wheresphil

Vhat Vat is Vat

Day 121, Friday 4 May 2012, Luang Prabang

Happy 22nd Birthday Dom !

Luang Prabang (LP) is a UNESCO protected town situated where the Nam Khan joins the Mekong River. The town itself does not appear to be particularly old but it does contain a large number of old temples or Vat’s as they are known in Laos. Architecturally the temples are similar to those in Thailand, and at first glance Laos shares many things with that country – food being one of them. There are also a number of colonial buildings and Laotian style dwellings in town, and I must say from first glance it is a pretty town, quiet and gentle and a huge relief after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi.

I had a miserable sleep, I obviously compensated for the awesome effort the night before by having a terrible sleep last night. So I was up early again, wifi was still not working and breakfast wasn’t part of the deal so I took a walk into town to find both, preferably in the same place. The main drag Sisavangvong Rd (and the last time I am going to mention a Laos street name) was about ten minutes from the hostel, with a good portion of that walk above the low but beautiful Nam Khan river. I soon reached down town LP, which is basically one main street a hundred metres long full of tour shops and restaurants. The town is of course, significantly bigger than this and full of nice shady, quiet streets to stroll down. It is now well past peak season for tourists so it is a perfect time to visit, with just enough people to keep most of the restaurants open, but nowhere near crowded.
I walked past Vat Sene, – the wats are Vat in Laos…

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And then Vat Sickharam

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I booked myself onto a tour to Pak Ou cave for tomorrow and picked up a decent map of LP, then stopped for breakfast and an internet session at a local cafe – before heading back to the GH for a shower and to get ready to start exploring.

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I decided I would do the peninsula part of LP first, walk up the side of the Nam Khan, stopping on one of the bridges and then down the Mekong to the centre of town and check out some vats on the way.

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Vat Xieng Tong is one of the main temple sites in LP, it has been restored over the years, restoration work continues at a number of temples throughout the town. Laos is a practising Buddhist country and a large number of the young men choose to do time as monks, so a number of the temples here have working monasteries.

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I really liked the decorated doorways.

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The glass murals

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The small woodblock prints on the walls and pillars.

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And these lovely old Buddha figures.

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The renovation work at Vat Pak Khan has just started so the monastery is still in semi-original condition, I arrived soon after the monks had eaten.

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Vat Sickhounmaung

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And my favourite, Vat Xieng Muan – as it was small and a bit quirky and I so loved these doors. Why do I love doors ? who knows !

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It was very hot and still here, as I had left early i had not really been a good boy with the sun screen, so around mid day decided I would have lunch and then head back to the GH for some shade and a cool down. You know it is hot and sunny when the bikes are covered.

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I stopped at Wat Siphoutthabat on the way.

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It was too bright for the view but i liked the sign…

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After a lie down I headed out to That Chomsi, it is on the top of a small hill in the centre of town and was worth a visit on its own. I got as far as the ticket office (I should say there is a fee of about $3NZ at the main sites, it is a bit frustrating, but supposedly the money goes towards maintenance, I hope so.

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Donations

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At the ticket office I ran into Karen, who i briefly talked to at the visa counter last night at the airport. We started chatting and it got too close to closing time for the Vat so I decided to flag it tonight and went for a walk around town and had dinner with Karen, always nice to have company ! We parted company about 9.00 and I went back to the GH to try and make up for last nights lack of sleep.

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You will all be pleased to know that I had a GOOD day, and am loving LP so far !

On to Laos

Day 120, Thursday 03 May 2012, Hanoi – Luang Prabang.

Wow !!!

I will confess to popping half a sleeping pill, I haven’t had one a while, but I was tired and have had a few lousy sleeps lately, but, anyway – Wow ! I slept, and dozed solidly for almost 11 hours ! I have not slept that long in years – that is almost three days normal sleep (or lack there of).

