#Vietnam nature reserves

[travelernight]

Vietnam’s Best-Kept Secrets Top 10 Hidden Wonders Revealed

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Dugong, Tien Hai Nature Reserve, Vietnam

Image by Julien Willem via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

[cheriladycl01]

First time - Lando Norris x Innocent! Reader

Plot: Lando finds out his girlfriend is more innocent than he ever thought and that turns him on hard core.

Warnings: SMUT Innocence Knik etc MINORS DNI 18+

When Lando first started dating you he knew you were pretty innocent and oblivious to the world around you.

The first time he noticed it was when he first met you. You were in a club and he sat back watching you the whole night, run around like mother hen after your friends who ... arguably weren't being good friends to you and were using you as their sober ride home.

You were making sure your friends had clean drinks straight from the bartender and handing them tissues or hand gels when they touched anything dirty.

Your friends had left you that night, leaving Lando to take the opportunity to come and introduce himself. He wasn't shocked to find out this was your first time in a club, that you hated it and wanted to go home.

"So, what brings you to Monaco?" he'd asked you and you gave him this big gummy grin that he couldn't help but fall in love with.

"My friends and I are on a girls trip celebrating graduation!" you answered, trying not to yell incase the music went quiet but loud enough so he could hear.

"And that's why they've all abandoned you?" he chuckled walking you over to the bar.

"Yeah, I think they just have different ideas of fun than I do, we saw some really beautiful museums earlier which was my idea!" you smile thinking back to the earlier part of the day which you had favoured.

"Drink?" he asks you and you smile nodding your head.

"I'll have a Coors again and ..." he says naming his beer before looking at you.

"I'll just have a Spite please!" you order in French from the bartender who smiles at you.

"You can order something more expensive like alcohol i don't mind!" he smiles down at you, only for you to shake your head.

"I erm, don't drink! I've never drank alcohol actually!" you smile, pretty proud of you lifestyle.

"Yeah, I used to say I didn't drink and then my friends introduced me to it. Never been the same since!" he frowns in a joking manner making you laugh.

"You're funny!" you giggled.

You guys talked for the rest of the night, until it was the closing hours of the club and you had to part ways.

He'd regretted not getting your number.

The next time he met you was a complete coincidence. He was travelling around and caving in Vietnam. You were there building sustainable housing on your year after graduating. He knew it was you right away and everyone was so confused when he went running of to go say hello to you.

After that he got your number. He had to secure it after a second chance of meeting you which he'd been considering was gods gift to him.

After a few dates and texting back and forth for a while you started dating.

"Y/N, can we talk about something serious?" he'd asked you and you nodded coming to sit next to him on the sofa in his apartment.

"Yeah what's wrong?" you ask him with a frown thinking you'd done something wrong.

"How would you feel, about becoming my girlfriend..." he asks before presenting you with a little gift bag in papaya orange that had chocolates, flowers, a little card and a pair of expensive Cartier earrings. Not that you knew that until you got back to the hotel you were currently staying in and opened them up.

"Oh my! Yes! Please" you replied happily and he was trying so hard not to laugh at your super polite and formal answer to his ... well what now felt like a proposition

You were so happy and getting to spend time with Lando was everything! You came to races and everyone adored you, not just the people in McLaren with Lando but all the TV presenters, the fans and the other teams.

Lando was confused that after having dated for three months you hadn't done anything within a sexual nature. Not that it was an issue for him but he was just used to his girlfriends being bold and upfront compared to you, who was a little shyer and more reserved.

He knew he just needed to be a grown up and talk to you about it but he didn't think he could have this conversation with you. It felt wrong almost.

"Baby, can we talk?" Lando says patting the sofa while you were in the kitchen starting to prep for the lunch you were going to make the both of you.

"Yeah, what's wrong? Did I do something?" you ask looking at him carefully and taking a seat next to you.

"No, no not at all. It's kinda the opposite actually!" he laughs at his own joke not thinking you'd take notice of it.

"I haven't done something? I - did i forget to do my dished? I'm so sorry if i did!" you say looking back to the sink frantically thinking you'd missed your glass of orange juice and bowl of cereal you'd had this morning.

"No no, and don't think of it that way. I was just joking around - erm, I just wanted to say we've been dating for a while now and I was hoping we could start to be more intimate?" he asks holding your hand and your eyes widen and your cheeks redden.

"I- erm" you start to stutter and he rubs his thumb over your hand.

"We don't have too... if you don't want too! But I just wanted to ask!" he rushes out not wanting to make you uncomfortable.

"It's just that ... I've never ever done anything like that!" you say looking at him with those innocent doe eyes that made him go crazy.

"Like never ever?" he asks in shock, you were a gorgeous girl and even when he was out with you, guys would always be coming up to you, making conversation and flirting with you.

Now that he thought about it, you never actually could tell when you were being lightly flirted with. You were very oblivious too all moves guys made, unless they were literally asking for you number.

"Mmmm no, I mean ... you know you're like my first boyfriend right?" you ask him, cocking your head to the side.

"Wait, you've never been with anyone else other than me?" he asks, and fights to keep the smirk off his face. There was something so dirty, about the fact that you were so pure and untouched, and that it turned him on that he would be the first, and hopefully last to show you everything he could.

"No" you whisper and he looks at you, before cupping your face and pulling you in for a soft kiss.

"Will you let me show you, everything I want to?" he asks looking at you, brushing some of your hair behind you so he has full view of your collarbone.

"Yes..." you breathe out, feeling flutters in your stomach at both his words and actions.

"Now?" he asks with a little gulp, hoping the answer would be a yes.

"Yes, show me now Lan!" you say, climbing onto his lap getting excited about the actions to come.

"Okay, baby. Lets slow down" he laughs holding you in place. He shifts about so he's comfortable and starts to run his hands over your body. Little goosebumps rise to the surface coating your arms as his fingers roam across your collarbone, down over your clothed boobs and down until he had a firm grip on your hips.

"As much as I like your wearing my shirt baby, I'm going to take it off you now, is that okay?" he asks looking you in the eyes and you nod, looking down a little intimidated by the intense eye-contact.

"Words baby, you gotta tell me" he smiles at you and you smile.

"Yes, you can"

And he does, he fingers brush against you and a groan comes out of his mouth as he see's what he's been missing out on seeing. Your perky tits were currently clad in an orange coloured bra. He didn't know if that was a normal colour for you or if you'd brought it since dating the McLaren driver.

