Vietnamese boats

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  • Mattie82
    Member
    • Feb 2012
    • 39

    Re: Vietnamese boats

    Rick, but then they all wear hats, wide brimmed hats, so they don't get sun on their face anyway. You're probably more correct for the reason they wear masks, but how effective the things are whether for dust or sun is something I wonder about. Then you will see them dress their little kids up with masks in December and January up north in Ha Noi to take them on the xe may [scooters] when there isn't any sunshine for eight to ten weeks, that must be for cold and fumes and health, can't be to prevent tans. It is true though, men don't generally wear masks.

    Comment

    • RFNK
      Port Stephens, Australia
      • Feb 2007
      • 26941

      Re: Vietnamese boats

      That's right about wrapping the kids up and putting the masks on. But, the women wear the full wrap to keep the sun off. We're not talking about preventing sunburn - it's about preventing any darkening at all. They're very aware of the tanning qualities of reflected light. This is not my conclusion - it comes from the people I worked with there for 4 years.

      Rick
      Rick

      Lean and nosey like a ferret

      Comment

      • Mattie82
        Member
        • Feb 2012
        • 39

        Re: Vietnamese boats

        Oh well, it's also a fact that the women do a lot of the really heavy work in Viet Nam. During the war you could be pretty sure that a lot of the large construction equipment operators on civilian contract construction were women. You would think that female laborers would be less concerned with beautiful pale skin, but Rick, you are correct...though I've never seen a Vietnamese woman who has as pale a complexion as is fashionable with Japanese women. The face masks have a very short history in Viet Nam: I have yet to see one in use on the early 20th century and late 19th century photos that I collect.

        Anyway, there is a very large brick industry in the Mekong Delta. When I was there in the early 70s I saw very few brick kilns, but during my visit in December I saw hundreds. The clay, the fuel and the bricks are all transported by junks along the waterways. From what I saw little wood is used for fuel, and that is mostly from the frequent repeated harvesting of small trees. Mostly it seems that rice chaf is used...and the Mekong Delta has plenty of that. I don't know yet where the clay is dug from, but will eventually find that out.

        Loading a river junk from a brick yard, little women with loads of bricks down a springy plank and into the hold. You can wonder how they keep their balance with such a load but see from the broken bricks along the bank that many times they don't. These women aren't using an A-frame like that used in Korea to carry heavy loads.







        Where else can you carry such a load than behind you ?? That's the only way you can see where you're going, along that narrow plank.





        From the junk below, men are unloading bricks for the construction of a new kiln, so all of the heavy labor is not done only by women.



        I will post more images of the brick industry and the river junks so essential to transportation of its materials and products.

        Regards...Rob
        Last edited by Mattie82; 02-27-2012, 09:00 AM.

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        • Mattie82
          Member
          • Feb 2012
          • 39

          Re: Vietnamese boats

          Some of the images are things ashore seen from the water, which is all part of the adventure of boating. A few of these will give some idea of the extent of the brick industry in the Delta. Going onto Google Earth and looking down at the river banks from an elevation of 1000 feet [about 300 meters] the resolution is very good and there are several locations where the numbers of kilns are almost without count. The following are some of the "vistas" of collections of kilns in various locations in the Delta. All of the brick yards are close to the water. The first one is of the brick yards at Sa Dec, easily reached by road from Sai Gon. The next two are fairly remote if traveling by road.







          And some of the junks in use for fueling these brick yards...







          That's it for this morning. We were able to get ashore and into a couple of the brick yards so I have an entire album of photos of the brick industry but will limit the images from that: boats not bricks.

          Regards...Rob

          Comment

          • StevenBauer
            LPBC member
            • Jan 2000
            • 23277

            Re: Vietnamese boats

            Thanks for sharing all these great pics and stories, Rob. Absolutely fascinating. Keep 'em coming.


            Steven

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            • RFNK
              Port Stephens, Australia
              • Feb 2007
              • 26941

              Re: Vietnamese boats

              The face masks have a very short history in Viet Nam: I have yet to see one in use on the early 20th century and late 19th century photos that I collect.
              The shirts with built in gloves and hoods are new too. I think the masks grew with the transfer from bicycles to motorbikes. Women always wore the conical hats on bicycles and, of course, many still do, but large hats just aren't compatible with motorbikes. Up until late 2008 when helmet laws were enforced much more strictly, you saw very few Vietnamese anywhere wearing helmets but most women wore small brimmed hats during the day, especially younger women. I don't know this but my guess would be that as face masks became common in Hanoi and Saigon, as women sought to prevent their faces, particularly noses, from darkening when out on the motorbike, the young women still riding bicycles and working the fields etc. in the rural areas, also took up this practice. In dusty areas and in the rice fields during harvest, you see many women wearing the masks and there's no doubt that this helps to keep dust out of airways but along all the canals and rivers, where there's no dust at all, on every city street during the day, many if not most, and certainly most young women, are wearing the masks. With the new helmet laws after 2008, we saw a big rise in masks and hoods as brimmed hats were replaced with helmets. For those not familiar with VN, I should point out that full-face helmets are quite uncommon in VN, especially in the cities and towns. Almost everyone wears a light, foam skull-cap type helmet (Vietnamese call them rice-cookers). These are adequate for the low-speed traffic in most parts of VN. Sadly, they're useless on the higher speed roads.

              Rob, I visited a couple of brickworks in the north as I too was fascinated by this industry. I have a few photos taken of people loading the kilns, if you'd like to see them, and I would very much like to see some of yours. I don't think there'd be any objection to us posting a few less nautical pictures on this thread would there?

