Tourist Sites

Time is certainly flying isn't it? And while you lot have been enjoying a scorching heat wave we've been wrapping up in thermals and rain macks. But we're not sad about that...oh no! We've had our first set of visitors to entertain and we've brightened the days with trips away and new experiences. This has certainly been a few weeks of 'firsts':

First Kangaroo Sighting - To see these amazing hopping creatures in the wild is certainly a sight. Although you know how they move it is still a bit of surprise when you first see them jumping away like grass hoppers, it's hard to believe they can travel at such speed by bopping up and down. They are timid little things, well, not so little in some cases, and the ones in Victoria are generally grey in colour. We got a very close encounter when one baby roo came across our path in the Yarra Valley...nearly giving Andre a heart attack in the process. The roo was ok though, Andre is still a bit jumpy.

First Wine Tasting Extravaganza- After our first drive round the fabulous Yarra Valley wine region Andre and I were hooked on the plentiful flow of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. There are so many wineries to visit and so many delicious wines to taste that even after our third trip we still haven't seen it all (yes, we're hooked). Andre chauffeured Margaret, Ricky and I round last weekend on a grand tour which took us right into the hills and into some of the big estates. The big expanse of land known as the 'Yarra Valley' is in fact so big that different areas specialise in different grapes due to the diverse weather conditions. We'll be connoisseurs before you know it, and hopefully Andre won't just go for the cheapest bottle of plonk from the supermarket next time!

First Big Road Trip - We took a nice long weekend down the scenic Great Ocean Road, which is a coastal route travelling west from the city. There are some amazing sights to see along the way with some of the best surf and beaches in Victoria. The journey is steeped in history, not only was the road built by over 3,000 returned servicemen in remembrance of those who died in WW1, but along the way there are remnants of ship wrecks and historic buildings such as the Cape Otway Lighthouse. One of the highlights has to be the obsure Twelve Apostles - which is false advertising because there aren't 12 - but it is definitely worth seeing these impressive crumbling rocks jutting out of the white water. We also got our first sighting of the cuddly cute Koalas which just sleep in the trees all day and sometimes wake to munch on some leaves. Ahhhh! I want one!

First Aussie Rules Footie Match - It had to be done, we had to get into the AFL (Aussie Football league) someday, and considering Victoria is the main state that plays it/lives it/breathes it/doesn't broadcast anything else but/we thought we'd give it a try. The stadium (MCG, or called simply the "G" by locals) is only a short walk from our flat, and it's very impressive indeed. To show you just how passionate these supporters are they pack this venure out every weekend with over 90,000 fans, and unlike footie at home woman, children, gran, grandad, dog, cat are all welcome. We were a bit perplexed at first because its a strange game and a mixture of everything - the ball is shaped a bit like a rugby ball, they punch the ball like volleyball, dribble like basketball, kick like football, jostle and mark like netball and play outside the lines on a circular pitch like nothing else. We were also puzzled by the number of random people running on the pitch in fluorecent tracksuits, and the large number of referees, and the changing length of time for each quarter. It took me a while to even know who was playing, but there was such a great atmosphere you can't help but get involved, we'll just bring big rugs to cover up next time and a flask of hot tea.

First Drive to Philip Island - Just a short drive away from Melbourne is a little island which harbours an array of surfers beaches, cute wildlife and quirky shops. Philip Island is famous for its Penguin Parade which they have made into a bit of a spectacle, so much so we were put off by the price and decided not to wait out in the cold for 2hours to watch the little black and white birds waddle up the shore. We did see lots more lovely Koala's though in a purpose built sanctury and learnt a bit more about these nocturnal fluffy bears - Fact 1: they are not related to the bear family. Fact 2: they sleep for 20 hours a day. Fact 3: they are marsupians - raise their young in a pouch. Fact 4: they eat eucalyptus. Fact 5: I love them and want one as a pet. Whoever is coming to visit in the summer please expect to be taken to see my fluffy friends, and also pay over the odds for the penguins.

