Kim's reflection

I write this post while sitting on a bullet train from Osaka to Tokyo with one more night to go before our adventure ends. I've been a bit slack blogging but thankfully Tony has been keeping up with things.

Thang

Vietnam

My last few days in Vietnam-Hanoi were very nostalgic, it's one of my favourite places. The memories, the smells, the traffic, the lifestyle and catching up with old friends. It was great to be able to stay in the same district we had lived in before. As we arrived late at night we basically went to our room, buying a couple of cold beers on the way and waited with anticipation for the next day, to walk around and see familiar people and places and also see what had changed in 3 years since our last visit. 

Upon waking up, the first place we went was to see the old tea lady Thang, 72 years old who sits near a busy street selling tea for 5 dong-25 cents Aus. As we were walking up the street she spotted us, jumped up blabbing Vietnamese, we had no idea what she was saying but certainly got the impression she was happy to see us. Tears of joy were shed by us both.  Each time we go to Hanoi there is a slight feeling of angst, wondering if she will still be there or if her time has come. Straight away she takes off a bracelet she had on and gave it to me, last time it was a ring, she is so beautiful. The good thing this time was Tony had a language translator where you could speak and it would translate. After a couple of goes showing Thang what to do she got the hang of it. Although it's not perfect we got the gist of what she was saying. 

Pho

Next we went and had my favourite Vietnamese dish Phò, this was at a new little makeshift kitchen set up next to our other friends Dūc and his family shop that no longer sold Phò. 

By this time Dūcs daughter in law had spotted us and over we went for another cup of green tea. Dūcs daughter in law Nguÿet's English was much better this time so we were able to catch up on some goss and of course become friends on Facebook. It seems since our last visit in 2013 a lot more people are on Facebook now, it was difficult to access back then. 

We then wandered around taking in the sights both old and new. For me one thing that definitely stood out was how many more cars there were in Hanoi and flash ones too. Audi's BMW's Mercedes, Lexus, big 4 wheel drives The unfortunate thing is the streets are so narrow its a hassle for everyone trying to get anywhere, pedestrians included. Next we caught up with Nhật Trang who was our next door neighbour,  Nhật Trang is now 17, her parents are currently in Germany living with a new baby. They have family over there and felt it was better for their baby to be born there and get a German passport. They plan to return back to Hanoi in the next few months. I really missed not seeing them. 

On our last night we caught up with Bui Huyen Trang who now has an 11 month old baby called Bùm, and her sister who last time we met was very quiet but now speaks excellent English. They brought us presents and told us off for not contacting them earlier, as their parents wanted us around for dinner but had no time to prepare a great meal for us. It was interesting watching them leave with baby Bùm on the motorbike, thinking to myself Ôi chúa ơi (OMG) If that was my daughter and grandson I'd be having a heart attack ( check the video out). Things are certainly changing and progressing in Hanoi but that's life I suppose, beer Hoi was still the same, food still great and of course the people are as lovely as ever. It definitely won't be our last visit. 

Büm on bike

Japan

Our next adventure was off to Japan. We boarded the plane around midnight for about a 7 hour flight. Ready to sleep, oh no, food to be served, so by about 1.30 am things quietened down and time for a few zzzzz's. About 5.00 am lights back on and it's breakfast time. Needless to say not much sleep was had on that flight. We were not too concerned because we knew we were heading straight to the ship for our cruise and could sleep then.

Cruise ship

Getting to the ship via train wasn't too much hassle. We were leaving from an airport to get to a port. The train was great but looking out of the window on our 90 minute train ride my first impressions of Japan was it looked pretty "scabby" dull, dreary, houses just square blocks, no gardens or greenery, thankfully that changed throughout our trip. It seems most of the large train stations all have big shopping malls and eating places so we were able to sit and have a coffee while taking in the ambience before we made our way to the ship. The first couple of things that struck me while sitting in the train station was the customer service, even though I could not understand a word they were saying, just watching, you could see how friendly and helpful staff were to everyone. 

Fake food

The other thing is most shops selling food have these plastic replicas on display of what the food will look like. Later in the trip we came across shops where you could buy the individual pieces to make up the plate, for example, the noodles, sushi, caviar, french fries, omelettes, rice, steaks etc.

We made it to the ship without too much trouble and it was great to be able to unpack and hang clothes up and not have to worry about booking accommodation for the next 9 days. I decided to buy a drink card where you could have unlimited drinks, including gourmet coffee, fresh juices and of course alcohol. On reflection I don't think I would do that again as I felt I needed to get my money's worth, which meant drinking about $60 worth of drinks a day 😁😁😋 I'm proud to say, or probably not so proud to say I met the challenge 😜😜. 

Tony has given a good recap of our days ashore, so I won't elaborate. It was nice to relax and we met some nice people and had some good laughs, even went to the night club with some people we had dinner with, my feet were sore for days, There was some good entertainment on board, my favourite Angelic Duo, from Ukraine, check out the video.

The Angelic Duo

The other interesting things, the staff are so attentive, saying hello every time you walk past them, wanting to chat and joke except for the day we disembarked, you hardly got a smile off them, I guess the tips had been exchanged and there was no need to suck up to the passengers 😄. I reckon nine days was enough on the cruise, you eat and drink too much. There was a gym and with all the best intentions I only went 3 times, so very keen to get home to get back into some good habits.

Back on land

Once off the boat we had 5 nights in Japan to do whatever. As we had a rail pass for a week we decided to head to Osaka. In the end we based ourself there for 4 nights and decided to train to other cities of interest. After being on a cruise and calling into "ports" of Japan, Osaka was like WOW!!!!!!  the second biggest city in Japan. Lights, people, food, shopping. I'll briefly recap on my highlights as I know Tony will go into more detail. The big billboards, and lights were amazing. The little "restaurants" in side streets behind little curtains that seat about 20 people all perched up on a counter, watching the cooking happening. The shopping is not that cheap, about the same as Australia.

Osaka

We took a bullet train to Hiroshima; far out that was sobering. We went to the park, kind of the epicentre where most of the damage was done. There where volunteers there who had plastic folders of pictures and their stories about the atrocities that happened and were also "happy" to tell you their stories. 

Before the bomb

I sat down and started reading a story about one of the volunteers, he was 70, sitting 5 metres away from me enthusiastically showing an American girl how to make paper cranes. Briefly his story, his mother was 4 months pregnant with him, when the bomb went off. His grandfather was at the school that took the impact, he was dragged from the rubble alive and was fine for about a week until black spots started appearing all over his body, he then started vomiting, which was apparently his intestines and of course died shortly after. Tears where streaming down my face reading this and they are again as I write this, for me I just couldn't believe how upbeat this man was working as a volunteer with such personal stories. He also says his mother being 4 months pregnant with him, 3 days later she went to the school that had been decimated and miraculously he was born ok, (apparantly second generation babies where still being born with severe deformaties) and 70 years on he is still here to tell the story.

The ruins

Next up comes another lady who was born four years after the bombing and tells the story of how her mother and grandmother (who eventually both died from cancer) were in the kitchen and fire (or something similar) was dropping out of the sky. They left the house because it caught on fire and didn't really know what to do. They came across a little boy and told him to come with them, he wouldn't because he was waiting for his grandmother, (he did survive). Next they came across another person covered in blood, she asked for the towel they had to wipe the blood away but the mother was bleeding so couldn't give it to her. Eventually they found a soldier who told them to go to a first aid centre 3kms away which they walked to. Again I was overtaken with emotions and found it hard to believe these people telling their stories could be so upbeat. She then points over to a large hill and says go over there that's where a heap of bodies were buried together as they all died in close vicinity of each other.  These volunteers that sit around the park telling and educating you with the stories are great, it really personalises it and gives you a reality check. Their mission to get the story out and stop nuclear weapons. Both of these stories in more detail are at http://blog.livedoor.jp/mitokosei/  and http://www.thatdayfilm.com/.

Geisha

The next day we went Kyoto and did a couple of tours, the first one a bike tour looking at some temples. In the afternoon we did a walking tour which included some more temples but for me the purpose of this tour was to go to the Gion District and hopefully spot a Geisha. The first thing I asked our guide was did she think we would see a Geisha, she said as it was Wednesday our chances were slim as opposed to Fridays and weekends. As we were lurking around some back streets, the guide stopped to show us a cat and pointed to a house saying this is where a geisha lives and this is her cat. Next thing up the alleyway comes a geisha, seemingly gliding along, I was in awe, she was beautiful. We asked the guide if we could take a picture and she said it was ok. 

It was good to do these two tours as our guide was knowledgable and only a small group were in the tours. 

My other takes on Japan, it's not that cheap, the customer service is impeccable, public toilets are sooooo clean and in large crowded cities walking is like the driving in Vietnam, even though there are so many people going in different directions you just keep on walking and it all works, if you stop or hesitate you're in trouble 😄

Turning Japanese

After getting off the cruise ship, our next task was to find and to figure out the bullet trains. Here the bullet trains are called Shinkansens. These trains can travel up to 320 km per hour or 200 miles per hour in the old money. They are really comfortable and clean and travel smoothly with a faint high-pitched squeal like a jet engine. You don’t really notice the speed unless you look at the ground near the track that ends up a blur. You really do notice the speed though, when you pass another train going in the opposite direction. At first the train rocks with a thud of air pressure, then a white blur with blue strips appears for about 3 seconds, so fast that you can’t make out any of the windows. There are no flies on these trains! We had purchased rail passes before we left and these gave us unlimited travel. We got great value from these tickets. 

We caught our first train into Yokohama Station, converted our rail pass receipts into rail passes, then booked a ticket to Osaka. Osaka is one of Japan’s largest cities, but still smaller in population than either Melbourne or Sydney. It was a great place to base ourselves as it was relatively close to both Hiroshima, where I wanted to go and to Kyoto where Kim wanted to go. We could catch a subway train to the bullet train station and then be at our destination within an hour or two. Our first day here was spent walking around the streets and getting something to eat. You notice that you don’t see many European (white) people here.

