Category: 2011 Cambodia Vietnam

Today starts with breakfast at a four star hotel.  But it is not good – No cereal for breakfast.  Not even a ‘wheat pillow’.

We leave the hotel on our pushbikes with a tour guide who knows where he wants to go to but not sure how to get back on the track that he knows.  It is fun to ride through the back part of the towns, down alleys and beside fish farms.  Many of the lower level of the houses are used as either restaurants, workshops, hairdressers, trade stores, motorbike repair shops, iron gate makers, many houses were doing renovations so it was ‘use the street as a place to get the concrete ready’ sort of thing.  We venture more into the countryside where coaches never go.  We are impressed with the innovative ideas on how to farm.  Just simply, it is delightful.  A farmer ushers his 1000 ducks across the road in front of us.

In the distance, and silhouetted on the ranges, we can see a pagoda of immense proportions.  It is not on the list of things to visit for the day but we ride there anyway.  This pagoda is to be the largest in South East Asia.  We park our pushbikes and have to walk through the building site.  Ten years in the making, this pagoda is impressive.  It has been available for viewing for 12 months or so.  We climb stairs, lots of them.  There are two stairways separated by 100-200 meters of gardens.  Along each side of the walkways, are large carved statutes of men who are Buddhist followers who have a story to tell.  They number 500, 250 on either side.  Halfway up the walkway is a large open building that houses a bell and a drum.  The drum is 40 ton and 70 ton of bell.  They are enormous.

We move further up the walkway; another even larger building.  As we make our way over knee-high ledges (to stop evil spirits getting in), we see an enormous golden Buddha.  On each side is another golden statue.  There is so much gold around, the building doesn’t need any lighting, the natural lighting coming in reflects on the statues and provides a ‘golden light’ effect.  We venture still further up the walkway.  Another temple.  This one with three enormous golden Buddhas.  Lyn says, “What a lot of wasted money.”  Michael finds a standing Buddha at the top of the hill just near this large temple and returns with “magnificent, you should have come up”.  “What?  More stairs?”  This will have to be considered as one of the most impressive temples or pagodas around when it is completed.

After so many stairs, it is a little hard to get the cycling rhythm going again, but we enjoy the sights along the way.  People fishing for snails, farmers guiding ducks, rice harvesting is taking place.  Immediately the rice is thrashed, it is set out on the roads to dry while the husks and stalks are milled to be used as silage, or to put back into the soil.

We find a place for lunch (one of Heyun’s cousin brothers we assume).  There we find a single girl from Perth that we saw at the sidewalk restaurant where we ate yesterday.  She is travelling alone around Vietnam on the back of a motorbike with the non-English speaking driver as her guide.  A group of 4 French couples are eating here too.  They have been trekking up in the Sa Pa region where we will be going in a couple of day’s time.

In the afternoon, we take a motorboat ride around the river system that ends up being part of the Red River that flows through Hanoi.  Today we have a cover on the boat so we don’t get wet when the torrential rain arrives around 3:00pm.  It is very interesting as the scenery is picture book stuff if the sun was out.  Most enjoyable, after riding pushbikes in the morning.

We arrive at the Cuc Phuong National Park and have two hours free time to have a sleep before dinner.  We retire early at 8:30pm because we have an early start tomorrow.

Saying goodbye to friends we have made for life is often hard.  Today is no exception.  However, we manage, and our ways separate; seven back to Melbourne, two staying on in Hanoi and Val, Michael, Lyn and I boarding a Mercedes bus for our trip to Ninh Binh.

Prior to leaving Hanoi, we have to find the place where we are hiring our bikes.  It takes an hour to locate and unlock the secure padlock.  Huyen has trouble unlocking the padlock and you can tell he is getting frustrated.  Huyen moves away for a short time and I grab the padlock and key, turned it and we are in.  Huyen couldn’t work that out and I’m not going to tell him what makes the difference.  Ha Ha!

We have mentioned often in these posts that the traffic is a real problem.  Today is no exception, but worse.  We travel on a divided ‘highway’ for quite a distance before the road changes dramatically.  A main road that is riff with potholes is there to ‘enjoy’.  Cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes and cyclists; all with one intention, “I am coming through, and no-one is going to change my mind.”  We come close many times to having a major accident.  At one stage, the traffic is banked up and travelling slowly.  A cement truck comes roaring up the inside on the gravel; dust is being thrown up in the air like a tornado and would you believe it? Sellers on the side of the road have racks and racks of shirts for sale.  “Want a dusty shirt, $2 sir.  The only one covered with dust.  No one else will have one like this.  Please sir!  Buy from me!”  Gorgeous.

