Vietnam Deel 2

[FredVN]

Toekomst Grand Prix van Vietnam ziet er slecht uit - tribunes zijn verwijderd

De laatste spijker is mogelijk in de noodlottige GP van Vietnam geslagen. De organisatoren hadden zich volledig voorbereid op de eerste F1-race in Hanoi begin dit jaar, toen de pandemie toesloeg. De race in Hanoi zou een stratencircuit zijn en een extra race betekenen in Azië.

Voordat de F1-kalender 2021 een blanco racenaam toonde met 'TBA' vermeld voor 25 april, zakte de hoop van Vietnam dieper weg toen de belangrijkste man van de organisatie, Nguyen Duc Chung werd gearresteerd op beschuldiging van het stelen van documenten die verband houden met staatsgeheimen.

Tuoi Tre, een door de staat gecontroleerde krant, meldt dat Chung op vrijdag aan het einde van een vier uur durend proces is veroordeeld tot vijf jaar gevangenisstraf. "Zonder Chung is de toekomst van de Hanoi-race somber", vertelde een bron dicht bij de Vietnamese communistische partijpoliticus aan het persbureau Agence France Presse.

Het Duitse persbureau SID beweert ondertussen dat tribunes nu zijn verwijderd langs het circuit van Hanoi, ondanks dat Vietnam in 2018 een tienjarige overeenkomst had getekend met de FOM.


Toekomst Grand Prix van Vietnam ziet er slecht uit - tribunes zijn verwijderd


Omdat TuoiTre één van mijn bronnen is, heb ik onmiddellijk op de Engelstalige site gekeken. Niets.
OK, misschien moet het artikel eerst vertaald worden. Of…

Zie voor meer achtergronden:

Hanoi chairman Nguyen Duc Chung arrested

Former chairman of Hanoi Nguyen Duc Chung refused bail, remains in custody

 

[FredVN]

TET (1)

Hoewel Tet pas volgend jaar is, wordt op dit stuk land al met de voorbereidingen begonnen.

Deze dames scheppen de emmers vol met aarde…

…die vervolgens met wat sturing…

…voornamelijk door de mannen in nette rijen worden neergezet.

Eén helft van het veld is al aardig vol.

Met wat handen- en voetenwerk begreep ik dat het hele veld vol komt. Wat me, gezien de bergen aarde en de hoeveelheid lege emmers, logisch lijkt.

Nog maar een paar keer langs rijden.

 

[FredVN]

TET (2)

Vanzelfsprekend moesten de dames en heren ook even poseren.Deze foto’s laat ik printen en ga ze één deze dagen brengen. De man in het gestreepte T-shirt lijkt de leiding te hebben.

Ondanks de pose van de middelste dame horen ze geen van alle bij elkaar: deze info had ik nodig om te weten hoeveel foto’s ik moest laten printen.

 

[jaap43]

Het metalen frame van die hoeden lijkt geleend te zijn van lampenkappen

 

[FredVN]

Hmmm, gezien de pestherrie van dit moment zijn het niet bepaald lichten, dus lampenkappen heb ik wat twijfels over...

 

[FredVN]

Remember: 1 through 9 works just fine in Vietnam

Sugarcane squishing machine


Every time my coiffure gets mangy, I procrastinate until it’s such a total disaster that I’m forced to get it chopped urgently even if it entails a lengthy wait. Desperate, I wobbled off to the neighbourhood barbershop the other day and joined a queue of two gents and one jumpy little kid.

In true Asian spirit, there is a degree of ambiguity - 'barbershop' is somewhat of a misnomer because several businesses reside under the same roof, although all the signs indicate that the sole business is hair care.

The barbering section of the shop is certainly the focal point of the enterprise, consisting of two creaky old leather chairs, a sagging, lumpy sofa, various creams, old shaving brushes with bristles like drooping willows, gels, plus tools and implements from days long gone by. Then the waters become a little murky.

There are racks of shoes and sandals occupying a fair chunk of floor space, overseen by the lady of the house. On top of that, there’s a stack of sugarcane stalks stored vertically against the wall in the corner so thirsty customers can knock back a nuoc mia (sugarcane drink -- one of nature’s best remedies for dehydration).

