Some more pictures from Hoi An, note my new tailored suit, I like it and hopefully it it will be on its way home as I type.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Scuba diving in Nha Trang, Vietnam
Today we went scuba diving, this makes our grand total of dives to 13. We dived with a company called Rainbow diving and had a local guide called Duc. He stopped logging his dives when he reach 4000, so we have a long way to go before we get to that standard.
We did 1 dive at Debby Beach and 1 at Moray Beach. We have no photos from the dives as our camera doesn't have a housing, but we took some whilst snorkeling in between.
We saw Moray eels, Puffer fish, Barracudas, Cuttlefish Parrot fish, Angel fish, Wrasse and some of the other usual suspects. The eel was mean looking, reminded me of the thing that lives in the asteroid in Empire Strikes Back.
We did 1 dive at Debby Beach and 1 at Moray Beach. We have no photos from the dives as our camera doesn't have a housing, but we took some whilst snorkeling in between.
We saw Moray eels, Puffer fish, Barracudas, Cuttlefish Parrot fish, Angel fish, Wrasse and some of the other usual suspects. The eel was mean looking, reminded me of the thing that lives in the asteroid in Empire Strikes Back.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
After the big old fat rain
We left Ha Long Bay on Sunday and arrived in Hoi An via Hue yesterday. Its been an interesting few days...
Electric Shock #1 Parts A, B, C and D
The showers on our island retreat in Cat Ba were interesting in that every time you touched the tap, you got an electric shock. Shock part A was the discovery shock, at first I thought I'd just twinged my elbow, but then shock part B proved that it was more than that. Shock C was for fun and shock D for pleasure... After that we thought it wise not to have anymore showers.
Electric Shock #2
After we got back to Hanoi from our trip we went to our hotel to dry off. We had a nice relaxing evening and an early night. When I used the switch on the cord to turn out the light there was this almighty blinding flash. The cord fell apart in my hands and I was left holding what remained. Thankfully I didn't receive any current, but my finger was covered in black soot.
The Great Escape
Picture a 1940's bridge in Germany, with a couple of German soldiers each armed with a bayonet, stabbing at a farmers hay truck checking for escaped POWs. That what it must of been like for the Cockroach hiding in Kate's Vermichelli. With each stab of her chop stick, he must have been sweating more and more until it just got too much and had to make a break for it. Dispite the shock of the situation for us, I managed to capture the roach in my chopsticks to show to the waitress. Kate has come along way from standing on a chair, screaming at the sight of the little buggers running round our room in Australia. She received a new serving of Vermin-chelli and carried on eating.
The night bus for little people
14 hours on the night bus was easier for Kate, hard for Tim. The bus is made up with about 40 bunk beds, each with the head of one person, resting over the legs of the one behind. The concept is fine, but the designers must have used the height of the average local man when deciding how much room to give. Kate as a result had loads, I on the other hand had none. Add to this the fact that Vietnam doesn't have roads, and that the bus driver needs to beep his horn constantly to prevent him from running people over. The best bit was when the bus drive started praying at the front of the bus for a safe journey, that really made me feel comfortable.
Hue, tally ho, Barf Barf!
When we arrived at Hue, I felt really rough, so we had an hour or so sleep before heading off to see the sights. As the day went on I began to feel worse and worse, until eventually, just after we went to bed in our shared dorm room at 8pm, I started to be ill from both ends. This went on every hour all night, much to the delight of me and the poor sods I was sharing a room with. The next day, Kate looked after me whilst we decided if I could make the 3 hour bus journey to Hoi An as planned. I plugged myself up on Imodium and we made a dash for the bus. In the end all was fine, we arrived in Hio An without trouble and a very nice place it is indeed.
All this makes Vietnam sound like a place worth missing, but it just adds to the fun. