We were advised that this morning we would have a later breakfast, starting at 7:30am and going until 10am, and that we are on the ship until 2pm today so can totally relax "and finally feel like you're on vacation". So we closed the blinds up tight and didn't set an alarm and I woke up just before 7am.
A lot happened yesterday work wise so I looked over an offer we got on one property and, after discussing with Cindy and Lindsay, sent it off to the clients with a summary and they'll meet with them or discuss it before DocuSigning to them tomorrow. Another Listing that I worked on from here went on the market 2 days ago and sold yesterday firm! I had done the Features, MLS and the Listing Paperwork for it from here having met with them before I left and Lindsay managed it with Cindy from home. A client texted that they want to offer on another property of ours as well and I did up the MLS on another property that I viewed before I left that may not be out until I get back but photos are booked for Thursday. And while I was emailing Cindy she said she was just working through an offer received on another property that Lindsay is on - so things are heating up at home it seems. I know they've been busy while I'm gone so tried to help with as much paperwork stuff as I can do from here.
After working for a little bit we went to breakfast around 7:45am and started a new table. We were joined by Steve and Cheryl and Vincente. I love the croissants here and the pineapple jam is so good! We all discussed how interesting the different perspectives were from Binh (Vietnamese) and Nin (Cambodian) again. They all went to the Music Trivia last night in the lounge after dinner and said it was a lot of fun. While we were finishing up breakfast the ship got underway so it was just before 8:30am that we started moving. Last night and a few nights ago when I was wearing my new scarves I picked up in the village in Cambodia a couple people stopped me and I told them where I got them and last night they said "I'm hoping that we can see them again in a little village". But now we're in Vietnam and not Cambodia I thought this morning so I'm thinking the opportunity might be lost at this point.
We went back to the room and our attendant, Daneth, was making it up so we went to the Lounge and set up shop. I had a bunch of work to do to finish up the stuff above and, of course, this is when the wifi goes out and the cell signal is abysmal so I shut down my phone and restarted it (because I can literally see a cell tower from the window!) and it loaded up.
Jackie came and sat near us, at the next table, and was complaining about the wifi as well but it must have been reset because it started working for her as well. Shortly after Mom decided to go to the room and have a shower and when she came back it was 10am, I'd just finished working and the Fresh Springroll Presentation was happening so I went quickly over to see it. I've made these at home before so really just went for the photo op!
Now I'm back in the lounge just finishing up to here on the blog, it' s10:30am so I'm going now to grab my book because I don't think a lot is happening until lunch!
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| Calling for rain still today |
Nothing happened until lunch, like I thought! We went up to the buffet and I had kind of a mixed plate of snacks. It is all so fresh here.
After lunch we came back to the lounge and our tour starts at 2pm. We take a Sampan Boat to an island and visit a village.
We have a new guide for this tour back in Vietnam for the last 6 days, 2 more full days (3 nights) on the ship and then 2 nights in Ho Chi Minh before we leave for home on November 2nd (arrive Nov 3rd).
Our new guide is Nam. He started with explaining a few differences between Vietnamese and Cambodian where we just were from appearance to Buddhist beliefs. Vietnamese monks must be vegan where Cambodian monks can eat protein.
The fisherman is pulling nets out of the water and the other bamboo sticks that are in the river are fish traps. The main source of protein for Vietnam is from the Mekong River.
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| The homes are elevated because of flooding. |
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| This fisherman is pulling up a shrimp trap |
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| Water Hyacinth |
The water hyacinth is extremely invasive, it's not native to Vietnam and Cambodia, it's originally from the Amazon area of South America but grows well in tropical climates. Its a weed and it grows too fast and is causing big problems in the waterways, especially smaller waterways. It can grow 1" per night and so it's very hard to get rid of, it grows on the edge of the riverbank and has closed some smaller waterways so now small motor boats can't get through.
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| The women are working in the fields |
They grow sweet corn, red chillies, shallots, cucumber. The island has 12-15 families living on it since 1965. They live very simple, basic lives, it's a remote village in the water belt between Vietnam and Cambodia, every family needs a boat in order to carry supply from the mainland. Today they have electricity which has changed their lives. The electrical wires are hung low on bamboo sticks.
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| 2 years ago this house was thatched roof and now it's metal. |
Above is a visual map of the larger island we're on. Long Khanh Island. There are approx 35,000 people living on the island at any time and it's about 40 sq km. The main industry on the island is looming and you can hear them clacking throughout the town.
Cocunut husks are dried out in the sun and used for fuel in the homes (cooking mainly and heat in the winter even though it only gets to about 23 degrees) because electricity and gas are expensive.