"You are so fucking beautiful" he says looking at you, teasing against the straps of your bra before slowly pulling down each of them, before reaching round the back and unclasping it so it fell off you.

In reflex your hands came up, to cover your exposed chest, it wasn't something you were used too.

"I want to see and touch baby, please let me!" he says softly.

You felt comfortable and confident enough with Lando that you felt like you could show this part of yourself to him, a part that no-one apart from you had seen.

The moment was getting more and more intimate as his hands started to fondle your boobs, pinching squeezing and kneading. Lando learning what you liked from the noises you were making as he continued.

The more intimate it got, the hotter and more impatient you got with the new sensation in you stomach and the slickness and heat building between your legs.

Naturally, your body is craving friction. Your mind is going haywire not really knowing what to do to get the relief its craving. So your body automatically started to grind down on him, and you could feel just how excited he was getting with the large bulge building in his sweatpants.

You could tell it was something he liked too from the little whines and groans that came out overtime pressure was applied.

"I- I want to make you feel good. But I don't know how" you offer and he nods.

"Do you want me to show you?" he asks and you nod. He takes your hand and starts to help you palm him through his joggers, breathy moans coming from him.

"That's it, and when your ready you can take them off" he breathes out softly, not wanting to rush you into anything.

You take him out of his jogger, having a grip on him that was tight and he couldn't help but moan at the sensation.

"That's it baby. Now just run your hand up and down in a fisting motion!" he says, but you make no move to start, his head that was thrown back raises to look at you in question.

"Can you show me?" you ask, wide eyes and he nods, taking your hand that was around him in his as he helps you start to move up and down, showing the pace and grip that he liked. His moans were constantly flowing out now as he let go to grip the edges of the sofa and lean back. You started to go a little faster, before slowly right down and placing a kiss on his cheek.

"I heard... from friends that you really like when we use our mouths?" you ask and look at him.

"You dont have to if you don't want to" he groans.

"I- will you enjoy it?" you ask.

"I think i'd enjoy anything you did to me"

"Then i want to do it" you nod and he sits up a little more.

"Okay, get on your knees baby..." he directs and you get to the floor in between his legs.

"You want my help?" he asks and you nod, he takes your hair into a ponytail to keep it out your face.

"Okay, open baby. Remember no teeth baby, it hurts!" he smiles and you start by what you thinks right and go straight in. You gag a little and he pulls you head back from the grip.

"No need to rush hunny. Just start with the head, and then you'll feel a vein on the underside that always feels good, okay? But don't rush to fill your mouth up okay?" he chuckles a little bit as he watches you listen to him.

You start with small movements around his tip, moving your tongue over his slit where pre-cum is leaking out. It was a strange taste that the first few times had your eyes screwing but you slowly got used to it.

You run your tongue along the underside feeling the throbbing vein he was talking about and he went crazy, moaning above you and desperately trying not to thrust up.

You slowly take more and more in your mouth and what you cant fit you decide to use your hands to cover the rest and use the movements you were doing earlier.

"Holy fuck! Are you sure you havent done this before baby?" he asks in shock of how good it feels. Maybe it was just because he was so in love with you that it felt 10x better than he ever had, or maybe you were just a quick learner and good at observing what he liked.

A minute later and he was coming into your mouth, you were quick to swallow all of him and leave his dick with a string of saliva attaching you together.

"Fucking hell baby" he smiles pulling you up onto his lap resting you on top of him, your knees either side of him.

"Was that good?" you ask, shyly. He can only nod as he catches his breathing.

"Your turn!" he smirks, one had on your hip the other one inching up your inner thigh under the skirt you were in. His hands starts to rub your clit through your underwear, and he smiles as your head falls into the crook of his neck and he can feel your breathing pick up against him.

His fingers curl round the edge of your panties pulling them to one side rubbing his fingers through your wet folds.

"Is this all for me baby!" he asks using his free hand to run through your hair as you keep your head in the crook of his neck rocking against his movements. His fingers eventually find there way in, the stretch a little painful at first.

"It's okay, it'll start to feel good in a minute" he says rubbing your back comfortingly.

"Tell me if i should stop yeah?" he asks and you just nod before quickly shaking your head, realising that may have come across as you want him to stop when you really don't now that a coil is building in your stomach and his fingers are feeling incredible inside you.

"Lando!" you whine starting to kiss along his neck and jaw, needing to occupy yourself with something to focus on the growing feeling inside you.

"Fuck baby, the things you do to me!" he exclaims feeling himself get hard again from the whole intimate situation occurring.

In seconds you're letting that coil go, not being able to hold it in any longer and gushing over his fingers. He pulls them out, taking them into his mouth, licking them clean groaning at the taste of you, his gorgeous girlfriend.

"I gotta have a taste of you baby!" he practically whimpers out, before laying you on the sofa and spreading your legs open. You shyly try to shut them but he just tuts.

"Lemme baby please!" he says softly and he stop resisting against his hands. He dives in, nipping and licking at the parts he knows are most sensitive, before devouring you as if your a five course meal. It felt incredible, better than his hands and you legs were shaking the whole time.

Your mind was fuzzy and you could only let out little swear words and his name to let him know just how good he was making you feel.

And only minutes later and you were releasing into his awaiting mouth where he fully cleaned you up. He draw back, a small sheen on his nose and corners of his mouth from your release that had you blushing.

"Lets finish this in the bedroom yeah?" he asks and you nod eagerly as he picks you up tossing your over his shoulder, giving your arse a light tap on the way out that had you giggling and squealing.

He places you gently on the bed hovering over you. He starts to take the rest of the clothing that was left on you off and chucking it to the floor before he starts to take his own off. He reaches into the bedside draw, grabbing a condom and opening it with his teeth before rolling it on.

"You are so beautiful baby! Are you ready?" he smiles, now lining himself up with your entrance. You hesitate for a split second, before remembering its your incredibly kind and beautiful and caring boyfriend Lando above you right now who wouldn't dream of hurting you.

"Yes" you nod, and he slowly starts to push himself into your warm, wet caverns. He moans at the tight feeling of you, kissing across your neck and collarbone trying to help you un-tense a little.

"Baby, you gotta relax" he guides you, starting to play with your boobs to get you feeling good. He pushes in a little more when he feels that you arent tensing as much and you sigh.

