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.
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.
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
