Home Sweet Home…Again – Sunday 24th July

This morning I’d offered Franzi two choices – an early start and a visit to the Museum to see the Tutankhamen exhibit, or a bit of a sleep in and then some wandering around shops. Franzi preferred the second option, and as this was maybe the first decision Franzi had made all week this is what we did!

Oh the sleep in was good. It was only until 9am but this was luxury compared to most of the past three weeks. So cosy, lying in bed with the rain outside the window.

Pancakes for breakfast at 10am, and then off to catch the City Circle Tram to Melbourne Central Shopping Centre. We weren’t there too long – Franzi had no money or space to buy clothes, I bought three tops, a cardigan, a necklace and some earrings. Oops :)

Back to the hostel to pick up our bags and then off to the Airport. No problems here at all – a Bolognaise Foccacia for lunch and on the plane perfectly on time. The plane trip was full of blogging and sleeping – wow, where did all my energy go?

And finally, home again for the end of my crazy three weeks. Now I feel like sleeping for a few days – oh wait, what was that? 5.30am start tomorrow and then a full work week? Maybe the craziness continues :)

Melbourne and Musicals – Saturday 23rd July

The first thing we did today was clean ice off the windshield of the sexy red beast, at 8am in the morning. Franziska should have been the expert at this but we didn’t have a ‘thing’ as she called it – therefore we cleaned off the ice using tissues and hot breath… needless to say it took a while!

Off to sunny Salamanca Markets – we were there right from the opening at 8.40am. I think Franzi will always remember the markets as ‘that place that was absolutely freezing’. It was around 3 degrees when we got there and we lasted about five minutes walking around before we dashed into a warm coffee shop for breakfast. I had a Bruschetta, Franzi had a Panini and it was all very Italian, warm and delicious.

At around 9.30am we were out in the markets again for a quick look around – the weather wasn’t really conducive to standing in one spot and looking at things… power walking was required! There were lots of wooden things and lots of hippy things and lots of donut smells… very typical Salamanca :)

10am we met up with the mother of another exchange students that stayed with Franzi – this was a very quick chat but with a warm coffee that was enjoyed very much! Everything has seemed very rushed here… before long we were back in our little car and heading towards the airport.

The trip there took very little time and we found ourselves with an hour to wait at the very small Hobart airport. Oh well, we gloated at the Virgin Australia flight to Melbourne that was three hours delayed.

On the flight to Melbourne I bought a glass of white, cheese and crackers and sat reading Agatha Christie on my Kindle. There have certainly been worse flights.

And then – after a quick bus trip we arrived in the city and found our hostel with relative ease. This place is a bit amusing, our room is very very small (bunk bed!) and for the first time we don’t have our own private bathroom.. Ah, $35 a night plus breakfast included, we aren’t complaining. 

First stop, the Crown Casino. It was across the road and on our way so we strolled through for a bit. So many shops I want to throw all my money at! It was all very shiny and Franziska was all very impressed and decided she is going to come back when she is 18 (and in summer – a comment she’s made a lot lately!).

We soon reached the SkyDeck… apparently the highest public vantage point in the Southern Hemisphere? Well there you go. It was smoggy and the view wasn’t amazing – still I was able to use my broken knowledge of the city to point out a couple of sights to Franzi. Soon, back down again.

At this point we still had three hours to kill before we had to be at the Regent Theatre so we headed off to get some food at the Hard Rock Cafe. After much much walking we arrived and discovered it had closed down around three years ago. Oh. Back we go.

After walking around in a big circle we ended up at a classy Italian restaurant recommended on Trip Advisor. This really was a nice little place, and keeping with the spirit of things, I ordered a wild rabbit ragout. Because I could. And a glass of wine and semifreddo afterwards. The whole thing only came to about $40, which was surprising considering the general calibre of the restaurant. The owner even poured sherry on our desserts for free :)

 

Then finally time to go see Love Never Dies at the Regent Theatre. This was glitzy, big and impressive in true Andrew Lloyd Webber style – you couldn’t fault the sets or the costumes or any of the voices. Franziska really loved it, more than the last musical. I…well, it didn’t blow my socks off like Mary Poppins did. I have to admit it was executed wonderfully. But the story? Really? I won’t spoil anything in here, but it just completely warped so much of the first musical… and I wanted to laugh in the final scenes. Everyone around me was getting very emotional though, so maybe I was just being overly picky! Still very glad I saw it :)

Our walk back to the hostel took us through the throngs of drunken people coming back from the footy. This prompted a discussion about the word ‘bogan’ (Franziska says she is not one because she goes to art galleries)which soon moved on to a discussion about a variety of other Aussie slang words. Good times.