So, all is left is to thank Margaret and Ricky for their lovely company and for you to check out the photos. Enjoy the sun while you can.. it won't last long! (ha! i'm just jealous).

Lots of love XX

p.s. Here is a list of new Aussie words we have learnt:

- Ambo's = ambulance
- Salvo's = Salvation Army
- Bogan = chav
- Grog = alcohol
- Manchester = bedding/sheets
- Reef 'n' beef = surf 'n' turf
- Snag = sausage
- Sanger/sammo = sandwich
- Chow tucker = Chinese food
- Chook = chicken

Flying from Vientiene to Hanoi was a great idea as the prospect of spending 28 hours on a bus journey which would be plagued by scams at the border didn't appeal!
Soon after landing in Hanoi we negotiated a stupidly low price for a guy to take us into the city, 30km away, the alarm bells should have rung. After specifying several times where we wanted to go the driver appeared to take little notice! Sadly all wasn't well and instead of arriving in the vibrant old quarter of the city we arrived in a dark, dingy and empty side street. After a length and heated argument in which with their broken English they told us they didn't want Vietnamese currency but only dollars. This was quite exasperating as we didn't have any dollars, so pushed them aside and gave them some Thai money and walked off, annoyingly they followed us for a bit but soon found a legal taxi.
By this stage we were both a bit frazzled and desperately in need of the sanctuary of a good hotel room. After checking out a few places we stumbled upon a lovely hotel where we promptly locked ourselves away for a night of Sky tv and raiding of the mini bar!

In the morning we set out on the walking tour which is given in the lonely planet book, obviously nearly every other group of travellers had this book and also seemed to be walking the route but it did give us a great insight into the old quarter of Vietnam. The most striking thing was how shops organised themselves, one street would be full of jewellery shops, the next full of clothes shops etc. Along the way we explored several food markets which where amazing and we now firmly believe the saying that they eat anything in Vietnam! We saw turtles in cages waiting for boiling and half a dead dog.

After lunch we visited a theatre to watch a water puppet show. Basically the stage becomes a shallow pond of water and behind a screen puppeteers operate puppets that appear to be floating on the water. Several stories are narrated throughout the performance, none of which we understood but the performances are fantastic and now we have discovered the video function on the camera and short video will be uploaded soon!

It is fair to say that the majority of people who visit Hanoi go on a trip to Halong Bay, famous for 300 limestone rock formations protruding out of the sea and also for Top Gear! We decided against doing an organised tour after our debacle in the Nepal national park even though Lonely Planet’s recommends taking a tour. So we bought a ticket form our hotel to the island town of Cat Ba in Halong Bay thinking we would get there in half a day. Unfortunately it soon became obvious we were to be part of tour for the first day and after seeing how the guides treated the tourists we were glad to leave them at the end of the day. Whilst on the boat to Cat Ba we saw many of the famous limestone karsts and also our first floating village. The villagers now made a good living from taking tourists on small boats into remote caves. It is hard to say whether they are happy having so many tourists and their money or perhaps they would rather be left in peace to live off the sea.

In the town of Cat Ba we found decent accommodation, not a hard task as all the local men seemed to do apart from fish was to build more and more hotels, sadly opting for quantity over quality. The food here was good with fresh seafood available at every restaurant.

It became apparent just how merry Andrew had been last night by his inability to open his bloodshot eyes more than a tiny slit. I left him clutching his head, downing a pint of water, while I merrily, skipped off to my Thai cooking course - which was a bit of a show because I too felt a little queasy. The school was only around the corner and I was the first to arrive, keeno, so I got to sip Thai tea while my fellow classmates joined the party: Chris and Sarah, a reserved English couple from Stoke, and Jasper and Nan, an unreserved Dutch couple from Amsterdam. I explained the other half of my couple preferred the end result of cooking rather than the preparation bit, but we all agreed by the end of the day that anyone would enjoy this!!