I probably could have dozed longer but the cleaners were making such a racket in the hall, I was actually getting a bit pissed off with them, thinking, come on guys how can you be cleaning this early – I checked my watch and it was 8.30. I couldnt believe it – the benefits of a windowless room ! The massive sleep probably explains my feralness over the past few days, I must have been more tired than I thought…

I flagged breakfast as it is very average, the worst in Vietnam – it’s what happens when you go cheap I guess, and spent the morning in my room doing some emails, packing and generally lazing about. I am reading IQ84 by Haruki Murakami on my e-reader – a recommendation from a friend, it is 1137 pages long, so thank God for e-readers, but I am very hooked.

I checked out at 12.00 and had organised for a ride to the airport for 2.00 PM, so went walkabouts for a feed with wifi. I was glad to only pay for one night in my bad room and wasn’t going to say I had two ! I got very confused and ended up walking the streets of Hanoi for an hour and a half under a 39 degree blaring sun. I ended up trying to find Moom again, but didn’t. I really struggled in Hanoi, normally I am not too bad (Mike may disagree after some average choices in Myanmar), but normally once I have been somewhere I can find my way back blindfold. Another reason why I was not happy with Hanoi. Anyway I ended up hungry and thirsty at the hotel at 1.30 and waited in a sweaty heap for my ride.

On the way to the airport I witnessed the aftermath of yet another traffic accident, fortunately this time it was only car v power pole and no motorbikes were involved, though I am stuffed if I can work out how the hell he/she hit the pole the way they did unless they were on the wrong side of the road, well it is Vietnam….

I was at the airport way before my flight, so finally got my lunch, my beer and my wifi session before changing into something relatively clean before boarding my Lao Airlines flight to Luang Prabang (LP). It was a great flight on an ATR 72 prop jet, full flight of tourists and very smooth too.

We arrived in LP about 8.00 pm and I shared a cab into town with another couple. I had booked accommodation at Villa Merry house 2 online that morning, but they didn’t have a room so I got a bed in House 1 for half the price, and would have been happy to stay another night but it was booked so house 2 from tomorrow.

Wifi was down apparently so I went for a walk up the road and had a snack and a Beer Lao in a local cafe, then bed.

Tam Coc

Day 119 , Wednesday 02 May, 2012, Tam Coc.

I was put in a new room last night, pretty crap really, TV doesn’t work, bed squeaks really badly and internet is painfully slow, if I can connect at all. There is also no window, reasonably common in some places, but first one time in Vietnam.

I awoke with some trepidation as today I am going to do another tour and after the disappointment of Ha Long Bay I am worried it is going to be another long and tiresome day, at least it is only the one day.

I was picked up late, which is never a great start for me, and I will say pretty unusual for Vietnam, in my experience things generally happen on time. I jumped on the mini-bus to find I was the only westerner and my immediate thought was Oh shit, here we go again ! we did pick up an American girl at another hotel, and once full we were off.

The tour goes to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc. Hoa Lu was the first capital of Vietnam under the Dinh dynasty from 968 – 980 and the Li dynasties from 980 – 1009. The capital was then moved to Hanoi. Tam Coc is known as Ha Long Bay on rice paddies. Both sounded interesting.

Level crossing Hanoi styles, spot the odd person out !

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First stop, of course, was a cafe/souvenir shop half way along the four hour drive to Hoa Lu. I started talking cameras with the guy next to me in the cafe and he was in a group of three couples from Miri in Malaysian Borneo (and I place I much enoyed !), like many Malay Chinese they all had great English and were interested to know I had been to their home town. I hung with them for the rest of the day, so yay – I had some tour buddies ! This is obviously no fake !

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All along the highway outside of Hanoi there are miles of paddy fields, the area between the Red River and the sea is very productive. A lot of communities and families have rice paddies, vegetable gardens and often a large pond full of fish and ducks, they can be quite self sufficient. Many of the rice paddies will have burial sites in the middle, some quite large and others with just a single grave. Unfortunately I really didn’t get a chance to capture one properly from the bus.

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The limestone hills are not going to last long !

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Hoa Lu has been pretty much destroyed over the years and there are two key sites left which are the temple sites to the two dynasties, we visited King Dinh first.

King Dinh

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Number one son

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Next stop was King Li’s temple, though my picture of Mr Li sucked, so it is not here.

