The end of Tet 2014 Flower Market at 23- 9 park

                                                             

This afternoon I was over at 23-9 park and witnessed the end of the flower market.  Last day, so last minute bargain shoppers abounded and it was a beehive of activity..  Twice I just about sucombed to wily cumquat salesman offering me deep discounts on remaining stock.

Cumquats are a traditional Tet fruit tree and look very impressive as this time of year their branches are heavily loaded with fruit.  Don't know about eating them, really all I know, think came from an old movie line by W C Fields  and  it went something like this - "my little kumquat". you had to be their.  

The really cool stuff are the bonsai plants and inexpensive too and one group of the plants where smaller ones were available but not sure how to get one through customs in California. 

Okay now for the photos -

shoppers and wanta be your delivery guys 

finished

2014 Tet, the flower street (Nguyen Hue Street) Sai Gon

this can tire a kid out

remembering above, along with all the landscaping is man made, just for this event 

                 

Le Loi Street on my way back tonight (30/1)

Le Loi Street on my way back tonight (30/1)

                             
Today is the eve of Tet or the start of the lunar New Year celebration, the year of the horse.   Okay, now it is starting to quiet down in Sai Gon except for the area around Le Loi and Nguyen Hue street.

Le Loi is the main drag in the center of the city and Nguyen Hue is a wide blvd off of leading off of it. Le Loi is capped off with lite decorations forming a canopy of lights and colored Tet decorations leading up to Nguyen Hue.  Nguyen Hue has been blocked off to all except foot traffic and transformed into this fantastic display of flowers, trees, art and sculptures to commemorate the holiday.

I'm not an easy guy to impress and this years Tet presentation blew my socks off.  As you look through the photos I took this afternoon, keep in mind this is a blvd with 3 lanes on each side of a grassy divider that stretches a half mile or so.  Everything you see was brought in and fabricated just for this event and shortly after the Tet holiday it will be pulled down and hauled away and the street will look like it never happened.

Speaking of pulling things down so it looks like it never happened, on my way back to my room I walked by the park and all the flowering trees, plants and the people are gone. acres and acres of park land has been put back to its original use with out a sign of what went on.

On a personal note three of my favorite restaurants and three of my favorite bars, plus the place where I take my laundry are closed for the holiday and will reopen next week sometime.

Not having very good luck with adding photos into my copy, so the photos are following - everywhere, sorry.

entrance to Nguyen Hue off of Le Loi 

                                                             

what's a celebration without the balloon guys

Sai Gon gives a new meaning to crowds

              

all this is man made and will be removed in a few days

enterprising beverage sales lady

Once again, I want to thank you for coming along -  Doug

    

tet ramp up 2014, 23-9 park The Year Of The Horse

                                          

women in tradition Vietnamese silk ao dai's

The ramp up to Tet has begun, stores are crowded with shoppers buying that last special thing that will make their Tet perfect. Streets which are normally overflowing with motorbike, bicycles, buses, taxis when the unthinkable happens, ka-wam, the frenzy of Tet hits. So now you have the normal crush of daily traffic plus

Chinese built motorcycle trucks

people out and about getting ready for the holiday.  Then, mix in a few of those little Chinese manufactured motorcycle trucks and a sprinkle of jumbo transports hauling the traditional plants,

motorbike with plant hauler

flowering shrubs and trees from the countryside to places like 23-9 park in

HCMC where they will be sold.

Whoops, so as I storm on about Tet and you my reader are wondering and so what is it.  Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is called Tet in Vietnam.   So not to be redundant and because I'm lazy and don't want to redo my old post, I'll toss in a link to what I wrote last year  commemorating 2013 the year of the snake, this year, 2014 it's the horse. I'll have new photos of this years decorations on Nguyen Hue street in a few days.

Meanwhile the temporary markets with all this beautiful plants are like a remake of the countryside in the middle of the city while

waiting for buyers to haul these beauties home for Tet decorations and as gifts for friends and family. Some of the newly purchased plants can be carried on the family motorbike while larger ones need to draw from a bevy of  motorbike transporters with converted seats to a haul the plants behind the driver, then always, if there is a buck to be made, you have the enterprising cyclo drivers and then for the really large trees and shrubs commercials delivery trucks.  Interesting, though today I was over there and didn't see hide nor hair of any cyclo drivers.  Maybe the $12.00 government Tet bonus sent them all into retirement.