Our teacher was a typical, smiley, bubbly, Thai lady with the cute name of 'Oi', needless to say no-one in the group forgot that. She took us around the local, fresh food market to show us and explain some of the ingredients we would be using, then it was straight to the chopping boards to conjure up a spicy, lemongrassy, garlicy feast! We pounded the pestle and mortar, smelt the fragrant aromas and only after a few moments of wok time a sensational snack was ready and waiting... and if I do say so myself, they were delicious! Although we each prepared our own 7 dishes we got to learn all the other choices available and after every course we got to sit down and enjoy our creation. It was amazing how quick and easy it was to make such great Thai food like Tom Yum soup (sweet and sour), Green Thai Curry and Fresh spring rolls. The majority of Thai food is fresh and healthy and the small portions make it ideal for snacking throughout the day! Heaven! Andrew would indeed have loved it!

I went back to the hotel beaming, with my belly about to burst, and found the hungover hippo wallowing in bed - He had also been on a blow-out, but English style - a massive full fry-up and, I'm shamed to say, a Burger King. We spent the rest of the day lounging like Buddha's. In contrast to our gluttony we decided to detox the next day, starting with a sweat-inducing gym session at a plush hotel, then a quick dip in the chilly pool, finished with a snooze on the sun lounger. Proud of our new toxins levels we went for a sushi dinner where we kinda counteracted all our goodness - All You Can Eat sushi for 6pounds with drinks and pudding included - the pressure was on with only one hour and 15 mins to shovel it in. As I went to get the drinks Andy had already tucked into his first plate of prawns before realising the correct procedure.. We were given a bowl of bubbly soup in front of us and like a Swiss meat fondue you were expected to boil the beef in it! So Andy had just eaten three RAW prawns and was happily munching away without a care. Luckily, it was the only 3 raw ones he ate, and undeterred we just carried on piling in the chicken, veg and seafood, with plates piling up everywhere. At any moment I expected Andy to make a mad dash to the toilet, but he managed a further 25 cooked prawns plus about 10 tempura prawns without any pains. All You Can Eat is a bit pressurizing, and I did force the second bowl of icecream down much to my belly moaning. Hopefully we won't need to eat for another week now.

Acutely aware we are rapidly running out of time we had no choice but to head to the Loas border. With only 2 more weeks left we have decided to cut short Thailand and miss out Cambodia, on the proviso that we will return. So, we got another VIP bus to Chiang Kong, which was 6 hours of bumpety bump on the back seat. The scenery was becoming more mountainous and undeveloped but our vision didn't go far due to the thick, low clouds covering the countryside. Again, out overland crossing was swift and uneventful, we just caught a little ferry across the water, got a few stamps and we were through... Loas here we come!

Once across to border we found a cheap guest house and booked our slow boat for the next day to take us down the Mekong river. For dinner we decided to just go downstairs in our hotel, where the loopy landlady didn't feel it was necessary to collect our drinks for us, she just instructed me to the fridge where I gathered my choice of beverages and served them to Andy - he was delighted as you can imagine. I gladly reminded him the consequences of drinking too much beer as he tucked into his second bottle of Beerloa, which I have dubbed Beer-Loo due to it's effect on Andy's bowels. He collected the next round of drinks! Early to bed for our early rise tomorrow!

As we bid farewell to Samui on a boat to the mainland we were serenaded by a group of frollicking dolphins, who were so slippery and swift that every picture I took turned out to be a splash of water as opposed to a flipping fin. Hhmph! Back onto a VIP bus to Bangkok which smelt of shrimps, and we re-traced our steps up the country. This time around we weren't going to stop in the capital just a few hours wait in the bus terminal for another long-haul up to the northern province.

After all this seated numbness and starring at a large expanse of not much but green we were delighted with the almost quaint, moated and walled Chiang Mai. It is in fact a busy, dynamic, modern city which cleverly combines its history, traditions with a nice laid-back, relaxed, vibe. To embrace the older culture we did a tour of the most historical parts starting off with the oldest temple in the city, Wat Chiang Man; which inhabits a stone slab bearing an inscription engraved in 1581. We hovered outside for a while because I had mistakenly put my shorts on that day and didn't want to offend the monks with my knobbly knees. An Amercian couple in even more revealing attire sauntered straight past us in to the gates, so we followed suit and I tried not to do any high kicks. Before we went inside I got to purg my leg-baring sins and set two grey, spotted-necked, doves free from a cosy, wicker cage. Setting the birds free is a sign of good luck and I am sure it was good for the birds to be let out of their tiny confined space.

