photography – Page 9 – Where is Phil now?

Diving again – it has been too long

Day 110, Monday 23 April 2012, Nha Trang

Up before six this morning, slept very well for a beer sleep ! Got myself organised and went out for breakfast and back again for a five minute snooze before walking down to Angel Divers for my day of diving. I chose Angel as they were competitively priced and had great reviews on the Tripadvisor website. I have been using Tripadvisor a lot lately, more so than the guide book when it comes to checking out accommodation. I think it explains why I am ending up in guest houses that are not full of back packers – which may sound good to some, but is actually a bad thing in some ways as I am isolating myself a bit. When I shift up to Hanoi in a few days I will move in to a proper backpacker hostel and hope to find someone to travel to Laos with.

The day was an odd one, I was a bit frustrated with some initial lack of organisation from Angel, we got to the boat on time and away from the dock, but the gear was all over the show on the boat and it all seemed a wee bit ad hoc.

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However reflecting back over the day, most of the staff were very professional, the gear was in good condition, I have certainly had a lot worse – so I think my first impression was actually the wrong one, though briefing on the first dive was a bit loose…

We motored out to Hon Mun island, about 45 minutes from the mainland, the conditions were perfect for diving, a very gentle, cooling breeze and clear skies. There were ten divers, five on courses or learner dives and five experienced divers. The first dive I was with a group of three Germans (max four per dive master), the dive was Ok. The coral has been destroyed here and there was an Ok amount of small life and we saw all the usual suspects.

In some ways it was a good first dive back, as there was not a huge amount to see I could focus on buoyancy and technique – which set me up well for the second dive.

While we waited for the beginner divers to come back I had a wee play with my little camera Panasonic FT3, it is only rated waterproof to 10 metres so I cannot take it diving, but I jumped into the sea and snapped a few photos.

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The boat from below : )

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The second dive was at Madonna Rocks and I have to say it was fun. It was just me and JC and French Canadian dive master, so I got see a lot more things. The highlights of this dive was three cave swim throughs, the longest was five or six metres. JC swam though so smoothly and I was banging the walls with my legs and my head and felt such a mumpty. I guess if you dive daily then you get good at it ! In the first cave there was a nice size grouper as well which was most cool and the second cave had a large school of shimmering small fish which would have made for a superb shot.

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and 3

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We motored over to Mushroom Reef for the third and final dive of the day. We had to wait for a while before diving so the Germans and I had a bit of fun diving off the roof of the boat and bombing anyone who was in range. I also went for a brief snorkel and took a few snaps – and got burnt by the sun.

A fish !

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A sea urchin similar to the one I put my hand on while diving in the phillies – wont do that again !

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The third dive started off a bit dull, just rolling along a fairly deserted sandy area, but once we got into the reef it became a lot more interesting, again it was just JC and I and I had my buoyancy pretty dialled on this dive so I could just hang in the water as we looked at some of the things of interest. Highlight of this dive was a good size moray eel that was out of his hole and moving around the coral, very nice to see, and apparently quite rare as JC was really pleased to see it. I am really enjoying just being able to spend time looking closely at the coral and the small life within it, there is an amazing array of small fish, shrimps, crabs etc going about their business, it is quite cool.

We motored back into port and parked with all the other tourist boats.

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And were all picked up by a van and taken to a local restaurant for a reasonable lunch and then dropped back at the shop around 3.00. the diving was not spectacular, certainly not up to an El Nido or Semporna, but I had fun today, it was a good group and the DM’s were pretty good. I decided that if I could postpone my train ride to Da Nang till the day after tomorrow I would do one more day of diving. I could so I did….

My hotel have been great at arranging trains for me, I am assuming they get some sort of commission for booking tickets, but the receptionist here has just been so nice and simple to deal with, her English is fantastic and nothing is a problem. It makes life so much easier. She arranged for a train ride for the following day and secured me the bunk I originally wanted but didn’t get for tomorrow, its the details that matter sometimes.

I found this little critter outside my window.