"Woah, your so big!" you exclaim, thinking he'd bottomed out from the stretch as you try regain your breath.

"Baby... hate to break it to you but I'm only halfway inside you" he laughs with a chuckle, nearly loosing his balance on his forearms that he is using to hold himself steady above you.

"What?" you ask opening your eyes too look at your laughing boyfriend.

"Thank you for the compliment though baby, that makes me feel really good about myself" he says honesty before he pushes the full way in, finally bottoming out. You wiggle a little trying to get comfortable before giving him a nod where he starts to move in and out of you.

It starts to progressively feel better and better to the point where you can start meeting his thrusts to make it a little quicker. The sounds in the room are anything but innocent, both of your breathy moans and your high pitched whines when he reaches in between you to rub circles on your clit and the sound of slapping skin.

"Lando fuck! I love you" you cry as the pressure builds up and up.

"I fucking love you too" he breathes out, his thrusts coming a little sloppier.

And soon your both releasing at the same time as he pulls you in closer to him, almost laying all his weight on you.

"I'm like so glad we had that talk!" Lando laughs pulling himself up to look at you.

"Me too, I cant wait for you to show me more!" you grin pulling him into a kiss making him groan and grab the pillow to put over his face. He was exhausted but ... round 2 sounded like a shout.

Taglist:

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[hoasens]

Vietnam and Máu Xanh Lá Cây

I always thought about how vivi wears a green áo dài, hima never goes into why he chose this color instead of more common áo dài colors, such as white and pastels. here i’ll break down some color symbolism and history and what it means for her design!

green universally represents:

nature, freshness, rebirth, renewal, peace

vietnam in her first depictions is reserved, quiet, and keeps mostly to herself, so the green makes sense for a character such as her.

but we can go deeper:

green in vietnam:

green and blue both are called màu xanh, to differentiate the two colors you would say màu xanh cây, meaning tree color.

màu xanh lá cây holds the universal meanings of green, but it also symbolizes femininity and fertility in vietnamese culture!

hima based vietnam off strong women in viet history, so a color that is associated with femininity compliments vietnam’s pretty feminist character.

green can be paired with red, mostly to do with courtship and marriage, it has some erotic meaning too, hence the fertility part of the color.

green can also be paired with blue, in ancient vietnam it was worn by those of high rank and status. generally green wasn’t worn alone or as the main color of a garment because it was thought to look unappealing because it made the skin tone appear darker.

modern day

color symbolism of áo dài has changed a lot with european and western influences. for example, white is a popular color for weddings and everyday life yet it once was worn for funerals in the lý dynasty.

so at the end of the day, vivi may just wear green áo dài because it looks good! and that’s probably what hima thought when designing her.

but i love to give deeper meaning and over analyze, because it’s fun, so hopefully this was interesting to you.

[fatehbaz]

85% of natural asphalt is found in the Western hemisphere; the most famous asphalt field is probably the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, but the largest reserves are in Alberta, which hold an estimated 2.2 trillion barrels. In addition to the natural reserves, asphalt has, for the last 100 years, primarily been produced by refining crude oil residue. Asphalt’s most common use is as the binder in blacktop; aggregate makes up the remaining 95% of the dark mix we see on roads and highways. [...]

The largest antique source of asphalt was the Dead Sea, where chunks of seafloor asphalt periodically broke off and rose to the surface. In ancient Egypt, this asphalt was used to waterproof boats [...], as well as roads, canals, and roofs, and it was prized enough that Alexander the Great’s general Antigonus started -- and lost -- a war with the Nabataean Arabs over the Dead Sea’s asphalt. [...]

Asphalt was rare in road construction until it hit the big time in 1867 with the asphalting of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Soon Washington was an “asphalt city,” and the quiet, smooth streets inspired other cities to follow suit. Paving became ever more important with the popular rise of bicycles and then cars. At the turn of the century, refined asphalt was developed and largely supplanted natural asphalt due to its higher quality and volume. This was also the time when concrete emerged as a road paving material, and a competition between concrete and asphalt emerged [...].

O’Reilly closely associates war and asphalt. In World War II, asphalt served many purposes. From the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to Tinian in the Northern Marianas, Navy construction battalions used asphalt to construct airfields and roads on short notice. Over 17,000 tons of asphalt were brought ashore during the Normandy landings. [...] During the Vietnam War, building asphalt runways was fundamental to the American policy of aerial bombardment. Asphalt has continued to be the material of choice for ad-hoc roads and runways built during the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

---

Text by: Alexander Luckmann. “Asphalt and Sand: A Material History of Extraction and Consumption.” Cleveland Review of Books. 13 May 2022.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Camps

A FEW FRIENDS AND COMRADES WENT DOWN TO THE shoreline and set up a small camp. A fire pit was set up, some fresh water brought down, a few posts and beams erected to define the area and as something for us to secure windbreaks to. Meanwhile, several of us gathered rock salt, pickling vinegar, capers, pickles, and food grade buckets. I phoned my mother on the East Coast of Canada to ask for a recipe and any tips she might have.

Believe it or not, even though I’m only 46 years old, my mom grew up making her own soap from animal fat, churning her own butter, collecting nuts, weaving wool, harvesting firewood with horses and sleighs, etc. Her family lived with hardly any money. They 1 id just enough from selling hazelnuts along the highway, firewood from their land, and other small initiatives to pay their property taxes, buy oil and flour and a few other basics. In one generation all these skills have been lost in our family. While my mother mourns her childhood, she does so with much reservation. It was all too much work, she complains. I think this is because the effort was done in the context of her family, without the deep roots of true village ways. Pioneer ways are different than a context of communal activity among others with whom we have strong kinship ties.

It so happened that a comrade from Mauvaise Herbe, a green anarchist group in Montreal, was visiting. He came to the little camp and we had a talk about their activity and ours, shared some perspectives and gathered some fresh oysters to roast and eat. One of the things we talked about was the “individual self” and its development. He related how some tribes people from the Vietnam area traditionally didn’t use the word I, but rather usually spoke about themselves from the perspective of the relationship that they were engaged in at the moment of talking. For instance a person speaking to an uncle would say: “niece wants to walk with uncle.” An individual without a community to rely on, to share the demands and desires for shelter and food and intimacy, for example, becomes groundless and atomized. Clearly, we need to be embedded within a group of people. And a group of people has the best chance of enduring and thriving if embedded in a place.