Fortunately, on our first night, we found probably the best restaurant of all and thought we had hit the jackpot. It was a small, quiet place in a darkened alley way. There was a bar where people sat and ate. Behind the bar you could see three people preparing food with love and precision. We had the smoked duck as our first course. It was only about five slices of meat on the plate with a green garnish underneath. The texture was tender. It was juicy and melted in the mouth. You almost had to shut your eyes so you could concentrate more on every bite. 

The next day we headed off to Hiroshima. This place is famous because it is only one of only two sites that nuclear weapons were used against a civilian population. The first thing I saw at this sombre memorial was a young female posing and pouting while taking selfies in front on the remembrance site. I don’t mind selfies but it seems that narcissism and disrespect have no limits any more. 

At the site there are some dedicated volunteers that are children of the bomb victims, spreading the anti-nuclear weapon message. One man we spoke to, was not born at the time of the bomb but his mum was pregnant with him when the weapon exploded.  He has a blog with some of his stories at http://blog.livedoor.jp/mitokosei/. These people told us the stories of what happened. 

Much of Horishima at the time was constructed from wood. An area four kilometres from the site was pretty much vaporised and fires destroyed from four to eight kilometres out. The temperature at the time near the blast was said to be about 3000 Celcius. One building that did survive, 160 meters from the ground zero site, remains standing and to this day is a central focus of the peace park memorial. Seventy thousand people lost their lives as the bomb went off and another seventy thousand took a year to die from radiation sickness. One lady told us some stories and showed drawings done by her mother, depicting the time immediately after the blast, where people were walking around bleeding with either their clothing or skin burnt off. It was an incredible story of human survival. It was a very emotional and moving experience listening to her.

It was interesting to read that much of the radiation had gone within a few days. There was only about 1 kg of fissile material used. Apparently the radiation contamination from the recent Fukushima nuclear plant that exploded was much worse.

Peace Park ruins

We did a tour around Hiroshima on a hop-on hop-off bus. We visited the art museum and saw a Picasso, a Monet and a Rembrandt up close. It was a welcome relief from the heat that day. It was about 34 degrees in the shade and much hotter when walking on black asphalt out in the sun. Another interesting place we visited was an old castle that was the home of a Samurai emperor at the time. This site was built on reclaimed land several hundred years ago and was the original Hiroshima settlement. Areas of the old city were constructed to house fish, paper and out merchants, gunsmiths and sword makers. 

By now we are getting used to finding our way around the subways and buying train tickets. I bought another SIM card and found a site in New Zealand that lets you create a new APN on an iPhone, so finally I have Internet again. Some might say so what, but having a GPS that tells you where you are at any time, in English and does translates photos of Japanese characters, text and actual speech translation is an absolute must I reckon. Sure, people got by without the Internet, but it would have taken them ages to do what we can now do in minutes. 

The next day we went to Kyoto, famously known for the Kyoto Protocol, a first attempt to limit the world’s carbon pollution levels. Here we cruised around on pushbikes again. This time it was flatter and more shaded. I was feeling much better than I did on the Vietnam cycle tour, despite the heat. We visited some temples and an interesting aqueduct, built a couple of hundred years ago, copied from the Roman times, that still supplies some of the city’s water. 

Cat in a dog

One of the places along the way included a place that had several cats that an old lady commutes 1 1/2 hours to each day, just to feed them. They have cat cafes in Kyoto, for people that like cats but don’t have the time or space to own one. People pay to go in and spend time with cats, just patting them. I asked the old lady if she had a favourite cat, and she confirmed it was one named “Tiger”. The other tourists thought that was nice and wanted to know all about Tiger. The old lady obligingly produced a photo of Tiger, but he was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was out having his way with some of his lady friends. The other tourists (Korean Americans) then told us of an Owl Cafe that they visited the day before, where people paid to hang out with owls. The owls sit on your arm for a while or on your head. If they fly away you just put your arm out and they land back on your arm. They showed us several photos of themselves with the owls. Unfortunately, one of them was urinated on by an owl, while the other was defecated on. I guess that is the price you pay.

After the cycling we did a walking tour that went for about four hours. We visited some more temples, apparently there are about 1600 temples in Kyoto. You never know when you will need one I guess. Our tour guide told us that she only visited temples about once per year, but that people that were in need of something visited them much more frequently to pray. The two main religions here are Buddhism, with its origins in India and Shinto, which is Japanese and based on nature. At one of the temples our tour guide pointed out a cat that was hiding inside a statue of a dog. This cat didn’t look anything like Tiger, so that mystery has still not been solved.

One of the many temples in Kyoto

We then walked around the streets of Kyoto and you could see a lot more European tourists and Japanese people dressed in traditional clothing. We were hoping to see a Geisha but were told not to expect to see one, as they normally only come out on weekends because their job is to entertain people, or rich men at least. Being a Geisha is an honourable profession that you have to apply for and do an apprenticeship in. It is a very exclusive and highly ritualised art form.

We walked to where a Geisha lived and our tour guide introduced us to yet another cat. This apparently was the Geisha’s cat. It was grey and just lying stretched out in the sun. As we were about to leave a Geisha appeared out of nowhere almost and walked towards us. Kim got a few photos on her phone. She did not look at us as she went into her house. They certainly carry an aura with them. As she disappeared a few other American girls came running up with cameras but it was too late for them. No doubt Kim will have more to say on this topic.

