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In 1999, in celebration of the return of fish to the River Lagan, the city of Belfast erected a sculpture titled The Salmon of Knowledge but locally called The Big Fish.
In 2006 I asked our tour guide if this sculpture was based on the Salmon of Knowledge and he indicated that he did not understand what I was talking about. Later I obtained the following quote from a local official: " The scales on the Big Fish or Salmon of Knowledge sculpture celebrate the return of fish to the River Lagan".
The Salmon story figures prominently in The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, which recounts the early adventures of Fionn mac Cumhaill. According to the story, an ordinary salmon ate nine hazelnuts that fell into the Well of Wisdom (an Tobar Segais) from nine hazel trees that surrounded the well. By this act, the salmon gained all the world's knowledge. The first person to eat of its flesh would in turn gain this knowledge.
According to a number of printed tourist guides that I examined "the Big Fish also called the Bigfish is a printed ceramic mosaic sculpture by John Kindness. 10 metres long and constructed in 1999 it is located at Donegall Quay in Belfast, near the Lagan Lookout and Custom House."
There are also a number of seals nearby but I do not know is they are part of the original art installation.
The outer skin of the fish is a cladding of ceramic tiles decorated with texts and images relating to the history of Belfast. Material from Tudor times to present day newspaper headlines are included along with contributions from Belfast school children. The Big Fish also contains a time capsule storing information/images/poetry relating to the City.
Open Knowledge Festival 2014. 15th to 17th of July at Kulturbrauerei in Berlin.
Attribution: Gregor Fischer, www.gfischer-photography.com/ 16.07.2014
President Mahinda Rajapaksa made an inspection tour of the construction site of the “Knowledge Park” (former Tripoli Market) in Pettah yesterday (Augsut 6) morning. The complete cost is estimated to be around 7 million US dollars where knowledge-based industries will be allowed to setup of their operations. The first stage construction work in the 25 acre land plot has now been completed. Mahinda Chinthana future vision envisages to make Sri Lanka a knowledge hub in Asia. The government expects to earn a revenue of one thousand million US dollars from the information sector by the year 2016. In order to achieve this target the knowledge park complex will also be developed as a city consisting business research institutions.
දැනුම පදනම් කරගත් කර්මාන්ත සිදු කිරීමේ මධ්‍යස්ථානයක් ලෙස ඉදිකෙරෙන පිටකොටුව, නොලේජ් පාර්ක් සංකීර්ණය ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ නිරීක්ෂණයට ඊයේ (06) ලක් කෙරිණි. මරදාන ආසන්නයේ පිහිටා ඇති අක්කර 25කින් සමන්විත ට්‍රිපෝලි මාර්කට් නැමැති පැරණි ගොඩනැඟිල්ල පිහිටි ස්ථානයේ මෙහි ඉදිකිරීම් කටයුතු සිදු කෙරෙන අතර එහි පළමු අදියර යටතේ මේ වන විට අක්කර 12ක ඉදිකිරීම් සිදු කර ඇත. මහින්ද චින්තන ඉදිරි දැක්මට අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආසියාවේ දැනුමේ කේන්ද්‍රස්ථානය බවට පත් කිරීමට සැලසුම් කර තිබෙන අතර වර්ෂ 2016 වන විට තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණ කර්මාන්තයෙන් ඩොලර් බිලියනයක අපනයන ආදායමක් ලබාගැනීමට බලාපොරොත්තු වේ. ඒ යටතේ නවීන පන්නයේ අපනයන පහසුකම් සහිත ව්‍යාපාර පර්යේෂණ ආයතන සහිත නගරයක් ලෙස මෙය සංවර්ධනය කෙරේ. විෂයානුබද්ධ ඉහළ අධ්‍යාපනය ලැබූවන් සඳහා රැකියා අවස්ථා පුළුල් කිරීම ඉන් අපේක්ෂා කෙරේ. දැනුම පදනම් කරගත් ව්‍යාපාරික ස්ථාන පිහිටුවීම සඳහා ලාබ ලැබීමේ චේතනාවකින් තොරව සමාගම් කිහිපයක්ද එක්ව කටයුතු කරන අතර එම සමාගම් සන්ධානය ට්‍රේස් යන නමින් හඳුන්වයි.
