Motorcycle madness and other funny things

Sorry about the delay with my blog, but I have been so busy traveling around Vietnam.  I thought I would quickly post these funny pictures so you can enjoy a little taste of the crazy things Vietnamese do with their motorcycles.  It is surprising what they can pack onto one bike.  

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)

I arrived Friday mid day to the hussel and bussel of Ho Chi Minh City, and was exhausted from traveling and seeing so many sights in Cambodia, so I took the afternoon to recuperate. My hotel “Giang Son 2” is located in the backpackers district of the city, and is a temporary home to many foreign visitors.  It is a mix of busy main streets lined with restaurants and tour companies to serve the tourists, and interwoven with tiny little side streets where the local Vietnamese live and eat. The streets are just oozing with activity and life.  The side streets are where the people live! Their homes are a place to recuperate from the day’s activities.    

The life blood or flow of HCMC is the roads. Buzzing with the chaos of motorcycles.  There are a phenomenal number of motorcycles.  It is indescribable!   I was quoted the population of the city is 10 million people with 6 million motorcycles.  People use  motorcycles as their primary mode of transportation, to carry any (and I mean any) of their goods; 12 foot metal poles sticking slung over the driver’s shoulder, an entire family of 4 people on a single motor cycle, 12 foot window pains (hung on by the back passenger), doors, a crop of vegetables, a dozen geese, or baskets (one driver had a basket over his head and face, because he didn’t have enough room on his motorcyle), sky high stacks of material, foam, wooden sticks, you name it, they put in on their motorcycle.  I even saw a driver carrying a roster in his arms while he drove his bike that was loaded down with other goods in behind. 

HCMC is a city of the people.  The people living their everydat life on the streets form its character.  The buildings are impressive, but its street life is what really left its impression on me.  

Fish market at Ben Thanh Market

Saturday I spent the morning and afternoon exploring the streets of HCMC; went to the large food and goods market in the city’s center called Ben Thanh market.  This was an interesting market, where I discovered all sorts of new foods.  I tired Jack fruit (which tastes like a crunchy banana… soooo  yummy), and some other unknown fruits, and then finished with some pork wrapped rice paper rolls (I enjoyed it so much I got two servings and took one with me for a snack later in the day… yum).  After the market I went to the Bitexco tower.  This is a very iconic tower completed in 2011 which over looks the city.  The viewing level is on the 49^th floor and provides mesmerizing views of the city.  The tower was constructed like a unopened lotus flower.  

Motorcycle madness

Saturday night, I was joined by Fred.  It was amazing to see a friendly face and it will be so much fun to share some travelling experiences together. 

Side street

Making rice paper rolls = yum!

Somehow I dont think this wiring would pass safety codes in Canada

View of HCMC from the Bitexco Tower

Bitexco tower in the distance

A little bit of life in Cambodia, and the Landmine Muesum

How many Cambodians can you fit into a pick up truck?  Apparently my driver said there were 39.   Somehow I don't think there are enough seat belts for each passenger. 

Bathroom edict 

Filling up with gas.  They sell it by the bottle; a liquor bottle.  See below

Gas for sale.

Anything goes here!  I even see others on the back of motorcycles with their infant in their arms.  No baby seat regulations.

Typical house in Siem Reap area

Lower income style of housing

During the day people hang out under the house for shade and to catch a little breeze... if there is one.

You can often see offerings set beside religious statues.  Here someone has offered Buddha a diet coke, and a couple of shots of rum.  I thought that was funny.

A hand made impromptu prosthetic leg.

Wooden leg with a shoe sole for the forefoot, ingenious idea... allows for a smoother forefoot rocker when going into toe off, rather than a wooden forefoot.

Gotta love the english signs.  

Artisans workshop and Silk making.

I started my day with a trip to the Les Chantiers Ecoles, Artisans of Angkor in Siem Reap.  It is a school that teaches traditional Khmer artisanship, including lacquer-making, silk painting, tin smithing, wood and stone carving, to impoverished young adults. I took a tour of the school while it was in session, where I was able to observe the people working on their different projects.  I saw buddha being made from start to finish... including his blueprints (see pictures).  It was neat to see all the different processes and the tools being used.  After I was done with investigating the workshops I sat and waited for my second tour to begin, at 9:30 am.  One of the students sat down and talked to me about his training and how he learned English and taught himself Spanish from the internet (impressive).  He talked a little bit about the training, and the school.  He explained they train not only crafts like wood carving, but other technical disciplines, like electrians, plumbers, etc.

Silk painting

Silver workshop, where they make handmade silver plated boxes and decorations

Sanding a wood carving of Buhhda

Buddha blueprints... hee hee

Chiseling out a stone sculpture of Buddha

After I was done touring the Artisans workshops, I hopped on a courtesy bus and went to learn about silk making at another site 16 km outside of Siem Reap. This was my favorite part of the tour... and most interesting.  The young tour guide explained and showed me how silk is made from the worm to the final product.  It starts with harvesting the larva of the silk worm.  The larva is left to mature into silk worms and eventually nature takes its course and the worm produces a cocoon. This process takes on average 34 days.  A select few are left to mature into moths, so they can reproduce.  After the larva has been laid the moth dies.  Then the cycle of the silk worm continues.  The precious cocoons are what the silk is actually spun from. The cocoons are boiled in hot water.  This loosens the fine threads of the cocoon.  A tiny thread of silk is gently pulled off the outer layer of the cocoon and it begins to unravel the thread.  The initial or top layer of the cocoon is what raw silk is made from. It produces 100 m of silk.  There are 3 more inner layers to the cocoon, from which fine silk is spun.  300 meters of fine silk is produced from one cocoon.
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A timeline of how to create silk from a silk worm's cocoon

silk worm cocoons

Boiling down the cocoons, from which they peel the layers and literally spin the cocoon into thread

The outer layer of the cocoon makes an average of 100m of raw silk thread, and 3 inner layers of the cocoon make the  300 meters of fine silk.

After the silk thread has been washed and dyed it is wound 

The thread is then wound onto smaller bobbins for the shuttles (an automated machine is doing this)

Dyed raw silk thread

Women setting up a looms warp.  A tedious process considering how fine the threads are.  This can take up to one week depending on the pattern.  These girls worked at a remarkable pace; one separating the fine threads, other other pulling it through the teeth of the warp.

Further setting up of the warp pattern

Winding the thread onto bobbins.  I thought this was interesting, because they are using the rim of a bicycle wheel,  a bicycle chain, and the crank of the bicycle's foot pedal.  Ingenious design... and very smooth running

There are 15 buildings with weavers, 30 looms in each building.  All that could be heard while walking the weavery was the clatter of the shuttles passing back and forth at lightening speed.  One scarf can take up to 1 week to produce, or as short as 1/2 a day, depending on the pattern and number of colors used.

The beautiful colours of the silk 

I thought this was funny; the bottom of the dress is made of the silk cocoons, progresses into silk thread and finishes up top with a silk bodice.