Results for Prize Draw June 2008

Jax Williams and Maria Lewis join the list of past winners.

The prize draw ending 1st June 2008 was won by Jax Williams from Little Torrington, Exeter and Maria Lewis from Allerton, Bradford. The former won for being the first to enter choosing what subsequently proved to be the favourite choice in the round and the latter for simply having her number come up in the random number draw after all duplicate and otherwise spoiled entries were removed from the tally.

The next round starts immediately and the draw will take place on the 1st July 2008. So if you haven't entered before here's your chance to win a lantern from Indochine's stock range of shapes and colours. And if you have entered before, feel free to have another go. The last round attracted 235 entries so the odds aren't that bad.

A History of Laos

Martin Stuart Fox

'The author is an Australian who covered the second Indochina War as a foreign correspondent. Insight into what really went on from an inside point of view.' Jan Lander

A Dragon Apparent: Travels in Cambodia

Norman Lewis

"This was a very interesting read... back to the times before commercialism took over these areas. Extremely readable and made me want to find out more" Jan Lander

The Killing Fields [1984] 15 DVD

This harrowing but rewarding 1984 drama concerns the real-life relationship between New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg and his Cambodian assistant Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), the latter left at the mercy of the Khmer Rouge after Schanberg--who chose to stay after American evacuation but was booted out--failed to get him safe passage. Filmmaker Roland Joff³, previously a documentarist, made his feature debut with this account of Dith's rocky survival in the ensuing madness of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal campaign. The script of The Killing Fields spends some time with Schanberg's feelings of guilt after the fact, but most of the movie is a shattering re-creation of hell on Earth. The late Haing S. Ngor--a real-life doctor who had never acted before and who lived through the events depicted by Joff³--is outstanding, and he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Oscars also went to cinematographer Chris Menges and editor Jim Clark. --Tom Keogh

Apocalypse Now (redux) DVD

Following the example set by his old pals Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola has revisited a classic that no one ever thought needed enhancement and produced Apocalypse Now Redux, a remastered and extended version of his hallucinogenic Vietnam nightmare that adds some 50 minutes of extra material. On the plus side, certain extended sequences--such as Kilgore's bombing-cum-surfing raid and the final battle of nerves between Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando--add greater depth to our appreciation of the film. On the debit side, the lengthy French plantation interlude and the squalid fate of the Playboy bunnies simply underscore what we already know about war and hell and the depressing futility of it all.

Cyclo [1996] 18 VHS

The Cyclo Boy lives honestly and works hard to survive in the backstreets of Ho Chi Minh City. His life takes a downturn when he is mugged and drawn into the world of organised crime. Vietnamese dialogue with subtitles.

"Taxi Driver meets the most amazing colourist painting."

Buy from Amazon, Cyclo new and used from £7.00

Three Seasons [1999] VHS

Through the lives of four ordinary people, the hopes and fears of a nation are highlighted emphasising the differences between the old traditions and modern American influences in the 'new' Vietnam. Vietnamese dialogue, English subtitles..

Derailed in Uncle Ho's Victory Garden - Tim Page cover

Tim Page

Follows Page's odyssey - 20 years after the liberation of Vietnam - through the land that dominated his life as a war photographer. His job used to be to record the horror, now he can tell of the country's supreme beauty, and mourn the agony of the killing fields.

The Mekong

Milton Osborne

The Mekong is one of the world's great rivers, and by far the largest in Southeast Asia. Empires have risen and fallen in the lands through which the Mekong flows and it has been linked to remarkable adventure and exploration as well as war and massacre. Now that Indochina is at peace, new dangers threaten the river's future.

Colloquial Cambodian

David Smyth

A guide to contemporary Cambodian with easy-to-follow lessons. The book contains an English-Cambodian and Cambodian-English glossary.

The Magic of the Mekong

Julie Sarasin (Photographer)

This is a 5000-kilometre photographic odyssey along one of the world's greatest rivers, stretching from the plateau of Tibet to the South China Sea. The author shares with readers her experiences of the extremes of acommodation, weather and environment and the physical demands of travelling in the region. Two hundred and thirty colour photographs capture the diverse panorama of life in six nations.

