Dogs ,Diplomats,and an Aeroplane in a Lake..................

Hello everyone,

Well its been 2 months since my last update. I can't believe where the time has gone. Anyway , can I just ask one favour of somebody? Is there anyone on my distribution list who is going away for a couple of weeks over Xmas and needs a house-sitter? Last Xmas we rented an apartment in Salford Quays which was a bit soul-less, and whilst we've signed up with a website called Trusted Housesitters.com, someone we know would be a real plus.

I'm writing this on Phu Quoc island, just off the south coast of Vietnam where we've come for a 4 day break. It's beautiful here , except that we've picked the rainy season to come so it's er ....raining outside......that annoying hard rain. I dare say we'll manage to venture out soon though.

Coming to Phu Quoc is a bit of a co-incidence as we have just tried ( unsuccessfully) to have a second dog; a Phu Quoc Ridgeback to be precise. Sally and the new dog ( see picture) did not hit it off ( that's quite an understatement actually) and she had to go. Not her fault at all. She was a cutie, but Sally showed that she isn't just a laid back couch-hound; after two real scraps one of which ended with me at the clinic, we had to end the hostilities. But wow , Phu Quoc Ridgebacks; the only dog in the world with webbed feet. I kid you not........

And the other news is that we are moving house. Yes we are moving from our palatial , 6 storey townhouse, to a much more sensible 2 storey house in a pretty much exclusively Vietnamese area which is very near the Red River. So why are we doing that? 3 reasons.......

• It's cheaper......ever the accountant
• Next door (to our current house) is being demolished and rebuilt and they start construction every day at 5-30AM , 7 days a week, including public holidays. And the law in Vietnam is that the normal construction day begins with drilling and hammering and then when all the neighbours have buggered off to work, you spend the rest of the day on a tea break playing cards.
• The Red River is fabulous for Sally the dog. She loves it there, and we are 5 minutes walk away. So yes we are leaving the safety of our nice little Expat area, with all the 'western' restaurants and bars, and foraging into the unknown. Actually I have dramatised that a litttle, but it is certainly an area with very little social cache.

Pictured below is Chi , our Housekeeper with whom we are completely in love. Here she is cooking up our evening treat......Beef in Betel leaf.

Changing the subject , one aspect of this life is the chance to be part of the ambassadorial merry-go-round. So I get invited to the British Embassy to celebrate the Queens Birthday, play tennis with the Mexican Ambassador, sit next to the Canadian ambassador at breakfast the other day, have dinner with the Lord Mayor of the City of London ....and so on. Once again its something  I have never experienced before but it's a real privilege and you learn so much. One chap I met the other day , from the British Embassy has just moved here from the Sudan. If I think Hanoi is hot, well I certainly won't be rushing to move to the Mazars office in Sudan .

I'm not really one for visting temples and cathedrals. I'm much more into historical stuff. So during the last few months we have seen;

• Changi museum on Singapore where the Japanese incarcerated the locals
• The Bangkok to Rangoon railway using forced British Labour in WW2. ( Bridge over the River Kwai etc etc)
• The prison here on Phu Quoc where the Americans kept the North Vietmamese prisoner. This was in operation all the way up to 1973.
• A B52 Bomber in a lake in Hanoi, which crashed in a bombing raid in 1972 and the Vietnamese government have just left it there

I've got nothing to say about any of it except that it makes you stop and think and realize that no matter how hard we think our lives are, that my generation has not been really tested. And I'm not posting any pictuers.

Here are some snaps from our trip to Bangkok, where we played with an elephant and fed tiger cubs........

So that's all for now and I won't leave it so long  next time......

cheers all

kevin

VIETNAM FOR EUROVISION

Hello to everybody,

I've started to write this during a 4 day break in The People's Democratic Republic of Laos. We have come to Vientiane , the capital city, which is only an hour's flight from Hanoi, but frankly could be on another continent. It is hot, but not humid, quiet, sedate, and has what seems to pure and unspoiled air to breathe . It's bliss. I knew nothing about Laos and yesterday we visited a working centre, called COPE, for the manufacture of prosthetic limbs. A strange choice you may say , but it turns out that Laos is the most prolifically bombed country in the world. It has had 280 miliion bombs dropped onto it , of which only 70% exploded on impact. Thus there are at least 100 people that lose a limb every year  by standing on a 'scatter bomb' , and this is after 4 decades and millions of pounds spent on locating and disposing of bombs. Below is a sculpture made from bomb casings at the centre.