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| The children were so happy. |
The main industry on this island is looming. They make scarves, bags and curtains. You could hear looms in multiple properties, they were set up below their homes.
Below is a typical convenience store. It sells everything they need including charcoal for cooking, fruits, vegetables, household products and food.
This village is about 200 years old. This is a communal house where people come to gather but also it's a shrine. There are Chinese characters on this temple because it was built before 1930 when the French introduced the latin alphabet for writing.
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| There is cotton thread drying to be used for weaving. |
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| This dog is wearing a shirt - it's fucking hot out. Feels like 35 degrees. |
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We never got the light rain,
we might have appreciated it. |
We stopped at this house and the owner had pictures hanging of Communist leaders (Marx, Lenin and someone else, Ho Chi Minh). His father had fought in the war for North Vietnam and was a medic. Now they live here in South Vietnam. This house was built in 2006 and was above the standard for the village at the time.
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| These are 'luxury tombs', the most expensive on the island |
All of the homes, or a lot of them, have these mossoleums out front where their loved ones are buried. They call them Family Cemeteries. The parents are buried below ground 6-8' and then they build these above ground structures which are hollow. By law it's illegal but everyone does it anyway.
This is the public cemetery.
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| The dog statues at the gates are the guardians of the home. |
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Custard Apples (I've seen these cut up on the ship but haven't tried it,
I'll try them if I see them out at the buffet again). |
These roosters are used for cock fighting so have to be separated all the time.
Dragon Fruit cactus. I had no idea they grew this way.
More thread out to dry.
Their water comes from the river and then they use Alum to purify it. Its an Aluminum Salt which makes the river water clear but they still need to boil it to remove the bacteria.
Next, and last, we went to a house where they had multiple looms. The one right below with the green on it is a manual, foot press loom - it can make 6 scarves a day. The one below that with the belt on the side is a powered loom and it can produce 20 scarves a day.
Multi-Generational Looming business
It was so hot, on the way back I gave Jackie my fan because her face was all red and I gave Timi the rest of my soda water. We saw this Ferry and Nam said that it's subsidized by the government but still costs to take it from the island to the mainland.
When we got back to the ship about 3:30pm we changed everything (have I mentioned it's hot?) and went to the lounge to read, and I wrote some of the blog but didn't get very far because we were joined by Gretchen and Kevin so ended up chatting with them.
At 5pm there was a presentation "Vietnam: Past and Present" by Nam, our Guide. I've just summarized things here that we haven't learned already - it was a whole powerpoint presentation.
Vietnam is about the size of California but has a population of 106 million people and 3,000 km of coastline (it's long and skinny). The Asean countries make up about 10% of the worlds population and I won't remember all 10 but included Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Mianmar (Burma), Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, I got really close, I got 8. I forgot Malaysia and Brunei - and I have a picture from the presentation which helped. They're all considered developing nations and mostly because they provide a competitive labour source so international investment happened quickly.
We already know that approx 60-80% of Vietnamese are Buddhist but also 2.5% practice Cao Dai which was created in 1925 and is a combination of Buddhism, Catholicism, Islamism, Taoism and Confucianism.
Next he went through essentially every conflict Vietnam has been involved in:
938-1945 - they were independent off and on. Most conflicts were from the North including the Mongols.
1858-1940 - French Colonization. In 1914 37% of the countries income came from exporting Opium to France
1941-1945 - Japanese occupation. Japanese wanted to be known as the largest Empire in the world (Nipon Empire). Over 2M people died of starvation in those 4 years.
1945 - Independence and the President was celebrated!!
1946 - 1954 - The French came back
1955-1975 - Vietnam was divided into 2 countries - North Vietnam and South Vietnam fighting eachother and known as the darkest most miserable chapter of Vietnam history.
1975 - the war ended and Vietnam re-unified
1976-1990 - run as a collective cooperative period of subsidized economy. The Government ran everything. You worked and 90% of your wages were paid in the form of coupons for food and goods (but there were no food or goods) and 10% was paid in cash. Everything was nationalized even your buffalos worked for the government. There were propaganda posters depicting healthy people when in reality everyone was hungry. There were no small businesses because it was capitalist, eerything was supposed to be equal and controlled by the Government.
Late 1980's - Vietnam was one of the 6 poorest countries in the world.
1986-1994 - economic embargo because of communist government
1990 - collapse of the Soviet Union which was the best thing for Vietnam because they could get out from under their communist influence.
1995 - embargo was lifted
2000 - tourism was allowed in the country, now they are more of a market economy but still communist.
That's it for the presentation!
Then we went for dinner. It was good again, we sat with Kevin and Gretchen and Gina and Liz.