If all that wasn’t enough, there is a tiny display stand advertising scratch-off phone cards for sale, but none are visible, so perhaps that revenue stream is now obsolete due to an abundance of competition in the neighbourhood.

Practically every third business in the entire country sells them, so even if all 97 million inhabitants of Vietnam rushed out to buy one every few days, the market would still be grossly saturated.

There’s a portable machine with a silver wheel installed on the back similar to those employed to steer ships. When the wheel is turned with gusto it squishes the sugar cane, reminiscent of a wringer on an old-style washing machine, thus extracting those heavenly juices.

Standard procedure is to squish each stick precisely three times to get all the juice out, which is drained into a vessel resembling a steel pan used by mechanics for draining automobile oil.

Cutest sugarcane peeler in history


The sugarcane operation has been shunted to the side of the entrance (taking a back seat for winter?), leaving a clear path so people can actually enter and leave the shop without hopscotching over motorbikes, kids, toys, piles of sandals headed for stock, sugarcane shavings, half-empty bowls of food, piles of hair from the field of battle inside, and other forgotten things strewn about.

Years ago, mixing business and personal life in such a manner irritated my narrow little Western mind, where black is black and white is white. 'Business is business' and 'maintain a professional image' come to mind.

Not in this part of the woods.

The business, obviously, is on the ground floor in the typical Asian shophouse layout, with living quarters above, so that work and family life are blended together and muddled, yet somehow balanced and synchronized.

Customers are shopping, dad is chopping, hacking, and scraping hair and beards, mom zipping around in ten different directions, kids playing, grandparents hovering -- and it’s never still for even a moment.

One could argue that there is a solid business strategy behind having the three (four?) disparate business ventures under one roof. It’s feasible -- although a bit of a stretch -- that a thirsty customer arrives, pounds a nuoc mia, gets a trim, buys a pair of shoes, and tops up the phone.

The exchange would go something like this: “Shave and a haircut, a glass of sugarcane juice, one VND50,000 phone card, and, while we’re at it, a new pair of thongs. And don’t forget to yank the hairs out of my nose, they’re driving me nuts.”

While waiting, I decided to do a status check on the latest news and fan mail, but had no Internet connection. I did spot an available network named after the rice joint next door, just needed access. Fortunately, there are a limited number of Wi-Fi passwords currently in circulation in Vietnam, so it’s not hard to hack into most networks.

The unofficial National Wi-Fi Password of Vietnam is -- you guessed it -- '123456789,' but if it doesn’t work for you, try '12345678,' that old favourite '88888888,' then finally the marginally more creative '87654321.'

I swear one of those will get you into 90 percent of the local small business networks in the country, and if not, just ask, the staff will probably give you the password anyway even if you’re not a customer.

Not only is the Internet a social and business tool, it’s also considered a cornerstone of the educational process, an indispensable tool in a country rushing to develop, not to mention all those damned games that keep kids quiet in waiting rooms and cafés.

It goes without saying that the rural parts of Vietnam don’t have anywhere near the bandwidth they need, never mind the money to pay for it, but in any built-up area affordable web access at a decent speed is a given.

The differences in cultural values around Southeast Asia are reflected in the availability and ease of use of free Wi-Fi. Every password I’ve ever received in Singapore, as one example, is something like '&I-d4#@^Ul9&%Y>?L**/#+ABC#>^,' which would take a team of space scientists years to crack.

No doubt customers muff up the input of such a ridiculous string of characters, finally abandoning the cause altogether, which is precisely what the business hopes for.

In the Philippines, free Wi-Fi is advertised, but it often doesn’t work, even in the pricey international cafés, and staff are overly protective of passwords, which are furtively passed to customers on teeny-weeny slips of paper using a microscopic font which most can’t read (of which the staff are well aware).

I learned the hard way to ask for the password before ordering anything, which irritated service people, but after often being stuck with a US$3.50 coffee and no Wi-Fi, best to get it up front and risk ruffling some feathers.

Within moments I hacked into the rice joint’s Wi-Fi guilt-free since I’m a regular customer, thanks to my addiction to their 'mam chung' (ground pork/fish meatloaf with egg and fish sauce).

Epic mam chung meatloaf


I forged ahead checking current events and reader updates, which ranged from:
“Your articles suck," to
“I always eagerly await your installments," and, the instant classic which shall forever be remembered, coined in this Year of Hell 2020:
“My visa extension is about to run out. What should I do?”

