Scenes from Hanoi, Vietnam

.
This week I've been back in Hanoi for meetings. Thought I'd just post some random shots from this charming capital city of Vietnam. The photos have been taken over the space of many trips.

Mind you, June and July aren't the best months to visit Hanoi. The temperature can go up to 45 degrees C. Fortunately I have been going between one air-con building and another, so I haven't had to bear the full brunt of the heat.

On 10th Oct 2010, the city (Thang Long-Hanoi) will be celebrating its 1000th year history as the key capital. It was founded in 1010 as a city called Thang Long (Flying Dragon).  In fact, throughout its dramatic history, Hanoi has borne many names: Giao Chi (Remote Land), Tong Binh (Proper Home), An Nam (Pacified South), Dai La (Great Belt, as in the dyke surrounding the city), Dong Do and Dong Quan (both meaning Capital), Dong Kinh (Eastern Capital) - which the French priests later interpreted as Tongkin. The name Hanoi, or more strictly Ha Noi, only appeared after the Nguyen Dynasty attained power in 1802, shifted the capital to Hue and renamed the city in 1831. Ha Noi literally translates to City in the River, City Surrounded by Rivers, City in the Bend of the River, or more romantically City in the Embrace of the Rivers. Despite the name change, even well into the 20th century, people still like to call the city Thang Long.

Sunset scene on Hoan Kiem lake in the centre of Hanoi

The Opera House, Hanoi
.

Art in the streets of Hanoi

Want a "Mona Lisa" or "Sunflowers" painting in your living room? Want yourself standing next to the Mona Lisa? All can be done through the talents of these copy artists in the streets of Hanoi.

A candid shot into an alley way

Outside a souvenir shop near the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

Evening in the Old Quarters of Hanoi

The above photo by Jemima Yong (jemimayong@hotmail.com) really captures the community feeling among the residents of the Old Quarters. I'd encourage you to click to enlarge the picture and try to tell the story yourself. I am firmly of the opinion that in transitioning to "modern" city living, we have lost much of this community feeling.

A roadside fruit seller arranges her ware

The unique art form of Water Puppetry in Hanoi

Ok, more on Hanoi later. I now have a plane to catch ...
.

On Top of Singapore

Recently we decided to explore the newly opened Marina Bay Sands integrated resort (IR) facilities in Singapore. This was the second IR to open on the island state, the first one being the Resorts World Sentosa, which opened its doors on the Lunar New Year.

The MBS buildings are certainly impressive structures, and for the past year we had been observing the three towers growing higher and higher, and finally the horizontal boat-shaped structure was put on top. I have no doubt it was quite an engineering challenge.

Well, here are some photos from that day ...

The above was on Level 1 of the mall & casino building, where a canal had been constructed to give short rides to the visitors.

Next we bought tickets to take the elevator to the Sky Park, as they call it. It cost S$20 per adult, with discounts for children and senior citizens.

The picture above shows the two orbs making up the Esplanade theatres, while on the right, you can see the seating and performing areas that will be used for the annual National Day celebrations.

I must admit the view from the Sky Park was much better than from the Singapore Flyer, the big wheel that I visited about 1.5 years ago. You can get a sense of the relative size of the Flyer as compared to the MBS tower in the photo above.

This view above is overlooking Clifford Pier and the Financial district. The thingie around my neck is the audio guide they provide visitors with such that when you press the number corresponding to different view stations, you get a narrative of what you are viewing. Quite useful.

And this one shows the Marina Barrage in the background.

The other section which was interesting was the swimming pool.  As you can see, the pool goes almost to the edge of the building, and gives the impression that if one is not careful, it's a long drop down to earth. Looks scary but it doesn't seem to bother the swimmers and sunbathers.

Anyway, enjoy the scenery ...
.

World Fairs and the Shanghai Expo 2010

.
Let's begin with a bit of history ... The names "World's Fair", "World Fair", "Universal Exposition", and "Expo" have all been used to refer to the various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom in 1851 under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations".

Photo (1) : Crystal Palace, London in 1851

It was supposedly the brainchild of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, and was the first international exhibition of manufactured products. As such, it influenced the development of several aspects of society including art and design education, international trade and relations, and even tourism. It became the precedent for the many international exhibitions, later called "World's Fairs", which were subsequently held to the present day.

The second World's Fair, held in 1855, was in Paris. The third went back to London in 1862. Subsequently it was Paris (1867), Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876), Paris (1878), Sydney (1879), Melbourne (1880), etc. In 1970, it was held in Osaka, Japan. I remember because I was there as a child with my parents. The last few Expos have been held in Hannover, Germany (2000), Aichi, Japan (2005) and Zaragosa, Spain (2008).