Our final stop was Tokyo. It was an amazing glimpse into our future. Kim's update will follow this. We are now on our way home. Thanks heaps for your interest :)

Second half of the cruise

Kim in Otaru

We got off the ship in Otaru at the tourist  information centre where you could get free wifi. People get handed a card with a  username and password that lasts for about two weeks. This free wifi works in other parts of Japan too. Fortunately it is pretty fast compared to the ship’s Internet so, it’s worth using. There were quite a few people having trouble logging in because it was case-sensitive. I was able to assist a couple of people and they were grateful. However there was nowhere to sit and use the Internet. Outside was really bright and that made it almost impossible to see the screen. So we huddled under a tree, in the shade, with a few other tourists.

Next to the tourist place was a shop that sold some Japanese tea pots made from iron. They were  really well made and quite beautiful. Unfortunately I have no room left in my suitcase and they were around $300 each, so a bit hard to justify buying one. We went walking around the streets, which were very wide and open, with plants, growing as a hedge in the middle of the road, being manicured by three men with scissors. You could hear a rapid snipping sound. It was amazing really, I can’t imagine even Peter Cundall taking that much care to trim a hedge.

Sushi for lunch

We then visited a sushi restaurant that was quite nice. Kim was not that impressed. She is not a fan of sushi. I ordered enough for two, but Kim couldn’t eat much, so I forced a bit extra down. 

The next stop was in Hakodate, but when we arrived it was rainy and foggy. About all we wanted to do here was go on the cable car. The cable car went up a mountain, but that was covered in fog, so a bit pointless going there really. So we decided to stay on the ship and have a relaxing day. I taught Kim how to play draughts (checkers) and was fortunate to win every game. Kim is very competitive and a quick learner. At the time of writing she has beaten me a couple of times with one draw. One of the onboard activities this day was indoor carpet bowls. Kim and I were joined by a couple from South Africa and four Japanese women. It looked like most of them had never bowled before. Some of them bowled with the wrong bias, others too hard. We were organised into a tournament, where the winner played on. I was the final victor in the end. The Japanese ladies were all clapping and I felt like a champion for a few seconds as I held my prize, a plastic drink bottle, in the air and did a small victory bow to them in appreciation of their enthusiasm.

The bizarre floats of Aomori

Our next stop was in Aomori. We got a taxi to the train station that had free wifi and we did a bit of catching up with emails and social media. It was pretty shocking to hear about the terrorism in France. Kim was having heaps of trouble with her phone as the wifi was so slow for her. Compounding the problem, Kim had her Facebook account locked because of unusual activity from someone accessing her account on a Mac OS machine. She tried to get the account reinstated but the Internet was very slow for her. Fortunately and unusually, my phone worked quite quickly, using the same Internet access point. I rebooted her phone twice and closed all the applications other than the browser, but it made no difference. Two iPhones, the same wifi, but completely different performance, one quite fast, the other at snail’s  pace .. go figure. This sort of thing makes me think what a joke technology is sometimes.

In Aomori we visited a museum of historic pageant floats. The celebration of this event goes back nearly 1000 years with a failed military coup attempt. Originally little paper cubes with candles were floated down the streams.  That got extended to larger, lit up cubes that got carried down the street. Finally this evolved to really elaborate, illuminated paper sculptural floats that take teams of people ages to prepare, and a whole museum dedicated to their display. I was impressed in the end, after originally thinking originally a museum of pageant floats would be pretty boring. 

Flash looking bridge in Aomori

Lastly we went into a high-rise shopping centre with an observation deck and could see all over the city and into the mountains. The bay side city was surrounded with forest and misty clouds descending on the mountains. You could see our cruise ship in the port and a big and impressive looking bridge leading to the port. While we were here we got onto some pretty fast wifi. Kim’s phone was working well again. Some information coming back on Facebook was telling us about some pretty severe weather back home, with snow in most places and West Beach in Burnie being half washed away in the storm. It’s good to get away from Tassie in the middle of winter, but you also get the feeling of missing out.  Snow is a pretty special event when it happens back home.

We have now finished now our cruise, and caught the bullet train to Osaka, Japan's second largest city. We still have another six days to look around Japan before we come home.

First half of the cruise

We arrived at Narita airport in Tokyo pretty early in the morning and had to find our way to the cruise terminal in Yokohama. Japan, unlike Vietnam and other destinations is not big on speaking English. Translating languages is much easier if you have Internet access, so I bought a SIM card at the airport. But unlike in Vietnam, the people at the desk said they were not able to assist me in activating it. So I took photos of the instructions and thought that I wouldn’t have that much trouble.

We were able to catch a train pretty easily into Yokohama. It was about a 1 1/2 hour journey. The trains were spotlessly clean, ran smoothly and impeccably on time.

At the end we needed a taxi, but were faced with the problem of telling the driver where we wanted to go, but were apprehensive because of the language issues. Eventually we did find a driver that spoke a little English and he got us to the ferry terminal. There were heaps of people getting ready for the cruise, we took a number, went through the security checks and I found some free wifi, and I used that to attempt to activate the SIM card. I got as far as I could with the SIM activation, then we boarded the ship.

