December - workshops, national parks & motorbikes

December has proven to be an extremely busy month in Viet Nam as I am sure it has been for everyone gearing up for the festive season and completing year end deadlines. Here it has been workshop season here which has meant lots of travel to various provinces.

I have traveled to Cat Ba Island Biosphere, Phong Nha Ke Bang World Heritage and down to Cat Tien Biosphere reserve. More photos to be shared soon but I have reverted to the SLR so this now all takes time.

In Cat Ba I will highly recommend the Green Mango Café, the owner cooked a friend Ashley and I dinner and 7 bottles of red wine later things were traveling brilliantly. Rosi from Cat Ba has almost single handedly saved a species of Langur the single minded type of conservationist that is very inspiring to meet.

Views of Cat Ba Bay

Friendly faces and rural landscapes

Cat Tien is in the South so it was nice and warm which was welcome relief from the chilly northern weather. There is nothing Vietnamese officials love to do more than grab a microphone and make a contribution at a workshop that is slightly not related to what we are discussing, nothing more than knocking back some shots of rice wine. The rice wine flowed each night and lunchtime and me as the stupid westerner started to count how many shots we downed one night, I think I lost count around the twenty mark…...made viewing animals in the park with a spotlight very entertaining.

I have met some amazing/humbling personalities, Professor Ellery from Australia who amongst other things knew Douglas Mawson and had worked with Tim Flannery in PNG and a Vietnamese history professor who had met Ho Chi Minh three times.

More locally I have been getting my thrills getting to and from work as I have joined the throng of motorbike traffic, I am not sure my lungs appreciate all the fumes but seems to be the only real option and it now is something to look forward to. I must note that my boss Edle is particularly brave being the first to travel on a main road as my passenger. I have now even managed to give two people a lift at once and I am starting to feel quite local…and that was after singing the night away Vietnamese Karaoke style to celebrate the engagement of one of my colleagues.

Hoan Kiem Lake Looking very festive

Hue

KOTO Cycle

The KOTO cycle challenge was a great day of cycling, eating, meeting people and discovering some slightly more rural areas of Vietnam.

After a few months of fairly minimal exercise 80km was a very worthy challenge at 8 am on a Saturday morning. Spurred on by some great food and the prospect of breathing some clean country air we departed for Bavi to be greeted by a saturady morning peak hour.

Once we reached edge of Hanoi things definitely looked up as we were able to concentrate on more than where the next motorbike or truck was likely to be attempting an ambush of our position on the raod.

We made our way along dirt roads first through market gardens and then rice fields and smaller villages. We stopped at a pagoda for morning tea and to rest the backside and then continued on to Bavi.

The group was constantly greeted by smiling faces and children shouting 'Hello' with replies from the group of 'Chau ca'c em'

Despite some exhaustion & a sore buts, this was a great time how can you not love being greeted all day by smiles like these :)

Know One Teach One http://www.koto.com.au/

Hue

Making incense is one of the traditional handicrafts practiced in the regions surrounding Hue. These are dyed bamboo incense sticks drying in the sun.

No drought in Hue, this is a view of the main street on my second day there. My job assess options for flood control and historic waterway conservation......think I will be busy

Textures & colours of the Hue Markets (need some more technology to share the smells)

Cute Neighbours

These are photos of my next door neighbours, the girls and there dad/brother came into our apartment for about 45 mins the other night. They spoke no english and us barely any vietnamese but everyone seemed to be quite fascinated.

The girls spent most of that time jumping on Kathryn's bed. Good to see some things dont change across cultures. Anyway hopefully we will have some more verbose interactions as the year progresses but there is no denying they are little cutties.

Bannana time

OK, I couldnt resist yes all those super tasty banannas for less than $1........

Think I will turn into a monkey soon

work life

Working at UNESCO has proven to be one highlights of Hanoi. The work in practice is far removed from Adelaide with not a calculation yet completed. I have entered a new world of project planning, logic models & liaising with partner organizations all with that familiar hydrological & environmental theory as a backdrop which makes the transition more manageable.