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Walk around Saigon

Day 105, Wednesday 18 April 2012, HMC

Remarkably I was feeling OK after a few cocktails and beers last night, I think the cocktails were weaker than when they are at full price ! We were up early to get out while the day was still ‘cool’ and were at the market by 6.30 am, which was too early for most of the non-food related stalls.

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We walked round the fish section and found bucket loads of eels and squid and octopus.

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As well as the inevitable motorcycle – smoked pork anyone ?

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We stopped for a heart starter coffee in the middle of the market and this was one of the best I have had in Vietnam, as well as cheap.

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And then walked on to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was not open till 8.00 am, we then headed off to the Revolutionary Museum, but that too was closed so it was off to a street stall for pho for breakfast. See my new man bag ? “North Face” bag, $12… so much easier than humping a day pack around.

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Then back to Notre Dame for a quick look inside, I loved the floor tiles, especially if you get down low !

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Getting to Notre Dame was a real challenge, it is on a large traffic Island and things were moving quickly through here.

Then a walk back to the museum, there was no photography allowed in the museum, but I had to take a photo of that loo doorway !

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I love these rubbish bins, I have seen them in a few places in Vietnam – why penguins ??? P1120251

It was still early in the day, though stinking hot, so we decided to take the long walk back to the hotel and went via the Ton Duc museum – boring, Ton Duc was a past president of Vietnam, and the Ho Chi Minh museum, which was almost as boring – they both were comprised mainly of photos of them shaking hands with people… though the walk around is always good.

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By this stage it was about 11.00 and we were in need of more coffee and some food so decided t head back into the centre to look for cafes. We decided to try the really tall building, the Bitexco financial Tower to see if they had a viewing area and cafe, they did…. the viewing area was expensive at $12 NZ a head, but the view was fantastic from just below the helicopter pad. Coffee was outrageous so we didn’t have one there. P1120256

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We decided to find a supermarket and get some bread and cheese and just get back to the guesthouse to cool down and eat there, however at the mall we found a Highland Coffee and took shelter there over coffee and lunch before venturing back out into the mid-day heat back to the GH. I picked up this pack of biscuits at the supermarket – Arsenal and chocolate chip cookies, too of my favourite things !

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I spent the afternoon catching up on blog posts (again) and chilling in the coolness of an air conned room, cookies were crap…

At 6.00pm we took a walk back into town again.

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And had a couple of drinks at the Saigon bar at the Caravelle hotel. The Caravelle is where foreign journalists were based during the Vietnam war and the bar is still the same – though the hotel has been upgraded since. Leonie bought us a couple of drinks as she was heading back to New Zealand (and an income !) tomorrow and they were expensive – but very nice – Thanks Leonie 🙂

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On the walk back to the hotel we find these guys watering the gardens, subtle huh !

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By the time we got to the local restaurant we were whacked so grabbed a takeaway and ate in the room and slept.

Cocktail hour or two

Day 104, Tuesday 17 April 2012, HMC

Slow start to the day, though I wanted a down day to catch up on some blog posts as I am starting to get behind the eight ball again. Leonie had not been to the war remnants museum so she left early and I lounged around in the room for most of the morning trying to plan the next few weeks.

I put together a bit of a plan for Vietnam, Laos and Nth Thailand and realised I do not have enough time to do everything I want as well as do justice to Sri Lanka, so have decided to flag Sri Lanka this time and will go back there for a proper trip another day, so I will stay here as long as possible and go direct to London.

So….. with all this mind, I have booked myself a flight to the UK on Malaysia Airways, from KL on fifth June ! This gives me eight more weeks in SE Asia.

After Leonie got back and had time to cool down we went off to find some vege food for lunch, we found a nice Sth Indian restaurant on Bui Vien (the main tourist drag) and I had an exceptionally good vege korma and mango lassi – possibly the best korma I have had – it was that good !

After lunch I took a walk around some of the back alleys of Bue Vien.

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It is incredibly hot here at the moment, the sun is brutal and even a few minutes in the early afternoon is enough to get a major sweat on, so I soon headed back to the guest house for an air con respite. I got a whole pile of washing done and hand washed my day bag as it was rank and dusty as all heck – you should have seen the colour of the water !

