September 27, 2005

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  CẦN THƠ

  
  

  E-mailing back and forth with Lucy, I asked her whether I should write about an incident in my childhood regarding my gullibility or I should continue to post pictures of my vacation in Cần Thơ.  Lucy said she used to live near Cần Thơ so she likes to see the pictures.   Only two days in Cần Thơ, I took more than a hundred pictures.  I already used up the allocation that Xanga allows me to post pictures.

  
  

  1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

  
  

  6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

  
  

  11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

  
  

  16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

  
  

  21. 22.  23. 24. 25.

  
  

  26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

  
  

  31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

  
  

  36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

  
  

  41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

  
  

  CHỢ NỔI – CHỢ TRÊN SÔNG (FLOATING MARKET – MARKET ON WATER)

  
  

  46. 47. 48. 49. 50.

  
  

  51. 52. 53. 54. 55.

  
  

  Pic.1 – I was on a boat, passing a house, not a temple, with a large statue of Quin Yi (Quan Âm) in pink color.  I normally see only Quin Yi statue in color of blue or light green.
  
  Pic. 2 – Fishing boats are anchored by a bunch of coconut tree trunks.
  Pic. 3 & 4- One of a fishing boats came into port and was unloaded by mostly female employees,
  Pic. 5 - Cat fish (aka basa fish) farms where the fish are raised underneath the houses using natural river water.
  Pic. 6 – A store.  I am not sure of the products.  Maybe rice.
  Pic. 7 – River banks are full of vegetations. I asked my tour guide what the tall trees are, he did not know.
  
  Pic. 8, 9, 10, 11, and 14 – A local band performed traditional musics of the South as known as nhạc tài tử or hát vọng cổ.  Hát vọng cổ (Lucy likes this type very much) is only one of the types of musics.  There are alots more types such as Lư con sáo, lư cây đa, … The singer brought me to tears with many sad songs such as Châu Long, Lưu B́nh Dương Lễ.  One song particularly about a mother worried about a daughter who got married and lived with the husband’s family.  One wrong move or a bad attitude could bring shame to the family.  She wondered if her daughter’s husband and mother-in-law would love her daughter, if her daughter would be hungry at night.  Dear God, I tried to hide my tears until my face distorted.
  
  Pic. 12 & 13 – Fruits of water palm trees.  Cut the brown hard shell into 2 parts will reveal the white edible kernel, sometimes very sweet.
  
  Pic. 15 – We moved around by little boat as known as taxis.  The sampan’s driver is about mid twenty.  What she is wearing is called áo bà ba, mosty see in South Vietnam.  If you review previous entries you will see Vietnamese male attires are the same or just minor changes but women attires change from region to region.
  
  Pic. 16 & 17 – Visit an orchard that raise crocodile and boa for their skin.  I took pictures of bridges as known as cầu khỉ or monkey bridges.  I have told you, I am obsessed with bridges due to what I do to make a living.
  
  Pic. 18 & 19- Lam, my tour guide, stood in front of a machine to make coconut candies.  Thông in darker shirt, my other tour guide.
  Pic. 20 & 21 – Gifts made of coconut shells.
  
  Pic. 22 – A group of European tourists at a near by lunch table in a restaurant on one of the four islands in Bến Tre, a neighbor of Cần Thơ province.  Vietnamese have many legends about 4 sacred creatures, Dragon (Long), Kylon or Lion (Lân), Turtle  (Qui ), and Phoenix (Phụng).  They tend to name places after these sacred creatures.
  
  Pic. 23, 24, & 25 – They remind me a song Tình Hoài Hương of Phạm Duy “Quê hương tôi có con sông đào xinh xắn…”  Click on 24 and 25 you will see more bridges.
  
  Pic. 26 & 27 – Bridges lead to a very nice restaurant where I had lunch.
  Pic. 28 – Water buffalo.
  Pic. 29 – Inside one of the kioskes cover with hay roof.  A lot cooler than shingle or fiberglass roof.  I was caught in the rain.  Try to capture the raindrops unsuccessfully.
  Pic. 30 – A weed, its name is lục b́nh, floated in the water.  Lục b́nh has light purple flower, a symbol of a life or a bleak situation without future.
  Pic. 31 – Once again, pictures of coconut tree trunks.
  Pic. 32 – Bridge Mỹ Thuận.  It was replaced a ferry to cross Tiền Giang to relieve traffic congestion.
  
  Pic. 33 – While I was waiting to cross river Hậu on the ferry Cần Thơ, a few trucks carry pigs were parking next.  Mấy con heo mập đang chờ bị bán đem làm thịt.
  
  Pic. 34 & 35 – Ferries Cần Thơ.
  
  Pic. 36 – Ninh Kiều at night from the balcony of a restaurant. The boat trip at night to watch cải lương was cancelled becauseit was drizzling rain.
  
  Pic. 37 – Picture of a lizard on an advertisement board of Bata, a shoe company.
  Pic. 38 – A stick figure model after pedicab driver in a restaurant.
  Pic. 39, 40, & 43 – Life on river, different levels of financial comforts.
  Pic. 41, 42, 44 & 45 – More bridges.  

  
  

  CHỢ NỔI

  
  

  Pic. 46 to 54 – Buying and selling.  Products to be sold are attached on the pole in front of the boat to inform buyers (pic. 49).  Some people try to give themselve a feeling of living on land by planting a lot of potted flowers and small bushes (pic. 53). 
  Pic. 55 – As my private boat squeezed through the floating market, a dog barked at other boats intensely.  I was joking exactly what pmanmeister commented, if the dog wanted to become a meal.  Of course not my meal but there are many Vietnamese will be happily to uhumm devour this animal.  Me, I will not eat this kind of food unless I get paid, how much?  Humm, I have to think.  It will depend on how hungry I am and how much money I want.

  
  

  TO BE CONTINUED…

  
  

   

  • 10:30 pm
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