A couple of friends got hold of a zodiac and ventured into the water armed with a video camera to document the commercial fishery. It was risky. Bobbing around in extremely choppy waters in a rubber dinghy trying to videotape a bunch of fishers who likely weren’t too sure whether or not they wanted to allow it. After all, if anyone gets a lot of finger pointing from self-righteous urban environmentalists and activists, it’s the rural wage slaves who do all the primary extraction and plundering of resources for urban civilization: loggers, fishers, miners, etc. Thanks to our three brave friends, we have a few hours of documentation to use in our arsenal for future use. But at that point we still hadn’t gathered any herring.

Each day for about a week, a dedicated bunch us went down to the camp and waited to determine whether the herring had begun to fill the waters enough so that we could stand along the shoreline and net them, which is how it normally happens. The fish become so plentiful, that simply by dipping a net into the water, one can gather as many as a half dozen herring at a time! While they waited, they collected oysters and roasted them over the fire, and explained to others from our island community what they were up to. During that time many local friends, neighbors and comrades from urban centers came and went. Some were just curious, but most were hoping to learn something and to participate in this subsistence approach to living.

One reason why this attempt to learn and feed ourselves and understand one of the natural cycles of our region that was so appealing to our neighbors was that it wasn’t about politics. Some called it our protest camp, others the herring camp, just tl. . camp or even Vali’s camp, after one of the core people who initiated the energy around it. But the days weren’t intended on being spent arguing with politicians, trying to recruit members or handing our petitions. Here was a chance to feed ourselves, to build a culture not based on wage work, to learn new skills, and sadly, to witness and document another plunder. The small camp also reminded me of how little autonomous space we actually have. Apart from our local pirate radio station ( yeah, we’re on air!), situated in a small trailer, and a small autonomous zone on a separate beach created by other locals, all we have are each other’s homes to visit or commercial ventures to hang out in. But this was/is different. I think some of us would like to see a campsite or two permanently on our shoreline, regardless of the outcome of the herring fishery.

Eventually some fish were gathered and brought back to one of our homes. They were killed, their heads removed, then gutted and scales shed. Then after splitting them in two, the fillets were spread with mustard, wrapped around capers and pickles and placed in a bucket of pickling vinegar and onions, to be eaten at a later time. We didn’t succeed in filling our hampers for the next several months, in fact we barely harvested any, but we took a first step. That’s how all great dreams are realized. Hopefully next year we’ll be a little luckier and a little more experienced. Maybe eventually local kids will stay out of school, comrades will come visit from urban centers and we’ll all spend a few weeks just gutting and pickling herring as an extended group of friends, neighbors and rebels. Over time we will feel compelled to defend the ecological integrity of these waters and to protect the herring that dwell in them and which help sustain us.

[famousinuniverse]

Vietnamese Cultural Dress

The Ao Dai and Non La, the 2 most singinficant dresses of Vietnamese Culture 

The cultural dress of Vietnam is called Ao Dai, meaning "long top". It has been a part of Vietnamese culture since 1774, when it was ordered by Vo Vuong and made mandatory to wear by the Nguyen government. The women wear a long tunic which is long-sleeved, has a high neckline and slits cut down to the waist. It is paired with comfortable trousers, usually white or black in colour. Men also wear the same thing, except that their tunic is shorter than that of a woman's and not slitted. The dress is made up of cotton only, keeping in mind the weather conditions of the country. The colour of a woman's ao dai reflected their marital status as well. White colour was worn by young girls, pastel colour dress by unmarried and bright colours by married women. At present times, the colours do not really reflect what a woman's age/marital status is, because they wear any colour of their choice.

Ao dai is often paired with non la, the cultural hats in Vietnam. The cone-shaped hats are made up of palm leaves and provide shelter from both rain and sunlight.

Vietnamese traditional dress: insights and traditions

Vietnam is a country of diversity, with more than 50 ethnic groups and an array of mountainous and urban communities with a whole host of different traditions. The variety of Vietnamese traditional dress is therefore vast, with some prominent and subtle differences in various parts of the country.

Ao Dai

This is one of the best-known pieces of Vietnamese traditional dress, most commonly worn by women. It consists of a long, fitted silk tunic worn over loose trousers. While young girls often wear white ao dai to reflect their purity, older girls who aren’t yet married tend to wear soft pastel colours. Rich and bright colours are usually worn by married women. The first version of the ao dai dates back to the 1740s, but the look of the ao dai today dates back to the 1930s, when a chicer version of the garment was designed, influenced by the French fashion houses. Men do wear ao dai too, but this is usually reserved for special occasions.

Ao Tu Than

This four-piece dress was mostly worn by women in the north of Vietnam. It is largely obsolete now, but can still be seen worn at special festivals and events in Vietnam, such as Tet.

Ao Ba Ba

This two-piece outfit is worn by both men and women. It’s more common in southern Vietnam, particularly around the Mekong Delta, and consists of a long-sleeved, buttoned silk shirt with a scooped neck and high splits from the bottom up on each side, worn with silk trousers.

Ao Gam

This traditional outfit is worn by Vietnamese men at special occasions. Described as a brocade tunic, the material is thicker than the ao dai and other forms of traditional dress.

Conical Hat

The conical hat (non la) is a common hat spotted in Vietnam. It originally had a practical use as it helped to keep the rain of peoples’ faces as they worked in rice paddies or in other outdoor jobs. It also helped protect the face from the strong sun. They’re made with natural local materials, usually bamboo, palm leaves or tree bark. The shape of the conical hats means they have even more practical uses than this, also used to carry shopping from the market or as a bowl to drink water from!

Ethnic dress

Ethnic groups who live in the more remote hills, mountains and lowlands each have their own distinctive style of traditional dress. The origins of the different styles of dress are usually led by practical matters. For example, people who live in lowland regions often live in houses on stilts over the water. They tend to wear more practical trousers, but shirts have symbols inspired by their surroundings, such as forest flowers. People who live in the mountains tend to wear garments that are easy for working in the fields and traversing mountain passes. However, one thing all such traditional costumes have in common are bright colours and genuine creativity in terms of design.

