2016 Calendar available now

A3, flip style wall calendar - spiral bound. One month per page.

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Spotting the wildelife on Son Tra

 Near Da Nang,  on the Son Tra peninsular there communities of Red Shank Duoc langurs living in the tropical forests. They are only found in Central Vietnam, and in adjoining forests of Cambodia and Laos.  On the peninsular there are about 500 langurs and about 1,000 Assamese Macaque. 


We were fortunate enough to be taken for a tour of the birds and primates of the penisula with a friend who is an ecologist and worked with Dr. Larry Ulidarri of the Son Tra Douc Research and Conservation Project. he researched the Red Shank langurs for 4 years and said that SonTraPeninsula is the only place in the world where these rare animals are living in the wild.

THis photograph is not mine - but they are so hard to see that I had to pinch a photo from the internet. Mine, as you can see, are not as good at all!




This strange shot was taken through Luc's (the ecologist) spotting scope and the one below is from my camera. You can see a large langur swinging through the branches of a large tree where the family had been sleeping.




In the picture, below, you can see a rope bridge that has been slung across the road to help the langurs move around the peninsular. 

Luc planted ficus trees to attach the bridge to. the idea is that the trees wil grown and will form ther own bridge across the road . Luc looks forward to showing off this project to his children one day - if he can find the right girl to marry!

















Views from the peninsula looking towards Da Nang and across the estuary to Hai Van Pass which cuts through the mountains to Hue. 




The peninsula was a military base during the war and is a relatively untouched habitat. We saw only two or three other people during our morning on the mountain so it makes a welcome break from the bustle of Da Nang and Hoi An if you fancy getting a little closer to nature.

At one time, all of vietnam would have been covered with forest and jungle like this area but the indiscriminate use of Agent Orange stripped all the hills and mountains of trees and undergrowth and the whole of central Vietnam is largely naked to this day. A visit to Son Tra reminded me what a tropical paradise this country used to be.

Here is another poor photograph of a Red Shank Douc langur, some eary mornign butterflies and a red Sun catcher.

We saw many more beautiful creatures but I wasn't quick enough to capture them

 Luc does private tours of the peninsular on request. His specialist knowedge of this habitat is unique and he is a charming guide. 

Send a message on his facebook and mention my name.

https://www.facebook.com/luc.nguyen

Me, Pandy and Luc

The beach studio

The people, opportunities, sights, sounds, conversations, stories and philosophies that I encounter each week, in Vietnam, never cease to fill me with joy, surprise me, cause me to think, stop, commence, dare, smile, give help, share, experiment and 'live in the moment' as I had hardly ever done before. 

Recently, I was offered the use of an old fisherman's cottage beside the beach in An Bang, a fishing village outside Hoi An.  The house is approached by a narrow lane lined with painted gateposts of periwinkle blue, eau-de-nile, yellow ochre, cerulean. Chickens run between the bushes in shaded gardens and neighbours sit under cool porches. Children shout 'hello' as I pass by. Two little girls in sunshine dresses are  gate.

The beach studio

the house itself may not be very old. it is difficult to tell by the style or the condition just how long the house has been there. Some of the details look like Art Deco mixed with a bit of 1960's kitsch but it may only be 20 years old. The humid climate quickly takes it toll on concrete buildings so even relatively new constructions gather the characteristic black mould that makes them look prematurely ancient.

The work space

The space inside is spartan. Deborah, who has lent me this space for a few weeks has upgraded the interior so there are fans, power sockets, a clean, even floor and brightly painted white walls that suck in the light from the garden.

Four sets of double doors open into the lovely garden with Coconut palms, avocado, hibiscus, bougainvillea, papaya and frangipani. 

This is a paradise conjured in a dream in a time long ago.

After weeks of discontent, I am much more settled and have been very productive for the past three weeks. Work on the Saigon book is progressing better and I have spontaneously produced some uncharacteristic paintings which, although not 'great' are filled with the spirit of this new found freedom.

This place is from another time. There is no WiFi, no hot water, no unnecessary decorations of any kind. The pictures are my work. There is a table, some wooden chairs, an old wicker chair and footstool and a bamboo day bed (that I use to keep my paper stock off the floor). 
                                                                                                                                                 

A neighbour's kitchen. It looks like it's washing day.









