Random photos of Hong Kong, mostly of the harbor but water and boats are my strong suit.  I've got more photos on my desk top in California, so look for additional photos in a couple months.  

Hong Kong harbor

                                         

Downtown Hong Kong

Hurricane Hole Marina

Odds and ends from Ho Chi Minh City

Stuff I've picked up on in the past few weeks that I thought was interesting but of course it's up to you to decide. Please comment one way or the other.

Here goes:

Made an interesting find when I was exploring a little alley that takes of  from beside Baskin Robbins on Lee Loi Street. Wondering down the small alley I found it opened up to reveal a newish hotel named the Little Saigon Hotel.

5:00 am heading across town to catch an early morning bus down to the Mekong and see bunches of Vietnamese playing badminton and exercising under the street lights.

The other day I watch a motor bike delivery guy pull up on a Honda dream scooter with 12 cases of beer on board.

Made note of US defense spending of 633 billion dollars, probably old news but I think, don't you, that it's worth repeating.  Especially, as the US government attempts to slash more social programs to balance the budget.

With regard to government spending - China just opened a new high speed train line, 2,300 KM long (1,429 miles) running at an average speed of 300 KM hour (186 miles per hour). Adding to its existing high speed rail network of 9,300 KM (5,779 miles) since the start of construction in 2007. The total train line is expected to be in operation in 2020 with 50,000 KM (31,000 miles) operational. Oh ya, but do they have Amtrak or a proposed high speed link between Northern and Southern California.

On life and living from the Vietnamese government via the "Vietnam News"

On tourists - "Every month I am informed 6 or 7 tourists are stolen on domestic and in-bound tours"

What is destroying the housing market in Saigon - "Investors cannot sell cheaply because their costs are high". Now isn't that the truth.

About the pot holes and depressions in a new 50 Km (31 miles) highway

This was a six year project and the explanation goes "the highway suffers from pot holes and depressions caused by the rush to finish on time."

On the quality of life in Saigon - The quality of life is down due to Social evils, red tape and environmental issues. All so it was added that 58 % of the residents have an income in the range of 2 - 3 million dong a month ($95-140.00 us). Workers are between the ages of 18 - 40 and normally, at 40 are dismissed from their job because they are worn out and in bad health. With no social services and probably no savings I can see where this might darken a person’s mood as you looked toward the future.

On Blogging in Vietnam - The founder of the Freelance Journalist club web site and blogger Nguyen Van Hai (60) was resenteced to 10 years in prison and on release 3-5 years of probation. Along with Mrs.Ta Phong Tan(42) who drew a 10 year term with also 3 - 5 year probation on his release. Also Phan Thanh Hai (42) was sentenced to 4 years. There sentencing was based on Clause 2, article 88 of the 1999 criminal code - conducting propaganda against the state - per the Vietnamese government.

                         
                           That's all I've got for today.
                                       Doug

                                              

 

farang get an instant status upgrade

In Thailand, farang get an instant status upgrade-

from the opinion page of The Nation

January 6, 2013
 

Western expats always complain bitterly about dual pricing, noise and air pollution, dangerous driving, unscrupulous cabbies, crooked police, no English commentary on the World Cup, feral dogs, etc, but they stick around. Why?
Generally, Thais respect Westerners. Thais are friendly, polite and helpful to them, so they feel important. But why do Thais look up to them?

When the Europeans arrived in Ayutthaya some 500 years ago, they brought with them fancy ships, cannons, telescopes, matches, compasses, pocket watches, personal firearms. The Siamese were entranced by those gadgets. The Europeans were welcomed by the King himself. They stood erect to the King and they talked to him face to face, something unimaginable to the Siamese. The only privilege the Siamese ever had was prostrating themselves before their king with their noses touching the ground. Thus, they felt Westerners and their King were of the same rank. The attitude has been passed along for generations. Later, in the 20th century, Hollywood, Elvis, the Beatles, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes Benz, Ferrari, the Apollo project and Coca-Cola added more prestige to Westerners.

But expats always rationalise their being here. They say they stay because they care. They say they bring money, jobs, technology, and we should be grateful. They won't admit they like Thailand because here they are somebody. In their countries they may be an average Joe, but here they are Mr Joe, the wonderful husband of a Thai woman, or Ajarn Joe the English teacher, or jovial uncle Joe who loves kids. And I haven't mentioned the low cost of living, cheap sex and drugs, and the Thai culture of "anything goes".

