Saigon Stuff

The Art of Being Vietnamese

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In a short while, we will be subjected to 2012 “lists”.  Top Ten Celebrity Gossip of the Year.  Most Popular Boy’s Name.  Worst Dressed Politician.

All of the above, and more.

Inspired by a meeting with an elderly Vietnamese monk last month, here, in the spirit of such things (ie for fun, rather than for anything more meaningful) are my “Top Things Learnt about the Vietnamese in 2012”.

Anyone is welcome to add more to these or, indeed, share with me their own SE Asian (or elsewhere…who cares!) versions – I expect to add to this myself in the future, however I only had a short window at Singapore airport earlier to reel these off…

1. Face protection – “one life, one face” is up there as a life motto for most Vietnamese.  No matter what the scenario, saving face in all situations is paramount.

Granted, face saving is not specific to Vietnam, however they do it so well over here! Continue reading →

November journal: my new bike; and our entertaining children

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Recently, I have been over-run with plenty of work travels, and so it’s great to have been back in Saigon for the past couple of weeks.  I love working in this part of the city (in the western corner of District 3) for all the local quirkiness of what’s on offer, as well as the daily hilarity of what goes on in our office…

I went downstairs earlier this afternoon for coffee, only to be confronted by a large brown eel writhing around on the reception floor.  It would seem our lunch this week was trying to make a break for it, and had leapt out of the plastic jerry-can it was sharing with its mate by the front door!  Eel hot-pot to look forward to tomorrow then….

Saigon is quickly gearing up for Christmas, and we are excited about being here again during the glitziest time of the year, when it is customary for a high proportion of the public (mainly young chain-smoking men) to dress up – really badly – as Santa Claus, whilst everyone else spray paints their shops in festive colours (we had a white spray-painted Christmas tree last year, photo here, and are hoping to outdo this with something even more kitsch next month.) Continue reading →

Just your typical Friday in Saigon

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The daily sights and sounds of Saigon never fail to disappoint.

Take “Goldfish Alley”, the street to which the guy in this picture is no doubt headed.  It contains, on most days, about half a dozen enthusiastic traders offering what I can only reason, given the hot weather here, is something more akin to a boil-in-the-bag dinner for one, rather than a new pet for the kids.

Photo credit @Steve Jackson http://www.ourmaninhanoi.com
But, if you live in Saigon and want to buy a pet fish, even if its life expectancy is dubious, then you know where to go. Continue reading →

Mercury rising

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So, here’s the thing.  Talk of the town of late has been about the weather.  There is no escaping it, Saigon has well and truly planted it’s size tens into the hot season, and us ex-pats love to discuss the weather.

In a year’s worth of rambling on this blog I have probably not given enough airtime to the subject of temperatures out here, aside from a rather revealing post about running in the heat.  Nor am I necessarily going to labour any points right now.

However, preparing as we are for a visit back to England soon, in time for what is described as being “the UK’s coldest May on record” I did think it timely to catch on Radio 4 yesterday morning the following weather announcement that, “across parts of the UK the rain will ‘clear’ this afternoon…to become heavy showers” – which I guess just means it is going to continue raining, but there will be more of it. Continue reading →

Unseasonal weather…again

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A cold snap is due across parts of the UK, days after freakish March heatwaves.  Over here in Saigon we woke up this morning to the aftermath of typhoon Pakhar, which passed through yesterday, several weeks prior to the normal monsoon season, and left many of our local streets looking something like this…

More than the usual pavement obstacles to navigate in Saigon this morning
Continue reading →

The Year of the Dragon

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Around about this time in January the UK press tend put out articles naming the year’s official most depressing day.

Their logic cites a combination of things such as the dreary winter weather, or the inevitable financial whiplash of Christmas spending.  More often than not the offending day in question is January 23rd (which is unfortunate in our household as this is, and has always been, Lou’s birthday.)

This year in Vietnam will be a quite different affair though, as 23rd January is Chinese New Year and subsequently, due to Vietnam being one of the many countries embracing the lunar calendar, local life in Saigon over the past weeks has been 100% focused on celebrating the beginning of Tễt (the official name for the New Year here) and the 4 days of public holidays which accompany this.

As previously described in this blog, December here was wall-to-wall Christmas eye candy.  On every street you’d find precariously hung fairy lights, young Vietnamese men dressed as Santa and smoking cigarettes, shops and restaurants blaring out festive carols on a 24/7 loop. Continue reading →

Saigon by Vespa

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We’ve had some friends in town recently – Sarah and Manjit – and took them out to experience the sights and sounds Saigon has to offer, on the back of vintage Vespas…

 “Vietnam Vespa Adventures” is the brain child of Steve Mueller, a guy as equally fanatical with the bikes themselves as much as he is with the country in which he has now resided for thirteen years.  Steve’s website offers some useful history on the noble Vespa (the Italian word for “Wasp” – I’ll give you that one for free) and his company’s aim is to provide clients with a perspective on Vietnam otherwise unavailable to the average tourist. Continue reading →

Escape to the coast

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We’ve been living in Vietnam now for 23 weeks, and tomorrow we head off on our first family holiday.  Over the next 6 days we’ll be far away from the city on a beach resort in Mui Ne, about 5 hours drive up on the coast.

We are looking forward to a change in scenery.  My readiness for a break away was confirmed earlier today when, after lunch out with friends, I suddenly panicked that I couldn’t see Flo in the huddle of children walking down the street,  “where’s Florence gone?” I asked to no one in particular, but in a slightly fretful tone, (which I now wish I’d internalised).  “She’s on your shoulders, Tim,” replied our friend.  Sure enough, I was clutching both Flo’s ankles at the time, and she had her hands resting on my head.

All the more embarrassing, these were the same friends who, when we first met them last month, asked Lou the name of her baby, to be met with stoney silence from Lou who’d decided to have a sudden memory loss, took a full two second pause, stared at me, and as I was starting to mouth the “M” of Martha, just managed to find the name herself, from a distant corner of her memory. Continue reading →