All the village houses have these fat terracotta jars in the garden. Mainly they store rainwater or well water.
This one, in Deborah's garden' is decorative and is just here to keep the hibiscus company!

The view from behind the cottage shows the two louvred doors that open out from the studio onto the garden. Just our of shot on the left is the shower room with toilet. The owner's wife, Hue, does all her laundry in this room and often I arrive to find the garden draped with sheets and towels.


there are two frangipani trees coming into leaf and blossom very soon. The local tradition is to strip these plants of all their leaves before the lunar new year (February this year). I am not sure why.

Gladioli I think - or a close cousin.

Hue ( pronounced Hoo-way) makes lunch for me if I ask her. This is lunch Hue style. From top right - braised pork ribs, my eating bowl with a little white fish that was caught on the beach only 100 metres away that morning, A broth with carrot and cabbage and the little white fish, local rice (of course), some spicy chunks of a sturdy white fish like shark, a bowl of lettuce and herbs from my garden, a bowl of Vietnamese dip (fish sauce, chili,  lime juice, garlic. spring onion and salt. Lunch arrives on a large round tin tray covered with a plastic dome like an over-sized colander.


 


I use the studio for drawing lessons each week. Here is Fran experiencing her first ever drawing lesson which will be a huge success thanks to Dr. Betty Edwards and Picasso of course!

Here is Fran again - practicing her 'sighting'. This pic is taken through one of the pierced screens that allows air to move between the rooms in the cottage.








I decorated the door with a hanging of bamboo and watercolour sketches one day last week.  The bamboo sticks tapped the door all afternoon in the breeze that comes over the dunes from the ocean.

Isn't the door a gorgeous shade of blue! 

I will be leaving Hoi An in seven short weeks so I need to make the most of this wonderful gift while I have it. I will have an exhibition of my work in this space before I leave and move up to Sapa.

My love of boats

I am passionate about boats. I love to draw them and back home in England I even lived on one for 10 years. I can sit and watch boats bob about in a harbour for hours. Just listening to the slap of ropes on masts and watching fishermen mend nets and wind ropes fills me with delight. One of the big benefits of living near the river or the coast in Vietnam is being able to enjoy a seemingly endless variety of traditional wooden boats and ships that move along the canals and rivers and gather in harbours along the coast.

I reckon I was born with some salt water in my veins because my mother’s family were seafarers in the north of England. I can just about remember wooden sailing boats coming and going in their home town but sadly the fishing industry is almost extinct in the UK which is a sad loss.

Here in Vietnam, however boats still form a major part of the transport systems internationally, nationally and locally. Whether you want to ship rice to Australia or take your chickens to market, boats are often the best way from A to B. Many communities in rural areas are only accessible by boat so the rhythms of the tides, the winds and the rain are the factors that set the pace of life.

Here are some of my favourite things to do on the water...........

I like to take a little wooden boat down the river in Hoi An at the end of the afternoon and return to the quay side by the market just as the sun is beginning to set. The low afternoon sun casts a warm glow over the ancient town and paints beautiful reflections in the silken waters of the river.

The thrill of taking a speed boat up the Saigon River to Cu Chi is hard to beat as way to spend a morning. Weaving through the floating islands of water hyacinths leaving a sparkling white wake behind you is truly exhilarating.

A truly evocative sight is the estuary at Phan Thiet which is jammed with traditional, wooden fishing boats moored so close together you could almost walk from one end of the town to the other across their decks.  Teams of fishermen work on their boats and the women ferry supplies and men from ship to shore in coracles and small wooden tenders. The sight from the bridge over the Song Ca Ty (river Ca Ty) reminded me of old paintings of the fishing ports of England a hundred years ago. It was like bringing history to life.

Take a trip from Saigon to Vung Tau on the hydrofoil to experience the open wildness of the river with its backdrop of blue and purple hills in the distance. Go speeding past the crotchety fishing boats with their double and triple tiered wheelhouses and wave to the light house keeper as you pass by.

Arrive in Vung Tau and walk along the beach amongst the curly fishing boats and fishermen fixing their nets.

Shrine house decorated for New Year

Yesterday, we went on a long bike ride along the river. On the way we passed a beautifully decorated shrine house. 

Suspended from the ceiling inside was the big red drum that the cox beats to keep the oarsmen in rhythm and two model dragon boats - one for Hoi An and the other for Cam Chau.

