a 40s black and white movie, I could imagine Poirot solving a murder case here while sipping cognac and smoking a Gauloises! 

Of course there's more to this place than French colonial va va voom, the Vietnam war had a big impact on the city and it was the scene of many incidents and battles including the final evacuation by rooftop helicopter of the Americans and the storming of the Government palace by Viet Cong tanks, bringing that conflict to an end in 1975; we saw both places! The photo below shows a modern hotel and rooftop bar but back in the sixties this was the headquarters of the CIA, not too shabby a posting!

As we settled into Saigon on that first night we looked forward to the many historical and cultural sights yet to be seen, more to follow!

Siren tap takeover..

The selection of beers from Siren on tap at the Nags Head in Reading tonight, better not plan anything big for tomorrow morning!

Crafty beach

Hoi An is a very vibrant place, brightly dyed lanterns and silk cloth bundles are everywhere and I couldn't wait to resume my exploration of "colourful" Asian Craft Beer with a visit to the Seven Bridges (Da Nang) taproom down by the central market in the town centre. It was a cool spot, both literally and figuratively, a large open space with plenty of fans keeping it cool, here's a picture (below) of the main beer hall, teak supporting columns and suitably brightly painted walls, as is the Hoi An custom..

 

The beer board was also suitably colourful, plenty of choice and we homed in on the Dragon IPA which was brilliant, a fruity, sessionable IPA that really delivered on flavour. It was about £4 for a pint which was very expensive for Vietnam but still pretty good compared to Europe, we managed to find it in several places after this, ideal after a walk in the sweltering heat! 

I took a snap of the beer board inside for posterity, you can get a feel for the range on offer below..

We also found a delightful Parisian café in one of the back alleys that served up wonderful coconut coffee and French toast, it became our breakfast go-to place, in fact the same alley also had a craft beer bar and a brilliant restaurant as well so we didn't need to venture far to become properly fed and watered! 

Below is a picture of their coconut coffee, the coconut flakes are toasted and it's served iced, delicious!

I couldn't leave Hoi An without mentioning the beach. It's a 4km walk from the town but there are plenty of transport options depending on budget, it's a lovely beach by all accounts and many people would easily spend the majority of their time lying on it! With our fair complexions however we didn't , so our travelling companions snapped this picture for us one afternoon, while we perused the shops and cafes in town looking for iced coffees and gifts to take home to our kids.

Noodles of fun

Having arrived in Hoi An we checked into our hotel and went for a walk to blow away the cobwebs of the coach journey. One of the first places we went was a noodle bar where you could (for a small fee) learn how to make noodles and then eat them! It's a simple process, you grind rice into a thick batter-like slurry and then make small pancakes out of it which are then steamed until they are semi-stiff, this is then cut into various sized strips and shapes according to custom or noodle style. 

One of the staple (and famous) dishes in Vietnam is Pho (pronounced "fuh") which is essentially noodles in broth (stock) with vegetables and meat, we had a fair bit of it while in Hoi An and I snapped this picture (below) of Pho with quails eggs and pork, it was scrummy!

Here's another example with a different style of noodle..

Having had some Pho for lunch we retired to the hotel for a swim in the pool and a snooze on the sun loungers. The temperature and humidity was increasing the further South we went and the tiring effect of this on unaccustomed Lilly-white English bodies was noticeable.

When evening descended we headed out into the town. Today Hoi An is the tailoring capital of Vietnam, there's a tailor/clothes shop every 20 yards and you can get a suit made in 24hours for about £100. The trading heritage of the city goes back to the 15th century when you could have found Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese ships moored in the river and plying their trade of silks, precious metals, pearls, spices and foodstuffs with the local merchants. The city became rich, as ports often do, and you can still see the legacy of that in the grand old Chinese and Japanese houses built by wealthy traders on the waterfront. There are also a lot of lanterns in Hoi An, at night the city looks beautiful, every street and building is festooned with colourful lights, the smells of street food and the noise of laughter and chatter fill the warm air giving the place a kind of seaside town vibe.

The picture above is the river at night, an obvious tourist trap but pretty never the less, the bars and restaurants were still excellent value, we got a substantial three course meal on a terrace overlooking the water for £15 a head including drinks!

