I have been in Australia now for about two weeks. I came into Melbourne on the 13th, spent a few days, then went to the outback for a good 5 days.
Melbourne was an interesting city, very clean, well laid out, full of fashionable people, art, and trendy cafes. It only took about two days to see the more exciting parts of the city.
The first night, I was alone, as David’s flight was delayed due to the snow in Dallas. I walked around a bit, than went to bed around 5pm, exhausted from the flight over. The next day he got in around noon, and we headed straight out to do some sight seeing. We walked around the city center, going into the State Library, which was once the Victoria National Gallery, a beautiful building and excellent library. Later we walked through Victoria Market, unimpressed with the goods on display, then through Fitzroy Gardens and back into the city center, taking in all of the shops and cafes. We ate outside at a cute café where I had a gorgeous green salad for the first time in months, as SE Asia isn’t exactly the spot to eat salad. We spent the rest of the afternoon in St. Kilda, enjoying the bay at a café with a few beers before taking on the St. Kilda Festival and listening to a few bands play. I got to meet up with Phil, an Irish guy I met in Kuala Lumpur in January who lives in Melbourne. We hung out with him and a few of his friends at a bar that night before heading back to our hostel. It was nice to see another familiar face.
The next day we walked around the Southbank area which lines the Yarra river, had some breakfast at a nice café, and then checked out the sports complex, old Olympic park, and Cricket Fields. The afternoon was spend mainly planning the next week or so, and unwinding at the hostel, doing laundry, etc. We had big plans for the night, however.
Our last night in Melbourne we went to the Crown Casino for dinner and drinks. We heard from a few Kiwi guys that there was a summer special going on. For $12 you could get dinner and a drink, what a deal! We went to one of the restaurants in the casino, a Mediterranean restaurant, and had a phenomenal meal. Afterwards we did a bit of gambling. I went for the slot machines and came out $1 on top and decided to stop. David played some blackjack and ended up losing $30, ouch. It was my first time in a casino, and I thought it was just so much fun….Las Vegas here I come.
Overall, I think unless you have loads of money and can shop till you drop, Melbourne is more of a place to just sit at a café and people watch than anything else.
More to come....
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Northern Vietnam and my last days in Hanoi
I never did buy a sweater before going up to Sapa-turns out I could have used one. The rice home made rice wine seemed to do a decent job keeping me warm.
Sapa is a town in northern Vietnam surrounded by mountains, valleys, and an abundance of man made terraces for cultivating rice. Many people live in the town of Sapa or the surrounding villages that make up the region. Several Mung and Dao tribes still thrive in this region and make a living either farming or following tourists. The people of these tribes still wear traditional garb, and live a very traditional life style, sans the cell phone that is...
I took the night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, an 8 hour journey. Surprisingly I sleep for the majority of it and woke feeling like I had only been sleeping a few minutes. The first day I joined a group for a tour of BacHa Market, in a town about 70km away from Sapa. The ride there was long and fairly painful, as the Vietnamese tourists shared the microphone and sang karaoke the entire way there, mind you the microphone was not of the best quality, and neither was my patience.
The market itself was not too impressive, but still somewhat interesting. I coupled up with a solo traveler from England, and architect named Nick, and we explored the market together. Besides the normal fare, the only thing that caught my attention was the meat market, dog and all.
After a few hours at the market, tired of wandering around, Nick and I settled down for a beer and some good people watching before our scheduled lunch hour and bus ride to the next destination of the day, the China-Vietnam border.
Another hour or so on the bus, we got out and looked at a traditional Flower Mung village home. The woman working in this home was making traditional “happy water.” The only thing I can liken this particular happy water to is what we Texans call “moonshine.” Its corn based liquor, strong, nasty, and get you going. After a shot of this-mid day-I was ready to get going…to bed.
The bus ride to the border I was out like a light, a nice nap all in all give or take some neck pain. The border was about as interesting and exciting as when you cross over from Texas into Oklahoma, yet less beautiful and there is no formal welcome sign or travel center, only some electric fencing and an immigration office. Oh well, I guess I can say I have seen China now.
The rest of the day I got to take it easy at the Fansipan Hotel in Sapa. I had my own room with the most amazing shower, consistently hot shower, and clean comfy bed with crisp sheets. I went to bed at 8pm and didn’t wake up until my alarm went off. Rare.