Culture Shock! Vietnam

Claire Ellis

A look at the customs, etiquette, culture and traditions of Vietnam for those visiting the country. A new title from the CULTURE SHOCK! series.

Red Lights and Green Lizards: a Cambodian adventure

Liz Anderson

Having spent several months in Cambodia I wanted to read an up to date account of other peoples' experiences in this fascinating country. I was most pleased to find this book: an account of a doctor couple's two year period as volunteers with VSO in the early 90s. Most other literature on Cambodia relates to the Pol Pot regime and the immediate aftermath. Liz Anderson, a GP, and her gynecologist husband were not quite ready to retire and wanted a change for their last few years as practising doctors. So they contacted VSO and were offered a two year placement in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. The book follows the author's experiences of her time as a doctor in PP, and recounts the highs and the lows experienced. From the day she started right up until their leaving party it's all chronicled and well-written. It also includes an excellent chapter on the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge explaining the main points well without going into too much political detail. Very easy to understand! The book was sad, amusing and most informative and left me feeling very envious of the Andersons, as they achieved so much in terms of friendships with fellow expats, colleagues, locals and patients, and their achievements as doctors were amazing, yet the author was most modest about them. I would recommend this book to anyone and is a must if you are interested in the Cambodian way of life, or you're interested in being an overseas volunteer whether or not be in the field of medicine. A most refreshing change from the usual tourist guidebook and the Khmer Rouge era of the late 70's. (Steve Simmons)

River of Time

John Swain

Between 1970 and 1975 Jon Swain, the English journalist portrayed in David Puttnam's film, "The Killing Fields", lived in the lands of the Mekong river. This is his account of those years, and the way in which the tumultuous events affected his perceptions of life and death as Europe never could. He also describes the beauty of the Mekong landscape - the villages along its banks, surrounded by mangoes, bananas and coconuts, and the exquisite women, the odours of opium, and the region's other face - that of violence and corruption.

Three moons in Vietnam: A Haphazard Journey by Boat and Bicycle

Maria Coffey

Having lived and worked in Vietnam, then travelled the length of the country I was drawn to this book to see if it reflected my own experiences. Maria Coffey and here husband did their travelling the hard way, by boat with locals and cycling up, and along, the hazardous highways. The text is rich in the sights, sounds and smells of the country and its people and provided me with a potent reminder of my days in the country. (Richard Marron)

Vietnam Blues

Music and Songs of Minorities, Vietnam

Tales from Vietnam

Traditional music of Vietnam

Music of Vietnam - vol.1

Good Morning Vietnam

After several flops, Good Morning, Vietnam was the movie that turned Robin Williams from the popular alien of TV's Mork and Mindy into a cinema superstar. Applying a comic touch to the Vietnam conflict in the tradition of M*A*S*H and its treatment of the Korean War, the movie capitalised on Williams's fast-talking improvisation and mimicry by casting him as a madcap DJ. In a novel twist which predates Reservoir Dogs soundtrack dialogue extracts by five years, the album is presented as an Adrian Cronauer radio show, mixing seven clips of Williams's brilliant monologues with a dozen classic tracks which collectively define the era. From "Nowhere To Run" by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, through Beach Boys' "The Warmth Of The Sun" and "I Get Around", "Sugar And Spice" by The Searchers and "Game Of Love" by Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, 60s pop was rarely better than this.

The Sorrow of War

Bao Ninh

This is the semi-autobiographical account of a soldier's experiences. The hero of the story, Kien, is a captain. After 10 years of war and months as an MIA body-collector, Kien suffers a nervous breakdown in Hanoi as he tries to re-establish a relationship with his former sweetheart.

Music through the dark

Bree Lafreniere

A record of the Cambodian soul, taking readers into the heart of a horrifying tragedy - one that claimed the lives of Daran Kravanh's parents and seven siblings and as many as three million other Cambodians. Daran's talent for playing the accordion saved his own life.

The Quiet American

Graham Greene

Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious "Third Force". As his naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch.

Novel without a name

Duong Thu Huong

In 1991, after sending abroad a manuscript of her Novel Without a Name - the first novel by a northern veteran to chronicle wide spread disillusionment with the war effort and party leadership, Huong was imprisoned for seven months without trial.

