April 2012 – Page 3 – Where is Phil now?

A step outside the comfort zone !

Ok, not really, but a different form of travel for me.

I have booked myself on a tour !!! Now I have done it I am having uncomfortable thoughts about the other people on the tour, fingers crossed they are not all morons 🙂

I am going to do a three day and two night Mekong Delta tour, it just seems to be way less complex than trying to get around on my own, though I am sure once out there I would be fine. I have read that the organised tours can actually be cheaper than solo travel in this next of the woods and at 60NZD for the whole thing (boats, buses, food and bed) it would be hard to beat. I am sure I will also get lots of opportunity to financially assist many vendors on the way.

I can see myself mocking tour bus tourists in other places, so will expect to see some looks of disdain from other backpackers as we pass through various towns on the way.

I have also started fleshing out a plan that will see me arrive in the UK in early June, via Sri Lanka. So I have about 6-7 weeks to do Vietnam, Laos and Nth Thailand. Will have that all detailed soon and will update the Plan Page.

I hope to catch up with blog posts today !

gallery – Imperial Citadel, Hue

Day 96, Monday 09 April 2012, Hue – Imperial Citadel.

A post about the rest of the day will be posted soon, but I seem to have a lot of photos from the citadel so thought I would do a separate citadel only post and do the rest of the day later. I have been so busy in Vietnam, hanging out with friends and family of Daniels and Van’s has meant many dinners and nights out and I am never going to catch up with blogging and photo editing at this rate.

The citadel is not that old, being started around 1820 as the Vietnamese imperial palace, it was kicked about during fighting with the French in 1947 and was then shelled by the Viet Cong and bombed by our American friends in 1968. The site still has some clear war damage as well as vast empty areas that I guess were totally beyond repair. Much renovation work has gone into the site.

I am going to say initially I was really disappointed with it, there is a big festival in Hue starting tomorrow night so there is a lot of work setting up stages and lights and monster sound systems playing bloody awful music – loudly – why do they have to play the awful Hotel California !!! I ended up putting head phones on. The site was quite antiseptic, until I walked through a gate and found peace and tranquillity and some nice things to look at – and then stayed for two hours until sunset.

The architecture is quite Chinese, especially compared to Thai and Khmer temples. I really like the gateways and the art on the gates, and the yellow that is everywhere in Vietnam is becoming my favourite colour – though I would never wear it 🙂

Some of the photos are a bit wonky, I am sure it is my eyes, so not the best photo day ever.

I also saw a snake , a small grass snake was basking in the sun behind one of the buildings, we were both a wee bit cautious after that encounter.

Right, onto the photos !

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Bwahahaha – I am rich I tell you, rich !!!

Ba Na (na na na ) Hills

Day 95, Sunday 08 April 2012, Da Nang

Up early again for a group trip with some of Vans family to Ba Na Hills, just out of Da Nang. We took the hire car with a few of us inside and four motorcycles, I got to ride in the car ! Dan and Malcolm with Dan’s bro Russell in the background.

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Ba Na Hills is a weird place ! I am not entirely sure of its history, but the original site was started by the French in 1919 as a 200 bed hotel. This all fell apart before the war in the 60’s and now it is owned by the Vietnamese government who are investing huge amounts of money into making it a major tourist attraction. However, it is not the type of tourist attraction I would go to!

The cool bit is the cable car ride up to the 1290 metre(i think) point, it is supposedly the longest cable car in the world and it is pretty cool riding up into and then out of the clouds, the view of the forest and rivers was lovely.

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From there you get a second cable car up another couple of hundred meters to this bizarre mass of construction, building a family fun park, Vietnamese style of course.

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There was a walk up to a pagoda, but it was all too new and modern for my tastes, though I did like the goddess of mercy statue.

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We had a walk around the fun park and then caught the 4d movie, which turned out to really only be 3d as bits of it were not working. After catching the cable car back to the top of the first car we stopped for ‘temporary lunch’ and then walked up to the big Buddha and to find the wine cave – the main mission. 1110744

Dan and Van had been here a year ago and had found a wine bar in an old cave that the French had used as a wine cellar, it was quite cool up here (lovely !), however it was all being renovated and was closed – which was a major disappointment…

There was a nice pagoda here with a very cool bonsai garden complete with miniature pagodas, bridges and people.

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I think I may be eating too much chicken !

