Things I have found out

I went to the Botanic Gardens here in Cairns yesterday and they were awesome. I walked along the mangrove boardwalk and took heed of the crocodile warning signs (you just don't get those in London!) before walking back along the Esplanade to the city centre (stopping at the hostel for a couple of hours nap). I saw a sign on the Esplanade that said 'no alcohol, no brawling, no camping' which left my 'To Do' list looking pretty empty for the day. Now at a loose end I decided to compile a list of things that I have learnt and that I want to share with you all. And here it is in no particular order:

• It is possible to get sunburnt in the winter (if you choose to winter in Tropical North Queensland)
• Malaysians can take more photos than Japanese
• Japanese girls can spend so long in the bathroom that you wonder if they have melted
• If you spend more than three hours in a spa, your fingers will still be wrinkly the next day
• A Swiss girl can take more photos than was previously thought humanly possible
• Every second person in Perth is English- the first is South African
• Swiss people have never heard of Swiss roll
• If you stop looking for a Korean restaurant one will appear
• When it does appear it will be marginally tattier than the restaurants around it but not tatty enough to look authentically Korean
• It is possible to miss people that you have only known for a couple of days
• Norae bangs in Australia are only advertised in Korean
• One chocolate bar will inevitably lead to another
• My camera really hates damp weather (doesn't bode well for the English winter)
• Pies are hard to resist
• If you spill pie all down your t-shirt it may no come out in the wash no matter how much you love that t-shirt
• If you hand feed a kangaroo it won't bite but it will slobber all over your hand
• A koala's bum is a good place to wipe the kangaroo slobber off your hand
• It is a lot harder to decide where to go next than you think it will be (Vicky and Clare, where are you when I need to know what to do!)

Yes, I am spending far too long on my own! But tomorrow that will change as I am off on a reef trip- that is to say that I am spending the day snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef- should be a laugh.

Aussie photos

Here are some more photos from last weekend's trip- just don't have any new ones to post yet and don't want to lose your interest! These were chosen at random (again) through sheer laziness- enjoy

Photos just for the hell of it

Here are some more photos from Vietnam for the more visually minded of you

Following the sun

I had a lot of fun in Adelaide and many thanks to Nigel for taking me out to see the wildlife (but not the wild life, if you know what I mean- that can wait until Surfers). But over all it was too damn cold (and this from a Pom!) so I got on a plane yesterday and am now in Cairns!! Am currently waiting for all of my cold weather clothes to wash and dry before heading out into the sun.

I got here around 7pm yesterday and it was too hot to be wearing the clothes I had put on in Adelaide that morning. It had been cold enough down there to wear extra clothes in bed but here I am sleeping next to an open window- nice! It being around tea time I went out and got my first original Aussie pieeeeeeeee. Ah. It was good. I had to admit that I was so hungry that I walked along the street eating it and savouring every mouthful until half the contents fell out, slipped down my front and all over my shoulder bag. Next time I eat a pie (and there will be a next time very soon, I am sure) I will do so sitting down.

Kangaroos, Koalas and everything else

I left Perth in the middle of the night on Monday- it isn't like I was run out of town or anything- honest- it is just when the plane goes. And can you believe that I was flying via Melbourne to Adelaide? If you don't know why that is weird then you will have to look at a map.

So I spent a couple of hours at Melbourne airport (a few years ago when I last came to Australia we also stopped at Melbourne airport. I can recommend the toilets and vending machines there) before arriving in Perth at 7.50- Melbourne is two hours ahead of Perth and Adelaide is half an hour behind Melbourne. So you can imagine how confused I am!!

But I had a reason to be in Adelaide.... I was met at the airport by Nigel, a mate from Korea (Neil and Annette and Margo, I was going to surprise you with a Nigel photo there but I have exceeded my monthly limit on Flickr so you will have to wait a couple of days.) We went back to his house and had some breakfast and then headed out of the city.

We went to Victor Harbour. Stopping in at the tourist information centre, we were told that the biggest tourist attraction in the area was the horse drawn tram- I wanted to cry- then they mentioned the whale and her calf that had been out in the bay for a few days. Fairly running out of the building we discovered that they weren't lying (not that I am in the habit of disbelieving these people but you never know...) as we watched the whales frolicking in the bay. There is only so much frolicking that you can cope with though so we drove around and saw some seals and watched the waves.

We came back to Victor Harbour and walked over to Granite Island- ignoring the top tourist attraction to get there- and waited for the Little/Fairy Penguins to come home to bed. Despite my cunning plan of singing lullabys, the penguins decided to stay out clubbing for the night or something, we only saw around ten. Sweet little things hauling themselves up the rocks and into their burrows under the watchful gaze of random tourists. For reasons unknown the penguin population has decreased rapidly in recent months but the stoic few remained, tightlipped as to where their mates where.