This is a piercing and unfogettable tale of the horror and spiritual weariness of war narrated by Quan, a North Vietnamese soldier of the people, who joined the army at the age of eighteen full of idealism for the Communist Party and its cause of national liberation.

'An extraordinary and profoundly tragic novel... it is Duong Thu Huong's vision and its resonant imagery that makes this book a work of art' Boston Sunday Globe

Paradise of the Blind

Duong Thu Huong

Duong Thu Huong is a veteran who spent ten years in the tunnels and air raid shelters of central Vietnam, the most heavily bomber area of her country. Huong emerged after the Vietnam war as one of the most widely read and celebrated novelists of her generation. But when her best selling novel Paradise of the Blind scandalized the party authorities in 1988 by depicting the disastrous, maoist style 1953-1956 land reform, Huong was publicly criticised and the work suddenly withdrawn from circulation. Again, like her hero, Duong Thu Huong found herself transformed overnight from patriot to pariah.Huong has not been allowed to publish any of her books in Vietnam since then.

The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family

Mai Elliott

Charting the lives of four generations of her family, the author traces her family's journey through tumultuous change, exploring different strands of Vietnamese history. It begins with her great-grandfather who rose from rural poverty to become an influential mandarin. She tells the reader of childhood hours in her grandmother's silk shop, and of hiding while French troops torched her village, watching blossoms torn by fire from the trees flutter "like hundreds of butterflies" overhead. She reveals the agonizing choices that split Vietnamese families: her eldest sister left her staunchly anti-communist home to join the Viet Minh, and spent months sleeping with her infant son in jungle camps, fearing air raids by day and tigers by night. And she follows several family members through the last, desperate hours of the fall of Saigon, including one nephew who tried to escape by grabbing the skid of a departing American helicopter.

Patpong

Nick Nostitz (Photographer)

Not so much "Around the World in 80 Lays" more a jaw-dropping insight into a round-the-clock business culture where anything is possible and where all major credit cards are accepted. Purporting to be more than just a voyeur's wet dream, this is a portrait of an extraordinary way of life, a study of people and places handled with sensitivity that aims to add to the sexploitation debate. There may be a recherche allure to the hookers turning tricks in go-go bars and the weird twilight world of the transexuals, but they are just bit-part players in a greater drama - a shifting world of illusion and reality, captured by the camera.

Ramayana

Krishna Dharma

This is a novelisation of the classic. It contains all the essential narrative of the original Sanskrit poem, but written in a contemporary style. Whilst adhering closely to the original, I have tried to make it as readable as possible, using the techniques of character development and dramatisation to draw the reader into the action. By weaving in other spiritual commentaries on this sacred text, I have also tried to offer the reader the benefit of the wisdom of India's seers and sages. As I am sure you will discover when your read the book, that wisdom is as relevant in today's stressful world as it was thousands of years ago, when it was first written.

The author, Krishna Dharma

Hello my big honey: Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews

Dave Walker (Compiler), Richard S. Ehrlich (Compiler)

TIME magazine hailed its interviews, documentation and investigative journalism as "...an intimate portrait..." of Bangkok's West-meets-East sex industry and added, "Does love conquer poverty, cultural barriers and the fear of AIDS? Sometimes..." Far Eastern Economic Review magazine said it uncovered a "Freudian whirlpool of sexual fantasies and frustration, of damaged egos and haunting super-egos, of dreams of pure love and acts of cold calculation, and a milieu of cross-cultural mayhem." The newest Lonely Planet Guide to Thailand, and the newest Lonely Planet Guide to Bangkok, both recommend this book in their "Culture and Society" section.

Huy and Vinh's Day

Jim Holmes

This series of photographic information books concentrates on the daily lives and experiences of children in different countries around the world. Each book focuses on a particular child's day: from waking up, through breakfast, going to school, learning, travelling home, playing and getting ready for bed. Huy and Vinh are twins.

They start their day with breakfast at the street stall outside the school gates. Lessons start early in Danang, but they are already looking forward to later when they plan crab fishing at the beach and a trip to the local ice-cream shop.

