I went out at 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning to enjoy HCMC with sleepy, quiet streets and sparse traffic.
Ummm.... no.
Across the river is HAGL, which stands for "
Hoàng Anh Gia Lai." I don't know what that means, but it's a landmark that people use frequently on the expat forums. It's near the bridge; I guess that's why.
An older couple on a boat. The wife is doing laundry off the side. I
love seeing how people here combine traditional and modern lifestyle
elements to carve out niches for themselves. Boat life is a time-honored
tradition around here.
A bigger boat getting ready to head off to get itself a load to carry. It will probably get filled up with sand or gravel and then go upriver to Cambodia, where land development is really taking off.
Blue uniform means security cop. He is headed off to work. At 6:30 AM only a few security cops have settled into their posts already.
A vendor selling breakfast from her motorbike. One of the security cops bought coffee from her. I don't know what else is on the menu.
I don't even know what kind of flowers these are.
An English sparrow on the path. English sparrows are actually native to Asia - but probably not to Vietnam.
Lovely coconut trees.
A tiny lizard hiding in a bush.
Thanks for the link to your adventures. I'm enjoying them very much indeed. The photographic record is wonderful. I feel your pain learning the language - I'm having similar problems with Portuguese. (I'm trying to teach myself, and the pronunciation doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to the latin alphabet.)
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah, I tend to hink of the Romance languages as easier than the Asian languages, but what difference does that make when they're all hard? :)
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, I know very small amounts of more and more languages.