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We did find this very cool air filled course, that was set up for a corporate team building event, so we asked the guys if we could have a few turns and raced each other over the course, much to a few peoples hilarity…

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Van’s cheeky wee niece.

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The cloud closed in making for a spooky ride back down the hill.

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A quick stop at the hotel and I was back in the car with Luc heading off to watch his team play 7 a side football. When we got to the ground it turned out his team only had six players so I was very reluctantly roped in to play – in sandals…. it was not my finest sporting hour I will say but I had fun, though trying to kick a ball in loose sandals is not easy. I have no idea if we won or lost or what the score was, though it did seem rather irrelevant.

Unlike a game in NZ there was no swifty beer after the game, or even any hand shake, most of the guys silently left the pitch and walked to their car or motorbike and left, a wee bit odd !

Luc dropped me back at the hotel and i had a shower and a warm lager and then went down to the lobby to suss the plan for a feed for the night. There seemed to be a few options so I elected to go with Dan to meet his mate Matt for one beer and then off to the market for street food with some of the others followed by an early night as I was knackered.

As is the norm with the group we all left a bit later than planned and by the time Dan I settled in for a beer with Matt the market had closed. We had two beers and went back to the hotel on the bike (Dan was driving) and picked up a few of the others and met up with Van and one of her friends for an awesome chicken noodle dish and fresh fruit drink at one of the road side eateries in town – and I mean roadside !

After eating we went to find some other friends of Dans at the Bamboo Bar, they were not there but we stopped for one more beer and I got to watch some of the Arsenal v Man City game on TV. From there we went to another bar to watch a live band – Filipino cover band, and I watched the rest of the football (1-0 to Arsenal!) and the band. One of the backing singers had the shortest shorty shorts I have ever seen !!! We sunk a few whisky and cokes and then back on the motorbikes for a stupid (though short) ride back to the hotel, which was all locked up when we arrived just before 1.00 AM. So much for my one beer and an early night ! But a heck of a lot of fun – and no we were not that drunk for riding in Vietnam…

Hoi An

Day 94, Saturday 07 April 2012, Da Nang / Hoi An

Got up far too early considering the amount of whisky I drank, was eating breakfast at 8.00 and got asked if I wanted to go to Hoi An, like right now…. so very quick scoff, very quick shower and off in a cab to Hoi An for a few hours.

It was wickedly hot and I was wickedly dehydrated and maybe not in the mood, but I was disappointed by Hoi An. It is just too touristy, all the nice buildings in the old town house tourist shops or restaurants, there is nothing authentic left.

My Other big issue with Hoi An, and I am going to have an issue with this in Vietnam, unless today I was just overly sensitive – but I am over motorbikes, the constant honking of horns, the riding everywhere in all directions, sometimes it is fun, and I know it is the way, but Hoi An is largely a pedestrian town and being honked at every 10 seconds was just a big pain in the ass…

Of course I took a bunch of photos, but of the bits I liked…. so some alley ways, I did like the alleys, out of the sun and a little bit cooler than the streets. P1110661

I liked the bicycles, many of which were found in alleys.

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Some of the buildings were pretty cool

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The Japanese bridge was OK in daylight.

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and I liked some of the detail – especially the incense holders.

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But most of the people were trying to sell you something and the constant call of “you wanna boat, one hour, cheap price” or “you wanna motorbike” or “you wanna trishaw” and “come into my shop, buy something” – just did my head in.

I did like this woman rowing her canoe, but she was ferrying a tourist over the river – so I culled him…

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So Hoi An – ya let me down, you are cute, but you sell yourself like a cheap hooker – disappointed.

After Hoi An I slobbed for a while in the hotel and then went and ate a pizza at the bar up the road on my own as I had no idea what everyone else was up to, which wasn’t much at all apparently. Later on a bunch of us sat in the hotel lobby over a G and T and watched some of the wedding video.

Wedding day !

Day 93, Friday 06 April 2012, Da Nang

Today was Dan and Van’s wedding day, wahoo !

I dragged my sorry butt out of bed as late as possible but still leaving time for a quick breakfast, shower and shave and downstairs in time to be picked up at 8.00 for the wedding.

Dan getting the final touches, tie by Tea and the corsage by his brother Russell. P1110602

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There was a few car loads that left the hotel and went to Dan’s friend Phuoc’s (I think is the spelling) house to collect the dowry.

