you've got cơm on your face

Considering that rice (cơm) now forms a large part of my new Asian diet I thought it would be interesting to learn about its cultivation in Vietnam. A short coach ride out of central Hanoi took us to Hanoi's University of Agriculture where we would start our day with a lecture at the school of Agronomy. Feeling once again like a student we took up our stools and with our pens at the ready eagerly awaited for our professor, Cuong. Here are a few things we learnt about rice cultivation.

Vietnam produces on average, 37 million tons of rice annually. Although the Vientnamese diet is rich in rice contributing to 65% of daily calories, over recent years the amount of rice consumed has decreased. This is mainly due to people becoming more affluent and incorporating more meat and other - sometimes imported - products in their diets. However, with the increasing population the demand for rice continues to increase. Farming methods have had to adapt to meet this demand and due to new cropping methods farmers are able to harvest 3 times a year instead of twice. There have also been innovations in the paddy fields, nursery bedding, allows plants to be grown during cold and wet winters in Northern Vietnam and then transplanted into the fields. The Mekong area in the South benefits from all year round direct sewing as it does not suffer from harsh winters.

Having learnt the basics in our tutorial we were now ready to take to the fields. After a quick demonstration by Cuong we kicked off our sandals and descended into the squelching hot mud and began to plant the rice seeds. After about 10 minutes of bending down to plant the younger, shorter shoots I was starting to feel quite hot and bothered and very aware that i was nearly up to my knees in a mud bog. It has definitely given me great respect for the farmers who spend hours out in the fields in scorching sun to tend to their crops! Next we got to use sickles (hand-held curved knife tool) to hack down the mature rice crops in the adjacent field. I got quite into this stage thrashing around with my sickle until one of the guides removed the weapon from me, implying that maybe it was time for someone else to have a go.

We collected up our harvested bounty and hauled it back across the rice fields towards the field barn for threshing. Threshing is the process where the grains are separated from the straw usually by a mechanical machine which we got to test out. The straw is lightly turned by hand on top of a rotating drum machine that flings out the loose grains (rice sticking to sweaty face moment), which then have to be collected up. The final stage involves cleaning the grains to remove sand, stones and bits of straw and can be done either by a sifting machine or by hand using a big wicker tray tossing the rice up and down. I gave this stage a miss as knowing my luck I would have thrown rice over everyone or dropping the tray on the floor! We finished up back in the classroom with some Q&A's and then re-boarded our coach to take us home.

Chơi Vơi - Adrift

Fundraising screening of Vietnamese film, 'Chơi Vơi', (Adrift, 2009) @ TPD
The Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents was established to implement programs supporting those involved with Vietnamese cinema such as talented actors, directors and producers.

The film revolves around the young couple of Hai and Duyen, who despite getting married, lack an emotional and physical connection in their relationship. Duyen's feeling of loneliness leads her to take a trip with another man,Thổ, set up by her lesbian friend Cam who in another twist is jealous of Duyen's marriage to Hai. Although she knows that Thổ is a stereotypical 'bad boy' she finds it hard to resist the feelings he instills in her. The film portrays an interesting insight into relationships of the youth generation in Vietnam through the intertwined relationships of the characters.

You can watch the trailer for Adrift here. I am also going to try and get a copy of the DVD.

Escape to the Bay

This weekend I took my first trip out of the city to Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO world heritage site in the Quảng Ninh province. Ha Long Bay literally translates as 'Descending dragon bay' and over its 1500 metre squared area thousands of limestone karsts are spread. We met up bright and early on Saturday morning and were soon zooming away out of the city eastwards, leaving the bustling early morning street vendors of the old quarter behind. We were entertained on our minibus ride to the port of Ha Long, by our guide Lien who gave us a mini lesson about the history, geography and demographics of Viet Nam. It wasn't long before we arrived at the port and eager to set sail quickly embarked onto our 'junk boat' (a type of Chinese sailboat). We would be spending one night on the boat, sharing quaint little cabins below deck, each with bay view windows and en-suite bathrooms! After changing into more suitable boat slash tanning attire we settled down to a seafood lunch. We were treated to a delicious feast of fresh crab, squid, prawns and fish, yum!Feeling rather full Lucia (from Argentina) and I were relieved when Lien informed us we would have a little time to 'rest' before our kayaking adventure. After sailing for about 2 hours we reached our kayaking destination where we dropped anchor and made our way onto the water. We kayaked through lots of little caves, one where the water level was so high that we had to lie down completely flat on the kayak to fit through. This inevitably led to quite a few near 'scraped face' experiences! On returning to the boat and feeling a little tired after our efforts we were all very happy to jump ship and take a cooling swim. The top deck of our boat was conveniently kitted out with sun-loungers and was the perfect place to spend the rest of the day as we sailed towards our sleeping spot watching the sun go down as dusk moved in. Dinner was another divine banquet of seafood, salads and rice (i could get used to this!) finished with some refreshing pineapple and watermelon. Knowing that we had an early start the next day, we spent the rest of the evening chilling and exchanging stories out on the top deck, before retiring to our little cabins. Lucia and I attempted to do some reading before going to sleep but neither of us lasted very long and both agreed it was time for lights out! After an early morning breakfast we sailed to our morning spot to visit 'The Amazing Cave' (yes that is what it is called!). Lien pointed out to us all the 'natural' rock formations that looked like animals or people such as dragons, Kings and Queens and a Happy Buddha. We returned to our boat and spent the rest of the morning sailing further around the bay and little islets, before beginning our return back to the port. We packed up our bags and said goodbye to our cute little cabin before coming ashore onto dry land. We had lunch in a nearby restaurant before beginning our journey back to the city, all feeling better after a dose of sun, swimming and fresh air.