Collapsed into bed quite early after a long old day. I forgot to say that there had been a medical emergency on the plane, I think that someone fainted, so I got to hear the immortal words 'if there is a medical doctor or nurse on the plane, please make yourself known to the staff'. There wasn't but it was enough to wake everyone else up for a bloody good gawp.

Today we have done a bit of shopping and then fought our way through the fog to Cleland National Park, where it would seem that Nigel planted most of the trees(!) Saw EVERYTHING in the park, Tasmanian Devils, Dingoes, Wombats, Emus, Koalas, Ridiculous Amounts of kangaroos and wallabies (sorry, have no idea why I went all CAPITAL for a moment there) along with many birds and plants. It was very cool indeed. My hand got covered with kangaroo slobber as we fed them but I wiped it all off on the koala later when we were allowed to pet them. It was an excellent day despite the fog.

But it is getting too cold here for me. I know that I wanted a break from the cold after Vietnam but enough is enough now. So tomorrow I am flying up to Cairns, in search of sunshine. I am going via Sydney, of course, though I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been via Perth to be honest!

Wish me luck and, Queenslanders, I am on my way...

Planet Perth

Got up last Wednesday and decided that I really had to do something about leaving Perth despite being sodden with cold. Went to the travel agent and was a vulnerable mess of sniffles and coughs. Which is the excuse that I give for what happened next. As I tried to to escape Western Australia I was told that I would have to wait until the following week. Hum. But what was I going to do in the mean time?????

A tour?

Really?

Me?

A tour?

Ok then, why not. Now this is not something that I usually do (mainly because I don't often have enough money) and so I signed up for a four day trip up the coast. I did try and get one down the coast but it was full so I went the other way. And then bought a plane ticket to take me to Adelaide on Monday night.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself for sorting so many things out and all before lunch. Then reality hit me. What if it was a busload of Gap year kids? What if it was some kind of pissed up party bus where nubile eighteen year old spent the whole four days swapping partners while Grandma Helen sat in the corner tutting annoyingly and blathering on about youth being wasted on the young? I started to get scared. I told the hostel owner what I had done and he did nothing to reassure me.

'Who are you going with?'
'Planet Perth'
'....hum.'
'What?????'
"Big groups, I could have got you something cheaper and better.'
etc

The warm glow of achievement left me and I barely slept that night for worrying about the next four days stuck in a huge bus full of wankers.

What a waste of time that worry was. The bus only holds 20 people. And there were only 11 of us plus the tour guide. Not one Gap year kid to be seen. The tour guide, Craig, was hardly one of those guys who spent more time admiring their reflection than looking at the road.

In short, it was fantastic.

I had a brilliant time and am sorry to be back.

It could have been bad. It was a very mixed group- 2 Swiss, 2 Japanese, 3 English, 2 Malaysians, an Italian and a Slovakian- plus one Aussie tour guide. The bus picked me up from the hostel at 6.45am- which would prove to be one of the later starts I would have for the next four days. I had stuffed everything into the luggage room here at the hostel and was sitting on a bench outside shivering and sniffling when the bus arrived. I was greeted with a hearty 'g'day, Helen' and so the adventure began.

Day one was kinda quiet. People were getting to know each other and so most of the photos are of scenery. There was a lot of polite 'where are you from?' and 'what do you do?' type questioning going on.

Craig seemed a little disappointed at first at the lack of animation from the group but as the sun came up and we all thawed out the chatting started. By the time we arrived in Kalbarri for our first night, the ribbing was in full force. We had a proper Aussie barbecue and got to know each other over a few beers (Carlton Cold for me, Emu Bitter for Tibor the Slovakian, Asashi for the Japanese girls and more wine than was strictly necessary for Steph and Zoe from England. Well, they had a lot of wine but showed amazing restraint).

The view from the bus had been fantastic all the way there- the Pinnacles were our first real stop- outside of the many hundred toilet breaks we took. Standing stones in their own little desert surrounded by bush, the Pinnacles are beautiful and unique. Once Craig had told us some of the aboriginal history to the area (the stones are people who were turned to stone because of their greed) a more mystical aspect was given to the place. We stopped a lot to look at many other things and Craig was a mine of information.

The second day we headed off to Monkey Mia. We saw rainbows landing in the ocean and the sprays from the whales playing in the distance. We walked in a National Park and saw rock formations such as Nature's Window and took a 'stroll' down the cliff face to the river and back up again' the Z bend. That night we went on an astronomy walk along the beach. Unfortunately the moon lit the sky to brightly that it was difficult to see the stars. Didn't matter to us tourists who were happy to stand on the moon drenched beach and learn a few constellations.