அறிவைப் பயன்படுத்தும் தொழில் துறைகளின் மத்திய நிலையமாக உருவாகிவரும் புறக்கோட்டை நிர்மாணிக்கப்படும் கைத்தொழில் நிலையமான ‘நொலேஜ் பார்க்’ கட்டிடத் தொகுதியை ஜனாதிபதி மஹிந்த ராஜபக்ஷ அவர்கள் நேற்று (ஆகஸ்ட் 6) பார்வையிட்டார். புறக்கோட்டைக்கு சமீபமாக 25 ஏக்கர் நிலப்பரப்பு கொண்ட திரிப்போலி மார்க்கட் என்றழைக்கப்படும் பிரதேசத்தில் இக்கட்டடத் தொகுதி உருவாக்கப்பட்டு வருகின்றது.
(Photos by: Nalin Hewapathirana)
Mark Weislogel
NASA’s go-to problem solver
Liquids in zero gravity don’t pour, don’t spill and don’t drip. But PSU mechanical and materials engineering professor and former NASA scientist Mark Weislogel found a way to make them behave.
An expert in fluid dynamics, Weislogal has designed numerous experiments performed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. He and his students used complex mathematics to design a coffee cup that allows liquids to be sipped instead of sucked from a tube. That’s great news for coffee-loving astronauts, and the science behind it has implications for space travel that are out of this world.
At Portland State University, we believe knowledge works best when it serves the community.
i spent some time searching around instructables for a cheap laptop stand and realized that this was all i really needed in the short term...maybe next week i will engineer something a little more functional
~ Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes. ~
I dedicated this picture for Val Spring. Her work is amazing and her personality is beyond beautiful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, Val.
This week’s quote is "What we know is not much, what we do not know is immense.", mis-attributed to the learned French philosopher and Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ.
Reportedly the last words of Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace, the great French mathematician and astronomer, were:
"Ce que nous connaissons est peu de chose, ce que nous ignorons est immense."
which translates in English as:
"What we know is not much. What we do not know is immense."
One of these boxes represents what I know, while the other represents what I do not know. I wonder if you will be able to work out which is my intention, and why. (Big clue: I like to be proactive.)
Quote 40 of 40.
Thanks to the people at PSC for organising and running this "40 quotes" project. It's been fun. I trust you enjoyed it, too.
Image from title page of "You and Your Union," ILGWU Education Department, 1935.
Blogged at: bughousesquare.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/as-we-grow-older-...
Six more of the books I've completed as part of the series of twenty-five. I have twenty-one of the books completed (as of today) with the other four two be finished by the end of the week. I have a few more pieces to figure out for the installation of the work. Things are going well so far.
A progress report about this project on my blog.
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IndustriALL PH Coordinator Ramon Certeza talks about the ILO Recommendation 204 during the Inter-Regional Knowledge Sharing on Child Labour and Working Conditions in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) held in Manila, Philippines from 28 to 30 May 2019. Experts and global actors join the 3-day forum to exchange knowledge, technologies, practices and challenges to put forward concrete solutions to address child labour and poor working conditions in the ASGM sector.
To learn more, visit bit.ly/asgm2019
Photo © ILO/G. Carreon
The work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/license/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/deed.en_US
"All truth and knowledge is important, but amidst the constant distractions of our daily lives, we must especially pay attention to increasing our gospel knowledge so we can understand how to apply gospel principles to our lives. As our gospel knowledge increases, we will begin to feel confident in our testimonies and be able to state: I know it.'" (Anne M. Dibbs). Model Kelsey Garry. (Photo by Karen Petitt)
My knowledge of the county where I spent the first 25 years of my life, is largely restricted what you could see from the main roads through it, or where Shreeves Coaches would do tours too. Therefore I know the A12 and 143 very well, but away from those, not so good.