Approximately 95% of Thai people are Buddhists and the teachings (dhamma) are chanted every morning and evening in every wat. One of the greatest charms of Chiang Mai is that these beautiful, striking temples are interspersed all over the city, mixing old buildings with new. There is an excess of 300 temples here, almost as many as in Bangkok, each one varying in size but similiar in structure with the tiered, pointing roof and little gold dragons and bells on every point. The patterns, motifs, symbols are exquisetly crafted with gold leaf adorning most of the structure. Inside Wat Chiang Man there are red and gold stencilled murals on the walls and a large seated Buddha at the end of the room. 'Wat' a marvellous sight!

Our next stop was a bronze sculpture of 3 Northern Thai-Lao Kings most associated with Lanna history and representing the centre of the city. The statuary has become a shrine to local residents who leave offerings in return for blessings. Right behind these figures is the Chiang Mai City Arts & Cultural Centre which contains all sorts of interactive exhibits and historical displays, of which I made Andy walk around all 15 rooms pressing every button. It was particulary good to listen to the slow, drawl of an American man explain about the artifacts, often knowingly mis-pronoucing words, but instead of re-recording he just paused and repeated. With aching feet we walked to the Chiang Mai Women's Prison for a relaxing foot massage. Yes, you did read that right. I realise 'spa' and 'prison' are not usually conducive words but to help rehabilitate these criminals they offer treatments to tourists for a small fee, which is saved until their release. I was a little weary that some of these ladies may not have seen, let alone touched, a hairy male like Andy in a while and take him into a side room to corrupt him, but we weren't given a choice because the spa was so popular that they couldn't fit us in. Dissappointed and relieved we went off for some more wat spotting, Wat to see next eh? Wat to do for dinner? Wat a never-ending amount of wonderful jokes I can come up with! Hahahaha!

And if our day wasn't jammed packed enough we headed down to the Night Bazaar which is a maze of vibrant stalls selling Thai trinkets. We settled down in the centre of the hubbub for some seafood, where I selected my own Red Snapper for a roasting. I later realised why Andy had insisted on this restaurant which had gorgeous waitresses in tiny, tight, blue Tiger-Beer dresses! I drank Chang in protest! Great fish though and huge portions. As if that wasn't enought on the way home we got lured by a ladyboy into watching some Thai Boxing, which rounded off the day spectacularly! The small ring is surrounded by Go-Go bars with music blaring and 'ladies' dancing topless around the chairs. Andy didn't know where to look and got so excited that he started betting on the fights with a local Mr.Miagi. Thankfully, he didnt bet on all 8 fights because his selection only came up trumps once. It is hard to judge really, all the contenstants looked so small and young, but once they get going they were mighty fiesty and fast. In time with the music they almost seemed to dance around the arena with their legs bobbing and arms swaying, it reminded a bit of Karate Kid, 'wax on, wax off'. Jenna, our wild waitress was such a character and kept encouraging the flow of beer while flaunting around posing for photos, I think she took a shine to Andy because she kept plying him with bottles.

By far the best fight was the 4 blind-folded fighters, all aimlessly punching the air until they came across a body and wholloped them as hard as they could. The referee often pushed then together and sometimes got caught with a left hook for getting close. Once 2 of the fighters were down the final 2 got to take off their masks and end the fight. An amazingly agile, tattooed boxer won overall in spectactular style, doing a kung-fu high kick to the head 'whahhh chaaaa!'.

We had hoped to see an English guy fight but we were told he was injured, I had to restrain Andy from volunteering to take his place realising at this point he had had too many Chang's. I had to do a few karate moves to get Andy to come home. We were both asleep before our heads touched the pillow. As the title suggests... wat a day!