The dowry has a roasted pig, fruit, betel nuts and a few other things that I cannot remember. A number of photos were taken with the dowry and I was privileged to be one of the party that carried the gifts to the car and from the car into Van’s parents house where the ceremony took place. Naturally I got to carry the pig with Russell. (I am a vege – or maybe just fussy as Alex called me). P1110606

The arrival at both houses and the carrying of the gifts roused lots of local interest with neighbours coming out to look at us and our offerings. The ladies in the hairdressers over the road from Phuoc’s house were very interested. As well as a photographer there was also a video guy who was filming the wedding car procession from the back of a scooter, a la tour de France. It was quite a laugh !
On arriving at Vans we lined up in the correct order and carried the dowry into their house through a clapping gauntlet of Vans family and friends. Once inside Dan and his mum offered the dowry to Vans parents, thankfully they accepted ! P1110612

Once the dowry was dealt with Dan and family went upstairs to meet Van and bring her down to the ceremony, she looked stunning in traditional Vietnamese wedding dress.

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I am a wee bit unsure of the detail of the ceremony but there was an introduction of all family and friends by Dan and Van to each others family and friends, some exchanging of words between parents, Dans mum got to put some gold jewellery on Van. P1110621

and there was an exchange of rings.

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Van and Dan and family went upstairs to seek a blessing from Vans ancestors and it was all done ! Congratulations Mr and Mrs Coe 🙂

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Dan’s mum and Van’s father P1110633

We all piled back into the cars and went on a slow drive through Da Nang to the reception at a large venue that obviously specialises on receptions. There were three floors all hosting receptions a t the same time so there was a lot of people arriving all at once, there were two hundred guests at Dan and Vans.

At the reception I sat at the vegetarian table with Malcolm, Mark and Hayley and Phuoc, there was about seven courses and the food was great, very fresh and not all fried, such a change. Ii particularly enjoyed the salads and a lovely seaweed soup, this was all consumed over a few Tiger beers. Once everyone was seated (except for bride and groom) the show started on a small stage at the front, dragon dance and some singing and dancing, I am assuming some story was being told in the music and dance as dowry props were used.

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Once the show was over the music volume picked up, the floor lights dimmed, the floods and stobes came on and a screen on a glass box at the back of the stage rose to reveal a lift in which Dan and Van descended : ) just awesome, nothing you would see at a traditional NZ wedding ! they walked down the stage to the cheers (of us NZers and Aussies) and the claps of the rest of the reception.

There was a very short formal part and then the karaoke began, most of which was not too bad, Phuoc and Van’s brother Luc took part. Phuoc giving it all..

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A cheeky Xuxu, Dan’s neice.

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While this went on we were all still eating and Dan and Van had to visit every table and have a photo taken with all the guests, they didn’t get to eat, poor buggers. The reception was over after two hours and all the guests filed out and the cleaners were in tidying up and readying the place for the next one.

The mass of wedding guests heading off to collect their motor bikes. P1110650

We all went back to the hotel to change into shorts and t-shirts and slob around for a while before heading out to a villa in one of the big resorts that Dan and Van (and family) stayed in overnight. We had a second reception for close friends and family, some more delicious food and a few drinks – quite a few in my case! It was a great time out at the villa, lovely atmosphere and cool to be able to spend some time with the happy couple. P1110652

It wasn’t a late night and I was so glad to have had lots of coke with my whisky, staved off what could have been a vile hangover the next day.

It was an awesome day, so nice to see Dan and Van get married and so nice to have been invited.

Da Nang

Day 92, Thursday 05 April 2012, Da Nang

Reasonable sleep last night thank God, was pretty knackered and dreading a long week with little sleep, but awake early and managed to rattle off a couple of overdue blog posts. I constantly amaze myself that I am still doing this blog thing on a regular basis 92 days into my travels. Most days I enjoy writing the commentary and editing the photos, but some days it seems to be such a chore, though it is an ambitious goal to try and blog daily – at least it keeps the drinking and partying to a minimum – though I guess those who know me well realise I do not need much of an excuse to not party.

I was still up pretty early and popped to the cafe next door for a coffee. The guy there speaks no English (this is not a tourist area of a pretty un-touristed town) so while I got coffee it was not what i expected – short black with a centimetre of condensed milk in the bottom, a glass of ice and a cup of tea – the standard coffee order around here. Coffee was OK -ish, but for 70c cannot complain.