Late in the afternoon, I was reading the blog of someone who “liked” one of my posts and she had been to the bar on level 23 of the Sheraton Hotel in HMC for happy hour and sunset . The photos were fab, so Leonie and I decided to make a rapid twenty minute walk over to the Sheraton to get there before the two for one cocktailsshappy hour finished. It was rush hour…

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We had a couple of drinks

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And admired the awesome view over Saigon as the sunset.

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The famous Caravelle Hotel

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After a few drinks and a wee wee stop – love the ashtrays in the loos….

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We walked passed the Louis Vuitton shop, amongst other big brands,

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Then had dinner at a street stall, and no, I had none of these options. Though I was not entirely sure what the ‘seafood’ I did have was.

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The Mekong Delta Tour

Days 101 -103, Sat/Sun/Mon 14-16 April 2012, Mekong Delta tour

A new first – a three day post. I have managed to post pretty consistently for the past hundred days, odd glitch here and there, but the record has been pretty good I reckon. My enthusiasm for it is waning some what, I am not sick of doing it, I still enjoy the photography and the review and selection of images and I still enjoy the writing, once I get going. It is the getting going that is the hard part !

I decided to do a tour of the Mekong rather than try and get around on my own, the guide book said it was easier and cheaper, and on reflection it was probably correct, all up the tour for three days and two nights, including one dinner, was $60NZD. I would be pushing to do that on my own.

I was disappointed, with the tour, not really the tour’s fault, maybe I was more disappointed with the Mekong Delta, as the most fertile area in SE Asia I was expecting to see vast rice paddies and the ‘typical’ rural community that I have seen elsewhere, of thatched huts and water buffalo. However for most of the eighteen hours I spent on mini-buses and vans over the three days we passed through town after town and after town, with virtually no breaks between. So I got to see a whole lot of houses and shops. I found out on the tour that twenty two million people live in the delta, with a large number living on the main road and water ways. The tour also took us to a few small businesses (as expected, though not all had shops !) including a honey farm, fruit farm, rice noodle making and coconut candy. The highlights were a home stay that I did one night plus the time on river systems that make up the delta.

As this is a three day post there are a few photos here, so I will let them do most of the talking…

Day 1. There a three tour options for the Delta, 1, 2 or 3 day and we all started out on the same mini-bus and over the few days we changed vehicle five times and people joined and left at various locations on the way. There was only four of us who made it to the end ! The mini-bus was pretty cramped – built for Vietnamese legs not Western ones and the ride was fairly long to Ben Tre (I think) where got on board the first boat of the tour and visited Dragon Island, where we got to hear some traditional Sth Vietnamese music.

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I discovered that they have the eyes on the front of the boats to scare away the crocodiles – and old tradition.

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Then on to some small canoes for a short but very crowded ride up a small river, that seemed a wee bit pointless – my paddler – seemed women did most of the work.

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The Vietnamese paddle canoes like they ride motorcycles !

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We hopped back on the boat and off to a coconut candy making place.

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And then to Phoenix Island for lunch and we finally were allowed to roam. A few of us grabbed bicycles and went for a ride. The bike guy was the surliest person I have come across in Asia so far, man he was miserable – even worse than the grumpy guy at Inle Lake when I didn’t pay to take photos. Of the five boys bikes all were un-rideable for various reasons so I took a chicks bike and he was not happy, I asked (via hand signals and pointing) for him to pump up the tyres that were flat on two of the boys bikes, and he just sat down with his back to me, so that I thought “f**k you Jimmy” and rode off. We only had thirty minutes but had a nice (though hot) ride up the side of the river.

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We then drove to Can Tho where the five us of doing a home stay were picked up by the homestay man (HM) and i have really stupidly forgotten his name. It was dark by now so the fifteen minute ride in the taxi followed by another fifteen in a canoe up the river were interesting. HM lived with his wife, two children and her (I think) parents on a small tributary off a larger tributary of the Mekong. We had no idea of what to expect, though he did tell us that five of us will sleep in the room with the five of them and it would be cosy (his English was great) though he also had a wicked sense of humour and when we arrived we found we all had basic bungalows along the river side with bed, fan and mozzie net.

