Postcards from a Cubicle Dweller

My good friend Bob Z just launched what is probably the wittiest new blog I’ve read in a long time: Postcards from a Cubicle Dweller. Bob’s “postcards” are what you’d expect the result to be if you distilled “The Office” through flash fiction.

My favorite thus far, from his post “The echo effect”:

The beauty of working in an office is hearing the same story several different times, from several different people.

Who are all liars.

October Ed Lessons, or How to Stay Out of Vietnamese Prisons

The October issue of AsiaLIFE is almost put to bed. But like a colicky child, it turns out that magazine work is most volatile right before bedtime. The good news is I’ll go forward next month much more capable of managing multiple deadlines. What else have we learned this month?

First off, staying out of jail may be a continuing concern as AsiaLIFE moves towards more research-based articles. Yes, we are a lifestyle magazine–you’ve got to be an accredited journalist to do anything else without getting sent to the clink here in Vietnam–but we do like t back up our trend pieces with facts and figures. This was something I learned when, having reviewed my article on why you can only get one kind of draught beer in HCM City, my publisher informed me that my liberal citations of Vietnam Brewery Limited’s exclusivity contracts could land me in jail.

And to think I wanted to support my case by citing Vietnam’s nascent competition laws. Turns out that could’ve been interpreted as a direct accusation of guilt under Vietnamese press laws, leaving our door wide open to a lawsuit levied against us by the region’s biggest brewer.

On the art front, my journey into performance art turned up a pretty interesting artistic dilemma. Performance artists, whose work often hinges on spontaneous interaction with the audience and who frequently use the street as a workshop, find themselves in a strange predicament as all arts performances must be vetted by the Ministry of Culture, leaving many Vietnamese peformance artists searching for a more adequate explanation that, “I’m not really sure what I’m going to do, so the thing with submitting a recording beforehand is…”

Japanese chefs like baseball. This is good for journalists who show up to an event with an hour and a half’s notice and no more than a paragraph of promotional information to interview what turns out to be Japan’s preeminent French chef, a two-star Michelin master. What knowledge I lacked in cuisine spontanee, I was thankfully able to make up for in my ability to recall Matsuzaka’s approximate win tally.

Rounding out this month was some truly trying research for articles on spa treatments for men and luxury food products available in HCM City. It’s a dirty job…

Traveling Exhibit Focuses on Vietnamese Women Artists

While researching an article on performance art in Vietnam, I came across an interesting art exhibit currently traveling around the United States. “Changing Identity: Recent Work by Women Artists from Vietnam” is comprised of 52 works by ten female Vietnamese artists “who challenge the stereotypes and traditional roles of women in Vietnamese society.” The exhibit’s website at artsandartists.org summarizes the show:

“Each of these women has a particular way of shaping her work and of identifying herself that is both personal and universal. Through the use of various media, subject matters, and aesthetic sensibilities, the artists explore gender and cultural identity and offer a diversified view of Vietnam itself.”

The exhibit, curated by Nora Annesley Taylor of the Art Institute of Chicago, is currently on show at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross, Worchester, Massachusetts. It will next move to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City before reaching the final leg of its tour at the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Update Saigon: Back into the Swing

I never thought it would happen, but it has. I’ve become an absentee blogger.

My hiatus from 9000 Hours has, however, been due to a rather fortuitous development. Having accepted a position as Deputy Editor of AsiaLIFE HCMC Magazine, I’ve been busy splitting my time between frenzied rounds of editing in the lead up to a September deadline, contributing a number of articles to the upcoming issue and teaching my two remaining classes at ILA. 

I plan to scale back my teaching responsibilities a bit more in about two weeks, at which point, I hope to become a much more consummate blogger. I’ll also (finally) be doing a spot of traveling. November is AsiaLIFE’s getaways issue, to which I’ll be contributing a to-be-determined feature, so an on-location assignment is imminent. I’ll also be in Cambodia at the end of October.

Jetstar to Launch Saigon - Darwin Route

Out with the old, in with the new. Jetstar is scrapping its thrice-weekly service between Ho Chi Minh City and Sydney, and replacing it with a new Ho Chi Minh City - Darwin route, which will operate five flights a week. The changes will take effect on September.

The schedule change is part of Jetstar’s bigger plans for Darwin. Jetstar is gearing up for more international flights, and is setting up Darwin to handle the increase. The change will also facilitate increased traffic between Darwin and domestic destinations Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Return flights from these destinations to HCMC and Singapore will pass through Darwin.

