Bac Ha markets and others

I love to look, but do feel rather shy about taking photographs of people wth out their permission- to me it is a real invasion of their privacy.

Hence you don't get many pics of where I live, even though every day it is so remarkable just going up to the market.
One way I get around this delima
is to just have the camera in my hand as I walk and click away or take pics of people I am with and the surroundings. The vista and the long shot also don't feel like such an invasion....here is a selection of recent days...they do also give you a feel of the Kalidascope of experiences we have had!

This has been a fantastic tour for me, our group has cruised along very comfortably together, we have laughed and joked and teased our local guides mercilessly....it has really refreshed me and reved up my enthusiasm for what I do.

I put a lot of effort into planning and thinking about what to include in tours and the information I want to share, which place to go, what it is I respond to in a place and think might be interesting to others etc, etc, etc and to share that, then notice people noticing the details I liked is very satisfying.

The God's or synchronicity [call it waht you like]also has a big part to play as I am always open to weaving in new experiences as they evolve.

Feels a little lonely this morning...my ladies are all heading off in different directions and I have to head off to the airport...but there is always a silver lining to the clouds, Parveen is at home waiting for me to arrive...

bit scared to get home in one way, the next month will be huge; getting ready for teaching in UK and a tour to Morocco - so much to organize- that silver lining will be the wonderful locations my office will be situated in for a while.

bye

Fi

Sapa- Back H'Mong

Our glass is definitely half full, and I am having a wonderful time with a group of ladies who really apreciate that about life....
we have been wandering around, stitching, looking, eating [Vietnam has the most delicious, fresh, tasty cuisine- suited to any palate and in our quest for cultural insight I think we have all got a little more cuddly!]

Balck H'mong costume- indigo dyed, burnshed and then the extraudinary stitched panels are added, one of our ladies playing dress-ups

Mung our guide and Pi an old friend started us off on stitching our own panels...getting there slowly

just up the road...

After a while superlatives just are not enough, life is SSSSSSSSSSSSSooooooooooooooo beautiful and fun

Dragon fruit- as a bunch of colour for you!

enjoy Fiona

Textiles in Vietnam, another day in the office

We have been having a lovely time wandering around in Vietnam, a great group, lots of laughs and lots of stitches and lots of admiring wonderful stitched treasures.
I rang Praveen the other day to touch base...he was having a hard day in his part of our office- the water pump at the hotel has broken and is proving rather difficult to fix....sweet man he was happy to hear my day was such as buzz.


Only problems we have had is coping with overwhelm sometimes with so much wonderful stuff to admire.
Here is one of the wonderful languers at the CucPhong Endangered Primate Rescue Centre and National Park http://www.primatecenter.org/ ....
the old french man is what I always think of- they are doing a remarkable job at this park rescuing endangered primates, unfortuneately Vietnam suffers from poachers who hunter these animals to sell.
This rescued ones regain their health and can be released into protected areas with the keepers waiting for the day when they can be safe in the wild.


We have stitched with ladies from another of different ethnic minorities...much fun, have learnt some new trocks and a whole lot of respect for their great skills

A view of the village we stayed with a local family and stitched, great jaquard weaving in the area as well...and finally I have a lead on a village that is accessable to see batik resist and indigo dyeing....can't wait to visit next time.

OHH the difficulty of choice

we all have one of these scarves as a momento

Cooking class started with picking our own fresh herbs and vegies from the garden before we created a delicious, stomach bursting feast....all of us had eyes bigger than our bellies trying to do justice to the spread we learnt how to cook....yummmmmmmmmmmm

Hanoi- a Textile Tour

Hello from Hanoi , I am so lucky to be here again visiting Vietnam with a lovely group of ladies all suffering the same addiction as me- textiles. We have visited the amazing Museum of Ethnology and it is wonderful to have people to drool in tandem with over the exhibits!

Everyone gets it when you become a little gagger over different pieces...we are leaving Hanoi today to vsist an area that is so gorgeous in a landscape sense and to sit with some of the finest embroiderers you could find to see if we can approach their skills with a needle- should give them a good laugh at least!
Blogger is being weird about uplaoding pics so I leave you with this gorgeous cloud to daydream on from the Temple of Literature
bye
Fiona

Happy Holi!!

Happy Holi!!

Holi is a Hindu Festival that celebrates the triump of Good over evil, the overcoming of death, similar to the Christan stories celebrated at Easter and is held at a similar time, spring time....where the Earth has survived the darkness of winter.
The way Hindus celebrate Holi is a little different to Easter.
first there is the day for visiting the temple and the offering of prayers, then comes the victory celebration and the throwing of coloured powders and flower scented waters...
so much fun!!
The girls [our volunteers Tessa, my ex-student and Larissa- Praveen and I have really enjoyed having them stay and talk of them as our girls]
and I joined Ramsingh to visit some of the children of the Shakti Project and play colours before we went to our hotel to play with all the people, young and old of our neighbourhood.
Praveen was worried we would get attacked if we walked tghrough the streets so sent a friend in a car to ferry us around- very thoughtful as we would have been absoutley soaked if we were out and about.
Here we are, ealry in the piece, just a little coloured...Larissa has been sick but managed to put in a big effort for this special day.
Ramsingh at Pinkie, Priya and Divia's house...can you see the coloured dust flying?

Some of our children and our girls...

Happy Holi!!

Such a good day...and then that night I was setting out for a textile tour in Vietnam, that is when I discovered the pink colour is especially hard to get out....I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed...by the time I got to Hanoi my face just looked like I had been in the sun to long!

my hands and nails and toes are still rather bright...oh well!

that is Indian life for you...back home it would have been normal.

visitors!!

First, I would like to say a big thank you to the people who have written just recently with kind words about my blog and babbling on, thank you, it is lovely having visitors!

This pic is of Tessa and her friend Larissa 2 more visitors I am lucky enough to have. Tessa was a student of mine the year she was 10, I would have described her as a young lady at that age, never a girl and here she is on my rooftop, a young lady in fact!
Just finished high school and here volunteering at Shakti whilst on her fist big adventure overseas, before back to Uni.
It is so lovely to see her, we have had fun hanging out the last few days, I have initiated them into catching the bus to the market in Ajmer, wandering around town and avoiding being hassled by the hawkers, finding things in Indian shops- everything looks so different even sending them up the road for milk is a mystery tour until you know what to look for!!
I am finding such pleasure in getting to know her again, and a chance to see the person she has grown into...teaching in the Steiner/ Waldorf system you spend a lot of time with your students and get to know them well, I still see a lot of mine, and it is really a joyous moment to know them and see them growing into wonderful young people.


Kunal, is now officially my PA!!, he has taken over a lot of the paperwork associated with Creative Arts Safaris for me, which I really appreciate. I seem to be dyslexic with dates...everything else I am fast and clear with but dates I am always jumbling I feel so much more relaxed knowing Kunal will proff dates and do all the filing and assembling print outs for the tours.
He also acts as a calendar, reminding me of the day to do things- once again I am fine if I know it is Wednesday I have to do something but if it is on the 4th- it goes straight out of my mind? Weird, probably also nreve racking when organizing things for others.
He is happy he likes his job...this is him at work, he also looks after reception at our hotel.
we have wireless internet so he was telling me how well it all works, he can sit in the front step to do the filing AND keep an eye on the front gate so passing cows don't come in and raid our garden!!
Kunal and Praveen going to get new crates of fizzy for the restaurant, a job I do not volunteer to help with!