The barber continued hacking away on those heads without changing expression or rhythm. Clearly a serious professional -- just the kind you’d let loose near your jugular with a straight razor.

The lady of the house buzzed around in the background sporting her cotton pyjamas, offering encouragement, serving shoe customers, ferrying in endless bowls of food, wiping mouths and noses, and otherwise running after their tots, an exhausting duty akin to herding cats.

Those pyjamas are a uniform, symbolizing her status as a busy homemaker, and she truly is constantly on the go, but she’s stoked, everything she wants is right under her nose, within her grasp. I’ve never seen the woman venture more than a few shops in either direction, so she has little need for fancy attire.

The ladies’ pyjama situation in Vietnam is more complex than it may appear to the untrained eye. In Europe, people dress to the nines just to go out for a cup of coffee or fetch a baguette, but not around here.

Practicality rules in Vietnam.

True, some ladies are often seen in more sophisticated pyjama-like garb, usually silk, but those ensembles fall more into the category of leisure suits, so access to decent restaurants, banks, shops, and such is stretching it a bit, but still within the realm of acceptability.

So, over the years the pendulum has swung wildly from one extreme to the other with me hanging on for dear life, from a glitzy hair salon in a developed country to this cocktail of small business ventures run by a master of the trim and scrape, and his pyjama-clad, sandal-flogging, kid-herding wife.

Every customer that ventures inside becomes a part of all that’s going on, entwined in the action, and could easily end up with a kid on his lap while balancing a bowl of rice.

That shophouse may not be the bomb esthetically-speaking, but it’s real and spontaneous, unscripted and original, bursting at the seams with life.


Bron: Remember: 1 through 9 works just fine in Vietnam


En weer wat -lange- observaties van Rick Ellis

 

[FredVN]

Vietnamese bar girls go on wild sex parties for money despite heavy toll on health

A bar girl that agrees to have sex with her customer is seen using drugs in a hotel room in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tung Nguyen / Tuoi Tre


The use of substances like crystal meth, ketamine, weed, and others often leaves abusers with an aroused state. Therefore, bar girls that serve a drug party are willing to provide the next service – having sex with their customers for a great pay in return.

In the dark world of playboys, drug abusers call service girls who join their spree ‘flying girls,’ with ‘fly’ referring to the feeling of getting high on crystal meth.

For ‘flying girls’ who are sexually available to customers, they are called with a new slang term, ‘fly-and-boom’ girls, which means giving both the ‘flying’ and sex services.

If ‘flying girls’ can earn about VND4-5 million (US$173-216) for a drug party, those providing sex service may pocket a much bigger number. They even accept group sex, regardless of the high risk of sexually transmitted diseases. “All of the chicks here look so much older than their real age,” according to Ngan ‘Ca Mau,’ a retired ‘flying girl.’ “It’s the cost of the crazy sex nights.”

Drug and sex
Linh ‘Miu,’ a 21-year-old girl from Bac Lieu Province in the Mekong Delta, was a popular bar girl amongst drug users in Ho Chi Minh City. She boasted a mystical beauty, a model-like body, and a knack for crazy drug use. With a V-lined face, big round eyes, a high nose, and a slender body, Linh was the brightest star of the bar. Not any random customer could get her service.

Once, a rich man came to her restaurant in the Saigon South neighborhood in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. He could not make a choice as none of the girls available were appealing to him. The manager soon showed him Linh’s picture, and the man immediately made up his mind.

When the girl rejected his offer as she was busy with a bigger fish to fry, the man’s pride urged him to place down an extravagant offer. “VND30 million [$1,300]. Get in the car and come here right now if you agree.” Linh could not say no. But that was only in her past.

Now, her old friends can hardly recognize Linh without makeup, who has become a shabby old woman. After just a few years of sinking in drug and sex parties, she has plunged to a tragedy with a bad look and poor health conditions. Linh once had to take several plastic surgeries to help revitalize her vibrance and youth.