We got a great cabin, with a balcony, right at the back. Being at the back means that you get to look both left and right, unlike cabins on the side. Our steward, named “Randy” arrived and let us know about the emergency drill that we had to do later that day.

While waiting for the emergency drill I used the time to finish activating the SIM card and hit a massive stumbling block. The instructions required me to enter an APN (Access Point Name), but my phone did not let me do that. I tried for about and hour to get this sorted. It was incredibly frustrating and disappointing. The phone gave me only two choices, the first to find the APN automatically, and the other to choose one of two APNs that appeared manually. There was no option to enter a new one. This meant that I was not going to have Internet access. It turns out that if I “jail break” my phone then this might be possible. No mention of that in the instructions however.

A monument to seafarers

The ship did have wifi, but it was slow, satellite based and very expensive, at around .50c to .80c per minute. Imagine paying that much for slow Internet. Maybe this is a good thing though, as having a break from the Internet, the news and social media can’t be such a bad thing. So, from now on, it was time to just enjoy the cruise.

The first thing was the emergency drill where they warn you about everything that can possibly go wrong and tell you how to put on a life jacket. They are still called life jackets, not personal flotation devices. The safety sermon went on for ages and you could see people falling asleep while it was on. 

The cruise itself has been pretty uneventful. There is plenty of food. You can pick from a smorgasbord of things. So breakfast consists of fruit, sausages, fried or scrambled eggs, bacon, baked beans, toast, tomato, fish, rice, waffles and danish pastries. Lunch is a mixture of casseroles, steaks, vegetables and a selection of Asian foods and condiments. I have become quite fond of the dried fish. They are like sardines, except much smaller and slightly crispy. Another highlight has been the roll-your-own sushi. I watched the Japanese make theirs and added similar things to mine, very tasty. The evening meal could be either the smorgasbord as before, or a restaurant. 

At the restaurant we were seated with four other Australians. Pat and Ros were from Bathurst. They were a really nice, down to earth couple and about my age. Pat was a race horse trainer and worked for his local council. Ros worked in consumer affairs, stitching up the shonks. The other couple were Dale and Jane, from Cairns in Queensland. Dale was an ex-Brit that used to be an air traffic controller that retired in his early fifties and then went sailing full time. I can’t remember what Jane did. Dale was a bit of a ‘shit-stirrer’ and within minutes of meeting us told us how much he did not enjoy his visit to Tasmania and that he would never go there again. It turns out that he had been to Hobart at around New Years Eve, and went to the Taste of Tasmania. The ‘Taste’ was packed, accommodation hard to find and he had to drink from plastic glasses. In keeping with the theme of banter I mentioned that I understood that not all Queenslanders were like Bob Katter and Pauline Hanson, but thought that quite a few of them must be if they were popularly elected by other Queenslanders. By the end of the night we were all getting on really well.

Our first stop in Japan was at the port city of Kushiro. We didn’t do any tours here and just went into the city. We were dropped off at the Kushiro equivalent of the “Maker’s Worksop” in Burnie. There were volunteers working in a big glass hot house like building with big trees inside. The volunteers showed you how to make an origami crane (bird), how to do Japanese calligraphy and dressed people up in traditional Japanese costume. Outside some university students put on a dancing display for the tourists. We went for a bit of a walk across the bridge and found some free wifi. 

We then had another couple of nights at sea before arriving at Korsakov in Russia. Korsakov is the main city in the area that is on a large island off the coast of the Russian mainland. Because the island is close to the Japanese archipelago as well as Russia, it has been a part of both Japanese and Russian territory over the years. After World War II, the island reverted to Russian ownership. In the past it has been the historic homeland of the Ainu indigenous people of Japan.

Our ship in the fog

Coming in to the Russian port was a surreal experience. It was quite foggy, you couldn’t see very far and the buildings and ships looked old, grey and decayed. It was sort of like we imagined Russia to be, in one word, it was bleak. We were quickly put on buses and unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to get a photo.

A decaying shipwreck in Korsakov, Russia

Our ‘organised’ trip into the city was pretty disappointing. After about 50 minutes on a bus we stopped at a church but were told we only had 5 minutes. Then we stopped at the “ice palace” or ice rink, where no ice could be seen, but were told to go upstairs where a few people sold some souvenirs. We were there maybe 15 minutes. Next we were taken to a war memorial park in the city. There were Russian tanks and guns on display and statues and memorials to their war heroes and the those that died. We were reminded that 29 million Russians died in WW2, about 15 million soldiers and 14 million civilians. Our guide told us the point of the display was that people that were reminded of the consequences of war would be less likely to repeat the same mistakes. Then we went to a museum for maybe 20 minutes, which was quite interesting. Finally we were taken to a shopping mall where we had to stop for 30 minutes. I bought some Russian caviar. You end up feeling like a cross between a cow and an automatic teller machine, being herded into places just so you can spend money, while whisking over the historic and interesting places. We were both feeling pretty jaded by the experience as were many of the other tourists.

We are now in our next port, in Japan, of Otaru. At the time of writing we haven’t left the ship yet.