Tomorrow, just a little bit more Melbourne. This still isn’t my favourite city in Australia but I have to admit it has personality and way too many things I want to buy. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

Rainforests, Art and Chocolate – Friday 22nd July

We are getting increasingly worse at our early mornings. After a bit of a slow start and a lazy breakfast we were out on the road by 9am, headed towards Mt. Field National Park.

This was quite an interesting trip – we were relying on the GPS which kept cutting out and forgetting to tell us where our turn offs were. It also kept directing us down invisible, non existent roads- all these factors meant quite a few scenic detours and we arrived at Mt. Field almost three hours after our starting time! Quite the road trip.

After that big epic drive we weren’t actually in Mt. Field very long – a quick walk down to Russel Falls and then a climb to see Horseshoe Falls up the top. Franzi had never been in a rainforest before, so that was something new for her :) It was sufficiently green, cold and wet…. and the falls looked the same as they always do!

Toasted sandwiches for lunch before getting back into our sexy red beast - back to Hobart just in time for a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. I had recently discovered that Franziska had no idea what Cadbury was at all – therefore education was needed. There was watching of videos, demonstrations and eating of chocolate flake shots and unsweetened chocolate base. We got a free big block of chocolate with the tour and as such didn’t end up buying anything in the shops. Franzi has now been converted to our chocolate ways :)

Afterwards we dropped our bags off at Dad’s (very clean due to having house inspections) and headed off to the new Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). This is a new art gallery that was privately built by a man who gained all of his fortune through gambling. Geoff had told me I HAD to go – so off we went.

I’m really not sure what to say about what we saw. It was all very captivating and quite confronting. There was a room that recorded your heart beat on a light bulb – the room was full of the flashing heart beats of all the visitors. There were boxes full of recorded voices saying ‘I love you…. there were many very naked images, nothing was held back. Franzi and I spent a very long time in a room full of videos of people singing Madonna songs – very funny.

It was also all very high tech – there were no labels on the paintings but you had an iPod that detected your location. There were soundtracks you could listen to with each painting, artist analysis, interviews with the artist….

It is such an intriguing gallery because it feels so modern and so out of place with sleepy Tassie. Very slick, complete with a classy wine bar, outside space for concerts… I think I will definitely have to go back sometime.

Back to Dad’s house for bolognaise and wine in front of the fire – this was much enjoyed. And then a movie – The Castle… very Australian!

Grandparents and Ghosts – Thursday 21st July

7am start as usual this morning. I depressingly calculated that my next proper sleep in would be…in August. Sigh.

Up in time to have a quick breakfast, coffee and to see Sienna and Anita off to school! And then off to the nursing home to see Nanna and Poppa – with a quick stop off at the post office (all of Franziska’s postcards cost $45 to spend!!) and the supermarket to pick up some flowers for Nanna’s room.

Not too much to say about this visit. We looked at some photos, heard that my cousin just proposed to his girlfriend in Spain (!) and mused at the snow on top of the mountain in the distance.

Before too long it was out on to the road again, heading towards Richmond. There isn’t exactly much to see there but it was on the way so I thought we’d have a look. We drove to the Richmond Bridge – the oldest bridge still being used in Australia – but it felt entirely silly trying to tell Franziska that something built in the 1800s was ‘old’.

 

We took an obligatory photo of the bridge and headed off to check out the little model village they have in Richmond – cute, small, but $14 to get in?? Oh well, it was something to see.

Whilst there I managed to break our car – or rather, I walked past the front of the car and somehow managed to bend the number plate in half? Not sure how that happened. There was some hasty pushing the plate back in to place. There, like new! (almost).

And then I discovered Franziska had never had scones before. That needed to be fixed so we headed off to a tea room to drink English Breakfast tea and eat scones, cream and jam. The scones were perfect and fluffy and warm and yummy and Franzi was very impressed. The shop owner was a bit odd and not quite all there – he made me a calligraphy bookmark… for Jessicka. Hmmm.

Around midday we began our hour and a bit trip down to Port Arthur. I actually really enjoyed this part, driving through the Tassie countryside in our mini automatic car listening to the radio and just taking in the view. Even if I couldn’t figure out the speed limit and was going 60 in a 100 km zone for quite a while!

Eventually we got to Port Arthur without the GPS (phone signal/internet had completely gone by now) and found our Comfort Inn – ah, such a old lady hotel. Old lady bed covers, old lady smell… and certainly no internet. Ah well, it’ll be comfy for one night.

