I just tried to sign on to Facebook at my office in Saigon this morning, using an FTP connection at work and got this error message:

“Your request cannot be serviced due to access restrictions. Please contact your System Administrator for further details”

That’s new and a bit more telling than the previously ambiguous error message.

Last month, Amy Morison, the editor of Live Hoi An magazine, sent me an article from a freelancer named Clint Lambert on the resurgence of surfing in Vietnam on the stretch of the Central Coast in Danang nicknamed China Beach by American G.I.s during the war. The article, which we picked up, mostly focused on the efforts of Aussie expat Dave Spencer and the newly formed Danang Surf Club to jump start the surf scene, but also touched on the Vietnam Veterans Longboard Society (VVLS), a group of surfers and veterans that formed after the release of Between the Lines, a documentary that follows the lives of two surfers: one who went to war and another who dodged the draft and took refuge on the beaches of Hawaii.

We got some great wartime surf photos from the filmmakers, and Gordon Smith from the VVLS helped us flesh out the story, but unfortunately, neither the photos nor the additional material we developed with Gordon’s help made it past the censor. A shame, because it’s a fascinating story and the photos were fantastic.

Below is a trailer for Between the Lines, in which some of the photos we hoped to run can be seen. Enjoy.

Each day the error message continues to come up, there seems to be more credence behind what was once a rumour: Facebook is being blocked in Vietnam. Explanations abound: dissident ideas were starting to seep into the social networking site; too many Vietnamese girls were posting provocative photos, thereby violating social evil strictures; etc, etc, etc.

One thing remains true though: I am unable to poke anyone.

There’s been some talk about a scanned version of a document from some ministry or another handing down the order to firewall Facebook in Vietnam, but I haven’t been able to find anything conclusive yet. Will try to hunt something down soon … right after I find a reliable proxy server.

Update: Just heard from my creative director another possible reason for the Facebook troubles. Apparently FTP, the country’s second largest Internet provider somehow screwed up access codes to sites that require security. So essentially, there’s some sort of security clash happening between the FTP and Facebook, and the net result is that Facebook is essentially blocking itself.

Neither of us know very much about servers, so we can’t verify any of this, but what is interesting is that the FTP issue has also affected our Internet access at the office, forcing us to switch to a secondary service: VDC. There seems to be no problem accessing Facebook on VDC, which is the largest Internet provider in Vietnam and owned by the government, to boot. If Facebook is being blocked, I’m not sure why we’d be able to access it on a government-owned service provider.

Sidenote: Our general director looked at the scanned copy floating around and said it proves nothing; it could be an intra-office suggestion to block Facebook that came from some corner of the Ministry of Culture and got shot down.

I had a great interview this evening at Qing with ad man John Archer, who I was introduced to by my creative director Jonny Edbrooke. John was the executive creative director of Ogilvy & Mather Singapore from 1978 to 1983 and, after that, the regional creative director of Bates 141 Indochina. The guy is full of great stories about advertising in Asia in the 1970s and 80s.

The Q&A with John will be out in December’s AsiaLIFE, but there are some intersting articles on the era at Ad Asia Online, one penned by John and two others written by fellow creatives Allein G. Moore and Bill Gartshore. There’s also a portfolio of work from the era by notorious ad man Neil French at www.neilfrench.com; it does a great job of illustrating the adventurous print advertising that ruled in Singapore that John’s stories bring to life.

Also here’s an interesting snippet from my interview with John regarding the hit show Mad Men that didn’t make the final cut of the Q&A:

I started in advertising in that Mad Men period. I actually started in the early 60s. I was a Dispatch Boy—a delivery boy. It was called a Dispatch Boy. Capital D. Capital B. I’ve only seen two episodes of Mad Men, and it’s been said many times before, so I’m just repeating what others have already noted, but it is so accurate. I can remember it. Everyone wore suits and ties. The women were always dressed up like they were out of Vogue magazine with their hair done up, etc. Everybody smoked: men, women, secretaries. I didn’t smoke in those days. Everyone but me smoked. It was a wonderful time.

In July, AsiaLIFE ran its economy issue. You can now find two of the feature stories that explore how the booming economy is producing big changes in the country on Vietnewsonline.vn.

In The Domestic Dilemma, I tried to find out whether local Vietnamese businesses could compete with the increasing number of foreign firms setting up shop to take advantage of the booming domestic market for consumer goods. Just 10 years ago, marketing was nonexistent in the country. Now local companies are scrambling to build brands as companies like Nestle and Pepsi munch away at market share.

For his part, AsiaLIFE staff writer Thomas Maresca explored how the increase in disposable income is changing Vietnam, its people and its cultural landscape in subtle ways not immediately noticeable to the average foreigner. Check out Money Changes Everything for the full story.

Update: I just realized that The Domestic Dilemma was picked up by Vietnam Business Finance News, a website that I regularly turn to as a resource on business, economics and finance in Vietnam. Cool.

Last month, AsiaLIFE junior writer Stephen Wright covered the rise of rock climbing in Ho Chi Minh City. The peg was the opening of X Rock’s second climbing location in District 3, but he went above and beyond the call of duty, ferreting out some great rock climbing in Southeast Asia (with the help of resident climbing guru Richard Carrington). The article made it’s way to Tuoi Tre’s English-language portal Vietnewsonline.vn. If you’re looking to get your hands dirty in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, check out Rock On.

Also on the Vietnam rock climbing front, Amy Morison, editor of Live Hoi An magazine, put the word out about the new climbing trips to the Marble Mountains offered by Phat Tire Ventures in this month’s AsiaLIFE Getaways feature, “Our Girl in Hoi An.”