Silk

Vietnam is a country which produces a huge amount of silk. This tradition is rooted in history – King Ly Thai Tong was encouraging silk production in Vietnam as far back as the year 1,000 – in a drive to further Vietnam’s economic development. Continuing to this day, silk garments can now be found across Vietnam. As well as ao dai made from silk, many people also wear silk shirts and scarves. Interestingly, silk painting is another typical Vietnamese tradition.

Vietnamese traditional dress gives amazing insights into the colourful country of Vietnam. Join us on small group tours to find off-the-beaten track localities and traditions in Vietnam

Vietnamese traditional dress: insights and traditions (mrlinhadventure.com)

[drstonetrivia]

Ace of Spades

Cards come up a lot in Dr. Stone, such as joker cards, trump cards, or even the whole deck, but the concept of aces, specifically from the spade suit, come up a lot more.

We'll start by considering aces as a whole...

...Or aces in the hole, as Ginro and Suika have been referred to in the past. chapters 107 and 108 have matching ace-related titles thanks to them hiding away on the Perseus. Together, the pair make the double aces that save the day!

For those not familiar with the term, an ace in the hole means "a hidden advantage or resource kept in reserve until needed", which suits the way the Kingdom of Science operates. They wait until the last moment to reveal their plan, to dramatic effect.

If it's not spoiled beforehand, that is.

On the topic of double aces, the poker game that occurs in chapter 144 results in 5 aces being shown at the end.

The doubled card? The ace of spades.

(If you were wondering who had the imposter card, it looks like Senku had it. The size of the middle spade is smaller than the other cards, comparatively.)

So who was the ace? Senku, for winning the game? Ryusui, for getting what he wanted with the casino? Both of them had the ace of spades card, which is generally considered the highest card in the whole deck, but everyone involved in that game is an ace in their own right.

The only one who didn't get what they wanted in that particular instance was Gen, who was frustrated by his loss.

So let's look at one of Gen's ace-related wins: the gambit against Moz on Treasure Island.

Gen's opening move was to distract Moz momentarily using the still-unstabilised drone. The drone here is an ace for two reasons: first, to draw Moz's eye away from Gen so he can sneak closer, and second to make the Kingdom of Science seem more powerful than they actually are.

Gen uses his weak card against Moz, who is the strongest card in the Treasure Island deck.

Gen may have bluffed his way forward, but ultimately Moz never stood a chance against Gen, the man whose entire skill set revolves around manipulating cards...

Being the highest and most valuable card in the deck, the ace of spades isn't immune to superstition. One of the main superstitions marks it as an omen of bad luck.

This seems to follow in Dr Stone too with those associated with the card: Moz's loss against Hyoga, Ryusui's 5 petrifications, Senku's constant bad luck, the fate of the drone, ace pilot Charlotte crashing, Tsukasa's deaths*...

(*I'll get to that last one in a moment)

The other superstition around the card is how the ace of spades became known as the "death card". Military units used to use it as their symbol as it was the highest in the deck, and during the Vietnam war scattering the cards was used as a fear tactic.

The origin of the suit is also military in nature: the design is based on the pike or halberd, two European polearms.

The name itself likely came from the word for sword, similar to Spanish's "espada".

So now we have the final question:

Who in Dr Stone encapsulates the ace of spades card best? Who is simultaneously the strongest, unlucky, surrounded by death and also has roots relating to warfare?

If you guessed Tsukasa, you're right!

He was introduced as the Strongest High School Primate by Taiju, has a sad backstory and is constantly being separated from Mirai, has died twice now and uses an enormous sword wider than a shovel (that sword is the real spade here).

In case you still have doubts, even Stanley agrees! In chapter 189, Stanley's mind conjures up the ace of spades for Tsukasa, along with the ace of hearts for Kohaku and the ace of clubs for Hyoga.

Interestingly, cards with enemy faces printed on them were issued during the Iraq war (most-wanted Iraqi playing cards, if you're curious), so I wonder if this is why Stanley was thinking of them in terms of playing cards...

Also going back to the Vietnam war connection, both the battle in c.188 and the Vietnam war used guerrilla warfare tactics: launching attacks from hiding and using the terrain to your advantage.

In conclusion, the ace of spades repeatedly comes up in Dr Stone, but the only person it truly suits (haha) is none other than Tsukasa Shishio.

[sternevogn]

ok hear me out rq. what i'm abt to say may be a tad odd .

but knight enjoyers. hear me out .

i like to think that the knight has a hobby of collecting teeth. no i don't mean human teeth. most of what's on the helmet was already there.

but i like to think he has a taxonomy hobby and branching from that he has a strange collection of fallen teeth he's found; not necessarily from corpses but just things he's found.

i think his favourites are in fact shark teeth and snake fangs ...

ok actually just . let me ramble about the knight for a second idk smth just took a hold of me. sorry .

-------------------------------------------------------

i kind of also think he's gone back to old battlefields thinking about the battles he's seen as way of kind of coping with them. like he walks around and gives himself the time to process what happened.

he definitely does deal with PTSD though, you couldn't convince me otherwise. he has been through things. and because he's very reserved and doesn't really express his emotions- not even to people close to him, like kirk- it gives him a pretty explosive temper, and just... outburst of emotions in general. so when kirk DOES see, he's very careful to be gentle and understanding, and it calms knight down pretty quickly. even though kirk reassures him it's okay to show his emotions, he's very against it and quick to mask again.

going back to the PTSD thing, he has frequent nightmares. often he'll wake up in a cold sweat. and other times he finds himself lost in the memories. kirk will catch it happening sometimes and do his best to ground knight as best as he can. it's one of the rare times the knight will give a soft "thank you" to kirk.

and additionally with the explosive emotions thing, i do think that it's natural but generally harmless- without consequence, i mean. but the thing with alice? yeah, remember that? i do. that's the kind of consequence the extreme build-up causes. no, it's not okay. yes, it's fucked up. it only got so bad it became so violent in THAT sense because kirk wasn't there. kirk, the only person who understood him, was gone. he had no one to turn to, so what happened as consequence? the build up of extreme emotions. from the thoughts plaguing him of vietnam to watching his brother fall apart before running away- never to be seen again, the knight thought- and then finding out about the lunarians, or lack thereof- and THEN the queen absolutely fucking humanity UP- the knight's knowledge of everything weighed so heavily on him and he had no outlet. he was blinded by the horrors of which he and his brother had faced by the hands of man and war. it drove him mad. all of it did.

