The walk to work

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I took these photos on a walk from our house to Apollo, to give you some idea of what we see each day. When you do it all the time you stop seeing some of the most unusual sights and and it all becomes more normal. Taking photos of everything opened my eyes again to the fascinating place we live in.

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Photos

Chu Van An high school
behind our house. They start school at about 6.30am with a banging drum and the national anthem!
When we go past, a cocophany of voices shout 'hello'. Many of our teenage students go there, so we can't ignore the shouts in case we offend someone!.

A sign on the wall just past the school
No, it's not an advert for a local restaurant. It's a public health announcement about AIDS. You have to watch that 2% beer hoi; this is what kind of scrape you can get into.

Belly dancing Sadie
appearing now in our local sports centre.

All of these little bottles have fish in them
The group of people on the ground are watching two fish in a jar. Can anyone shed some light on what is going on?

Our favourite beer hoi
doesn't look much. It isn't. Cheap beer, plastic chairs, friendly staff and a squat toilet with a door.

Row of outdoor barbers
in case you need a quick trim or shave on your way to work.

Rows of identical bikes parked in the street
so how do you know which one's yours?

You call by one of these street personailisers
and they do wonders with sticky back plastic. Blue Peter would be proud.

Advert for Ao Dai
the traditional dress of Vietnam. Apparantly one of the women in the picture is Miss Vietnam, who comes from Haiphong, and I think is the daughter of an ambassador somewhere.

Phone shops
Lach Tray street has an amazing number of phone shops side by side. At one point there are 12 in a row. They are also open later than any other place on the street. Including restaurants, cafes and bars.

Local corner shop
tiny hole in the wall.

The closest thing Haiphong has to 7-11
It closes at about 9pm.