That's why Westerners love to stay in Thailand.

Meechai Burapa

Chiang Mai

 

 

  

 

 

 

Strange day

Saturday morning - 12/8/2012 Saigon   

 

Woke to the quiet in my room, that is, other than the normal random noise from the alley.  Sounds of people getting their day on, food vendors, the ever present motorbike sounds - horn beeps and buzzing engines charging past under my window.

 

Soon to find the quiet in my room was due to a power outage  silencing the drone of my ageing air-conditioning unit. 
 

Showered in the dark, skipped the shave, just too dark to see what I was doing and dressed.

 

The night before I’d had 3 or 4 rum and cokes, no hangover this morning but had this funny feeling in my stomach I often get.  As an experiment recently I’d given up rum and cokes for a couple weeks and my stomach improved.  Does that mean I need to give up the rum? Anyway for years I’ve had this problem, even before my daily rum but all kinds of tests in the states and over here give no conclusive results.  So I take Gaviscon, chew gum and exercise for relief. Even a few rum and cokes at times seem to take it away but the next day its back with a vengeance.

  

However, I’ve been thinking that the old school pho I’ve been breakfasting on, while tasting so good, might also be part of my stomach problem.  So this day I went in search for a stomach healthy food to breakfast on and found a tourist style restaurant offering a yogurt parfait, croissant and an iced coffee. Oh, by the way the change in breakfast didn’t make any difference in the way my stomach felt. 
 

Wondering if the power is back on in my room and wistfully thinking about a more upscale place where they had a backup generator.
  
Make the walk back to the room, still no air, so drag out one of those little plastic chairs and site  in the alley and wait. Really, overall not all that strange, just another day in Saigon.

  

The Mekong Rivers floating markets.

In Can Tho head over to Ninh Kieu Quay, the river front area, its land marked by the gigantic statue of Ho Chi Minh. As you look past Ho and down the river front you’ll see the larger tourist company boats tied up. Closer to you you’ll see a few small long tail boats pulled up to the shore and these are what you want.  Though, probably at this point even if you don’t see the boats the independent boat operators will have found you. I used a lady by the name of Huong. She was friendly, cute and gave me good couple hour tour of the Mekong and channels around Can Tho on day one. Day two was a long one, spent 7 hours on the river and visited Cai Rang and the Phong Dien floating markets. 

As far as what the cost is for hiring an independently run boat, bargaining is required but the bottom line should be around $ 7.00 an hour. However, like any transaction in Vietnam, make sure you have an agreed up on price before you set foot on the boat and pay when the trip is finished. 



A couple things about the floating markets, you need to get an early start and I'm talking 5:30 early. Vietnamese are up early and do their marketing first thing in the morning and the boat trip from Can Tho is an hour or so to the closest market and two plus hours to Phong Dien. So if you lolly gag around in Can Tho and arrive at the market late morning, you just might miss out. After all the floating markets are just that and its boats are free to come and go at will. Lastly you need an early start to get a jump on the Saigon based tour buses and the hordes of tourists disgorged into large tour boats over running the markets.

If you’re a fan of boats and enjoy time on the water like me, you'll find the Mekong, its people and boats plying its waters mesmerizing. The floating markets are interesting but being part of what's moving on the river is the real trip. Things like the floating gas dock where our boat lady bought a liter of gas in a reused plastic soda bottle. 

The soup lady at Cai Rang market ladling out hot soup when her boat leached and the hot liquid poured over her hand, only to wince and refill the bowl and pass it over to the boatman. Tough people these Vietnamese are. While visiting the markets it boats supplied us with great tasting iced coffee, had bowls of really great tasting soup, shared a fresh pinnacle prepared by a passing boatman with a very large knife and shared a lot of smiles.  

While in one of the cannels, Huong chopped a palm prong off of a water side plant, striped the outside away and fabricated an adjustable bracelet for me as she ran the boat. 

Then Can Tho comes back in view, she noses her boat up to the bank, ties a line, hops ashore and reaches her hand out to help you scramble up the bank and your land based again with uncle Ho smiling down on you.




