Monthly Archives: March 2007

It is difficult to write a brief summary of our time in Viet Nam and what we observed and experienced. There are very strong contradictions in the relationship between people and the environment. Viet Nam is developing rapidly. The negative … Continue reading →

Today we hired a boat, with a boat driver and local guide, from the hotel. The plan was to travel through some of the canals, visit a durian tree farmer on one of the islands and then to a floating … Continue reading →

Given the breakdown with assistance we were now in a situation of having committed to the expense of a car with driver and guide, but no plan ahead of us. Doing his best to help us the guide had made … Continue reading →

What initially held a lot of promise became yet another challenge to us, particularly myself. Basically a counterpart of our good Thai friends offered to assist with contacts on the Mekong but ultimately failed to provide any useful assistance. So … Continue reading →

Today was perhaps one of the most challenging days we’ve had. With only one more week in Viet Nam we are working as hard as we can to get out and talk to grassroots people. We organized a van and … Continue reading →

We managed to do a few things today, with mixed success.  In the morning Mr Tu, our contact here in Hue, took us to a small community who are growing vegetables and flowers communally for the local market.  It was … Continue reading →

Today we drove out to Tan Cuong Commune, one of the main green tea growing areas of Thai Nguyen Province. We went to meet with Mr Kim, leader of a group of 19 organic growers. These growers have moved to organic production … Continue reading →

At last, the sort of day I’ve been waiting for since we arrived in Viet Nam a week ago. Mao collected us at 8.30 am with the intention of taking us out to the main tea growing area near Thai … Continue reading →