Last month I had the opportunity to spend a day at the Shanghai Expo 2010. We got there just as it opened at 10am. Most of the expo is on the Pudong side, with a smaller section on the Puxi side (Pudong and Puxi represent respectively the areas to the east and west of the Huangpu, the river that cuts through Shanghai).

Photo (2) : Map of Shanghai Expo 2010

Overall a very impressive showcase, with throngs of people visiting.  I reckon this could become the most visited Expo ever! Here's a selection of photos from our day at the Expo ...
.

Photo (3) : At the China pavilion (I didn't go in as the queue was about 4 hours long)

Photo (4) : I love the architectural designs !

Photo (5) : At the Malaysian pavilion. Negara ku .......

Photo (6) : Some shots with the Malaysian dancers performing outside

Photo (7) : This is the Singapore pavilion, supposedly shaped like a music box

Photo (8a) : This realistic looking tree roots lie within the Cambodia pavilion.

Photo (8b) : The Kingdom of Cambodia pavilion

Photo (9) : G'day mate, here's the Aussie pavilion

Photo (10) : With colleagues in the Estonia pavilion

Photo (11) : In front of the Latvia pavilion

Photo (12) : UK Pavilion

Photo (13) : With a colleague outside the Cisco pavilion

Well, there are obviously many, many more pavilions and sights that I won't be able to show ... so if you do have a chance, go visit it yourself. The Shanghai Expo 2010 is open until the end of September 2010.

.

On MOUs, Marble and Music

.
The recent drought of postings was because I've been busy travelling. This week I was back in Vietnam - two days in Hanoi, two days in Da Nang (where I am right now) and half a day stopover in HCMC.

Da Nang was the key focus of this trip. It's still one of my favourite cities in Vietnam and I've been engaging with various government agencies there for a number of years. The purpose of this trip was to oversee the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the People's Committee of Da Nang and Cisco. I had been working towards this for quite a while, and believed this to be a significant milestone in our partnership. More on this event can be read here.

After the official work was over, I had a chance to pay a visit to Marble Mountain, one of a cluster of five marble/limestone mountains located a few km south of Da Nang, that stretch from the coast inwards (in a westerly direction). The mountains are named after the five elements; Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire) and Tho (earth). There are many caves and tunnels in the mountains and I read that they were used quite a bit during the Vietnam (or American, depending on which side you are on) War. The area is now famous for stone sculpture making and stone-cutting crafts.

Here's a shot of the area where the Marble Mountains are located. You can see three out of the five mountains ...

And here are some shots taken at one of the many stone sculpture shops.

So remember .... if you want to order some marble lions or dragons or deities or nude maidens or fountains for your grand mansions, you can place an order with me. Shipment to all corners of the world provided. I'll give you some good rates. LOL

Finally after dinner last night, I was invited to a music lounge to enjoy some traditional Vietnamese music and modern pop hits. I was impressed by the quality of the musicians (the white-haired violinist you see in the photo is particularly good!). And of course, there was a variety of singers doing everything from Vietnamese ballads to Lionel Richie's "Say You, Say Me". Alas, none attempted "Nobody".

All the lady singers I saw were lovely and had extremely powerful vocals. This was evident as each lass belted out soulful numbers one after the other with ease.

Da Nang and its surroundings are indeed fascinating places - ideal for relaxation and for exploring the real Vietnam. It is clean, safe, scenic and the people are mostly friendly. I have quite a number of friends in Da Nang and I'd certainly recommend it to all.
.

April Fools' Day - Jokes and Pranks

.
Yesterday was 1st April, which most people know as April Fool's Day or All Fools' Day. The day is marked by the creation of hoaxes and other practical jokes and pranks of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on a fool's errand, the aim of which is simply to have some fun and to embarrass the gullible or unsuspecting. Most of these jokes are small but some are pretty big scale. Some can be quite hilarious (except perhaps to the victims of the prank) and still memorable after many years.

I remember one April Fool's Day back in the late 70's when I was in London, the BBC's "That's Life" program announced that a new species of creature had been discovered. They showed footage of something called the Lirpa Loof which looked somewhat like a cross between a small monkey and a koala. They even showed the stool of this strange creature to be purple in colour and glowed in the dark (making good use of colour tv technology obviously). The announcer said the creature was now in captivity at the London Zoo. As a result hundreds of people called in and crowds flocked to London Zoo hoping to catch a glimpse of the creature.

Another joke I read about was when the BBC programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, showing Italians harvesting spaghetti from trees. They had claimed that the despised pest, the spaghetti weevil, had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees.