Waking up in Monkey Mia we watched the sun come up over the water - weird thing to do on the West Coast but we were out on a little peninsula. The pelicans started to gather on the shore and so did the people. That is because of the thing that pulls people to Monkey Mia- namely, the dolphins. There is a group of dolphins that play and live in the area and three times a day they come to the shore to be fed. Now this is not Disneyworld- these are wild dolphins who have the choice of whether or not they want to come. And given the small amount of fish they are given, it must be the curiosity that drags them in. There is no way to tell the dolphins what time they must be there so it is all a matter of waiting until they are ready.

People lined the shore and waited while the ranger told us about the dolphins and the history of Monkey Mia. Eventually the star attractions started getting closer to us and soon they were in the area, swimming just a few feet away from where we were paddling. It is hard to say who was the most curious at that place. The dolphins roll their heads to one side so that their eyes are out of the water- all the better to see us with. It was awesome and after they had had their breakfast we got on a boat for a further chance to see more out at sea.

Full of the joy of the dolphins and the catarmaran cruise around the bay we were more than happy with Craig's suggestion of getting some roasted chickens and having a picnic on the beach. We were on a pure shell beach, made of millions of tiny shells. Great food and even better company now that we had spent the previous two days getting to know each other.

The girls went to swim while Angelika and I just watched, having forgotten our swimsuits. The water was cold at first but soon warmed up- the only problem with swimming was that the water was so shallow.

As Craig told us to get back on the bus, Angelika said that she wanted to stay and we all agreed. Too bad, we didn't have time and the bus set off along the beach.

Not long after we started, we stopped again. The bus had become bogged down and we were going nowhere without some serious pushing. So push we did. But nothing happened, save the bus sinking further into the beach.

We dug around the wheels- Angelika, my young partner in drink, disappeared in a hole she dug under the bus until all we could see were her feet. She had to be pulled out. Wood was placed around the wheels and we all braced ourselves against the back of the bus and pushed- nothing again. The trailer was off and we gave it another try. Going nowhere. Hum.

The phones had no connection on the beach so it was going to be a case of going to get help. Craig enlisted Lee and Fadrina and off they went into the bush, telling us not to be worried for a couple of hours at least. We busied ourselves with more swimming and decided to make a fire. We didn't need one but it gave us something to do. Once lit, it became too hot to stand by and people started to drift away. We were thinking that it might be nice to stay on the beach anyway and had high hopes of not being rescued until the morning. We had plenty of food and an esky stuffed with beer. It looked a great spot to practice our Astronomy homework. People went onto the bus to gather a few things.

'Oh, look, a car' someone said and waved politely. Then people realised that we should be doing more than just waving and we all ran up the beach waving and shouting. The car stopped and came over. The tourists with Alex- our soon to be saviour- helped attach a rope to the front of our bus and videoed as Alex's 4x4 towed us to safety. Once out of the hole Craig turned up with the help we no longer needed. Feeling very pleased with ourselves we told him that we had done it already. And he had to prepare for the ribbing he would be getting once word got out that he had bogged the bus on the beach.

It was too late to make it to our destination of Northampton that night so we stayed at Nanga Station/Resort. We got the beach as the sun went down and before the moon came up and watched the shooting stars and admired the Milky Way.

The rest of the time was spent in the natural spring spa. And when I say the rest of the night, I do mean it as some of us didn't make it out until nearly one. Sitting in the hot spa, supping a cold beer and watching the night sky- does it get any better than that?

We were up even earlier the next day- who said that holidays are for relaxing- as we had plenty of driving and sandboarding to do (yes, I did go sandboarding this time but just the once).

Even given that, we still arrived back in Perth too soon for most of us who were trying to persuade Craig that he should just keep driving. I felt almost like I was saying goodbye to my family as the bus drove away and I walked into the hostel, feeling a little lonely without my 11 new friends around me.

Prison

When I lived in Dublin I went to Kilaminham Gaol several times and read the stories of the convicts deported to Australia. Today I went to Fremantle Prison to see what greeted them when they arrived. Well, before 1850 nothing much did. The convicts were set to work building the prison to house them. It took nine years and ten people died during the building. It stayed open with little modification until 1991. Scary stuff.

We were shown the tiny cells, the exercise yard and the execution room, complete with noose. It was interesting but I am glad that I never do anything wrong!

I caught the train out of Perth this morning and spent the day at Fremantle. Last night I went to the movies and the guy let me in for free! Nice work so I stayed and paid for a second movie.

I was supposed to do something about plotting my escape today but have, in fact, done nothing much in the way of thinking. Will run upstairs now and do some research but I guess that I am in Perth for another night at least. I can think of worse places to be.