Back to buy our entry tickets and off to see the buildings. Again, it was a very odd feeling trying to present our past two hundred years as ‘history’ – its really not that long in European terms at all. I think the most interesting part about our history for Franzi was that there isn’t very much of it! She kept taking photos ‘for her Dad’ and I’m not really sure what she thought of it all overall.

The weather held out, it was very chilly, but not unpleasant strolling around the grounds – all very quiet, of course, in the middle of winter. We took a nice little harbour cruise for 20 minutes and spent quite a bit of time in the Separate Prison (a solitary silent prison that was easily the most interesting thing there). A good three hour effort in the end.

At around 5pm we settled in for dinner next to the heater in Felons restaurant – where seafood is a speciality. Hmmm, Chicken Parmys for both of us, followed by a stupidly delicious chocolate pudding with berries and ice cream. Nom.

At 6.30pm time for the ghost tour! I’m really glad we did this, it really is a good one – our tour guide was a young woman which some sort of speech impediment. At the start of the tour I would have been quite interested to see a ghost – at the end, after all of the stories, I think I would have passed out. Just a little spooky. Franziska enjoyed it very much too.

Finally back to our not so warm hotel at just after 8pm – a wonderfully reasonable time… even in time to watch the end of Masterchef! The room took a long time to heat up but we soon discovered the electric blankets – an ironically new experience for Franzi.

Ah, the relaxing evening snuggled in bed watching television was much enjoyed.

Sydney to Hobart – Wednesday 20th July

Today when we woke up it was if the pouring rain had not stopped once during the night. Hmmm, what to do?

The day before we had bought two city sight seeing bus tickets, with the intention of going to Bondi Beach. With no other real options and an expensive ticket in hand we decided to brave the rain – off we went to catch the big red open topped double decker bus.

It was a very touristy bus, complete with recorded commentary by a Jules-Lund-sounding-person. After about half an hour, sitting downstairs and being nice and cosy, we arrived at Bondi Beach. This was just funny. It had stopped raining at this point but…the wind! This was one of those wind forces that tries its best to knock you over and happily blows sand into your face! As I said, going down to the beach was just a bit hilarious.

 

We ran down to the beach, took a few obligatory photos, and then ran back to the bus before it left again! We had originally planned to wait for the next bus, which was an hour later, but um….no.

We were on a bit of a good thing with the dry bus so we ended up staying on it as it drove all around lots of different coves and beaches. Then we hopped onto another that went around Sydney centre. At this point, Franzi decided to go up top with her umbrella and enjoy the view from there – she tells me she enjoyed this immensely and was pointed at by lots of people on the sidewalk. After all, she was a lone girl sitting on a very red bus with a very hot pink umbrella out in the pouring rain.

Back to the hostel around midday after a surprisingly successful morning. A bit of time for internet before catching our transfer bus to the airport. I was a bit nervous about this transfer – I had booked it so we had half an hour to check in but hadn’t really left “things going wrong time”. The bus was four minutes late… these were a very fidgety four minutes! Our driver was a weird little old man with a walking stick who didn’t look particularly fast, hmmm.

It turned out I didn’t have to worry at all. The hour drive to the airport was actually 25 minutes. And then, oh look, our plane was delayed 45 minutes. There was much eating and shopping and waiting – then finally on the plane.

After an uneventful flight we went to pick up our rental car – a little red 3 door Hyundai Getz. It is an automatic, which threw me for a bit, and it took me a a few funny minutes  to figure out how to get it into drive. I also got a bit lost trying to navigate my way in the dark – we went around a big roundabout twice. Apart from that, we got to my Aunt and Uncle’s without incident!

 

Dinner was lovely, as it usually is here, my cousin is still adorable and it was lovely to see family. I also met the new Burnese Mountain Dog puppy Frodo. I was smitten in a heartbeat. If only he stayed like a small fluffy puppy forever.

Some looking at photos after dinner and then bed just before midnight (not before writing a blog of course!).

And Then The Wind Changed – Tuesday 19th July

Today we looked at lots of things in displays and cages.

This morning alarms came and alarms went. We ‘slept' in’ until 8.30am – very late in holiday time! After some yummy toast we headed off to catch the ferry over to Taronga Zoo. Brrrr, it was cold this morning – nine degrees on the wharf and very windy. This meant that the hat, scarf and gloves came out pretty quickly – fashion statement, perhaps not.