Sticking it to the man

So, the city of Hue in the middle of the country was where we alighted from our overnight train. Hue, nestled on the banks of the Perfume River, is famous for being the location of the "Imperial City", modelled on the forbidden city in China it's where the imperial family of Vietnam were once based. It's an impressive and infamous place. In the picture above you can see the Meridian Gate, one of the main entrances to the complex that has the Kings' palace at it's centre surrounded by moats, temples and walls, it took a good couple of hours to walk around and see everything, much of which was destroyed in the war and is currently undergoing intensive renovation.

On a more sombre note Hue is the location of one of the most fierce battles of the Vietnam war and American troops set up a command and control centre inside the Imperial City (you can still see US watchtowers on the perimeter walls). On the inside of the gatehouses you can see scratches along the entrance walls where American tanks could only just fit as they rushed in to defend their position from advancing North Vietnamese troops during the infamous Tet Offensive. The battle of Hue is renowned for being particularly bloody, house to house fighting between US Marines and Viet Cong lasted for over a month as the Americans fought to regain control of the city, you can see the scale of the battle in the diagram below.

Fortunately the memory of those dark days is fading as development gathers pace, today Hue is a delightful University city with a relaxed and sophisticated vibe to it and a perfect Mediterranean climate in which to enjoy it's ample river-side parks and cafes. The craft beer scene is pretty good to, we visited a great little brew-pub on the outskirts of one of the residential areas, the quality of their brews was really good and their spicy chicken wings mouth numbingly tasty!

In addition to the Imperial Citadel there were many temples in Hue, we visited one in particular that was the scene of a fierce battle between VC and US marines, you can still see the scars of that battle today, hundreds of bullet holes plaster the walls and I snapped this picture of one of the metal posts that hold up part of the temple gate.

In another area of this complex there was the remains of various smaller temple buildings, clearly burnt out, on one of the brick towers there was a rather intriguing hole about a third of the way up. Apparently on this spot was where some US marines stationed themselves during the battle and their main weapon (the M16) became prone to jamming due to the humidity, having cleaned their rifles this hole is where they checked the efficacy of their labours, yep, it was used for target practice!

We visited one temple where there was a rather quirky reminder that Vietnam has a history of sticking it to "the man". Many people will remember the monk (Thích Quảng Đức) who burned himself to death in protest against the (Catholic) South Vietnamese regime and their anti-Buddhist policies. This act of protest happened at a busy crossroads in the centre of Saigon City, the photo of it won many press awards at the time (1963) and famously adorned the cover of a Rage Against the Machine album (Wake Up!) Anyway the car that drove the monk to that intersection was saved and relocated to a pagoda in Hue (where the monk was based) and is still on display there, I snapped a picture of it below (the blue colour isn't original),

After a couple of days in Hue we headed South again! A four hour coach ride across the mountains and over the Đỉnh đèo Hải Vân pass down into Da Nang and onto the city of Hoi An for three days of R&R by the sea.

Rice Paper Choo Choo

After walking around Hanoi for a couple of hours, we decided to pop into one of the many coffee shops (Vietnam grows and roasts it's own coffee beans which have a distinctive, but not unpleasant taste) and have a relaxing cup of something. At the time we happened to be in one of the more local residential areas and the people in the shop weren't used to foreigners and had no English (most of the people in the city centre shops seemed to have a smattering of our language), the seats outside were suitably tiny! I went for the safe option, the universally well known "cappuccino", but my wife asked for a "fruit tea", I thought this was slightly ambitious, I wasn't wrong (see picture below)

To this day we're not sure what was in that cup, it seemed to be a mix of flowers, seeds and vegetables but, although difficult to drink, it wasn't horrid. For lunch we opted for a local staple, rice paper rolls, filled with a variety of things the concept is a little like Chinese spring rolls except that you assemble them yourself with edible rice paper rather than little pancakes. They're very moreish, we managed to polish off several plates of them (Chicken, Pork, Beef etc.) along with various dipping sauces (see picture below, nice!) the whole meal for four people came to the grand total of £8

All good things must come to an end and as the evening drew in we headed over to the railway station to pick up a night train to our next destination, although clearly not without dropping into the Pasteur Street Brewery tap room on the way for some (cold) cans of their excellent "Jasmine IPA" for the journey!