As it was late his family had already eaten so we had dinner together and were shown how to roll spring rolls filled with fresh elephant fish, rice noodles and vegetables. The food was great.

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This was followed by a few (quite a few) rounds of rice wine shots to the call of Mot, Hai Ba, Yo!, (1 2 3 – drink – guess Yo is drink !). I was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to try some of the snake wine, this is a stronger (40%) rice win that has a small cobra and scorpion in the bottle – I have yet to get a good photo of this. It was fine – no stronger than a shot of scotch and tasted like a normal rice wine. Rice wine is the local home brew and tasted like sake, just stronger. It was a fun night, but fortunately over by 9.30.

Day 2. Up at 6.00 for breakfast at 6.30.

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As is the norm in SE Asia, the river is the source of everything, washing of our dinner dishes.

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Mrs HM checking the nets – do you love that single trunk bamboo bridge to the neighbours ?

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We were on the boat by 7.00 for the ride up a confusing collection of channels and tributaries back to Can Tho where we met up with the rest of the group who had elected to stay in a hotel, I think we had the most fun, the ride up river was a highlight of the tour.

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Once back on the main boat we visited one of the floating markets at Can Tho.

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Some of the boats have poles sticking up with what ever they are selling attached, though the pineapple seller forgo the pole thing.

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A trip to a rice noodle making place – the most interesting of the making things places we visited.

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A fruit orchard – with a bamboo bridge specially for photographic purposes.

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And some more time on the river

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A gas station.

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It was then back on the bus for a couple of hours (thank god for MP3 players) of driving through never ending towns to Long Xuyen, where we visited a crocodile farm – fortunately they only farmed and sold live animals from here, though the conditions were not ideal. This religious scene was in the entrance, I liked the armless child and was wondering if they had fallen in…

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Moving the one year old crocs to a new pen.

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Back into the van and another thirty minutes up to Chau Doc where we visited a hillside temple built in 1747 on Sam Mountain (278 metres, so a small mountian). Sadly it was fully renovated in 1980 !!

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There was a cave with buddha and monk statues though my shots are all blurry. There was a great wall with shutters though ! I love simple lines and colours.

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From there it was a quick ride to the hotel, where three of us had to go and sleep in a separate hotel to the other 8 people as there was no room. At the second hotel they tried to put the three of us, a couple and me into one room, we told them NO WAY, which they accepted, though my twin room had a mouse pooh on one of the beds ! Oh well. We caught up with the others for a good meal in a local cafe and then another early night. Hotel reception and parking lot.

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Lonely Planet describes Chau Doc as “charming”, perhaps they were drunk when they visited.

Day 3. Up early again as off to walk a couple of hundred metres to the river at 7.00 where boarded a boat and went to visit a floating village. I loved the motors on the back of the houses.

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I tried to get the contrast between the floating houses, the river side shanties and the comparatively wealthy city folk.

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And then to a Cham minority still village, where we were shown some silk weaving. The Cham people record the flood levels each year – hence the houses on stilts….

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The Cham are muslims and we visited the local mosque.

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From there it was back on the van, then a bus and finally a horribly cramped mini-bus for the six or so hours back to Saigon.

This was one of the few glimpses of paddy fields through the endless towns.

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One of the few towns that was interesting as it had a small river between the road and the houses.

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One of the many many bridges we crossed.

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Relentless towns…

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I arrived back in Saigon about 5.00 and Dan’s sister Leonie had already arrived from Hanoi, after a shower we went out for dinner at the place I went to with Hayley, Mark and Malcolm we then went and had a couple of drinks on the side of Bui Vien, the road we are staying on, it is a bit of a small scale Ko Sahn Rd, with small liquor stalls filled with young westerners getting shickered on $2 drinks. We didn’t stay out late!

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Hmm, didn’t let the photos do too much talking did I!

War Remnants Museum

Day 100, Friday 13 April 2012, HMC

Wow, one hundred days on the road, and still enjoying it too!