              Rick

              Oh, I already posted some brick kiln photos - see #118 Over to you Rob!
              Last edited by RFNK; 02-27-2012, 09:49 PM.
              Rick

              Lean and nosey like a ferret

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              • Mattie82
                Member
                • Feb 2012
                • 39

                Re: Vietnamese boats

                I mentioned using Google Earth in the last posting to locate the concentrations of brick and terra cotta kilns in the Mekong Delta and want to show a few to illustrate my "mention". I've added texts and arrows pointing out features to the images. Those of you familiar with Viet Nam will recognize the locations. This first one shows the location of an extensive area of kilns on one of the shores of the channel which connects the northern [Tien Giang] and southern [Hau Giang] branches of the Mekong.



                The next two are details of the first one. When you know what to look for the kilns and drying fields can be easily recognized.





                This one will show the brick works on an island across from Sa Dec with a closer view also:






                And finally a small brick works on the river below Can Tho:



                You can go into Google Earth with the coordinates on the bottom of each image and can virtually tour the area yourself and you can easily see that all the brick yards are located on or very close to the river system, the easiest and cheapest transportation for a bulky and heavy product.

                Regards...Rob
                Last edited by Mattie82; 02-28-2012, 02:06 AM.

                Comment

                • Lucky Luke
                  Senior Member
                  • Jan 2003
                  • 2064

                  Re: Vietnamese boats

                  Thank you so much Mattei, and also Rick and Ian, for posting these beautiful pictures, and also documents, from my now adoptive country.

                  I do not travel much nowadays anymore, and have never been a great photographer either (only recently had a nearly decent "compact" camera, besides the few "throw-away I only had before...!), and sorry that I do not contribute to this wonderful thread.

                  Thank you again, guys
                  Luc
                  "Homme libre, toujours tu cheriras la mer" (Charles Baudelaire)

                  Comment

                  • RFNK
                    Port Stephens, Australia
                    • Feb 2007
                    • 26941

                    Re: Vietnamese boats

                    Khong co gi anh!

                    Rick
                    Rick

                    Lean and nosey like a ferret

                    Comment

                    • Mattie82
                      Member
                      • Feb 2012
                      • 39

                      Re: Vietnamese boats

                      Before posting this I need to point out that "Mattie82" is the same person as "Mattie64". When I tried to log back in after a year, the machine wouldn't recognize my password so I had to re-register.

                      To continue with a few more brick industry related observations and photos: in the previous posting with all the Google Earth images, the distance between the two ends of that red arrow pointing out the brick kiln lined bank is a bit over 3 miles, or just over 5 kilometers.

                      From the river a woman piling bricks out in lines to ship, but the lines of un-fired bricks drying in the sun are much more numerous in the brick works. Those lines of un-fired bricks are very evident from the air [Google Earth] but I hadn't realized what they were until actually visiting a brick yard on this recent trip.



                      Zooming out to give an idea of the extent of the task:



                      And to include a couple of craft on the river, remembering "boats not bricks"...



                      Then from a landing we made during a short boat excursion out of Can Tho. We were passing a brick yard on the way upriver and I asked the boat-driver to set us ashore for awhile at the place, where we spent over an hour poking around learning about the business of making bricks...







                      This should be enough on the brick industry, probably more than what you wanted to know...but if not then let me know and I can direct you to an additional couple of hundred photos I made of the brick works.

                      Warm regards....Rob





                      Last edited by Mattie82; 03-01-2012, 06:42 AM.

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                      • RFNK
                        Port Stephens, Australia
                        • Feb 2007
                        • 26941

                        Re: Vietnamese boats

                        Fantastic Rob!!

                        Rick
                        Rick

                        Lean and nosey like a ferret

                        Comment

                        • Mattie82
                          Member
                          • Feb 2012
                          • 39

                          Re: Vietnamese boats

                          Some random boat photos in the Mekong Delta, from the boat, from the shore, from this past December...

                          A market-sampan at the Long Xuyen quay:



                          Pulling in fish nets on the Ong Chuong Canal:



                          Farming on the Cu lao Tay floodplain, with the market boat moored awaiting cargo:



                          From the bridge at Cho Moi:



                          Working bamboo and rattan on the banks of the Ong Chuong Canal:



                          And a boatyard / shipyard "teaser to insure that you will be back for more....




                          Regards...Rob

                          Comment

                          • Mattie82
                            Member
                            • Feb 2012
                            • 39

                            Re: Vietnamese boats

                            The "eyes have it"...Various look-aheads on different boats around the western Mekong Delta



                            [well, this first one is trying to look around her nose]









                            And this one...all you want to see is the look-aheads anyway, right ??



                            Rob


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                            • Gerarddm
                              #RESIST
                              • Feb 2010
                              • 32453

                              Re: Vietnamese boats

                              Very interesting, thanks. That first landscape photo in post 221 looks like a Vermeer painting, nice.
                              Gerard>
                              Albuquerque, NM

                              Next election, vote against EVERY Republican, for EVERY office, at EVERY level. Be patriotic, save the country.

                              Comment

                              • Mattie82
                                Member
                                • Feb 2012
                                • 39

                                Re: Vietnamese boats

                                I got a few photos of lumber mills in the Ong Chuong Canal from the sampan trip up to Cho Moi from Long Xuyen, so will post some of these in one or two groups. The logs are floated in and sunk in place. The saws are those traveling band saws that run on a couple of tracks, cutting slabs from the top down. They've been in use here in Viet Nam all through the 20th century, introduced by the French.





                                The mills on the canal all had some sort of overhead lift to pick the logs out of a narrow slip and ready them one-at-a-time for the saw.







                                And it seemed as if a lot of the boat yards were right next to saw mills, logically.



                                Then on to another group...

                                Rob


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