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Vietnam 2012: precursor to Biennial!


paulgila

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yes,jes & i attended the 2012 thailand biennial & we decided to visit a few other

s.e.asian destinations as long as we were in that neck of the woods.

our 1st stop was saigon,vietnam for 5 days.

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heres where we placed our bets on whether we'd get a seat on the plane.

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i was sure this girl would sleep thru the entire boarding process & not make it onto the flight

but she made it after all.

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its 1 a.m. & i'm ready to get the show on the road.

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jes & i finally get settled in for the 1st leg of the journey.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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here are the things you can do on a long,long flight as indicated by official airline policies,

they are as follows:

1.stab someone & eat them

2.sit completely still for 14 hrs until the blood clot in your leg travels to your lungs

3.watch tv until the blood vessels in your eye get aneurysmal & pop like over-filled water balloons

4.suffocate the person next to you who is snoring at 90 dbs.

5.cut off the circulation to your legs til they turn blue

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yes,contrary to popular belief the world actually has big white grid lines painted on it.

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breakfast is served at 3 a.m.

no one knows why.

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after 12 hrs you realize you just might get there.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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somewhere over the rainbow.

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14 or 15 hrs in & spirits are high at the taipei airport.

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jes has to buy a new camera & tries out her haggling skills on this unwary

salesman.

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in hello kitty land.

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coffee art by paulgila.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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jes is writing a novel.

maybe.

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we always check the plane for the next flight to make sure they've washed the windshield & stuff.

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then we have some soup for breakfast & ogle the beer selection while we try

to figure out the exchange rate for taiwan dollars to usd,which will be the first of 4 or 5

different currencies we'll use over the next 3 weeks.

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then we watch a gaggle of stewardesses parade by to see if we recognize any of them.

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next we wait at gate A7 for 3 hrs.

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it looks like someone took our picture but jes has surprisingly long arms.

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the headphones volume went up to 11.

next part of the journey: taipei to kuala lumpur.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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paul....

Can't wait to see more pictures. I know how you guys take thousands and thousands, so....were all waiting. Oh, btw, the term stewardess went out in May, 1981. The new term would be flight attendants. Did you see any palm trees?

Searle Brothers Nursery Inc.

and The Rainforest Collection.

Southwest Ranches,Fl.

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flight attendant,you say? never heard of it.

there will be palm pix,hope you can stay with us for em.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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pelan,pelan. i have to work up to it slowly. :interesting:

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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pelan,pelan. i have to work up to it slowly. :interesting:

OH god, another thread that drags on for 13 months. Your worse than Ryan.... :mrlooney:

Searle Brothers Nursery Inc.

and The Rainforest Collection.

Southwest Ranches,Fl.

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Make it slow, Take it easy, (which macca song ?)

Happy Gardening

Cheers,

Wal

Queensland, Australia.

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pelan,pelan. i have to work up to it slowly. :interesting:

OH god, another thread that drags on for 13 months. Your worse than Ryan.... :mrlooney:

Wheres the "like" button for this comment?

Zone 10a at best after 2007 AND 2013, on SW facing hill, 1 1/2 miles from coast in Oceanside, CA. 30-98 degrees, and 45-80deg. about 95% of the time.

"The great workman of nature is time."   ,  "Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience."

-George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon-

I do some experiments and learning in my garden with palms so you don't have to experience the pain! Look at my old threads to find various observations and tips!

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pelan,pelan. i have to work up to it slowly. :interesting:

OH god, another thread that drags on for 13 months. Your worse than Ryan.... :mrlooney:

Wheres the "like" button for this comment?

Yes :D it is just the very beginning, BUT it worths the wait! Lets have a seat! :P

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didnt have time to post anything this weekend due to our halloween party--thanks to all the "palm talkers" who attended!