As always, your hero is here
for you

On the bus to Can Tho, Mekong Delta

my bus

That mighty Mekong River is calling. So I'm heading down to Can Tho, one of the major cities in the Mekong region. Once there I'll check into my hotel and head across town to Ninh Kiew Quay looking for a small long tail boat to hire for some day tripping on the river. 

Spring Hotel, Can Thao

I'm overnighting at the Spring Hotel in Kuan Khanh ward, probably not the best chose, not because it's a bad place but it's location is a long way from the water front area where the boats tie up. The Spring Hotel is a small, quirky kind of place with a friendly owner/manager who not surprisingly is a bit quirky herself. Her quirkiness combined with her exuberant but limited English skills can make for some very interesting and confusing conversations. There room rate is $ 22.00 a night which gets ya a clean and quiet, air-conditioned room, cable TV, an in-suite bathroom with hot water and a bathtub/shower combo. 

Many visitors in Saigon when they decide to visit the Mekong head over to the Pham Nu Lao backpackers area and sign up for one of the inexpensive package tours offered by one of the many travel agents in the area. These trips are an efficient chose and are no brainier means to get a look at the Mekong.

and your seat on the bus

However, it's possible to travel independently also at a modest cost and leave the herd behind. You start by booking your own transport out of HCMC. In this case I booked an 110,000 dong ($5.30 us) ticket on one of Phuong Trang's spiffy Orange buses. Bus's headed south from Saigon, which would be the Mekong Delta, leave from Men Tay bus station ( Ben Xe Mien Tay) every hour or two.  

Ben Xe Mien Tay 5:30 am

Once away it's about a three and a half hours to Can Tho. Though, for me I also had the travel time to motorbike over to Phuong Trang’s remote bus station on Le Van Luong Street, district 7 where I picked up my ticket and then they shuttled me over to Ben Xe Mien Tay. Once at the bus station there was about a 20 minute wait before boarding and so in total my travel time was about four and a half hours. You can also take city bus # 2 from dist 1 to Ben Xe Mien Tay, either from the bus station across from Ben Tham Market or flag a bus down on the street by Zen Plaza. It should say Ben Xe Mien Tay on the bus but you never know so always look for the number. Bus fare is 4,000 dong, or about 19 cents US. Of course for those less adventurist souls there is always the taxi. 

alfresco coffee bar

My 20 minutes waiting at the station was spent mostly worrying about the bus leaving without me as all the announcements are in Vietnamese.  So to loosen up my mind I wondered over to the alfresco coffee bar, plopped down into those weathered and gritty, plastic lawn chairs and slid it up to a matching decrepit table, careful not to disturb two dogs sleeping underneath and gave them a little kick to make sure that they really were sleeping and not dead. Even with the half light of the unknown to me time of 5:30 am the eating area looked like the poster child for food borne illnesses. So passed on the noodle soup and went for a 17,000 dong, Vietnamese iced coffee (ca phe sua da) and a fresh loaf of French bread out of loosely, packed plastic bag from a passing bread vending lady and headed over to stand around by what I thought might be my bus. 

Phoung Trang buses offer a comfortable ride which is helped by the good job Vietnam does of taking care of this stretch of main road. After all, this route is where most of Vietnam's rice, vegetables and fruit grown in the Mekong heads to Saigon and points north to keep the nation fed. 

morning in the Mekong 1

morning in the Mekong 3

morning in the Mekong 2

Made a stop in Ben Ze Vinh Long but just long enough to drop off and pick up passengers and then stopped for a 15 minute break at Phuong Trang's facility, an hour or so from Can Thao. We pulled out of Ben Xe Mien Tay in Saigon at 6:10 am and arrived at the station in Can Tho at 9:30 am.  From the gaggle of motorbike taxi’s I hired one to get me over to my hotel, dropped my bag in the room and head back out and across town to the water front looking for a boat to hire. Good trip so far.

 

As Always your hero
is here for you.

 

 

Two days in the Mekong, - My Tho

on the Mekong

Riding the bus, photo makes it look better
than it is.

Every tour company in Saigon offers super cheap bus tours to the Mekong lasting anywhere from one to three days.  However, if your the independent type you can create your own tour as we did to My Tho using the Vietnamese public bus system,  our own lodging arrangements and in this case a local boat operator that got us out on the Mekong and a ride up into a canal.