Strewth!

I am sitting in a convenience store, eating a packet of Twisties and drinking a Diet Coke. Which can mean only one thing- I am in Australia! Perth to be precise. I arrived into the cold last night-- about 30 degrees lower than when I woke up in Saigon- shivered for a bit and got the shuttle bus to the hostel. Arriving at 2am is not recommended but I rang the guy and woke him up and in I went.

Today I have been wandering around Kings Park which sits on Mount Eliza overlooking the city of Perth. In fact, I walked around the park twice because I didn't have any batteries in my camera the first time. I finally found a place that sold them and promptly dropped one of them into the bin as I was trying to change them. Weirdly, no-one gave me a second glance as I fished around elbow deep in the rubbish trying to find it. I couldn't but managed to get one of the old ones back out.

It is very clean here and the skies are fresh and blue. It is much quieter than Vietnam and no-one has tried to sell me postcards or offered me a motorbike in hours now. But it is good. I feel quite relaxed.

I plan to go to Fremantle tomorrow and see the port and the beach. Maybe even watch the sunset from the beach. Then I have to plan my escape from WA and find my way over to the East Coast- easier said than done, I think.

It is very odd to be in an English speaking country once more. I am sure that I am the one that looks like a moron as I can't talk properly as I keep thinking that people don't understand me. There was a group of teenagers on the plane on their way back from Canada with their teacher. They had such strong Aussie accents that it made me chuckle. But not nearly as much as them hearing other people speak Aussie for the first time in months- they kept asking their teacher if they sounded like that and commented on how 'ocker' their accents were.

Right, had better go- internet is not nearly as cheap as in Asia and I have run over the 15 minutes mark and am determined not to fall into the 1 hour category.

Singapore once more

Passing through three time zones today- Singapore is an hour ahead of Vietnam and Australia moves me a couple more towards night. I am back in Singapore airport- always a joy to be here. It is like they took a dream of the perfect airport and then made it real. This free internet is a boon.

I have just treated myself to a new Lonely Planet guide. It is a combined Australia/New Zealand On a Shoestring one and it had attached to the front a bottle opener/keyring almost identical to the one I lost in the snow back in February and have been unable to replace since then. So it was a sign, you see. Obviously the Lonely Planet folk don't see anything ironic at all in giving out free keyrings to backpackers- hum.

My new book is smaller than either the Oz or NZ guides so not sure what it will have in it but I am sure that it will be more than enough to keep me busy for the next ten weeks or so.

I am a little scared though since I looked at yahoo weather this morning to find out that it is only nine degrees in Perth today- maybe a little higher in the afternoon. I was looking forward to not sweltering all of the time but a little sun might be nice(!) Ah well, it might give me a chance to wear the jacket I got made in Hoi An. And, indeed, to make use of those jeans I have been lugging around for the last seven weeks. Pity that my only shoes (as opposed to sandals) are now in a bin in Sapa, having been waterlogged for longer than is necessary.

But it is an excuse for some shoe shopping so it can't be all bad!

Rory- where's Ben?

Sapa Photos

Right, here are some more photos. This time they are mainly of Sapa and from the two day trek we did there through the villages. I have more photos from Hanoi which I might try and get on tomorrow morning before getting my flight.

And that is all for now

Purely Photos

Here are a whole bunch of photos from Nha Trang, Hoi An, Cat Ba, Halong Bay, Cuc Phuong National Park and a train. The mountain photos haven't been downloaded from my camera yet but will do that later. I am in Saigon now, having flown back from Hanoi yesterday. Off to Perth tomorrow, via Singapore. Can't believe that my time in Vietnam is up already- weird! It wasn't easy to say goodbye to Vicky and Clare at the airport yesterday either (they are in Bangkok now) but at least I got a lie in today (!)

I have put all the details in the names of the photos so just hover the mouse over them to find out what they are- Enjoy!

And that is the lot for now- might come back tonight and do the Sapa photos- then again, might not.

Chosen at random

Had five minutes on a computer with a CD drive this morning. Unfortunately I couldn't see which photos I was uploading so here are six completely at random. I must explain that Vicky showed me how to take black and white photos on my camera during a very long train journey recently and I may have got carried away.

This is the beach

at Nha Trang- the private beach we went to in the hope of getting away from the hawkers-some hope!

This is Vicky's leg being threaded by a woman in a shed at Hoi An Market

Sunset taken through the train window on our first sleeper from Hoi An to Hanoi

The hotels on Cat Ba island- after I had been shown how to take the old black and whiteys

Our boat during our three day boat cruise round Halong Bay

And that is your lot- promise that I have loads more that are more interesting than these but I thought better these than nothing!