I very rarely buy myself beautiful things. Somehow the scales of aesthetics against cost are weighted in favour of prudence. My Rado watch is perhaps an exception. But in Laos yesterday, we were in a Social Enterprise workshop and they were making some stunning polished wood pens and mechanical pencils. No matter how many times I walked away from the display an invisible heartstring kept pulling me back. And now I own one, and in a lovely wooden case. See the photo. I will love using this every day.

Moving on ( and back to Vietnam), Karen and I are convinced that the Euro 'powers that be' should extend the 'boundaries' that now include Israel and Azerbaijan, and invite Vietnam into the the Eurovision song contest. This would be a 'sure fire' method to ensure that Great Bitain does not finish last. There are simply millions of 'would be' Eurovision crooners' in Vietnam , with microphone and karaoke machine in hand ,who we are sure would battle it out in the heats to represent Vietnam. The streets are alive with the sound of 'music' in Hanoi , and of extremely variable quality. The decibel factor seems to be thing that counts here; the competition obviously being to see whether they can be heard in neighbouring countries.

Last time I told you about Health and Safety here. Well just to prove the point, our neighbour decided to demolish their house. See here one of many interesting photos we have. The generally accepted method is to start at the top with your pneumatic drill and demolish from underneath you. It worked perfectly well and we heard of no accidents. I also attatch another H&S photo which really needs no explanation apart from an explanation mark.

One very annoying result of the house next door to us disappearing was the  disruption it clearly caused to the rodent life in our alley. We have a brand new house and no unwelcome guests up to now, but just after the demolition work started our friend Roland Rat came to stay. On paper this should be no problem for us. We have Sally the trained lurcher hunting dog. She has had plenty of rats on our walks ; they seem 'small fry' to her at an almost inconsequential level. In the house though it's a different story. We have polished wooden floors which are not designed for animal killing machines with long spindly legs. Sally knew that already, it seemed , and clearly she made a secret pact with Roland to allow him the 'freeedom of the city' in our house. Not a damn did she give. So the old phrase        ' why keep a dog and bark youself' went straight out of the window and we had to engage the services of our landlord to hunt Roland down, corner him and bash him to submission with a long handled metal rat basher.  Here's a picture of Roland taking his afternoon stroll.

We have now done over a full year in Hanoi and what a year it's been. I generally feel so blessed to have been given the chance to live my life a different way, in a different place, with new colleagues and friends. It's been tough, but in every sense, a life changing experience.

Cheers everybody

kevin

And here are two Vientiane photos. The lower one is

the Laos' Arc De Triomphe', constructed from the

concrete of airforce runways ( we are told), and still

not finished.

Where am I going to be 'healthier and safer'?

Greetings everyone,

I'm sitting here at home on saturday 9th February and tonight is New Year's Eve. The office has closed for a week, and we are told that Hanoi will be empty for the next few days as so many people have gone back to their home town in the provinces and all the expats have gone on holiday. We are going to enjoy a quiet Hanoi ( that will be weird) and watch all the celebrations tonight.

So the topic this week is 'Health and Safety'. Over the years ( and without any facts or figures) my feeling is that Europe has created a whole industry with rules, jobs,fines,legislation and media influence around Health and Safety. And now I am questionning whether what Europe has done is a little over the top.

But before talking about Vietnam , I'm going to talk about a company I did some work with in Liverpool. It made playground equipment including the ground areas for playgrounds. As you can imagine the company was beseiged by safety standards that goverened every single thing it did. Yet chatting to the older guys there, they did'nt really believe that what they did was totally worthwhile. Typically the story went......'in my day everything was concrete and if we fell off we learned the lesson, got bandaged up, and went back to playing again'. So arguably the safer you try to make something, the more compromised it becomes in terms of a learning experience.

Vietnam does have health and safety standards.. But if you go out in the street, within 10 seconds you'll see something that would be immediately closed down in Europe. And are their buildings falling down, fires in the streets, multiple pile ups, epidemics of typhoid, and all the things that H&S is meant to prevent? Err......no,at least not apparently so. People tend to look out for themselves, which doesn't seem such a bad idea to me.

