Culture Shock

Observations While In Vietnam

If you have not practice defensive driving, Viet Nam is a good place to start

Sometimes it makes me wonder if they have highway code tests

WHY?

The ratio of motorcyclists versus motor vehicles

WATCH OUT FOR THE MOTORCYCLISTS

- Safety helmets is a fashion item. They have all sorts of designs, most of them would not have pass our safety standards

- Talking on your mobile while riding your motorbike

- Sit up to four to a motorcycle (grown-ups)

- Motorcyclists or cyclists riding abreast as if they own the road

- Motorcyclists riding in the middle of single lane road

- Motorcyclists filtering from a minor road to a major road without looking out for oncoming vehicles. It is amazing as I have still not seen a single accident of such nature during my time in Viet Nam

BUS PASSENGERS - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

- Get on the bus as fast as you can as the bus driver does not wait for you to get on before moving off

- Get off the bus as fast as you can as the bus driver does not wait for you to alight before moving off

- The bus driver decides at his pleasure whether to stop and pick up passengers

PADESTRIANS

- Walking across a major circle/road crossing without a care to the world

HOW NOT TO "RUN OVER" ROAD USERS

- Blowing your car or motorcycle horn every five minutes (sometimes it makes me wonder if it has become a habit)

- Be ready to do emergency stop

WHAT ELSE?

- Passengers on buses get motion sickness. Plastic bags are readily available if you need one. What puzzles me if that when Vietnamese ride their motorcycles, they do not suffer from the sickness

- It takes more than nine months to resurface a stretch of road

AS ALWAYS IN A FEEL GOOD MOVIE, THERE IS A HAPPY ENDING

There is still some good like

Giving up your seats to the elder, expectant mothers, young children

National Science Museum

Who says that a visit to the museum is boring. Well, a visit to the National Science Museum in Tokyo changed my perception. In 2006, my wife and I brought our kids to Tokyo for holidays. Sure, everyone knows about Tokyo Disneyland. I love Tokyo Disneyland too. Actually, it was my second visit to Disneyland, the first was about seventeen years ago during our honeymoon. But you cannot survive just on Disneyland with kids in Tokyo. While researching on what to do in Tokyo, I changed upon the National Science Museum and decided to include it in my itinerary. I had some apprehension, of course, as I do not know how my children would feel about a visit to the museum.

Just a bit of history. The National Science Centre was established in Oct 1871 and went by the name of Ministry of Education Museum. It adopted its latest name in Jun 1949. The main museum is located in Ueno with a branch in Shinjuku. Besides being known as a major train station in Japan, Ueno is a nature locale signified by the spacious Ueno Park (which include the zoo). Of course, Ueno is also home to some of Tokyo's finest cultural sites, including the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, and the National Science Museum, as well as a major public concert hall (extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueno,_Tokyo).

Given the limited time (we went in the afternoon), we decided to focus on the new building at the museum. We were not disappointed as it is basically an all-in-one museum covering themes such as evolution of life to a look into the future -the mystery of space. I would say my children were definitely attracted by the dinosaurs display ranging from T-Rex to the genial plant eaters. In the section covering Science and Technology, there were many hands on experiments for visitors - young and old- to try out. This is something like our very own Singapore Science Centre.

Ghibli Museum, Mitaka

Everyone knows about Disneyland when you mention Tokyo but how many are familiar with Ghibli Museum. Ghibli (pronounced Jiburi or Gee Blee), you say, what is it? Japanese is known for introducing Anime and this is a museum dedicated to the works of the well-known Japanese animation collaborators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. As my kids were on holidays with us, I had specially planned a short trip out of Tokyo to see this museum.

Several anime features created by Studio Ghibli have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award including Castle in the Sky in 1986, My Neighbor Totoro in 1988, and Kiki's Delivery Service in 1989. In 2002, Spirited Away won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award (extracted from Wikipedia).

From our accommodation of Ikekuburo, we took the subway to Shinjuku and from there switched to the the Chuo Line for the town of Mitaka. Tickets to the museum has to be purchased prior to the visit but before Nov 2007, those who willing to take a risk could purchase entrance tickets at Mitaka's JTB office. We were the fortunate ones as we decided to leave Tokyo earlier. A guide on how to purchase tickets presented by Lorenzo Conti is at http://digilander.libero.it/joe.chip/ghibli_e.htm

After breakfast and purchasing the tickets, we took a slow stroll through the town on our way to the museum. Upon reaching the museum, we were greeted by a colourful structure looming in a park. In the museum, there were many displays related to the many works of the company. Unfortunately, photographs is not allowed inside the main museum. Visitors could also enjoy specially created some short animation clips at their small theatre.