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I was going to do a bike ride from Hoa Lu to Tam Coc, it is only 12km, but I was the only one who had registered for it, and it was 41.5 degrees outside, yep it sure as hell was hot! I decided to take the bus with the others. Later that night I met some Canadians who had done it the day before (it was only 39 then) and they said the first 500 metres was Ok, then it was gruelling – and the last 7kms were through houses and very dull – he also got sun stroke, so I am glad I chose not to do it.

We had a buffet lunch in Tam Coc, this was the best feed I have had a tour – great variety of foods, and eating with the Malaysians I got to experiment a bit, the goat kebabs were charcoaled though and uneatable – or maybe the goat was tough, not sure. The restaurant sold hats – and believe me, you needed one, it was scorching.

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Token bicycle shot…

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The afternoons activity was a two hour boat ride through the rice paddies on the Ngo Dong river, we were rowed by a local woman.

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As “The Guide” says, it turns into a surreal sales experience, sadly they also demand a tip, which is embarrassing for all. However, the trip was great, quiet and gentle for the most part, there are a huge number of boats, and I can assure you the Vietnamese drive these like they ride motorbikes, no one gives way until the yelling is over…

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The river gently meanders through rice paddies, surrounded by magnificent limestone bluffs, with the occasional temple and house along the way. On three occasions we passed through low caves in the lime stone bluffs.

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A lot of the men and women row with their feet, which is just amazing to watch, their are also a large number of local photographers, who snap your photo, whether you want it or not and then try to flog you an appalling printed image at the end. This woman was rowing and snapping at the same time, awesome !

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After the river we were back on the bus for the ride back to Hanoi. As we were dropping off some of the other guests I recognised the street where my favourite cafe was, so I got dropped off. I found Moom on the first night in Hanoi, and have been unable to find it since, and not through a lack of trying either ! I had a couple of beers and a small pizza with a Canadian couple and a young English t guy, and at nine I wandered back to my hotel for some sleep – the bestest sleep ever !!

Ha Long Bay

Days 117/118, Monday/Tuesday 30/01 May 2012, Ha Long Bay.

I will make this is a short written post, with a few pictures as it wasn’t a great time, no particular reason I just did not have much fun…

The Good
Ha Long Bay is definitely beautiful and I was blessed with near perfect weather for the trip, near – at 39 degrees it was hot.
The toilets worked.
The van was not full
No one sung karaoke.

The OK
I got to kayak – but only for 40 mins, but I did enjoy it.
I got a swim
The boat was comfortable.
I had a person to talk to – sort of.
The food was generally good, but lacked quantity.

The bad
It was too expensive, I paid $20 more than my room mate, i was ripped off.
Most people smoked, inside outside wherever, boat crew and all.
The crew didnt speak English, at all – even ordering a coffee was difficult, I have never experienced it that bad.
1 other person spoke some English, but he spent most of his day reading.
I was the only person who wanted to do stuff, ie i went swimming. I was told I was not allowed to jump off the boat as it was too shallow – but all the other boats had no issues.
I wasn’t allowed to kayak through the cave – too dangerous- other boats were doing it.
Coffee was shit – luckily we were only allowed 1.
No ones fault – but it was a public holiday and the place was packed !!
My kayak was stuffed, i ripped two fingernails and think i have a bit of fibre glass up one of them due to a tear in the glass that I kept catching myself on when paddling.
The battery in my little camera died on day 1, I think I need a new battery, took some photos on the phone, I didn’t take my proper camera, wish I had now.
The road to Ha Long Bay is a disgrace – seeing how many tour buses use it, not like me to complain about roads, been on some shockers, but given the prominence of this road I expected more.
I mean no dis-respect but the Vietnamese are truely the most awful drivers I have seen !

Ok, enough whinging….

The port

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The Journey

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Ha Long Bay

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The first activity was a walk to the Sung Sot caves, the biggest cave system in Nth Vietnam. The walk up was a tad crowded…

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Waiting for the boat, there were shopping oppotunities.

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From there is was off kayaking, and my favourite part of the trip. Alone in my stuffed two person kayak.

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The boat I was on – it wasnt bad.

