The traffic dance

As ever traffic here continues to fascinate me. This video is from my July trip with my two youngest boys. If you're feeling mellow and want to vege out for less then a minute now's the time to sit back, relax and enjoy the dance.

No stoplights. Motorbikes, cars, trucks, buses and pedestrians just merging with one another at a traffic circle in a continuous ballet. Almost no one comes to a full stop.

It's wet, live with it...

I got caught out in the rain with my wife yesterday while shopping for a laser printer. Or rather I should say it rained while we were out, since it is the end of the rainy season and there's not really much question whether you'll be out in the rain at some point!

People here don't seem to react much to it. If someone doesn't have a poncho or some other covering they simply continue about what they're doing much as if it wasn't raining. They might hunch their shoulders a little but, unlike general reaction in the US, they don't hold things above their heads, sprint for the nearest doorway or in other ways display an aversion to being wet as would happen at home.

And while we were in the store shopping I saw some people come in pretty drenched. Not one went through the shaking/shuddering routine to get the water off. They just walked into the store and began shopping, trailing little puddles in each step behind them.

I guess it's one of the adaptations to living here. You're going to get wet, so just carry on.

Traveling with two boys...

My two youngest boys were in Vietnam with me a few months ago during summer break.

We came here for my marriage party and so the boys could get a glimpse of the land their mom was born and grew up in. They said they enjoyed the trip.

My plan was to spend time in Ho Chi Minh City, Vinpearl Island, Ha Long Bay, Ha Noi, Dong Hoi and back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Dong Hoi would give us a base to visit Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park and see the caves there. We went to Carlsbad last year and really enjoyed it. The Phong Nha caves are even bigger and are seen by boat. The caves were carved through mountains by a large river.

By the time we reached Dong Hoi the boys, who really suffered a lot from jet lag, decided they "have seen enough caves" so plans changed. We just enjoyed the beach resort hotel in Dong Hoi and took a respite from traveling around Vietnam.

After Dong Hoi we went back to HCM, a day trip to Cu Chi Tunnels and Cao Dai Temple, a free day in HCM and then back to the USA.

Vietnam home life

I'm back in Vietnam again. This time I'm staying with my wife in her home. It's our first opportunity to spend some serious time together. And my first opportunity to gain direct experience with day-to-day differences between living in the US and in Vietnam.

One thing that we've done is stop to see the local police. We needed to register the fact that I'm staying in her home. There's something called a "resident book" and it needs to be updated with who's living in the home.

Of course it seems unusual to me that one needs to register with the police where they are living. In some ways it seems a bit threatening to have to inform the local police force where you are. On the other hand, in the US, the police could certainly find my home address if they felt the need.

This feels very different. And I certainly feel "reporting to the police" chafes at me.

Water puppets!

I've seen performances with finger puppets, sock puppets, marionettes and other sorts of puppets. Until I knew some Vietnamese people I'd never heard of water puppets and I really had no idea what they are. I imagined they would be something similar to the already named varieties dangling over a water stage or with a water stage in the foreground.

When there was an opportunity to go see a water puppet performance I was very excited to go. I expected to be bored, eh just another puppet show, and was very glad to find I enjoyed the whole performance.

There were four short stories played out with different sets of puppets. Each performance lasting 5 to 8 minutes. As you can see in the story posted here it is quite dynamic with a lot of splashing about, hiding and reappearing of puppets and puppets crossing the stage from one side to the other.

I enjoyed the performance quite a lot and being a very concrete thinker also left wondering how the puppets are controlled. They cross from one side of the stage to the other both in front of and behind the other puppets. How's that happen without controls getting crossed? They move long distances side to side pretty rapidly. Water's a high resistance medium. It seems to me it should be very hard to swing a several foot long stick underwater that rapidly. Plus just swinging a stick would mean the end, the puppet, moves in an arc. You'll see the puppets can move in a straight line parallel to the stage front. So in addition to enjoying the performances I also left wondering how exactly the puppets are controlled.

I hope you enjoy the performance I've posted here.

A standard building - narrow and deep

This picture on the right shows clearly the "standard building" form. A standard building is about 5 meters wide at the front. It may be any depth and have any number of floors. The front though is 5 meters. This form is applied everywhere. Even a building on a clear lot or out on a country road will be a long rectangle 5m wide at the front.

I'm told this relates to two things, street addressing and taxes. Wider than 5 meters means the building has more than one address and more than one address means more taxes.

There's probably other reasons as well or maybe entirely different reasons. When I mentioned the taxes reason, given by one of my tour guides, to my finance she disputed it. She didn't have another explanation but didn't believe taxes are a cause for this design.

The drinks, so many to try

One of the enjoyable things being in Vietnam is the very tasty variety of drink options available. There just doesn't seem to be such a variety of choice in the USA. If there this variety it isn't in my area.

You'll see about a month's worth of samples in this collage. If I looked harder I could probably find additional options but they would be things that aren't commonly found in Ho Chi Minh City. I'm going north to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay this week and maybe I'll find some new items there. If I do I'll post an update.

Quite a few of the drinks, like the Aloe and the Bird's Nest, are viscous. And viscous or not many have little gelatin like bits suspended in them. That's an unusual drinking sensation compared to America. There viscous drinks are mostly limited to milk shakes, frappes and smoothies. Drinks with chunks, especially suspended chunks, are not to be found. The closest I can think of is bubble tea with the tapioca balls at the bottom of the glass.

With all the varieties I've tasted so far I can honestly say the only thing I wouldn't, haven't, gone back for more of is the Ginseng drink. Everything else I enjoyed a little or a lot. The Ginseng I didn't like a bit. Not gag me bad but definitely not choosing to drink any more.

...and an update. Nearly forgot these drink tablets! Artichoke flavored effervescent tablets. Drop them in cold water and enjoy your artichoke flavored drink in a few minutes. They appear to be made in Germany, either Munster or Frankfort. Can't read either language on the label, Vietnamese and German, well enough to say for sure. The store package is two tubes of tablets with 20 tablets per tube. I think I've had about 5 tablets so far. I like the taste so I'm sure I'll use all the tablets. Who'd a thought artichoke would be a good drink? Another thing from Vietnam that I'll miss.