The Continental Palace....where Graham Greene wrote the Quiet American. The new Italian owners ruined it walled in the ground floor, open porch where you could watch pretty girls bicycle by in their Ao Dais on the way to school while you had a cold drink.
***********************
The carts here are owned by the individuals who are taking a nap (12 to 2) in front of the coffee shop that is only open mornings. They go down streets calling out what they are willing to buy since nothing is wasted in Vietnam. You sort whatever you are finished with into different piles such as cardboard, metal, glass etcetera and when the appropriate person comes down your street, you have a buyer.
Live and let live. This is the one male from the group above who evidently didn't want to nap alongside the women, so laid down in front of the hotel. No one will say a word to him.
Two shots above from the last time I went to Saigon in 2016 and 2017 for five months.
*************************
Can you hear the snores?
The vast majority of animals spend a great amount of time napping...why not humans?
Studies overwhelmingly confirm the many virtues of a mid-day snooze, and yet as workplace cultures homogenize around the world and people increasingly become little more than tiny cogs whirring, whirring, whirring in an insomniac widget machine churning out useless nodules and niblets, the nap is becoming a lost art.Still, Vietnam's nap culture remains strong. Even if you aren't given a chance to curl up beneath your desk at noon for a satisfying sliver of sleep, you have certainly had to awake a tạp hóa worker, seen a construction worker catching some shut-eye on the job site, or been infuriated by banks and businesses closing every afternoon for company-approved siestas.
These photos taken in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and collected by Flickr legend manhhai showcase just how endemic the habit is on the streets here. Have a peek and then grab a pillow. You deserve a nap!
More @ Saigoneer
No comments:
Post a Comment