The train itself was functional but pretty basic and although we were in first class the accommodation was simple (a couchette with two bunk beds, sleeping four people) thankfully clean and cool, although after an hour or so the toilet in our car became predictably blocked and stinky! Anyway, we passed a few hours drinking beers, having a laugh and playing cards and the girls worked their way through a bottle of wine and a couple of tubes of chilli flavoured Pringles! Eventually we turned in at around midnight, and TBH, slept pretty well considering a number of noisy stops and various violent shunting episodes along the way. We arrived at our destination around 7am as the Sun was shining brightly through a crack in the nylon cabin curtains, we packed up our things and headed out into the light, an air-conditioned mini-bus and the city of Hue were waiting for us!

Apocalypse Puppets

After the trip to Ha Long bay we returned to Hanoi and had a day to wander around before catching an overnight train South. In the centre of the city is a large lake and in the middle of the lake is a small temple called the "Turtle Tower" (apparently because it looks a bit like a turtle?) anyway, as you can see clearly in the picture there's a distinct "haze" about the place, this isn't mist or low cloud, it's pollution! With such a large population and not too many controls on vehicles the air pollution is quite noticeable and when you walk any distance (as we did!) it does take some getting used to!

Also, while in the city centre, we attended a "water puppet" show, I'd never heard of this before but it's a local speciality. Essentially there's a large tank of water in a theatre and puppeteers control puppets from behind a curtain using long bamboo poles submerged below the water (they are actually standing waist deep in the water). The show is accompanied by traditional music and singing and tells some story of unrequited love etc. The overall effect is pretty good, I snapped a brief video to show the kind of thing going on..

Before leaving Hanoi we visited another craft beer bar called "The Standing Bar", mainly because it's so small you usually have to stand! The beers on offer were from around the country, some from Pasteur Street Brewery (a couple of which I already sampled) and others from other independent firms. I noticed that one brewery (Heart of Darkness, based in Da Nang) had a little Apocalypse Now theme going on, I guess the film has an obvious connection with the country but it's nice that people have gotten over the war sufficiently to have a laugh about it! Beer culture is big in Vietnam, there are many local brews and people seem to enjoy chatting and playing various games (i.e. Mahjong, Chess, Cards etc.) over a few pints, beer is incredibly cheap compared to the UK and although refrigeration outside the major towns and cities is pretty scarce at least the beer is safer to drink than other alternatives.

See if you can get the connection below..

We learned later that "Heart of Darkness" is a book by Joseph Conrad (1899) set in Africa, upon which the famous Francis Ford Coppola film about the Vietnam war is based, things were staring to make more sense.

Sea Legs

During our stay in Hanoi we spent a day and a night cruising around a place called Ha Long bay. It's a popular tourist thing to do and not too far from the city, it's essentially a night aboard a boat in a UNESCO world heritage site surrounded by thousands of limestone karsts. Many boats (of different levels of luxury) depart Ha Long harbour every day and spend the night anchored among the rocks (see picture above), at night there's a distinct party vibe and many of the boats have deck disco's, younger people boogying late into the night etc. 

The cabins on our particular boat were basic but amply good enough, air conditioning, en-suite shower and toilet and double beds. Some of the other boats looked very plush, some even superyacht looking. The food aboard was great and all prepared fresh by the crew, kind of Asian tapas with lots of fish and crustaceans of various kinds including delicious oysters from the bay (it's famous for pearls and oyster farming). My only negative about the trip was the shear amount of pollution in the water, rubbish from the many tourist boats and local fishermen accumulates in the shallow inlets and bays, I guess environmental protection doesn't trump tourist dollars and I worry that pretty soon the natural beauty of the place will be spoiled.

Of course with such a constant influx of foreigners there are whole industries set up to exploit them, we stopped at a couple of places on route to the bay where we could stretch our legs, pick up an ice cream and become captive consumers for 30 minutes or so. Pearls were a big thing there and pretty cheap, both natural and farmed versions were available an a decent pair of earrings came in at around £100, of course some were a lot more, depending on quality and size etc. There was and interesting talk and demonstration about how the pearls are seeded into the oysters and removed once fully grown (see below)

Along with the pearl stop we also called in to an institution that cares for people with disabilities, many of whom have missing or deformed limbs due to the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam war. Even today this vile chemical, used to defoliate the jungle by the Americans, is causing problems for people in regions where it was heavily sprayed. To earn a living the residents of the centre we visited make pictures using silk thread of different colours (see photo of orange fruit carrier above) The detail on these was amazing and the range of subjects impressive. Some take many weeks to complete and weren't too expensive, we picked up a small one for around £50, hopefully it'll look nice in a frame and remind us of the trip.