All the remaining wedding guests were flying home today so some of us agreed to meet at the War Remnants Museum as it opened at 7.30 AM, a fifteen minute walk from both our hotels. The museum was interesting, I loved the names of some of the collections – obviously the Vietnamese side of the story is so different to what we have learned in the west.

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I really enjoyed the photograph collection, there was a very good exhibition by photojournalists from both sides who were killed during both the French and American wars, including Robert Capa who is one of my favourite photojournalists. This photo shows how dangerous it was (excuse the reflection !) This Japanese photographer survived the experience, though I neglected to note his name.

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As we were walking the exhibition we were invaded by a hundred or so Vietnamese school children, I must have said hello to each one at least twice, they were very friendly and their smiles were quite catching – especially in such a place as this.

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I enjoyed the museum, it was getting a bit crowded when we left, so it got harder to see and read the information – it was pretty biased, but not terribly so, and the section on Agent Orange and its effect on families even 40 years later was quite moving.

On the way back to the hotel I stopped for a filter coffee, Vietnamese style, then found out it was $3 – five times the price of a coffee in Da Nang, so was pretty pissed off. I wont go back there again thats for sure.

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In all the cities I have visited in Vietnam I have seen sculptures in parks, I really liked this piece, though there is no information about it.

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At lunch time we wandered over to the Rex Hotel to meet everybody else, Dan had been in to the hospital that morning and had some sort of chest infection, he was not moving from his bed, not a great way to end his wedding week. Those of us feeling up to it went and had a swim in the hotel pool, luxury ! and then I bade every one farewell and went back to my guest house so they could finish packing and head to the airport.

The view from the Rex, the modern business centre.

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And the contrast, Socialist Republic of Vietnam flag against the Sheraton hotel.

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I have arranged to share a room with Dan’s sister Leonie for a couple of days, when she returns to HMC from Hanoi on the 16th, so booked myself on a three day Mekong Delta tour starting tomorrow morning.

I haven’t had a good walk around the streets of HMC yet, but this show how narrow they are in the backpacker area.

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I had dinner in a local bar, got ripped off on expensive beer and watched half a game of rugby league – Dragons v Knights. I miss rugby league !

Goodbye to a bunch of very nice people, Dans mum – Jessie, bro – Russell, cousin Karen and friends, Hayley and Mark, Malcolm, Nolan, Debs and Keelan (apologies for spelling names wrong : )) It was great meeting you all and I really enjoyed hanging out with everyone. Many many thanks to Dan and Van for having me at the wedding, you are a great couple and it has been lovely to meet your families.
I also want to say a special thanks to Van for organising everything for us, the trips, the buses and hotels. All was great and so very much appreciated ! Van – you are a star !

Hue

Days 96 and 97, Monday and Tuesday, 09/10 April 2012, Hue

Dan and Van had organised a bus for two days to take us all up for an overnight trip to Hue. We left pretty much on time at 8.00 and took the coast road through the “hill of clouds”.

We stopped close to the top, at a big rock that has great views over the bay and is obviously a magnet for tourists and the associated hawkers. There are two hawker woman almost fighting over the right to sell bangles on the bus, it was verging on comical, they were still at it as we were driving off. P1110760

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The drive to Hue took about three hours and was a mix of stunningly beautiful countryside and nerve wracked clenching of seat arms as we passed trucks and watched oncoming vehicles also overtaking and heading straight for us. I am sure that on more than one occasion the top .001 mm of paint on the buses mirror was left on the mirror of an oncoming vehicle ! We did pass some lovely villages and as we passed Long Co we asked if we could stop “somewhere nice for coffee”, meaning a beach or local cafe. The driver took that literally and we stopped at a resort ! not the same. I am going to go back to Long Co when I return to Da Nang in a couple of weeks as I make my way up Vietnam once all the wedding guests have gone back to NZ and Australia. 1110764

We got to the Ideal Hotel in Hue about lunch time and after checking in most of us met for lunch at an Italian restaurant over the road, though I had chicken cashew and rice this is one of my favourite SE Asian dishes for lunch. It was good too, though the smiley face did not improve a very average cappuccino. P1110771

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After lunch we all did our own thing and I wandered off on my own – nice to have some space, I am too used to looking at things on my own ! I have posted separately about the Citadel. Though I found this great spirit house in a tree (even after seeing hundreds I still love them!) .

