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 😄