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| Hoan Kiem giant turtle (from Tran Van Minh, 2011). |
The big news over here in Indochina is that the giant turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake in central Hanoi has resurfaced looking somewhat the worse for wear. If you're unfamiliar with this seriously cool but critically endangered chelonian, consider it the Vietnamese equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster. Unlike Nessie however, the Hoan Kiem turtle is definitely real, and instead of dwelling in some long, deep, mist-shrouded Scottish loch, this poor beast lives in a small, shallow, rather polluted lake smack bang in the middle of the Vietnamese capital's downtown/old city area. On a personal level, I've actually spent a not inconsiderable amount of time hanging out in nifty coffeeshops and pubs overlooking this lake, while staying in Hanoi with friends, and never once realised that those placid green waters contained a turtle of truly epic proportions.
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| The Turtle Pagoda in Hoan Kiem Lake, downtown Hanoi (from Tran Van Minh, 2011). |
The actual species of turtle is uncertain - some claim it is the Giant Chinese softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), others that it represents a new species (Rafetus leloii) (e.g. see Heinselman, 2000; Coleman & Huyghe, 2003, pp. 181-183; Naish, 2007; Zeller, 2007). What distinguishes it from other softshell turtles is its size - this specimen is around 1.8m long, 1.2m wide, and weights 200kg. There appears to be only one of these giant turtles living in the lake, though a stuffed specimen does exist in the Ngoc Son temple on an island by the northern lakeside.
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| Hoan Kiem giant turtle (the huge brown-green circular thing!), from Heinselman (2000). |
References
Coleman, L. & Huyghe, P. (2003). The field guide to lake monsters, sea serpents, and other mystery denizens of the deep.
Heinselman, C. (2000). Hoan Kiem Turtle - A Tale of the Sword. Crypto 3(3), 15-18.
Naish, D. (2007, November 29). The goat-eating hot water bottle turtles. Message posted to http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/11/hot_water_bottle_turtles.php
Tran Van Minh. (2011, March 4). Vietnam scrambles to save Hanoi's sacred turtle. Accessed from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110304/ap_on_re_as/as_vietnam_sacred_turtle
Zeller, F. (2007, November 6). High-tech lake clean-up to save legendary turtle. Bangkok Post [from AFP], p. 14.
Is it the largest turtle in the world?
ReplyDeleteYou wade into the water, towards the Pagoda, where the legendary sword is said to lie. As you do, you disturb a GIANT TURTLE, the ancient guardian of the shrine. Its mouth closes on your boot, and it attempts to pull you under the water. You must fight! Reduce your Attack Strength by 2 due to your restricted movement.
ReplyDeleteGIANT TURTLE Sk 6 St 15
Because of its tough shell, your blows will only do a single point of Stamina damage each. If you lose three attack rounds in a row, the Giant Turtle wrenches you off your feet and pulls you to your death beneath the murky waters of Hoan Kiem. If you score three hits in a row against the Turtle, it frees its grip on you and disappears into the depths. You return to the shore of the lake to reappraise your options (turn to 13).
@Hamza: I think it's probably the largest freshwater turtle as the Leatherback sea turtle is definitely bigger. There was a long-extinct freshwater species from South America that was even bigger, with the rather cool name of Stupendemys:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupendemys
@Pal: Nice work! I was thinking of adding something like this to the post, but yours is way better!
You know Medieval/Early Modern southeast Asia would be a great setting for a gamebook adventure!
ReplyDeleteApart from the usual Chinese/Japanese influenced settings, many parts of Asia are often overlooked as potential settings, ranging from Vietnam (southeast Asia) to India/Pakistan (South Asia). I really wish more people would make settings based on places like these.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking about this. Two of the three ideas I have kicking around for this year's Windhammer Prize are set in Bangkok (hey, write about what you know!). One is modern, the other post-apocalyptic, and both are holdovers from previous competitions so it's certainly tempting to drag them out of retirement.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the early history of places like Laos and Cambodia is also fascinating, and then you've got an entire archipelago of Malay and Indonesian coolness for many, many ideas.
When I was doing previous studies about the old Thai capital of Ayutthaya, one of the things that struck me was how similar it was to modern Bangkok in being a giant cultural melting pot. You had ronin mercenaries from Japan hiring themselves out to Siamese nobles, a small army from Macassar in the Celebes, rival delegations from many European nations, Zorastrian viziers from Old Persia, crusading Islamists from New Persia, and a Greek Prime Minister called Constantine Phaulkon, who started his Siamese adventure ship-wrecked among the mangroves of southern Thailand (sounds like something from a Fabled Lands book!). I don't especially want to do a project about any of that, yet (the research would kill me!), but it just shows you how diverse and interesting the times were.
Oh, and Dave Morris did acknowledged that the southern Akatsurese port of Hagashin from Fabled Lands book 6 was indeed based partly on Bangkok or Ayutthaya...
cheers
Andy
Wow! That's such a rich and atmospheric setting which would undoubtedly make for a wonderful backdrop to fantastical adventures. You could easily add extra fantasticalness by including elements from the legends, myths and superstitions of the different cultures.
ReplyDeleteI always feel that there's so much of this sort to explore on Earth (as Hamza says, South Asia is a particularly rich setting too which has almost entirely been ignored) that I wonder why we keep inventing new fantasy worlds. I think maybe it does in part come down to it being quite difficult to convincingly portray an actual (or at least pseudo-realistic) world than a made up one (where you control everything). I'd love to see gamebook adventures involving werewolves and vampires set in central and eastern Europe, adventures involving Samurai and Nukekubi set in Japan, adventures involving Grendels and Dragons set in Scandinavia, and so on. But it's not easy!
I agree. Fact is, after all, stranger than fiction and the real world is more interesting than (most) fantasy settings.
ReplyDelete@Pal: South Asia makes a great setting -whenever I'm bored, just reading the index of names in Lonely Planet's guide to India for example is an excellent source of inspiration. I think research is a bit easier now with wikipedia, but you still have to absorb it all and then synthesise.
ReplyDelete@Hamza: You're right of course! Interestingly, there is a setting that combines elements of Central America and South Asia, with possibly a bit of Angkor thrown in, and that is Professor MAR Barker's Tekumel sci-fantasy setting.
http://tekumel.com/
He has a couple of novels set here - The Man of Gold and Flamesong - which make for interesting reading.
cheers
Andy
Although I'm not Indian myself, I believe India would make a fantastic setting, as you also say above. It's the birthplace of four major world religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism) which have spread like wildfire throughout the rest of the world, and its impact on the rest of Asia (not only religiously, but in many other ways as well) is monumental. The country absolutely oozes with spirituality and mysticism, and its history is long and rich.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm familiar with Tekumel, but thanks for the tip anyway. :)
Hamza, sounds like a possible blog post, or a series of them!
ReplyDeletecheers
Andy