Saigon and the “American War in Vietnam”

March 12, 2018March 14, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / Leave a comment

Written in 1946

Protests around the world were against the USA aggression in Vietnam

A hero on the losing side of the peace war.

The Americans were unaware of the extent of the war crimes against the vietnamese.

One solder’s war trophy.

A lot more than the number of americans killed. Those B-52’s make a difference.

The French then the americans used these unique torture pits.

A row of tiger cages with a walkway that the guards could use to torture the prisoners from above. They threw lime and hot water, boiling oil etc anything to make there lives miserable.

Was this printed on the front pages of the USA newspapers? It should have been

These posters inspired North Vietnam to fight for their freedom.

Remember the “Girl in the Photo” ? Her biography is riveting!

This prison was on an island and was the largest and most brutal. The americans were aware of and complicit in its use for political prisoners.

Unbelievable!

The American prison pilots held here got preferred treatment. But the French who built this prison for political agitators unremittingly tortured them. And used the guillotine a lot.

This was at the ‘War Remnants Museum in Saigon”

Who the phuk would invent agent orange, to have people exposed. The birth defect trail can be traces 4 generations. And extremely harm the whole environment and people.

The Vietnamese blame him for starting the latest aggression here.

South Vietnam: Mui Ne, Dalat and Nha Trang

March 11, 2018March 11, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / 1 Comment

An old french countryhouse (built 1920) in Dalat (5000 ft) The french occupied Vietnam 1840-1953. They were brutal colonials.

Lovely gardens in Dalat

A central hill tribe show at the Dalat gardens.

Great greens to add to a soup or salad.

The “new” vietnam, widespread use of scooters, baguettes are very popular.

Weaving mats is becoming a lost art. This family has been weaving for 200 years.

Fresh herbs are grown in large areas, a very important ingredient in Vietnamese food.

A local Dalat gal, I took a book binding class from her one afternoon. Lots of fun!!

Liz and I took a cooking class in Nha Trang one evening. Just the 2 of us we made 3 wonderful dishes.

Our home away from home in Mui Ne, at the foot of a sand dune, 200 yds from the beach.

Mui Ne is a wonderful spot to kite board, perfect wind and waves.

The dragon dance for TET (Chinese New Year) at a Chinese/Russian hotel in Mui Ne.

These drummers were fantastic.

This is one of my favorite foods, Banh Xeo. At one of my cooking classes we created this one.

Shallots and garlic are mainstays in Vietnamese cooking.

Crabs are are on the menu everywhere.

Liz and I enjoyed a local draft beer (.75) on our last night together.

Want to eat a cake that has this much color?

“Crazy house” project in Dalat, an ongoing practical work of art.

A local fishing boat heading out for an evening on the ocean in Mui Ne.

Working on the side of the river.

Pat in his new dragonfruit shirt buying a croissant at 11;30pm, after a night of listening to a blues band in Dalat.

Central Vietnam: DMZ zone, Hue, and Hoi An

March 11, 2018March 12, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / Leave a comment

One of the tunnel entrances at Vinh Moc tunnels just north of the 17th parallel.

Bombs dropped in the most militarized zone in the world. Here at the 17th parallel 90 families lived in 2km of tunnels for years

A small buddhist altar for rememberances in the DMZ zone

In Hue we entered the Imperial city through the Citadel (built 1804 6ft walls surrounded by a moat.

Lots of different kinds of greens are added to the many types of noodle soups in Vietnam. Basil, watercress, lettuces, cilantro, mints, and bean sprouts.

Dragons are seen as motifs everywhere. This one is carved in stone.

Even though its winter some grass is still alive in the Imperial palace grounds.

Offering altars are everywhere in the Imperial city.

Confucianism is more a philosophy than an organized religion. His code of a persons obligations to family, society, and state form the Vietamanese code still today.

People spend time on the streets and sidewalks playing badminton and other net sports.

The markets are filled with fresh produce, flowers, and everything one needs for life.

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Different types of rice dishes are wrapped up in banana leaves for sale.

This machine makes noodles from rice, after which they are hung to dry.

Vietnam is the land of noodles, all made fresh each day are the best. Market in Hoi An.

An enterprising fellow creating flowers out of bamboo. On the street in Hoi An.

The 2 streets closest to the river in Hoi An are closed to vehicular traffic.

