Wish there were more...

It has done nothing but rain for the last week and I have been couped up in this hotel for the better part of it.  With the exception of my six hour drive to Dong Hoi and back, I have spent precious little time anywhere else.  The temperatures are just low enough and the rain is just hard enough that I don't want anything to do with outside.  Hence the title, I wish there were more to report about.

About the only thing there is to say is that Diep is missing me.  Her way of missing me starts out by saying she wishes I was home last weekend so we could go on a motorbike ride together.  That statement in itself shows just how much she misses me.  If you remember a few posts back, I almost took her leg off on a motorbike and she vowed never to ride with me again... I guess the saying is right "absence does make the leg grow stronger!"

Anyway, that longing for me grew an ugly face, and now she is hating me for being away.  The hate comes from a lack of sleep because she thinks about me too much.  I really can't blame her, I am a great guy to be around, and I imagine a lot of people miss me when I am away from them.  Well, maybe that is a stretch, but I do wish there was something I could do to make her feel better.

I did ask her if she could meet me in Saigon when I head down there on Saturday.  She turned me down, but the week is still young.  I know it would only be one night together, but she could spend a lot of the weekend with her folks, too. After a one day job in Saigon, I head back to Danang, then to Dong Hoi again, then back to Danang and finally on 10 April I get back to Hanoi.  Whoosh, what a schedule!

In the meantime, I will just take it one day at a time...

Rain, rain...

Since my last post, the weather has done nothing but rain. I have been confined to the hotel room for all but the trip I took to Đồng Hới City yesterday; six hours of driving, an hour or two for the interview and about an hour for lunch.  My stiff body is telling me it was a full day, to say the least.

In this land of Vietnam that has been my home for the better part of 18 years, there seem to be very few "firsts" left for me.  That was not the case yesterday, however, when I ate lunch.  Dong Hoi City is changing rapidly, and in a city that 20 years ago one would work VERY hard to find an appropriate place to eat, there are a few places to choose from now.  The local officials chose a very bình dân (regular people) Cơm Niêu (sticky rice) Restaurant to eat in.  The officials ordered much of the standard fair of pork, chicken and fish dishes that we shared among the group - picking food from a communal dish and eating from our own bowl.  On many occasions before, I had even eaten the sticky rice specialty for which the restaurant was named.  It was served in a small cast iron bowl; lightly brown and crispy on the top and edges.

The "first" came served individually in a stainless steel bowl.  The Medicinal Pigeon Soup (chim bầu câu tần) is much like the Medicinal Black Chicken Soup (gà tần) which is a small black chicken served in a soup of medicinal herbs and mushroom.  The biggest difference, I believe, is that the pigeon is very visible in the light broth and looks like he has been de-feathered and sleeping.  The trick is that the bird is to be eaten in its entirety (from head to butt), including the bones.  I got most of him down, though I did leave some of the larger bones in the bowl when I finished.  Oh, and the beak, I left the beak.  I mostly regret that I didn't take a picture of this dish before I ate it.  I secondly regret having eaten the head.  Though I wasn't able to discriminate the taste of brains and eyeballs, my imagination was working overtime as I relived the snap, crackle and pop.

I now have two reports to write.  They are not complicated, but I find myself stalling.  Mom used to remind me how much of a procrastinator I was; she was right and if she was still around she still would be.  That doesn't change my nature, it just makes me aware of it.

Ngu Binh Mountain

Yesterday morning I woke up and went for a run.  I was on a new route that took me past Ngu Binh Mountain in Hue.  I was feeling a little heavy in the legs and also a little curious about the mountain.  Much like many times before, I had done a little research about this new route and noticed that a path was visible from Google Earth on top of the mountain.

In my morning daze, I thought I could cut my run short and get a little hill workout at the same time by finding the route that traversed over the top of the mountain.  I past the mountain along the east side, then traveled down a road north of it, and then found a dirt path that ran down the west side.  As I got halfway down the west road I noticed I never found the path that went up the mountain.  I wondered how hard it would be to just take off up the slope, so I did.  There was no path and I was pretty tired and sweat-drenched by the time I found the path on top of the mountain.  The effort was worth it, though, as I was greeted by a spectacular view of most of Hue City.  The way back down was fairly easy having stayed on the path all the way back down to the southern connecting road.

The view was so inspiring that I took note of where I came out on the way down and decided I would walk up this morning with my camera.   As the saying should go, "The best pictures are taken when you have your camera with you."  I took off while the moon was still up, and the weather looked fine; I thought for sure I would get some great pics.  But, as fate would have it, I was socked in by fog when I made it to the top.  I waited around hoping it would burn off, but by 0630hrs I decided the moment had passed and I worked my way back down for breakfast at the hotel.