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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Hurry up.... we have seen the airport before.... ;)

pelan,pelan. i have to work up to it slowly. :interesting:

OH god, another thread that drags on for 13 months. Your worse than Ryan.... :mrlooney:

Wheres the "like" button for this comment?

Why don't you show us Chiang Mai while we patiently wait for Paul to get sober again? :interesting:

Frank

 

Zone 9b pine flatlands

humid/hot summers; dry/cool winters

with yearly freezes

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i blame mattyb. he made me stay up til 430 am drinking with him. :indifferent:

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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I am precursing this thread for not getting off the ground. :rant::badday::indifferent:

Kim Cyr

Between the beach and the bays, Point Loma, San Diego, California USA
and on a 300 year-old lava flow, Pahoa, Hawaii, 1/4 mile from the 2018 flow
All characters  in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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Give Paul a break! He just got married... :mrlooney::rolleyes:B)

Leilani Estates, 25 mls/40 km south of Hilo, Big Island of Hawai'i. Elevation 880 ft/270 m. Average rainfall 140 inches/3550 mm

 

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at the kuala lumpur international airport after seemingly endless travel.

yes those are palms outside.

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wow,a malaysian street-food restaurant! sadly i had no time to give it a go.

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more teasing from those darned palms!

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after a 30 minute bus ride we arrive at the kuala lumpur domestic airport for

6 hr layover. jes had the foresight to pay a little extra to get us into the VIP

lounge.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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interesting fruit stand in the terminal.

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finally a "real" palm!

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ok,ok,heres the REAL "real" palm.

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& finally we arrive at our hotel in saigon after about 30 hrs of travel.

by "victory" hotel i assume they mean victory over "US." :mrlooney:

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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when we get to the hotel room jes realizes that the suitcase lock

i bought her before we left won't open so i get hotel security to

cut it off. :rant:

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after the fitful sleep that only those who travel long distances know morning finally

arrives so i snap a few pix out the hotel window wondering what awaits us.

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the hotel has a small garden which i took this shot of from the hallway(which is open to the air)

near our room. this hotel is in district 3. we decided to stay in 2 different hotels to experience more

of the city.

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our 1st look at the traffic from the street level resto in the hotel where we had breakfast(a quite good one)

while at the victory hotel.

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they have better bananas than we do. there, i've said it.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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early attempts at the vietnam "sippy face" were tentative,at best.

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breakfast became my favorite meal of the day. there were BBQ pork buns,duck eggs,alot of dragon fruit & other

tropical fruits (although not much papaya,which i love), western foods such as bacon & sometimes waffles or

french toast,& of course traditional vietnamese dishes,which were,in my opinion,always the best choice.

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views of the surrounding city from our hotel.

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the tall buildings are downtown saigon near where we stayed next in district 1.

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this place right next to our hotel had a nice garden & french-influenced architecture.

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LOTS of trees everywhere. the structure closest is some kind of rock-climbing establishment.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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heres that building i took the pic of from the hotel.

most of the building we saw were well-kept with nicely manicured grounds.not a lot of

trash on the streets or anything like that.

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1st thing after breakfast we decided to take a walk & we found a large,bustling grocery store only a block away.

heres where you can buy meats & meat dishes that are already partially cooked.

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or asleep,maybe?

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here are some of the pre-made items. most of it looked very good.

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just in case you were wondering about their beer selection here it is.

the local beer was the cheapest & quite serviceable. :winkie:

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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reminders of where you are.

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these people know how to lounge in a limited,uneven space.

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this swanky,modern-looking hotel/resto had some small bizzies planted in front.

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the gleaming burned my retinas a bit.

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a nice,white little feller.

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nearby there was a huge residence with asian styling & turrets.

most buildings were at least 3 or 4 storeys to maximize the limited space.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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My lunch at work sandwich consisting only of bread and cheddar cheese doesn't compare favorably with any of your food photos (except the chicken head). I tell myself that I'm saving $ for future chances at exotic travel and await further installments of your adventure.