 Take a look at these photos, both of which are less than 50 metres from our house. Who knows what is going on with this 'highly traditional ' cooking method for street food which seems to comprise a multiplug, a piece of wood, a plastic bag, a portable stove, a pot with some food in and an unidentified electrical gadget which certainly isn't on sale at Currys.

And the other photo shows an alleyway's electrical system. There are thousands of these 'spaghetti junctions' in Hanoi.

And one other highly refreshing aspect , whilst I'm on the subject. If you transported the pavements of Hanoi to any UK town , it would be a 'kerb trippers' paradise. ( See the lovely little toe breaker just down the road). But there ain't no insurance companies here paying out on this kind of thing. So there's one  industry that will find it hard making its way to Vietnam.

 I am not saying that H&S is a waste of time and money. But what I am questionning is how to create an objective view of the state of affairs and to consider no further expansion in legislation once the law of diminishing returns comes into play.Put another way, a rethink of the balance between legislation  and common sense.Indeed a study I looked at last night commissioned by the UK government suggested that there needs to be a higher level of engagement with society about what 'risk' actually means. Probably a niaive standpoint from me on this, but isn't part of the point of a blog just to make people think?

The H&S area that Hanoi is crying out for is to improve the pollution levels. It's arguably got the worst air quality of all cities in SE Asia , and my guess is that it is vehicles ( rather than industry) which is to blame. When I was told that there are real plans for an Underground I just laughed wondering when Vietnamese April Fool's day is. But there are plans which  I have now seen, although I don't think that I'll be trying to buy my annual season ticket to Tay Son Street any time soon.

Changing the subject, do you remember that in a previous edition I told you that shops of the same type are grouped together? ( ie all the sports shops are together, all the bookshops etc etc......), well I was in a taxi the other day and went down 'maternity dress street'. Pretty much all the pregnant clothes mannequins in the world are in one street in Hanoi.

So now you know..........

very best everyone; and here's some more snaps

kevin

See above what we found in our chicken stew given to us as a gift. Nothing goes to waste here you know.

Above shows what appears to be beautiful blossom on a small tree at a garden nursery. But check out the black branches which are in fact plastic , as is the white blossom. Astonishing.

And finally, this is a huge world map covering one wall of Hanoi Post Office. It's odd to see Australia and Asia in the middle ( rather than to the right which is what we are used to). But given where we are it's screamingly obvious that world maps will be drawn up like this.

WHITE BEDOUIN

Hello Everyone,

We've been back in Hanoi for a week (after Xmas and New Year in the UK) and now we know why the shops in Hanoi were full to bursting point with thick winter coats. When we left on 14th December it was 25 degrees, and now it's 10. The house is freezing and the first thig we did was work out how to use the air conditoners as heaters. There can only be two or three months in the year when the temperature is fairly neutral and the house doesn't need cooling down or warming up!

My major topic this month is 'roots', because I've realised that I've met several men in Vietnam, the type of which I have never really dealt with before. They are 'western', speak with a perfect, but undefinable English accent, and to all extents and purposes are 'English'. But they are not. I suppose that this is a feature of my 'sheltered life' ( joke), but I have never come across people who were maybe born in the UK (or certainly to a UK family), have lived all or most of their life abroad, and so whilst appearing 'English' have no real affinity to the UK at all.  They may been educated at a series of international schools or, depending on their parents' postings, in boarding school.  They  have no real desire to visit the UK and certainly would not wish (ever) to live there (unless it was a work posting). Several admit to being completely 'rootless'. When I ask the 'well worn ' tax domicile question ,"Where would choose to go to die?", then the answer is "Dunno really".  Somebody in conversation recently referred to them as 'White Bedouin'. What a great turn of phrase.

So I guess we all have differing needs for our roots and where we feel that ultimately we belong. I was thrilled to feel, on my way back from a business trip in Europe the other week, that I was 'going home' to our house in Hanoi. I don't think that I ultimately belong here, and I know that the UK still has a major part to play in my life, but this experience has really made me question my 'roots' and whether I could ever join the itinerant 'white bedouin'.

Changing the subject, here are some photos...........

