saigonsays

Short and sweet

April 10, 2014saigonsaysLeave a comment

Hello. Now where was I? On the verge of heading to India about a month ago, I seem to recall…

Well, India, Delhi, the Holi Festival, and the workshop I was running all went off well. Delhi is thriving, the weather was sublime, the food delicious and, as you’ll see from the photo below, I managed to pull off a mean impersonation of some kind of overweight commando at the end of an afternoon of celebrating the first day of Spring, in true Hindu style. Memorable stuff.

On next to the UK, for some long days of meetings, but intersected thankfully by short snippets of quality time with friends and family.

Some of which took place in pubs and involved pints (I miss pints).

There was even time whilst I was in London for some swapping of school day photographs on a night out with mates from the Merchant Taylors’ years, circa. 1985-1993.

One I can’t help but post being of our fly-by-night sixth form band, Orange Bud. Watch out music seekers, it’s not too late for a 40 year birthday reunion in 2015.

And the past week has been back in Saigon, hosting the delightful Hellewell family, over from the UK shires. Kathryn, James, Leo and Sam collectively took to the heat, humidity and cold beers over here with ease, and provided some wonderful times together (crammed in to my apartment as the seven of us all were!)

So “local” were the Hellewells, that they can now tick off ‘riding Vintage Vespa bikes in the Mekong Delta with the kids’ from their bucket list.

Tomorrow I am off to celebrate a friend’s wedding up in Nha Trang on a stag weekend, over Easter I’ll be playing in a football tournament in Shanghai, and I’ll be up to Hanoi and across to Bangkok for work after that. On the cards for May currently is Beirut and the Philippines (both work) and planning out Martha’s 3rd Birthday party (very much in the ‘play’ category).

Happy Easter to you all and, next time, I promise some more words and less bullet points.

Chocs away!

Pausing for Thought

March 13, 2014June 1, 2014saigonsays2 Comments

Photo credit www.boho-lovin.blogspot.com — Photo credit http://www.boho-lovin.blogspot.com

Saigon is hotting up once more. Now I appreciate that, for many of you who drop in on saigonsays from time to time, even when Saigon is not “hotting up” there is a good chance that it still might be considerably warmer here than what other parts of the world have put up with for the past half a year. Simply put, Saigon is always hot, except for the months we are now descending upon, when it slips sweatily into being really hot.

Time then for me to head West, first to Delhi at the weekend, for a week of work just as the country celebrates “Holi”- the first day of spring (Monday 17th) – during which it is tradition to get splattered with coloured powder. All of which makes for a pretty picture to stick at the top of a blog post. Next Monday is also St Patrick’s Day – divinely timed, should Ireland come away with the Six Nations (rugby) trophy two days beforehand.

My ambition for Monday evening in Delhi next week is therefore to avoid too much pink and yellow hair dye during the day, and to successfully find a pint of Guinness in the evening. It’s not every Monday night you get to blend Hindu and Gaelic culture together in such a colourful way. Continue reading →

Year of the Horse, belatedly

February 7, 2014June 1, 2014saigonsays2 Comments

My last post on this site was pre-Christmas. I spectacularly missed the opportunity of writing about my January 1st commitment to stop smoking (achieved so far with flying colours, by the way). I then reneged on posting suitably colourful and joyous photos of my kids enjoying the Chinese (in Vietnam, ‘Tet’) lunar New Year celebrations last week, as well as the standard picture of my Tet tree in bloom, them performing in their Tet concert, and me pontificating on what the new Year of the Horse might all be about. On which front I am still none the wiser.

February kicked off nearly a week ago, and my “No Booze Feb” pledge was underway (watch this space, at this rate, next month I’ll convert to Buddhism, take up sunrise yoga classes and become a caffeine-free, vegan) in earnest – and yet I just didn’t get round to documenting this very sobering moment in time.

If I’d had the chance, I would have regaled you sooner with the rather tragic weekend story of how a stomach bug last Saturday ensured my quick demise over a 48 hour period, during which I didn’t eat, and spent as much time in my bathroom in two days as the average person might spend in a year. It was not pretty.

And then, yesterday, I flew up to Hanoi on business, to find the Old Quarter looking resplendant in Tet decor, and abuzz with a heady mix of local adults drinking Tiger beers from 9am, and kids dancing in the streets (for once, not crowded with bikes and traffic).

All of this I have failed to represent so far in 2014. Such slackness is potentially, in itself, a fatal start to any new lunar year. Even my Tet tree flowered 6 days late. The omens are not good. Continue reading →

Walking in a Metrosexual Wonderland

December 22, 2013June 1, 2014saigonsays1 Comment

Taking pics of fruit and veg - is this evidence enough I am embracing my inner "Metro"? — Taking pics of fruit and veg: isn’t this evidence enough that my inner “Metro” is alive and kicking?

That I even have a fruit bowl, is the first admission I’ll make on this rather “forgive me Father” Sabbath day journal entry…

Forgive me, for I appear to have rather over-embraced my inner ‘Metrosexual’ wannabe, released as it was yesterday like some kind of bottled up camp genie, deliriously happy at the prospect of all the indulgences available, given I was home alone for the weekend.

The early hours of yesterday began with feet firmly (despite the number of drinks I’d had that evening) wedged into hetro-man world. I was in town, out with a mate from my football team. All the raw ingredients for a “boy’s Friday night” were in play: games of pool, booze; sports talk; rock music – life was uncomplicated.