I grew up in a household that did not own a car, I am the only one to have passed a driving test, so any exploration would have to be where there was a railway station nearby, or where a coach might call.
Before my current interest in churches, I would see signs pointing down leafy lanes towards the parish church, and I would not be tempted. I knew there was such a sign from the small stretch of dual carriageway near to Saxmundham.
Having been to Snape, I turned onto the A12 intending to go north, but instead turned west following the signs to Benhall.
Down a long, straight lane, lined with mature trees and carpeted with golden leaves that had just fallen: i reach the end and can see no church, but a hand painted sign points the way right, and a hundred yards away, hidden behind trees sits St Mary.
I like a church with a gallery; even better if is open, or accessible. All round a fine and tidy, well kept church, and despite only a minute drive from the main road, is a million miles away.
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One of the great things about being a harmless Suffolk eccentric is that you get to meet other harmless Suffolk eccentrics. I hadn't known Aidan Semmens very long, and Benhall was part of one of our first jaunts together. This site was on its first, fresh legs, and he was writing about churches for what in those days was still called, quaintly, Eastern Counties Newspapers. We would bounce ideas off each other to the advantage of both our work, and may one day even get round to writing that book we kept talking about. However, Benhall stalled us in our creative endeavours, because on that occasion we couldn't get into the church.
When I first wrote on this site about finding this church locked, in what was otherwise an area of open churches, I had a wry e-mail from the Archdeacon of Sudbury, telling me that, in fact, Benhall church was open daily from 9 am - 5 pm. However the door is heavy and some people find it difficult to open. The hand has to be turned to the right and the door pushed forward. Neither Aidan or I had ever laid claims to being macho, and so we enrolled on an intensive fitness programme at the local gym, limbering up to open stiff doors. But in fact it would be more than eight years before I came back to Benhall.
Benhall is one of those parishes bisected by the A12. Unhappily, this cuts the church off from its village centre, but both village and church are in rather lovely settings, St Mary being reached down a long, straight high-hedged lane from the busy road. I freewheeled along, enjoying the birdsong and the emerging sunshine as July stuttered into life. Soon, the noise of the traffic fell away behind me, but as I approached the church a lunatic dog erupted in the garden across the road. I dare say that I was the first stranger it had seen all day, but its slavering barking suggested that it thought I was definitely up to no good.
At first sight, St Mary is an entirely Victorian confection; the double-breasted east end consists of the original, repointed chancel, and a north transept and chancel aisle, both with 19th century windows. The style is similar to Somerton, across the county. The northern extensions were to contain an organ, vestry and schoolroom. On the eastern face of the original chancel, an internal memorial has been placed, rather ill-advisedly; the Victorians sometimes seem rather embarrassed by these, although they normally just banished them to the west end of the nave. Mortlock thought that the tower showed signs of being early, with late Saxon work at three of the corners; but, as he says, the 19th Century touch is so overwhelming elsewhere, there is no reason to think it original. It certainly doesn't look older than about 150 years. As I wandered around the church taking photographs, the dog kept up its hellish litany, verging on the apoplectic whenever I came back into view. I wondered if it did this for church services as well - if so, Benhall weddings must be fun. I found that by jumping up and down and waving my arms I could raise its anger to absolute fever pitch. However, reasoning that if it broke through the fence and rushed across the road, the smile would be on the other side of my face - if, indeed, I still had a face at all - I decided to curtail my amusement and have another go at that south door.
