Hai Phong shipyard

We took a little "detour" yesterday afternoon and went for a guided tour of the nation's largest shipyard. It was quite interesting, and there is a quite story behind it, which I won't post online...

So, I’m scared of heights. And of course, what’s the first thing we do? Go up in an open construction crane elevator to the top of a cargo carrier under construction, followed by a large step over open space on to the deck of the ship. I put on a brave face, for Canada. If nobody had been looking, I would have crawled off the elevator.

5,000 people work here, and the plan is to bouble the size of the operation in less than ten years. They're in the midst of building several bulk carriers for the UK right now.

The "scenic" shot is the housing right nextdoor, taken from the bow of one ship under construction. The yard is about 40 km from Halong Bay, so you can see the unique limestone hills in the distance.

I couldn't resist the picture of the welder looking out one of the holes in the hull.

Hai Phong streets

I have a 12 minute walk to work here in Hai Phong. Cross the street from the hotel, walk by nine sidewalk barbers (yup, it’s the barber street, shave and haircut on a kitchen chair on the sidewalk with a mirror hung on the fence), around the corner and past the sidewalk tropical fish market (see the picture – plastic tubs on the ground hold live fish and small turtles - remember, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them), past the navy museum (uniformed sailor guarding the gate with a well worn AK-47 automatic assault rifle – I nod and smile and keep walking), past several cell phone shops, some sidewalk cafés, around another couple of corners and down a quiet tree lined street to the police building (see pictures – police building, and street, note sidewalk café in corner of picture).

So there I am, walking along looking at this different world on the side street by the police building (picture of police building included) when I hear a familiar tune over a loudspeaker. “Santa Claus is coming to town…” Imagine this when it’s 25 C and incredibly humid. So warm and humid that my shirt is soaked and it’s not even 9:00 am.

The music is coming from a guy with a set of scales on wheels walking along the road, with a bull horn slung over his shoulder attached to a small recorder. It’s common to see somebody wheeling along a set of portable scales (combination height measure thing built in) so that you can stop and check how much you weigh. Very common. See them a lot. Don’t often see one though playing Santa Claus tunes. So very odd.

On the walk back to the hotel today, I managed to get a shot of one of those impossible loads routinely moved along the street using a converted bicycle. I think it was bales of plastic and construction materials (see picture).

Two more days of police skills coaching here, then travel to the south end of Viet Nam, via Ho Chi Minh City, and up the Mekong Delta to Dong Thap, and another set of skills coaching days there. Wonder if I’ll hear Christmas tunes there too?

Saturday morning off in Hanoi

Took a cab first thing this morning to the “Temple of Literature” (Van Mieu) and went by the flower street, shoe street, and leather belt street. Admission to the Temple? 10,000 Dong, which is about 65 cents Canadian.

The temple is a quiet block of several acres set amidst the chaos of the city. It dates back to summer (eighth lunar month) of 1070 when King Ly Thanh Tong created the first national university in Viet Nam, dedicated to Confucius studies and “the training of talented men for the nation”. Confucius (551 – 479 BC) founded a philosophical doctrine that had “far reaching impact on the culture, psychology and ethics” of people all over the broader region – China, SE Asia. He’s been honoured as the “Teacher of ten thousand generations”. (Amazing what you can learn from temple brochures and a good guidebook). The site has many buildings, and could house 300 students.

Study covered Confucian Canons, practical writing, administrative documents, literature, poetry. I wonder if there were frat / keg parties?

There are still numerous buildings, and five separate courtyards, all flanked by walkways on either side – one for administrative mandarins and one for military mandarins. At the front gate, there is a stone sign asking riders to dismount their horse before entering. Now, there’s a motorbike parking area where the horses once stood.

Students had to pass years of provincial and regional exams to come to this university, then three years of study here, and up to four more years of preparation for an oral exam (held once every three years) before the King before being awarded a doctorate (they were now Mandarins). To commemorate this, starting in 1484, each student had their name (men only) carved in a large stone tablet (over 1,300 names recorded) mounted on the back of a stone tortoise. There are rows and rows of these turtles (82 in all). The school closed in 1778, and a few years later the Emperor moved the capital south to Hue, just north of Da Nang.