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After a kayak, I had a wee swim and then it was dinner and sunset.

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Next day we paid extra to go through Monkey cave – I am assuming this was why I couldnt kayak through. Sadly one of our party thought testing the echo by yelling, constantly, to the great amusement of his friends, would be fun. No monkeys were seen .

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We had a further spending opportunity.

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Then it was back to shore, back on the bus and back to the hotel.

I loved this bridge, looks like they just kinda stopped building !

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I’m in a rut, got to get out of it, out of it

It’s a song, I am not reaching for the opium pipe yet.

I have just got back to my room from a solo dinner in some nameless, deserted cafe in Hanoi, it is hot and humid, the air con is barely working, web access sucks and the TV just died. I am a bit over it all really.

Late this afternoon I got back from my two day trip to Ha Long Bay. What can I say about Ha Long Bay, one of the “new seven wonders of the natural world”, not going to overly disagree, (I haven’t seen the whole world – yet) , but it surely is a stunningly beautiful place and the weather came to the party as well.

It is just a pity the tour sucked, or maybe I sucked I am not sure which, but I will attempt to put it down on, the er – internet I guess, maybe I will start with paper.

[Edit] editing photos from the trip (and yeah well, that went badly as well) and this selfie seems to explain it all ![/edit.]

I am in a rut at the moment. Where’s that half of Jamesons ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6ZkJBTyKg

P.S. – Opium is smoked reasonably freely on the streets here – I am assuming it is opium !

Paying a visit to Uncle Ho

Day 116, Sunday 29 April 2012, Hanoi

I was awake at 5.00, I am really am going to have to put some serious effort into staying up later in the evenings so I don’t wake so damn early. One of the issues I have with being on my own is I entertaining myself in the evenings. Though it sounds like I have been out drinking a lot, i don’t really do sitting in bars drinking on my own, I am way worse than that. I sit in my room drinking alone – well sort of, I have one or two while writing blog posts, not big nights of boozing. Once the blogging is done I kinda run out of enthusiasm, in fact – I usually run out about three quarters of the way through the post and I think that shows clearly in some of my entries. Maybe I should make them shorter !

The going to bed early is the start of a vicious cycle, early bed, early awake, early out doing things, early back for a rest, early out again, early dinner, early drink, back to bed…

Ha Long Bay tour tomorrow so should be with a group – fingers crossed there are some good folk on the tour, I am always in fear I will end up with a bunch of muppets, I should be able to vet their personalities before they are allowed on the bus !

Now – I have kinda got a plan, at least in my head, sorted. I was dead keen to dive Sipidan in Malaysian Borneo, however I got an email from one of the dive companies there and it will cost me at least $1500 NZD + flights to dive, on a minimum four day package. This will really stretch my available funds, so I may have to dive somewhere cheaper – any suggestions ??

Thailand or Malaysia – I will be ending my travelling in Chiang Mai and fly to the UK from Kuala Lumpur, so happy to dive anywhere sort of in between – as long as it is GOOD…

Back to the day – I was up in the ‘restaurant’ too early for eggs, so had a meagre breakfast of horrible toast and banana and a couple of coffees. I was on the road by 7.30 and took a long walk to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Around the Presidential Palace.

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I knew it was going to busy, but wow – the queue was 500 metres long at 8.15, and it took me 10 minutes to find the end!

The start of the queue

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The middle – though I had to hand my camera in soon after – no cameras allowed from here to the mausoleums exit.

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The end of the queue !

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However the queue moved pretty quickly and I was through in half an hour. The visit was interesting – basically you queues for ages, shuffle quickly through the mausoleum, past dead Uncle Ho and out the other side. No stopping, no lingering and definitely no photos, I slowed down a bit inside as I kept stepping on the heel of the young girl in front of me – and got a hurry up nudge on the arm by one of the numerous guards.

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After a slow walk through the palace grounds with hundreds of Vietnamese I visited the One Pillar Pagoda, but decided to flag the nearby museum as it looked like a repeat of the HCM museum in HCMC (as it were !)