There is a substantial south porch, with the first inkling that this church is something rather interesting after all; a large, Norman doorway. It shows signs of being recut, but is in its original place, and is perhaps the clearest inclination of the date of the superstructure of the building. The door opened easily. The interior is clean, light and well-kept, a pleasing balance between old brick floors and early 19th century furnishings. This is essentially a Georgian interior, from the days of the Rector John Mitford, brother of the more famous Mary. The pre-ecclesiological features include a gallery, a double decker pulpit looking along the ranks of box pews, and a curious birdbath font on a stubby stem. The clear glass of the windows benefits the nave, filling it with a simple, restful light.
To step past the organ in the transept, and into the chancel, is to enter a part of the building with a quite different feel. Unfortunately, the fitted carpet makes a view of the church's brasses and floor slabs impossible - there are three sets of brasses to members of the Duke family, and Sam Mortlock was most impressed by them when he came here in the early 1990s. I don't know when the carpet was fitted, but it did occur to me that if I had bothered to come back to Benhall sooner then I would have seen them as well. The striking memorial on the north wall of the chancel is to another Duke, Sir Edward, who died in the 1730s. An antiquarian, he used the opportunity to record almost 150 years worth of his forebears, which must make him very popular with his own ancestors if any of them are genealogists.
Benhall church is a simple, restful place, off the beaten track and probably little-known. But I was glad I'd come back, and as I waved the dog a cheery goodbye, he whined and put his head between his paws, perhaps reasoning that he might have to wait some considerable time before he had any more fun.
Simon Knott, September 2008
Knowledge Capital is a center for the creation of new intellectual values through interaction and collaboration, and a core facility at Grand Front Osaka established by private companies, the multi-purpose complex of commercial facilities, offices, hotel and service apartments.
credit: Knowledge Capital
The Thirty-Fourth Session Session of WIPO's Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) took place in Geneva, Switzerland from June 12 to June 16, 2017.
Copyright: WIPO. Photo: Emmanuel Berrod. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO License.
An elderly Tibetan, sitting at a corner in a small monastery, reads a magazine using the light from the adjoining window. Shot on the way to the Kagyu monastery.
Bylekuppe, Karnataka, India
© Akshathkumar Shetty - All Rights Reserved. This image should not be reproduced, published, transmitted in any forum (even via e-mails/or upload to Orkut/or any other networking sites) or in print or in any other physical or electronic forum either in part or in whole without the explicit written consent from the copyright owner. Legal action will be initiated against any individual, organisation, institution, agency, publishing house, etc. who violate the Copyright laws including but not limited to those mentioned here and use the image for any commercial/non-commercial purposes.
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2007 was notable for me as I completed my Psychology degree. What now? All this knowledge in my head and on a shelf ...
Garrett Brown with a modern Steadicam arm mechanism.
For more on Garrett Brown, see:
» Garrett Brown: Inventing the Future -- And a Few Handy Gadgets
© Knowledge Society 2015. Photograph by Rick Stevens
The Knowledge Nation 100 luncheon – on 10 December at Doltone House in Sydney – celebrated the Knowledge Nation 100. The Knowledge Nation 100 are the rock stars of Australia’s new economy – the visionaries, intellects, founders and game changers building the industries and institutions that will underwrite the nation’s future prosperity.
The luncheon was addressed by the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP.
Linda George
Street-level research fights air pollution problem
Linda George’s phone lit up with calls from reporters and government officials when news broke earlier this year about high levels of toxic metals in a Portland neighborhood. Her detailed studies of urban air quality have made the Portland State environmental science professor a go-to source.
Now her expertise is being put to use in for an in-depth study of the city’s air pollution problems.
George is the lead scientist in a new, collaborative effort to test and track air quality at select locations in Portland. It’s a joint project, funded by PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions with matching support from the City of Portland and Multnomah County.
The results could have far-reaching impact, not only on how toxins are regulated in the region but also on overall public health.
"PSU's research will provide the kind of real-time, neighborhood-level analysis that is important for policymakers to consider as we move forward with future decisions," said Steve Novick, a Portland city commissioner. Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury called George’s work “vital to our public health agencies.”