I popped down to China Beach – I will call it that cos I can, for an early morning swim with Bruce and Tina, I have biked with Bruce in NZ a few times, but have not met his partner Tina before. The sea was ‘cool’, but not by Auckland standards, but clean and fresh and a very nice start to the day. I love the surf rescue boat – none of this fancy motorised stuff like they have at Piha ! P1110583

The swim was followed by a mountain of food for breakfast, eggs, rice, fresh baguettes, fruit, vege ‘things’ that I have no idea what they were at this stage and the worlds most crap cup of coffee – no more coffee in the hotel !

The morning was pretty much spent shagging around in the hotel, trying to organise transport to do things, there is about a dozen of us from various places and with varying levels of ability on motor bikes, so it was organisational chaos. We tried to hire push bikes to ride to marble mountain, but they were not available until too late in the day so I flagged it until later in the week.

I took one of the motorbikes for a spin around the block, in NZ terms these are automatic scooters, rather than a motorbike. I did Ok, got up to 40kmh and was passing most of the locals, who generally ride quite slowly. I was tempted to hire one, and may still do so as they are a great way of getting about and at $7US a day, cheap as. But after heaps of faffing I ended up jumping on the back of Dan’s bike and he took his brother Russell, riding his own bike, and I into the main mall in the centre of town. I am soooooooo glad I was not riding, crazy crazy ride, it may not be fast but you need fifty eyes to ride a bike here !

Had a great coffee and cake at a ‘western’ coffee shop in the mall and then Russell and I checked out the market so he could buy some “Oakey” sunglasses and jandals – he is pretty good at the bargaining and got way better deals than I would have. We were wandering around town when Dan arrived back on the bike and he and Russell went back to the mall and I decided to walk the 5-6k back to the hotel and get a feel for Da Nang.

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It was a hot hot walk and I got a bit stuck walking down a road that I expected to have a side road towards the beach, that didn’t, so I ended up walking a whole lot further than planned until I found a small side road heading beach wards. This lead me through a fishing village that I am pretty sure did not see too many westerners wandering around, lots of people came out to see me, many saying hello from their gardens, it was kinda cool ! Once I made it to the beach it was a 15 minute stroll back to where we were swimming this morning, past the fishing vessels. P1110594

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Made it back to the hotel way later than planned and spent the afternoon listening to music and reading. Just before I got a call from Dan asking me to come down for beers at the beach it rained ! man, I have not seen rain for weeks – the last time was when i poured down in Puerto Princesa in the Philippines and the hostel flooded ! It was nice to walk down the street with a bit of drizzle falling. Though the lightening on the beach later in the evening suggested walking on an exposed road would not be a good idea!

I was excited to see this ! P1110599

I think it was the first night I had not sweated in three months !

Had a good time with Dan, Bruce, Tina and Russell over a few beers and some food and then an early night for all before Dan’s big day tomorrow. Early start, with us all being picked up at 8.00 !

Good Morning (or early afternoon) Vietnam !

Day 91, Wednesday 04 April 2012, Da Nang, Vietnam.

I have a very unreliable internet connection in the hotel room in Da Nang so will go back to using BlogDesk, the one good thing with it is I can upload photos to BlogDesk off line and it will post everything when connected, this means I can do entire posts offline which is awesome…

Facebook is blocked in Vietnam, bizarrely however, the FB cellphone apps are not, so I can access on my phone but not on my netbook. The only issue with that is I cannot seem to work out how to comment on photos on the cellphone app, doh ! So apologies if I do not reply to any FB comments.

Right, back to Bangkok – I was up at 4.30 am and quietly snuck out of the hostel and up to Sukhumvit, the hostel told me I would have no problems finding a cab, even at that time of day and this was very true. I had only barely got to the street when three cabs all stopped to give me a ride. The hostel did get the price to the airport wrong, they said 300-350 baht – but it only cost 150, bonus!

Even at 5.00 am the airport was manic, the Air Asia check in was crowded and slow and I queued for forty five minutes, I am soooooo glad I got there early as I really wanted coffee before I got on the plane.

The flight to Ho Chi Minh City (HMC) was fine, full as all AA flights are, but reasonably smooth and we got there on time. I had pre-ordered my Vietnam visa on line and had to wait about 40 minutes in various queues to get it all processed, but a simple process. Myanmar and Vietnam are the only two countries that I have been to that do not do visa on arrival for NZers.