An old Hoi An shophouse (built around 1830) has been turned into a theater for dance troupes.

So much sea food in Vietnam. The coast line is about 2000 miles long. This dish is giant stuffed snails.

Everywhere was decorated with yellows, golds, and red for TET (Chinese new year)

Vietnam: Hanoi and Phong Nha-Ke Bang NP Area

March 10, 2018March 12, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / 3 Comments

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Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu India

January 27, 2018January 28, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / 2 Comments

Kerala massage is everywhere I had 2 different treatments here

Our cook and helper from the Gecko Restaurant

Pat and the 5 Rathas

An elephant at the 5 Rathas

At the 5 Rathas

I had heard that Mamallapuram was a must visit for the ruins and it did not disappoint. We arrived directly from the Chenni airport via uber. Yes uber and other like taxi services are available all over India. Lots of people here have new cars and this is how they pay for them. Of course the 1st order of business is to learn how to pronounce the name of where we wanted to go. World Heritage-listed temples and carving dominate the town. Its a small town so we rented bicycles for the week. A favorite cafe “Gecko” served us morning & night with surprise dishes, we never looked at a menu here. Such a refreshing change from always looking at a menu and asking if they in fact had the dish that you had painstakingly identified as fulfilling your every taste desire. It was fun to experience Tamil Nadu food at its finest from a cafe who had their own boat and went fishing for what we would eat at night. Our 1st time at the ruins we took a guide who had been guiding for 40 years. What fun to visit sites where there were very few other people except some pilgrim groups touring the holy Hindu sites from India.

Most of the temples, caves, and rock carvings were completed during the 7th-century reign of Pallava king Narasimhaverman I. This town was a major seaport during the Pallava kings occupation. 5 Rathas were carved from existing rocks on the site, each ratha (chariot-a vehicle for the gods) was named after the 5 hero-brothers of the epic Mahabbharata The rathas were hidden in the sand until the British excavated them 200 years ago. The rooms in the carved temple caves were huge and just the volume of rock removed to create these caves was very impressive.

A tamil woman tailor

Carved rock temple

Carving in the rock temple

Carved rock temple

Arjuna’s Penance

Visiting students

Shore Temple

At the Croc farm

Carved temple and Arjuna’s wall

Visiting gujarat pilgrims

Hindu priest creating good luck charms

Priest making offering packets

using a cell phone in its best use

Offerings

A devotee helping with offerings

Janet in the carved temple cave

A coconut harvester

Pat touring with his bike

Kolam-chalk, rice-paste designs in front of houses

Small stone carvings for jewelry

Arjuna the stone carver

We went to the carved caves every morning at 6:30 and would photograph in great light and talk to who ever was around. Of course what would people be selling in a place where carving in rock was a religion? stone carving!! And yes we did buy a few small pieces. One morning our new stone carving friend took us on a tour of the countryside we rode our bicycles and he led us on his scooter. What fun, of course its 85 degrees at 9am with 75% humidity so you get the picture. This young man Arjuna wasn’t married because he didn’t have enough money and he had to take care of disabled parents. Work is hard to come by here in India. So he decided to go to the local trade school for stone carving. Of course now the rock is getting expensive because so many people are trying to make a living with carving (only 1.4 billion people in India and growing) We did meet lots of 25-35 year olds who either weren’t going to marry or only had or wanted no kids or 1-2 children. Since so many people speak english well its fun to just hangout and wander around. There are a lot of Kashmiri traders with shops in town, they told me that business was really down.

So India is in the midst of big change in many ways, from women demanding more rights to Dalits marching in the streets to demand equal treatment by the police. The political scene is full of convicted criminals (in the “cow belt”) especially. To lots of start ups promoting solar in the slums (a big project in Kolkata) to organic farming in pockets around the country. Of course the conflict with Pakistan on the Kashmiri border continues and the N part of West Bengal want autonomy from Kolkata.