While in Ha Long bay we visited one of the many cave systems there, the cave we walked through was massive, a very impressive set of limestone caverns with many large stalactites and interesting rock formations, the climbing up and down was reasonably tough and although it wasn't massively warm, we did work up a decent sweat. One of the caves is pictured below..

Asian Craft

In Hanoi there are many relics of the French occupation of Vietnam (called "Indochina" at the time), the French colonised this region (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) on and off from 1862 to 1954 and made the city it's capital. In the picture above you can see St. Joseph Cathedral in the city centre, it's got a rather unusual render which makes it look like mouldy concrete (or maybe it is mouldy?) anyway, Catholic proselytising was rife in the region during this period, and even though atheism and ancestor worship are the main belief systems of the country (82%), around 8% of the population remain Christian. The French influence is not only visible in the Churches and the colonial architecture some of the street names bear the hallmark of Gallic empiric ambitions, on Pasteur Street there's even a craft beer brewery, it's just behind the Cathedral and clearly I was keen to sample Asian craft!

I wasn't expecting too much from the local brews but boy, was I pleasantly surprised! In the Pasteur Street taproom I sampled a couple of beers, the Pasteur Street Pale Ale and the Jasmine IPA, both were excellent, tasty examples of modern brewing with American hops as good as any you'd find in most places in the UK. The craft beer was expensive in comparison to the local mass-produced lager which was around £1 a pint, but the quality so much better and still excellent value (£2-3) compared to prices in the UK (£6-7). This particular brewery has a large footprint in Vietnam, having 10 taprooms in Saigon and Hanoi, I made a mental note to look out for them on my travels.

Even the local wine had a French vibe to it, we ventured to try a bottle of Cabernet (Chateau Dalat) at one of the many rooftop bars and, again, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and value, perfectly decent red (perhaps a little thin) but at £7 a bottle (in a restaurant) you couldn't really argue. Most meals in good quality restaurants came out at around £10 per person or less, street food was ridiculously cheap and a big bowl of meat, sauce and noodles in a neighbourhood café was usually less than a fiver!

Of course Buddhism is big in the country and there are many temples dotted around, it's a little disconcerting though as one of the main Buddhist symbols is a rotated swastika, below is a picture of an example of this from a temple on an island in a city lake (note the symbol on the chest of this statue)

Lakes and waterways are a large feature of the city, in the rainy season they get a ton of rain (clue's in the name!) and although it was dry the whole time we were there, reminders of the tropical climate are everywhere! Below is a typical waterside vista..

The other main architectural style for larger Government buildings is quite "soviet" in character, unsurprising really as Russia was a big backer of Ho Chi Minh during the American war, he's a demi-god here and his image is everywhere, on the money, on buildings and in shops, I snapped the frontage of an anonymous government building in the picture below..

Lilliput street food

Been on holiday for the last few weeks, touring in Vietnam and Cambodia. It was a thoroughly fascinating experience, two countries I'd never visited before and two countries that are going through the most arduous of recoveries from brutal 20th century dictators and civil war. There are still lot's of social and political issues in both places but I found the people there utterly remarkable, and unreasonably friendly towards tourists and Westerners in general.

First stop was Hanoi, in the North of Vietnam. The original capital of the communist regime lead by the indefatigable Ho Chi Minh (who washed dishes in a hotel in West Ealing during the 1910's) and the centre of resistance (backed by the Russians) to the influence of the capitalist regime in the South backed by the USA, the classic "proxy war". Eventually civil war broke out between the North and the South and the Americans sent troops and munitions to help the South leading to the Vietnam war in the late 1960's until 1975 when the South Vietnamese and their American allies were defeated. Hanoi was bombed heavily by the Americans during the war and there are many old scars left of this time, there's even the visible corpse of a B52 bomber laying in a lake in the middle of the city, a surreal sight retained for posterity (see picture below).

Modern Hanoi is an assault on the senses, smells, noise, hustle, bustle and a population similar to that of London at around 8 million. It's a big place and crazy busy in the narrow streets between old French colonial government buildings, densely populated dwellings and shops and shiny new glass and steel offices. Most people get around on mopeds and it takes a while to get used to the "flow", initially streets seem impossible to traverse due to the sheer weight of traffic but eventually you realise that the trick is  to simply walk out and "weave" in between the passing bikes whose riders are highly skilled at avoiding pedestrians! The worst thing you can do is hesitate or stop mid-flow, it confuses the hell out of the natives and invites their wrath, there's a zen like pleasure to be had from crossing a busy intersection here, I was reminded of Neo avoiding bullets in the film "The Matrix".