Vietnam: The Culture

Bobbie Kalman

A title from the LANDS, PEOPLES AND CULTURES series which looks at the inhabitants of Vietnam. Introduces their families, homes, education, language and food, with colour photographs providing an insight into the lives of small highland tribes and ethnic Chinese.

Shadows and Wind

Robert Templer

Images of the Vietnam War have proved to be among the most enduring of this century - the naked girl fleeing a napalm attack, bodies lying in the ditches of My Lai. These images and the subsequent myths that have surrounded Vietnam have stifled changes in the way it is seen. For many Vietnam remains a war, not a country. SHADOWS AND WIND sets the record right and underlines the fact that life in Vietnam did not end when the helicopters left.

The theme of SHADOWS AND WIND will be the Vietnamese identity, how it has re-emerged in recent years not as a violent force but one that has sustained a country and more importantly sustained individuals. Chapters cover a broad series of topics: literature, history art and architecture, politics, religion, food, the foreign perception of Vietnam, the Vietnamese perception of foreigners, an emerging popular culture that delights in beauty contests and pompadoured magicians, the Vietnamese overseas and their role in their home country, propaganda and government control and the reaction to that, the lingering mythology of the war and the changing Vietnamese perception of the conflict.

Cham Art

Emmanuel Guillon

The art of Champa (central and southern Vietnam) thrived from the 2nd to the 9th centuries. It consists chiefly of Hindi and Buddhist deities, carved in high relief from sandstone. This book describes some 100 major sculptures housed in the Da Nang Museum and also provides a historical overview.

A bright and Shining Lie

Neil Sheehan

Amazon.co.uk Review This passionate, epic account of the Vietnam War centres on Lt Col John Paul Vann, whose story illuminates America's failures and disillusionment in Southeast Asia. Vann was a field adviser to the army when American involvement was just beginning. He quickly became appalled at the corruption of the South Vietnamese regime, their incompetence in fighting the Communists and their brutal alienation of their own people. Finding his superiors too blinded by political lies to understand that the war was being thrown away, he secretly briefed reporters on what was really happening. One of those reporters was Neil Sheehan. This definitive exposition on why America lost the war won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1989.

Vietnam Inc.

Philip Jones Griffiths (Photographer), Noam Chomsky

First published in 1971, Philip Jones Griffiths' account of the Vietnamese War was the outcome of three years' reporting and is a detailed survey of the conflict. Showing us the true horrors of the war as well as offering a study of Vietnamese folk life, the author argues against the de-humanizing power of technology and highlights the arrogance and hypocrisy of American imperialistic attitudes. This new edition is a recreation of the original with Philip Jones Griffiths' personal layouts and commentaries. There is a foreword by Noam Chomsky, who was profoundly affected by the book when it was originally published.

Anatomy of War

Gabriel Kolko

This work covers the difficult story of the United States' intervention with the yet more complicated internal dynamic of the Vietnamese Revolution. It goes beyond the military, political and economic aspects of the war to explore in-depth causative factors leading to the end result.

Voices from S-21

David Chandler

This text examines the Khmer Rouge phenomenon by focusing on one of its key institutions, the secret prison outside Phnom Penh known by the code name "S-21". More than a chronicle of the Khmer Rouge barbarism it is an examination of the psychological dimension of state-sponsored terrorism.

Dispatches

Michael Herr

Amazon.co.uk Review If you've seen the movies Apocalypse Now and Platoon, in whose scripts Michael Herr had a hand, you have a pretty good idea of Herr's take on Vietnam: a hallucinatory mess, the confluence of John Wayne and LSD. Dispatches reports remarkable front-line encounters with an acid-dazed infantryman who can't wait to get back into the field and add Viet Cong kills to his long list ("I just can't hack it back in the World", he says); with a helicopter door gunner who fires indiscriminately into crowds of civilians; with daredevil photojournalist Sean Flynn, son of Errol, who disappeared somewhere inside Cambodia. Although Herr has admitted that parts of his book are fictional, this is meaty, essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Vietnam.

Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia. Reprinted October 2002.

