Going Wide Around Nge Anh Province

It is just about 3 weeks before the time will be up for both myself and Greg. I will have a chance of a bit of a holiday with Anne and we'll see some great places and meet some lovely people. We have been going around the place a bit - not far but further enough to get to see the local country and it people like we had never seen before. Lindsay has taken some great shots and has shared them so many of the pictures here have been taken by him.
It has been a fairly challenging working time but getting out when you have a chance  gives you head a bit of a refresher and tell you the truth, the more I see of Vietnam, the more I realize what a pretty country it is and what a good existence many of the country folk seem to have.

The buffalo rules the fields and the roads...

Rice paddies being prepared for planting, not farm from TH project

Planting of rice. The first cro has been harvested and what you see is the planting of the second crop to be harvested sometime around September. The rice cropping is something to really behold - thousands of hectares just around us and all cultivated by hand or with minimum machinery and then every little rice plant in by hand.

If you are a passing tourist you never get to really appreciate the effort. You can have a large, 10 or so hectares wet paddy block with old stubs and the next few days an small army of workers/owners arrive cultivate and within a week the whole block is planted.....
Women seem to do most of planting I think before they just love the hard work...

Boys operate the machinery and equipment

Ladies love to spend time head down planting millions of seedlings

Again, boys have to deal with machinery

and more machinery

while the girls just plod along

and along.....

 Tai Hoa, a town near by is our source of essential goods. There is a good market and is fun to go to.

Lindsay's photographer extraordinaire...

A bit like a western frontier.

In the market getting 100 grams of peanuts

 The market is kind of indoors , lots of alleyways and lots of different things for sale from hardware to seeds, fruit and vegetable, cloths and the not-to-be-missed, fish, meat and chook department.

 You can take it alive or order the chicken to be processed on the spot. does not take long and you get to take the innards home as well because as the Vietnamese says, everything tastes very nice!!

Very fresh fish

Rural man and his buffalo cart (courtesy of Mr Rowe)

His lovely mumma bufalo

Sending a kiss to the photographer...

How pretty can you get?

 Buffalos are so absolutely essential around here and you kind of wish it will remain so for ever. The are source of transport, cultivation and protein. they are well looked after and always seem to be quite healthy (unlike some bovine you see sometime). The buffalo has a lovely pace and seem to be almost completely introspect no matter what is going on around them..

Great, free- mortgage living. Depending where you go around here, you may seen lots of dwellings similar to this. Of course I guess the dream is to have a nice brick, status-enriching home like some I have shown in previous postings. It great for me to see them because I used to visit a friend when I was about 16 years old that lived in a very similar dwelling, in tropical Brasil. Many days and night spent in similar place, not power, no tap water, earth beaten floor, spiders, snakes, wood stove , good food and good company plus a little pinga (check google for the Portuguese English translation) with lemon...

Pretty

Undarilha, captured by Lindsay

Today (July 6th0 we did take a tour (me, Greg and Lindsay) and visited an area about 40km from the project. Great big Dam and lovely area.

Typical Brahma cattle. This is a young bull, tethered and happily (not always)grazing about

 We stopped at the spillway of the dam, and in contrast to the large Song Sao reservoir that feeds the TH project and receives a little run-off in return, this lake has what appears to be great water (in quite a few people swimming and lots of fishing going on. Above I am trying to see how comfortable it will be to stay the night in this sun/rain shelter near the spill way, and obviously used by the local fisherman while awaiting for the catch.. Seemed o.k.

 

recently attended weeding

Bride and Groom

Buffalo cooling in lake

Luong, one of the vets and

Mr Dinh, great vet, farm supervisor..

Sunset, just the other day

Tomorrow, Sunday is a day-off so I will visit a friend and his family and then try to go west for a little way towards the Laos border... I am also fossicking around for a few crystal and mineral. Have found a few but no Aquamarine, rubies , topaz or diamonds yet but good enough stuff to take home..

Catch you later.

Around the countryside..

Four weeks are up, and June is on the Horizon...  We had a few "cooler" days but things are set to warm up....

(Quatro semanas ja se passaram e o mes de Junho ja ven no horizonte. Tivemos alguns dias mais fresquinho, mais com certeza o tempo vai esquentat bastante...)

A week or so ago  I went over on a local motorbike tour again..  Lots of activities on the rice paddies and as usual life in Asia never seems to slow down , no matter what day.
(Uma semana atras eu fui novamente em um passeio na regiao. Muitas atividade nas plantacoes de arroz, e como e comum, na Asia as coisas numca parecem que dao uma acalmada, nao importa que dia e da semana....)

 

Sugar cane harvesting on the way  (colheita da cana)

 

A pile of sugar cane waiting manual loading..

 

Local country farm house. Some are much better, others are even more basic..

 

These guys are loading watermelons onto their 100cc bikes..

 I calculated 7 bags at around 50 kilos each....

Local rice field getting ready to harvest

 

I visited a local church and the little girl insisted on a photo. She later went to get her friends for a group photograph..

 

The Church..

 

Young couple, they take care of the church and surroundings

Here is the little group of friends

 

Sunrise over the dam, where I go to do a little workout most mornings at 5 am

Sunset from my room door at the "village" compound..

 

Buggered after a hot day..

 

At the zoo today. I have been to many zoos before but never to one where you can get to touch most animals.... (except the tigers). We had a great morning visiting this private zoo. We were the only westerners around but plenty of Vietnamese folk. You get pretty close to most of the animals, and get to feed them if feed is available near by.

 

Hoje estivemos neste zoologico particular. Ha various animais e voce pode tocar ou acariciar a maioria dos animais com excecao dos tigres.. 

Friendly little chap.  Hipopotamu bem amigavel...

Greg and Lan, a friend that guided us to the zoo.

 

 Feeding the elephants. You can not get any closer..

 

First time to pat an elephant's trunk..

A primeira vez que toquei na tromba de um elefante..

A Kudu form Africa

 

 Rare white tiger. Could not touch him tough. 

Infelismente nao pude toca-lo

This table is made from a local tree stup. No easy to find a place around it where you could comfortably fit a chair but great work nonetheless. Check out the detailed carvings..

Esta mesa e feita de uma raiz enorme. De uma olhada nos entalhes.

 

Never been so close to a rhino. They looked really good, fat and healthy. Munching at the grass. Touched the horns, scratched their ears..

Rice straw laid out to dry across most roads. The straw is dried, stored and fed to buffalo and cattle in the "winter" months..

A small tractor churning in the rice paddy after harvest..

 

 

Late in the afternoon myself and Craig went over to the village to mingle with the locals (age range from low 20s to mid 70's) for a play of Baddingtom. Great fun, they play well and I did get a hiding. But will be back in the next few days.

 

Craig Tanner and big sister and little brother

We paly the game outdoors in the local school grounds

 

 

 You all have fun and I shall post a few more photos in the next week or so.