My Favourite Thing

If you have only time to do one thing in Vietnam and the money to just do one activity then I can only suggest that you get on the next train out of Hanoi and get yourself to Sapa. Mind you, that could be easier said than done as we were delayed for rather a long time the other night. Along with EVERY other person on the train, we had made a plan that involved getting the night train and arriving ten hours later in the morning to have a full day in Sapa and the surrounding area. As I mentioned before, our plan was to go to Bac Ha and buy a buffalo. We had even worked out how we were going to get it back to Hanoi- I don't want to go into too much detail here but it involved butter and some rollerskates.....

We got on the train a little early and found our soft sleepers. What we hadn't factored in was the seven hour delay. Which was due to reasons never announced on the train but later rumoured to be caused by a landslide. Everytime we tried to find out when we were leaving we were confronted with a woman shaking her head, waving her hand and saying 'no, no'. Worse still was that we hadn't bought any food- reasoning that we would be sleeping for most of the ten hours overnight. We had to go and find the dining car the next morning but the staff seemed reluctant to give us any food. Not sure why. They started to serve us- put some pot noodles down in front of us but took them away when we asked for hot water to go with them. Things nearly turned nasty and I nearly did someone a damage with a chopstick, fortunately we managed to get some food in the end.

Arriving into Lao Cai station after lunch had ruled out going to buy any kind of a bovine so we got straight onto a bus to Sapa. Which is what it is all about after all. Sapa is 38km away from the border with China (we had talked about going to China for dinner but alas it was not to be) and way up in the mountains, surrounded by rice terraces carved into the side of all the mountains. Small villages dot the landscape and are occupied by various hill tribes, including the Black H'mong, Flower H'mong, Dzao and Dzae.

There really is only one thing to do when you get to Sapa and that is leave. That is because everyone comes here to trek through the mountains and stay in a village for the night. We spent a night in Sapa (and had dinner at an English tea room, no less) then set off on our two day trek on Monday. We walked 12km yesterday to get to Tu Van village where we stayed for the night. It rained all night and was still raining this morning so we were a little dubious about continuing the trek today but found out that a lot of it was walking along the main road so decided to go for it.

Sapa is one of the most beautiful places that I have EVER seen, ever, ever. It is now knocking Lesotho into second place on my favourite place I have been to with mountains chart. It is breathtaking, outstanding (insert own superlative here)..... Mountains swoop down into valleys, water rushes down the rocks in big gushes before being gently diverted into the rice terraces which have changed the shape of the mountains into giant steps. Buffalo frolick in the pools while ducks chase each other around the villages. Small children run up dressed in traditional Black H'mong outfits and try to sell you stuff. Once you relent and buy something they become your friends for the rest of the day while they grab your hand and drag you down to the river or clamber on your back awaiting a piggyback or quietly braid your hair or massage your shoulders for a bit. They are adorable.

But they do get bigger and the bigger ones are trying to sell stuff too. In fact, it feels like all the H'mong women are trying to sell you cushion covers, bracelts, necklaces, shirts, jackets, bags, blankets, bangles.. pretty much everything and anything in fact. While you might get a better deal off the mums (kids are told the price that they must sell at while the mums can pick and choose) they are much pushier and liable to follow you all the way up the mountains, waving things in your face the whole way, even as you fall into a rice paddy or sink up to your knees in mud, crying 'you buy me one blanket/necklace/bracelet/you get the picture'.

While the hawkers can bit a little overwhelming at times it is mainly their tendency to stand in front of the scenery that gets annoying. But there is scenery to spare here and all of it luscious and green. It truly is fabulous here, it is only the fact that it is raining that has me sitting in an internet cafe writing this rather than drinking it all in.

Off to Bac Ha tomorrow to see the Flower H'mong people then the night train (wish us luck) back to Hanoi. Flying to Saigon on Friday night and then onto Perth on Sunday! I am going to be very sad to be leaving Vietnam (in answer to your questions, James) and I am a little worried that I might find Oz a little quiet after here. But I am excited about the next step too.

(Liz, can I mail a box of stuff to your house for safe keeping, please? I appear to have rather caught the shopping bug here in Sapa!!!! Will pop something in the box for you too- cushion cover do?)

Thwarted once more

It has been a while since I posted any photos so I made it my mission this morning to do just that. I sat with the girl in the photo shop as she put the contents of my memory card onto CD. She liked some of my photos and, weirdly, said that she would keep them all and look at them sometimes- not really sure what to say to that, I just smiled and nodded. Must come back in a few weeks to see if she has printed them all out and stuck them on the shop walls.

