JACK BERNARD'S TRAVELS

If the guy on top gets electrocuted the guy lower down takes over. That’s the power back up system in Saigon.

For the past couple of months daytime temperatures have been hovering around 100 degrees here. Even the natives are complaining. When it’s this hot you want to be inside with the A/C on and the fans turning. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough power in Vietnam to go around so power in the industrial and hi-tech parks is usually only available 3 days a week. Most of those plants have their own aux generators so they can keep going. In the rest of the city the power authority does its best to keep it on, but every day some neighborhoods get taken off the grid to save the system from catastrophic failure. If you’re lucky you find out ahead of time. If not, the lights go out, the A/C goes off, and you grab your laptop and head for a coffee shop with wifi in another part of town. I’ve come to know that if the power fails before 10am it will be off most of the day.

I’m almost as fascinated by the wires and wire bundles of Saigon as I am by the mysterious rules that govern motorbike traffic. I’ve been told that it’s so difficult to figure out what the wires are actually hooked up to that the power company waits until they fall down – then they trace them back to the source. Take a look at this picture and multiply it by every intersection in a city of 8 – 10 million. It’s a miracle anyone can figure it out.

Yesterday the Seattle Times had an article entitled “Deadly shocks in Vietnam raise safety-rule concerns.” At least somebody is paying attention, but I guess when school kids start to die because there are live wires on school grounds or customers die because they touched an ungrounded ATM it starts to get noticed. Check it out:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012094687_vietnamshocks12.html
It’s an exciting, some would say electrifying, place. Remember to wear your rubber soled shoes.

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Marilynn made these observations about the women of Vietnam recently.

“The woman thing” here is fascinating—-it is very hard to get real info; so much of what I say is just based on observation and what people who have been here a long time say. All day long there are multitudes of men sitting on little plastic chairs on the street mostly in groups—during the day they smoke, drink coffee, gossip, or gamble. At night it’s the same but with beer.

People truly live on the street here even if they have somewhere else to go. Women only sit on the little chairs to eat and then leave. No ”lollygagging” as my Mother used to say.

Women seem to “man” all of the food stands that are everywhere on the street. Same with most shops, and, by the way, the stands have to be pushed into place everyday. It’s usually a long push and the sites have no running water, so they bring that too—plus all the ingredients collected fresh early in the day.

Older women seem to be the primary street sweepers and garbage collectors—this is very unattractive work, dirty, hot and collection is to pushcarts—so of course they are pushing them by hand—all the woman of this class wear the print polyester/silkish pajamas. This includes all of the construction women even if they are mixing concrete. Women seem to carry most of the “loads,” bars balanced across shoulders—heavy loads both baskets—–even very old women who have some difficulty doing this.

This is the Vietnamese social security system—–Maybe some of our folks screaming about entitlements should see this—probably just say “they should have pulled themselves out of this while they could.”

Then there are the brides—Jack and I spend Sunday AM’s in a very Starbuckish coffee place across from the big cathedral —watching endless parades of brides in the most elegant of Vera Wang—like dresses—we are told that most of the dresses are rental—but they are beautiful—the hair and makeup too are gorgeous—even the most ordinary of girls look luscious—-the whole wedding thing is amazing it is a huge business here—I don’t know who the brides are but it looks like a real setup for long term disappointment from here—they arrive by limo or taxi with a decked out groom and a cadre of red carpet type photographers who rearrange the veils—float them for pictures—have the brides running and the train floating—it is so amazing and funny to us and sort of sad…………….me thinks the groom will be in a little plastic chair in about a year………….

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Jimmy Antzoulis is the project manager on the Bitexco building in the heart of Saigon. He’s a Greek-American from Astoria, Queens, New York City. Jimmy is the best of America although he hasn’t lived there since 1983. He works for Turner, one of the biggest building contractors in the world. He’s lived in China, Abu Dhabi (his favorite), Dubai, London, and a host of other places before coming to Vietnam two years ago. Yesterday, he loaded us in the external hoist and took us to the 57th floor of the new building. It will eventually be 68 stories, but they are only up to 57 at the moment. The crews work 24/7. This is Vietnam. They plan to open for business with 5 floors of high-end retail and 63 floors of leased office space by the end of October.