The next day was the start of our two day trek. I joined a different group for this part of the trip. There were six of us total, five girls (three from Oz, one from Israel, and myself) and one guy (Ole from Alaska/Mexico). We had a guide named something like Juan but I can’t be bothered to attempt to spell it correctly in Vietnamese.
Day one was supposedly a 19km trek-sure didn’t feel like it. Easy as pie except for the one area where we had to walk down a steep hill for about thirty minutes. The entire time we walked, we were followed by several Mung tribal women. These women would ask us questions is English, attempt to build a sort of friendship, then at the right moment try to make a sale. Mainly they sold jewelry, and other odds and ends made from their woven fabrics. I somehow got off only buy a pair of ear rings for a measly 20,000 Dong ($1).
We had lunch about half way at some random wooden building in the mountains. Lunch consisted of the same exact thing I had for breakfast, a baguette, laughing cow cheese, and cucumber. Delightful. After lunch we continued on towards our homestay for the night. The homestay was in a larger village in one of the valleys and was quite luxurious considering the other homes we had seen on the trek out there. It was a large two story wooden home with a patio and pool table outdoors, and a small TV indoors. Granted the kitchen was all wood fired, and the home lacked most modern amenities, it was comfortable. Due to its touristy nature, the homestay sadly didn’t include much interaction with the actual family that lived there, they merely acted as a host instead. I felt this especially when I asked to help prepare our dinner, hoping to learn a few things and engage in some cultural interaction, and was turned down and told to go sit outside with the other foreigners. I did, however, at one point, convince one of the young girls to let me roll a few spring rolls before she fried them up. Needless to say she was impressed by my skills.
The evening meal was delicious. We ate a number of different dishes: chicken and mushrooms, tofu and tomatoes, pork, pig intestine (eek), spring rolls, and rice. One of the best meals I had in Vietnam. The night was passed playing pool, telling stories, drinking rice wine, and watching the local village men get drunk and smoke tobacco out of a giant bamboo pipe.
Day two was only 10km. Which felt even shorter as we took it slow, and stopped at several small villages and viewpoints. Its hard to describe these villages and their people, I think my pictures will do some justice. They seemed overall happy and carefree, and for the most part healthy despite the living conditions.
The end of the Sapa trek brought us back to Sapa where I did a bit of shopping in the street market/black market, and bought a sweater finally. I then went to a viewpoint café with Ole from the tour group and was convinced to have a cup of Vietnamese coffee with him-arguably the best damn cup of coffee I have ever had given I don’t like coffee.
From there it was a shower and another bus ride to Lao Cai for another night train. There was a mix up with my train ticket, apparently the tour company gave me a ticket for the day before I was suppose to leave, causing some frustration, a few cross words on my part, followed by it all working out alright-somehow. The night train back I didn’t sleep as well-it was bumpy and I kept waking-thinking it was going to derail and crash-not a good feeling.
I did get into Hanoi at about 5am that morning. After haggling with a few taxi drivers, I found a good price and transferred over to the hostel again. I went back to bed and woke up about 10am, ready for another day in the busy city of Hanoi.
My friend Collin, who I met in Thailand and Laos, was also in Hanoi at this point, so we partnered up to take on the city streets for the day. In all honestly, I don’t think we made it farther than about 2km from the hostel, but still, we had a good time. We searched for some real Vietnamese food, noodles and grilled pork called “bun chao.” For about $2 each we ate an incredible meal. Collin was excited to be introduced to some new food, and I was happy to have someone to share a meal with.
We walked around for a while in an attempt to find a traditional Vietnamese beverage made from white or black beans and ice. After walking around the busy streets, perusing all of the markets selling décor for the coming Chinese New Year, we finally came upon the small hole in the wall that was serving the beverage. The place was fairly busy-and seemed a popular cold treat for working women and men in the heat of the afternoon. It was definitely different, but Collin and I both agreed it was tasty.
The rest of the afternoon we lounged around-watched half of a horrible movie, Eagle Eye, what a waste of time…then settled for happy hour at the hostel’s bar instead. Into the evening we decided to go for a change of scenery and search for a bar outside of the hostel’s comfort zone. We ended up at a place I had eaten dinner at a week before, and the beer there was less than a dollar a glass. After some good conversation and good number of beers later we went for a walk around the lake and enjoyed some of the city lights, people watching, and did some tree climbing. The atmosphere around the lake was really nice, and convinced me that Hanoi did, after all, uphold some bit of charm.