I did manage to get some good photos of flora and other points of interest along the way, but now I am faced with the dilemma of whether I want to try again before I leave for good.  It is unlikely I will get as much free time in Hue ever again, and this could be a great opportunity lost.  On the other hand, it wasn't an easy trek even on the well worn path that I took this morning.  I will have to play it by ear.

In the meantime, day after tomorrow I will be heading to Dong Hoi in Quang Binh Province for a day trip.  The change of scenery could do me good.

I Love You Amazon Dot Com

I know, I know, anyone who comes to Asia will go home and talk about how great the shopping is here.  They will rave about how they bought a conical hat or a pith helmet for practically nothing.  How they spent hours bartering for that oh-so-special table cloth and finally got it for pennies on the dollar of what they would have paid in America.  The stories go on and on.

Well, I am here to tell you that in this land of "shopping" I would give... well, not my left nut as so many men seem to carelessly offer up in exchange for decidedly ephemeral things (especially not knowing exactly which one I favor)... but let's just say I would love to see a Wal-Mart or a Target in Hanoi, Danang and Saigon (even in Hue at this moment).  Sure, we have Big C's and Metro shopping centers here, but they rank below K-Mart in my mind... Truth be told, they lay somewhere between the Dollar Store and T G & Y (Who remembers that place?)

So, as I sit here patiently waiting for some real shopping centers to make it to Vietnam, along with a Taco Bell, McDonalds, Papa Johns and Dairy Queen, I will continue to love my Amazon!  Amazon.Com rocks because I can shop for just about anything and everything I can think of.  I can buy anything from Power Bars to Computers; Cameras to Gift Cards to books.  Amazon is my one stop shop for just about anything I need and I never worry that it won't get to me if I order it.  Amazon can track what I have purchased and does a very nice job of knowing what I like to look at.  I can literally go shopping online and spend hours looking - and dreaming - for things I want.  Regrettably, I can't pick up these items, feel them for quality and build, but for that I still patiently wait.

So, while I will continue to see these tourists come to Vietnam and fill my airline seats and hotel rooms, I can rest assured that they will buy every nik-nak and piece of crap souvenir that I will never long for.  They can lust for the laquerware, rattan, embroidery and silk cloth all they want... and I will continue to love my Amazon.

Eating My Curds in Hue

As you can probably tell from my post title, my mental state is slowly deteriorating.  Though I really did just finish a dairy product here in Hue City, it was yogurt and not curds.  I thought I would get a little poetic... in a little Miss Muffet sort of way.

Anyway, after my brief two nights in Hanoi with Diep and Megan, I find myself wishing I was back home with them more than I did on the first part of this trip.  Partly because I am growing quickly tired of all things "Hue" and also because I have just been away for a while now.  I have enjoyed a certain amount of freedom in activity and have managed to get in more PT time than I have in a long time, but there is a trade-off that I won't go into here.

I did manage to get out in a different direction and take some more photos. I posted them on FB and Panoramio, though my FB posting didn't provide a notification to my "friends", so they are all just mixed in with my previous photos in Hue.  Most people won't know to even look.

The sun is also starting to shine more here, too!  That is a welcome change from the drab Hue we had experienced in the first two weeks.  Even so, I find myself pushing hard not to get out and go anywhere else.  The only thing really left is the boat tour down the Perfume River to the Tombs of the Kings.

Lastly, the hotel is quickly growing old for me.  The person I am here to support loves it and I find myself supressed from complaining too much... it seems to get him tense.  Really it is just the small things.  I am usually good if I am left to my own devices, but this hotel has staff coming out of the woodwork to "help".  That would be good if they could help, but the simple requests I have made so far have gone unresolved.  I have complained on several occasions that the temperature in the room is a little warmer than I prefer, especially at night.  This is largely because there is only a thick comforter that acts as the cover of the bed and no sheet underneath.  The comforter is much too warm for me, but out of the comforter, I have nothing to cover up with.  The simple solution would be to drop the room temperature just one or two degrees celsius, but there is a master control in the engineering room that they seem unable to control to my liking.  It is made worse by the fact that other rooms are one to two degrees cooler than mine.  It would even be less annoying if they were just unable to resolve it, but they have managed to get the temperature down for a day or two (though sometimes only a few hours) and then it goes back up to the higher temperature. My suspicion is that it is SOP in the engineering room to maintain a certain temperature and they simply forget about the request and return the thermostat to the previous setting.  As you can tell by the length of this paragragh, I am deeply annoyed by this seemingly minor issue.  But, the inability to sleep past 0500  because I wake up sweating is starting to get to me after these three weeks.