We finally stop at Hoa Lu, which has been the capital of Vietnam in years gone by.  Hue was the original capital, then Hanoi, then Hoa Lu, and finally since 1945, Hanoi again.  It is very interesting to hear the origins of the dynasty, and how it worked. The dynasties were sort of like our royalty – with the same sort of problems I sense.

After lunch in a ‘beside the road café’, we stand up to leave and 3 cats have plonked themselves on top of Michael’s daypack and gone to sleep.  Now that never happens in McDonalds.

We unload our bikes and start on our tour of the countryside of Hoa Lu.  We are presented with magnificent landscapes.  For those who have been to Ha Long Bay, Hoa Lu is Ha Long Bay without the water.  Our cycle tour is slow and easy with no ups or downs.  The track is bitumen most of the time but the views are just stunning around each corner.  Michael looses his newly purchased local hat quite a number of times.  He is photographing a scene from a levy bank on private property and suddenly hears that he should ‘get off my land’.  Soon after then, he notices he has lost his sunglasses and goes back in search for 30 minutes or so to no avail.  I just hope the photos depict the feelings we had about the scenery we saw on our cycle tour.

Rowboats are something, but when people use their feet to move the oars, someone has to be kidding.  We board a rowboat just outside Ninh Binh, without our tour guide Huyen.  A young lady is our rower; she must have enormously strong legs.  An older lady is helping her.  It turns out the older lady has some other work to do.  She is part of a plan to get us to buy things from her, or from other ladies ‘planted’ along the river with rowboats full of ‘stuff’ that we ‘need’.  One ploy is to move alongside another boat and the seller in the other boat, trys to get us to buy a drink for our rower and then gets the drink back.  The scenery is like we have cycled through but the superb views come from a boat instead of a cycle.  We (she) rows for an hour, does a quick ‘U’ turn, and rows back.  We pass through 3 caves which are very low – you need to ‘pull your head in’ or it will get knocked off.  As we come back, it starts raining, heavy.  There is no-way it looks like rain when we left the wharf, but the rain is coming down as a torrential downpour.  We get back to the mooring site and are asked for “extra tip” because it has rained.  When we find Huyen, he laughs and laughs at the sight of 4 of his new friends coming at him like drowned rats.  “I didn’t say it was going to rain, and you have ponchos and umbrella.  Very good!”

We get in the van, as the sun sets quickly.  Huyen has been told that we are staying at a different hotel to where he usually drops his tourists off.  We see a sign “Legend Hotel”.  We go down this road.  It is very gravelly.  It is dark with no streetlights or houses along the street.  There is a lamp ahead.  Val calls, “Careful.  Here comes a train.”  We all get the giggles.  Arriving at the Hotel, we stop and unload.  Our goods are not too tidy.  We are all sodden wet.  Bits of this and that get taken into the foyer.  The Hotel we upgraded from is a 2 star; you know the type that takes backpackers, cause that’s what we looked like.  This one is a four star with high ceilings and is very swish and commenced operations last spring.  Asking Huyen if this is the correct hotel, he laughingly says, “We always care for our customers very well.”

Our rooms are enormous, bigger than any we have had on this tour.  The bed is one you could have an argument, and keep appropriate distance the length of the night.  Or, “shall I bring a cut lunch to have on the way” if I want a cuddle?

The company that is organizing this three-day adventure is “Wide Eyed Tours”.  When we get to the dinning room, we find the menu has on it “Wide Eyed Markey”  (The Markeys are the other couple travelling with us.)  Reminiscing on the day was a laugh a minute, just one of those special times when you travel in a group.

As we will be staying in a National Park tomorrow, we will be ‘downgraded’ to the lowest grade there is, we are told by Huyen.  There also will not be a post until we find a free WiFi location somewhere between here and Hanoi.

Due to us not having internet connection for Sunday night, I have included Monday in with this post.  Sorry to all those who have been clicking away hoping the latest post is available.