Walked a couple blocks from my room in Saigon to a bus stop close to Zen Plaza and picked up Saigon City bus #2 to Xa Laing Mien Tay, bus station for Mekong bound buses, the ticket across town was 4,000 dong or $.19 US. On this trip I'm not traveling alone, my friend Gary is with me and is a great help as he has make this trip and many other trips into the Mekong independently.  We arrive at Mien Tay about 25 minutes before the bus departs, it seems there are plenty of buses heading down to My Tho so you shouldn't have to worry about connecting with a bus. The ticket to My Tho was 30,000 dong or a whopping US $1.45. When you arrive at the My Tho bus station you are a ways from the water front and the center of town where the hotels are but as you climb off the bus as usual there are  motorbike guys waiting to whisk you a way. A little bargaining and 20,000 each got us into town.

Let me step back a bit and write about the buses.  Cross town city buses are raggedy, crowded and as all public stuff in Vietnam filled with interesting people.  As I watch the the little girl empty her stomach on the floor, dad just moves them in the seat so they are away from the mess, it happens again and then somebody hands across a plastic bag but dad can't get it right and then they are gone.  Meanwhile, an overly friendly older, like around my age type Vietnamese guy, wearing an aged pink, imitation fur trimmed coat a size too small is intent on reaching across the bus to make me his new best friend.  A cute girl across the isle wearing a mask, like many do but outside to block the sun and filter the air, her eyes dancing as she peers at me over the top and then she is gone.  Who ever thought thirty minutes could offer that much.

Shouter, eyes the roadside
for new passengers 

When you arrive at Mien Tay station you look for a walk up window that has destination posted on each window, buy you ticket and walk out to the boarding area.  Where someone will grab you and try to take part of your ticket and load you on your bus, you can go along or ignore him if you know you have time till the departing.  These buses are really raggedy and the seat area is really small so try to stake out two seats, I've paid for two seats before but you have to be really hard to keep them.  You see they search out new passengers and never turn anyone away no matter how full the bus is. Each bus has what I call a shouter who hangs in the open door shouting at anyone he thinks has the potential to become a passenger.  However. other than the shouter our crowd of passengers were pretty mellow going and coming and the bus was not crowded, we left Saigon around 11:00 and returned the next day around 1:00pm.

Okay, on with my story - My Tho is the first major city you come to when traveling from Saigon down into the Mekong Delta.  Kind of a sleepy, medium sized town, government seat of  Tien Giang Provence.  A center for food distribution out of the delta and in the central city market you will see a good supply of commercial fishing tackle and cordage supplies shops. If you get here make sure you walk through the fish market and if your lucky you can get into the action as Gary did when he corralled a run away catfish. Smiles all around at his success.


Vietnam is ranked the second largest rice producer in the world behind Thailand  and most of this rice production comes out of the Mekong. Also, fruits and vegetables grow with very little encouragement here.

Using a small electified net to zap fish. 
In the background a barge load of rice. 

Our hotel was the Song Tien which is on the banks of the Bao Dinh Channel a few blocks from the water front.   Really nice place, clean with modernly furnished rooms, AC, cable TV, in suite bathroom with a hot shower all for $21.00 a night.   Also included was breakfast and I made an excellent chose of an omelet braced with an iced coffee and handled by very cute and friendly Vietnamese ladies.

There are several islands in the Mekong and if you take a packaged tour they run you through them, you see coconut candy being made and it's most impressive to see how those Vietnamese women can package those little pieces of Candy so fast, rice wine production and a traditional Vietnamese music display.  Though on your own you can do all this but probably not as cheap an the Saigon travel guys do it with a bus load of tourists but you don't have the bus load of new best friends. 

The Mekong is honeycombed with channels and we took a look at that on our boat ride, can't imagine soldiering in there.  First just finding your way around the maze and for a military operation, the whole place looks like an ambush waiting to happen.

In the distance is the new suspension bridge
that replaced the ferries

My Tho has a lot of river traffic and is a port for the fishing industry -

       

Channel traffic

 

Bao Dinh Channel

                                                                          

boat traffic Bao Dinh Channel

     fishing boats at rest