George, who received her environmental sciences PhD from PSU in 1991, has found that sweet spot that helps define the university’s mission of serving the community: She focuses on basic research that has direct applications for improving quality of life in Portland and the region.
“She combines experience as a practitioner and as an academician,” says Robert Liberty, director of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions. “She cares a lot about community engagement and health, and that’s not true for a lot of scientists.”
Public attention has focused on Portland’s air quality after reports that high levels of arsenic and cadmium – potentially dangerous toxins – had been discovered in moss, air and soil in an area near a southeast Portland glass plant.
George, who has been working on air quality issues for three decades, says she’s not surprised that tests revealed obvious problems with the city’s air. “We’ve known this has been happening for a long time,” says George, who found high levels of air pollution on the east side of Interstate 5 several years ago. “Oregon has chosen not to do much about it. It was a disaster waiting to be discovered.”
For the new project, George will deploy her students to collect and analyze air samples in six locations around the Portland Metro region. She will be looking for “variables” that offer clues to why some areas of the city are more polluted than others and how metals disperse into the environment.
Wind direction? Topography? Tree cover?
Once you determine the variant, and what produced it, she says, “then you can look at how to mitigate the problem.”
She expects full results within two years. The findings could extend well beyond the six areas studied and prompt even more research on regional air quality, George says.
“Now there’s a lot more interest” in urban air quality, she says. “It’s going to lend itself to all sorts of other collaborations.”
At Portland State University, we believe knowledge works best when it serves the community.
On the fifth night of Navaratri, we venerate the Goddess Skanda Mata. She is the mother of Shivaanda MatSkanda, and holds Him in Her lap. It is not only Him She holds, She takes us all onto her lap and cares for us.
Four-armed and mounted on a lion, She is the Mother of all power, the Mother of all forces, and the Mother who gives the power to vanquish all negativity. She is an ocean of knowledge and helps us to nurture the divinity within.
paramahamsavishwananda.com
bhaktimarga.org
a third of my desk is covered in books. the other thirds in laptop and other in printer.
"The Reader" is a really good book. I bought it yesterday and finished in it 3 and a half hours.
erm... cheesy title. no memory cards were harmed in the making of this picture. the last statment was a completele lie. i might have just erased every picture before by accidentally reformating the memory card D; i should stay away from buttons i don't know. but apart from my lack of knowledge of technology -.-"
today was a rather drama filled day. after freaking out over a phone call that had just been an accident and having a friend have her relationship totally destroyed by an outside bystander by lunch we were wondering why boys didn't really have cooties and memories never disappeared.but it comes down to simple things, like your funny friends, that kiddo you joke around with that makes you smile even if its with a little guilt for fear of rebound (rebound scares us all) but its the little smiles the little poke and the sticking your toungue out when someone pokes your nosie that really makes your day. God gives you friends because theyre the little angles that are really there to make life better.
studying studying studying. economic growth models, geographic politics, and how to take over the world. its all harsh and greedy. happiness can be achieved by other things that the supreme dominance over the global market. i wonder how many of these people are alcoholics who have been divorced have shot some drugs up in their time and spent their money in gold latrines just because there is simply nothing more they can do with it.
i don't envy them.
i'd rather have the friend who says things with me at the same time and laughs synchronized with me, the friend that burst into mamma mia in the middle of a conversation just because it popped into her head, the friend who messes with you and calls you funny things because your short and its actually kinda funny. friends who tell you their life isn't amazing either and they'd rather be cuddled up with a box of chocolate and ice cream. i'd rather have those who rely on the little things to get them through the day no matter how much they want to cry.
I thank God for friends for laughs for those moments that make us feel broken and those who have the tape to fix it.
Open Knowledge Festival 2014. 15th to 17th of July at Kulturbrauerei in Berlin.