Today, we start with a four-hour transfer from Hanoi to Ha Long by coach.  Coach travel is always interesting if you don’t mind travelling at the speed limit of 80kph maximum but often between 40 and 60kph.  To see accidents almost happen in slow motion is rather scary.  We see 3 large vehicles coming towards us side-by-side on a two-lane road.  We make for the far right side of the vehicle mass coming towards us and then a Mercedes overtakes us and squeezes in between us before we pass the broad face of vehicles.  Ooh, that is close.  The road builders don’t seem to have any co-ordination with the bridge builders – we almost have to stop to get onto, and off, most of the bridges due to some sort of surveyor glitch.

We stop for a rest at a handicrafts factory where 70% of the workers are handicapped.  Beautiful embroidery, lacquer work, woodcarvings, marble work, clothing.  Some of us purchase clothes, others artifacts to carefully pack in already bulging suitcases.

The more you get out into the countryside, the more interesting some of the loads become.  We see motorbikes loaded with market food but this one tops the lot.  A bull has its feet tied together, lying on its side on the back of a motorbike.  His head is hanging down close to the axle.  And the driver is a female.  “Call in the cruelty to animals campaigners”.  Of course, and we can’t understand why, but he is displaying all his manly bits.  We realize it is all a ‘load of bull’.

Arriving at the town of Ha Long, we board a Junk.  This is a traditional Chinese invention, and we cruise to Ha Long Bay, just 2 hours away, while having lunch.  Ha Long Bay has been nominated as one of the seven natural wonders of the modern world.  The area has over 2000 islands that come straight up out of the water and make a rather imposing sight.  There are many other Junks in the bay, full of tourists who have come out to visit and to wander through some extensive caves.  The locals have done a great job of creating a safe path through the caves.

We have a chance to kayak or swim for an hour or so before the evening meal.  The meal comes to 6 courses.  Our evening is free and we enjoy sitting on the top deck taking photos of the other junks anchored in the bay and reminiscing on the trip to-date.

The early morning light on the junks is impressive as other passengers on other junks gather on the top deck to do some tai chi warm up exercises.  Breakfast does not include weet-bix and milk, just some bacon and eggs, and banana and bread.  We have to collect fresh water before setting off back to Ha Long to board the coach back to Hanoi.  We leave behind one of the great memories of a great trip in Vietnam.  More interesting traffic; wow, another interesting load – this time a pig is in the same position

Arriving back in Hanoi, we have 2 hours of showers and resting before boarding cyclos as transport to our restaurant for our ‘farewell dinner’ as our group splits tomorrow; 7 returning to Melbourne, 2 staying on in Hanoi for 3 more nights, and 4 including a cycling tour and a visit to Sa Pa in the highlands near the Chinese boarder.  The cyclos take us into the busy evening streets of Hanoi and through the ‘old town’ where the locals and tourists are enjoying the evening.  It is Vietnam Independence Day and the lights around a lake and in the trees is impressive; and I have forgotten to bring my video camera, bummer.  The meal at this hidden away swish restaurant is ‘fit for a king’.  Speeches are given and our tour guide, Huyen, says he has been proud to show off his country, again and looks forward to seeing us in the future.

Today is wet and somewhat cooler than what we have become used to.  The north of Vietnam has four distinct seasons.  South Vietnam has a wet season and a dry season.

After trying yet another delicious breakfast, we board a bus for a tour of Hanoi.  Well, we get to see just some of Hanoi, as a couple of locations are not suitable for doing in the rain. We miss out on the cyclos, which is very disappointing to some folk.

We visit the memorial to Ho Chi Minh.  You may remember that Ho Chi Minh was considered a communist that the USA did not want around.  We are told that he is a very humble man, never married and lived a simple life.  Our guide, Huyen, is animated when he tells us the history of Ho Chi Minh’s life.  We are shown the cars that were given to him to use for transport; one, a 404 Peugeot, is a gift from the people of New Caledonia.  Ho Chi Minh’s house was built on stilts to resemble the type of house that the people of Vietnam live in.  In it, are just two rooms, one for sleeping and the second was his office and lounging area.  Underneath, he had set up a place for children to play and to keep them amused, he built a fish aquarium to be enjoyed.

Of course, at the end of the tour, we are moved through the gift shop.  There is only one step between communism and materialism and that is through the door of a gift shop.  One of our group purchases a Vietnamese flag, red with a yellow star.  He plans to raise it up his flag pole at home each September 2 – Vietnamese National Day.