HCM’s place of residence in the 50’s

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One Pillar Pagoda

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I went in search of coffee on the way to my next stop which was the temple of literature, I wanted airconned – or at least fan cooled coffee, though it was cloudy and only 29 degrees I was still sweating like a trooper and needed a seat and a cool down, a roadside coffee was not going to work – though I should have taken one as I found nothing !

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The temple of literature was barely interesting, I am not sure if there was war damage to it, but everything is so renovated and concreted, new features are still being added, and it really detracts from the ambience of historical sites. I have mentioned this before, so no ranting now ! It was worth visiting, but was hardly a highlight of Vietnam.

This is really common in Buddhist temples, relics that have been rubbed so many times over the years there is a shiny spot. I think it is awesome.

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Vietnamese calligraphy.

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The place was fairly busy so I was amazed to be able to grab this shot without too long a wait.

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I had been on my feet for three hours by the time I left and was in need of water and coffee and some food , I wandered back into the old quarter to try and find my lunch spot from yesterday, maybe I was confused by being so dehydrated but I just could not find it and almost got lost wandering around I stopped for a coffee and chicken rice at a random place and found the wifi wasn’t working which was frustrating as I would have gone somewhere else that had wifi and relaxed for a while. So, it was back to the hotel room for a cooling shower and a lie down – bushed, and it is only 12.30. It was a good morning though, I do like walking around watching all the people, especially the lost tourists !

Yesterday I handed some washing in to the hotel to do, I got it back today and every item has a small label with my room number attached by two safety pins – labour is so cheap here.

After a wee lie down I started work on finalising some plans, I got myself booked on a flight from Hanoi to Luang Prabang in Laos for the third May, which kinda settles my plans for Vietnam ! I was planning on flying from Luang Prabang down to Pakse and then making my way back up to Vientane and then over to Chiang Mai, but there is no flight to Pakse anymore… going to have to rethink my whole damn schedule again : (

Bah, I went for walkabout, a couple of beers and some dinner.

A lovely (is there such a thing ?) old Citreon.

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I have sort of liked Hanoi, but like all large cities it is very impersonal and I have not connected with anyone since I have been here – this makes meal times less than fun times, though like all big cities wandering the streets is always interesting. I have been a bit reluctant to take photos here, there has always been someone in shot and I really do not want to offend by snapping peoples photos without their permission, well if they are looking at me anyway : )

After dinner it was back to the room to watch a bit of TV, review todays photos and post this blog entry!

A wander around Hanoi

Day 115, Saturday 28 April 2012, Hanoi

I woke early but lounged around in bed till 8.00 – and not due to the bottle of Jamesons I bought last night as I only had a couple, oh ye of little faith

Up for breakfast and found again that I was the only person in the restaurant – I am really starting to wonder about the places I pick – I have generally selected hotels/hostels/ guest houses that rate well on various websites, based on the assumption others would too. However it appears I choose places that no one else goes to. Maybe when I go Luang Prabang I will stay in a dorm room, though with my luck it will be empty bar me – at least it will be cheap I guess. Breakfast was average so maybe that was it !

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I also discovered my first hotel cockroach in four months of travel – awesome, and about time too, I have heard so many stories of hotel cockroaches and was starting to doubt them!

For the first time in weeks I wore shoes today, I have a few grazes on my toes from the crappy flippers I was using diving and my jandals are virtually worn out now so I was getting sore feet walking in them last night.

I had loose plans to see a few sites when I left the hotel this morning, but the real aim was to walk and enjoy Hanoi. I didn’t bring the longer zoom lens which was a bit frustrating as there was a few things I would have used it on where the 20mm was way too wide – tomorrow !

My first stop was the remains of “Hanoi Hilton”, Hoa Lo Prison as it is officially named. The prison was opened by the French in 1896 and was used by them up until they were kicked out in the 50’s. It was then used by the Vietnamese to house US airman captured during the Vietnamese/American war. There is only a small section of the prison left standing. The commentary is very biased, the French were bastards (probably true) but the Vietnamese treated the American airman like hotel guests (probably not so true) and there were some great photos of smiling US prisoners to prove it. it was nowhere near as bleak as S21 in Phnom Penh.