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And this guy who had a bit of fun trying to get this into the traffic.

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Though I have to really experience the thrill of motorbikes as Hue and Da Nang are supposed to be nothing compared to Hanoi and HMC, it was still pretty crazy and very noisy. With Hue being a massive tourist town – there were a lot of hawkers everywhere, especially cyclos and motorbike touts, however, nothing is far and I like to walk – so I did.

After the Citadel we all reconvened in Russell’s room on the top floor of the hotel for a wee gin and tonic or three before heading out to a street stall for dinner. The stall was typical of street food all over Asia, dishes washed nearby in cold water (often not that clean) and wiped on the same old cloth, the tables are a wee big grubby, are very low and the chairs lower, the floor is filthy with cigarette butts and egg shells – but the food was delicious and fresh and cheap. Some of the others who had not been here as long as me were a bit hesitant, but I have seen it all before and never been sick from the food. Though my chicken noodle dish still had some pork in it…

We stopped for an “Italian” wine after at little Italy and I went exhausted to bed.

I am going to need a holiday from holidaying soon as I am tired and my back and legs are sore from playing football – i am feeling worn out !

We all reconvened around 7.00 am for breakfast in the hotel, which was huge and very nice and then shot over the road for a real Vietnamese coffee which I am getting quite used to. It is a short shot of coffee in a small glass with condensed milk. Very strong and sweet.

After breakfast I had a wee like down as I am still tired and then left the hotel at 8.30 for a walk around for a couple of hours, it was stinking hot !

I ran into Dan and Van and we looked at some women doing traditional needlecraft work before I wandered off again and walked over one of the bridges across the Perfume River, hmm didn’t smell like anything I would wear ! P1110854

There were a few of these women carrying heavy loads from the market, across the river to their various eating establishments. They have a rolling gait from the weight of the loads.

I took a walk through the main market and found the fruit and vege and then meat and fish section by the river. A lot of the fish were still kicking in the bowls, they were that fresh ! In Vietnam (I guess all SE Asia) not much of a beast gets wasted, this woman was selling the bits of a pig you would not see in NZ, intestines, liver and a pile of wobbly, gooey fat….

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I took a stroll up one of the tributaries of the Perfume River and only a few metres up the side street I was away from the hustle and bustle of shopping, tourists and hawkers. It was a pleasant stroll up a leafy river side street and a got a few picture of people washing clothes and dishes and collecting shell fish in the river. I didn’t take a photos of the woman weeing in the river just on the side of where the shell fish gatherers were : )

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It was at this point that my camera battery died and i found my spare was flat ! the spare spare was back in the hotel and mostly flat and the charger was still in Da Nang. I headed back to the hotel, picked up an Adidas running shirt for $6 so I can now send my dying but favourite favourite running shirt back to NZ – the 2XU shirt I got as a spot prize in some event and have almost worn out, I have never found that model shirt ever, damnit. I found this old Colt 45 in a shop near the hotel.

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We left Kevin and Philip in Hue as they were off to Hanoi and on to more travels. I am hoping to catch up with them later in the year as they live in London.

After lunch we all piled back into the bus and went out to Tu Duc Tomb, a burial site for the emperor Tu Duc, constructed between 1847 and 1870. The site is not particularly old when compared to Bagan in Myanmar and Angkor in Cambodia, but I was looking forward to seeing more of the Viet style architecture, which is quite heavily influenced by the Chinese style – in my uninformed opinion of course ! I had enough battery life between my three dead batteries

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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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!

What Wat is What – 2

Day 88, Sunday 01 April 2012, Ayutthaya.

Pinch and punch for the first of the month, no returns.

Not a bad sleep was had in my luxury pad in Ayutthaya, I have been going through one of those sleeping badly phases again and once I am in one I just have to ride it out. Breakfast here was great, eggs on toast, fruit, yoghurt, fruit juice and coffee (instant was free, which suits me fine). I also woke up to some nice wordy emails this morning, so yay thanks family and friends ! I do love them.