Several altars inside the various buildings to past kings, princes, Mandarins, and a large one for Confucius. Fruit, flowers and burning incense in front of each. Many locals lighting incense and placing them at the altar, clasped hands and a bow.

Spent almost two hours wandering about, sitting and watching, and taking lots of picture. Sat on a bench for a while beside a very old, very tiny local man wearing an old army pith helmet, blue blazer, and carrying an umbrella neatly furled up (no hint of rain). It was fascinating watching him watch the tour groups and the locals wandering about. He had large blue butterfly tattoos on the backs of both hands. I’d love to know the story behind those tattoos, and him. (see attached photo).

Hanoi - Saturday

In keeping with tradition here, streets or neighbourhoods are identified by what they sell. This dates back many centuries when the trade guilds had specific streets named after their wares – charcoal, silk, leather, shoes, flowers, roasted fish, baskets, chicken, silver. The neighbourhood I’m in? Safety. Shop directly across the street (and many around the corner) are stocked with fire extinguishers, life jackets, hard hats, reflective vests, round life rings, etc. (notice the women carrying bamboo baskets selling fruit). Go figure. Yesterday, I stumbled upon button street.

The pictures show the parking out front of my hotel (rock hard bed, again!), the sidewalk BBQ restaurant below my window and the safety shop across the street.

This, right now, is one of those truly neat moments in travel. I'm sitting on the second floor balcony of a Spanish tapas restaurant with a view of the Catholic cathedral across the square (I've stayed on this street several times before), with a cold Tiger beer, watching the kids at play in front of the church (Saturday classes just got out from the school across the way) and listening to the ever present honking of horns. If you're piloting anything motorized, it's your birthright to honk the bloody horn constantly. I sometimes think the cars can't move if the horn isn't honking. Interspersed in the noise are the bells of pedicabs (for the gringos). Dusk is just falling. Temperature is pleasant (damn hot and humid earlier). Constant, overwhelming stream of motorbikes going by. Emission controls on vehicles? Another foreign concept that hasn't made it to SE Asia yet.

Oh well, time to post this and get back to the reason I'm here...work.

Hai Phong, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam

After a day in Hanoi, I'm in Hai Phong (2 hours drive north, on the Gulf of Tonkin) for the week.

Hai Phong is a lovely little French colonial style town. Lots of great old two-storey buildings in the area we’re in, with tree lined boulevards. The French came here in the 1870’s. Actually, Hai Phong is the third largest city in Viet Nam. Wouldn’t know it from the area we’re in. Arrived here Sunday night, and go back to Hanoi Friday for the weekend, then back here Sunday night for another three nights.

This is a port city, and the Americans heavily mined the harbour here in the early days of the war in an attempt to cut off supplies to the North Vietnamese. It didn’t work.

Staying in a two story police guest house. Four large rooms upstairs. My translator, Anh, is next door. The pictures are of the guest house, and the street out front.

The guest house is quiet, large room and large bathroom but incredibly “basic”. No soap (I have some packed just in case of this), one tiny towel hidden away in a locked drawer in the desk. TV with 40 or so channels, 4 of which are English and 3 of those are sports. Usual hard as a rock bed. The red, orange and white bedspread and matching pillow cases are adorned with large white feathers and “Happy Birthday”. What’s that about? But, there is air conditioning!

Turns out what I thought was the bed spread is in the mattress cover. One blanket to put over myself. I had hoped to use that as extra padding. Bed was far too hard to sleep.

We moved down the street and around the corner at lunch to the hotel “50 Dien Bien Phu”, which coincidentally, is also the address.

Every town has a Dien Bien Phu street to commemorate the ass kicking the Viet Minh (forerunners of the North Viet Nam leadership) gave the French in 1954 at a village (near the northern border with Laos) by that name. That battle was a decisive victory for the Vietnamese, and marked the beginning of the end of French rule, and the birth of the independent North Viet Nam. Very big moment in the birth of a nation.

Constant surprises. The workshop materials for Monday aren’t here. The group was 1/3 the planned size. The three-day course starting Tuesday that was to have 35 participants has 75. I’m getting used to this. What you plan for is invariably not what is actually going to take place. The 200 + page participant manual with all the activities, glossary, etc. wasn’t copied. Then the PowerPoint projector crashed for half an hour. Ah, the life of international consulting…

The non-tourist side of Abu Dhabi

Steve and Peter took me sightseeing Friday on the way to Dubai. We went in to the industrial area outside Abu Dhabi where the real heart of this Emirate is.