and he knew he fucked up. it ate at him so deeply too, after what he did to alice- he couldn't fathom he'd hurt an innocent person, one who'd had such deep faith and belief in him and his brother. he knew, in a sense, her retelling of kirk's life story was meant to reach people. to show his strife and struggle. but he knew how deeply that story affected kirk, and how he was ashamed of some of what had happened- that added onto it.

the knight grieved. he grieved so deeply for what he'd done, what he'd lost, everything plagued him.

but the memories of his own world- the world he had lost- suddenly surfaced. he realised, "oh. there's more to this." and then he found out about nixon.

he tried to show to the avenues that he really hadn't meant what he'd done- he knew well that his emotions had got the better of him. but he wanted to prove she was still alive. with them. he ended up freeing the alcatraz matter into its natural state, altering his appearance. altering HIM.

next thing you know, he does his best to reverse his mistakes. to make everything right again. so he stopped the queen by killing her (which is something he knew far too well, being a man of war and seeing this as one). and then, he sacrificed himself, as the alcatraz matter instantly copied and replaced all of america.

it was all he knew.

as long as there is a war, i'll keep on fighting.

it's part of who i am.

OK SORRY!!!! I SUDDENLY JUST WENT OFF ABOUT THE KNIGHT'S WHOLE STORY LMFAO anyways yeah uh ! ignore this or Don't i don't care HELP

[wheelercore]

Vecna targets holly because obviously the fate of every small blonde white girl in stranger things has to be cruel death as a result of the sins of the father (and sometimes the grandfather) re: hoppers whole cancer sperm thing due to his father pressuring him to serve in vietnam and victor killing a family in ww2 so alice is merc-ed and ted [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. Bear with me. Which is like such a Thing because steves father forces him to get the job and billys father forced him to find max and eddies father got him into some scheme for money and lonnie trying to force his sons to be "masculine" and brenner training el to kill etc etc and its like OOOOOOH the show is actually full of children being forced to do things they dont want to do by their father figures!

Rlly what im saying here is that lonnie forcing jonathan to shoot rabbits -> nancy being a natural shot (like as if she inherented the skill 2 kill) -> alice being symbolized by a rabbit (show henry kills the rabbit and leaves it for alice to find) -> alices death still to this day never being confirmed as henry being the killer, even in tfs (i didnt watch the play so idk what the timeline is on that).

(An eye for an eye or a dead blonde little girl (holly) for a dead blonde little girl (alice) so to say).

To add, there being no throwaway lines is so funny because all this makes me think about a s4 tedkaren (ofc) interaction where ted says "anything is possible" in response to hellfire possibly being the killers of chrissy and fred then karen snaps that their kids are not "murderers" - ted then says thats not what he meant and that shes putting words in his mouth.

Ofc instinctively we side with karen looking at it on the surface (we know, as the audience, that hellfire is not the killers and ppl are biased towards karen anyways) but the show's subtext itself tells us repeatedly that otherwise good "normal" people can be turned into murderers if the circumstances present themselves. El is a murderer (girl has a body count). Fred benson is a murderer. Victor creel is a murderer. Henry, a normal kid by all means, was turned into a murderer against his will. Hell, murray even tells hopper to tone his violent behavior down in s3 if my memory serves me correctly. Would Karen say El is not a murderer by her metric?

Ofc not to be hard on karen here, shes speaking as a worried mother, but really what she is saying here is that they cant be murderers because "murderer" is a label reserved for people who are just inherently bad, serial killers in 80s slashers like billy loomis, jason vorhees, and freddy kreugar. Not "normal" middle class kids who grew up in stable homes. And of course, beyond the text, the aformentioned 3 killers are turned upon their head in ST: billy har/grove, jason carver, and fred benson. With good intention, karen displays the typical black and white thinking of your white middle class american of that period, not even considering the idea that someone "normal" could be groomed, brainwashed, or traumatized by a predator into doing horrible things they wouldnt otherwise do, because in order to do those things there needs to be something inherently wrong or "broken" in you.

Funnily enough, ted does give the nuanced subtext-approved take but just very badly worded and not at all delivered with tact which is typical of him (hes a pov-less mfer to make it worse). But also hellfire werent murderers so thats a point against him, but his take was 4th wall approved. Because again, we see it happen to henry.

But really im also very correct because the admitted initial inspiration for st is literally a movie about how a serial killer brainwashes and traumatizes one of her victims into being an accomplice to child murder lmao.

[haggishlyhagging]

The question of man-hating among radical women seems like the most difficult one to get up a serious discussion on. And you really feel crummy dragging it all out again only to encounter the raised eyebrows, the surprised expressions, voices vibrating with moral indignation; or worse yet, some cute joke and a round of hearty chuckles completely destroying your point. But hold on! Before you get indignant, before you make your little joke, allow me to try to convince you that man-hating is a valid and vital issue.

Hatred is certainly an observable human fact. And since women are human—not a link between man and the ape—not some innocuous, shadowy, fairy-tale version of the Man— since this is so, hatred, hostility and resentment probably exist somehow in us. And, further, since many of us have already come to the conclusions of feminism—that equal status and opportunity with the male is necessary to our full human existence the realization of our past and continued subjugation has most likely aroused in us some sentiment resembling hatred. Now, each of us, in denying our hatred and explaining our astonishing magnanimity, relies upon some common argument. Among the most common:

Argumentum ad Sexus:

"Men and women are made for each other sexually. I am perfectly 'normal.' Therefore, I must certainly love men."

Answer:

Many men engage in sexual intercourse, often extensively, even marry, while yet hating women. These men are called misogynists. Now, there is no shame in being a misogynist. It is a perfectly respectable attitude. Our whole society (including too many of the women in it) hates women. Perhaps we need a Latin or Greek derivative in place of "man-hating" to make the perfect symmetry of the two attitudes more obvious.

Argumentum ad Superioritus:

"Hate man? No! Definitely not! We must understand them; they depend upon us to show them how to love."