Being the new kid in town there is a lot of background reading to be done to ensure that you don’t look too stupid in the many meetings. I have managed to plough through many documents and haven't come too far unstuck yet.

I have two few specific projects for the year ahead, looking at how to conserve traditional drainage structures in the World Heritage area of Hue whilst facilitating upgrades to modern water & sanitation standards and looking after the early stages of a disaster mitigation & flood mapping project for Hoi An & My Son.

There are also a large number of activities and programs which I am involved including Man & Biosphere Reserves and helping with some of the more biological/environmental questions around the place. I have even had to write a press release?!?

Everyone has been very helpful, speaking English when I am around & taking me to meetings/lunches with some regularity. I have been lucky enough to meet with the senior officials from the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation, World Conservation Union & the Vietnamese Man & Biosphere Committee. These have been some amazing individuals which is adding to the humbling nature of this experience. I am off to the central provinces next week to meet some of my counterparts and attend a seminar :~)

After works drinks seems to be a global phenomenon which I am accustomed and have enjoyed here, something new was the Karaoke last Friday with a group of 6 Vietnamese staff from work. Wow they take their Karaoke seriously, sipping juice munching on watermelon pumping out my best rendition of eternal flame and many other eighties classics/doosies which my voice was not made for. Good times indeed just glad there was no footage taken.

Settling in

Vietnam has been a great experience, the last couple of weeks have been filled with great excitement, a near miss or two and the obligatory Asian travel belly. This is the land of motorbikes, humidity, pungent odors, diverse gastronomic adventures and an amazing density of people. Hanoi has both reinforced all the stereotypes of Asia on one street whilst around the next corner they have been blown apart.

I was greeted in Hanoi by a baptism of colour light and energy arriving on the day of the mid-autumn festival, held for children no less, the second biggest festival of the year. The Friday night was amazing and Kathryn and I realized we are both big kids at heart as we reveled in all that was new, bright and shiny.

The first weekend was about finding my bearings so no better way than pounding the pavement for hour on end as most of the Vietnamese looked on bemused as to why we weren’t catching a xe om (moto-taxi). As anyone who has visited Hanoi will know the traffic is chaotic at best as I experienced first hand getting collected by the footpeg of a motorbike as it sped through the red light, I escaped with nothing more than few bruises and a little dented pride and perhaps a bit more caution on the road, but I now think I have my technique sorted out.

Food has proved a highlight thus far with great food ranging from fine French Cuisine at the Green Tangerine or Café Cyclo to a few of the street stalls which I am starting to approach with growing confidence, haven’t actually cooked at home yet which is bizarre but make sense given the price of food eating out. Pho Bo is a great start to the day and it proved a staple for the first week. I managed to eat something that didn’t quite agree with me, but I am still here and now figure that I have some of the bacteria and antibodies ready and waiting for next time so bring it on…….

I moved into an apartment late last week I am living with another Aussie, Kathryn who has come over as part of the same program, it’s a quite cute 2 bedroom place in an apartment block full of Vietnamese nationals so we are making friends slowly through hand gestures and lots of smiles. Kathryn is in Hanoi on the same program as me working in marketing for a rural development group and has proved to be a great travel companion as we both find our way in Hanoi. I have come to know the shop keeper at the bottom of the building quite well, she speaks about as much English as I do Vietnamese but we have I have established she sells cold half liter bottles of beer for about 50c so I can see us getting to know each other well.

Vietnamese seem to enjoy a beer even more, dare I say than the average aussie bloke, and much of the male culture is centered around Bia Hoi. All can say is ..When in Hanoi…
Wow feels like I have been here for a month not a fortnight, good luck if you have made it to the end clearly you must be at work now! I will try and get some pics up on the web asap. I’ll give you an update on work (yes I have done some), work lunches (there have been plenty) and partying Baracuda style soon.

Xin Chao

Well, I have finally made it to Hanoi and settled in a little.
I moved into an apartment last night just to the south of the Old Quarter in Hanoi, its a pretty cute place and a very Vietnamese neighbourhood so this is going to be cultural immersion, which I think will be a good think.