Search “AsiaLIFE” at Vietnewsonline.vn for all the syndicated content from Saigon’s monthly pub.

Jetstar seems to be extending this week’s Friday Fare Frenzy through the weekend. The booking window for sale fares usually lasts from 2pm to 5pm every Friday, but yesterday’s JetMail newsletter contained a link to sale fares on six routes good for travel during two periods: September 9 to October 29 and October 30 to November 12 (why not September 9 to November 12? Beats me). The sale lasts until 11:59 pm on Sunday. When this Friday’s Fare Frenzy went live at 2pm, the same sale fares were on offer.

No telling whether Jetstar will keep up the generosity, but it might be worth signing up for JetMail to find out.

The deals are (one-way Jetsaver Light):

Ha Noi – Da Nang: 200,000 VND

Ho Chi Minh City – Da Nang: 200,000 VND

Ho Chi Minh City - Ha Noi: 450,000 VND

Ho Chi Minh City - Hai Phong: 450,000 VND

Ho Chi Minh City - Hue: 300,000 VND

Ho Chi Minh City – Vinh: 400,000 VND

The year is shaping up to be a small step forward for live music in Vietnam. Already we’ve seen acts like Brooklyn-based Ratat, dancehall singer Lexie Lee and Beijing indie band Rebuilding the Rights of Statues swing through Saigon. Now, DJ Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk will be bringing his signature blend of hundreds-of-samples-strong mixes and frenetic audience interaction to Hanoi on August 15 (venue to be determined) thanks to the folks at CAMA.

Sadly, Girl Talk won’t be hitting HCMC. The inside word is that he’d rather spend some time on the beach after his Hanoi date. So get booking your Jetstar flight.

Axel_

At this point, I don’t exactly have a plan. I am winging it.

Having passed over a horde of substandard Honda Dreams, Citis and Wave Alphas — motorbikes that would almost certainly leave me stranded on the Hai Van Pass if they didn’t break down sooner — there is now parked in front of me a gleaming new Yamaha Sirius. But the owner wants my passport.

I can’t explain to him that this is impossible, that I will need my passport to check into a hotel in Danang in a few hours time. That I plan to drive his bike 4 hours southeast of Hue, over the Hai Van Pass, into Danang , then to Hoi An and back would no doubt be a deal breaker.

 So instead I tell him I cannot give him my passport. It is at my hotel. He asks for the hotel’s number. I tell him I need to switch hotels; mine is very bad. I tell him he can have my New York State driver’s license. He looks on the verge of giving me a yes. I tell him I’ll pay him up front for the three days’ rental.

Bingo.

I stop at my hotel, pick up my backpack, get back on the Sirius and just like that I’ve salvaged my trip from the brink of disaster. Just like that, I am headed out of town, bound for the Hai Van Pass.

The road out of Hue is almost exceedingly well marked, if a bit labyrinthine. Every few hundred metres, there’s another sign. This way. That way. Left. Right. Up. Down. Back the other way. It’s a cartoonish route, but it proves dependable and soon I’m on the open road heading west, driving past coastal paddies.

But then the rain starts up. The proceeding hours are a blur. I stop to reposition my rain jacket; multiple configurations lead to the same conclusion: it’s going to be a we ride. About an hour into the drive, my hands are frozen solid. I stop at two large markets to find gloves. No luck. All I get are inquisitive stares and giggles.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/snips/

From there, things get hazy. I remember a backup where a bridge is being repaired. But other than that, I am just trying my best to make good time, trying to overtake the truck traffic. After a while, 70km per hour feels just fine on the slick roads. I start to accept the discomfort, the aching limbs and numb fingers. The sign to denote you’re leaving a hamlet — the crossed-out skyline — is my only comfort.

And then it happens. I’m just outside of the Hai Van Pass. The rain has reduced to a drizzle. The first ascent alone, steep and banking towards the ocean, assures me that the Hai Van Pass will dwarf the two smaller passes I’ve already driven. The experience, I begin to realize, will make all that’s come before worth it.

Thanks to a recently completed tunnel for truck traffic, the Hai Van Pass is nothing short of a motorcyclist’s dream come true. Lanes that likely made for tense trips by bus or truck provide latitude for motorbikes to bank and weave with relative safety. Around every corner, you imagine the summit must be near, but the road continues to climb, the South China Sea below growing more distant, the jungle foliage on the mountainside more verdant.

And then I reach the top. With the mist and cloud cover, the view is non-existant. No worries. I’m eager to get back on the bike. The drive down the mountain proves just as much fun — you’ve got to keep your hand on the break just to keep yourself in check. And not long into the descent, the rain abates altogether. The sun comes out. I take of the stifling raincoat, and continue down the mountain, the sun and wind drying my sodden clothes.

Next stop Danang.

A few months ago I was rather surprised to receive this link from my sister, Kate DiChristopher, an HR specialist with Marina Maher Communications in New York City. Unbeknownst to me, Kate had become a blogger.

Okay, so she’s not terribly prolific just yet, but her single blog post, an endearing love letter to our hometown of Buffalo, is imbued with a disturbingly engaging travel aesthetic. Why disturbing? Because I’m supposed to be the writer in the family, the shiftless and wanderlust-afflicted Type B child.

Luckily, Kate still proves herself far more adroit at Type A things like healthy cooking and retirement planning. Though I am keeping my eye on her. If she starts blogging about discount airlines, I know I’m in trouble. Anyhow, give her story a read, because it really is a gem.