Another one is about Decimal Time. This has been repeated several times in various countries. This hoax involves claiming that the time system will be changed to one in which units of time are based on powers of 10. So in the "new" system, 100 seconds will make 1 minute and 100 minutes will make 1 hour. Hmmm ... this could have interesting implications for clock & watch makers, exam-taking students or runners trying to break sporting records.

Over to you ....

Are there any good April Fool jokes you remember from your life?

Did you play any jokes yesterday and were they successful?

Did anyone get you yesterday with their April Fool prank?
.

The Allure of the Wonder Girls

.
Pardon this minor digression into my personal enchantment with this musical group and its catchy hit song "NOBODY". Even if you've never heard of the Wonder Girls, a girl group from South Korea, I would suspect that many of you would have heard strains of this tune being played on TV, radio, music stores or even someone's mobile ringtone.

This is not usually the kind of musical group that grabs my attention, but I must admit their hit is extremely catchy and their performance style quite entertaining (I also find it amusing to imagine someone surnamed Chew or Chiu or Choo in the audience who must feel very flattered by their vocal rendition!).

The five person Wonder Girls, are managed by singer-songwriter Park Jin-Young of JYP Entertainment (who formerly managed that other Korean sensation, Rain ... tho' I must say I'm not as impressed by him!). This is an artifically constructed group with each of the five original members selected through auditions (kinda like the UK's Spice Girls a generation before). The Wonder Girls debuted in early 2007 and became popular later that year with the song "Tell Me." They have scored three consecutive #1 hit singles: "Tell Me", "So Hot", and "Nobody". In 2008, they won two Daesangs ("Artist of the Year" Awards).
.
Even more impresssive was the fact that the group entered into the American market in 2009, with the lead single "Nobody" - which also became the first song by a Korean artist to enter the Billboard Hot 100.

Enough from me ... Turn up your speaker volume to the max and enjoy the music video ...

Like it? Share your views on this and other music groups you like.

Beware the Ides of March

Today is 15th March. Do you know the significance of this day? Have you heard the phrase "The Ides of March"? If not, let me tell you the story ...

The Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martias) is the name given to March 15 in the Roman calendar. The term "ides" was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held.

However in modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C. According to philosopher and writer Plutarch, Caesar was warned by a soothsayer to be on his guard against a great peril on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated at a meeting of the Senate), Caesar saw the soothsayer and joked "Well, the Ides of March have come," to which the seer replied "Aye, they have come, but they are not gone."

This meeting of Caesar and the soothsayer is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned to "Beware the Ides of March."  The relevant passage goes as follows:

Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.

Caesar:
What man is that?

Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19


It is clear that prior to Caesar's assasination, the Ides of March was just another day ...  but after the event, it took on a special significance. In the letters of Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero from the months after the Ides of March., he even writes, 'The Ides changed everything." The phrase "Ides of March" came to represent a specific day of abrupt change that set off a ripple of repercussions throughout Roman society and beyond.

So why was Caesar killed? There were a number of reasons, but the main one was that some members of the Senate feared that he was going to revive the monarchy. The Romans had no love for kings. While Caesar had made clear public statements of turning down offers of kingship, he showed no reluctance to accept the office of "dictator for life" in February 44 B.C. (It is interesting to note that at the time the term "dictator" didn't have the negative connotation that it has today.) Indeed Caesar had been pushing his influence (and luck!) quite a bit. It has been noted by historians that Caesar was the first living Roman ever to appear on the coinage, an honour previously reserved for the gods. The plot's conspirators regarded themselves as "liberators".

So nowadays, those who know (or care to remember) regard the Ides of March as a day of infamy, somewhat like the better-known Friday the 13th.

Looking at the influence of Caesar and his demise on modern culture, I note that there have been many movies and TV series depicting the rise and fall of Julius Caesar. For me, one of the best is still a 1953 screen adaptation of Shakespeare's work, whch starred luminaries like Marlon Brando, John Gielgud and James Mason. There was also an interesting mini-series from 2004 starring Jeremy Sisto (as Caesar) and Richard Harris (in his final performance).

I am told that the Ides of March is celebrated every year by the Rome Hash House Harriers with a toga run in the streets of Rome, in the same place where Julius Caesar was killed.

There is one US-originated music group who call themselves "The Ides of March" and at least two other groups who have released tracks on their albums with the name "The Ides of March", though I'm not sure they even mention Caesar as I haven't listened to any of those albums yet.

Anyway my friends, I hope you've enjoyed this little detour into a bit of history, culture and tradition ... Just to be on the safe side, grab your lucky rabbit's foot, coin or charm ...

and

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH   ;-)