This is a bit strange for me as in the past the Tet period in Sai Gon has always

it must be Tet, sausages anyone  

been really kicked back as many business close and many folks leave the city to travel, either back to their homes or take a trip somewhere.  You see other than the Tet period most Vietnamese work 6 days a week, with a few government holidays  but no vacation time until Tet.  However, so far this Tet has been crazy and the crowds on the street and in the parks are gigantic. 

  

no forklifts - all loaded and moved by hand 

                                                Thanks for coming along -  Doug 

when news is news or is it

News from newspapers is 

in short supply here in Vietnam, anyway in English, can't read Vietnamese so don't know about that.  The one English newspaper, aptly named Vietnam News, originates from Ha Noi and is published by the Vietnam News Agency.  
However, it does contain interesting copy. 

Not too long ago when John Kerry, made a state visit to Ha Noi. An article regarding the discussion he and Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trang - amounted to pressing Kerry in obtaining "multiple faceted cooperation with Vietnam including search for missing Vietnamese soldiers and strengthening ties with trade and investments, science, health and climate change." 

Gave some highway statics on the road outside of Quan Nai 80 % of the accidents involved minibuses.  For the first 6 months of this year - 75 accidents, 77 dead and 42 injured.  My thinking is I'm staying away from minibuses, no only in Quan Nai but everywhere. Oh ya, a minibus is a small van with multiple seating, referred to in the USA as a soccer mom's vehicle. 

       
 Another article titled "Poor Workers can go home for Tet".  

Tet (Lunar New Year) is the biggest of biggie's here, a holiday of gigantic proportions.  A big part of it is vacation time, no vacation time in Vietnam only break is at Tet where the whole country pretty much shuts down for a week or so.  The other part of Tet is that it needs to be celebrated with family and for many family is in the countryside somewhere and it takes money to get there.

So this article is about how the state is compassionately addressing the plight of the workers.  A national fund has been established of

US$ 33,300.00 for bus tickets and gifts "for migrant workers to return home for the Tet holiday".  Just for reference there are somewhere between 24 - 48 million unskilled workers in the country which I would consider poor because of earnings between US$ 160 and 190.00 a month.  With all that in mind cyclo drivers are getting US$ 12.00, which isn't bad.

So busy here, everyone racing around getting ready for Tet.  Not me I'm recovering from some sort of crude thing, cough, stuffed up head and just so tired.  Though all is good, Thailand around the middle of next month and back to the states towards the end of February.. Tomorrow more on me, where I'm staying and all that.

about retiring in Vietnam

               Thoughts on Vietnam as a retirement destination                             

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

 just thinking....

I've lived part time, 3-5 month periods, in Vietnam and Thailand for the past 15 years.  Most of these periods had me living in Saigon’s district 1, Ben Thanh Ward.  Spending enough time here that I often refer to it as my second home but I’m unable to stay full time. It just seems too complicated and stressful, mostly caused by the unavailability of a long term retirement visa. With the present visa offering you’re required to put everything on hold periodically, hop a bus to Cambodia or some other country and reapply for a new visa and start all over again.

Also, the ongoing problem of locating good quality long term accommodations at a reasonable price is challenging, there are a great many offerings of luxury digs but if you're like me and don't have a Fortune 500 Company bank rolling you, a guy can hardly afford to look at the photos let alone rent one of these. Then what you have left are mostly low quality room for rent deals, so how do you find something in between, as what I like to call a “cheap but good” offering?

Navigating the government system to obtain things you need can be daunting, for example I want to drive a motor bike, by law am I allowed to and then where do I get a license or insurance that will cover me when I get my license and run into the side of that bus.  Which brings me to medical care, I see a lot of clinics around but how do go about finding something to fit my needs and all older people even if they don’t drive a motor bike have medical issues or will have them. Part of the coolness of staying here is figuring those things out but it can wear a guy down.  That is when he starts thinking of the Philippines and Malaysia and their formal foreigner retirement offerings, Thailand with its welcoming attitude and simple to obtain and use long term retirement visa, or Panama’s Pension-ado program with approved government certified discounted services.