I liked this quote from this female prisoner as she was sentenced to twenty years hard labour by the puppet government of the French.

“Will your regime be able to exist for another 20 years to keep me in prison”. Awesome !

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I wandered the streets a bit more.

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Feather duster seller.

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LCD TV delivery vehicles !

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If you get stopped by the police for any reason and cannot pay the instant fine then your motorcycle is confiscated on the spot and held for 10 days. When you get it back it will have no petrol and will possibly be missing parts. I heard one story of a newish engine being swapped for an old one. Got to love the police here !

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Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of restored sword) is the centre point of Hanoi’s old quarter. The lake’s story is that in the 15th century the Gods sent emperor Ly Thai To a magical sword which he used to drive off the Chinese invaders. Once the Chinese were gone a tortoise swam out of the lake, grabbed the sword and took into the lake to return it to the gods.

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Ngoc Son Temple is a an 18th century temple in the lake.

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St Josephs Cathedral was built in 1886 and was closed when I got there.

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After a wee lie and cool down I ventured out again for another wee walk.

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Some street art, sadly most of it was covered up !

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And some not so good.

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Finally – a bike I can photograph.

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This outing my goal was to find “Bia Hoi corner”, which funnily enough I did… Bia Hoi means fresh beer and is dirt cheap, at 30c a glass. It is made in the evening, delivered in kegs the following morning to the various street stalls and drunk that afternoon and evening by a large mix of Hanoi locals, expats and tourists.

Bia Hoi corner, it slowly takes over the street.

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I had a couple of beers followed by a noodle dinner and back in my room by 7.30. Tired.

Hanoi Arrival

Day 114, Friday 27 April 2012, Da Nang – Hanoi

Wow my four months of travelling anniversary today, pretty sure when I started I never expected to spend this much time in SE Asia, I may have planned to spend it , but those first couple of weeks of solo travel were tough. Looking back at some of my posts I was not exactly happy with my world – surviving it all was the key then. If everything goes according to plan then I have one month in SE Asia to go before heading to the UK and Europe and a new unknown – well almost, I have been there before, but it was a long time ago.

I did nothing active all morning, but had a productive time. I spent a good few hours catching up on a massive backload of emails, I am so sorry to all those who were waiting for replies, no excuses at all. I also got a good chunk of planning done including trying to organise some diving over my last week away. After some chasing have finally had a response from the company I used to send a box of stuff to the Uk, including my big DSLR camera – I am looking forward to being reunited with it !

I want to do the Sipidan dive in Malaysian Borneo, the site is one of the top dive sites in the world and is restricted by the Malaysian government to a limited number of divers per day. I dived nearby back in Jan but couldn’t get a dive there then a there was a four week waiting list. I emailed Scuba Junkies who I dived with in January and the closest they could do to June 1 was June 14 ! No good for me… But tonight I may have found another place, so hope to finalise soon.

As I left for the airport I felt good about my morning for a change ! I also had some awesome news from my sister and bro-in-law, that I will share later. But I am very pleased, though happy is not a word I will use in this situation.

I am reasonably convinced my taxi to the airport was being driven by a guy who may have driven a car before, but if he had it was probably only a couple of times, interesting is the word I would use. It was the first time I had gripped the sides of the seat in a cab, thankfully he was slooooooow. At the airport I had a traditional Vietnamese meal – I think this is the only BK I have seen in Vietnam…

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The flight was a wee bit bumpy, especially the descent into Hanoi, probably the lumpiest flight i have had so far on my travels.

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I had organised an airport pick up to my hotel, seems to be a lot of airport taxi scams in Hanoi at the moment. I was surprise at how far away the airport is from town, so glad I did. I snapped a few things on the way. I recognise the ironing board, but I cannot figure out what else was there.

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Once I was settled into the Atlantic hotel (Atlantic ???) I went walkies around town for a while, it was dark soon after I left so it was a short walk, though I grabbed a fried rice meal while out. Hanoi, or at least this part is way crazier than Saigon !

Outside my hotel

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I think I have stepped into an episode of Dr Who !

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Bathroom essentials – soap tray, loo roll, ash tray, and this is a non smoking hotel !