I flew out early the next morning-after a major mistake on the date of my flight, and a loss of about $400. Note to self: always read the fine print. My flight was on the 10th, not the 11th. Well shit. I had a pretty horrible day, but by the end of it, sleeping in my comfortable bed in Kuala Lumpur, and knowing I would be flying out to Melbourne the following night, things were starting to look up again.
Sorry but no pictures for a while-I have yet to find an internet connection fast and cheap enough.
Sapa is a town in northern Vietnam surrounded by mountains, valleys, and an abundance of man made terraces for cultivating rice. Many people live in the town of Sapa or the surrounding villages that make up the region. Several Mung and Dao tribes still thrive in this region and make a living either farming or following tourists. The people of these tribes still wear traditional garb, and live a very traditional life style, sans the cell phone that is...
I took the night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, an 8 hour journey. Surprisingly I sleep for the majority of it and woke feeling like I had only been sleeping a few minutes. The first day I joined a group for a tour of BacHa Market, in a town about 70km away from Sapa. The ride there was long and fairly painful, as the Vietnamese tourists shared the microphone and sang karaoke the entire way there, mind you the microphone was not of the best quality, and neither was my patience.
The market itself was not too impressive, but still somewhat interesting. I coupled up with a solo traveler from England, and architect named Nick, and we explored the market together. Besides the normal fare, the only thing that caught my attention was the meat market, dog and all.
After a few hours at the market, tired of wandering around, Nick and I settled down for a beer and some good people watching before our scheduled lunch hour and bus ride to the next destination of the day, the China-Vietnam border.
Another hour or so on the bus, we got out and looked at a traditional Flower Mung village home. The woman working in this home was making traditional “happy water.” The only thing I can liken this particular happy water to is what we Texans call “moonshine.” Its corn based liquor, strong, nasty, and get you going. After a shot of this-mid day-I was ready to get going…to bed.
The bus ride to the border I was out like a light, a nice nap all in all give or take some neck pain. The border was about as interesting and exciting as when you cross over from Texas into Oklahoma, yet less beautiful and there is no formal welcome sign or travel center, only some electric fencing and an immigration office. Oh well, I guess I can say I have seen China now.
The rest of the day I got to take it easy at the Fansipan Hotel in Sapa. I had my own room with the most amazing shower, consistently hot shower, and clean comfy bed with crisp sheets. I went to bed at 8pm and didn’t wake up until my alarm went off. Rare.
The next day was the start of our two day trek. I joined a different group for this part of the trip. There were six of us total, five girls (three from Oz, one from Israel, and myself) and one guy (Ole from Alaska/Mexico). We had a guide named something like Juan but I can’t be bothered to attempt to spell it correctly in Vietnamese.
Day one was supposedly a 19km trek-sure didn’t feel like it. Easy as pie except for the one area where we had to walk down a steep hill for about thirty minutes. The entire time we walked, we were followed by several Mung tribal women. These women would ask us questions is English, attempt to build a sort of friendship, then at the right moment try to make a sale. Mainly they sold jewelry, and other odds and ends made from their woven fabrics. I somehow got off only buy a pair of ear rings for a measly 20,000 Dong ($1).
We had lunch about half way at some random wooden building in the mountains. Lunch consisted of the same exact thing I had for breakfast, a baguette, laughing cow cheese, and cucumber. Delightful. After lunch we continued on towards our homestay for the night. The homestay was in a larger village in one of the valleys and was quite luxurious considering the other homes we had seen on the trek out there. It was a large two story wooden home with a patio and pool table outdoors, and a small TV indoors. Granted the kitchen was all wood fired, and the home lacked most modern amenities, it was comfortable. Due to its touristy nature, the homestay sadly didn’t include much interaction with the actual family that lived there, they merely acted as a host instead. I felt this especially when I asked to help prepare our dinner, hoping to learn a few things and engage in some cultural interaction, and was turned down and told to go sit outside with the other foreigners. I did, however, at one point, convince one of the young girls to let me roll a few spring rolls before she fried them up. Needless to say she was impressed by my skills.
The evening meal was delicious. We ate a number of different dishes: chicken and mushrooms, tofu and tomatoes, pork, pig intestine (eek), spring rolls, and rice. One of the best meals I had in Vietnam. The night was passed playing pool, telling stories, drinking rice wine, and watching the local village men get drunk and smoke tobacco out of a giant bamboo pipe.