Attribution: Gregor Fischer, www.gfischer-photography.com/ 16.07.2014
From the autumn 2016 trip to Vietnam:
If ever there were a good way to finish up a trip, this particular Sunday in October would be it. Before arriving in Hanoi, I honestly had exceptionally low expectations. A bit like Saigon, if you are to go online and try to look up a list of places to visit – basically a tourist’s stock photography checklist, as it may be – you don’t find much that’s appealing. Well…I didn’t, anyway, and as a result, I had pretty low expectations for Hanoi.
The charm and beauty of Hanoi, however, isn’t in any one particular place. It’s in the experience of the entire city. (I’d say the same for Saigon, but multiply that a few times for Hanoi.) On this day in the Old Quarter in particular, I kept finding myself thinking, “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t be this lucky as a photographer…” Today ended up being mostly about people, with a little food and historical locations mixed in.
As I mentioned in the last set of posting, today would start off a bit sad with Junebug leaving for China a day before I would. So, we were checked out of our room by 6:00 in the morning or so. The breakfast at the Art Trendy was wonderful. Buffet with a mix of made-to-order omelets mixed in. Strong work, Art Trendy, strong work…
When June left, I really had nothing to do since it was still six in the morning and I was temporarily homeless as I had to switch hotels. So…I sat around the lobby for about two hours (possibly slightly awkward for the poor girls working there, but oh, well; I had to sit somewhere).
Around 8:00, I finally dragged my old bones out of the hotel and walked the five to ten minutes down the street to the Aquarius, where I politely asked them to hold my non-camera bag until I come back around 1:00 in the afternoon to check in.
After that, I was finally off with my cameras to enjoy an early Sunday morning in the bustling Old Quarter. On the street where the hotel is situated are a number of restaurants where locals were jammed in to enjoy noodles, steamed buns, and the like. It was wonderful to be among that crowd (though someone tried to scold me ever so slightly for taking pictures of people eating).
Since this was right next to St. Joseph’s Cathedral – and it was Sunday morning – I found my way back into the church where we crashed the wedding the afternoon before and realized that I almost got locked into Sunday mass while walking around taking pictures. So…I stayed. I prayed. And my prayer was answered when I realized the side doors and even the back door were open. (Ok…I didn’t really think I was locked in a church, but it did feel like it a little bit.)
Upon exiting the church, a handful of frames under my belt, I walked along the lovely streets photographing shops and people. At Caphe, I piggybacked on someone else’s photo shoot – it looked like they were doing a promo for the place, or possibly just a personal shoot for five women, though I have a feeling it was the former. At any rate, I was quite pleased with that little set and am presenting quite a few of those here, even if they’re a little redundant.
My ultimate goal with this wandering was to find my way to the Hanoi Hilton. Now, I’m not taking about the hotel chain, of course, but rather the prison that U.S. prisoners of war sarcastically called the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. (This is the prison where Senator John McCain was interred while a POW, and there are one or two pictures to that effect here.)
This prison has a particularly interesting history (and morbid since…well…it’s a prison). It’s about a hundred years old and was founded by the French colonialists around the turn of the 20th century. During the first 50 years of its history, the French imprisoned Vietnamese insurgents and those who wanted independence. In the eyes of the French…renegades (hence the imprisonment). In the eyes of the Vietnamese – especially the current government – patriots and national heroes. If they were truly freedom fighters, then I would probably side with the current government on that one.
The French even had a guillotine installed here and overcrowding was a major problem. There were plenty of escape attempts, and more were successful than you may think, which is a little peculiar.
After the battle of Bien Dien Phu and the ejection of the French from the north (and before the U.S. got involved in the south), the prison changed hands and was under control of Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam War, it became one of the main prisons for U.S. POWs, as I alluded to above.
The propaganda claims that the Vietcong were absolutely humane and decent with U.S. prisoners, allowing them to observe their religious rites (Christmas celebrations, etc.), allowed prisoners to smoke and enjoy leisure (board games, basketball, etc.), and claimed they were well-fed.