Clutching my newly burnt CD in my sweaty little hand I eagerly approached the internet cafe

'Can I use my CD here?'
'NO'

Again and again the answer was the same. So I have a CD which I can't look at, can't share and barely even makes a servicable frisbee. Ah well, at least I can clear my memory card now.

So instead of a much of photos you are stuck with plain text once more. Sorry! Not a lot I can do about that. I could trawl the net for other people's photos, rip them off and post them here but I have promised 100% original photos so you will just have to wait.

I am still in Hanoi but tonight we are leaving on another overnight train to Lao Chai and onto Bac Ha tomorrow morning. We have heard that Bac Ha has a big market on a Sunday which attracts the hill tribes from all over the local area. We have a plan to buy a water buffalo and release it into the wild. There are buffalo everywhere in this country and yet I am still to get a decent photo of one. I guess that if they were actually walking the streets of the cities I would get more than the blurry photos taken from the bus windows that I have currently. I have high hopes of the market offering just such an opportunity.

We met with some friends last night and had dinner in a place which had a whole selection of frog dishes on the menu. I was all about the sweet and sour frog until I noticed that they had pizza on the menu- sadly lacking in frog toppings. It seemed safer all round to go for the pizza. That said, I did order one in Hoi An the other week only to be given ketchup and chicken on bread. Ever heard of cheese, Mr Restauranter??

We have been in Hanoi since Monday. Last weekend we were on a three day boat cruise around Halong Bay. The boat was small and the crusing seemed to consist a lot of the driver saying 'we stop here for three hours, you swim' as we gazed with dismay into murky litter strewn waters. Nah, it wasn't all bad. Only the toilet really hurt. We did some kayaking and kayaked through a cave as bats swirled around our heads. We went to Monkey Island which was dismal but did in fact have some monkeys there- the first that I had seen not chained by the necks. All four of them. We seemed to be an endless form of amusement for those who had opted for the tour boat rather than tiny boat option. They stared at us all the time as we lounged on the deck, slowly sweating.

Vietnam is hot, make no mistake about it, and it seems to get hotter at night. I go to sleep wrapped in blankets only to throw them off a few hours before dawn in a fit of stifling panic. The first hotel that we stayed at in Cat Ba told us that the reason the air conditioning wasn't making the room cold was because of the sun shining through the windows and heating the place up. They had no explanation for the heat at 1am.

We moved hotels. The next place was lovely and air conditioned all day, despite the devious sun that plagued the last place. And I am sure that we would have been a lot more comfortable at night if it wasn't for the fact that the entire island kept losing power periodically. On our last night there we had no air con at all, all night. We tried to get a discount- you pay extra to get the remote that controls the AC unit- but they weren't having it.

We went to Cat Ba National Park where we sweated got rained on and had a fight with the moto drivers that had taken us there. But it was beautiful and the frog song was amazing.

To get onto our boat from Cat Ba we had to walk across a very wobbly jetty and through a fish farm. We thought that getting off at Halong City would be a breeze in comparison. In fact, someone's grandma rowed over and we had to get off our little boat and onto a smaller one. She kept asking us for money despite the fact that she had already been paid.

We got on a minibus to take us to Hanoi. While we were pretty cramped- two kids were sharing the one seat next to mine and overlapping a little- at least we weren't sat on plastic stools in the aisle like some folk were.

Tuesday was a day of relaxation after a night on the beer on Monday. Wednesday morning we got up early to go to Lenin Park and watched the Vietnamese go through their morning exercise routines. Badminton seems to be a must here, with pavements frequently turning into impromptu badminton courts. We declined a few games, took a few photos and went onto Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.

We had followed all the rules about dressing respectfully and acting politely but still Clare got told off for talking, while others chatted around us. And all three of us were given a mighty shove by a guard who left the natives untouched as we shuffled past the great man himself. Uncle Ho had requested a quiet cremation so I am sure that he would be thrilled to see the massive monument raised to house his embalmed body. It is not my history and I have no idea how the Vietnamese feel about viewing him but I felt that it seemed a nasty thing to do to someone, however respectfully people behave.

Thursday was butterflies, monkeys and walking through rainforest to see 1,000 year old trees. Friday was post office day- yes, it really does take an entire day. Everything had to be packaged by post office staff with a variety of things they pull out from under the counter. They nearly put my friends' wedding present in an aluminium bucket which I am sure would have confused them a lot on arrival, trying to work out what the bucket was for!

Today is for relaxing and meeting mates. Long journey tonight.

And that is me, pretty much up to date. Have no idea on the internet situation in Sappa but am heading back to Saigon on Friday and flying to Perth on Sunday- another month, another country, you know the deal!