Our local  'cock fighting' ring . (I have inserted the word 'fighting' here to prevent my immediate arrest.) Cock fighting is legal here, but gambling on the result isn't.

A fish being kept in a pot by the side of the road at a restaurant (as is the norm here), obviously decided to make a bid for freedom and I watched it jump out of the pot and zig zag across the road. The locals thought it was hilarious that I wanted to take a photo.

A snake on the pavement near our house, eating something or other.

The Xmas reindeer outside our offices (where there is also a shopping mall). I love this photo.

Finally I should let you know that if I have a shiny red nose and veined face the next time you see me , it will be because I have joined the Hanoi Whisky Club. It's run by two venerable Scots guys here and they 'inaugurated' me a few weeks ago.Every meeting you have to take a bottle of single malt. I will be taking a bottle of Welsh Single malt that one of my clients bought me as a leaving present (thankyou Dawn!), but I have no idea whether this will be welcomed as a 'great change' or made fun of as an 'imposter'. Hopefully the former, because it's a fantastic bottle of whisky.

So that's it for now everyone......

Very best for 2013.

Kevin

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Hello everyone,

After the rather serious edition last time, this one is just a collection of random thoughts about life here. There are 4 themes and if anybody can spot a link between them, then please let me know. So my 4 themes are as follows;

• Eating dog meat in Vietnam,
• That I am an attractive man,
• The Catholic Church in Vietnam,
• Taxi drivers' fingernails.

Ok, so when was in the UK and telling people that we were transfering to Vietnam, how many times did I have to smile and endure the 'joke' about Sally being stolen and eaten? Loads of times and it did wear a bit thin, partly because we didn't really know any of the facts. Anyway, we have been told that Westerners can have their dogs stolen, but not to be eaten, just to be sold as pets. So we are more vigilent, particularly as Sally must be one of the few of her type in Vietnam and gets constantly admired and photgraphed by locals.

So here are some facts;

• Around 7 tons of dog meat is supplied to Hanoi every week,
• The dogs (a specific breed) come from the north of Vietnam, but also from Cambodia, Thailand and Laos,
• Dogs that have been poisoned are still eaten, but usually not the intestines (as it is thought that that's where the poison will remain).
• Amongst the delicacies is Doi, which is ground entrails mixed with blood and stuffed into intestines,
• The public hate 'dog nappers' and recently 2 dognappers were killed by a revenge mob,
• It's fairly unregulated both from a slaughterhouse and eaterie perspective,
• Demand is growing,
• I got all this information from Vietweek a newspaper magazine,on a Vietnam Airways plane,
• Personally I find it gruesome, but this isn't my country, so I've no right (or desire) to do anything except not eat it.

There is a photo right at the bottom of this edition. I'll leave it to you as to whether you look at it or not.

Moving right along........here's a really nice photo just to change the mood.......it's one of about 20 Xmas decoration shops that have just opened on Hang Ma Street

Before we came out here I was warned several times that as a Western man , I would get 'hit on' on a regular basis. Well I can tell you that I must be an very attractive man. That sounds great doesn't it? Very good for my self esteem and all that? But there's one problem. It isn't Vietnamese women that I attract. It's 25 stone Australian men who always sit on the aeroplane seat in front of me, recline the groaning seat immediately, bounce up and down relentlessly, and usually give me a lovely helping of their dandruff. Now to be fair I do have to tell you that one lady I followed up after a business event to ask if we could meet up to see if our organisations coud work together, did ask me to a nightclub on a Friday evening. I um......declined. There is no photograph to accompany this section.

So to the Catholic Church in Vietnam. Pictured here is St Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi. I'm not big into churches, but its just beautiful. And we went in and heard Mass both in French and Vietnamese. The Catholic Church has a very uneasy tenure in Vietnam (as you can imagine). The priests and bishops are both chosen and limited in number by the Vietnamese government and there have many unsuccessful attempts to create an easy working relationship. I have seen some suggestions of oppression of priests in the provinces. So there you have two powerful organistions, and you can just picture neither wanting to give way. To my mind this is quite an important issue as there are 6m Catholics (out of 85m) in Vietnam.