 

The sun was still shining at this point and Franzi and I enjoyed basking in it as the ferry crossed the harbour. A pretty trip. We arrived at the zoo just in time to see the Seal Show. It was very cute – of course, I have seen it all before (well, perhaps not the seal doing the double back flip) but it was all new for Franzi and she certainly enjoyed it.

After that we walked pretty quickly through the Australian Animal section (very much been there, done that now, even for Franzi!). We DID see a Platypus though, which was lucky cause they are usually so hard to spot. There were also spiders, possums, snakes and some very cute sugar gliders – Australian Animals done and dusted :)

We saw giraffes, elephants, snakes, lizards – you know, all the zoo things. Franziska had never seen gorillas before, which was fun. The spiders and snakes also made quite an impact.

We were there for a good two and bit hours, including a mission for hot chips at lunch time. We took the ferry back – sitting inside this time, the weather was beginning to turn (and it pretty much got progressively worse across the day).

So off we trekked to the Powerhouse Museum, through the rain and the freezing wind (with our flimsy feeble umbrellas). I made lots of jokes about the Museum being closed or being renovated when we got there seeing as we had to walk so far. When we arrived – oh look, half the museum is closed for renovations! Ah well, we’d come so far we were going to look around

Franziska and my version of ‘looking around’ basically consisted of finding any exhibit that had buttons to push. I don’t think we read one bit of information. We became rather preoccupied playing Frogger, PacMan and Donkey Kong on an old video game station at one point and there was also some random iPad game that we spent way too long on.

We also spent a very long time in a rotating tube that makes you feel like the whole room is spinning – something about simulating weightlessness in space.

After a solid hour and a half pushing buttons on things we headed off to the Aquarium. Franziska liked the sharks and the fish. I liked the dugong. I nearly bought a dugong soft toy that rolls around on the floor laughing. There was much purchasing of souvenirs in the shop before heading out into the now pouring rain. Hmmm, taxi back.

Pizza for dinner! There was Saltwater Crocodile Pizza on the menu so of course this needed to be ordered (plus a safe cripsy bacon pizza just in case). It was very bizzare. A mix between chicken and fish. I can’t say I would order it again but it was certainly edible. Eaten crocodile and kangaroo – tick. it was nice just sitting there, drinking wine, chatting….and planning next year’s holiday!

Finally back to the warm hostel for a night of internet, relaxation and book reading whilst we listened to the rain. So cosy :)

Sydney Sunshine – Monday 18th July

Today we did very touristy things in fabulous weather.

A relatively early but leisurely start at 7am – down for breakfast at 8.30 for some lovely $3 toast and yoghurt. Franziska decided to try Vegemite and I enjoyed taking pictures of her reaction. I can’t exactly say she was a fan. It is always fun watching foreigners dislike it so much!

Off to the Bridge Climb (buying toothbrushes on the way)– we were in the very first group of the day which was great because we didn’t have to wait for anybody. The whole thing takes around three and a half hours, which is daunting until you realise that about an hour and a half of that is getting the equipment on and off (including a very attractive one piece grey suit). Ah, beautiful safety regulations (I don’t miss Asia’s version of this at all).

Right now is when I start raving about the weather. We were so ridiculously lucky. Yes, it was cold (around 7 degrees with wind chill) but there was barely a cloud in the sky, the  sun was shining, the clarity was great and in the end not one of us used our fleece jackets we’d been given. It was the absolute best climb weather you could have asked for.

 

The climb itself was beautiful. Yes, I’ve done this before but I certainly have not tired of the sight of the Opera House or the view of the harbour.  It wasn’t even spoilt by a bunch of overweight Americans at the front of the pack walking slowly and asking way too many pointless questions.

We finished the Bridge Climb around 1pm – Franzi certainly enjoyed it, she wouldn’t stop smiling or thanking me :) Next, off the Opera House on the other side of the harbour.

After booking a tour and planning the rest of the afternoon we had a bit of time for lunch. This was sublime. I sat drinking sparkling wine, eating braised lamb shoulder Penne, enjoying the Spring—like weather whist looking at the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Perfection.

 

The Opera House tour next. Somehow Julie and I had been lucky when we took the tour in 2008 – there were only a few of us. No such luck today, this group was big. We all had our own headsets so it somehow it didn’t matter so much. The tour was very historical and we learnt lots about concrete – I just really enjoyed seeing inside the Opera and Concert Hall. I didn’t realise that they show a different opera every night (or even twice in one day) so are continually dismantling and reassembling sets. Hard work.