Pride and Prejudice

I was sitting out in the road when I heard the news about the Olympics. I wasn't the only one in the road, there were many people there indulging in a little Bia Hoi- draft beer served in cracked glasses to people on small plastic stools on the road- not the official definition. A French guy asked us where we were from and when we told him he said that we must be pretty pleased about the Olympics. At first we couldn't believe it and as the news sank in grins spread wider across our faces. Wow, London, The Olympic City for 2012- unbelievable! We celebrated for a while, at several different bars. I had told my sister that if we got the Games then I would be in London in 2012 and I stand by that.

Arriving back in the hotel a little worse for wear, I switched the TV to CNN and watched the Olympic annoucement over and over before drifting off to sleep. I was up early again the next day (we had got up early the day before in order to go and visit Ho Chi Minh in his mausoleum. Up at 5.30am no less. He looked very sleepy and a lot like Emporer Ming of Flash Gordon fame) as me and Vicky were off to Cuc Phuong National Park to visit the Endangered Primate Centre. I watched a bit more CNN before turning the telly off and meeting Vicky.

We were both a little shaky but were pleased to be getting out for the day. There are around 20 different types of Monkey in Vietnam and around half of them are endangered. The Centre rescues them from hunters or from the food or medicine markets. It was well set out and maintained and we were pleased to be there in this season as many babies had been born in the previous two weeks. It was a lot of fun to watch them monkeying around the cages and know that one day they would live back in the wild. As we watched down a butterfly infested road we heard the gibbons 'singing' to us. It was a precious time.

Into the National Park and it was quite a drive through the rainforest to reach the start of the trail. We had some lunch and then it started to rain. Thunder shortly joined in the background noise along with cicadas and frogs. We decided to go for it anyway and set off on a 7km round trip to see a 1,000 year old tree. Man, did we ever sweat???? It was so hot that we were pleased when we reached the Palace Cave simply for a bit of relief from the heat. The rain had stopped but the humidity hung in the air and periodically steamed up Vicky's glasses. As a contact lens wearer I would have been a bit more smug had I not been huffing and puffing so much.

We were feeling very pleased with ourselves as we went back to meet the driver as our lives have been sadly lacking in exercise recently- I blame the heat and being confined to a small boat for three days around Halong Bay but I feel that laziness may play a part too. Three hours later and we were back in Hanoi and into the hotel where Clare was waiting.

I went up to my room and flicked on the fan and the TV. As I was about to go into the bathroom when I heard

'the blasts, during rush hour this morning....'

Back in the room I stared at the screen, the horror rising as I saw the back of an ambulance that said 'London' on it. Not able to wait for any more news I ran downstairs to Clare and Vicky's room to see if they had any more news. No CNN in their room so we watched a German channel tell us that 'six bomb blasts have hit the City of London, four in Underground Stations and two on buses'.

One thought

'Fuck. My sister works in an Underground Station'

Rushing back up to my room where CNN was still running we got there in time for the names of the stations to scroll across the screen. The longest three seconds in my life. Her station wasn't mentioned.... deep breathes and down to the hotel lobby to check email.

Thankfully, Penny had already sent a mail to me and my brother telling me that she was OK. After reading it I could clear my head enough to realise what had happened. The terrorists had finally made their way to London. Fuck.

Fuck

Fuck.

Sorry, I don't usually swear on this blog but I have never felt so far away from my sister before. She is younger than me and I feel very responsible for her. Now that I knew she was safe I just had to track down a couple more people. The three of us took turns on the internet sending out emails and trying to find more news.

We stayed glued to CNN until it seemed that nothing else would happen- other than the fatality and casualty figures mounting. We decided to go out for dinner and I introduced the girls to Korean cuisine. The food was great but the attacks had left a bad taste in all of our mouths and soon after the last mouthful had gone in we went back to the hotel to find out more.

While the figures had risen the number of attacks was now counted at 4- three on trains and one on a bus. Some previously unknown Al-Qaeda (?) group had claimed responsibility. Tony Blair was flying down from the G8 Summit in Scotland. I got an email from my sister saying that they didn't really know what to do and she would be spending the night in the office. In actual fact, she walked nearly two hours to get back to Fenchurch Street where the mainline trains were running and took her home.

Today I still can't believe it. As I am sure that many of you can't. What a week for London, the high of the Olympics being dashed into oblivion as countless people lay injured on railway tracks. I won't say anymore because you don't need me to tell you how to feel.

--------------------------------------

As an aside, I just want to mention that I can't get into blogspot or hotmail from this computer. In the next internet cafe I can get into blogspot and lostseouls but not hotmail. The computer in the hotel will let me into hotmail but not lost seouls and is only typing Vietnamese right now. Therefore, I haven't seen if there are any new comments on the post below this one and don't know when I will be able to see if there are comments on this post. Now I will go to another internet cafe where I can send emails.

