What the Well Dressed Pun is Wearing this Season

One wonders just what witty banter might come with coat, a frock or blouse from the Pun Shop, in the Old Quarter in Hanoi. I am not quite sure but it seems like those are plastic palms gracing ( or would that be dis-gracing) the elegant first floor balcony.

My siingle pun in Vietnam,  based on the practice of standing around talking and eating roast watermelon seeds during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, was ah, so that is called Tet a Tet. This fell so completely flat, was so inexplicable, that I am not surprised to find that the locals must buy puns from shops, though what they do with them later is a mystery.

A Perfect Case of Perspective at Angkor Watt

The colonnaded verandah, if so humble a word as verandah might be applied even to part of the entirely overwhelming wonder of architecture, sculpture , mythology and history that is Angkor Watt, is a perfect eaxample of the nearly dissappearing point of perspective.
Of those places for which a dozen visits would not be enough, Angkor Watt and the surrounding temples and  barays is now on the top of my list.

On the Outer Bamboo - Bridging the Perfume River

 On a bicycle tour from Hoi An, this was one of four bridges, two bamboo, two of wood that we crossed.  This one was owned by three families and the Bridge Man sleepy in a hammock,  waited at the end for the toll. The bridge only slightly more sturdy than its shadow, seemed like an invitation for me and my bicycle to fall into the river, so I wheeled my bike across. At the slower pace one gets to appreciate the aging process for bamboo.

The Collective Noun for Ladders - A Lair, A Rung, A Climb??

Nothing like a ladder for a step up in the word. This group of bamboo beauties for sale in Ladder Lane in the Old Quarter of Hanoi,  come with an option on faux bamboo in leaf.  Are these sold in sets, so the ladders might be disguised and therefore might make a higher order kind of trap for unsuspecting pandas of ambition?

Tempting to buy one but so hard to pack.

A Thousand Minor Chords in Cages - Bird Street, Old Quarter, Hanoi

Bamboo cages, red silk drapes,
three cold days,
and no birds sing.

Across the road,
roast dog to eat.

New World Order, Europe moves to the Pacific!

While language varies from place to place, usually the lay of the land, at least in this geologic epoch is pretty constant. Not so according to this depiction of the globe we found In Ho Chi Minh City  near the Botanic Gardens and Zoo. Is this a clever metaphor for the close post-colonial relationship between Australia and Europe?  A sly literary allusion to Jose Saramago's wonderful satiric novel The Stone Raft,  where not just the Iberian penninsular drifts off from Europe but a much larger part of Europe takes off for warmer climes. 

Coffee Epochs, Hoi An, Vietnam

Coffee in Vietnam might be the perfect example of going with the flow, going native, getting local, Kurt-erising one's self in both  locale and way of doing things.  The coffee looks a bit, sumpish, those layers, and here in Hoi An, the iced version comes with a side of hot tea,a press metal teaspoon, and in case that hefty dollop of condensed milk does not make your sweet tooth sing, a sachet of sugar. 
The waitresses serving this coffee were quite bemused by this rough sketch, and congregated to discuss  the design on the glass of tea, laughing at the coffee's gradient in the glass. It takes a little getting used to, and for a while I kept trying the espresso, but when  it comes down to UHT milk ( yuk!) verse Condensed (sweet!) , Condensed wins by a teaspoon!