After our Opera House tour we headed over to the boat dock – last time I was here Julie and I took a boat that was half sightseeing, half speeding. This time Franziska and I just went for half an hour of speeding, tricks, spins, the lot. Wow at this boat ride. There was such a strong wind force in our faces that we could barely keep our eyes open. Lots of fun though, and a lovely view of the harbour with the setting sun poking through the clouds. And we got wet. And by wet I mean soaked. Wet + wind = iceblock. But a happy iceblock.

Then back to the hotel for a much needed hot steamy shower and a YHA kangaroo burger for dinner. The meat was reeeeaaaallly tough and neither of us particularly enjoyed it. A bad first impression of what Kangaroo can taste like – take two tomorrow!

It was only around 7pm at this point, so Franzi and I headed back to George St. We had noticed some shops open late the night before and thought we might find some more… no such luck. We decided to go see a movie (Bridesmaids) at 9.30pm and threw in a visit to the top of the Sydney Tower to pass the time. The tower was really quiet and empty (I think they were about to close) – the night views over Sydney were still impressive though.

The movie ended up being very funny and much enjoyed… I spent a while explaining to Franzi what a chick flick was and why this meant I wouldn’t see it with the boyfriend. And then a walk back to the hostel at midnight (we hadn’t thought this part out so much)!  

To summarise today – I had planned this week thinking it was all for Franziska, after all I have seen everything before. However, I really love this city and actually had a fabulous day myself. Looking forward to tomorrow!

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On The Road Again – Sunday 17th July

Or should I say, on the plane again.

Yesterday’s day at home was thoroughly enjoyed, particularly my evening of port, Turkish delight chocolate, masterchef, the heater and an electric blanket – ah, winter pleasures. Somehow, after only sleeping a few hours on the plane I managed to stay up until past midnight – don’t know where that energy came from!

It was an odd day though – after spending two weeks spending only the very smallest amounts of time by myself, a whole day and night alone took a bit to get used to! Oh well, it wasn’t going to last for very long anyway.

Up at 10am this morning, nice and late, but somehow not late enough. Franziska arrived and off we went to the airport. A very easy airport check in, no passports, nice airport food.

The plane trip to Sydney was also very easy – somehow an hour and a half Jetstar flight seems like luxury. But where was my free food and wine? Perhaps I got a little spoilt from all my international travels. Our bags somehow came out almost first, and we were down at the train station pretty quickly.

I really had no idea where I was going, but I was enjoying wandering around reading the easy to follow English signs and Franziska followed me faithfully around. After two trains and many flights of stairs we got the the YHA in The Rocks.

I’m not really sure what I think of this place – location wise it is great, and it has a view of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the rooftop lounge. It is divided into ‘wings’ though, is all white and feels incredibly like a hospital. Our room is plain but clean – there is only one queen bed, so I gave that to Franzi and took the mattress in the corner! 

It was about 5pm at this point, and after chilling in the room for half an hour we headed out for the long walk to the Capitol Theatre – I just said our hostel was in a great location, well, perhaps not for this. The walk down George St. took about half an hour, with Franzi doing perfectly fine power walking in heels! She was also fascinated by how many Asians and different looking people there were and kept commenting how weird it was to see Asians smoking.

And then – Mary Poppins! I was so ridiculously excited about this, it was easily the thing I was looking forward to most on the whole trip. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, in fact, I’m not sure I can express just how much I enjoyed the show. Our seats were great, Row C in the middle, the sets were fabulous, the costumes were great, the music was infectious…and yay for the tap dancing chimney sweeps! Such a happy, fun musical. I was also a little bit excited that Philip Quast was in it (he was always my favourite play school presenter and a wonderful Javert),

We had bought the VIP packages to get good front seats, so Franzi and I enjoyed our free drink (rum punch!) and icecream in the interval. I gave Franzi the free program and had to buy one for myself of course.

Such a great night, I left the theatre on such a high. Wow at how much I’d love to come back for a weekend and see Hairspray now.

A bite to eat on the walk home. I have been so diligently avoiding Western food for two weeks and I figured I was finally able to let this go. The meant one thing: McDonalds. There was a funny moment where Franzi tried to order chicken nuggets with sour cream (?? The guy behind the counter was confused). We also happily argued over whether Fanta should be yellow or orange.

Back to the hostel about 10pm to discover that both Franzi and I have forgotten our toothbrushes:)

This trip is already so different from my recent one around Asia. For starers, I’m rugged up with jacket, scarf and gloves. This culture is familiar – familiar food, familiar money - familiar toilets! Also no passports or heightened paranoia about my belongings. The oddest thing is perhaps having my iPhone back – constant access to internet whilst travelling seems bizarre. I didn’t have this back in my 2008 trip to Sydney either… a bit of a new experience really.

