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Published: December 27th 2005
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Embroidery!!
This is a silk embroidery factory. Each centimeter of the portrait she is working on has 400 stitches...SSOOOOO TEDIOUS! And also quite impressive. I just got back from Dalat, and it was GREAT to get out of HCMC for a few days. Before I detail the sweetness of that trip, I've got to mention the wedding I went to. On Sunday (almot a week ago) I went to my first Vietnamese wedding. The woman (named Thu Ba) works for Language Corps (the organization I came with) so she invited all of us to the wedding...but she didn't stop there - I'd say there were at least 400 people at the reception! Unfortunately I didn't get to see the actual ceremony. They're generally kept small, family only. But the receptin itself was something else entirely - I think 'austentatious' might be the best word to describe it. Thu Ba changed her dress three times throughout the course of the afternoon, thre was a 'runway'/'catwalk' set up in the middle of the room for professional dancers (dressed in a vietnamese attempt at Latin style apparel) to parade down before they did a few numbers in the front. The wedding party walked down it later on before their champagne fountain toast. It all seemed very silly to me, but they kept the food and drink coming...my table
What the Pho??
Clearly bird flu is NOT a concern at the Dalat market! (cheifly Marta, Joe and I) made the mistake of treating real beer like Bia Hoi. As you may recall, Bia Hoi is the watered down (maybe 3%) local brew that is DIRT CHEAP in many beer halls. It's customary to do a lot of 'nam muoi phan tram' toasts (50%, meaning you invite them to guzzle half their beer) or 'mot tram phan tram' (100%, same same) at these places, but when the same attitude is employed with beer double the strength...let's just say I had to take it easy the rest of the day. Our table was the last to leave! Highlights include: being dared to strut the catwalk (and accepting with a few others) and seeeing tons of women in ao dai (ow-ee-i) (traditional vietnamese dress). I'm going to get one made in the future. I'd planned to have one for the wedding but decided to spend money on more relevant stuff instead.
As I've told some of you, I have found a decent art supply store, and thus have started to document my time here/be productive. It's difficult to get a lot of work done primarily because I don't really have an ideal work space. Right
FINALLY...the COUNTRYSIDE!!
I really needed a few days out of the city - and that's exactly what Dalat was! People were out working in the fields with only their hands - no tractors, etc. It made me quite nostalgic of the garden. now I'm painting whilst sitting on my floor because my walls are concrete and I can't hang anything. I've spread newspaper all over the place in an effort to prevent paint stains, and had success. At night I sleep in a room of fumes; I'm still waiting to see what the outcome will be in that department.
Anywho...now that I've covered those bases, I'll tell you about the name-sake for this entry: Dalat. Before I left for Dalat, a ton of Vietnamese people told me that it was really cold there. I dismissed their warnings, figuring that Vietnamese people don't know what cold is. After all, it's snowing in my hometown right now. For about the first hour or so, the 'cold' didn't really hit me. I enjoyed the temperature change. It was probably 50 degrees or so, maybe 55 and slightly rainy. By the end of the first day, I had decided that my first purchase the next morning would be a winter hat, gloves, and a scarf. I had to wear literally five layers of clothing!!! This begs the questions, "Who am I?" and "What have I become????"! I'm so acclamated to tropical hcmc that I can't
Freezing cold...at 50 degrees...
Marta and I suited up for the cold day ahead - how pathetic are we??!? even deal with 50 degrees!!! I was slightly embarassed. I will say that I've noticed significant changes in two other fields as well. First, I feel like a slut when I can see my own knees! Riding on a motorbike with a skirt is scandalous to say the least....I NEVER thought I would feel that way. I honestly wear clothing that an old woman would wear in the States, and it's still not sufficient! I'm somewhat disappointed that the time of my life when my body is probably it's most attractive is the same time is spends its days well concealed under buttoned up shirts and long skirts...<
>. Second, I now find Asian men attractive! And they no longer look the same! (I know that sounds awful, but it's hard to come to a country full of asians and be able to tell them apart). At first I focused on all the differences between my facial features and theirs; I honestly couldn't see past them. But now I notice all the features that distinguish people, and it's pretty similar to the US. Some of my students remind me of people from home. Most notably, I have one class with two bamboo infrastructure
As you can see, the building materials are slightly different here. Even in Ho Chi Minh, bamboo is used as the skeleton for new buildings. Asian 'Neil Barbours' running around.
So anyway, Dalat was pretty sweet. The first day we did most of our exploring on foot around the city centre. In the evening we rented bikes and rode around into the mountains and around the lake. The second day (after warm clothing purchases) we rented motorbikes again and tried to find a minority village in the mountains. It was a gorgeous ride, but one of my companions had a few problems...Tyler (kid from next generation LC) drove one of the bikes and he had MAJOR problems! First, he drove into a fruit stand (didn't do any damage and got a good laugh from the locals). Then, he went around a corner too fast (allegedly his brakes didn't work, but I think he forgot to take his hand off the throttle) and he BIT IT on the pavement. At this point, I was the only experienced motorbiker (marta and elizabeth had gone ahead) so I had to help Tyler and Lillian with their bike as their follies continued down a rocky muddy 'road'. When they landed in a mud puddle, Lillian called an end to the excursion. So, we turned around and rode back silk factory
When silkworms make their cocoons, the cocoons are shipped here. They are dropped into boiling water and then unraveled by machines. I could NEVER work here - it's noisy, stuffy, smelly. to the city center. At this piont, we reached the grand finale of Tyler's attempt at biking.... we were driving up a steep hill and he tried to change gears. The gears didn't catch and he kept revving it until he downshifted again. Upon downshifting, the bike's front tire flipped out and bucked literally five feet in the air!!! Lillian jumped off the back and Tyler continued attempting to wrestle the bike down, before letting go of the throttle. At which point the bike went a few feet in the air (to the other side of the streeta) and then died! Needless to say the Vietnamese were more than slightly impressed/awed/scared!!!! Tyler busted the mirror as well as the tail/brake lights because they slammed against the street. It was the closest I've ever come to an action movie, and probably the closest I will come in some time.
After the day's excitement, we decided to hire these dudes called the 'Easy Riders' to drive us around and take us to cool places for the next day. Highlights include: seeing a silkworm farm and factory, eating at a local restaurant (practically people's house), seeing where they make rice wine (and textiles
Beautiful fabric made by people from a minority village! sampling), going under a HUGE waterfall, going to the trippiest house I've ever seen, seeing a mushroom farm, enjoying the countryside. All in all it was 20$ and well worth it. We might hire them for an extended trip over Tet New Year. Now, I am back in HCMC prepping for Christmas...
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