If Vietnam ever gets really interested in attracting retires a good place to start would be with an offering of a retirement visa of some sort allowing the foreigner to feel secure and that he is part of this wonderful country.

   

On the road to Cambodia part two - Phnom Penh

After a hard negotiations over the cost to get me from Ibis to my hotel I talked a Tuk-tuk driver down from $3.00 to $2.50..  I always tell people you have to keep prices in context and $50 cents shouldn't be a big deal

Tuk-tuk's and drivers

but to a person earning a couple dollars a day it is. So keep the expected bargaining light and friendly, treat it as a game and with that in mind  when he got me to the hotel I paid his original asking price of $3.00.

My hotel is the Blue tongue, you know the hotel behind the Walkabout Bar.  A bit about the Walkabout soon but first I'm going to talk about the Blue Tongue.  I've stayed there numerous times over the past few years, Filipino managed and a wonderful room with a balcony for $35.00.  Still Filipino managed but they got rid of the nice Filipino's  and kept the mean ones, raised the price of the room, dropped the free breakfast and won't allow any visitors in your room.  Ka damn, just like the last time I went to mom's.

Anyway, I was there and it's in a good location on a street with a lot of nightlife or day life if you're inclined and decided to stay for a day or two. As I mentioned its behind the Walkabout Bar, a Phnom Penh stable for years, booze, babes and recorded rock playing 24/7.  Beer prices are reasonable as is the price of food and for such a raggedy looking place the food is pretty darn good.   Remembering this is an old school place, open air, pool tables, darts and ladies trying to earn a living and guys trying to help them. Across the street from it is a German biker bar named The Lone Brothers Bar, that I've written about before. The hard rock music blaring but was a little disappointed as there was no friendly female wait staff to play with, just a couple big German guys dressed in leathers with their large bikes parked in the front yard of the bar.

On a previous post http://dougsasia.blogspot.com/2012/05/saigon-thaos-to-german-biker-bar-in.html  if you scroll down about to the middle of it - my writing and photos on The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng Museum documenting the evil of Pol Pot's regime.

The next afternoon walked over to the riverfront area, the city has done a nice job of redoing the walk way along the river into a park with Sisowath Quay on the other side. Sisowath Quay is lined with restaurants, guest houses and shops of all kinds.One of the restaurants I enjoy is the Riverside Bistro on the Quay and street 146 offering western and Cambodian food and Angkor beer.

So now you have had your exercise and you have a full tummy you can visit the Night Market further up the

night market dinning

Quay at about street 108. However, on your way up or back take a walk down the bar street, 136 or any other streets in that area to take a peak the bar culture of the area.  A good one is Sharky Bar, live music on some nights, good food, try an English meat pie, reasonably priced drinks and a few wondering women seeking their next income stream.  In the area you'll see bar's with names like Candy Bar, Mr. Butterfly, Red Bar and too many others to mention and with each the main attraction is booze and women.

My repaired leg was giving me problems and decided to scratch the trip to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat but still had a few days.  Tried to extend my stay at the Tongue but they turned me away so I went shopping for a nice place to hide out in for a couple days and found it, The Splash Inn. Small classy place in a walled compound and you guessed it a pool with a room larger than my apartment in California, seating area with comfy couches, sunny balcony overlooking the pool, great bed, and for my entertainment pleasure an umpteen inch flat screen TV with a CD player.

All things must come to an end so before I know it I'm back on the Ibis traveling back to Saigon. The trip back only took 6 hours, guess less traffic and I had no need for a Tuk-tuk as I trundled off the Ibis in Sai Gon, as its just a short walk across 23-9 park to my room. 


ferry crossing at Neak Luong:

vendors and ferry passengers

river drive in bike wash

 
                                                                                                                               

bus on ferry

home made power chair

vendors heading to the ferry

                                               



       




   around Phnom Penh:
                                                                                                             
         

bamboo bikes

North Korea Embassy - extolling the Kim Jong's

fireman napping in ready

Thanks for taking another Cambodia trip with me, Doug.