JHJ - soft spots

A few months ago, one of our friends, Jo, found out that Hillary used to do a lot of screen printing. Well that was the start of a new idea! The girls went off and sourced material, paints, screens and all the bits and pieces necessary for the operation. Throw in a little H design flair and before you know it - enough screen-printed silk to cover 70 pillows!




The big idea is to sell these masterpieces at the Mekong Merchants Bazaar. This market is run every six months or so and is a chance to raise money for charity. Some of the money will be going to the relief program in Burma and the rest will be up to the girls - probably to our favourite orphanage at Go Vap.




JHJ I hear you say? Well, that's the new designer label that will send the feathers flying all over HCMC. Jo-Hilly-Jill - the three girls with paint on their hands!



The big sale is on in a few weeks, so I will need to man the stall with Jo since both H and the other J will be on R&R in Oz.

Dalat daze

Last weekend, we went to Dalat and relaxed for a couple of days in this cool town, which sits at the southern end of the Central Highlands. It was less than an hour by small plane and then 40 minutes by road to get to our villa.



The resort, the Evason Ana Mandara Villas Resort, was built about 80 years ago by the French. After 1975, the government took it over and used it for entertaining big-wigs. But it fell into disrepair (what a surprise) until it was bought by this Thai-based company.

There are at least 12 villas spread across a hilltop overlooking the city. Each villa has 4 - 6 self-contained 'hotel' rooms. Quite old-worldy, but very comfortable. And surounded by pines and beautiful gum trees!



The restaurant is just a stroll away from the villa and the cooking is ooh soo french. The courtyard was great for breakfast, while the table by the fire on Saturday night was all ours. It was amazing to be sitting by a fire in Vietnam and not be watching someone cooking non-descript meat. It was actually that cool up there in the evening!

The pool was a nicely heated 29 degrees.





Despite the lure of the restaurant, we did manage to see some of the countryside. We met up with a couple of blokes offering tours on the back of their motor bikes, so off we went. Four hours of winding roads and visiting pagodas, farms, silk factories and mushroomed basements.

The riding was great fun, but next time we will find the bigger bikes run by a group of tour guides called the Easy Riders.




We saw silk from worm to scarf. We couldn't resist buying a scarf and bag from the girls at a shop near the Laughing Budda.





On Sunday morning, we visited Cho Dalat - the market in the middle of town. Bought some fruit but decided to head back to find lunch.



Back in the airport at HCMC, we bumped into a well-known bluesy, rock'n'roll gituarist musician named Curtis King. I previously met Curtis at the 'Sax n Art' Jazz Club in HCMC (yes, the same one that saw Paddo's bloody fingers beating the stringing a few weeks back) last year. Auscham also had his band play at the Business Awards last year. He told us that he is now travelling to Dalat every weekend where he is living - "been dreaming of escaping the heat of the city for years". He still has to work in town, but he can be heard playing every once in awhile at a small pub in cool Dalat. Sounds like a plan.

War!

Last Sunday we found ourselves at Cu Chi, about 1.5 hours drive out of town. Normally people head out there to go through the infamous tunnels and play with real guns, but that was not our aim.



Our destination was the animal rescue shelter that is run by a non-profit organisation called 'Wildlife At Risk' - WAR!! This group is dedicated to trying to save many of the country's endangered species from extinction. And with enemies like habitat loss, hunting, pollution and, above all, an illegal wildlife trade, the animals and WAR have quite a battle on their hands.



So we joined a group of 20 people that were organised by our favourite chamber of commerce, rolled up the sleeves and helped dig, paint, garden and attend to animal cages.

But above all, we met the staff and learnt a lot about their efforts and why its is so important.

This strange armadillo-like creature is called a Pangolin. The other strange looking creature is Simon, a fun-loving englishman that is absolutely passionate about what he does here.

Pangolins are also known as scaly anteaters because their body is protected by a scaly armour and they love to feed on ants and termites. They are an amazing animal that would prefer to be on its own. Unfortunately they are being wiped out for their exotic meat and Chinese medicine!



Go visit http://www.wildlifeatrisk.org/index.php?lang=en to find out more. (Oh, and I stole this photo of thier Grey Langur)

Smile!

This weekend we went to an annual ball that raises money for kids like this gorgeous little one.

Operation Smile was set up by two American doctors in 1982. They had traveled to the Philippines with other medical volunteers to help children with cleft lips and cleft palates. And after seeing just how many children needed help - they got involved. In fact, they got realy involved, to the extent that Operation Smile now operates in Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gaza Strip/West Bank, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, Venezuela....

...and Vietnam.

Over the years more than 100,000 children and young adults have been helped - that's involved.



The ball was held at the Park Hyatt, who put up the grand ballroom for nicks. We had missed out on this event last year, but made sure that we were with the mates this time around.



We had popped into the tailor the week before and got blow flies for all the lads - black with pink polka dots went down a treat (and only 30,000 dong a piece!). We were looking good and the girls were babes.



But the night was not about us - it was about raising money for the kids. They run a silent auction of lots of art and photography and also a live auction of paintings donated by several local artists.

H had decided to buy a particular painting done by a Vietnamese artist that she knows. But when the time had come to bid, her $1000 was totally swamped by a local who's who (Mr Khai of Khai Silk fame - another story some time) that decided he liked it too. He casually stuck up three fingers, thus trebling her bid. Good tactic - us novices were blown out of the water and he walked away with a steal! Next time Khai.



In the end, we did get a beautiful photo from the silent auction which will be a nice momento of a fun, but special night.



Next year, H is going to screen print bow ties and assorted stuff adorned with smiley faces to raise even more dosh for this good cause.

And the night also made us think more about our favourite orphan, Nhat, and the hydrcephalus kids like him, that we hope to help in some long term way.....

Keep smiling!