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(Russian Tortoise – Image Source: Wikipedia)

The other day I was surfing online which somehow brought me to the Wikipedia article on Russian Tortoises.  It brought back memories of the 1990s in Seattle.  As a student at the UDub, I actually owned 3 Russian Tortoises.  I think I bought my first two in 1993 if I remember right.  I had a UV lamp and made a small pen for my two tortoises I named Gorby and Tatiana.  An older Russian tortoise, Katya, joined the duo later.

Russian tortoises are quite easy to take care of.  I just fed them bok choy and romaine lettuce everyday.  During long weekend trips, I could leave them in my pen with a head of romaine lettuce.  For longer trips, my gymastic’s coach and his girlfriend would take care of them.

These guys are fun.  I let them roam my room when I am home.  You will be amazed at how much water their bladder can hold.  If they are scared, they can soak an entire pant leg which has happened to me on one occasion.  Most of the day they just soak under the UV lamp.  At nights, I would turn the UV lamp off at which point my tortoises would start to burrow underneath my wood chip bedding.  Since they were in my room, it would be annoying to hear their feet scraping on the wood floor of their pen but I think I got used to it.

Sadly in 1996, I had to sell them back to the pet store owner who sold them to me 3 years earlier.  I moved into an apartment complex that did not allow pets of any kind including fish.  I lost contact of my gymnastic’s coach so I had to let Gorby, Tatiana and Katya go.  Yeah, I do miss them.

Ironically, in the summer of 1998 which I was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Karatau, Kazakhstan, some Kazakh students brought a couple Russian tortoises to me.  It turns out that in the Karatau area, there are many wild Russian tortoises.

In Vietnam, though, I have not seen any.  They are not as popular as the turtle.

Watch some funny YouTube videos on Russian Tortoises.

I really like this video by Shahzoda, a famous singer from Uzbekistan.  Shahzoda puts some Islamic influences in her videos which tell a good story.  Enjoy this video:

Here is a documentary that I do not see making it’s way to Vietnam.  Need to find a way to get a copy back in the US.

The 10 Conditions of Love looks at the life and struggle of Uyghur activist Rabiya Kadeer.  I first learned about Rabiya Kadeer when I was a graduate student at Indiana University.  At the time, I learned about her plight and bought some Uyghur Human Rights buttons from the Uyghur Human Rights Coalition.  Rabiya Kadeer was in prison at that time but she was later released and exiled in the US.

It is amazing that the world knows so much about the Tibetans but very little about the Uyghurs.  As you can tell, this documentary has been very controversial to the Chinese government.  They unsuccessfully tried to convince the Taiwanese from showing the film next month.

Just watched an interesting one hour video on Kazakhstan.  Made me a bit homesick for the country.  This independent documentary reminds me so much of the life in Kazakhstan.  I was surprised to see not much has changed in the 7 years since I left the country (the film was produced in 2006).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5769471137718271967

When we visited our client, Vietmindo, over a week ago, we stayed at a hotel in Uong Bi, a small quite mining town about 45-50 minutes from Halong Bay and Hai Phong.  This town reminded so much of Karatau, Kazakhstan, my Peace Corps site.

Uong Bi, which I gave up trying to pronounce, is a very quite town.  It is a place I would not mind retiring someday.  Below are some relaxing photos of Uong Bi.

(View from my hotel of Uong Bi)

(Main road through Uong Bi)

(Uong Bi is a good walking city)