A little rave for small-scale sustainability.

One of the many things I love about Vietnam is that it is still possible to repair things rather than replace.

In Melbourne if something breaks the consensus is generally that it will be more cost or hassle to repair it than to just get a new one. But here - if it does anything short of completely dying - and sometimes even then - there will always be a dude on the side of the street who can sort it out for you.

Every now and then we get a flat tyre when coming home on the motorbike - but there are countless little one man repair stalls on the side of the road who have a miniscule air compressor and other toolls and who can sort it out for you quick smart. My flatmate, after riding her hired motorbike into the side of our house in a drunken stupor (annihilating a potplant in the process), got the relevant parts replaced and installed for 35,000 dong (just on $3 Australian).

When my sunglasses (essential for keeping the crap out of your eyes when riding) broke the other day I just popped into the sunglasses store who fixed them in 3 seconds flat and then laughed at me when I tried to pay them.

And this week when my one pair of work shoes suffered a catastrophic failure I had the entire heel/sole replaced with something far better quality than what I begun with for 100,000 dong (under $10 Australian). What's more, the shoes have been polished to within an inch of their lives and it was all done in the space of 24 hours...this place rocks!