Day two was only 10km. Which felt even shorter as we took it slow, and stopped at several small villages and viewpoints. Its hard to describe these villages and their people, I think my pictures will do some justice. They seemed overall happy and carefree, and for the most part healthy despite the living conditions.
The end of the Sapa trek brought us back to Sapa where I did a bit of shopping in the street market/black market, and bought a sweater finally. I then went to a viewpoint café with Ole from the tour group and was convinced to have a cup of Vietnamese coffee with him-arguably the best damn cup of coffee I have ever had given I don’t like coffee.
From there it was a shower and another bus ride to Lao Cai for another night train. There was a mix up with my train ticket, apparently the tour company gave me a ticket for the day before I was suppose to leave, causing some frustration, a few cross words on my part, followed by it all working out alright-somehow. The night train back I didn’t sleep as well-it was bumpy and I kept waking-thinking it was going to derail and crash-not a good feeling.
I did get into Hanoi at about 5am that morning. After haggling with a few taxi drivers, I found a good price and transferred over to the hostel again. I went back to bed and woke up about 10am, ready for another day in the busy city of Hanoi.
My friend Collin, who I met in Thailand and Laos, was also in Hanoi at this point, so we partnered up to take on the city streets for the day. In all honestly, I don’t think we made it farther than about 2km from the hostel, but still, we had a good time. We searched for some real Vietnamese food, noodles and grilled pork called “bun chao.” For about $2 each we ate an incredible meal. Collin was excited to be introduced to some new food, and I was happy to have someone to share a meal with.
We walked around for a while in an attempt to find a traditional Vietnamese beverage made from white or black beans and ice. After walking around the busy streets, perusing all of the markets selling décor for the coming Chinese New Year, we finally came upon the small hole in the wall that was serving the beverage. The place was fairly busy-and seemed a popular cold treat for working women and men in the heat of the afternoon. It was definitely different, but Collin and I both agreed it was tasty.
The rest of the afternoon we lounged around-watched half of a horrible movie, Eagle Eye, what a waste of time…then settled for happy hour at the hostel’s bar instead. Into the evening we decided to go for a change of scenery and search for a bar outside of the hostel’s comfort zone. We ended up at a place I had eaten dinner at a week before, and the beer there was less than a dollar a glass. After some good conversation and good number of beers later we went for a walk around the lake and enjoyed some of the city lights, people watching, and did some tree climbing. The atmosphere around the lake was really nice, and convinced me that Hanoi did, after all, uphold some bit of charm.
I flew out early the next morning-after a major mistake on the date of my flight, and a loss of about $400. Note to self: always read the fine print. My flight was on the 10th, not the 11th. Well shit. I had a pretty horrible day, but by the end of it, sleeping in my comfortable bed in Kuala Lumpur, and knowing I would be flying out to Melbourne the following night, things were starting to look up again.
Sorry but no pictures for a while-I have yet to find an internet connection fast and cheap enough.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Good Morning Vietnam!
So it has been quite a while since I have updated this site. Seeing a trend here?
Vang Vieng was awesome. I had so much fun and hung out with some cool people. I rode bikes to a cave and small natural pool with a few people from the hostel, Ben from LA, Tom, and Emma from Australia. We had a really good time bumping down the rocky dirt roads on our granny bicycles, exploring the dark cave and swimming in the freezing water, dodging sharp rocks. I ended up going tubing with them the first full day, and having a blast.
The second day I took it easy, like I said, and went tubing down the river the full three hours. I was seriously the only person on the river for most of the way-running into local fisherman and little kids mostly. At one point I stopped along the river for a beer, and ended up fishing with a local man for about an hour. His English was incredible, and I learned a lot more about day to day life in Laos.
That afternoon I met up with a friend from my travels in Thailand. Collin and I met in Chiang Mai, a fellow American, we hit it off and were excited when we ended up meeting again in Laos. We hung out the next few days, went out at night, went tubing during the day, and basically just made fun of all the annoying Swedish people staying at our hostel.
I was sad to leave Laos since I had so much fun there-made some good friends.
I set off to Hanoi Vietnam on the 1st of February, arrived late and exhausted, and went on a three day Halong Bay tour the next morning.