A visit is made to the nearby Temple of Literature.  This is the site of Vietnam’s first University, built in the twelfth century, to teach royals the Confucius Theory.  A traditional music performance is enjoyed.

We have lunch at a very large and busy restaurant.  The staff number over 300 and is divided into 3 shifts.  They are flat out.  A four-course dinner comes our way and Huyen shows us how to wrap the food in rice pancakes, before eating.

This afternoon, we visit the Museum of Ethnology which houses a display dedicated to Vietnam’s 54 ethnic minority people.  Due to the rain, the cyclo tour of Hanoi’s fascinating Old Quarter is cancelled.  It’s then “free time” which many see as a sign to ‘take a nap’.  You see, we are all over 55, you know.

Seniors Moment.  You remember that we visited the Temple of Literature in the morning.  It must be said that 4 men stayed in the bus – and slept for 60 minutes.

Our friend Joseph got himself into trouble.  He was absolutely sure that the main group was leaving Hanoi on a certain date.  He even said he would eat his socks, if he were wrong.  Someone suggested he try his or her dirty socks.  And he agreed.  We are waiting for the ‘delicacy’ to be consumed.

Another one.  To get one of the men back at something, while Judy was entering the bus she blamed one of the men for pinching her bottom.  I am sure there will be revenge in store for Judy.

Yet another one.  We were downstairs at the snack cafe for dinner tonight.  Two of the ladies went into a dress boutique to view the clothes.  One said to the other, “You have your top on inside out.”  That lady, horrified, recalled asking her husband to put her tag in.  He tried, and gave up trying.  I wonder why?

Today is another transit day.  We have breakfast and then ‘do our own thing’ until the bus arrives at 1:30pm for the 35 minute trip to Hue Airport.

Some of us fill the morning in by using the cyclos; others take a trip by pushbike through the old town.  Lyn and I try to get some more ‘color’ by the pool during an overcast morning.

We board the bus after having lunch at the hotel, and enjoy a pleasant flight to Hanoi.  And then it starts again.  We arrive at peak traffic time and the airport is 1 hour from our hotel, the Hilton Hanoi Opera. http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/HANHITW-Hilton-Hanoi-Opera-hotel/index.do?WT.srch=1 There is much of the old town still standing after the American War that dates back to before the 19^th century, so it was good the Americans didn’t bomb everything.  What a callous war that was; hundreds of thousands died from American weapons.  It is good to hear from ‘the other side’. War is UGLY!

We find the traffic a little different to Saigon – less organization.  In Saigon, the motorbikes tend to keep to the right of the road and the cars and buses, to the left.  Not in Hanoi.  Motorbikes all over the place, moving to where they want to be at will.  There are 6 million people in Hanoi and 4 million motorbikes.  About 30% are unlicensed.  We see a pillion passenger holding a mobile phone against the rider’s ear and decide that is a “hands-free phone”.

Our tour guide gives us some interesting information.  He tells us that for each account you have, a different person comes to the house with the bill, and requires payment for the service.  That’s one person for the mobile phone bill, one for the land line phone bill, one for the internet bill, one for the electricity, one for the water bill, one for the rates; yes, and you have to have someone at the house with the money in hand to pay the account when they arrive.  If you are not home, they go to your neighbor for the payment; a different way of doing things, indeed.  A minimum mobile phone account is $15 per month to a maximum for a business mobile of $50-60 per month.

Our meal is in the Chez Marion Restaurant at the Hotel.  This is the best set of desserts we have seen on our trip.  We choose the meat from a stand and it is taken away for cooking while we partake of the appetizers.  The cost of the buffet is 750,000 dong each.  $1 is about $20,000 dong.  So for $37, we have a smorgasbord laid on.

Because we didn’t take any photos today, I have included some more of our motorbike ride and more of our visit to the orphanage near Hue.  I hope you enjoy them.  Thanks to those who have left comments.  Yesterday we had over 300 hits to the site.  So it looks like someone is enjoying our trip to Vietnam.  Let us know – we will pass on your comments to our fellow travellers.

Senior’s Moment.  This should be ‘the way we may be in a few years’.  This hotel is considered ‘swish’.  We are assigned to executive suites for the night.  Three couples find that they are being accommodated in ‘twin suites’ including Lyn and myself.  Now, that will be more than a senior’s moment – we are here for 3 nights.  Of course, mention is made at dinner about the ‘oldies’ and their sleeping arrangements.