This is a 20 km square area chock a block full of tiny shops, warehouses, distribution centres and manufacturing. Mostly it’s these tiny, dusty, dirty shops that do small manufacturing or fabricating. Jammed together, cheek by jowl. It’s all foreign workers, mostly Indian and Pakistani. This is the labour/manufacturing "engine" that drives Abu Dhabi. No tour buses here.

Lots of mosques in the area. Faith is huge here, and deeply rooted.

If you throw out your old car muffler, this is the area where they’ll pick it up, repair it by hand, then sell it again.

We went in to one of the accomodation buildings for workers. Tiny entrace between two auto repair places. Wouldn't have noticed the entrance if we weren't looking for it. Narrow walkway, two tiers of small rooms, six bed rolls to a room, three banks of bunk beds. Shared cooking area outside, squat toilets, communal wash area. "Camp boss" who has his own room, there to keep order ensure no outside people try and sneak in to live there. Depressing, but it was average for the area, and in some cases, a step up in life for some workers.

The third world workers typically live in these conditions, here on a 3 year work visa, sponsored by a specific employer. Work six days a week, with a four week trip home once a year, sometimes every two years. Most have paid a local employment firm in their home country $800 US or a lot more for these jobs. The agency arranges the visa, flight and screens them for the employer.

Incredible way to live...

Dinner in Dubai

When you're in the Arabian Peninsula and looking for a nice, local, ethnic dinner, where do you go? To the Irish Village of course!

Too funny. Inside, it's an authentic Irish pub (except you can't smoke in pubs in Ireland anymore). The servers are all Irish. Guinness is on tap. You wouldn't know you're in Dubai. Looked very much like some of the pubs Sieglinde and I visited this past Christmas in Gallway. Then, you step outisde to this large patio area... The temperature and sunshine is a clue that you're not in Ireland.

It's Sunday morning here in Hanoi. Coffee at Jafa, surfing the 'Net. Sorting through some work stuff, and starting to think about the coming week. The UNICEF driver and interpreter pick me up at 5 PM for the drive north. Two half-day meetings in Hai Phong tomorrow, then teach Tuesday - Thursday a class of 35. Co-teaching with police. Friday I'm coaching small teams of investigators, then back to Hanoi for the weekend. Next Sunday, back to Hai Phong for two more days of coaching, then fly Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City followed by a 3 hour drive up the Mekong River to Cao Lanh again. The hotel with the giant cockroaches...

By the way, if you double click on my pictures, they open in a new window and are larger and easier to view.

Dubai

It's Saturday 3 PM my time, midnight Friday back home. Got in to Hanoi a couple of hours ago. Had a beer (well, OK, two...) and going for a nap in a few minutes. Been up around 27 hours or so. Huge culture shock from Dubai to here.

Steve and Peter drove me down to Dubai yesterday to catch my flight. We drove around to see the sights Abu Dhabi first, then did the hour drive down to Dubai, and more sights there. Saw camels along the way. Didn't see Lawrence of Arabia...

These pictures are all from Dubai, which is much larger, more sophisticated and more liberal than Abu Dhabi. Dubai invested all their oil wealth in development. Oil is gone now. Abu Dhabi has about 25 years of oil left.

I couldn't resist the Starbucks shot. Aside from men in dish dash's and women in burqa's, I could have been in Vancouver.

Everything in these pictures is Dubai, and NONE of it was there five or six years ago. It's ALL new construction. Yup, even the ones you see in the distant background along the marina. Depending on who you talk to, 30 or 45% of the world's construction cranes are in Dubai working right now.

The marina shots - that's Vancouver False Creek, right down to the pedestrian way, handrailings and Cambie Street Bridge. They hired the Vancouver architect to build a bigger better version here. It's all build on desert, including the marina, which was man made. Amazing.

The big brown sloping building is the monster indoor ski hill, with a monster shopping mall in the foreground. The huge traingular building is a hotel (you have to pay $50 US just to go in for a look). To give a sense of the size of the hotel, that round disk jutting out hear the top is a helicopter pad, big enough to handle 3 at once!

The shot of the single high rise under construction is the world's tallest building, only half built so far. It will be 160 floors, 2600 feet when done.