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I picked up a bottle of Jamesons Irish Whisky tonight and had a celebratory drink in my room. I then discovered the shower doesn’t work, grrrrrrr.

My Son (sorry Dom and Aiden – not talking about you)

Day 113, Thursday 26 April 2012, Da Nang – My Son

Once I was secured in my room at the Phi Yen Hotel I pretty much crashed straight away. When I was on the train I was really looking forward to a shower, but after two late nights in a row all I could manage was to flop unceremoniously on the bed where I remained until I awoke, rather groggily at 8.

My plan for Da Nang was to visit My Son as I missed it last time I was here and to catch up with a couple of people from the wedding, however I am stuffed if I can find my Vietnam sim card and I have phone numbers on it…

So, I have decided tdo a trip to My Son and have got a motorbike taxi for a few hours for $25, I could definitely do it more cheaply on my own but I am not riding a bike for 150kms !

Motorbike is definitely the way to see the country, we went pretty slowly so I got to see a lot more than I have done on buses or in cars, we only had one “oh shit” moment when a guy on a motorbike just shot out of a side heading the wrong way into us as we were being passed by a truck – well maybe I had the “oh shit” moment and everyone else just carried on as normal. I did see two guys got knocked off their bikes by side swipe from a passing bus, no one was hurt, thank God, and no one seemed to be too worried. Daily life on the road in Vietnam, if you make it home at the end of the day it’s a good thing.

My Son was a bit of a let down to be honest, maybe my expectations were too high for a site that is quite small and was bombed only forty years ago. Those days around Angkor and Bagan have given me unrealistic expectations for all ancient sites in SE Asia.

On the ride back to the hotel I was comparing the rebuild of Christchurch to the rebuild of Vietnam and have realised I have been very unfair on the historical sites here. The expectation is it will take many many years to rebuild Christchurch city, in a country that has a good economic base and a commitment to rebuilding. After the war Vietnam had no economic base and so much of its infrastructure had been destroyed, the rebuilding of places that are hundreds of years are old were and still are not a priority. Having said that there is a huge amount of construction work in Da Nang, from highways and resorts to houses and historic sites there is work going on everywhere.

My Son is a small cluster of Hindu temples started in the 4th century and active as a site until the 14th. The French started the renovation of the site in the 1930’s and had completed, what appears to be, some good work until hostilities started. The site was heavily bombed by our American cousins during the American war of aggression AKA the Vietnam War.

I found this great cockie in the small museum at the entrance, biggest I have seen that was not on a BBQ 🙂

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The trail down from the first temple site just made me think of my lovely Waitakere Ranges at home.

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I spent an hour and a half wandering listlessly around, not really in the zone for it today, there was a big tour group there the same time as me and it was very hot.

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I stopped for a water or two at the end and found this little beauty.

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On the way back to the hotel we stopped briefly at this temple. The wind had really picked up on the way back and we had a couple of good gusts hit the bike.

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After a wee lie down I walked a couple of kms to the good old beach side Temple Bar for a pizza and beer, though their internet access was down, which was a bit of a pain as I was going to do a couple of hours of email. I snapped a couple of pics on the walk there and back.

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I was back in the hotel with a full belly and zero energy by 6.30 PM, watched a bit of V8 super car racing from Hamilton – wicked, haven’t seen any all season !

Diving, late late nights and 10 hours on a train

Days 111/112, Tuesday/Wednesday 24/25 April, 2012, Nha Trang

Up early again for a repeat of yesterdays breakfast at Salut and then off to Angel Divers shop for the pickup to the boat. It was a similar group to yesterday so I knew we would have a good day.

There was one other advanced open water diver with the group so I got paired up with Louis for the first dive, which was at Madonna Rock again. We did a deeper dive than yesterday with a more difficult swim through, having to swim down under a shelf and then up through a shute, loads of fun. We also repeated the best swim through from yesterday, Louis was behind me and filmed the swim so I am hoping to get a copy of the clip. We spent a bit of time trying to find a big grouper that lives around the rocks, apparently much bigger than the one we saw yesterday, but to no avail sadly. Visibility at depth is not great which is a bummer.