And to finish.......a phenomenon that I have never seen before, and to date have not recieved any sensible explanation for. Why do many taxi drivers and coach drivers have long (and I mean LONG) fingernails? Sometimes it's just their little finger. Once again it's not my country but to me it looks weird....not effeminite because they look like 'mens fingernails', but why? I'm not going to lose sleep over not knowing, and I have tried to get a photo, but surprisingly I get a very odd reaction when I ask a taxi driver if I can take a photo of his hand!

So my next blog will be from UK as we are home for Xmas.

Take care everyone.

Cheers

Kevin

Pictured below are Karen wearing a Hanoi face mask. There must be millions of these sold in Hanoi every year.........AND......a dog meat  stall. Sorry but there's no point me not showing you.

The real story...........

Hello everybody,

Whilst everything that I’ve told you so far is completely true , some of it is at the margins in terms of importance and it's about time that I told you the other  story here.The only reason for telling you is in order to make a real point, and it's probably the most important point that I'm going to make in all my newsletters. (I am also glad to tell you that I've had my employer's backing to release this edition.)  Let’s start at the very beginning then.........


When I came out here I knew it wasn’t going to be a ‘bed of roses’.  I knew there would be challenges, obstacles, and hurdles to overcome. Our operation  here was a ‘ bringing together’ of a Vietnamese business and our own self-generated business. The integration had been problematic and part of my job was to gently and slowly soothe the tension. The first few weeks were ok and progress seemed steady; slowly but surely we were moving forward.Then, at the end of April, the Vietnamese partners in Hanoi just walked out of the business one afternoon, taking all the staff, files, laptops, servers ....everything. The office was  emptied around me leaving the three of us who were left staring at a load of old furniture, and four walls, bare  apart from some  company posters. And  I never had the chance to ask my former colleagues what the Vietnamese translation is for “Oh shit.............”

After half an hour of watching the hive of activity buzzing around me, desperately trying to work out what I should do, I decided there was nothing else to be done, other than to remain calm and dignified (not an easy feat whilst my heart was racing, my adrenaline bursting, and my brain spinning like the wheels on a fruit machine). In discussion with my colleague in Ho Chi Minh City, we realised that there was no point calling the police, and over next few days we also realised that seeking legal redress would be a long, narrow, and winding road leading to nowhere in particular.

 This is where the 'real point' of this story begins to impact.

Very slowly,  but at a constant pace, our  little gang of three  were approached both by staff who had been made to leave at the end of April , and staff who had previously worked for us.   They wanted to stay with us, and ‘to a person’ they each gave the same reasons: we are an international firm and a good employer which had invested in bringing a Westerner into Hanoi. We gained momentum and by the middle of June there were twenty of us and (with the organisation's  backing) we moved to our new offices for a fresh start. The clients have seen our activity and easily enough of them have stayed with us to maintain a small, but very happy and productive office.

So what's the point I'm trying to make? Well, you'll see from the attached photo (taken a couple of weeks ago) that our workforce comprises  young people. They all want to be part of something global, something joined up with the rest of Asia Pacific, to Europe, to the Americas.   They understand the need for Vietnam to play  its part in the world's commerce and politics, and have a desire for the country to fulfil its potential on the international stage. They are optimistic, hard working, and a joy to be around.

 Now this  newsletter is not  designed to be an endorsement of my firm's global strategy (which, incidentally, I totally agree with), but surely the actions of these people is a total validation  of what my firm is trying to achieve.  The more people we have in the world  who are curious and seek to embrace the different cultures of the world, then the more chance we have of moral, spiritual and commercial prosperity.

 And this  newsletter is not designed to give my organisation any message; but if there is one, it's to keep up the work in connecting all of our staff around the world to feel part of the same thing . We see it on TV don’t we? . Like the HSBC adverts  showing  a global brand that understands the different cultures around the world, but is still being HSBC in an HSBC way. Well this whole affair has made that come real for me and I believe in it.

So for this newsletter, no amusing anecdotes; just one photo, and hopefully an explanation that makes sense and rings a bell for you.

Cheers all

Kevin

ARE WE HAPPY THEN?