William Shawcross

Good to see it is available once again. My dog-eared copy was bought from a street vendor in Ho Chi Minh City and lost in Hanoi before I was able to finish it. So I'm particularly glad to be able to get hold of a new copy. Brilliant book.(David).

Brother Number One: A Political Biography

David P. Chandler

In the tragic recent history of Cambodia - a past scarred by a long occupation by Vietnamese forces and by the preceding three-year reign of terror by the brutal Khmer Rouge - no figure looms larger or more ominously than that of Pol Pot. As secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) from 1962 and as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea (DK), he was widely blamed for trying to destroy Cambodian society by implementing policies whose effects were genocidal. Based on interviews and on a wide range of sources in English, Cambodian, and French, this study seeks to cast light on the ideas and behaviour of this enigmatic man and his entourage against the background of post-World War II events, and to provide an understanding of this horrific, pivotal period of Cambodian history.

Angkor

Claude Jacques, Michael Freeman (Photographer)

This pictorial record celebrates the cities and temples of Angkor in Southeast Asia. Ever since explorer and naturalist Henri Mouhot rediscovered the centre of Khmer civilization in Cambodia over a hundred years ago, the buildings, which date from the 9th to the 13th century, have become a source of great interest. Each of the significant monuments is illustrated, including the Angkor Wat itself, and the overgrown 13th-century temples of Ta Prohm and Preah Kahn.

Tim Page's Nam

Tim Page (Photographer), William Shawcross (Introduction)

"This book is an excellent collection of Tim Pages photographs, most have been seen before in other formats and have been widely used. The photography is excellent and brings across the human face of war like very few photographers can. Can't say it enough - Excellent." Amazon reviewer

Cambodia : Report from a Stricken Land

Henry Kamm

"Kamm vividly communicates the pain and the pathos of the Cambodian people as they have been used and misused both as pawns in larger geopolitical struggles by Thailand, Viet Nam, China, the former Soviet Union, and, sadly, the United States as well as their internal political leaders- including the current batch of squabbling, feuding leaders obsessed with power and the perquisites of power while the pressing needs of the masses of the Cambodian people go abegging." Amazon reviewer

The Girl in the Picture: The Remarkable Story of Vietnam's Most Famous Casualty

Denise Chong

On 8 June 1972, nine-year-old Kim Phuc, severely burned by napalm, ran from her burning village and into the eye of history. Her photograph, seen around the world, helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War and is one of a handful of images that remain branded in the public consciousness. This book is the story of how that photograph came to be - but also of what happened to Kim Phuc after it was taken. It opens up to readers an unknown world - the world of Vietnam after the US army left. Kim became a pawn in the Communist regime's propaganda campaign, even as her own family fought a losing battle to support itself in a physically and economically devastated country, now plagued with corruption. Kim's recovery and rehabilitation from her terrible wounds was long and arduous and, after years of manipulation by Vietnamese officials, she made a dramatic escape to Canada, where she now lives. Denise Chong has written a detailed, humanistic account of ever! yday life in the wake of the Vietnam War, as well as a meditation on the aftermath of celebrity, and the power of an image.

The Gate

Francois Bizot

French ethnologist Francois Bizot's The Gate is a unique insight into the rise of the Khmer Rouge. In 1971 Bizot was studying ancient khmer traditions and living with his khmer partner and daughter in a small village in the environs of the Angkor temple complex. The Khmer Rouge was fighting a guerilla war in rural Cambodia and during a routine visit to a nearby temple, Bizot and his two khmer colleagues were captured and imprisoned deep in the jungle by the Khmer Rouge on suspicion of working for the CIA. On trial for his life, over the next three months Bizot developed a strong relationship with his captor, Comrade Douch, who would later become the Khmer Rouge's chief interrogator and commandant of the horrifying Tuol Sleng prison where thousands were tortured prior to execution. The portrait Bizot gives of the young schoolteacher-turned revolutionary and their interaction is simultaneously fascinating and terrifying.

