Saigon Traffic

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Bui Vien Street Saigon (Tourist Area)

Reproduction Art - Saigon Vietnam

Bui Vien Street (District 1) Saigon is the place to come to if you want your own Van Gogh or Salvador Dali (well reproductions by Fine Art students). When I first saw the fine quality of many of these reproductions in several shops I thought there was some kind of 'catch' (maybe done by computers or something) - until I came across this artist copying a very famous photo of an Afghani girl.

http://www.famouspictures.org/index.php?title=Image:Afghanistan-Pakistan_eyes.jpg

I was lucky to get these photos - most of these shops dont allow cameras.

Many of the reproductions are at very reasonable prices generally $20-25 for most paintings (more for bigger paintings or finest quality).

Phnom Penh to Saigon by bus

Karaoke Hell - being stuck on a bus listening to Cambodian Karaoke DVDs

World Wide Web - Phnom Penh

Has Spider-Man just been in town?

Phnom Penh - roads

Cambodian soup

Noodle soup from street stall - includes pork + offal. Price - 5,000 Riel (about 1 GBp)

Very tasty

Central Market - Phnom Penh

The market is having a major refurbishment at the moment -which will be completed after Cambodian New Year - in about 3 weeks time. Its art-deco design makes it stand out.

Tea Shop - Phnom Penh

Vietnamese tea shop in Phnom Penh - notice old tree which

must be over 200 years old. It has seen it all ...........Khmer Rouge......civil wars........everything.....

Fruit salad- Cambodian style

View from my hotel room - Phnom Penh

My Room - not bad for $12 per night

A neighbour

Kandal Market - Phnom Penh

Laos National Museum

Laos Barbecue - at Vientiane market

Cat fish in foreground. The next fish along is called pa-tu (like a small mackeral).

Woman cooking cat-fish - notice traditional method of cooking sticky rice (kow-niow)

on left (the steam from pot below seeps into basket containing rice above).

These cat-fish (pa-duk) taste SO GOOD - one cost

5,000 kip (ha-pan-kip) -

about 40p.

Vientiane bus station

Is the roof of a bus strong enough to carry so many motor-bikes ?

Glad I'm not in that bus !!!

Tett - Vientiane 2010

COPE - Laos UXO Rehabilitation Centre

I visited the COPE centre in Vientiane today - a place which gives support

to UXO victims (Unexploded Ordinance).

http://copelaos.org/index.html

The following foto shows a representation of a large bomb (hanging from the ceiling) containing smaller bomblets. As the large bomb descends from the plane its case opens up releasing smaller bomblets - each of which is made up of ball-bearings and explosive.

The following text is from the caption describing this display at the centre:-

"There are many varieties of cluster bombs. All work in similar ways - scattering explosive

'submunitions' over a wide area. In the case of the large casing suspended here, one case would contain enough small 'bombies' to cover an area equivalent to three football fields.

Each case contained up to 680 individual cluster bombs, each with killing radius of 30 metres.
The fins on the outside cause the bomb to spin to arm the device.

With impact the explosion occurs. In test conditions 30% of this type of device did not explode. This means that of the 260 million dropped there could have been 80 million unexploded cluster bombs left after the bombing ended."

I also watched the documetary called "Bomb Harvest' at the centre - about the

clearing of UXO in Laos. If you can't get to see the movie - just look at the trailer (shown at this link) to get some idea what these brave guys do to remove UXO in Laos:-

http://www.bombharvest.com/

For the story of one victim see also:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8089366.stm