Painting with Street Children

I stopped by a painting class for disadvantaged youth and street children run by Armed with a Paintbrush to research an article I’m writing about the American nonprofit for AsiaLife HCMC. The good folks at AWAP handed me a paintbrush and let me paint with a gaggle of pre-adolescent artists:

Painting with street children

Friends from back home will recognize my inspiration: Charlie, the beagle I left behind…

When the AWAP gallery opens next month on Bui Vien Street, conscious-minded art enthusiasts can swing by to purchase paintings created by local youth and to get their hands dirty doing a spot of painting. For the time being, you can peruse AWAP’s paintings currently available at its online store.

Cutbacks at Qantas

Qantas announced this weekend a series of measures meant to keep out of the red in the face of sky-rocketing global fuel costs. On the chopping block are 22 of its 228 plane strong fleet, as well as Jetstar’s pilot and cabin crew base in Adelaide. The route, however, will remain in service, with flights manned by staff based out of Sydney and Darwin. Some routes will see capacity reductions, but no routes are currently slated to be cut outright.

Despite its most recent fuel woes, Qantas says it will go ahead with plans to replace older crafts with more fuel-efficient A380s and B787s, roll out new customer service initiatives and launch its direct service from Sydney to Buenos Aires in November.

Escape from Saigon: Dong Nay Province Swimming

I was hurtling down the rode in Dong Nay Province, past vast swaths of rice paddy, when it suddenly occurred to me. I  cocked my wrist to accelerate and pulled up alongside Tyler.

“I think I forgot what fresh air smells like.”

Add this experience to the “You know you’ve been in Saigon too long when … ” list.

I’d joined a motorbike caravan to the Golden Scorpion, one of the recreational swimming holes out in Dong Nay Province, about an hour outside of the city. I’d been told there was fresh water and a bridge to be jumped off. What we found was a well-organized riverside park dotted with thatch-roofed cabanas, ringed with water slides and diving platforms. 

The water parks in Dong Nay are no Western wonders, but that’s what makes them so much fun. The water slides were not engineered for comfort, but it’s pretty amusing to watch your friends’ get slapped around the second curve of the too-short slide while you nurse your own bruised hip at the bottom. 

And while life vests are required, safety restrictions are pretty lax. No one scolds you for tipping over your friends rented boat, and the workers don’t intervene when you decide to launch yourself backwards and headlong down a water slide.

For these and many more reasons — including the dirt cheap beer — the trip to Dong Nay is well worth the mind-numbing headache you’ll suffer on return to smog-choked Saigon.

The Golden Scorpion. Entry: 10,000 VND. Life vest rental: 20,000 VND. Boat rental: 15,000 VND. Bottle of Saigon Green: 9000 VND.

An American Spendthrift in London

I was sad to hear that my friend Alex Robertson Textor’s time in London has ended. However, every cloud has its silver lining. Alex has compiled some great dispatches during his time in London over at Spendthrift Shoestring. From guest house suggestions to unheard-of walking tours, Alex’s tips should help you do what Alex does best: crack the surface in no time at all.

Be sure to click through his other UK posts, as well.

New Beer Bar Quenches Saigon

Beer in Saigon now has its Graceland. While most bars serve the same range of regional beers, the Kool Beer Bar is stocked with over 100 beers from 13 countries.

Located just off the Ben Thanh Market traffic circle, this joint is the best a beer-drinker could hope for in hop-starved Saigon. Glass-doored coolers make it easy to peruse the goods. The menu lists the alcohol content and bottle size of each beer. There’s even a canal packed with ice that runs the length of the bar — just slip your bottle in to keep your brew cool.

And the beer. While the selection is certainly not exhaustive, it’s nonetheless impressive. Prices are a bit steep, but if you stop in between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. you’ll pay 5 - 10k VND less per bottle (a good incentive to start drinking before noon if ever I heard one). The priciest item on the menu is a 750 ml bottle of Duvel with an alcohol content of 8.5%. It’ll set you back 190K VND. A 330 ml bottle of Chimay Blue (120K) tops the tanked chart with an alcohol content of 9.0%.

I stopped in and had a 375 ml bottle of Coopers Pale Ale (70K VND). If it tastes any fresher in Australia, I’d be surprised. I also shared 500 ml bottle of Vietnamese-made Cuong Duong with my girlfriend out of sheer curiosity. That endeavor didn’t go so well.

“It’s not a great beer,” she said, “but it’s a pretty delicious cough syrup.”

Kool Beer Bar, 177 Ham Nghi, District 1