I'm on wireless, in a restaurant in Hanoi, inside a monster housing estate complex. Pool side with kids having a birthday party. The restaurant is run by Aussies, hence the name of the place "Jafa" (just another fucking Australian).

Nap and shower time. Out for dinner with the client and her partner tonight (I'm in their spare bedroom tonight as APEC is here and downtown is nuts with lots of roads blocked off for motorcades). Off to Hai Phong tomorrow afternoon (two hours drive north on the Gulf of Tonkin) to begin work Monday. Gotta earn my daily bread!

United Arab Emirates

Wow. If you have more money than God, you can build anything and build it quickly. Attached is one view of the Emirates Palace Hotel. This only shows PART of the entire site. There is me with Abu Dhabi skyline in the background, huge billboard style portrait of the depart Sheikh who was the local rule - much revered, loved and missed. Also a picture of the very high-end Marina Mall, complete with view tower.

The mall and hotel are both built on reclaimed land. Money is no object...

Drove around and toured the gold Soukh, which is an indoor mall devoted entirely to 24 K gold shops on the ground floor.

Singapore - United Arab Emirates

Who ever said “getting there is half the fun” is a simpleton. Thirty hours in transit from home to my layover hotel in Singapore in three legs: Vancouver – San Francisco (two and a bit hours layover) – Seoul (hour and a bit on the ground. Totally un-interesting airport) - Singapore. Five hours sleep, then the phone rings. Agent from Singapore Air confirming the time the shuttle will pick me up tonight to return me to hotel. Thank you for that. Twenty some hours to Singapore, then off on a 7.5 hour flight to Dubai followed by a one hour cab to hotel in Abu Dhabi (ETA at hotel 5:00 am local). Fun? NOT.

Singapore Air was fantastic. 100 channel individual TV/movies, dozens of music channels with "on demand" CD's. Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald, Hawkins, Coltrane, Nina Simone, some red wine and 3 seats to sprawl over. How great is that?

So, when the turbulence gets so bad that the flight crew literally run to strap themselves in, is that a bad sign? A few moments of fervent praying over the North Pacific. Seems to have worked. We stayed in the air. 300 people all praying to a different God. Together, we covered all the bases.

A day in Singapore to look around. First time here. Family of a good friend from home took me to lunch, then off to the Indian Market to poke about.

The market was fascinating. Had coffee in a Sikh owned local banana leaf restaurant (the leaves are the plates, and you eat with your right hand). Sikh and Muslim pictures/symbols on the wall, surrounding that lesser known Swiss contribution to eastern religious beliefs…a cuckoo clock. Too funny. Is there some deeper symbolism at work that I didn’t get?

Went off to Raffles Hotel (world famous) to their Long Bar for the signature cocktail invented there...the Singapore Sling. It was the thing to do. Sickly sweet. Ick. Tiger Beer for a chaser helped. Lots and lots of other tourists doing the same thing. Everyone posing for pictures holding their drink.

Singapore was wonderful. I'll be there for a day again at the end of this trip, a month from now.

I'm in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emeriates, now for a four day conference, which ended yesterday. I'm off today and tomorrow, then on to Hanoi. Sightseeing this afternoon and tomorrow. Will have more pictures then.

The pictures here are the Indian Market in Singapore, John (Vivienne's Dad) and I in the market (I'm the slightly taller one...), view of the Persian Gulf from my room, and to show just how ambitious projects are here, a satelite view of "The Palms" currently under construction in Dubai (no, I didn't take the picture!). Construction is on an incredible scale here. The Palms will have huge private estates dotted along each "frond" of the palm. Next under development? "The World", another massive estate development in the ocean, and a 160 storey - 2600 feet high rise currently at 90 floors and rising ("The Burj"). Will be the tallest structure in the world when done.

So, you think you’ve seen nice, high-end hotels before. Wrong! Check the Emirates Palace at www.emiratespalace.com On the web site is a link to Google Earth and the satellite shot showing the size of the building and grounds. Wow! Most of it’s built on re-claimed land from the ocean. It was build in 18 months. But you can build something that large and ornate when you bring in 10,000 labourers who work in 3 shifts, round the clock. Amazing what you can do when you have truck loads of cash.

More details later...

Mark