A special momento for visit the museum is definitely the entrance ticket fashioned like a strip of negative. See picture at http://www.flickr.com/photos/riverseal/386146507/.

We also attempted to visit to Sanrio Puroland, the theme dedicated to Hello Kitty but unfortunately we arrived 5 minutes after the ticketing booth closed. Oh well, the next best thing was to explore the Tama town, otherwise known as Hello Kitty Town.

Den Do Festival

On the web, a search on festivals in Vietnam will produce numerous results. That's right, many provinces and even some villages have their own unique event to commemorate each year. Some of the events are closely linked to the arrival of the New Year while some are to celebrate and remember historic fiqures.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to enjoy the sounds and sights of one such event. This took place in Apr 2008 in the nearby province of Bac Ninh in the village of Dinh Bang. The village is located in Tu Son District, about 20 km northeast of Ha Noi. I went there by public bus from Long Bien Terminal (Bus 10).

The three-day festival is held at Den Do (Do Temple) to commemorate the enthronement of King Ly Thai To. He is best known for establishing Ha Noi, then known as Thang Long, as the capital of Vietnam in 1010. Den Do was built under the Ly Dynasty in 1030 in Chau Co Phap village (now Dinh Bang village), in Tu Son district, where King Ly Thai To was born. The temple was to dedicated to the King and then his seven successors. King Ly’s descendants from the Republic of Korea have returned to join local descendants and thousands of pilgrims in the festival, which annually takes place on the 14th-16th day of the third lunar month (which fall on April 19-21 this year) with the main rituals on the 15th day. The Ly family from the RoK is descendants of prince Ly Long Tuong, seventh son of Ly Anh Tong (1138-1175), who had to leave the homeland in 1226 to avoid a bloodshed made by the Tran Dynasty which took the throne from the Ly Dynasty. [Italics - extracted from http://www.smiletravelvietnam.com/]

By the time I reached Tu Son, the procession had already started and the bus I was on was caught in a massive jam. Considering this was a one-lane, two-day road, it was a slow crawl. not wanting to miss out, I decided to alight short of our destination and walked the remaining 300m to the junction leading to Dinh Bang.

The procession was a sea of colours when young and old dressed in their traditional costumes lining up in two making their way to Do Temple. Along the way, the procession stopped at Dinh Bang Commune Hall for a short rest. When I arrived at Den Temple, it was filled with many people either offering prayers or just to soak in the atmosphere. (to be continued)

Chua Huong (Perfume Pagoda)

In Vietnamese, Chua means pagoda while Den means temple. Chua generally is associated with Buddhist while Den is for worshipping ancestors. And in Vietnam, there are many pagodas and temples. In fact, all villages have at least one temple.

Towards the end of my nine-month stay in Ha Noi, my foreign friends and myself made a final field trip to Chua Huong in Ha Tay province. Located about 70km south of Ha Noi, Perfume Pagoda is one of the most popular pagodas in Vietnam. The festival of the pagoda is one of the longest, stretching from Feb to late-Apr each year. It is said that all Vietnamese endeavour to visit the pagoda once in their lifetime.

Well, after studying basic Vietnamese for close to nine-month, I eagerly look forward to my trip. The three of us (Chinese Huang Min and Thai Weerapan) made our trip on a Sunday. Through her contact, Huang Min managed to arrange for a taxi (engaged for a day) for the three of us. We started off from our school in Hoai Duc District at about 0700H. From our school, the taxi headed towards the provincial capital of Ha Dong before taking Highway 1 for the journey to our wharf for our boat trip to the pagoda.

At about 0900H, we reached Ben Duc pier. There were not much crowd there as the festival had ended a fortnight earlier. We had to pay a little more to get a boat specially for the three of us. According to our boatwoman, most of the inhabitants at Ben Duc are involved in the tourism business and each boat owner are limited to one trip every month (or three month. I cannot recollect exactly). The boat ride took us about one and a half hour.

I have not been to the famous Guilin in Chinese but I was told that the scenery along Yen Vi river to Perfume Pagoda is not unlike that of Guilin. Upon reaching the foot of the mountain leading to Perfume Pagoda, we made our way to our first destination Thien Tru Temple (Den Thien Tru). Thereafter, we made our way to the cable car station for our accent to Perfume Pagoda as we did not want to make the difficult trip up. The trip up by cable car allowed us to enjoy the wonderful limestone outcrops formation in the region. Fortunately for us, it started drizzling after we reached Perfume Pagoda.