October 6, 2011 Thursday Hue

I began today thinking, “Today is a transit day”.  It was, but only for the first 3 hours after an early start at 7:30am.  Our bus drives us towards Hue through Da Nang, the center of the American War.  We drive along China Beach, where much construction work is going on.  Scores of Resorts are in the planning and building stage and Da Nang will be the next ‘Bali’ in just a few years time.  We climb higher up the Van Pass and view the coastline to the north and the south and on towards Hue.

We are checked in to our hotel in Hue at 11:30am.   http://www.la-residence-hue.com/  Then, the fun starts for a wonderful day.  13 motorbikes are waiting for us to hop on the back for a five hour tour of the Hue region.  We ride busy main roads, quiet country paths, across rice paddy fields, through what appears to be backyards.

The first stop is on the bank of a paddy field.  Here we learn about the rice planting season and a little of how the dead are buried.  There is a cemetery just across the rice paddy.  It’s interesting that often, more is spent on the grave than the cost of the house they lived in most of their lives.

The second stop was at a very old, covered bridge – magnificent!  Just near here, we become enthralled by an old lady teaching us how to cut, harvest, thrash, and mill rice.  She is just beautiful; singing away as she demonstrates the tasks of a rice farmer.

Our third stop is at an orphanage that Lyn had stopped at on last year’s trip.  On her return, two other ladies who had traveled with last year’s group, mentioned the orphanage to the Inner Wheel Club of Wandin and they donated $500 towards running the orphanage.  We learn that the money was used to buy diesel for the school bus and milk for the new borne babes who had no parents to care for them.  The orphanage has very little assets but the buildings are so clean, and the children look very healthy.  They are in good care from the monks and helpers.  We have a full vegetarian meal here that just kept coming out to our table.  All are praising the taste and quality of the food.

From the orphanage, we travel narrow laneways to where we learn how incense sticks are made, how to make a Vietnamese hat, and end up at the “Forbidden City”; another enormous area but needing a lot of repair work done to it.  They are slowly reconstructing the buildings that were used prior to the demise of the dynasties.  The kings of the dynasties were well known to have many wives, concubines and fair maidens. And they all had to be accommodated too.

Senior’s Moment.  For years, we taught our children not to lay out in the sun.  Yesterday, as I said, many of us enjoyed the pool at the resort and spent quite a few hours enjoying lots of vitamin D.  Ken has very red shins, face and tummy (we are told) today.  How long does it take?

Today is a leisure day.  A time to explore Hoi An and purchase tailor made clothing, shoes and much more.  The town is busy with tourists doing just what we have come to Hoi An for.

Some of us realize that the sun is going to shine today and take up positions beside the pool.  This pool has to be one of the longest around, possibly up around 80-100 meters.  Would you believe, neither Lyn, or myself, have taken a photo of it?  And we are leaving in two hours time.  (I write these posts at 5:30am each morning)  The food and mocktails are well served up.

Others of the group are gone for dress/shirts/blouse/trouser fittings or to be measured up for shoes, some on the shuttle and a couple on pushbikes.  Very modern technology is used for shoe fittings.  Joseph places his foot on an A4 piece of paper and the sales assistant runs a pencil around his foot for his shoe size.  Now he is the proud owner of some black leather shoes for $50.  He hopes for a fashion parade before we depart for Melbourne.

Lyn and I take a bike ride for an hour.  We ride along the coast 3 or 4 km and notice 4 large resorts being built, side-by-side.  Tourism is about to boom in this area.  We venture into a village with streets barely wide enough to take the width of our handlebars.  Motorbike horns blow from behind warning us to “keep out of my way, I am coming through.”  Kids call “Hello” to us as if we are strangers – perhaps we are.  Our Yarra Travel Junction lycra riding gear is a hit and all who notice, have looks of wonder as they see two Europeans riding in bright uniforms.

At 6:00pm this evening, we board the shuttle bus for the town of Hoi An, about 5 kilometers away.  Our Vietnamese guide has another ‘cousin brother’ in this town too, and we are taken to a restaurant for dinner.  If ever you come to Hoi An, this restaurant does great tasty food.  All are happy with the choices they make.  Then comes the dessert menu.  To give you a good idea of the desserts, photographs are included in the menu.  I choose the black forest.  Lyn chooses the Chocolate Mouse Supreme.  The desserts are so good when they are served, that photos are taken.  And then the first mouthful tells the story – the best desserts in Vietnam or, perhaps the WORLD.