Today was bike day and I was going to ride and see the western sites today with a plan to do the east tomorrow. My butt is still a bit raw from the riding around in Inle so no point in doing a long and uncomfortable day when I can do it slowly. I also want to avoid being out in the worst of the days heat as I am still a bit dehydrated and well there is no point in heat stroke either. My wheels were Ok, seat a bit low and the chain rattled like mad, so at least people knew I was coming !

The first stop was Wat Suwan Awas, it was not particularly exciting with the exception of this stunning Buddha, I just love this image.

Wat Cherng Tha. I liked this site as I was the only person here !

I particularly liked this pile of old broken plastic Buddhas, old photos and things that people had left on the various ruins.

I then cycles a couple of KM’s out of town to Wat Phu Khao Thong, though there was only this massive pagoda there it was well worth a visit. The building, like a lot around here is not exactly straight…. there was a group of photogs here, reminded me of some of the great Flickr meet-ups we had in Auckland – and the fact I just missed one at wonderful Muriwai beach : (

I rode back around the road on the outside of the river and found this bizarre park/temple thing, not sure what it was, it was like a small theme park, lots of statues, games amid the small temples. Weird… I had an awesome lunch there and later discovered I had again knocked the camera on to manual focus so most of the pictures here had to be deleted.

Wat Chaiwattanaram is one of the big guns at Ayutthaya but sadly was closed due to damage from the floods late last year. I took a photo tomorrow (which was yesterday as I type) that shows the water line on the temples.

St Jospehs Church – not often I get to take photos of churches ! The Portugese had a settlement here in the 1800’s

Wat Phutthaisawan. All around Thailand, and in every Thai restaurant in NZ are photos of the King, this one is on top of piles of sand bags used to keep water out of the temples during the floods. I am not sure how successful that was sorry!

There is always one who refuses to conform.

A ride on ride off ferry across the river.

Wat Worachetha Ram. The Thai used to put valuables, gold, rubies, jewels etc into the heads of the buddhas, when the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya they cut all the heads of the buddhas looking for the valuables.

My last Wat for the day – Wat Lokaya Suttha, i was not the only one. Loads of buses filled with Chinese tourists came here to see the reclining Buddha.

I was the only one walked around… the wats are all very clean, there are hoards of people sweeping leaves and rubbish off the ruins and if you poke around, like I do, you are sure to find a broom or two.

I then rode back to a cafe near the guest house and watched the sunset over the ruins while eating dinner. Dinner was had at the same place I had lunch, spring rolls and Thai basil rice with vege and tofu – they had run out of chicken !. It was damn good and very hot !. I am a wee bit skinnier than normal and in a semi-state of hunger all the time so have vowed to eat more and more often.

Well after nineteen days I finally took some concrete pills, some deep breaths and marched into the bathroom with the trusty Gillette in hand and had a shave. It was a real mission I can tell you, and my face is hardly smooth as a babies bum now, but good to get it done.

This was followed by a repeat of last night, music, RTD’s and blogging.

What wat is what ?

Day 87, Saturday 31 March 31 2012, Ayutthaya.

I didn’t really sleep that much last night, though it was unfair to call the place a flea pit as I woke this morning with no bites on me anywhere ! I got up and had the first cold shower in weeks. One of the benefits of travelling with Mike was we generally stayed in slightly more up market guest houses (yet still cheap) than I normally did on my own and most had at least lukewarm showers.

After packing up my gear Giovanni and I went and met R and B for another final breakfast together. After saying goodbye to the three of them for the second time I headed off to the river for the boat down to the train. I enjoyed the few days I spent with G and R n B and hope to maybe see them in their home towns one day.

I had originally planned to go to Kanchanaburi, the home of the Bridge over the River Kwai, but was told there was not a lot to do there for the four days I have to kill before heading back to Bangkok for my early flight to Da Nang in Vietnam on the 4^th. So I ended up deciding on Ayutthaya instead. Both towns are within a couple of hours of central Bangkok so no drama getting to either. I chose Ayutthaya as it was once the capital of Thailand and has a number of old temples to check out, and yes I still love old temples. Plus I have hardly used my camera in days and you must all be sick of blog posts that are not full of pictures. I may have to do some tests and see how many people actually read the words!

