Greetings,
On behalf of the Hanoi Department of Tourism and One Party Neighborhoods filled with millions of well adjusted content poetic calligraphic citizens, welcome to our fair city! Stroll through parks and gardens. Smell the roses.
Enjoy wandering around. See amazing historical and cultural mysteries. Our number is on the wall. Call now. Make new friends. Get lost. Explore. Discover.
Metta.
Greetings,
The sewing woman returned to her guesthouse early with her girlfriend to change clothes, spit into red roses and splash water on her face.
She kick started her cycle and they went to the market, deep inside the labyrinth to her corner stall. She unlocked multiple locks, stacked wooden shutters and dragged out her sewing machine, ironing board and iron.
She lined up manikins. They wore her work: exquisite yellow, purple, blue, white shimmering silks decorated with sparkling faux-paws silver stars, moons, and small round reflecting balls. Her work was for women needing refinement, special elaborate occasions; weddings, funerals and engagements.
She did good work and stayed busy. Serious fittings and adjustments.
Her sewing universe: process, fabric, measurement, ironing backing, a ruler, white chalk to mark pleats, cutting, sewing machine treadle, edges, pins, threads, trimming edges, hand sewing clasps, shiny connections, ironing.
Inside this slow prism threads of nets flashed light and shadow, needles danced through cloth in endless conversations. The needles talked about traditional values and the opportunity cost. They perform quick precise calculations to establish a stop-loss figure
smashing blocks of ice inside a bag with a blunt instrument creating a symphony of hips rolling outside these unspoken words as a homeless man with a pair of tired brown pants thrown over a shoulder using a solid walking stick sits down to rest and shy women avert their beautiful seductive deep pool eyes
women manipulate stacks of printed government issued paper trusting a perceived value in exchange for goods: meat, fruit, gold, fabric, counting and arranging denominations inside broken beams of light, cracked cement, lost mislaid wooden planks, debris, feathers,
jungles, jangled waves surveying commercial landscapes with the quick dispatch of dialects as Black H'mong girls far away near Sapa rivers and waterfalls express their creation story
Metta.
Greetings,
Welcome to another edition of THIS IS YOUR LIFE brought to you by Vietnam Traffic Chaos Inc.
I'm a survivor of the mean streets having lived in Hanoi for five months last year. The density freaks out new visitors. Crossing a street is not for the faint of heart. If you try and cross a street your best strategy is to keep moving. This behavior will increase the probability of your survival. Until you have to cross another street.
If you hesitate or stop you die. Beep-beep.
Do I Zig or Zag? that is the question.
A live TV sit-com or high drama with comedic aspects about schools of beeping fish is clear and present.
From the A.P. Very accurate.
"...The new fines increase penalties up to seven times for various offenses, with the steepest hikes in Hanoi andHo Chi Minh City, the two largest cities. Car drivers caught running a red light — a common occurrence — will be fined up to 1.2 million Vietnamese dong ($63) in either city, while motorcyclists, who account for 95 percent of Vietnam's traffic, will owe up to 500,000 dong ($26).
Though fines are lower in rural provinces, they remain pricey for many in a country with an average monthlyincome of about $80. However, some have argued the new penalties will not deter the growing nouveau riche, who cruise the streets on expensive Vespa motorbikes or behind the wheels of BMWs and even Bentleys.
Zigzagging, a dangerous practice where drivers whip in and out of traffic to pass others, will carry a fine of up to 12 million dong ($630) for cars and 7 million dong ($370) for motorbikes. For that offense, along with going the wrong way on a one-way street, drivers will now also be stripped of their license for 30 days."
The cool thing is how much a poorly paid traffic cop armed with a whistle can make extorting bribes from stupid motor cycle maniacs. Maniacs!
Metta.
Greetings,
Today Vietnam celebrated 35 years since the end of the war.
58,000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese were killed. The images are from the HCMC museum in Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi History Museum.
Metta.
Greetings,
To honor women this day, every day, everywhere, here are some cultural images.
Nature is what you are. Culture is what you can be.
Metta.
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