Tomorrow we conquer the bridge!

(P.S. Links to photos are still in the top right corner).

Home Sweet Home (briefly) – Saturday 16th July

After some good lounging around in the comfy chairs, a little Asian lady arrived to wheel Kelly to our new gate – straight to the front of the line at security, first boarded on the flight. I could get use to this special treatment!

The flight attendants were lovely and managed to convince someone to change seats so Kelly and I could sit together. This DID mean Kelly and I were right in the middle of the family section again – so many kids everywhere. The kid next to us who was continually asking ‘why?’ questions was cute, the kid behind me screaming loudly on purpose, not so much.

It was a slooooow start getting out onto the runway. A connecting flight from Phuket was delayed, which meant we ended up leaving half an hour behind schedule. Oh well, at least we were on our flight and nothing had gone wrong!

Movie wise – I watched the first Harry Potter movie, the theory being if I fell asleep, I already knew what happened. And fall asleep I did. This happened to be one of the only times I slept on the flight though… which wasn’t really helped by the fact that dinner and breakfast were served around two hours apart.

The flight passed with minimal issues and Kelly had managed to sit through the pain in her leg. The promised turbulence was pretty much non-existent. Arrival at 6.30am in the morning. We had to wait until last to get off the plane but then weeeee, taking the shortcut through customs again!

Baggage was claimed and I was driven to my parents house to pick up my house key. A nice coffee and a chat was enjoyed and then back home again! The house was shiny and clean, there were energy drinks in the fridge and a stash of Tim Tams in the pantry. Perfect.

I might mention that it was one degree when we touch downed this morning. Such a change to sticky humidity but so COLD! At least it has been sunny though, which means a chance to hang clothes out to dry.

Having spent the morning doing four loads of washing, some more cleaning, packing and repacking for tomorrow I now intend to sit all afternoon and watch masterchef. Ah, the relaxation is good.

And Then There Were Two – Friday 15th July

Up nice and early this morning for our last day in Asia! Kelly and I had pretty much packed the night before so we were out the door relatively quickly – downstairs just in time to farewell the rest of the group as they headed off to Ha Long Bay. I was really glad we got this second little goodbye – damn this was hard, we’d spent so much time together and it’s sad to think there is a good chance we will never see them again :(

I have mixed feelings about heading home – Kelly is super glad to be leaving (which is fair enough, having to stay here on a tour with that cut would have been a nightmare). However, having the rest of the group continue on through Vietnam and Cambodia is a bit of a tease really. At least I am spending a week travelling around Oz, even if it’s not quite the same. If only I had a stopover in Bali… ;-) 

A quick mixed buffet breakfast and then off the hospital for Kelly to get things cleaned/changed one last time before the long haul home. We had our fingers and toes crossed for no complications…we weren’t as lucky as that, Kelly’s scheduled one hour stay quickly turned in to two hours and I was doing lots of pacing in the waiting room.

It turned out we needn’t have worried really, the airport was only half an hour away and we got there for the opening of the check in. Check in was interesting, we had to organise a wheelchair assist for Kelly because she can’t walk very far! The airport staff wheeled her for a bit, then I wheeled her around for a bit!

Lunch at a cafe – I ordered expensive things to get rid of my extra Dong – spring rolls, a pepperoni pizza and a Pina Colada. Only $5 worth of Dong left after that, which was a good effort!

Finally we boarded out flight – with Kelly being wheeled on first of course. We were sat next to a crazy Vietnamese lady who kept demanding more beer… luckily she decided to go find a seat next to her friend half way through the three hour flight. Kelly and I spread ourselves out on the seats and we slept.

When we arrived at Kuala Lumpur Kelly was wheeled off in her wheelchair again. The guy wouldn’t let me push her this time :( He just walked really fast whilst I hobbled along with my sore leg muscles. We went to the transfer counter to try and get seats together in the next flight, which was unsuccessful – we may have to do some negotiating once we are on the plane.

Then the guy wheeled Kelly to a room for ‘special passengers’ full of nice comfy couches. Yes, we will quite happily spend two hours here, thank you!

Good Morning Vietnam – Thursday 14th July

Today it rained.

A 7.30am start this morning, waking up to the horn opera of Vietnam. It was pouring with rain outside so I ferreted around a bit for my umbrella – after a bit I decided to abandon my search… the rain usually stops anyway right? Bad decision.