Hanoi

Lotte tower

The flight into Hanoi was pretty uneventful, but in keeping with the theme of sagas we had a small drama getting to our room. We got the airport bus as we have done before so as not to pay the rip-off taxi prices which are about 20 times more expensive than the bus. With limited English the bus driver asked where we wanted to go and we said “Linh Lang” which is the name of our street. The driver asked if that was near Hoan Kiem lake, which is in the city and I said “sort of”, meaning maybe 5 kms away. Kim showed him the address on her phone and he said “Bah Dinh” which was our suburb. After about 1/2 an hour I began to recognise where we were, and then when I saw the Australian Embassy, I knew exactly where I was. I went up to the front of the bus and tried to ask the driver to stop. A couple of Vietnamese in the front seat that could speak English tried to help me by speaking to the driver. But the driver wouldn’t stop. Another Vietnamese man then told me that the driver knew what was happening and that we would be another 10 minutes. About 10 minutes later we arrived in the city, about 5 kms away from where we wanted to be and the driver told us we had arrived. I had bought a SIM card at the airport, which meant that I had maps and GPS on my phone. I showed the driver “Linh Lang” on the phone and in a fairly exasperated tone asked him to take us back. 

Then another bus drove past us and our driver asked it to stop. He told us to get on that bus, so we did. Initially the new bus started going the wrong way and it was starting to get pretty annoying, but we couldn’t do or say much about it. We were the only two passengers on a full-sized bus. After a while I could see our next bus heading the right way and feelings of calm started to return. When we got off I tipped the driver 100000 dong (about $5) and the driver was very happy. We walked down our old street where we lived for a few months in 2012 and it was surprising to see the changes. Some new shops, our old faithful restaurant had had a bit of a makeover with glass windows. Our supermarket was missing but a new one had been built in a different location. After we got to our room I walked back up and bought a couple of premium beers for about $1 and we settled in to our new room.

Feeling nervous, 65 floors up

The next day we went out to see who and what we could recognise. One of the first and probably our favourite, was our old tea lady friend. She is 73 years old and sits on the corner under a tarp and sells iced teas, tobacco and cigarettes to locals. It is a hangout place for men that take people around on motorbikes for a fee. They all seem to love and respect her. It is like she is the matriarch and anything she needs they hop up and help her instantly. She recognised us immediately and jumped up and came over us held our hands and gave us a cuddle. A couple of the motorbike blokes also recognised us, and smiled and shook hands. I was quite an emotional moment for us. It felt great to be back. This place almost feels like home to us.

After having an iced tea we went across the road to one of our favourite restaurants and had spring rolls, boiled peanuts and a couple of beers. The beer here is called “bia hoi” which means fresh beer I believe. The beer is brewed fresh, sold in barrels and drunk quickly, unlike the bottled and more aged variety at home. It is quite low alcohol and you can have 3 or 4 with little effect. Just up from where we were a new high-rise shopping centre and hotel had been completed. This building was well under construction in 2012 when we here before, and still not finished when we came back in 2013. It is a huge 60-something storey tower. We paid $10 AU each for a trip to the top. Inside the lift was jet black with some led lighting strips. There were television screens on the roof depicting space scenes. The 65 storey lift journey took about 30 seconds. From the roof you could see for kilometres in each direction. It put our position in the city into a good perspective. There was an observation deck on the top floor with a glass bottom. People are asked to remove their shoes before walking out onto it. Although it is probably triple layer, hardened glass, there is something very unnerving about stepping out onto it. When I stepped out I could only take small very tentative steps at first, and strangely it felt slight better being above the beams, instead of just on the void. In the department stores, large bright screens depicted mostly European white models. Sadly the perception still exists here that wealth and success are associated with white skin. I guess we all want what we can’t have. The prices were as expensive or mores than home. I asked someone about that and was told that the government increases taxes on imported goods, to make them more expensive than locally made items. This is meant to keep more locals in jobs.

The next day we caught the bus into the city. It only costs 7000 dong ($0.39 AU) and is a very authentic Vietnamese experience. The bus takes off before you sit down and you get thrown around and have to hang on or hit the deck. When we got into the city it started to pour with rain and we had to retreat to a second floor restaurant where you could look at the busyness of the city. Apart from the Vietnamese going out their business you could see many European tourists, some clutching their Lonely Planet guides and looking pretty unnerved about walking around in the chaotic Hanoian traffic. Lots of people wanted us to buy stuff, but we had already spent up pretty big in Hoi An. We have no room left in our suitcases for any more stuff. I have to kneel on my suitcase to have any hope of getting it closed. 

One of the things I had planned to do here was to go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. I had that done the last two times I visited and was really impressed. Unfortunately the dentist that I went to in 2012/13 had closed so we had to find a new one. One night, after eating tea, we went for a walk and stumbled across another dentist. I asked how much to have my teeth cleaned and was told 100000 Dong ($5.00 AU). Not only that, but we could come in immediately and have it done. This was the third time I have had this work done here and compared to the dentists I have been to in Tasmania, each time they have been very gentle, they don’t “accidentally” hit your gums with the drill. I find it extraordinary that mine and others experience in Burnie has almost caused me to jump out of the chair as they seem to be trying to focus on getting the job done quickly rather than carefully. 