When I got to Floor 57 I poked my camera through the webbing and took a picture of the Saigon River and the green grassy patch on the other side. It’s not all grass; there are houses on the river and the government is building a tunnel and a freeway to take away some of the traffic stress that plagues the city. But, beyond the riverside houses it’s grass, trees, and farmland.

I was in Shanghai this time last year and witnessed the most amazing urban landscape on the planet. It’s called Pudong. It’s across the river from The Bund, the old commercial district of the city. At night you can stand on the promenade and look across to Pudong. There are hundreds of modern skyscrapers, including the world’s second tallest building,the world’s tallest hotel, as well as a building with a 60 story video screen that runs day and night. It’s incredible. 30 years ago it was all farmland.

Jimmy told me yesterday that the green patch I was photographing is Saigon’s Pudong. There are plans to pave and build just like they did in Shanghai. The Sunday Vietnam News had earlier reported that there are projections of 30 million people in the greater Saigon area by 2050. Unofficially, there are 10 million now. This is a centrally controlled economy. The people in those riverside houses and huts will be “relocated”. I think that means evicted.

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If you looked at the picture of our spa in the previous blog you will see the contrast in lifestyle amenities. At the other end of the scale is the guy in the picture on the right. I pass him every day on my walk to work. He always says hello and touches his chin to show that he’d like to give me a shave. Since I don’t have any hair there isn’t much else in his marketing quiver, and it doesn’t keep the shoeshine boys from wanting to shine my flip flops or Marilynn’s running shoes. These are bootstrap entrepreneurs in a bootstrap economy.

My barber friend is a classic sidewalk operator – he has two ripped unmatched chairs patched and held together with duct tape. His “shop” on the sidewalk has a torn dirty awning above and a hand mirror propped on the building’s ledge behind. There is no running water, but he has a bucketful sitting against the wall. He’s not always busy, but he’s busier that I would imagine, and he does shaves with a straight razor (scary thought) and lots of haircuts.

Since he works in the street he doesn’t worry about hair falling on the ground. Apparently no one else does either, because all the broken pavers and and cracks in the sidewalk are full of hair and have been ever since I started walking this street 9 months ago. It’s an anomaly since almost everyone has a small Vietnamese broom and is obsessive about sweeping up the dirt, wrappers, and leaves every morning. There must be a special dispensation for fallen hair. No one else seems to care or even notice. I guess it’s a cultural difference within a different culture.

There are many…

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I’m feeling guilty, negligent, remorseful, petulant, and unworthy at the moment, because I made a promise to myself to be disciplined and diligent with this blog. I could blame work, which involves long tiring days, but I think it’s a different kind of fatigue. I have too much to write about and by the time I decide to sit down I can’t sort and select the right subject so I do nothing.

This picture was taken at one of the spas where we go on the weekend to be pampered. Saigon is full of spas. I guess, if I had thought about it before I came, I would have imagined that most would be what we Americans call massage parlors. The truth is that there are many high-end luxury spots where pampering is an art and the price at the top end is about one-third of what you would pay in the US. Marilynn and I have become massage sluts; we can’t get enough of a good thing. I don’t have any hair, but Marilynn gets her hair shampooed and blown dry, complete with a half hour neck and head massage for $10. Then, for $15 you can have a one hour foot massage with two masseuses working from the toes to the knees while you sit or snooze in a big easy chair. Or, for $27 you can have a 90 minute “relaxation” massage with your choice of scented oils to improve your circulation. But, the ultimate massage experience is the 90 minute 4-hands massage with two therapists working out the kinks at the same time. I know it’s a rationalization, but with the heat and chaos of the city and the long work days it is easy to justify the indulgence on the weekend.

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