|
|
.
WALKING THE DUCKS
Viet Nam is a country full of the most incredibly sights - like one Sunday morning when I went south of Ha Noi to visit the Thay Pagoda - according to the local villagers the most beautiful of all the beautiful pagodas in Northern Viet Nam.
Just outside the pagoda, I stumbled into a the pick-up of hundreds of live ducks for Ha Noi's ever consuming restaurants. It was also an opportunity for my Nikon to get some really great pix:
"HEY - You are running the wrong way.....
......That's better!"
"Please hold all bikes - my ducks are coming over."
"Get in there!" The ducks are herded into an ancient grave yard to make it easier to catch them.
"Here you go..."
"24-26-28." The ducks are counted as they change hands over the concrete fence...
..and loaded unto the small truck complete with four levels of live duck storage.
Duck owner Thanh: "Giam gia!" (discount): 5.000 Vietnam Dong (30 cents) per duck, when you buy 10 of my birds.
Trips like this one out in the countryside is also a great chance to practice my still too poor Vietnamese. After one year of intensive language training with Ton Nguyet - one of Ha Noi's very best teachers - it is still a struggle for me to communicate at the level of a 4 year old Vietnamese kid.
So it was with great satisfaction that I did manage to chat with the duck owner Thanh, who has a triving business raising ducks. In Viet Nam you show politeness by asking very direct and personal questions to strangers.
So we went through the ritual of: Nguoi Nuoc nao? (What country are you from), Anh co vo Viet Nam khong? (Do you have a Vietnamese wife) Anh co may con? (How many kids?) and of course Anh co thich Viet Nam khong? (Do you like Viet Nam).
When Thanh to his utter amazement - Oi troi oi* - learned that I am the father of four kids, he immediately offered giam gia - a healthy discount: The price would be 5.000 dong (30 cents) per bird, when buying 10.
* Oi troi oi litterally means: "What a weather" = Oh my God!
And then we came to the Thay Pagoda, that I first visited in 1988 and again in 2002. On the way down I had been a bit concerned, what may have happened to the famous pagodas in Ha Tay province, which is going to through rapid industrialization. To this day the Thay Pagoda - a 600 year old masterpiece in wood craft - remains as beautiful and well preserved as anyone could hope for:
The central court yard of the Thay Pagoda.
The entrance to the Thay pagoda complex has its own unique land mark in the village lake.
|