Our final day was spent with some friends that we made in 2012. These girls have all grown up now. One was married with a baby and the other a university student. It was great to meet the little man and chat about their future. We gave the old tea lady a present before we left. With a little sadness we left our home away from home in Vietnam and with some excitement caught our next flight into Tokyo, where we start a nine day cruise around Japan.

Kim's recap

On the menu

Here we are sitting on a plane from Hue to Hanoi, only takes one hour as opposed to a 16 hour train ride and costs about $100 AU, money well spent I say. Anyway here is a recap of the last few days from my perspective. I really liked Nha Trang, even if it was full of tough looking Russians. I had been to Nha Trang 10 years ago and it has certainly expanded and was much more touristy. The food was great and heaps of variety. From cobra and turtle to mashed potatoes with garlic. I remember last time I was in Nha Trang my friend and I were dying for mashed potatoes and paid heaps for the privilege, now it is on every menu, I think we gave them the idea back then. 😜

Just opposite where we were staying was a massage place run by blind people, I grabbed a pamphlet on my way past and decided to give them a go. On looking at what was on offer I decided not to for go a manicure or pedicure with your choice of polish or the slimming massage with the slimming cream. I did have a full body massage which was interesting. I was a bit dubious about whether they were really blind but looking at their eyes there was definitely something wrong with them. I was taken into a room that had 3 other beds with curtains between them, kind of like in a hospital.

Multi-lingual blind massage menu

At first glance I could see that the curtains were opened and I could see other customers having a massage, mmm I thought I guess they are really blind and don't even know all the customers can see each other 😄. This bloke gave me a massage and it was just but cheap enough. I was cackling away to myself when a Russian came in and I'm not sure what happened but I could hear the bloke massaging saying ohh sorry sorry sir. Every now and again the people massaging would bang into each other moving around the massage tables, it was quite entertaining 😜 Anyway I was sure to tip my massage bloke as I left, there was a lady with sight taking the money so as I left I went over to my bloke and put some money in his hands, as I was putting my shoes on, the "sighted" lady was telling him how much I gave him, he had a big smile on his face as he put it in his wallet, from then on, every-time I walked passed the "sighted" ladies would wave and smile.

We did a snorkelling tour  the next day and I decided as it started at 7.30am and we would be out of the water by 11.30 am I wouldn't need sunscreen and also as we were snorkelling around coral, the less chemicals the better  Ôi chúa ơi (OMG) I got soooooo sunburnt. We had to catch the train that night for an 11 hour trip to Danang and let me tell you it was a very uncomfortable trip in more ways than one, the sun burn and trying to sleep the worst!!!! We were in a sleeper cabin with 6 bunks, 3 on each side. I was originally on top that had a little alcove that you could  put your luggage and Tony in the middle but he had to have his case at the end of his bed and couldn't put his legs out straight so I swapped him and went in the middle. This also meant I couldn't sit up, so had to lay there for 11 hours cringing with my sunburn every time I moved. We boarded the train at 9.30pm and on the four remaining beds there were 5 Vietnamese cramped in there with all their boxes and luggage, one of them heavily pregnant.  She was up at 4.00 am with the door open so light could come in eating her breakfast 😄 it was an interesting trip. Thankfully I only had to go to the toilet once and that was early in the evening.  I hopped out of our cabin wondering which way to go, mmm but then I got a wiff or urine and was able to follow my nose. It was pretty gross, firstly the toilet had no lock so I walked in on a bloke, and there was wee everywhere on the floor and seat, urgggg, glad I can still squat 😁. I decided I would be holding on until we arrived at the train station at 8.30am the next morning and thankfully the train was in time.

Hoi An at night

Our next destination was Hoi An about 35 mins from Danang. Hoi An was beautiful and really hot. When in Hoi An you are hounded to have clothes "tailor" made which of course we did and were pretty impressed. They have all these dress making books and magazines and you just flick through picking what you want made.

The other thing I did was get my eyes tested, something I had needed to do this for the last couple of months but just hadn't had time. The women was really good and I ended up getting a pair of glasses, swarzkowski frames for $90 all up, very impressed. Hoi An was really hot and muggy and we decided to knick off to Hue, where it was a little cooler, well not actually cooler,  was 38/39 but not as humid. I had done some research and found there were two ways to go, through a tunnel which saved about 45 mins or over a winding scenic pass. When I asked at the hotel about the cost I was told $60 US for a private car, I said I would decide later and asked around at another couple of tourist places. They quoted $50 US so we decided for ease to go with the hotel. When I said we would go with the hotel driver, she informed me it was going to be $65, they had already annoyed me a couple of times, so I said no don't worry about it, we can get it for $50 elsewhere, the girl quickly changed her mind to the original $60, reluctantly I said ok. I then told her we wanted to go the scenic route and stop at a couple of places along the way which from my research was the norm. She told me if we went the scenic way it would take 7-10 hours as opposed to 3-4hrs, that was not my understanding, she then said it would be $80 US dollars, I politely told her not to worry I would book somewhere else. We went to another tourist office by this time it was 8.30 pm and we paid $55 to leave the next day at lunchtime, doing the scenic drive and stopping along the way which would take about 3hrs, I had great delight in heading back to our hotel to show the receptionist our ticket with added inclusions. The trip was nice and took about 3 hours!!!