Despite the drab weather, Halong Bay was beautiful. It is made up of over 1000 limestone karsts/islands that stick out of the water as far as the eye can see. After a four hour bus ride out of Hanoi, I boarded a large boat with about 25 other backpackers. We checked into our cabins (I got my own room!), and we had a good lunch, and all started to chat and make friends. At first the group was not very exciting, and I questioned how well everyone was going to get along. By the end of the day, however, everyone was having a great time together-jumping off the boat, having a few drinks, playing cards, sharing music, etc.
The second day we moved from the big boat to a smaller one that took us to a tiny island where we spent the next day and night. Castaway Island was phenomenal. There were a few small huts for sleeping pads, toilets, a ping pong table, volley ball court, and a pavilion for eating and drinking. Very charming and cute, not to mention scenic. Had the weather been better, it would have been paradise in my eyes. This is a place I would love to come back to someday.
I really clicked with several of the people from this trip, and hope to see them again someday. I met two English girls, Alice and Lauren, who are traveling for the next eight months and have plans to come over to the states, should be fun. I got everyone excited about coming to Texas and experience some real BBQ, a rodeo, tubing, wine country, and Austin. It is amazing how much people know about Texas.
After three long days at Halong Bay, I was exhausted and spent the next few days in Hanoi doing absolutely nothing. I think today I will actually leave the vicinity of the hostel and go see a sight or two. I just really don’t care for the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, the trash, and the dangerous street crossings. I do, however, like to the Pho.
I leave tonight for a four night tour of Sapa, the northern region of Vietnam. I really need to go buy a warm sweater for this trip-I am not quite prepared.
Vang Vieng was awesome. I had so much fun and hung out with some cool people. I rode bikes to a cave and small natural pool with a few people from the hostel, Ben from LA, Tom, and Emma from Australia. We had a really good time bumping down the rocky dirt roads on our granny bicycles, exploring the dark cave and swimming in the freezing water, dodging sharp rocks. I ended up going tubing with them the first full day, and having a blast.
The second day I took it easy, like I said, and went tubing down the river the full three hours. I was seriously the only person on the river for most of the way-running into local fisherman and little kids mostly. At one point I stopped along the river for a beer, and ended up fishing with a local man for about an hour. His English was incredible, and I learned a lot more about day to day life in Laos.
That afternoon I met up with a friend from my travels in Thailand. Collin and I met in Chiang Mai, a fellow American, we hit it off and were excited when we ended up meeting again in Laos. We hung out the next few days, went out at night, went tubing during the day, and basically just made fun of all the annoying Swedish people staying at our hostel.
I was sad to leave Laos since I had so much fun there-made some good friends.
I set off to Hanoi Vietnam on the 1st of February, arrived late and exhausted, and went on a three day Halong Bay tour the next morning.
Despite the drab weather, Halong Bay was beautiful. It is made up of over 1000 limestone karsts/islands that stick out of the water as far as the eye can see. After a four hour bus ride out of Hanoi, I boarded a large boat with about 25 other backpackers. We checked into our cabins (I got my own room!), and we had a good lunch, and all started to chat and make friends. At first the group was not very exciting, and I questioned how well everyone was going to get along. By the end of the day, however, everyone was having a great time together-jumping off the boat, having a few drinks, playing cards, sharing music, etc.
The second day we moved from the big boat to a smaller one that took us to a tiny island where we spent the next day and night. Castaway Island was phenomenal. There were a few small huts for sleeping pads, toilets, a ping pong table, volley ball court, and a pavilion for eating and drinking. Very charming and cute, not to mention scenic. Had the weather been better, it would have been paradise in my eyes. This is a place I would love to come back to someday.
I really clicked with several of the people from this trip, and hope to see them again someday. I met two English girls, Alice and Lauren, who are traveling for the next eight months and have plans to come over to the states, should be fun. I got everyone excited about coming to Texas and experience some real BBQ, a rodeo, tubing, wine country, and Austin. It is amazing how much people know about Texas.
After three long days at Halong Bay, I was exhausted and spent the next few days in Hanoi doing absolutely nothing. I think today I will actually leave the vicinity of the hostel and go see a sight or two. I just really don’t care for the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, the trash, and the dangerous street crossings. I do, however, like to the Pho.
I leave tonight for a four night tour of Sapa, the northern region of Vietnam. I really need to go buy a warm sweater for this trip-I am not quite prepared.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)