Heaven and Earth: When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

Le Ly Hayslip, Jay Wurts

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" is the haunting memoir of the Vietnam war as seen through the eyes of a child who survived the horror. With the voice of a natural story-teller, Le Ly Hayslip tells the story of a young peasant girl's struggle to survive. Pressed into service by the Viet Cong, Hayslip was captured and tortured by government forces; then she was raped and almost murdered by her "comrades" in the VC. Later she lived with and loved several GIs. Finally, she married a kind-hearted American to escape the terror and insanity of the war. Once she arrived in the US in 1970, Hayslip lived the American dream to the hilt: she studied at night, worked during the day in an electronics factory and eventually became the owner of three houses and a restaurant near San Diego. Twice widowed and now unmarried, she has raised three sons. Meanwhile happiness proved elusive, the traumas of the war years lingering on in nightmare memories. In 1986 Le Ly went back to her homeland and was shocked to see the country and the people still profoundly scarred by the war. She subsequently sold the bulk of her property to start a foundation dedicated to building health clinics jointly staffed by Americans and Vietnamese.

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge.

Chanrithy Him

This is one of the first childhood memoirs to emerge from the hell of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Capturing the overwhelming immediacy of the baffling events, Chanrithy Him writes through the eyes of her younger self in the present tense. She vividly recounts her trek through the hell of the "killing fields" and gives a child's-eye view of a world where rudimentary labour camps are the norm and modern technology no longer exists. Death and illness become companions in the camps; yet throughout, her family remain loyal to one another.

New silk tablelamps now available

The main Indochine site now has a range of silk table lamps in 3 styles and 5 colours. It has taken us a year to get the quality we wanted and I'm pleased to say it's been worth the effort. Each lamp has a shade made from a twin layer of silk that creates a unique pattern when lit (reminiscent of watersilk) - no two lamps are the same. The range includes single and shot silk colours including Oyster, Crimson, Papaya, Absinthe and Copper. The dark wood bases are hand finished in either a classic 'ricebowl' design or traditional 'lotus leaf' scrollwork.

Liberation Day

Our latest trip to Vietnam happens to co-incide with Liberation Day - an annual public holiday celebrating the the surrender of Saigon in 1975 to the North Vietnamese army.

Vietnam's a colourful place at any time of the year but today everyone's painting the town red. On the road into Hoi-An from Danang, every single house, shop or tin-roofed shack has a red flag sporting a yellow star outside its door.



Earlier in the month. many cities and provinces will have had their own special commemoration of the day they were individually 'Liberated' but the 30th is a countrywide rememberance.

As liberation day falls on a Saturday this year, and International Labour day is directly after it on the Sunday, both Monday and Tuesday are taken as holidays in lieu - but only for people in government posts.

With this in mind, it's difficult to say how much the public celebrations are a true display of national pride and how much they are simply a reflection of the Party's desire to remind everyone 'who won the war'. Thirty years on there are some that would argue that the country is still divided North to South. For many, the end of the war was not as liberating as it might have been. There are plenty of cyclo drivers in Saigon scraping a living in spite of having a tertiary level education and more than a handful of former landowners now making ends meet selling lottery tickets; all because they were on the wrong side in the war. In a country supposedly governed by communist ideals of egalitarianism it would appear that some are more equal than others.

For a new generation the war has achieved almost mythical status and holds no real day-to-day relevance to their lives. However the scenes are replayed by the party propaganda machine at regular intervals lest anyone forget, particularly the one in which the North Vietnamese tank crashes through the gates of the American Embassy. It also lives on in a more bizarre form as one of the most popular games on the internet here - 'HeliAttack' - in which the player has to shoot as many helicopters out of the sky as possible.

Cafe des Amis - Hoi An

Mr Kim used to be chef to the top brass of the South Vietnamese army. Not great credentials to have on your CV post 'Liberation Day'.

As the eldest son he stayed behind when the rest of his family (including 15 brothers and sisters) fled the country in '75 - someone had to stay behind to look after the tombs of the family's ancestors.

After 15 years of keeping a low profile he opened his restaurant in the early 90s around the same time that the country opened its doors to the outside world. The choice of Hoi-An, a UNESCO World Heritage site half way between North and South, guaranteed a steady stream of visitors to his restaurant.