Good news on the horizon, however.  We will begin working in other areas in the next few days.  We won't check out of the hotel initially, but we will be making day trips, and this may liven the mood.

Leaving for Hue Today

After two days in Hanoi with the family, and some travel to Lang Son on some very successful business, I am heading back to Hue today.  I enjoyed the time with Megan and Diep and will miss them terribly, but I will not miss the weather in Hanoi.

It has been drizzling non-stop since I got here two days ago and there is no silver lining in site.  The temperature right now is a miserable 48 degrees F (9 degrees C) and I can't wait to say Xin Chào to Hanoi!

Where are all the smart people?!

I know this is a bit off theme for this blog, but being here in Hue with little else to do but think... and the fact that this is MY blog, I figure it is okay for a little break from norm here.

I was talking to my compatriot here at the hotel this morning at breakfast.  He is a smart guy... he has a  PhD in forensic anthropology and I respect his opinion, both professionally and personally.  But, we were talking about technological advances in the past hundred years or so in relation to the past thousand years before that, even going as far as referring to just the last 30 years.  He was talking about having to teach students who don't remember a time before the CD, microwave, touch-dial phone, etc.  That got me to thinking about the most recent inventions and conveniences that are associated with communications and the internet in general.  The remarkable things that are being done in this field are mind-blowing.  This is especially so when I think about the people I know and how much they know about technology.  Sure, people know how to use a computer and smart phone (some of them, anyway); even how to use spreadsheets and there is even a select few who know a tad about databases.

What I want to know is where are those people who invent micro-circuitry and design the back end of websites.  The people who invent new wifi technology and work with bandwidths, IP addresses and technologies like TCP-IP?  And, that stuff is nothing when you consider the designers of stealth technology, lasers and biological identification techniques like iris and electronic fingerprinting; and other military super secret stuff that we don't even know about now. Even trying to put together a hardened  case for the IPAD or any other tablet PC is something way beyond my comprehension.

Then I think about the number of people, percentage-wise, who would have to be out in this world inventing these things to keep this massive industrial/commercial machine going.  I find myself thinking, especially in my very unique position of meeting smart people all of the time, that I should have met at least one nuclear physicist or super smart computer programmer or carbon fiber compound maker, or AT LEAST someone who is doing something really, really smart.  I find myself meeting only those people who may, or may not be, marginally smarter than myself.  This is not meant to be an offensive statement - and in fact, only those especially conceited and arrogant people would find this to be offensive.  These people I find myself meeting are often smart in the logical sort of way... people able to make smart manning or political decisions; even those who are good analysts.  But, where are the guys who invent really, really cool shit?  And, why don't we know their names?  I mean, really!  Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, but compare that to the guy that invented WiFi.  Or even Al Gore who invented the internet compared to internet banking.  I couldn't survive without internet banking.  WHO invented this stuff, and why don't we know their names?

After thinking about this for a while.  Considering I have NEVER, EVER met anyone who even comes close to inventing this stuff, it seems only logical that aliens are doing this stuff for us.  That's my story and I am sticking with it.

Hell Money

Hell Money on the Streets of Hue City

While I was walking down the street in Hue City yesterday, I noticed a large amount of hell money laying around.  Though this is not unusual for me to see, it is something that must seem very strange to someone who hasn't lived in Vietnam or any other Asian country.  Hell money is known in Vietnamese as "tiền âm phủ" and is a category from a larger group of offerings - known as votives - called "vàng mã" in Vietnamese.  Votives in general are small offerings of material items that represent anything from motorbikes, cars, houses, and money that are burned and sent to those family members who have died in the hopes of gaining favor - or luck - in this world from those dearly departed.  Though there are references to heaven and hell in the Vietnamese language, my take is that people are generally thought to go to hell when they die (not necessarily the "fire and brimstone"-kind, but rather the "not living anymore"-kind.)  In hell, these people still need, or long for, those material items they had when they were alive.

The use of votives as offerings are not specific to Asia and even go back to ancient Roman and Greek times.  Doing research on this, I found that tossing a coin in a wishing well can be traced back to the use of votives to gain favor from supernatural forces.  This is something Mom never told me, but in retrospect, the granted wish had to come from somewhere, didn't it?

In Vietnam, this money is used mostly during funerals (ma chay) and on the anniversary of the death date (đám giỗ) of a relative, although it is also used on specific occasions leading up to Tet - the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.  My guess is that the money I saw yesterday was thrown from a funeral procession as it passed.