Answer:

This argument is based upon the "Natural Superiority of Women." We are congenitally incapable of hatred. It is our mysterious XX chromosomal structure. Failing to "understand" the man is a perversion of our second nature. Brushing aside forever the utterly unprovable fiction of our second nature, and speaking purely from personal experience, it would seem, on the whole, that people do not react to oppression with Love. I mean the poison seeps out somehow. Sometimes aggressively on those in an even meaner position; sometimes taking the form of an all-pervading and impotent resentment—a petty and spiteful attitude. When women take their hatred out on others, those others are likely to be other women, particularly their own daughters. In doing so they reconcile their own impulse for an object of hate with the demands of an authoritarian system which requires all hate and spite to be directed downward, while respect and "understanding" are reserved for higher-ups, thus keeping nearly everyone supplied with pre-ordained and relatively powerless victims.

Anyway, all arguments which tend to suppress the recognition of man-hating in our midst are reducible to this: fear. Man-hating is a subversive and therefore dangerous sentiment. Men, who control definition, have made of it a disgusting perversion. We have heen unable to get out from under their definition. I've been at meetings where women actually left because they thought that "man-haters" were on the loose. One woman talked to me in awe and disgust about a woman who she felt had made an anti-male statement at a meeting. It has been the cause of a deep rift within Women's Liberation. It is a vital issue because it involves ultimately the way we feel about ourselves, and how far we are willing to go in our own behalf.

Hatred and Man-Hating

There is no dearth of hatred in the world, I agree. But the thing is, people keep on hating the wrong people. For instance, a lot of people apparently believe that we must fight to preserve our freedom against little Vietnam. Whites, just now stepping out of poverty themselves, arm against the "menace" of the Poor and the Blacks. Upper-middle-class radical snobs despise the class of Whites just beneath them. And men hate women. Our hatred is such a shoddy and confused emotion. We indulge in the most circuitous and illogical prejudices. We have never given the idea of hating someone who has actually done something hateful to us a chance. Oh, I know we ought to hate the sin and love the sinner. But too often we end up loving the sinner and hating his victim (as when one woman seeing another put down, or hearing about her unhappy affair, calls it masochism and that's the end of it ).

If hatred exists (and we know it does), let it be of a robust variety. If it is a choice between woman-hating and man-hating, let it be the latter. Let us resolve to respond immediately and directly to injury instead of taking it all out on a more likely victim. It is a difficult stance because it requires a fidelity to what is real in us and neither innocuous nor attractive to oppressors, to that part of you which turned you on to feminism in the first place. That part which is really human and cannot submit.

-Pamela Kearon, ‘Man-Hating’ in Radical Feminism, Koedt et al (eds.)

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Japanese paradise flycatchers are one of the migratory birds that visit the Tien Hai Nature Reserve, Vietnam.

Image by Hiyashi Haka via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

[workersolidarity]

The top 10% of wealthy Americans now own 70% of national wealth and nearly 90% of all stocks

When all the wealth, property and assets of a country are owned by a small minority of the population, what's even the point of Private Property other than to make sure it never benefits ordinary Americans?

Private Property is a scam. Most Americans will never own Property, stocks, bonds, or other major assets.

Eliminate Private Property and return the assets of the United States to its people and return a large portion as reparations to victims of US Imperialism: Native American Nations, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, the DPRK, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Serbia, Palestine, Iraq, Panama, Venezuela, Honduras, Columbia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Cuba, Grenada, Haiti, and nearly the entire sub-saharan African continent.

Even some places the US has never entered militarily have still been destroyed by US Economic Imperialism such as Argentina or Sri Lanka.

The US's favorite weapon of choice when Military options aren't available or prudent is, of course, the IMF.

By virtue of being the world's reserve currency, the US dollar enjoys privileges no other economy does. It can seemingly endlessly print money to fund wars across the globe without any major inflation. This is because, as the world's reserve currency, the US Dollar is always in demand, and so never suffers the kind of inflation Argentina or Sri Lanka might. As long as dollars are in demand, inflation can be staved off.

Meanwhile, other countries must purchase dollars in their own currencies in order to conduct trade. These other countries that don't enjoy "special relationships" with the US like Britain, France or Germany must purchase US dollars at exchange rates favorable to the US since the entire trade system is dominated by US institutions, and therefore the institutions of Wall Street.

If another country tries to print money the way the US does, no one in the West will buy their currency, cratering the currency's value and spiking inflation.

So while other countries must produce surplus value in order to purchase US dollars, the US sits back and collects that surplus value even as the US doesn't even have to produce value to get dollars, it can just print them as they recently printed up $300 BILLION DOLLARS to bail out the super rich depositors at the failed Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic Bank and Signature Bank.

And so, when a country fails to purchase US Dollars and is facing bankruptcy, in swoops the IMF with emergency loans.

These loans not only have to be paid back in full with disadvantageous interest rates, but come with conditions for "Structural Adjustment", in other words, Neoliberal "reforms" that require the country receiving the loans to sell off public assets such as SOEs to the US and its allies, eliminates or reduce public pensions, eliminate wage protections, job safety and public safety regulations, benefits such as paid family leave and sick days, restrict collective bargaining rights, Union and worker rights, along with eliminating things like the minimum wage and limiting social spending, infrastructure funding and even their Healthcare system, all while making a Nation's natural resources available to Western Corporations to steal and exploit.

It's truly Imperialism at its most efficient. First the US created a global financial system that makes it difficult to impossible for impoverished nations to dig themselves out of a hole.

Then the US provides loans with conditions that weaken the state and its people's rights to fight the changes to come. The loans themselves overburden the nation and quickly bankrupt it, forcing the country to go crawling back to the IMF for even MORE Structural Adjustments that further weaken the state's ability to intervene in the economy to help its people while further bankrupting the country.

And the cycle just keeps repeating while the US sucks the wealth, resources and manpower out of its victim.

And so, the US owes reperations across the globe for it's Military AND Economic Imperialism.

And even after reparations have been paid, there will still be plenty of wealth left in the US to make its Working Class healthier, happier and wealthier across the board.

Organize to fight the US Capitalists and Imperialists now!

Join your local Socialist/Communist Party or Organization and start fighting for REVOLUTION!

[traveltricksblog]

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[darthkieduss]

Try

Revolution doesn't just happen overnight. It can happen spontaneously, yes, but it builds and builds and builds until it can no longer be contained. The need for freedom, liberty and justice will become a force so massive that the government in Washington DC will not be able to ignore or write off as "tiktok kid activism". It is up to every single one of us to contribute to the revolution.

