tisiwoota

At one point during the ride, one of the two ladies who rowed the boat I was in crawled up past me to the prow and leaned out and picked a giant lilly pad leaf. She affixed this on top of her conical hat with a pin, and wore it like that for the rest of the trip.

A short clip of her rowing, after the other lady had transferred to another boat:

Several rowers were skilled at this tactic, which I imagine is better than getting callouses on your hands:

Video clip from last weekend’s trip to Tam Coc.

No, I am not talking about the frequency or lack thereof with which I call my parents.

Yesterday, in the midst of explaining the grammar rules for referring to various kinds of relatives, my Vietnamese tutor Nha veered off into telling me about the lot of women of her generation. As with all too many places, baby boys used to be valued much more highly than baby girls. Nha, 56 (in Vietnam it is common for people to ask and tell their ages; in part to determine what pronouns to use in relation to each other), was the oldest of three children, but her father was basically merely tolerant of her existence, because she was female. The father gave the second child everything, as the oldest male. Everything. A house, money, support, affection. Nha and the youngest brother were given nothing (once you have a first born male, the rest are superfluous). But she says she was thankful that her father at least let them have an education, since that enabled them to support themselves after childhood, even when he would not.

Now, she says she spoils her granddaughters. She bought both of them pianos (the first very cheap from someone moving to another country; the second after a long time saving) and lessons. She says other people think she is crazy for spending her money this way, but she says she thinks of it as her “revenge” for how she was raised: “I will giving them something!”

(On a side note, it was interesting to learn that the lessons are group lessons of 14 children, rather than one-on-one. This works through a lot of emphasis on ear training, and has a competitive element to it.)

Of course, she noted that anti-girl bias was worse in China, due to the one-child policy. Abortions of baby girls led some villages to have huge imbalances. This causes the Chinese men to have to look outside the country for mates. For this reason, although gender discrimination is much less worse for Vietnamese women today (indeed the workplaces seem very egalitarian here), many are now subject to becoming mail-order brides for Chinese men– either for financial support, or um, as kidnap victims.

Um, signing off from Cheery Updates R’ Us…

Okay, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve put up a link post. Silly distractions like finals, and moving, and Vietnam. But here you go, a new collection of some of my recent readings from the internets.

1. UN Head Links Darfur to Climate Change
An editorial by Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, which talks about how climate change helped spark the situation in Darfur. Well written– and good to know that the head of the UN _gets_ the interconnection of such important global issues.

2. Google to Visualize Maps From Books. Pretty cool– “Google has taken public books (out of copyright) and scanned the text for location information, then created a collection of placemarks for the locations mentioned in the book.”

3. Guerrilla Bike Lane Painting.
“In 2001 Toronto began a $73 million plan to create bike lanes, but the plan has gone awry. Two years behind schedule, the project has only used 50% of the budget it was promised. The cities cyclists are angry, and . . . have been sneaking through the city, painting cycle lane logos down lanes of traffic.” The city’s response is a perfect bit of bureaucratic irony…

4. Solar-Powered Billboard that Gives Power to a Community
A “power to the people” campaign by a bank in South Africa that “literally does just that.”

5. Sense of Touch Essential for Empathy
Interesting little research brief– mostly I just find it fascinating that there’s a condition that some people have where they sense physical touch when they see someone else being touched. It’s amazing there are so many psychological conditions out there that have not yet been co-opted by literature or movies. What an interesting worldview that must be…

This shop for evening gowns is across the street from my hotel. In the evenings, a street food vendor sets up on the sidewalk.

Notice the low plastic stools off to the left? They look like they’re built for early grade school kids, but this is the most common seating you’ll see not only near street vendors, but also as outdoor seating for Vietnamese restaurants and bars. Apparently the Vietnamese prefer sitting this way, for whatever reason. In a similarly ground-hugging fashion, people here often squat on a sidewalk while chatting or playing a board game on the pavement. I once saw a military fellow squatting on top of a wall that he could have comfortably sat on instead– which gives some indication of just how natural the habit is for them. I like the lack of pretension in these casual and practical postures. Before witnessing this phenomenon, I never really considered how much westerners stand up in situations (such as waiting in lines for hours to buy tickets to a show) when it might be more comfortable to do otherwise.

So. This is a picture of the building where I work:

Sometimes, on my way to run errands after work, I would pass by this government-type building next door:

It was only after going out to lunch with coworkers several weeks into my stay that I was informed that this building I’d been passing by was, in fact, Hoa Lu prison, aka the Hanoi Hilton.

Huh. It seems the office complex I work in was built on part of the old prison grounds (the rest is preserved as a museum). I don’t know that I would have sought it out otherwise (I went to a military museum here last year; that was enough for me). But it was interesting to see. The Prison’s history dates back to 1904, when it was built by French colonists.

(Statues to replicate the conditions of shackled prisoners, I think from the 1940s).

(Statues in the former women’s cell).

Beyond the women’s cell, there was a room with a guillotine (used by the French) and then some rows of smaller cells, for one or a few people.

By the way, can you tell from the photos that there’s a perspective painting at the end of the hallway, rather than actual cells? Kind of a cute way of dealing with not having tourist access past the first couple rooms…

The images again, adjusted for light:

The prison also had the sort of “we treated American prisoners well!” propaganda you’d expect. And they had pictures up of pilots they’d captured, including John McCain. They even had a display of the flight suit he was captured in (no pic, alas).

I wonder what species it is?

Some pretty cave formations– I wish these pics had come out a bit better!

A stop on the boat tour:

I didn’t buy anything, so alas, I can’t tell you what starfish tastes like…

Pictures from the boat ride:

(These rocks are famous for some reason; they’re called the kissing chickens)