This money has been considered by Vietnamese authorities as wasteful and, in cases where the money looks too much like real money, even fraudulent.  Though it may be wasteful, I doubt that the villages that produce these votives would like to see this religious practice go the way of the dinosaur.  I still remember when firecrackers were determined illegal.  The authorities had to provide aid and assistance to entire villages and communities whose sole source of income came from the production of fireworks.  It would stand to reason, a similar assistance program would be needed for those villages and communities dedicated to the making of votives if it was determined illegal to produce.

Hell Money in U.S. Dollars only come in C-notes

With regards to the fraudulent use of hell money, I found an article describing the different pranks that teenagers have pulled with fellow students and vendors who operate around the schools.  In one instance, a boy described finding some hell money made from polymer (a plastic material that is used to make Vietnamese currency) that looked very much like a 200,000 Dong note.  Just as he picked it up, other students - the pranksters - descended on him and congratulated him on his luck.  They even talked him into buying refreshments at a local cafe to celebrate his good fortune.  When they had finished their coffee and sodas, he pulled out the money to pay, only then discovering that it was fake.  The other students acted shocked and he still had to pay for the drinks with his own money.  He later found out this was a prank and found new friends. 

When I was photographing this money on the streets of Hue, not a few people watched me curiously, and even one felt the need to explain to me with exaggerated gestures that the money was fake.  He didn't know that Diep has, on many occasions, explained to me not to pick up things I see on the streets.  

I Like...

Sitting here at my desk with my computer in my tiny room that I will be living in for the next couple of weeks, I find myself doing quite a few things that I like...

I am drinking OeTTINGER Beer.  It is a naturally cloudy wheat beer that is probably more fattening than alcoholic, but it is loaded with flavor.  One beer is tasty, and the second - that I am on now - makes me happy.  I like it.

I am listening to my IPOD Classic.  Yes, an older IPOD that I am under-utilizing because it has 80GB of memory and I only have 1700 or so songs on it.  But... and this is a BIG BUTT, I have some great classics on it.  I find myself realizing that Peter Gabriel was a genius in the mid-eighties with his Sledgehammer and Shock the Monkey!  Of course, I have Matchbox 20, Tom Petty, Eminem, Annie Lennox, Blacked-eyed Peas, David Bowie, Styx, Rolling Stones, Cake, OffSpring and a myriad of other music to mix it up.  I can't sync my IPOD with my computer because I had to re-image my computer a while back and I would have to load up all of my CDs (yes I own all of the CDs of the music I listen to) on my computer again, or risk losing everything on my IPOD.  Yes, I like my IPOD and my music.

I like Google Reader.  Yes, the new Google Reader is a mash up of every cool site, article, graph and other computer generated items out on the internet now.  Try Google Reader Play. I like it.

I just finished loading up the photos I took today in Hue on Panoramio.com.  I get to geo-map them and let people I never met - who have more talent than I ever will - comment on them.  I like photography and Panoramio.

I finished reading my sister's blog.  She gave me a link and wrote about some things that made me feel weird because I never know how to feel when I remember things that make me wish I was 10 again.  I like my sister and her blog... Okay, I love my sister (...and my brother, because I just found out he reads this blog, too... and... he said he would mail me some Mardi Gras cups!!!.)

I like posting pictures on Facebook, even though I can't access it here in Hue.  I really enjoy reading the comments, but regret that I can't see what picture is getting the comment and not being able to respond because the commenter's email address is not included in the notification.  BUT, I still like reading the comments.

I like Hue because the people are friendly and not pretentious.  I just miss my family.  But, I still like Hue!

Well, I am running out of things I like... well, actually, just the beer, so I am out of here.

Run

Since I got to Hue, I have increased my running.  I usually run in Hanoi, but more often than not I am relegated to the treadmill at lunch because I just got carried away with something else in the morning before heading to work.  There is nothing wrong with the treadmill as long as boredom isn't a factor in the run.  I usually end up running for 15 to 20 minutes and hitting the stationary bike for 15 to 20 minutes... and, if I feel good I will do the elliptical for the last 15 to 20 minutes.  On the treadmill, I will start at 8 minute miles and at 15 second intervals increase my speed by point one or point two miles per hour until I reach about 10 to 10.5 miles an hour and drop back down to 7.5 mph.  I do this as many times as I can until I run out of time.  This type of interval training  gets my heartbeat up to around 90 - 95 per cent of my max (220 - age) and it has taken my resting heart rate down to around 55 bpm.