Nagaland, NE India

January 26, 2018January 28, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / Leave a comment

The reason we decided to visit northeast India was to attend the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland (Dec 1-10th). I remembered seeing some very colorful people in someones photos in Los Angeles years ago and so we arrived in Kohima for the festival. The festival was started 16 years ago so all the 17 Nagaland tribes could get together and exchange stories and ideas. Before 1965 these people were headhunters and constantly in conflict with each other. When the Christian missionaries arrived they worked very hard to get them to stop taking heads. Some were converted and stopped the practice. But it was about 30 years later when the Indian government made it a law to stop the practice that Nagaland abandoned it. So now at the hornbill festival they can show case their skills at dancing and drumming. There are games and contests too. So the visitors can enjoy seeing whats up with the Naga people. The roads are really bad here so there isn’t a lot of travel in Nagaland yet (the roads are coming) It was really fun to experience their enthusiasm about their culture. The elders are there coaching the younger ones on the music and dancing. In the Naga culture they always had time for festivals, just now there are no head taking cerebrations. This has left some people at loose ends and there should be more jobs available for them. A lot of the kids speak english so after a 3 hr show we would cruise around to the various tribal houses and eat, drink and talk with them (the kids translating. This is a culture in transition I want to go back and hike around to some villages. The Nagas are bright and engaging folks. An event worth attending in a remote part of NE India. There were only 1200 people there for opening day and most were Indians.

Arunachal Pradesh, India(NE)

January 26, 2018January 28, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / Leave a comment

We decided to hire a car and driver to tour (implying a nice smooth road) to see some tribal areas of Arunachal Pradesh. This wasn’t true the roads in AP were brutal to say the least, wet, muddy, one lane with traffic, land slides and no traffic rules. Did I say so heavily pot holed it was unbelievable. The bluest sky we had seen in india for some years too. Our driver was so on (and he had to be) it was a real pleasure to ride with him. When we arrived in Ziro, the main town for the Apatani tribe it was dark and cold at 4:30 in the afternoon what a surprise. For the next 3 days we wandered around the countryside with a guide and learned about what the Apatani believe and how they live. Only Apatani’s are allowed to buy land in this area so it keeps the tribe more intact. Our guide was a affable young man who had learned english in school and was guiding because there weren’t many jobs in the area. Most of the people live in the old way, in small villages with a lot of the village related. They grow 2 crops of rice a year and veggies. They are meat eaters who raise there own chickens, and pigs. Very little spice is used in their food, chilies are served along side the food. Fermented foods are for sale in the market along with rats, wasps and larva. Most people are believers in an animist religion Donyi-polo (sun and moon worship). In villages one can see who has converted to christianity and who hasn’t by the type of pole suspended over the house. The poorer people are usually the converts because they don’t have the money to pay the shaman to perform the rituals that are required in cases of sickness and problems. Just buying a mitun (cow from the forest) can run $2000 Usually the shaman will break an egg and see what the egg yoke says and then tell the family what needs to be done to make peace or heal someone. We went to a huge ceramony that required a cow, a mitun, 4 chickens, and 3 puppies to be slaughtered. This was expensive but they did feed about 100 people that day. Plus the shaman has to stay up for 24 hr and pray before hand. Interesting to say the least. All the tribes in AP use bamboo in every which way possible. Weaving and wickerwork still play a big role in their lives. In agriculture they flood the rice fields and farm fish in the rice paddies as well. As we traveled along we would stop and visit a village and see what was going on. Everyone cooks on open fires inside and above the fire meat drys and homemade rice wine ferments. Plus they hang their clothes high and the constant fire drys them.
Working in the a dry rice field

A tribal coming back from a gathering

Rats for sale

Larva for sale

Making pann to chew

We followed this river to Ziro

Apatani village

“Babohs” donyi-polo symbol

Apatani shaman conducting a ceramony

Appertain woman with a nose plug

Our guide explaining the Doni-polo sacrifice yard.

Bringing the pole for a celebration from the forest as a party

Selling the leaves that are used as plates all over AP

Galo woman

Janet trying a basket carry

A Galo traditional house

the porch of a Galo house.

Pot used for bathing on back porch

Halo women making rice wine

Galo man weaving a basket

Drinking rice wine with our new friend

Galo tools

the Galo houses were scattered around the countryside with about 10-30 houses per village. The rice is stored in separate barns set away from the houses in case of fire. Which does happen when the entire house is made of bamboo. There is a folk medicine school in the area and so some of the herbal medicine will be passed on. We really enjoyed our time (8 days) in AP and would love to go back and see more.