For the next two dives I was alone with the dive master Michael, a guy from England and an avid Arsenal supporter. He has taken my email address and said he will see if he can hook me up with one of his mates who has corporate season tickets to Arsenals home ground, Emirates stadium, in the new season. Now that would be cool !

The second and third dives were variations of dives from yesterday, with similar sea and coral life to look at. We did come across a massive school of fish that seemed to be doing a swim past a metre from my face, we followed them around for a bit which was fun, but then air was running low so we called it quits.

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Like yesterday the in between dives was spent mucking about in the water, diving and jumping off the boat, pushing people in – it was like being a teenager again, and for me really added to the enjoyment of the day.

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Selfies under water, in a wet suit with no weight belt are not easy.

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Bird nesters homes.

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Once the dive was over and we were back on shore I spent a bit of time cooling down and relaxing in my room before meeting Dave, a diver trainee I hung out with a bit over the past two days for dinner at eight (way too late for me !) . We met at the dive shop and as he was the only diver booked for the dive tomorrow they mutually agreed to have a day off. We had a beer at the shop and went off in search of pizza and more beer.

After pizza we went back to Why Not Bar – one of the two big backpacker bars in Nha Trang, we had a couple of drinks and were joined by JC, my dive master from yesterday, who also works part time at the bar. At midnight when JC’s shift finished we moved to another bar with a few of the guys and girls from the dive shop and then back to Why Not at 2.00 AM to watch Chelsea v Barcelona in the Champions League football. I got to bed at 4 am, fortunately I did not drink a huge amount, so was not suffering too badly when I got up !

The bar was interesting, this was my first time in a backpacker bar late in the night, it wasn’t packed at 2.00, but there were quite a few people – the majority of which were pretty drunk. The people watching was fascinating. We assisted one extremely drunk Greek guy who was on his own, completely incoherant and had no idea where he was staying. The dive shop guys were concerned that at closing time the bar staff would just put on the street where he would likely get robbed. Fortunately a couple of girls recognised him from their hostel so we bundled him in a cab and sent him on his way.

It was a good final night in Nha Trang, hanging out with a good bunch of people always makes for a great time.

I woke about 8.00 and tentatively opened one eye after the other, realising my head was not going to fall off I praised myself for the wisdom in drinking beer slowly, though I was up almost all night so there was definitely some wisdom lacking when I made that choice.

I did very little for the morning, went to the dive shop to see if they had the video footage but the camera card reader was not in the shop so I wandered off for breakfast instead and hope that they email me one day.

At 12.00 I checked out and went to the lobby and shared a taxi to the train station. I hung about with an Aussie family at the station until the train arrived forty five minutes late at about 2:15. The ride to Da Nang is approximately ten hours.

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This was my first sleeper car ride so I boarded the train with quiet expectation. I was in a totally different carriage to the Aussies, and after a brief moment of confusion found my bed – number 5.

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I am fortunate in that I have a bottom bunk as I least I can store my pack under the bed. There are only two of us in the room and I am sharing with a middle aged Vietnamese soldier who appears to have no English at this stage. The room is pretty grubby, though we do get a supposedly clean sheet which is a bonus.

My roomie promptly turned his radio on and the lay down and was snoring loudly well before 3.00 – this could be a long ride. I used the laptop (wrote some of this) until the battery died and then kind of mooched for a while with headphones on to drown out the snoring – this would be a feature for most of the next ten hours !

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I heard the snack cart goes past the closed door and nipped out and bought a can of 333 beer and a packet of biscuits, as nothing else really appealed. I shared a few biscuits and a smile with my roomie. At around 6.00 we stopped in a town and got another passenger in the room, he didn’t say much either so it was not going to be a long chatty ride like the one to Nha Trang. My roomie got off the train and came back with a meal of rice, fish and eggs and two cans of beer which he shared with me, very cool. We had an enjoyable meal over our small table, though we did not say much !

After dinner he slept again and I drowned the noise with loud music on mp3 player until we arrived in Da Nang late at 12.45. I took a motorbike taxi to my hotel and had to bang on the locked door to be let in.