When we reached the entrance to the pagoda, I was surprised to find that we have to descend to a large cavern. This reminder me of a similar religious complex I had visited 14 years ago in Thailand's Petchburi province. There were many worshippers at the pagoda and we were told that no meat items are allowed as offerings.

After spending some time there, we decided to make our descend to the boat pier for our trip back. By the time we returned to Ben Duc, it was almost 1630 in the evening.

Visit to Cao Bang, Northern Vietnam

On 14 and 15 Jun 2008, my foreign friends and myself made possibly the last visit out province before we finished our nine-month course. We left at about 0600H on Saturday morning. The group included Dima, Park, Cuờng, Mấn, Anan, Mee, Supra and myself. Also accompanying us for the trip were Huong and Phuong. Huong, who is the cousin of cô Yến, is a second-year French-language student at the Academy. Phuong is Huong’s close friend from her secondary school. Phuong is a second-year student at the University of Commerce.

The journey to Cao Bằng took us through Thái Nguyên and Bắn Kạn province. Before pushing off for Cao Bằng, we stopped at Sóc Son for breakfast. The first part of the journey took us through relatively flat terrain. Once we hit Bắn Kạn, the terrain became mountainous and we had to drive through a series of uphill climbs. As we entered Cao Bằng, the drive became more harrowing as some of the climbs took us through some serious swerving curves up the mountains. The view from the drive, I must admit is spectacular.

We reached Cao Bằng at about 1230H. We had lunch and checked into a relatively new hotel overlooking the river dividing Cao Bằng. In the afternoon, we headed for Bác Bó on a north westerly direction on route 203, the ride there took us about 2 hours as the road was not in perfect condition. Along the way, we saw widespread cultivation of tobacco plant. Located about 50km from Cao Bằng, Bác Bó is located just across the border between Việt Nam and Trung Quốc. It was the base for Hố Chì Minh when returned to Việt Nam after about 30 years abroad in 1941. It was here that he set out on his quest to liberate Việt Nam until 1944.

Sunday we set off for Thác Bản Giốc (Bản Giốc Waterfall) at 0600H. The journey took us about 3 hours this time on north easterly direction on route 204. Compared with the journey to Bác Bó, the scenery on the second journey was simply breathtaking. This was enhanced by the morning rain making the mountain shrouded in mist. The scene resembled possibly what Shangri-La might have looked like. The trip took us through many climbs and valleys cultivated with rice, maize and tobacco. The rice was cultivated on terraces.

Before heading for the waterfall, we went to a border checkpoint at Tà Lùng. After breakfast at Tà Lùng, we headed for our final destination. The sight at Bản Giốc was awesome. The wide waterfall is also located along the border, which brings to mind Niagara Falls at the US - Canadian border. From our location, we can see Chinese tourists across the river. We even met and spoke to some Chínese tourists who went on raft ride to see the waterfall close up.

At about 1100H, we left the place and made our slow journey back to Hà Nội. We reached the Academy at about 2100H. Although the journey was laborious, it was worth the effort as the scene at the waterfall was a sight to behold.

Motorcycle 101

For those who have visited Vietnam, you would know that the motorcyle forms an important mode of transport in this amazing country. Young and old alike can be seen riding these nibble "creatures" along the road, sometimes almost recklessly. It is surprising to see large amount of motorcycles taking up almost one lane.

In my earlier posting, I have highlighted that these people can really pack a lot on such a small vehicle besides piling up to even four people to a motorcycle. Besides transporting people, they also service as a cheaper version of the pickup truck. I would like to share two photos to illustrate what I mean.

Trip to Mai Chau, Hoa Binh, Vietnam - 2008

I and the rest of the foreign students went on a day trip to visit a Thai minority tribe in Mai Chau valley. Mai Chau is located in Hoa Binh Province, a four-hour journey west of Ha Noi, about 130 km away.

We set off at about 7.30 in the morning in a 12-seater van. The journey took us in a south-western direction across Ha Tay Province before entering Hao Binh. The most striking sight in Hoa Binh is the large land allocated towards the cultivation of sugar cane. Another sight which caught my attention was the numerous stalls along the route selling the locally brewed wine Ruou Can (pronounced as z-out kern).

As we climbed the last ridge at the end of the four-hour trip, the driver stopped at the top of Cun Mountain for all to take photograph of Mai Chau located in the valley below us. Therefore, we proceed to Lac Village (Lang Lac in Vietnamese), the abode of the Thai minority. Contrary to what we thought, the villagers are able to speak only a smittering of Thai. This is a small village of not more than 50 houses, mostly stilt houses. Before lunch at noon, we went round the village to look at the handicrafts on offer and also take photographs of the padi fields and the surrounding area.