Communism- don't you just love it?

I'm Back!

Hello there!

It would appear that while I am not allowed to look at the fruits of my blog this PC will let me update it- strange.

Right I believe that I left you as I was about to get on a sleeper train to Hanoi. It was my first time on a sleeper since the UK can be done in a day by train, leaves on the track allowing. Only back home it would cost a year's salary or any limbs that you are not too attached to to spend 16 hours on a train. We got to the station in Danang early but it worked out OK as we bumped into an English couple and their three year old daughter that we had met while touring the temples at My Son the previous day. Little Chloe had got rather attached to the toy squirrel that my uncle gave me and spent a very happy day playing with him so she was happy to see us at the station and shyly enquired as to the whereabouts of squirrel. Turned out that they were on the same train as us but only going to Hue, a couple of hours up the track. Apparantely there is only one track in Vietnam and it runs the length of the country so there are frequent breaks while the train pulls into a siding to let others past.

We found our carriage and berths- three bunks piled on top of each other in a cabin containing six. Popping our bags under the bed we settled on the bottom bunk, folding the middle bunk away for now. Endless amounts of people came into our carriage, one old lady had an entire village carting her luggage around which they spent a lot of time and effort stowing in all the available spaces before checking her ticket and realising that she was in the wrong place. More baggage handling and she was gone and I had a shiny new bruise on my leg to remind me of her suitcase.

Sitting on the bottom bunk across from us was what I can only describe as the Vietnamese Pat Butcher. Along with her teenage kids, she sat there in hot pants, a low cut top, full make up and a cigarette in hand. She smiled at us, we smiled back. She lit up. We all looked at the no smoking sign. She shrugged and smiled again. I knew it was going to be a long 16 hours. She had three kids with her, which accounted for the remaining bunks but people still kept coming. Two men drifted in and out periodically. Pat's kid climbed off the middle bunk and went to stand in the corridor. One of the men climbed on the bunk and asked us what we thought of Vietnamese men. The kid came back and went to sleep on the bottom bunk with his mum.

There still seemed to be too many people around so we asked the man how many people were travelling in our carriage- he said himself, his boss and the woman and two of her kids. Five people in short. Three of whom had only paid for one bunk but made free with all of the others. We visited Chloe and her family in their seats and they did a return visit back to our room to see squirrel. The woman was fascinated with little Chloe and took many photos of her and her son on her camera phone. She was so into it that she forgot to smoke for a while and everything.

The hours passed by along with the gorgeous scenery- fields and jungle nestling beaches and small houses. Water buffalo played freely though seemed to hide whenever I got my camera out. We arrived in Hue and waved Chloe, Avia and Nigel on their way. Before too long it seemed like time for a beer. So we had one. One beer followed another in true British fashion and before too long we were all taking Vietnamese lessons off the kids. And making a right dog's dinner of it. I couldn't even say the girl's name though it sounded a little like someone clearing their throat. We used the phrases in the back of the Lonely Planet though were not surprised when no-one replied to Vicky's request to breastfeed in the room, guess our pronunciation wasn't all that.

Then the beer ran out. The beer lady hadn't been past our door in a while so off we went in search of the cans. We made it all the way to one end of the train but nothing. Back the other way, through the cheap seats, where everyone seemed to be staring at us. We found the beer right at the other end. As we walked back through people nudged each other as if to say 'ah, that's what they were after'.

I slept surprisingly well that night, I got the bottom bunk with Clare above and Vicky perched up in the gods. Pat Butcher took the top bunk with her daughter while her son split his time between the two other bunks with the men that he had met that day. At 2am we pulled into a station and I woke up. Not many people seemed to be around as I went out to find the loo but there was a queue when I got there.

Back to bed and I slept right through until the electronic rooster started to wake the train up at 4.30am!

We were off the train shortly after five am and into the sticky heat of Hanoi. We decided that we would just keep on going until we got to our destination of Cat Ba island. We got onto motos and went to the train station to get a train to Haiphong only to be told that we had a six hour wait. Hum. Onto another moto and to the bus station where our moto drivers flagged down a bus for us and on we got. Slept more on the bus and discovered that squirrel makes a rather comfy travel pillow.

Arriving bleary eyed in Haiphong we went to the ferry terminal. That is to say that Clare and Vicky did while my moto driver got lost. He left me sitting on a corner while he went to look for the others. By the time that we were reunited they had negotiated a ferry to Cat Ba. A moto ride, then a ferry then a bus journey and we were on Cat Ba island, 26 hours after leaving Hoi An.

We checked into a hotel, had a shower and then went out for dinner.

That was last week. I have more to tell! But you will have to wait......