Cindy Adair

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a cheese sandwhich does have its charms at times,no matter how humble.

thanks for stopping by :)

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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Paul,

Really enjoying all the pic's! The food looks pretty good, how did it compare with the Thai food? Did you find many people spoke some english and were helpful? I hope you have more......

Searle Brothers Nursery Inc.

and The Rainforest Collection.

Southwest Ranches,Fl.

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Paul,

I'm enjoying my visit to Vietnam right here on PalmTalk! :) Great photos, and as usual the commentary is (at least) half the fun! :) I'm curious - do most locals still refer to their city as Saigon? Younger ones as well? (An interesting little fact - the IATA airport code for Ho Chi Minh City is still SGN!)

Bo-Göran

Leilani Estates, 25 mls/40 km south of Hilo, Big Island of Hawai'i. Elevation 880 ft/270 m. Average rainfall 140 inches/3550 mm

 

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jeff: vietnamese is just as good as thai food but it is distinctly different--they dont have curries like in thai cuisine. the people were all very friendly but the farther you get from your hotel the less

likely they are to speak english. more on that as the story unfolds.

bo: the only vietnamese person specifically mentioning the city the i remember was our tourguide & she made a point of calling it "ho chi minh city."

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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ok,back to our story. full view of the turret house.

on our last trip to jakarta there were royal palms everywhere--this trip it

was foxtails.

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for the sake of contrast here is a building nearby that had seen better days.

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potted palms(licualas,it looks like) on the street.

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more. looks like ptychosperma, this time, in front of a nice resto.

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there are lots of little coffee/juice stands around. see how many kinds of

juice they are offering.

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here we have some nice hyophorbes in pots.

the urban palm selection was comparable to what you see in other big citites in

the tropics.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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we stopped & had lunch. for some reason at the resto's bar they had a giant

vat of grubs in some kind of alcohol. it would take a few shots for me to

wanna try one of those,& by "a few" i mean 12.

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lunch included some mangosteen that i had smuggled out of our hotel breakfast...

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like this.

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most things looked so nice that i needed to see a little bit of the saigons gritty underbelly.

this is all i could find.

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from the grocery store--awesome french baguettes.

only 11,000 vnd.

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back at the hotel.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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we were still super-tired & ready to fall asleep by 7pm so we stumbled to this

japanese resto--actually a group of 10 restos all under 1 roof--which was only a block from the hotel.

japanese food is very popular in VN now & the place was jumpin'!

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plus i LOVE takoyaki!!! this guy knew what he was doing,they were delicious!

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propping up the bar.

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once we were seated i realized the REAL reason the place was so busy...

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...i think you follow me. :winkie:

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the next morning we had another lovely breakfast at the hotel. i was becoming seriously addicted

to pate on a french baguette.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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Pate on a French Baguette

Follow me where the people jam,

I'll take you down to Vietnam,

Signs says don't do cigarette

Eat pate on a french baguette

Eyes so tired, hair a mess,

Girl go by in tight white dress,

Something I just can't forget,

Pate on a French baguette

Happy Gardening

Cheers,

Wal

Queensland, Australia.

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that is an amazing song,wal,probably your best work! :wub:

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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:interesting: :interesting: :interesting:

David Simms zone 9a on Highway 30a

200 steps from the Gulf in NW Florida

30 ft. elevation and sandy soil

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thanks for the kind replies,will try & post some more this week.

the "prince of snarkness."

 

still "warning-free."

 

san diego,california,left coast.

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I'm enjoying the interesting variety of photos - loved the shot of that "partially cooked" chicken...

Dan on the Big Island of Hawai'i / Dani en la Isla Grande de Hawai

Events Photographer roving paparazzi "konadanni"

Master Gardener, University of Hawai’i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources

Certified Arborist, International Society of Arboriculture

LinkedIn & email: konadanni@gmail.com / Facebook & Twitter & Google Plus: DanTom BigIsland

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