Hello everybody,

Welcome to the next edition of my newsletter. My wife and I are always commenting that everybody smiles in Vietnam. I know that's a bit of an exaggeration , but broadly it's true. There's a 'hard to put your finger on' feeling of contentment and lack of tension pretty much wherever you go. So it's no surprise to me that Vietnam ranks second in the world in the 2012 Happy Planet Index (HPI), a  measurement introduced in 2006 by the New Economics Foundation. HPI takes account of 'human well being', life expectancy, and general life fulfillment , set against the ecological and enviromental effects that will infringe on future generations in that country. Costa Rica is top and Qatar is bottom. So money is'nt everything; but I guess we all know that don't we?

Moving on, one newspaper article that fascinated me here , had the headline 'Top leaders join in self -criticism'. Obviously I had to read it. It described a new Government Resolution whereby all top officials ( including the Prime Minister) have to make self criticism speeches in front of their peers, the Politburo and the Party Central Committee. It sounds like a wonderful idea to me. I'm sure we all know lot's of people who would have a real struggle with that; so hey , let's hope Vietnam is leading the way on this initiative.

I'm so grateful to those people who respond to my blog. I love writing it, but it's even better when somebody drpos me an email to say that they like reading them. One common feature of people's responses to me is that ' we must be having a fantastic time'. And yes we are. But there are some downsides and difficulties here. So without getting too depressed , here are 3 ' not great ' things about life in Hanoi;

a) The Weather. We have been here 6 months. The first 2 were like living in a lukewarm grey and damp cloud. The next one started to get swelteringly hot and humid. And for the last 3 we have had incessant 'oven like ' temperatures (with humidity to match), mixed with thunderstorms that rattle your teeth. We are told that september to november are lovely , and then that december and january are are cold and humid and that you feel it in your bones. So you don't come to Hanoi for the invigorating climate. And one side effect of the humidity is that things in your house ( particularly anything wooden or leather grow a lovely mould on them ; it's a rather fetching green/grey colour).

b) The Pollution. A very high percentage of scooter riders ( and some pedestrians) wear face masks and when you are in heavy traffic ( when are you not in heavy traffic?), the emissions must be sky high. We are told that there is a huge incidence of bronchial problems in Hanoi, and both my wife and I have had the 'Hanoi hacking cough'. Also we are both horrified to see the number of dead fish which gently float on the surface of Westlake every morning. I asked somebody at work whether this is to do with the high level of pollution , and was told that this is partly to blame , but that the humidity is a big factor. How do fish die of humidity? My wife told me that I must allow myself to be more gullible when a local gives me an explanation like that.

c) Petty Bureaucracy. I've highlighted this before, but last week my morning taxi was singled out by the traffic police and my journey delayed till the poor taxi driver paid up for some unspecified offence. After 10 minutes of sitting waiting in the back of the taxi , I decided to to get out and look as menacing and annoyed as I could ( I am rather 'tall' here you know) , and actually it seemed to do the trick as the episode settled very quickly after that. Taxi drivers here have a hard enough job as it is; It's a tough and competitive life, so it's a real bummer to be stopped and 'fined' at 7.30 in the morning.

Ok ; off my soapbox. We spotted a supermarket product which I am sure you can't buy in the UK. You remember my discussion about vegetables and the 'middle class' fear of pesticides by local farmers? Well just buy a bottle of VEGY  to wash all your veg in. It looks just like Fairy Liquid.

So to finish I thought I woud tell you about our company trip. The whole firm ( about 90 people) are going to Bali for 4 days. It's pretty cheap to get there from here, and company trips like this are often the norm. But before you get too jealous; We can't go! It co-incides with one of our lads coming to visit and we can't get the logistics to work. But as Bali is an easy trip , I reckon that we might have a romantic weekend there at some point.

Here's an explanation of the photos above;

a) This is apparently the longest ceramic mural in the world. It's several kilometers long, and covers one of the dyke walls that protects the city from flooding. Local and international businesses and schools all contributed to the project, which is just fabulous.

b) Pumping water from one lake to another is a common scene. This one is near our house both lakes are used for farming water lillies.

c) 2 photos showing sunset scenes from our roof terrace.

d ) A typical traffic scene from the morning rush. All the scooters on the left are actually on the pavement!

e) The house opposite the end of our alley needed a crane to lift two huge bonsai trees into his back garden. The road was closed for 3 hours without warning and led to lots of arguments!

Till next time.

kevin