As you ca'n see from the photo, the Hoi An boys are sitting up and rowing but the Cam Chau oars are 'up' . I guess this might mean that Hoi An won the cup last year and that Cam Chau was the loser. 

As we cycled further we came to a meadow with a huge boat house in the middle.  I estimate this boat to be about 60 feet long. In teh bow were the still smouldering joss sticks that must have been lit by team members that morning as they prayed for victory in the coming year.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi ..................... Happy New Year everyone.

Those ubiquitous little boats

Last month we had some beautiful mornings which found me down at the beach by 7am. This is about the time some of the in-shore fishermen bring in their tiny catches of silver fish.

They use coracles made out of bamboo, woven with palm leaves and coated with tar.  Just like the coracles used in Wales and on the River Severn, they are steered with a single oar.


In Vietnam, they can be seen in almost every river, estuary and on most beaches. They use them as tenders to the larger fishing boats and also to set nets and collect  catches.  Vietnamese fishermen go out in all kinds of seas and are highly skilled at riding the surf back to shore. I can watch them for hours.

The painting at the top of this article shows the young fishermen picking up the boats with poles and carry them back up the beach until they go out again at dawn the next day.

These scenes were captured in December at the end of the rainy season.  Mornings are chilly and the seas are rough. The fishermen wear balaclavas to protect their faces from the harsh weather and then roll them up into beanies at the end of each trip. 














Once ashore, the women arrive with bowls metal dishes to collect the catch and take it straight to market where they will clean the little fish, gut and fillet them for customers. There can hardly be fresher fish than those available at seaside markets  along the long, Vietnam coastline.


These fibreglass blue and green boats are from Phan Thiet  where I went last November. There are larger than the Hoi An boats and have metal rods on one side to take a small outboard motor.

  The coracle has, very much,  become a symbol of Vietnam and is central to a cultural show that's is staged regularly at the Opera house in Saigon. 'The Ao Show' encapsulates, in about one hour, the culture, history and street life of Vietnam that has a lot in common with the stage show Stomp with its rhythms, energy and athletic dance. Don't miss it if your are in Saigon.

Upcoming Christmas Exhibition

I am taking part in this year's exhibition of 'Small Things' at Vin Gallery; their annual show of smaller works of original art in time for Christmas. 

Published in the May issue of Oi Vietnam, this was my very first magazine column. 
Read the story here

This is still, probably, my favourite postcard and was originally produced to illustrated the Full Moon Festival in my book about Hoi An.

This postcard illustrated my column in the July 2013 issue of Oi Vietnam which tells the story of my first shopping experiences in a local wet market when buying ingredients for a slightly ambitious Vietnamese birthday feast!
I addressed it to Rick Stein, the chef and restauranteur in Padstow, England

Oi Vietnam Magazine

This postcard was published in my book 'A Week in Hoi An' and shows the view of the Cham Islands from An Bang beach on a spring day. This is address to a little friend who likes to visit this beach from time to time.





The story about the magic and mystery of the My Son ruins was published in the June issue of Oi Vietnam Magazine. The memory of this evocative and poignant trip still haunts me.

Oi Vietnam on Facebook

If you take the late overnight sleeper train from Saigon to Da Nang, you are awoken by the breakfast trolley at dawn just before the train arrives in Nha Trang. 

From this point on the train hugs the coastline and you can watch the sun rise over the many islands scattered along the coast of the East Sea. Oi Vietnam Magazine, August 2013 issue.

This is addressed to my friend Robert who loves travelling by train.

Addressed to the late Antoni Gaudi, architect of Barcelona, this postcard illustrates some of the lovely shop houses of Saigon. One day these shops will be as fashionable to live in as their counterparts in Singapore.

Oi Vietnam Magazine - September 2013

Vietnam skies are amazingly beautiful. the colours are off the scale for depth of hue and luminosity. because the land is so flat along Vietnam's coastal, delta and southern regions, you can see weather coming for miles and miles. If you stand on Thu Thiem Bridge on a changeable day, you can see rain storms happening in different districts of the city and feel the rush of wind that preceeds every shower that is going to drench you! Read the article

I addressed this postcard to my sister who loves changeable weather and lives under her own big sky in Lincolnshire in England.

So, pop along to Vin Gallery on Friday evening to see these little gems in the flesh. They are beautifully framed in mahogany with double glass and floating mount. they would make a lovely present to a friend or even to yourself!