During my recent trip to New Orleans, I was privileged to be able to meet Tam Nguyen and photograph his reef. But the visit was much more than a coral photo session. Tam is Vietnamese and the timing of my visit was during the Vietnamese New Year celebration. When I arrived, Tam offered to buy dinner. Our "restaurant" was the huge New Year's celebration festival and the entree was a tasty soup that consisted of thin slices of pork, shrimp, scallions, and sprouts in a watery broth.
Consuming the meal was the challenge. For utensils I received a scoop-like spoon and chop sticks. The spoon I could use. I suck at chop sticks. I fought with those tools for a good 15 minutes and was able to eat most of the bowl's contents. It's a good thing I can laugh at myself most of the time, because, otherwise I'd have been thoroughly embarrassed. I'm also confident I was a source of entertainment for several festival attendees. That was particularly true for the young child sitting across from me. He kept watching me with a look of "How can anyone be so inept with such basic tools?"
The dining portion of the evening was saved, however, when I returned to my hotel room late that night with a bag of watermelon chunks from Tam's mother. I had juice running down both arms as I savored those tasty morsels.
A big thanks to Tam for expanding my cultural horizons.
Now to his reef. It's a 90-gal. aquarium full of a very nice, healthy collection of SPS corals and anchored by a nice field of acan colonies. A few fish round out the collection, but I didn't photograph them. Here are some shots.
Gary
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Consuming the meal was the challenge. For utensils I received a scoop-like spoon and chop sticks. The spoon I could use. I suck at chop sticks. I fought with those tools for a good 15 minutes and was able to eat most of the bowl's contents. It's a good thing I can laugh at myself most of the time, because, otherwise I'd have been thoroughly embarrassed. I'm also confident I was a source of entertainment for several festival attendees. That was particularly true for the young child sitting across from me. He kept watching me with a look of "How can anyone be so inept with such basic tools?"
The dining portion of the evening was saved, however, when I returned to my hotel room late that night with a bag of watermelon chunks from Tam's mother. I had juice running down both arms as I savored those tasty morsels.
A big thanks to Tam for expanding my cultural horizons.
Now to his reef. It's a 90-gal. aquarium full of a very nice, healthy collection of SPS corals and anchored by a nice field of acan colonies. A few fish round out the collection, but I didn't photograph them. Here are some shots.
Gary
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