The only choice on the menu is between Vegetarian or Seafood. Having made that important decision you are treated to a series of gastronomic delights that are apparently never repeated within a 22 day cycle. The last time we ate at Mr. Kim's we enjoyed 'White Rose', Scallops in their shells, Squid and vegetable salad, and skate (Mr. Kim said it was Sting Ray but it looked a lot like skate). The quality and variety are possibly two good reasons why Michael Caine was a frequent visitor during the filming of Graham Greene's, 'The Quiet American' . Hoi-An was the picturesque backdrop standing in for colonial Saigon in a number of the scenes from the film.

From the name of the restaurant, 'Cafe des Amis' to the lilting sounds of Piaff playing in the background, it's clear that Mr. Kim is a francophile. What better place for the cast and film crew to soak up the atmosphere of a bygone age.

Don't get taken for a ride in Nha Trang

I'd been forewarned, so felt quite prepared as we crossed the road from the Sailing Club to start the short walk home to our hotel last night. Sure enough, on almost every street corner there was a small cluster of girls intent on persuading you onto the back of a motorcycle to be whisked away for a 'massage'.

We negotiated this gauntlet with relative ease. My travelling companion, having lengthened his stride and speed almost from the off, was now accelerating in the direction of the fluorescent sign of our hotel leaving me trailing in his wake.

In the yawning gap between us, a motorbike carrying a man and a woman sidled up to me; the young lady hopped off and within seconds had her arms wrapped around me in what I suspect she thought was an irresistibly enticing manner. While she rattled off a menu of services that would be available to me within a minute's ride, I did my best to disentangle myself from her wandering hands. Up until this point I had kept my gaze steadfastly on my destination and my friend's receding figure. As I raised my arms to further distance myself from the situation - and her grasp - I turned to look at my erstwhile temptress. I was taken aback to find that she was a 'He' in a wig and a skirt and not particularly convincing. My surprise must have shown; in an instant her ardour evaporated and she was back on the bike muttering something along the lines of, 'you don't know what you're missing'. I was to find out later.

I caught up with my friend and after thanking him for not coming to my rescue, relayed the events as I had seen them. I gave full weight to my own ability to spot a 'lady boy' when I see one and nevertheless marvelled at how anyone - even someone without my ability to spot a misplaced Adam's Apple - could possibly be persuaded to succumb to such crass advances.

With his/her parting words still echoing down the street I stuck my hand in my pocket to retrieve my room key, only to find that all the dollars I had been carrying in both pockets of my trousers had disappeared. Thankfully I still had my room key, and thoughtfully, a few low denomination Vietnamese notes. A tart with a heart, after all - and much more besides.

To be fair, the lonely planet's advice in it's chapter on Nha Trang says that it's generally a safe place but they have heard reports of people being robbed after dark on the beach and the immediate beach road 'D Tran Phu'. I guess I was just unlucky.

It's different for girls

The Ao Dai (pronounced 'Ow Zye' or 'Ow Yie' depending on which part of Vietnam you're in) is more than the national dress - it's the school uniform.



For girls between 16-18 in the last three years of high school, a white Ao Dai signals their student status. The boys, meanwhile, continue with the blue trousers, white shirt and red neck scarf that is the unisex uniform from primary school.



At University, the white Ao Dai changes to colour - each seat of learning having its own distinctive shade. however, by this stage, girls are only expected to wear it on the first day of the week.



Women of all ages throughout Vietnam still wear the Ao Dai, but it is arguably the commonplace use of it as a school uniform that will maintain its elegant lines into the future and ensure it doesn't become simply a museum piece like so many other countries' national costumes.

Good housekeeping features Indochine Lighting

Under the heading Table Lamps, the January 2006 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine has a snippet on Indochine's Silk Lotus Lamps in its Tried and Tested - Experts Choice section on page 127.

The Papaya lamp appears alongside a selection from House of Fraser (Mito Aqua lamp), Peacock Blue (regal Lamp), Laura Ashley (Hacket Task lamp), additionsdirect, John Lewis (Aidan touch lamp), Heals (Tolomeo desk lamp), Homebase (Knightsbridge lamp) and Next (faux suede lamp) - under the sub head 'whether for work, rest or play, these elegant lamps can turn on the glitz at the flick of a switch.