Majuli Island, Assam India

January 26, 2018January 28, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / Leave a comment

New masks ready for sale

Paper mache

Pots tied up and ready for market

new pots

Bul buls

An Indoor hearth for cooking

Ygdrasill Bamboo Cottages

Yes this is a big island in the middle of the Brahmaputra river, if fact its the largest river island in the world. There are rice fields and expanses of water bursting with water hyacinth blossom are everywhere. The locals are laid-back as no where else in India (as of late). We enjoyed a wonderful stay at a local guest cottage. A signature dish of Assam is sour curry and we enjoyed it here every day. The official report is that Majuli Island is disappearing and because of erosion, it will be gone in 20 years Try telling that to the locals. Everyday we rented bikes and tooled around the island visiting, pottery making castes and birding. The mask makers on Manjuli are world famous and London theater companys order all the masks from Majuli when presenting stories from the Ramayana. Also there are 22 satras (Hindu Vaishnavite monasteries and centers for art). The Maskmaking center is a satra. Monks live in small rooms and there is a lot of offering ceremonies on a daily basis.

The Streets of Kolkata

January 26, 2018January 28, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / Leave a comment

Custom made snackfood

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We flew into Kolkata in the middle of the night (2am) at least there was no traffic to the Sunflower GH but our taxi driver couldn’t read the address so we stopped to talk to a few night watchmen to get the exact location. We did see people sleeping on the streets(of course its almost always hot here). We had 4 days until we were headed N to Assam so we hit the streets, tea out of disposable unglazed clay cups, a breakfast paratha, wondering around taking in the street life. And that is the thing here street life, so busy, horns honking, all sorts of vendors on the sidewalks, dodging taxis to cross streets. But first we had to get sim cards. We needed photos so we stopped at a sm photo shop and the owner came out and started talking to us over some tea he sent out for. Turns out he was in Las Vegas last year and the highlight for him was shooting a machine gun at a range and a helicopter ride. Funny what people remember. After getting sim cards we headed over to buy some flight tickets and change money. Of course getting involved in many conversations along the walk. Bengali food is different and interesting. They cook with mustard oil and use some veggies I wasn’t familiar with. Plus so much river fish on the menu (being on a huge river) Visiting the largest market (open 24/7) with a local photographer to photograph the fish and veggie market was a blast. Because we had a guide he could translate our questions to the people at the market and of course they had lots of questions for us. I had a few tops made from a shirt I brought with me. The linen here is fabulous. So many pattern choices and colors. After finding a “ladies tailor” the deal was sealed with a cup of masala chai ($7 for the sewing of 1 shirt) I had bought the fabric at a mens tailor shop. Of course they couldn’t do it there because it was a ‘ladies shirt”. We spent several more days in this manner walking around talking to people stopping for “the best coffee in Kolkata”, and eating. The food was divine and just wandering the streets of Kolkata was so fun. Kolkata is probably the center of culture in India, and it was the capital for many years. There are bookshops on the streets and Oxford Books (an indoor bookshop) was a great place to hangout and chat with Indians. We met 3 foreigners. A must visit city!!!

North East India: Assam

December 6, 2017January 28, 2018 / adventuretravelingwithjanetandpat / Leave a comment

After a few days getting reacquainted with Kolkata we flew to the capital of Assam, Guwahati. We met a tour guide whom we stayed with (www.jungleideas.com). And with Arunav Bora we visited Pobitora National Park, this is a great park for water birds and the extremely rare one horned rhinoceros. We spotted 6 of the rhinoceros in our 3 hr game drive by open Jeep, and 20 different species of birds. Nemeri National Park was our next stop across the Brahmaputra River in upper Assam. We stayed at the Eco camp for 4 nights and we started bird watching in the very early mornings. To get to the park involved a 20 minute walk on a trail and then a river crossing by a wooden row boat. On the river banks were tracks of wild elephants, tigers and wild buffaloes. Spotting 145 species of birds in pristine forests through varied terrain (log walking and forest trail with some leeches) was great fun. This was where I drew the first blood of the trip by a leech. The guide was good and he did have a bird book. We had to have an armed guard with us as well because of possible tiger or elephant attack, and possible poachers. The resort was lovely with great food and large safari tents as rooms. ($23/ night). It was fun to think about the various wild animals coming down to drink just some hours ago. We also visited a village that was known for having black magic practioners. An interesting museum reported various exploits of black magic from the past with pictures of recent healing too. After we left the area the newspaper reported several poachers killed by the forest guards and 1 rhino killed by the poachers