Most activity in Hanoi seems to happen out on the street, eating, drinking, trading and general "living" is done there, most of the pavements are completely occupied by parked scooters and impromptu barbers, bakers, butchers and vendors of knock-off branded tee shirts, luggage, clothing and trainers. A perfect copy of a "North Face" tee shirt (even with correctly branded internal labels) will set you back £3 or £2.50 with a bit of haggling. I snapped the picture below of a street food vendor selling BBQ octopus legs, various amphibians and a variety of other things that I didn't even recognise! As you can see everyone is wearing coats, the weather in Hanoi isn't too hot at this time of year, around 16-18C we felt quite at home, a feeling that was to change as we headed further South.

Because of the limited space (and the rather small average stature of the people) street restaurants and bars typically have tiny little plastic chairs to sit on. This is strange at first, a bit like parents open evening at the infants school, but you get used to it. I snapped the picture at the top of the page at one of the major intersections in the middle of the city, it's a plastic chair vendor selling his wares, I'm not that tall (just over 6 feet) but I must admit I felt like that bloke in Lilliput sometimes (note, pedestrians are forced to walk in the road!)..

Monday Mirth

Jesus and Mo hating on us Atheists, ah well, I'm not keen on some Atheists either!

Top Choices

I Love Ridge wines and there's nothing like a horizontal tasting, delicious, top choices.

Reasonable efficiency..

Apparently "fibre" cable company operatives spend most of their working day standing around looking at their mobile phones. I wonder what ever happened to the O&M department in these large companies, i.e. those people that were focused on making sure that employees actually did what they were paid to do, with reasonable efficiency?

Freeze?

So, don't know if the Tories realise this but pubs, restaurants, bars and clubs don't actually pay alcohol duty..

New?

Ok help out an old curmudgeon here, please define "new" (I think I already own all these albums!)..

Fossilised Foliage

Fascinating story in the scientific press recently about a fossil forest found etched into an ancient cliff face in Somerset (Minehead) The fossil trees are thought to be around 400+ million years old (the Devonian period) and resemble palm trees. This makes sense as the UK (or at least some of it) at that point was positioned somewhere near the equator and basking in sub-tropical temperatures (oh we wish). It's amazing to ponder what journey our little island has been on, on a Human timescale it seems so solid and permanent, not so, it's wandered all over the planet in geological time.

Välkommen Sweden

Pleased to see that Sweden is now a paid up member of NATO, one more thorn in the side of Putin, with Finland also joining in April last year that enables everyone in the West sleep a little bit easier.

Friday Smirk

Haha, Jesus and Mo pointing out how "fragile and precious" some of our religious brothers and sisters can be sometimes, particularly the more zealous ones.

London Stories

Ah those Romans would be so proud with what we've done with the place..

HBDG

Happy birthday David Gilmour!

5 Years

Its the five year anniversary of my Dad's death today, miss you pops, where has that time gone?

London Stories

If you walk from St. Catherine's Dock Eastwards along the Thames towards Wapping you come across a some steps with a jetty at the base that leads down to the river, they're called "The Alderman Stairs" and have been there giving access to the water since at least the 1680's. Back in the day these steps would be buzzing with watermen ferrying people across the river and cargo brigs loading and unloading all kinds of goods for the metropolitan markets.

On first inspection they don't seem much but the history here is seeping from every stone block. On the 7th June 1851 a report was published in the Illustrated London News of several accidents on these very steps. Captain Artus of the Brig Melbourne, in attempting to ascend the steps missed his footing and fell into the river, he drowned. Around an hour later Captain Downie of the ship Mentor moored just off the base of the stairway fell overboard and perished. Then at 3pm that same day a boat containing two men and a woman was swamped and the female, Mrs Coghlan, was drowned. Three deaths on the same day, and many more reports of similar incidents over many decades, riverside life must have been hazardous in times gone by.

When we smell it..

Well done France, who yesterday enshrined the right of Women to have an abortion into their constitution which has become the 25th amendment to France's founding document (last one was in 2008). The usual suspects are objecting to this move, but, these days we all know hypocrisy when we smell it.