CAT ON A RED TIN ROOF

"Aussie girls having fun" and "The Turtle"

Another youtube posting:

Canberra girls having fun in Hanoi

The Turtle of the Lake

A local food stall

I went upstairs in the "Sago" restaurant in Dinh Liet Street two days ago. (I don't recommend the restaurent for service, or food for that matter.) But I had an interesting view of the restaurant across the road. The blue plastic bags, I think, are filled with hot take-away food.

TET DAY

It sounded like a war zone last night. Over the last couple of days police have been guarding an area around Hoan Kiem Lake where fireworks were being set set up. They looked like small rocket launchers, and they sounded like it last night. The booms went on for about 15-20 minutes. I looked outside but couldn't see anything apart from a slight pinkishness to the sky when some of the booms occurred.


Downstairs on the groundfloor, the older man who is possibly the landlady's husband, was burning a small fire at the entrance into the little courtyard from the alleyway. I read somewhere the fireworks are to frighten away the evil spirits, and perhaps the little fire was to prevent them from entering this house in their haste to get away from the fireworks.

Yesterday I heard a gong struck three times at about 11 AM, in this building. This morning the gong was struck again three times at 8 AM and 11 AM. I have no idea what this is for.

Hopefully it's ok for me to go out now. I don't want to be blamed for some-one else's bad luck by being the first to crooss the thresh-hold of a house when I'm not a cat-person.

Pictures from the last couple of days are posted below:

Links to interesting videos filmed in Vietnam from Youtube

Young guys show off on motorbikes behind a police parade

Is this someone's view of Russians?


A view from the seat next the driver on a bus in Vietnam

And other view from the front seat of a bus

Boy crosses street in Ho Chi Minh City - actually the traffic doesn't look too bad compared to how it looks more recently