After our gastronomic venture, we take a walk around the lovely ‘old town’. The lanterns are lit, and the trees have lights in them.  The ‘Chinese’ bridge is lit up and these are reflected brilliantly in the river, which was a murky brown in daylight.

The shuttle bus brings us back to our accommodation at 9:30pm and we retire for the night to pack cases for a 7:30am departure tomorrow morning bound for Hue.

Seniors Moment.  At Can Tho, Chris and Lynn decided that they needed a wake up call in order to be ready for the floating market tour at 6:30am.  They requested a 5:00am wake up call.  The reception called them at 4:00am.  Without checking their own watches, they were ready well before time.

October 4, 2011 Tuesday Hoi An

October 4, 2011 Tuesday Hoi An

8:00am is considered an early start for us, so breakfast is early.  The weather is still overcast and raining.  We have not seen the sun and blue skies for almost the entire trip so far, and the forecast says there is a typhoon heading our way from the Philippines.  So lots more rain is on the way.  Despite the rain, we can get around in ‘lovely’ colorful raincoats that a sold to us for $3 or even 120,000 dong.

We bus into the old town of Hoi An, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.  Quaint Chinese, Japanese or traditional Vietnam architecture is all around the town.  There are lots of small traders who can make up a suite or dress for you in less than 24 hours.

We go on a market tour with local guide, who describe the fruits and vegetables to us, and how to use them in the kitchen.  This is very useful information as we are about to transfer to Red Bridge Restaurant and Cooking School for a lesson in Vietnamese cooking.

After a short canoe ride to the Restaurant, we are treated to a cup of tea before a tour around the herb garden.  Then we are taken to the cookery classroom.  Our teacher has humor just like Anh Do.  Her name is Su so I call her Anh Su.  Her one-liners are classics.  During her introductory talk, she mentioned that her boss wouldn’t get sharper knives and said he was a ‘tight arse’.  He is from Australia.  Everything that went wrong is from China.  While doing the food preparation, one of our group asks if he can do something to his dish and is told, “don’t change my recipe”.  All members of our group enjoy the cooking class, some saying it is the highlight of the trip so far.  We find out the meaning of “Yum” in Vietnamese.

Following the boat trip, we take a tour of the shops for 40 minutes.  He has a few ‘cousin brothers’, we say, who are ‘the best’ at this or that.  The tour takes us through a couple of tailors, a shoe making shop and a spectacle shop.  There are also other types of shops that our group has asked for.

Lyn and I walk around the town before returning to the Hotel for a rest and a bit of a snack.  Others have stayed to get measured up for clothes to be made.

The band is not at dinner tonight so we can’t party like we did last night – perhaps we need to go out into the reception area where they are playing in the corner, and stir all the arrivals for the day.

Comments on cooking class.

For someone who can’t boil an egg, Chris did a fantastic job; and loved doing it.

Brilliant idea.  Will be using the menu when I get back home.

The dug-out pineapple was superb.

The day was brilliant and the class was so well done.

The instructor, how do you do – Su.  Fantastic!

A Great day was had by all.

Never say “Yum!”  In Vietnamese, it means “I am horney!”

Today’s Senior’s Moment.  To get a fitting, you need to raise your arms, spread your legs, and stand still.  They then take photos, front on, back on, and side on.  This senior hadn’t seen his side-on shot before.  He is in recovery room after his jaw hit the floor.

A second, another senior was told a ‘million times’ to ‘watch your head’ while getting on the boat.  He couldn’t find a mirror and ended up with a dark bruise on his head instead.

Today is another ‘transit day’.  A last trip through motorbike city before our flight to Da Nang.  I find that travelling domestic is more difficult than flying international.  I check in my baggage and as I walk away from the counter, I get told that my tripod, which I carry attached to my backpack, cannot be taken on the aircraft.  I have travelled this way to Europe and Tahiti, but not in Vietnam.  So I have to plastic wrap it and check it in as a separate item.  As we go through security, they find my small tool set in my backpack, and so that has to get checked in through baggage.  Luckily, our tour guide is kind and he includes it in his carry-on baggage and checks it through.  Different countries, different rules.  The funny part about it all is Ken, with his metal bits in his hips and knees, gets held up at Melbourne Airport and has never had trouble with security since.  Our baggage comes through the baggage carousel at Hoi An, last – and it has been a full 255 passenger, flight.