I guess all that is good, but running on the real road in the morning here in Hue is infinitely more interesting.  I get to run on hundred year old bridges and past bunkers and fortresses that date back to the early 1800s.  Since the people here are "less sophisticated" than the Hanoians, they are also friendlier. They smile and wave as I run by and comment none on my husky stature.  I am at a point where I can run comfortably for an hour allowing me to enjoy the sites and sounds around me.  I am sure before my time here in Hue is over I will grow bored with my route, but for now it keeps me sane.  The cooler temperatures we are currently experiencing definitely help keep me comfortable during the run.

I do hope I get a couple of cloud free days here in Hue.  I have been to the roof of the hotel and I am waiting for a nice day to get up there and take a panoramic view of the city before I leave.

Hobbies

I find myself more and more grateful that I bit the bullet and brought my Nikon D80 DSLR with me on this trip to Hue.  I already knew that there would be great lulls in work here and, even if I kept busy on the computer, I would have to get out and get some air.  It is regrettable that the weather has been very gloomy and chilly since we got here last Friday.

I am usually very reticent to bring my big camera with me because of the fear of getting it stolen, losing it, dropping it, or just ruining it from the high humidity in the air.  As a matter of fact, after I bought the camera, I kept it put away for at leasts a year only bringing it out on few occasions for special pictures.  I guess after the "new" wore off of it, I didn't see it as being so precious and I felt more comfortable taking it out.  It is a good thing, because the pictures I take with it are so much better than the snapshots that I take with my smaller compact camera.

Not only is the camera a very good camera, but I have endless photo opportunities in Vietnam.  I just have to remember that these things that seem very familiar to me are very exotic to everyone back home.  Once I get that into my head, it becomes very easy to press the shutter button.  These days, with no film, there is also no fear. I can take the same picture as many as a dozen times until I get the one I want, exactly. 

I also brought along a sketchbook and pencil.  I used to enjoy drawing and I fancied myself as a decent artist.  I haven't drawn seriously for years, decades even, but I have started to feel the itch.  Hopefully I will pull out the pad and start drawing soon... it is often that first step that is the hardest.  Megan is my inspiration now as she is taking art in school and has started to sketch things at home.  The biggest obstacle here is drawing in public without having a thousand gawkers - and potential critics - curiously peering over my shoulder.

I also have half a dozen computer and fitness books that I have yet to crack since I arrived in Hue.  I guess I still haven't hit that point of boredom yet that throws me into reading the books and getting deep into some of the concepts.

I am still geocaching my photos and love it more every day.  In case you lost the website, here is my space on Panoramio.

International Woman's Day

Today, 8 March 2011, is International Woman's Day in Vietnam.  I say in Vietnam because I never had heard of this day until I came to Vietnam, despite the "International" description.

This day is usually celebrated by giving flowers to those special women in your life.  I am only allowed to have one special woman in my life so I sent flowers to her.  I ordered them through the Hue City Central Post Office yesterday and they were delivered in Hanoi this morning.  Unfortunately, as easy as our address is to find in Hanoi, the delivery person was unable to find the apartment and had to call Diep for directions.  This killed the surprise and also delayed her from her normal daily routine.  Fortunately, the bouquet was pretty enough that she seemed very pleased with them once they arrived.

When we first met, I was usually afraid to get flowers for Diep because I was never able to buy them as cheaply as she could and I felt like she would rather have the money than the flowers.  But, in the last few years she seems to really appreciate the flowers, especially if  I am away and send them to her.

In other news, the weather in Hue has taken a turn for the worse.  It has threatened to rain all day and the temperature with the high humidity and winds feels very cool... and me without a long sleeve shirt.

Hue City

I have a job in Hue City that I will be doing for the next 30 days or so.  This is cake duty, but being away from home for so long -  even in a five star hotel - makes a man miss it.  To keep me from being bored out of my skull, I brought along my digital SLR camera, my personal computer, IPOD and speakers, and some books.

I will be geo-caching my photos as I go, but Hue is a fairly compact city and I fear I will run out of places to go before the end of my time here.  I already got some photos along the Perfume River this morning and I suppose I will make it to the citadel in the next couple of days to get some photos of that area.  Other than those places, there isn't much left that I consider really photogenic.

I will also be boning up on my Vietnamese.  Even though I feel pretty fluent, concentrating on specific areas and interests keeps me at the top of my game.  I would like to expand my knowledge by speaking more to the locals, but the tones here are upside down and the local dialect is very different from that of both Hanoi and Saigon. I tend to adjust my speaking patterns to the locals if I spend too much time talking to them, but I am not sure this is the place I want to mimic the local populace.

The gym and pool here will help round out those other times when I get restless working in my room.