Lunch was served communal style with all of us sitting on the bamboo covered floor of the stilt house. We were served rice cooked in bamboo, steamed fresh water fish, grilled boar meat, chicken, buffulo meat and vegetables. The main spices used for the dishes are ginger and lemon grass. At the same time, we also arranged for one hour cultural dance show performed by the villagers to accompany our lunch. The meal for the 11 of us including the entertainment totaled about $20.

During our conversation with the female owner, a night’s stay at the stilt costs only S$5. A note of caution, it can get really cold during winter. Fortunately for us, the weather was sunny which is a changed from the chill in Ha Noi. Following lunch, some of us continued on our exploration of the village while the rest decided to take a rest in the stilt house. Shortly after 3pm, we departed the village for our trip back to Ha Noi.

Ninh Binh Province - 2008

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Some of the foreign students including myself made a day trip to Ninh Bình Province to see some of the tourist sights there. This is the holiday period as the nation celebration the 30 Apr 1975 liberation of the South and also May Day.


We left Hà Nội at about 7.30am. The route from the Academy took us through Nhốn before making our way through Hà Tây before hitting Highway 1 which leads to the South. The journey took us about 2½ hours before we reached our first destination Tam Cốc. This is a scenic place which visitors are taking on a boat ride through limestone caves. You could say that this is the freshwater or inland Vịnh Ha Long (Ha Long Bay). Not sure if it can be compared to Guilin in China as I have yet to see the place.


We boarded a small water craft at the quay which took us on a three km trip through three caves. The return trip took approximately 1½ hours. Our craft was helmed by a middle lady and her son. In the course of our conversation, I found that foreigners are restricted to two to a craft while the locals are allowed to sit up to four persons. It was also revealed that a new boat costs about 3 triệu (3m) Việt Nam đồng. There are an estimated one thousand craft at Tam Cốc.

On the journey through the slow moving river (could not figure why they call it a river as it is pretty small to me), I discovered that padi are planted on both flanks giving the landscape a wide patch of greenery which end abrupt against the limestone outcrop.


For lunch, we had mountain goat’s meat which is a specialty at Tam Cốc. The meat is cooked in several styles such as barbeque, hot plate, salad style. The meal for the 14 of us cost about 3m đồng (US$187/S$300). After lunch, we proceeded a short distance to visit Bích Động. This is a temple complex built into the limestone outcrop. It is said to be one of the most beautiful cave in Việt Nam.


On our way back, we stopped at the old capital Hoa Lu. It was the capital for 41 years from 968 - 1009 before Lý Thái Tổ established his capital at Thăng Long, which is present day Hà Nôi. As time was short, we only visited the two main temple complexes.


After a long day, we left Ninh Bình at 4pm and reached Hà Nội at 6.30.

Nephew - At 2

Just like to share a cute photo of my 2-year-old nephew.

Thịt Chó (Dog Meat)

Yes, most of us would not have thought of such a delicacy but in Vietnam, it seems that eating dog meat is “part and parcel” of their daily lives. I believe that it is the same for South Korea. Don’t get me wrong, I have second thought of eating dog meat. To the un-initiated, it is reverting. But part curiosity and part courtesy, I took up the courage and tried a few mouthful of the dish in the outskirt of Sóc Son.

I have not been all over Vietnam but in Hanoi, stalls selling dog meat is found almost everyway. At Chọ 12-19, located next to Melia Hotel in downtown Hanoi, I came across a row of stalls selling dog meat by the dozens. It is said that eating dog meat will heat up the body and believe me in winter, Hanoi can get rather chilly for a “Equatorian” like me.

A Bit of Singapore in Ha Noi

After staying in Ha Noi, to be exact the outskirt of Ha Noi near Nhon (Tu Liem
District), I was surprised when my friend introduced a Singapore street food joint to me recently. It was a relief as I had been eating mostly Vietnamese food for the four month since I arrived in Vietnam. Not that Vietnamese “cuisine” is not delicious, on the contrary, I discovered that most of the food are suitable to my palate. It is also good to have some Singaporean style varieties once in a while.

The shop Hai Su (Hải Sư), run by a Singaporean who had been in Vietnam for quite a while, is located along Pho (Street) Giang Vo (pronounced as Zang Vor-all). Two prominent landmarks in the vicinity are Hanoi Hotel and Horizon Hotel. What attracted me and I think to Hanoians is the selection of Singaporean desserts such as Bo-Bo Cha-Cha, Chendol etc.