Authentic Pad Thai recipe

Pad Thai (often spelt Phad rather than Pad). We've tried both these authentic Pad Thai recipes with good results. The flavour of Pad Thai is one of the most evocative in Thai cuisine giving it some claim to be the national dish and not just because 'Thai' is in the title. Taking only minutes to prepare – fast food never tasted better.

Our first Pad Thai recipe, a dried shrimp recipe, comes from Vatcharin Bhumichitr's excellent 'Taste of Thailand'. The next from Sisamon Kongpan's 'Best of Thai Cuisine'. More recipes from these masters of Thai cuisine can be found in The Elegant Taste of Thailand... and Vatch's Thai Street Food.



Recipe 1 Pad Thai recipe (shrimp)
This Pad Thai recipe needs:

4 tbs/60ml oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 egg

4 oz/120g dry Sen Lek noodles (a medium fat noodle approximately 2mm wide) soaked in water for 20minutes. (This is the Thai name but any medium flat noodle will work in this Pad Thai recipe.)

2 tbs /30ml lemon juice

1.5 tbs/22.5ml fish sauce

0.5 tsp/2.5ml sugar

2 tbs/30ml chopped roast peanuts

2 tbs/30ml dried shrimp, ground or pounded

0.5 tsp/2.5ml chilli powder

1 tbs/15ml finely chopped preserved turnip

1oz/30g beansprouts

2 spring onions/scallions, chopped into1in/2.5cm pieces

Sprig of coriander leaf, chopped

Lime wedges

In a wok, heat the oil, add the garlic, fry until golden brown. Break the egg into the wok, stir and quickly cook for a couple of seconds. Add noodles and stir, mixing well with the garlic and egg. One by one, add lemon juice, fish sauce, sugar, half the peanuts, half the dried shrimp, the chilli powder, preserved turnip, 1 tablespoon of beansprouts and the spring onions. Test noodles for tenderness. When done, serve arranging the remaining peanuts, dried shrimp and beansprouts around the dish. Garnish with coriander and lime wedges.

(The Pad Thai recipe from Vatcherin calls for Lemon wedges. I prefer limes in the recipe.)

Makes enough Pad Thai for a meal for one, or part of a meal for two.



Recipe 2 Pad Thai recipe (pork)
This Pad Thai recipe needs:

300g Sen Lek noodles (see description in Pad Thai recipe above)

0.5kg bean sprouts

3 eggs

50g pork cut into small slivers

50g chopped pickled white radish

1 cake soybean curd, cut into small slivers

0.5 cup ground roasted peanuts

1tsp ground dried chillies

1tbsp chopped shallots

1 tbsp finely chopped garlic

0.5 cup cooking oil

4 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp fish sauce

4 tbsp tamarind juice or vinegar

50g Chinese leek leaves

1 lime

1 banana flower

Indian pennywort leaves

Indian Pennywort leaves are optional. This authentic Pad Thai recipe calls for them but they are not essential.

Heat 3 tbsp oil in a wok and saute garlic and shallots. When yellowed, add noodles with just enough water to soften them and fry, turning constantly with spatula to prevent sticking. Remove noodles and set aside.

Put 3 tbsp oil into pan. When hot fry the pork, pickled white radish, bean curd and dried chillies, then return the noodles, mix thoroughly, remove and set aside.

Put 2 tbsp oil into pan. When heated, break the eggs into the pan and spread the egg in a thin layer over the pan. When set, return the noodles and mix together. Add half the bean sprouts and the Chinese leek leaves and turn to mix together. Serve with ground peanuts, beansprouts, banana flower, Chinese leek, Indian pennywort and lime wedges.

(Original Pad Thai recipe from Sisamon uses lemon wedges. I prefer limes in the recipe.)

This Pad Thai recipe uses a lot more oil than Vatcherin's recipe; however it is possible to use less than indicated above by adding small amounts from time to time instead of adding the oil oil in one go; just enough to keep the Pad Thai from sticking,

This recipe makes enough Pad Thai for a meal for two.

For more recipes follow the cookery link below.

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Indochine (1991) DVD

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