chrisyphotoessays

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Poor farming lands

There are many little farms on the southern side of the Thu Bon river. I saw a concrete square-sided tower about three storeys tall with very small holes in the sides. These are to attract swallows to nest in them, then the nests are harvested. Swallow noises are broadcast from the towers to attract the birds. There are many swallows around here. The soil is poor and sandy. Where it is not farmed, there are a few she-oak trees, cactus and pandanus growing on the sand. I saw many graves that were disturbed. QA said that the bodies have been relocated as the local governor re-zoned the land. We arrived at the riverside where there was a fishing village and small market. Around the little farms, where the very poor people try to make a living. There were a few cattle tied in the shade of the she-oaks in fields where there was not much grass growing in the sand.  

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Cầu Cửa Đại, over the Thu Bon river.

The bridge stood high over the village and it will change the lives of the people around it. Several resorts will be build there. The old town really cannot handle many more tourists as it is.

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We met one man and a boy who was fishing. They were sitting in the shade and trying to catch some little fish. The man had on a beige cloth hat with a large pink flower on it. Very Vietnamese! He said he was a teacher enjoying the last of the school holidays. I said fishing was probably an easier job. 

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Family celebration dinner in Hoi An

At the Homestay, there was a party of 30 people to celebrate one of the young nieces being admitted to university. Her family gave her a grey moped. Nice girl, very shy. All the tables were lined up in the front room. There was Cô Ái Trâm’s famous chicken rice, rare beef, salad, various sauces and plenty of beer with ice. Grandmother firmly seized me and insisted that I sat next to her. Marvellous food as usual. The people were all descendants of grandmother and her husband. 

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A trip from Hoi An to Danang

In the late afternoon, we went to Đà Nẵng to see the dragon bridge (Cầu Rồng) spout fire. We found a spot by the Han River, had some dinner, then coconut ice cream. Con Minh and his mother cô Mỹ rode on one bike, cô Uyên and two kids on another. On the way back, little Michelle went to sleep in between Uyên and her son Bino so he put his hand under her chin and held head steady. What a good boy.

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Agent Orange is still affecting Vietnamese families

On Monday, morning four Spanish men presented at breakfast. They stayed in the large room with two beds. One was quite talkative and inquisitive. 

After breakfast, a very thin woman came to work in the front garden. She did a very good job and even weeded the large bonsai. Cô Ái Trâm told me later that she is a farmer and comes to work in the garden a few times a year. Her husband was a soldier affected by Agent Orange and does not work on their farm because he goes to hospital very often with headache and other internal problems. They have three children. One works in a charity for very poor children in the high mountains, one is a chef, one teaches agriculture. So, the woman does the farming work all by herself.

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Early morning walking around the little lanes to the thu Bon River in Hoi An

The lanes are arranged in a higgledy-piggledy way. They wind around the little houses with their gardens and chickens. A few of the neighbours have pigs.  

As I was getting closer to the house, Cô Ái Trâm came along on her bicycle and said she had already been to the beach to buy from the fishermen and then gone to the market. On the bike? Its several kilometres to the beach and back. She is providing a cooking class with some Spaniards guests at her homestay. After she went on ahead, her neighbour, caught up to me and walked me back arm in arm. How lovely. It's going to be very bleak and lonely back home.

Cô Ái Trâm often wears one purple curler in her hair to make a kind of ponytail. I've seen other women wearing them too. She made me a dragon fruit smoothie this morning.  It's hot today about 37. I had a quiet day. At night, I gave an English lesson with Miss Lily, focussing on vocabulary for reception work and body parts. She requested these topics. I advised Miss Lily about using the Vietnamese phrase “như thế nào” incorrectly by translating into English as “so, how about it?”. It’s a phrase at the end of a question enquiring about the condition of something such as someone’s health, whether a hotel is OK, how are you feeling, etc. it’s a common mistranslation and gives an unfortunate impression when it’s used.

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Early morning in Hoi An

I got up about six in the morning and went walking along the river path. The memory card filled up. No spare with me, of course. And no long lens. Bloody stupid. Try again tomorrow.

Breakfast. Four kinds of steamed rice cakes including bánh bèo chén and bánh ít, also included was one thin sheet of rice cake steamed in banana leaf with prawn powder for flavour. Dragon fruit smoothie, Vietnamese coffee. After that, I worked with con Lily revising her anatomy vocabulary.

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A birthday party in Hoi An, Central Vietnam

Con Minh picked me up to take me to his birthday party. There were 15 people including his school and friends. His very lovely girlfriend spent her weekly day off cooking for the party. She made a family favourite, lagu thịt vịt (duck stew), clams, mushrooms, mussel, and bitter herb salad. She is an excellent cook. The birthday cake had a thick layer of agar based coloured jelly instead of icing and was very pretty. It was all very jolly as everyone sat in a tight circle on the floor of the 4th floor balcony of his mother’s home.

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Early Morning Walk along the River

I went for a walk down to the Thu Bon river in Hoi An, Central Vietnam. Took one or two good shots including this one of a fishing boat. Then I went down to the end of the lane parallel to the river and thought I was lost. There was a little barber shop by the path and the barber pointed to two ways, the long way or the lane way. I took the lane way as I like seeing the houses and gardens.

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Feeling like a foreigner in Vietnam

My friends picked me up and we went for lunch at a rare beef restaurant out on highway 1A. That's all they serve; rare beef, rice papers, salad and condiments. The owner is now a rich woman. Local people like to go there to get away from all the tourists. I felt foreign and somewhat of a novelty again as only local people were at the restaurant. I don't care. One woman had on a marvellous chapeau. My friend said “she could wear it to the Melbourne Cup”. How on earth did he know about that? The trip back was through the little villages and rice fields. Some of the brown rice heads were nodding in the bright green paddies. The perfume of the rice fields is unforgettable.

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Chùa Linh Ứng on the Son Tra peninsula near Danang. Each time I visited this temple, I went with my friends Nguyễn Quốc Anh and his wife cô Uyên. This family lives Hoian. In the photo, Marble mountain is in the background.

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View from the window of a half finished house

My friend Quốc Anh picked me up after supervising the workers at his new house in Hoian. This is the view from one of the bedroom windows. Only about a month to go before it is completed. However, getting the details takes a lot of time and attention. His house is at that difficult stage of building, the paint was not the colour that he ordered, blue instead of a very light cream. That delayed the painters, who had to be paid anyway. He looks very tired. The carpenter agreed to make the beds for a very good price about US$230 for four beds. Quốc Anh said that his wife is a very good negotiator.

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Hoi An, Vietnam

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Coconut trees grown for timber and thatching do not have fruit on them

Vietnam. Ho ian. 2016

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Hoi An, Vietnam

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Meeting  the neighbourhood dogs on an early morning walk by the river

August 21, I woke up at 4am again. Got up at five and went down to the river to try and get some better photographs. One or two of them were worth the effort.  All the dogs greeted me, but not with much energy as it was already humid. One dog has a cute little pup that is trying to learn its job. All it could do was rush up wagging its tail. I must not pat the dogs here in Vietnam!