A group of drug users sit down with their drinks and drugs in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tung Nguyen / Tuoi Tre


In recent years, many other ‘flying girls’ have also got to earn tens of millions of Vietnamese dong a night when rich men feel like splashing their money to prove themselves. One of the dark sides of using drugs is that it causes abusers to experience a feeling of utmost snobbery. They are willing to spend their very last banknote.
“Do these ‘flying girls’ get rich?” Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper’s undercover reporter asked Truyen, a ‘flying girl’ manager.
“Rich? Yes, they get lots of money, but they get broke fast, too. They are not wise enough to keep the money,” she replied.

Astronomical medical expenses are the costs of wild nights of using drugs and having sex with customers. While one can earn quite a lot a night, they will just spend it all on their hospital fees the next days. “But they can’t serve customers every day. For a night of dancing, getting high on drugs, and having wild sex, it takes a girl several days to a week to recover,” Truyen said

The dearest price is whopping damage to their appearance. Taking drugs and staying up all night make their skin and breasts ugly, not to mention an impact on mental capability. Their skin becomes pale and ruffled over time, while their breasts will be reduced in size very quickly. Therefore, ‘flying girls’ have to go through costly plastic surgeries to maintain their beauty, the most important thing for them to earn a living. Their money, certainly, will not stay.

Bar girl managers
To work in this business, bar girls have to obey their managers. The girls might earn big, but a large amount of money has to go to their ‘mamas,’ a slang word panders.

According to Mai Thuy, not all are allowed to become ‘boom-and-fly girls.’ The girls have to ‘show their respect’ for the managers if they want a stable ‘workplace.’ They do so by bringing their managers big ‘gifts’ every Tet holiday, public holiday, and birthday bash.

For Truyen, a tacit birthday rule is that each bar girl gives her VND10 million dong ($432) in cash on this occasion. Going empty-handed after years of working in this business, many ‘flying girls’ suffer such great health damage that some have died from drug abuse.

A girl named Thao recently fell from a third floor after serving a drug party and having sex with clients for three days in a row.

Many others have gone through the same fate.


Bron: Vietnamese bar girls go on wild sex parties for money despite heavy toll on health


Bar girl manager. Klinkt toch een stuk beter dan pooier.
.

 

[FredVN]

 

[FredVN]

Remembering Nguyen Ba Mau – the darkroom wizard, masterful photographer of Da Lat landscape

Morning fishing on Da Lat Lake, processed with Sabattier effects (pseudo-polarization). Photo: Nguyen Ba Mau


Over 124 artworks showcasing the life and work of internationally-acclaimed Vietnamese photographer Nguyen Ba Mau are currently being shown at the Labor Culture House in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat.

The exhibition 'Nguyen Ba Mau Va Tac Pham' (Nguyen Ba Mau and Oeuvre) was opened on Sunday to mark the photographer’s 30th death anniversary.

It displays a large collection of works in 40x60 centimeter prints, a majority of which have never before been shown to the public.

The darkroom wizard
Mau was born on February 6, 1928 in Thap Cham Commune, an area rich in Cham historical and spiritual heritage sites in south-central Ninh Thuan Province. He attended high school at Kim Yen Private School in the coastal city of Nha Trang, where his aptitude for art was revealed and nurtured by teacher Vo Thanh Diem.

In 1947, Mau moved to the upland town of Da Lat with his family. Starting from an urge to capture the place’s natural charm, he picked up photography with a used Rollei camera and a few foundational guidebooks.

A scene captured in Da Lat City. Photo: Nguyen Ba Mau

Cyclos in Da Lat. Photo: Nguyen Ba Mau


Mau spent the majority of his youth discovering the landscapes and people of Da Lat from behind the lens. During the process, he never failed to show his passion and exceptional commitment to practicing the art.

He also spent hours of his youth in the darkroom, honing his craft in photo post-processing.

Through the years, his body of work is rich with photo archives of famous landscapes from all over Vietnam, which he captured on road trips with his trusty Vespa scooter.

'Dang Ngoai' (Grandmother Posture), processed using split toning. Photo: Nguyen Ba Mau


The master of split toning
Mau’s talent was made known to the world for the first time in 1968 thanks to his portrait photo 'Dang Ngoai' (Grandmother Posture), which won him massive acclaim from domestic critics as well as the Gold Medal at the 1969 Montesson Photography Salon Contest in France.

The photo was heavily processed using split toning, a technique that manipulates the highlights and shadows of a photograph into intended tints, which helped bring out striking contrasts and won over photography experts of the world.

