Ho Chi Minh Nov 10-12 '06 - D2b

The fruits of Sonneratia Casseolaris ( mangroove tree)
with its rather long style and prominent sepals are characteristics of Sonneratia Sps.
The connical aerial roots are used for cork.
( My first sighting of similar sp was a few years back in Pulau Ubin)

Lotus seeds.. nothing special but testing for my lens..

Elephant Ear Fish was served.
On adjacent plate in the background - a hollow 'ball'- deeped fried and oily.

Coconuts!

"Ruam mian mian" singing - lead singer.


Raw material for the sweet - here a pile of dehusked coconuts.

Press for squeezing out the coconut oil.

Boiling to concentrate ... add sugar etc ... and keep stirring

Slicing the coconut sweet strips in equal length

A wide angle shot showing the production process on linoleum-lined table top.
The sweets are wrapped in rice-paper and individually wrapped and packed
Watch the S3 video posted in YouTube.

Hot molten hot coconut molasses allows to cool first...


The final product..
each package come with a pen-written DOM (date of manufacturing).

Ho Chi Minh Nov 10-12 '06 - D2

Strung out along certain straight stretches of road
you will find this 'OMO' operated portable gravity-feed diesel dispensing 'station'. ( see the graduated container on the left of the pic.)

She had this special gaze ..This is a common sight - rows of breads

Air ventilators

School girls with their pretty ao-dai's white
uniforms

A dash of red caught my attention... wedding 'lunch' perhaps.

Click the image - I am after the rather 'big' bau in the glass cabinet

Cigarettes...

Pork sellers under the hot sun.. how long can the meat last?

A serene setting

Women tending to the field
Water hyacinth and a pond with netting.

Cooling off from the heat

Dog taking a ride too

Click the image and find out how many fruits you know.

Slums near river

I never expect nipah-palm fruits ( 'attap chee' inside)
ended up this way.

The majestic Main Post Office

One two three

Note the charcoal pot and familar 'love-letter' press.En route to a photo session?

Jet contrail near one of Notre Dame's spiresSelling fans etc while her partner (below) take care
of the kid

My third shots - this time I signaled to her and
she gave me this warm smile and the kid looked great too.

Ho Chi Minh Nov 10-12 '06 - D1

We visited the chu chi tunnels .. some 20+ Km from the airport.

Ho Chi Minh and the flag of Vietnam - red background and a single Star

VCs dummies

The making of rice paper.

Your selection of ammunitions.

You can see my reflection as I held my lens close to the display cabinet. One of bullet was pink-tipped

A blown out M41 Tank


Bombs shells A4 size hole - entrance to the tunnel.

An ugly Micky mouse ?
Just found out this plant is called Ochna Kirii
and was commonly referred as Micky Mouse plant! I have seen similar plants in
Haw par Villa in Singapore

Look at the top left photograph ( near the ceiling).
This is one of the famous foto depicting a girl with clothes burnt off from a napalm bomb, she survived and moved to Canada. I remembered this one when i was still a lad.
It had etched in my mind since.
Look at a clear image here
Was told by the tour guide the 'young boy' running in the foto had just passed away.
Looked at the terrified look in their faces.....very sad indeed.

This was my first attempt using the just acquired canon 17-40mm f/4 L lens on the 20D. It was much heavier than the kit-lens. [ S3 was my spare camera just in case.] Most of the street scenes were shot on a moving bus on the 20 plus Km trip to chuchi tunnels. We passed by lush green padi fields, lotus ponds, road side stalls selling all kinds of wares, tree-lined parks.