Kelly was off to the hospital again to the get her cut cleaned/bandages changed, so I headed down by myself to breakfast. It was a random buffet breakfast again – noodles, cold fries, sausages, pastries, very bizarre.but yummy.

Waiting to leave we met up with four new people – some of our replacements after we leave tomorrow (our trip has only been a section of the whole tour). A Norwegian, a Canadian and two Aussies from Perth! We all caught a taxi through the pouring rain to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum – we certainly didn’t mind not walking and keep dry. The mausoleum is a bit of a big deal – there are long lines everywhere, lots of security checks including handing over of cameras (so no photos, sorry). Lots of these lines were out in the open and I was getting very wet with my no umbrella.

The Mausoleum itself was freezing inside – like walking into a refrigerator (which I guess, essentially, is what it was). We all meandered past in single file around Ho Chi Minh’s body, which was surrounding by guards (I got told off for talking too loud). This was actually really cool – when I had heard his body was embalmed I’d kinda expected a mummy, not a realistic, actual body just sitting there. Wow at the work that must go into keeping him like that.

There was some googling later to actually find out the history behind this guy who is absolutely everywhere here. 

After we’d spent our 20 seconds checking out the body we headed to the Presidential Palace next door. This wasn’t too impressive – not very grand, like the palace in Luang Prabang – and we wandered aimlessly around for a bit. Really beginning to regret not bringing an umbrella at this point, the raindrops were getting big! At least I was walking next to Andy, who also had no umbrella – we were soaked together.

Next everybody wanted to head to the Military Museum. I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about this, war history is not my favourite topic, but I tagged along anyway. The museum actually ended up being pretty good – lots of planes, guns, displays – certainly one of the best museums we’d seen. Again, there was some googling later to fill in some gaps in my history knowledge! 

We had a while until our next destination opened so we trudged around in the downpour until we found a little Mexican place – being inside and dry was beautiful. I managed to order a traditional Vietnamese dish instead of say, nachos…something called Bun Cha. Nom.

All too soon we were out in the rain again to find the Hanoi Hilton, the city’s famous prison. We got lost for a bit and now I was really getting wet… there were drops dripping off the end of my nose, my hair was just big wet clumps….again, at least Andy looked the same!

The prison (when we found it) was really interesting, with cells, models and a big guillotine. The most interesting bit about it though was the difference in how they conveyed the treatment of the Vietnamese political prisoners during French colonisation and the treatment of the American prisoners of war. There was a lot of info about how the Vietnamese were tortured and treated hideously but then there were pictures of the Americans getting medical treatment, receiving letters from home, smiling lots – so as to look like the Americans weren’t treated badly by the Vietnamese at all. It was ridiculously biased – I had expected this but to actually see it was fascinating.

Eventually, an opportunity to go back to the hotel, spend and hour getting dry and to finally find my umbrella! And then off to see a water puppet show (with a quick stopover to eat passionfruit cheesecake).

The water puppets, well, not really much to say about them. They were interesting for the first ten minutes and then got a bit repetitive and I zoned out quite a bit, only paying attention again when they used fire or UV lights.

We had a little time to kill after the show so we headed back to Beer Corner. I actually had a Beer Hoi this time – its a pretty light beer and easy to drink. I still didn’t enjoy it as such but hey, been there, drank that.

Off to dinner afterwards – a bit group of us, seeing as we had six new people for the next leg of the tour. Yummy sesame seed covered pork for dinner and a hideous glass of Vietnamese red wine. After dinner some of us headed out, including all but one of the new people. We went to a nifty bar called the Funky Buddha and I had an expensive cocktail in an attempt to get rid of some of my extra dong! This was good fun – having new people injected a bit of life back into the group… just in time for us to leave :(

And then it was goodbye time. This was really hard and I think Kelly and I are going to make an effort to get downstairs again tomorrow morning to see the group off – the goodbyes seemed too short tonight!

Tomorrow shall be interesting – Kelly needs to go to hospital again in the morning. There has been a bit of drama with this – her cut is now infected and the doctor suggested postponing her flight. Kelly really wants to get home though, so we are going to see how we go. It will be an interesting one!

Leaving Laos – Wednesday 13th July

This morning was a lazy one – nobody had really made any plans so Kelly and I slept in a little, checked our emails, didn’t rush… ‘twas nice.