After the blasting success of 'Dang Ngoai,' Mau obtained more than 30 awards with 12 of his works which display his splendid expertise in darkroom processing.

'Ngo Mon Hue' (Meridian Gate in Hue), processed with Sabattier effects (pseudo-polarization). Photo: Nguyen Ba Mau

Ho Than Tho (Lake of Sigh) in Da Lat. Photo: Nguyen Ba Mau


Mau also made his mark in the history of the charming highland town with his timeless tours de force exhibitions, namely 'Hoi Tuong' (Nostalgia) (1969), 'Buoi Cho Ban Mai' (Market at Dusk) (1971), 'Nui Doi Mo Suong' (Mountain in Mist) (1972).

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, prints and postcards of his work were highly sought after by tourists coming to Da Lat, selling some hundreds of copies per day.

Contemporary photographers in Vietnam and foreign countries alike refer to him as 'the king of split toning photography.'

Nguyen Ba Mau is seen in this archive photo.


With a career that spanned over four decades from the 1950s to 1980s, Mau left behind an extensive legacy in landscapes, architecture as well as street photography.

He was posthumously awarded the medal for Vietnam Literature and Art Career by the Vietnamese government in 2001.


Bron: Remembering Nguyen Ba Mau – the darkroom wizard, masterful photographer of Da Lat landscape


Bij Googlen op de naam van de fotograaf vond ik helaas maar weinig foto’s van hem.

 

[FredVN]

Nha Trang toen en nu

Tijdens het zoeken naar foto’s van Nguyen Ba Mau vond ik ook nog een website met foto’s van Nha Trang.

Nha Trang Xưa & Nay

Het leuke is dat van veel plaatsen zowel een foto van heel vroeger als recent (ik weet niet hoe recent) is geplaatst.

Hieronder een paar voorbeelden. Veel meer op bovenstaande site.

 

[Anoniempje177]

Nha Trang toen en nu

Tijdens het zoeken naar foto’s van Nguyen Ba Mau vond ik ook nog een website met foto’s van Nha Trang.

Nha Trang Xưa & Nay

Het leuke is dat van veel plaatsen zowel een foto van heel vroeger als recent (ik weet niet hoe recent) is geplaatst.

Hieronder een paar voorbeelden. Veel meer op bovenstaande site.

Bekijk bijlage 1575878

Bekijk bijlage 1575879

Bekijk bijlage 1575880

Bekijk bijlage 1575881

Bekijk bijlage 1575882

Bekijk bijlage 1575883

Dat soort "fotografie" zie ik graag. En het toont aan, dat het daar net zoals bij ons, in deze tijd, gewoon veel te druk geworden is

 

[FredVN]

Voor de volle 100% mee eens. Mijn eerste reis, ruim 20 jaar geleden, koos ik omdat ik verwachtte, dat Vietnam vrij snel zou veranderen. Dat die verandering zo snel en zo heftig zou zijn had ik toen ook absoluut niet verwacht. Ik heb gelukkig nog iets van de sfeer van de oude foto's mee kunnen nemen.

 

[Anoniempje177]

Tussen mijn eerste en laatste reis naar de Filipijnen zit 6 jaar, "maar" 6 jaar, en idd wat een verschil al. Wil niet weten wat het over 20 jaar wordt ...

Heb al tegen mijn vrouwtje verteld, als we naar ginder verhuizen, dat ik dan het liefst ergens ver afgelegen woon, ver weg van alle drukte. Heb geen groot en luxueus huis nodig, maar wel rust.

We zien wel wat het wordt ...

 

[goatcode]

Voor mij is het inmiddels ruim 2 jaar geleden dat ik in vietnam was maar wat heerlijk om een beetje dit topic door te bladeren. Hopelijk mogen we deze zomer weer.

Op de foto staat trouwens mijn zoontje ergens tussen dalat en nha trang

 

[FredVN]

Een schitterende weg om te rijden. Heeft je zoontje ook genoten van de trip?

 

[FredVN]

Vietnam police arrest Truong Chau Huu Danh for abusing rights to free speech, press freedom

Vietnamese police on Thursday apprehended Truong Chau Huu Danh, a famous Facebook user and former journalist, for abusing “the rights to free speech, press freedom” to “hurt state interests.”