Momentum of the River's Flow

Until now my plans to visit the Bui Gallery had been foiled by its daytime opening hours (yes, i do go to work every day). But luckily Thursday night presented me with the opportunity to attend the exhibition opening of the Australian artist, Les Horvat. Tucked away down a little side street and housed in an amazingly restored traditional Vietnamese house the Bui Gallery is the brainchild of Betty Bui. Bui, of Vietnamese origin, was raised in France where she learnt the gallery trade at the Galerie Enrico Navarra in Paris. Bui wanted to set up a space in Ha Noi for artists to showcase their work in a worthy and just environment.

"A gallery is a proposition. It's simply our vision of things that people can react to as they want"

The problem with the existing art market in Viet Nam is that there is a lack of galleries that support and promote the work of specific individuals. This results in art pieces being sold from different retailers with no consistency in price. Through her international connections Bui seeks to change this so that artists in Viet Nam are more fairly represented. She is also keen to bring the work of international artists to Ha Noi and the exhibition I attended, Momentum of the River's Flow, is an example of this.

Horvat has been working in Australia as a commercial advertising photographer since 1984 and has won numerous prizes and awards over the years. Working from Melbourne earlier in his career he also founded his own studio complex, Twilight Zone, as a creative centre for commercial photographic illustration. In this exhibition he presents thirty-four photographs portraying Viet Nam's landscape in the context of culture, history and geography. The combination of subtle composition, sharp definition and the raw unaltered expressions of the subjects makes for a collection of very authentic local shots. It also gave me great inspiration for some of the regions in Viet Nam i hope to visit next month.

To quote Horvat on his series: “Referencing the position of an outsider, my gaze is ultimately defined by my own history and the cultural baggage I bring to the project.....Momentum of the River's Flow is a reference to the inevitable and unstoppable power of Vietnamese society. A society that seeks to move forward, no matter what the obstacles, no matter what the risks and no matter what the challenges, as in the inexorable flow of the metaphoric waterways that lie at its heart.”

You can have a look at some of the pictures here.

Life's roaming pulse...

ROAM by Tom Dale - A contemporary dance piece presented by the British Council in Vietnam. *FREE tickets* :)

Click for a clip!

We went to see this dance performance described as a 'captivating journey by five stunning dancers into a world of swinging sub bass and complex percussion'. The dancers were exceptional and combined a range of fluid motions with quick structured movements to create a varied visual spectacle. The music was a combination of specially commissioned tracks from maverick producer/composer Shackleton and D&B outfit Sion, which when integrated with the lighting created a very captivating display. Through a range of group choreographed steps and individual solo exerts - highlighted by stark spotlights - a varied performance was achieved keeping the audiences attention at all time. A very inspiring show and a wonderful way to spend a lazy Sunday evening.

Spit, what!

Cycling along, minding my own business and what happens....some old man decides to spit into the road. Clearly underestimating his own range, a nice glob of saliva decides to land directly on my leg. This could only happen to me. What made it worse was the fact that i was on quite a busy road and couldn't stop straight away to remove the offending substance. After the initial shock of the ordeal i decided that it would make for quite an entertaining entry and luckily i had my camera with me to document the occasion. So here it is, spit on my leg, nice.

Anh/Chị có khoẻ không

(That means how are you?) Giving in to the reality that I wasn't going to get very far teaching myself the Vietnamese language (tiếng Việt) from a phrase book, I have sensibly enlisted the help of a Vietnamese teacher. My first meeting with Thu (pronounced Two) was a laid back affair in which we exchanged brief life stories and discussed what i hoped to learn from the lessons. It was nice to know that Thu was as keen to improve my non-existent language skills as she was to share cultural knowledge and local history tales. She said she was also happy to go out for coffee and dinner together whenever I had 'free-time' to help practice my new lingo! The easy thing about tiếng Việt is that there is very little grammar or rigid word order structure to follow, the bad thing is the range of pronunciation and the multiple meanings of identical words. It's hard as well because in English we use intonation to convey feeling, but here tones are extremely important for clearly defining which word you want to say. For example tôi means 'I' but tối (with a different accent and pronunciation) means 'dark'. I have to admit my attempts thus far have provoked many confused expressions. I'm hoping that what I do manage to say doesn't stray too far from what I intend and end up offending someone. It is really nice to be able to exchange pleasantries especially with my landlords. The other day I was so excited to be able to say 'pretty flower' at a bouquet my landlady was carrying in to the house! She had to correct my pronunciation but definitely appreciated my effort ha. In the meantime i am determined to keep at it, even if it is just to entertain the locals.