I caught a couple of trains to Victory Monument and then walked around in the brutal heat of 9.30 am looking for a mini-van that went to Ayutthaya, the vans are supposed to be only slightly more expensive than the bus, but get you there a whole lot quicker. As it turned out the mini-van was less than the guide book said at only 60baht for the ride, and it was new, air conned and we all had our own seats, it also only took 1 half hours to get there too – bonus start to the day. From the bus station I got seriously ripped off by a tuk-tuk driver in getting a lift to the hostel I chose off the internet – Prom Tong mansion. The tuk-tuks here are totally different to anyway else – still three wheels but that is about the only thing they have in common with others, this is a typical design, but an extravagant paint job.

I am going to have to say it lives up to its mansion name ! about $4 a more than the good hostel I use in Bangkok, but wow a world of difference, big room, the most comfortable bed I have slept on in weeks (if not months) , great breakie etc etc. My only complaint is the channels on the TV are rubbish – and no football ! I got used to nights in watching the beautiful game. The other thing I liked about it was the manageress took time to explain to me all the key sites in town, gave me a map and a guide book and recommendations on the best way to see them – without any suggestions of tours. I really appreciate it when hostels do this, and it was only the second time in three months.

It was mid-day, roasting hot – but not as humid as BKK, when i set off for a walk to the wats close to the guest house.

Ayutthaya is an island town built where three rivers – Mae Nam Lomburi, Chao Phraya (the main river in BKK) and Pa Sak, meet. Building of the capital city commenced in 1350 by King U-Thong and it was the centre of Thailand until being sacked and burnt by the Burmese in 1767. The current town has been built around the ruins. There are numerous sites all around and I have decided to break things up into 3-4 hour days and see the place over a few days, I like the hostel so no need to rush and it is damn hot outside !

At the first wat I had my first banana pancake of my travels, I have not consciously avoided them but banana pancake is also the name given to a type of traveller who follow a reasonably fixed route of party towns around SE Asia, anyway it was nice…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Pancake_Trail

First stop was Wat Maha That – which features the wonderful Buddha head in a tree.

The wats here are not in the same condition as either Angkor or Bagan, and sadly due to the flooding last year close access to a number of the sites is not allowed. There is also minimal carvings or murals to be seen. Part of me agrees that these sites are ‘as found’ and not overly renovated, but I do really miss the carvings.

What I did love with all the things I have seen here is the unrepaired Buddha figures, though many parts have been put together to form vaguely recognisable figures, i found them exquisite and have many photos.

Wat Ratchaburana

Inside the central pagoda in this temple was a stairway leading down to a small grotto with some lovely mural work. This apparently has also been recently discovered.

Wat Tummickurat

Like a number of the temples in town this temple had a working monastery attached. These monks were doing laps of the old monastery.

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

And the final Wat for the day

Wat Phra Ram

Tourists can take an elephant tour around the outside of the grand palace area, I didn’t do one as I do not agree with them in principle but I guess the elephants are probably better looked after than some working elephants in SE Asia.

I was pretty wrecked after almost four hours of walking, I foolishly decided to walk in jandals (flip flops to you readers not from NZ), instead of my usual sandals – my feet really did not appreciate the lack of padding and were quite sore by the time I got to lie down later in the day. After a shower I wandered down to the local market and had a meal and a beer and then stopped to buy an ice cream and some Smirnoff Ice RTD’s to take back to the room – a huge Saturday night in…

you will be pleased to know that there will be more temples tomorrow : )

My nephew Fraser is a great young musician and is the drummer in a two piece band, Heroes for Sale. He has an awesome record collection (mine) and a very good taste in music (just stay away from the dance music Frase, OK). His band played one of their first gigs a few days ago as part of the Titirangi Festival of Music and I so wished I could have been there to see them. Awesome stuff Fraser.

Not sure if the linky will work…