Danh, 38, was arrested by police officers in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, Major General Nguyen Van Thuan, director of the Can Tho police department, confirmed on Thursday afternoon. He is charged with “abusing the rights to free speech, press freedom … and other democratic freedoms to hurt state interests as well as the legal rights and interests of organizations and individuals,” Thuan said, citing the criminal code.

Danh was born in 1982 and has a registered address in Vinh Ngai Commune, Tan An City, Long An Province, located in the Mekong Delta.

He worked for several newspapers before. He has been known as a prominent Facebook user in recent years.

Danh was escorted to his home in Long An for a search the same day.

Police officers guard the scene near Truong Chau Huu Danh's house in Long An Province, southern Vietnam, which was searched on December 17, 2020. Photo: An Long / Tuoi Tre

Truong Chau Huu Danh's house in Long An Province, southern Vietnam, was searched on December 17, 2020. Photo: An Long / Tuoi Tre

Truong Chau Huu Danh's house in Long An Province, southern Vietnam, was searched on December 17, 2020. Photo: An Long / Tuoi Tre


Bron: Vietnam police arrest Truong Chau Huu Danh for abusing rights to free speech, press freedom


Aha, maar nu snap ik het. Het gegil en gekrijs van het aso-geteisem met hun grote bek en lege schedelinhoud (nee, nee, zelfs geen zandverstuiving) en nog grotere PA hier is gewoon hun recht op vrije meningsuiting. )|

En zelfs de vogels met hun artificiële gekrijs uit luidsprekersop de daken van de birdnest-fabrieken hebben blijkbaar dat recht.

“… and other democratic freedoms to hurt state interests as well as the legal rights and interests of organizations and individuals,” Thuan said, citing the criminal code.”
Maar waar is dan de democratische vrijheid van mij en 95% van mijn dorpsgenoten voor stilte, waarbij ik, net als Thuan, het wetboek van strafrecht citeer, en ik kan dat zelfs nauwkeurig
Civil Code 2015
Law on Environmental Protection 2014
Decree 155/2016 / ND-CP
Circular 39/2010 / TT-BTNMT
Artikel 17.
Zie Vietnam Deel 2 voor de details.

 

[goatcode]

Ja mijn zoontje vond het ook geweldig! Beste vakantie ooit. Het is dat corona roet in het eten gooide anders waren we afgelopen zomer terug gegaan.
Voor mij was het totaalplaatje vooral perfect. De mensen/cultuur, de massale steden, de prachtige natuur, het eten, etc. Hele gezin (was met vrouw, zoontje van 8 en dochter van 1) heeft hier echt genoten!

 

[FredVN]

Leuk. Met z'n vieren op twee motoren of een uitstapje met de zoon?

 

[FredVN]

HCMC air quality surveys suspended since June

Engineers survey air quality at an intersection in Thu Duc District, HCMC. Photo by VnExpress/Ha An.


Air quality surveys have not been done in HCMC since June since its contracts with some private surveillance agencies have expired. They are expected to resume in February, the Center for Natural Resources and Environment Monitoring at the HCMC Department of Environment and Natural Resources said on Wednesday.

They are currently done manually at several locations 10 days a month at 7:30-8:30 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. But manual surveys are inefficient since results are only available after a week.

Until air quality surveys resume, the public should rely on air quality apps like AirVisual or PAM Air, the environment department said. "HCMC is a major economic hub with production activities and traffic, and so its air quality cannot be as good as other locations," it said.

Meanwhile, the city has approved the setting up of its own environment quality monitoring network at a cost of VND500 billion ($21.6 million). The modern automatic system will update data every five minutes, ensuring high accuracy, including on the air quality index (AQI), which is not possible with manual surveys. The center is testing two automatic air quality monitoring stations in Districts 9 and Binh Tan, Cao Tung Son, its director, said in August.

Eight such stations would be built by 2022, and 20 by 2025, according to the center. "The system would help the city comprehensively and accurately monitor air quality, especially as seasons change and fog appears, so that the public can be informed," Son said.

However, a bidding plan for the project is still pending the city government's approval.

The city has been surveying air quality since 1993. With over nine million cars and other vehicles and a lot of production, construction and traffic activity, it is no stranger to air pollution.