Vietnam - Road Safety

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When in Ha Noi, one cannot help but be amazed by the number of motorcycles on the road. The roads are always packed with these little mobile “creatures”, small and agile weaving between the traffic. Sometimes almost recklessly but to me, they appear to be the “kings of the road“. I may be wrong, it appears to me that women motorcyclists form a majority of the users. Such is the importance of this means of transport that the government decided last year to implement compulsory safety helmets for all motorcycles, including pillion riders. The ruling took effect on 15 Dec 2007. Almost overnight, about 85 percent of the motorists compiled with the ruling, otherwise they risked being fine.

Motorcycle taxi (xe ôm, pronounced s’air om - literally vehicle embrace) is a common feature in Ha Noi. With Ha Noi many narrow streets, xe ôm is an indispensable form of transport in the city. Now safety helmet (mũ bảo hiểm) has become a fashion item with commuters. Those who frequently travel by xe ôm will carry one with them when they commute around town. Some of these helmets are really cute but I am not sure if they measure up to safety standards.

Visit to Sa Pa (28 - 30 Dec 2007

A group of friends and I made a short trip to Sapa prior to the New Year. As it was a last minute decision, we had some difficulty in getting train tickets to Lao Cai. We only managed to collect the tickets from Sinh Café on the day of departure on Friday evening (28 Dec). It was for a cabin of four (soft beds) departing from Ga Ha Noi (Hanoi Station) at 2305H. Tickets for the earlier trains between 2100H and 2200H were not available.

As I walked from Ho Hoan Kiem (Hoan Kiem Lake), I arrived at the main entrance of the station while my friends ended up at the departure gate on the opposite side. I had to make a detour across the railway yard to meet them. When we were walking along the train (LC7 - possibly Lao Cai 7), it dawned on me that the standard on the train is below par. As we entered our cabin, I felt that the price we paid for the one-way ticket (US$25) was too high. Nevertheless, that was the price to pay for late minute booking and it was a weekend trip.

The trip to Lao Cai was slow. It took us nine hours and we arrived at Lao Cai at 0800H 29 Dec. The weather was good at Lao Cai. We were met by the staff from the tour agency and were brought to the pick-up up at one of the café near the station. At about 0900H, we were herded onboard a chartered bus for the one-hour journey to Sa Pa. The staff told me that we had to use the bus as there were no other alternative as a lot of students had made the trip to Sa Pa during the New Year holidays.

The trip was surprising smooth as the road condition was good. The sights were equally good especially when we were more than half way up the mountain. The rice terraces in the valley were a sight to behold. Unfortunately as we neared Sa Pa, the weather turned and the town was covered by fog or possibly clouds. The atmosphere gave us a feeling that we had entered a valley town somewhere in Europe.

After breakfast, we were led for the slow stroll to the H’mong village of Cat Cat, located about 3 km away from town. Cat Cat village was not as populated as I thought. The houses in Cat Cat were spaced about several metres apart and were sited on the slopes. I was not quite impress but as we were led further down the slope, we came to a waterfall. Then, I felt that the journey was worth it as the sight at the waterfall was nice. After a short rest and enjoying kebab/satay (grill pork) and sweet potatoes, we continued our journey up the reverse slope of the waterfall. Along the way, we had to cross a valley using a wood plank bridge.

In the afternoon, we were taken to Ta Van of the Giay people. The tour guide decided at the last minute not to bring to another village as the weather was not good. The journey to Ta Van was quite hairy as visibility was probable less than five metres. The fear was heightened by the fact that the road to Ta Van was down hill and winding. Ta Van is a much different village as compared to Cat Cat. It is located near the valley close to a river and it is also much bigger. We had to cross a bridge to get to the village. Upon arrival, we were mopped by women and child selling handicraft. They were quite persistent and in fact some of them followed us for much of our trip at the village. The visit was worth as we could see the famed rice terraces found in tour brochures.

In the evening, the weather changed and it drizzled. We talked a stroll in the town after dinner but we could find that advertised love market. As I retired to bed, power in the town was cut off at 2300H and was only restored at 0700H the next day (30 Dec). We had to use candles to wash up and do our packing as we were leaving on the early train back to Hanoi. We left Sa Pa at 0700H. Before leaving town, we request for the van to stop at the church for some photographs as we could not get good pictures the previous day.

The train journey from Lao Cai departed at 0915H and we only arrived in Hanoi at 2030H. It was a slow journey of 11 hours and sights along the way was not really good for photography.