I walked over to the dometic terminal and queued some more to check in to the Vietnam Airlines flight to Da Nang. Once checked I found neither of my cards worked in the airport ATM so I could not get any local currency without changing some of my Thai or US and i wanted that for later as I did not have a whole lot anyway – so no coffee… the flight to Da Nang was the roughest I have had since my travels began – and I am not convinced it was the fault of the weather either, but we landed safely !

It was great to be met at the airport for a change ! My friend Dan was there with his motorbike to pick me up and we had a quick ride to the Pearl Sea Hotel where all the non-Vietnamese wedding guests are staying.

The rest of the crew were down by the beach for lunch, so after a very quick change we were off again. The hotel is a ten minute walk to the beach, and man what a beach ! White sand as far as the eye can see, one section of the bay is China Beach, made famous as a key landing point and military base for the US Army during the Vietnam war. Lunch was great ! beer and coffee just what was needed.
on the back of the bike again, I don’t think I am ready to ride on these streets, the Vietnamese do not ride fast, but there are a lot of them and they ride everywhere, road rules have limited application here !

Hoi An is a UNESCO heritage site and a semi-well preserved old town with sections dating back 300 years. It is a gorgeous little town and one I will go back to later and spend some more time looking around, we got there quite late in the day so did not get much time for photos and exploration. Though we did discover fresh beer for about 25 cents a handle !

If you are new to my blog, then you will soon find out I love bicycles, especially the older steel ones found in SE Asia. There will be bike photos when I find them.

After a very nice noodle dish for dinner, whose name I have totally forgotten we went for a walk along the water front. Hoi An is famous for its river and lanterns, with floating candle lanterns being a popular tourist attraction and there were numerous girls (child labour sadly) selling them along the river front for tourists to purchase and then float down the river.

There is also the Japanese bridge which was built in the late 1500’s.

We all walked back up to the bikes and to wait for the car to come and collect us, Dan had hired a people mover sized vehicle to ferry people around and Van’s brother Luc (I am guessing at the spelling) was driving us around. Though in true Vietnamese fashion the 10 minute wait was an hour. I experimented with panning photos again : )

We had a reasonably early night which I needed after the very early start !

So far Da Nang has been pretty cool, we are away from the main back packer area, not that many stay here as Hoi An is the key attraction, but the streets are big and wide, the traffic is crazy but not crazy crazy and the beach is lovely and beer is cheap!

a nothing day

Day 90, Tuesday 03 April 2012, Bangkok

A bit jaded this morning after one or two vodkas too many last night. I had breakfast with John and have his contact details for when I eventually arrive in Sweden, which I am looking forward to. I lurked – pretty much entirely in bed, for the morning, in the guesthouse and finally left at chucking out time at 11.00

Tuk tuk to the mini-van depot – and discovered I was not ripped off the by tuk tuk on the day I arrived, the price is the price ! The mini-van driver was a loony, lane changing every 10 or 15 seconds, didn’t seem to make any progress through the traffic, but it didn’t bother him, we did make it unscathed back to downtown Bangkok though, so a bonus really.

I did very little after that, my nose had been streaming for the past 24 hours and I was dead tired so just spagged the afternoon in the good old HI-Sukhumvit hostel as tomorrow I am up at 4.30 to get to the airport to fly to Da Nang.

What wat is what 3

Day 89, Monday 02 April 2012, Ayutthaya

A quick post as I am going to get too far behind again, it is lateish in the evening and I have no wifi in my room in Da Nang and the next few days will get busy I suspect.

Last full day in Ayutthaya and I got the bike again and rode out to the eastern wats, definitely not as good as the ones in the centre of town, but here are a few photos from them.

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I also rode to the remains of the Portugese settlement – a few bricks on the ground… and then to the floating market…. where I took a photo of a buffalo as the market was neither floating nor a proper market. P1110443

After a wee lie down I went on a late afternoon boat tour of the rivers around the island. The tour was Ok, no real guidance from the boat guy, but saw the town from the other side which was interesting anyway. P1110461

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Saw these people feeding the river catfish – earning credits for the next incarnation. P1110468

Ayutthaya was hit badly in the floods last year and you can see on the house how high the water went. P1110517

And again the water line on this temple site is a good four metres above the normal tide mark. P1110515

On the boat trip there was two other people from my guest house, John and his daughter Jesse, I joined them for a couple of drinks and then dinner at one of the restaurants in town. we then went back to the hostel and had a couple more drinks, where the Swiss guest house owner joined us as well.

It was a pretty good day, nice to hang with some people for dinner.