After that, down to breakfast to see if I could find anyone to drag to the big famous gold temple here (Kelly was going to stay behind a recover from her stitches a little). I found a couple of people down at breakfast – no one was interested in temples though. I ate a very delicious croissant whilst deciding what to do,

In the end I wandered down to find Allison, JD and Andy in an internet cafe. This was the first time I’d been walking by myself in an Asian country – can’t say I enjoyed it too much. Found the other three, sat with them and chatted for a while. Then I convinced Andy and Allison to come see the markets with me…

We headed off, walking quite a long way – our comments about how pleasantly cool it was today were forgotten pretty quickly as we all got nice and sweaty again. We found what looked like the markets – some ramshackle huts on the other side of the road? Hmm, no thanks.

So we kept walking – up to Putuxai (victory gate). This was based on the Arc de Triomphe in France. Laos was colonised by the French for a while – you can see this in the French street names, the translations of things into French before English and the really yummy French bakeries around the place.  This arch is apparently just a leeeetle bit bigger than the one in Paris, built to spite them. I’m glad we saw it.

At this point we had an hour left before we needed to leave. I still hadn’t seen the big golden temple and suggested getting a tuk tuk there and a tuk tuk back. The others weren’t keen on another temple though, so we ended up walking back. I had a niggly feeling that I should have gone by myself to see it – but leaving to go off by myself an hour before we needed to catch a bus to the airport seemed a bad idea. So no temple :(

Back to the hotel, quick bus to the airport. We checked in and then sat around for and hour and a half while we waited to board – there was food consumption at one point, Japanese I think, it was yummy.

Eventually on to the plane – it was a little thing with propellers, and we weren’t entirely looking forward to getting on it. Turned out to be ok – only small amounts of turbulence. I did have a very annoying old Asian man in the seat in front of me though. The plane was very squishy as it was and he decided to put his seat fully back. Goodbye leg room or use of tray table. At least I didn’t get stuck next to the really loud English girls at the front of the plane arguing over Team Edward or Team Jacob.

I chatted to Andy (who was sitting next to me) for pretty much the whole trip. At one point food was served – a sausage in a croissant and a odd bun thing with mushy grey stuff inside? Actually pretty good.

Touchdown in Vietnam. First impressions looking out the window – wow at the smog. We could maybe see hills next to the runway if we squinted, but you really can not see much from far away. Also the humidity has been turned up a couple of notches too.

Bags were collected without issue, and then an hour drive to our hotel. This place is crazy. Very dirty. So many motorbikes. Stupid amounts of traffic doing stupid kinds of driving. Also, all the buildings are really tall and thin because land costs too much – the Vietnamese try to fit as much building on as small a square as possible.

Our hotel is pretty nice though. Tall and thin of course. We had been warned that the rooms would be narrow and may not have windows or working utilities so we were pretty worried about what our room would look like. Turns out, no problems at all – PLUS a window! 

Way too soon we were off outside again – wow at the heat and wow at this city. As Andy put it, Hanoi eats Bangkok for breakfast. The traffic is every motorbike for itself and crossing the road is a really stressful experience. We all concentrated really hard on surviving as we headed down towards the lake. Not much to take in except dirty streets and lots of shops.

We had a little time before dinner so we sat on ‘beer corner’ and had a drink – basically we sat on little red and blue plastic chairs, right next to the road and watched the speeding traffic go by. Enjoyable, in a weird way. I think we were just happy to be somewhere safe…ish.

Dinner was at a restaurant called 69 – we had our own little room with the table sunken down in the middle. Nice. The food was pretty good (even if I accidentally ate a squid spring roll). I had caramelised pork and decided to try the 69 special cocktail (very sweet) whilst everybody drank beer.

Dinner was a pretty quiet affair overall – everyone was rather tired – although the group did manage to do a round of obligatory Dong jokes (the local currency). Speaking of the currency, the amount of zeroes has increased – I am now a millionaire!

After dinner everybody headed back to the hotel to sleep and Kelly headed back to get her stitches maintained again. It was only 9pm though, so four of us ended going out. At first we ended up at a Backpacker Hotel – clearly the central place for young tourists, complete with the drunken English girls from the plane.

After being there for a bit we moved up the road to a club and headed to the lounge upstairs. Oh look, a Shisha bar. I actually didn’t know much about Shisha so it was very educational! I had one obligatory puff and let the others enjoy the rest… ah, the smoke in the air and stinging eyes reminded me of Austria again. I had a good chat to Andy about all kinds of things from sordid past experiences to Shakespeare. There was also some chair dancing/karaoke.

Then back to the hotel around 11.30pm – a much more respectable time to turn in! Long sweaty day tomorrow!