Hoi An

Hue was certainly not as humid and a bit less low key. We met up with Huy, the bloke we had met at the airport in Ho Chi Minh and walked around Hue for a couple of hours with him, helping him with his English. He was rapt and kept saying this is very exciting!!!  My favourite food in Vietnam is Phó, a soup with noodles, Vietnamese mint, bean sprouts, chives, chile and a bit of lemon juice. In Hue there is a bit of a different take on it, called Bon Bo Hue, slight difference has fermented shrimp paste and cubes of congealed pig blood. Was I game, I thought to myself I'll order it and just takes the cubes out 😁 when it arrives. I couldn't see any cubes, maybe it dissolves??? Anyway I ate it, I didn't think it was as nice as Phó but maybe I was put off by the idea of congealed blood😁😁

We have arrived in Hanoi and heading on a mini van, $2 each to the place we lived for a few months a few years ago, we are excited to catch up with our old friends again. Stay tuned.

Heading up the coast

Nha Trang is a tourist destination on the coast. Think of it like a Gold Coast, but for Russians and Chinese. Unfortunately I am unable to identify the Chinese easily as to me they look and sound just like the Vietnamese. The Russians can be easily identified. Kim made a comment about all their women having fringes and painted on eyebrows, which I did not notice until it was pointed out to me, after that they all had fringes. Somehow the Russians looked very tough, almost intimidating. Even the women looked like they would take you out with one punch for just looking sideways at them.

On our first night we went for a walk along the foreshore where there was a massive stage set up with a huge television screen set up behind it. There was a temporary grandstand set up and people everywhere. Big speakers were booming out some Asian pop music. Little toys with LED lights were moving on the ground and others into the air that people were trying to sell. It was hot and humid as we made our way through the crowd. That night we found a travel office and booked a bike tour for the next day.

In the morning we were picked up for the bike tour by a couple of people on motorbikes (scooters) and taken to the bike shop to start the tour. Kim and I were the only ones on the tour apart from our guide whose name was Swing. We left the office and rode through the city which was pretty nerve wracking at first, especially at roundabouts. At one stage someone on a motorbike passed me slowly, gradually pulled in front of me then stopped suddenly. I had to lock up the back wheel and skid to avoid a crash. Australia is not the only country that likes to intimidate cyclists with motor vehicles it seems.

Cycling through the backstreets of Nah Trang

We rode around the outskirts of the city, through narrow laneways between houses and through some rice fields. We saw plenty of Vietnamese people going about their daily business, carting things around on motorbikes. We stopped at a place that made sleeping mats. Kim had a go at the weaving. She did pretty well. We then went to a place that made clay barbecues. After that we went to a huge Buddhist shrine where we had a rest. It was pretty hot and humid (about 34 degrees) and I was perspiring a fair bit. Swing, our guide was much fitter and used to the heat. He didn’t even look warm. I had a slight mishap while riding across a very narrow walkway on a railway bridge. I glanced at the river for a second and my handle bard clipped the handrail which caused the front wheel to turn suddenly. So I braked hard enough for the back wheel to come off the ground and the pedal gouged the back of my leg causing minor lacerations.

Kim entering the water

The next day we went on a snorkelling tour. We were picked up at the travel agency in a bus along with some other tourists from Vietnam, Portugal and Korea. We were taken to the wharf, got on the boat and were taken out to an island where there were a few other boats of divers. We were in about 5 meters of water on a coral reef. The water was pretty clear and you could see colourful corals and fish and quite a few large spiny sea urchins. I saw a jellyfish and immediately got out of its way. The guide told me that they were harmless. We were taken to some different reefs and Kim and I did a bit more diving, but most of the Asian tourists just stayed on the boat and slept. One girl managed to sleep for most of the time we went diving and almost all the way back. The Koreans were so bored or ill they organised for a speedboat to come out to rescue them and take them back to their hotel, for an extra $80 USD. I had the 30+ sunscreen on but Kim, with darker skin than me didn’t bother. Unfortunately Kim got sunburnt pretty badly and has been suffering from that for days.

We also got our trusty travel agents to book us some tickets on the overnight train to Da Nang. It was pretty cheap and took about 12 hours. We shared a cabin with a Vietnamese family. It was pretty cramped and hot to start with. I guess we could have gotten there with more luxury but we wanted to a more authentic Vietnamese experience. I managed to go all night without having to visit the lavatory, but Kim did go once and came back to report a pungent smell of urine and fairly putrid hygienic conditions. You get that. We met some Australians at the station and a couple of British tourists. I asked them what they thought go of the Brexit vote and they were shocked, appalled and embarrassed.

Hoi An

The train arrived at Da Nang about 9:00 am and we got a flash air conditioned car to our hotel. It was about a 35 km trip. When we got out of the car in Hoi An it was scorching hot outside. Hoi An is another tourist place, but more historic and without the Russians. We went for a boat ride up the river which was nice and cool, maybe only 30 degrees on the water. We got some clothes tailor made at the market here. I got a suit made for our upcoming cruise and Kim got some jackets made. They turned out really well. We got a bit more used to the heat here. After 3 days we have headed off again. Now we are in the city of Hue.