You’ll imagine my surprise then (or some won’t, as it would seem many of you clearly “outed” me as a metro-man many years back) when in a moment of mild panic yesterday evening, I briefly took stock of my day’s activities, which included the following: Continue reading →

Colonel Sanders in Saigon

December 4, 2013June 1, 2014saigonsays5 Comments

Guest Post by Martyn Barmby

Why would you fly 6,000 miles to Vietnam to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken? Twice actually: once successfully and once with the bathetic failure of vegetarian falafel.

It’s not that I dislike Vietnamese food; I love it. Nor is it that I lost patience with my badly wrapped Banh Xeos (“I would not smoke it, never mind eat it” was the withering review of my efforts). It is not even the repeated faux pas of mixing the wrong sauce with each gorgeous parcel of fish, vegetables and the most fragrant herbs. It is more about friendship with a dash of nostalgia and maybe a dipping sauce of stubbornness.

Uncle Cake encounters his first Banh Xeo one hour into the weekend — Encountering my first Banh Xeo one hour after arriving in Saigon

After what might technically count as a long weekend in Saigon I got a second taste of what our dear friends love about the place. Although crossing the road in itself is as fun as going on your average roller coaster, Tim Bishop tours laid on a number of special experiences. Continue reading →

Good Day Sunshine

November 28, 2013saigonsays2 Comments

“I need to laugh, and when the sun is out, I’ve got something to laugh about.”

As seems to increasingly be the case, several weeks have lapsed since I last started scribbling, as I do now, on the blank canvas offered up by a click on the ‘new post’ button of this blog.

Saigon is easing into its most nourishing time of the year, when the sun’s heat softens, the humidity lessens, and the monsoon rains of the past months are eventually turned off.

It feels like the perfect spring climate, and despite my occasional longing for the slate-tiled flooring and red wine, wood-smoked infused charm of a local pub during the cold festive season back in the UK, living in Saigon right now you would be hard pressed to find more agreeable weather to whisk you off to work each morning – and for that I remain a very lucky chap.

Perhaps in the spirit of bringing some sort of English-isms back into my now familiar Asian surrounds, I downloaded lots of Beatles tunes last night and, as I always do, experienced that surge of familiarity and foot-tapping glee derived from any re-discovery of something very special.

It’s a great realisation, in fact, that when much of my time can be spent on learning new things, grasping at new experiences, and projecting thoughts forward that, to revert in the other direction – whether it be through music, photos, anecdotes, writing, reading, reflection – can instantaneously be all that is required to spark life back into one’s day.

Speaking of bringing English-isms back over here, last week was a true 2013 highlight, as my folks traveled out to meet me and the girls for a week’s retreat in Thailand (them via the rather grandiose spectacle that is Dubai, where the ATMs dispense gold, and me and the kids via a short one hour hop from Saigon to Bangkok, normally a tedious journey for me, but with them in tow it turns into a much more exciting prospect given the deliriousness at which they encounter each part of the experience – I have never seen so much excitement expressed by two little people at being given a “refreshing” airline wet-wipe just before take-off, nor in chasing round the luggage carousel in pursuit of a car seat!)

This evening, a second English-ism of the month will also descend upon Saigon, in the form of “Uncle Cakey” – my dearest friend from South East London, who is making his second visit out here, albeit this one without his gorgeous family, for a long weekend of eating banh xeo’s and drinking Tiger beer, resplendent as he will be in the shorts and sandals that haven’t themselves ventured out of his wardrobe now for many moons.

I am also assured that, in between such indulgences, a guest blog by Uncle Cake will be penned on this very canvas. Watch this space.

In the meantime, I have pasted some of the latest holiday snaps from the Bishop girls below, underneath today’s jolly tune…

Ruling the roost at the adventure playground

Swinging so fast the camera can’t keep up

Worried that Grandpa is going to eat my ice cream

Flo on her 100th trip down the hotel pool's waterslide — Flo on her 100th trip down the hotel pool’s waterslide

Final ice cream waiting to fly home from Bangkok airport

Yolanda

November 13, 2013saigonsaysLeave a comment

Image courtesy of Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty images

You don’t need me to point out where this photo was taken, nor what messages sit behind the faces within it.

I only have admiration for those people who are on hand in the Philippines at the moment, helping, and only great sadness and hope for those whose lives have been altered forever.

For any long standing visitors to my blogs, it will hopefully have been made obvious by now that I have involved my organisation, CARE International, and the developmental issues we address around the world mainly as a platform from which to couch ideas and thoughts – mainly, in other words, as a lens through which I can write.

The world has collectively reacted to the images created by the Haiyan (Yolanda) typhoon, and we have all shared our thoughts with loved ones, friends, colleagues, people sat next to us on the bus.

Pointless as it typically is to try and immediately draw any conclusions as to what events like these ‘mean’, or what they reinforce to us all as fellow citizens on the planet, the one thing that remains tangible and easy for many of us to do, is support the work of those agencies who are, today, right now, saving lives.

It is not my intention to use this space again to promote CARE or the work of the other DEC (Disaster Emergency Committee) members, but today, and right now, that is what I am doing.

Here is a link through which you can lend your support:

http://www.careinternational.org.uk/news-and-press/latest-news-features/2459-typhoon-haiyan-this-will-haunt-me-for-a-long-time-

A Year

October 28, 2013November 13, 2013saigonsaysLeave a comment

The airport terminal is much unchanged from last year.
A steady shuffle of outbound feet,
Perfume branding and plastic menus,
Whilst sloth-like carcasses form
Of weary traveller and uniformed worker
Draped unconventionally on armchair, table top and floor. Continue reading →

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