Hoi An is around 35km south of Da Nang and on the way, we have a 30 minute break to visit a marble factory.  Beautiful carvings; some very small and elaborate, others large and imposing.  The weather is stormy with strong winds as we arrive at our hotel http://www.swiss-belhotel.com/Vietnam/Hoi+An/hoian#hotel+information  After arrival drinks, we are ‘sent to our rooms’ with the rest of the afternoon to fill in.  Most of us have not had lunch, so a small snack is had.  The bed we have is ‘oversize’ to say the least, but quite hard.

It is Joseph’s and Joanna’s wedding anniversary and so a small party is had to celebrate the occasion at dinner time.  A Filipino band is playing and even they enjoyed our Australian way of ‘having a good time’.  Beatle songs and other ‘older’ style music are danced to.  We are off to bed at 9:30pm for an early night.

Senior’s Moment – At dinner, Chris was adding some sugar to his tea.  It is a good idea to open the sugar packet and not the tooth-pick packet, Chris.  Michael thought that mozzarella cheese makes a good set of power lines, but it is best to cut the cheese with a knife instead of trying to separate by stretching – sometimes cheese ends up all over your face.

The best news to come out of Australia in the last week is to hear that Collingwood lost the AFL Grand Final – GO CATS!!!

The photos are a little off colour.  The “sunset” setting used the previous evening was left on and so pictures have come out a little yellowish -sorry!

This morning, we take a 6:30am boat ride through the early morning floating markets near our Victoria Hotel accommodation.  The boats are full of vegetables, fruits and anything else that can be traded.  There are floating “McDonalds” boats, with food cooked to order.  The people are all kind and accepting of us foreigners and smile as if they recognize us.  They love to know our names and where we come from.  We stop by a boat and a lady peels and prepares pineapples for a snack for us.

We return to the Victoria for an 8:30am breakfast before checking out of the hotel.  Boarding our floating transport again, we take up seats that could help us get some sleep or a vantage spot for more photos of  ‘the way the locals live’, as this transfer section is around 80 minutes.

Arriving at what we are told is a ‘tourist park’ we find some interesting exhibits.  We marvel at the tropical surrounds and then become awestruck at the scores of crocodiles kept in this large enclosure.  (Australia Zoo; eat your heart out).  Some of us try to feed the crocs with meat on the end of a fishing pole.

Walking back towards the entrance, we are detoured to an interesting “Caulfield Cup” event.  We are faced with 6 lanes and given the chance to place our bets for the next race.  Each entrant originates from well know locations of Vietnam, we are told.  The female race caller is dressed in traditional costume and the starter has some trouble turning the entrants to face in the direction of the finishing line.  The starter opens the gates and 6 pigs go hell for leather up their designated race lane toward the trough that contains a delicacy that only a pig will enjoy.  Now, Mr Baileau will be interested in that for next years Spring Carnival, we suppose.  The pig-race is followed by a small dog race, with similar results – some dog winning.

A lunch is provided by the owner of this magnificent estate.  Some of us have never drunk so much soft drink in a week before, but at only $1 for a can, that is cheap.  Joseph suggests that the Warburton Football Club should by their drinks from Vietnam and still make a lot of profit at just $2.

We board the bus for what turns out to be a long trip back to the Majestic Hotel in Saigon http://www.majesticsaigon.com.vn/ Our evening is at leisure, some of us eating the “Sunday Night Fish and Chips, Burger and Chips, or Pizza”. Some folk tried the 5^th floor restaurant out and were able to enjoy a wedding breakfast from a distance.

Todays Senior’s Moment goes to Anne – four in one day.  A hat was left behind during the early morning floating market tour.  On our final boat transfer today, we slowed down and met with another transfer boat and Anne got her hat back.  How to get a cheap plug adaptor; ask Anne.  You take the phone charger out of the socket and make sure the plug adaptor is attached. (What a great souvenir, Anne.)  During the day, Anne was also feeling blocked in her sinuses.  Lyn gave her two antihistamine (hay fever) tablets in the hope that the sinuses would clear.  She should have taken just the one, so she felt more sleepy than normal.  While coaching back to Saigon, our tour guide received a phone call from the previous night’s accommodation.  Anne had missed paying for her drinks from the night before.  Thanks Anne!