Oppression is not natural. Freedom is the nature of all life forms, not just us humans. While some animals such as the dog or cat can definitely survive better in a house under control of a human, I've never seen a dog more happy then when you let them outside. To control people, whether it be because of some dumb book written 2,000 years ago (by man not God) or because of some obsession with maintaining "order" is an act of narcissism. To think that one has a right to control what living breathing beings can do with their lives is a blatant act of claiming that they are gods over humanity.

Remember this: It is not natural to be controlled. If you are spiritual or super religious, God (or gods) gave us free will for a reason. If you are an atheist, then free will comes from nature. Governments try to control people because they are afraid. President Thomas Jefferson himself coined the phrase: When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The government tries to control people because like most men, they fear losing their power and wealth. They seek to control to preserve their power. That's why the government will commit atrocities like opening fire on striking workers like the Kent State shootings against students protesting the Vietnam War or the 1927 Columbine Mine massacre against coal miners simply striking for better wages and benefits. It is inhumane to control people. Sure, government has to exist. I'm not an anarchist, but the amount of control the US government has exhibited since 1981 is unconstitutional and must be opposed.

Reform is not the answer. Reform is just a bandage on a wound that needs stitches. Change is needed but change through reform is like a drug addict thinking he's kicking drugs by simply only doing drugs once a week. True Revolution happens when the opium is completely thrown out and destroyed. In order for true change to happen, it must come through sudden revolution. We must uphaul the system and like a phoenix, rebirth this country from its ashes.

It does sometime seem like it's impossible. "What can I do? I'm just one person and the US government has the military." Remember this, we outnumber them. The US military has 1,328,000+ active servicemen, with 800,000+ reserve while the US population is 334,914,895 (2023 concenus). Ordinary peasants took down the Czar's Armies and ruled Russia for 74 years. In many revolutions, those were in the military sided with the people, such as the French and Russian Revolutions. Hell, a vast number of those who swore an allegiance to King George III took off their redcoats and pledged their lives to the cause of the American Revolution. When enough soldiers see what is happening, they will dissent and swell our ranks. The British Empire was the most powerful military in the world at that time and we won, though we would've lost without France's assistance so don't get arrogant.

I know revolution seems impossible especially with all the propaganda that Fox News, CNN, MSNBC etc pop out everyday. Remember the Soviets and the Nazis shoved propaganda throughout their empires and both fell, people in both nations rose up against the far-left communism and far-right fascism. The British government often used propaganda, including religious propaganda, to ensure that their American subjects should be loyal to the King and yet we've been an indepenet country since 1783. The Russian government under Putin commands obedience and tells its people tremendous lies about its illegal war in Ukraine and yet millions of Russian people protest him. The Israelis claim that anyone who opposes Israel or its actions (genocide) against Palestinians in Gaza is Anti-Semitic and yet people all around the world, including here in the US, protest Israel.

It's also quite possible that multiple revolutions must happen in order for the big one to come about. The Soviet Union didn't come about because of one revolution in 1917 but of two. The people rose up against the Czar in February of 1917 only for sadly the extremist Bolsheviks to conquer Russia in the October Revolution of 1917. Our own American Revolution took over 10 years to ignite, starting with the British Parliament passing the Stamp Act in 1765 to the firing of shots at Lexington and Concord in 1775. The American Revolution occurred across thirteen colonies. So really, the American Revolution was about multiple revolutions exploding throughout the Colonies that united to form the United States of America.

This is not a shot at conservatism or leftism. Both the Democrat and Republican Parties have taken rights from Americans, from the Republicans passing the Patriot Act (essentially gutting the Bill of Rights) after 9/11 and Democrats not allowing that proto-fascist act to expire (it's set to expire every five years but the government under both parties keep delaying the expiration). This is an outline on how revolution must happen. Both parties have allowed the wealthy elite to plunder this nation and steal from the working class to ensure they have all the money and power (one is definitely more guilty than the other but I digress) .

Remember this: Revolutions happen because the people demand it. When enough people have tried method after method of chaning the system peacefully, what other alternative do they have left other than Revolution? Every protest, whether it's on the left or right, puts out in front of the people the failures of the government. Millions of women are to this day protesting that the supreme court has stripped them of their constitutional right to bodily autonomy. Millions of people around the world are in the streets protesting the genocidal act of Putin's Russia and Netenyahu's Israel.

Maybe it is hopeless. Maybe I'm just wasting time on this post. Most likely no one will see it. But I have to try. I would rather die on my feet then live on my knees. If I could do this fight against tyranny all over again, the only thing I'd change is the year it happened. Never give up. Even if you don't live to see the results. Even if you fail. Even if the government comes to your house to take you away. Your example will inspire others to rise up. We have to try. Change doesn't happen because we bowed our heads and went along to get along. And sometimes you have to out yourself. Sometimes you have to call out your alcoholic racist uncle at Thanksgiving. Even if your family turns against you.

Remember this: revolutions don't happen because of one person. George Washington didn't defeat the British at Yorktown all himself. It took the courage, bravery and sacrifice of thousands of brave American men and women. Even children, as proven by then 13 year old Andrew Jackson. Napoleon didn't start the French revolution. Vladimir Lenin didn't start the Russian Revolution. It's up to all of us. To lead by example.

We will sacrifice, we will struggle but ultimately we will triumph.

Let me end this with the manifesto of Karis Nemik, a character from the Andor series (a really good Star Wars series despite my preference for Star Wars Legends). Consider these words and take them to heart:

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this: Try.

[theartindetails]

“A Lens into Vietnam’s Serenity” - 12/27/2023

📍Van Long Lagoon, Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam

Van Long Lagoon, located in the Ninh Binh Province of Vietnam, is known as the “bay without waves” and “inland Ha Long Bay.” It is the largest wetland reserve in the northern delta region. The lagoon is calming with its serene waters, surrounded by limestone mountains covered in vegetation. It’s home to a diversity of flora and fauna.

As I visited this serene lagoon, I felt a connection with the rhythms of nature. From the gentle ripples of the water’s surface and gentle breeze, my senses seemed heightened to the subtle beauty around me. As we travelled through the winding waterways, my body felt lifted seeing the beauty of nature. I felt a sense of peace and belonging. While we didn’t encounter much wildlife, there is an abundance of animals and plants that live around the water. As we glided on the waters surface, my mind quieted. I felt present in the moment, allowing me to appreciate the serenity of nature.