This is certainly how it’s presented in the prison/museum currently. If you were to go online, though, and try to find a contrary report, you would find that this was all coerced and staged to make it appear as if things were on the up and up. (For anyone curious, per my Vietnamese friends, the general education in Vietnam today is how terrible the French and U.S. were for colonizing and torturing the country and keeping it from its independence.)
So, what’s the truth of what really happened? Who knows? Outside of firsthand accounts, it’s impossible to know for certain and even then, memory can be a tricky thing. I tend to like to say the truth is always somewhere between two opposing viewpoints, no matter what the topic may be.
From an impartial and purely photographic point of view, the prison, currently a museum/memorial, is an interesting place to spend an hour or two. Some of the exhibits seem a bit cheesy, but some are quite tasteful and well done. There’s also an informational video. You’ll have to see this with a bit of imagination (the prison, that is), as at least half of it has been leveled for high rise buildings. At least there’s some tangible piece of it left to visit, including the main gate (Maison Centrale).
After about two hours here at the Hanoi Hilton, I walked over towards the Opera House to get a few daytime shots but, really, to get lunch at El Gaucho. I was looking forward to a proper steak. The prices were astronomical (though justifiable based on what I ate), though I just opted for a steak salad. It was so good I contemplated going back for dinner, but had other plans.
With a happy stomach, I went back to finally check in at the Aquarius Hotel and got my workout huffing up six flights of stairs each time I went out. I relaxed here for a few hours until 4:00 when a dear friend of mine came to town to see me.
Ngan and I had an ice cream at Baskin Robbins right in front of St. Joe’s before heading over to the Temple of Literature. This is a temple dedicated to education and, bless my soul, it’s a place where university graduates come for graduation pictures.
On this particular day – a warm, sunny, late Sunday afternoon – it was packed with college students. And it was beautiful to see that many people happy, full of hopes and dreams, and dressed in either cap and gown or traditional Vietnamese clothes. In short…I had a field day shooting for an hour here.
Around 5:00, Ngan had to head back to school, and I went back to my hotel. I had one more meeting. Hoa, who traveled around Thailand & Cambodia with me in May, flew back to see me this evening. She picked me up at 6:00 on her scooter and rode me all around Hanoi by evening.
She started by taking me to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (which I consider a lot more photogenic in its setting than the Great Gangster’s Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square). This one, at least, was in a parklike setting. At evening, it’s well-lit and you can find people relaxing in the grass in front of it. During the day, you can visit and there are quite a few buildings behind the mausoleum that you can also see.
After a few minutes here, Hoa took me by West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi, as I mentioned yesterday – and just drove me around for over an hour, it seemed. My impressions that Hanoi (even out of the Old Quarter) seemed to be a good place to live – though I’d be concerned about the air pollution – and people here seemed to be happy. Also…Vietnamese really love their coffee.
We finally returned to the Old Quarter for dinner at one of the famous restaurants she recommended and she treated me to a wonderful dinner. I can’t recall what we ate (the Vietnamese names of it, anyway), but it was nice.
After dinner, she drove me over towards the Opera House and then, finally, we stopped by Hoan Kiem Lake in the heart of the Quarter and walked around the lake. It was getting close to 10:00 by this time, and I wanted to get back to the hotel to get a few hours sleep before waking up for my early flight in the morning. Hoa came to the airport with me to see me off.
If ever there were a great way to finish a great trip, this was it. I absolutely loved Vietnam – honestly, a lot more than I imagined I would, even with every single person I know who’d ever come here saying what a fantastic country this is – and would gladly come back. This seems to be one of the kinds of countries that you would never get tired of or, if you did, it would sure take a long time. With that, I’ll bid goodbye to Vietnam for now with the hopes that I’ll someday return to this land of amazing food, landscapes, and people.
As always, thanks for dropping by and viewing these pictures. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments and I’ll answer as I have time.