Bron: HCMC air quality surveys suspended since June - VnExpress International


En zo, vlak voor kerst, toch nog een positief bericht, want: slim bedacht, kan het ook nooit (veel) te hoog zijn.

 

[goatcode]

vrouw en dochter bij een easy rider mee, zoontje bij mij achterop. Zijn zo van mui ne naar dalat en van dalat naar nha trang gegaan. in totaal 3 dagen door de bergen brommeren. Ook met kinderen zijn we half vietnam doorgegaan als backpackers. hebben een maand uit 1 rugzak geleefd en lekker motortjes, futa bus, grab, etc om ons te verplaatsen. Hele reis was HCM -(grab)> ben tre -(Futa)> HCM -(futa)> mui ne -(easy rider)> dalat -(easy rider)> nha trang -(futa)> hoi an -(motors)> hue -(vliegtuig)> HCM.

 

[FredVN]

Geweldige trip.!

 

[FredVN]

Pine trees sell like hot cakes as Christmas nears in Ho Chi Minh City (1)

A woman decorates a fresh pine tree imported from the United States at a shop in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre


Pine trees of all types are being snapped up at many shops in Ho Chi Minh City as local residents are finishing their preparations for Christmas celebration.

Many shoppers are willing to spend big on fresh pine trees imported from the United States this holiday season. Such a tree, about 1.2 meters to seven meters tall, costs about VND4-50 million (US$172-2,100).

Video: zie de bron morgen

Most customers were required to make their payment in advance so that local shops could confirm the number of orders before importing the products. As Christmas is just a few days to go, these imported pine trees may be difficult to buy as it takes quite a long time for them to be transported from the U.S. to Vietnam.

A Christmas laurel wreath made from fresh pine tree branches and ornaments is decorated at a store in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre


“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, pine tree sales at our shop have increased compared to last year,” said Hanh Mi, owner of Liti Florist flower shop in District 3. Liti Florist has sold about 200 fresh pine trees this year, Mi added. At other shops, Christmas trees made from fresh pine boughs or tree barks are offered at VND2.5-10 million ($108-432).

A flower box made from pine boughs and ornaments in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre


Customers can also purchase fresh pine tree branches for their Christmas embellishments.

Many shops have also crafted flower boxes, laurel wreaths, candle holders, and flower strips from fresh pine boughs, leaves, dried flowers and fruits, and other ornaments. These products sell for VND1.5-3 million ($64-129) each. Christmas ornaments can easily be found at souvenir stores in the southern metropolis, selling from VND3,000 ($0.13) apiece.

Fresh pine branches are sold at a shop in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre


Morgen, 2e kerstdag, het slot.

 

[FredVN]

Pine trees sell like hot cakes as Christmas nears in Ho Chi Minh City (2)

A candle holder made from pine boughs, pine fruits, and dried oranges, and ornaments in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre

People browse for cypress trees at a store in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre

A small pine tree is created from fresh pine tree branches at a shop in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre

A pine tree made from barks is offered at VND5 million ($215) in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre

Residents shop for Christmas ornaments in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bong Mai / Tuoi Tre


Pine trees sell like hot cakes as Christmas nears in Ho Chi Minh City


Al heel lang heb ik geen flauw idee van de prijzen van kerstbomen in NL, maar ik schrok me rot van de prijzen in dit artikel. Tja, import, maar dan nog…

 

[FredVN]

Met je kop tegen de muur lopen

Iets wat ik al geruime tijd doe met o.a. de pestherrie hier, die met de week erger wordt.

Dus…

…tijdens een fietstochtje, die mij o.a. over deze weg voerde...

...kwam ik plotseling dit tegen: een ca. 15 m. lange betonnen zijweg die tegen een muur eindigt. En moest onmiddellijk aan bovenstaand gezegde denken.

De bewoners van de huizen ca. 50 m. verder lopen ongetwijfeld ook met hun kop tegen de muur. Zij moeten het doen met een smal paadje, dat een grote modderpoel wordt als het een beetje regent.

Ach, er zal vast wel weer een briljante Vietnamees-logische verklaring voor zijn (hoewel Vietnamees en logisch natuurlijk een contradictio in terminis is).

Dit is trouwens hetzelfde voetbalveld als in Vietnam

 

[F2ride2001]

Hahaha, lijkt bijna België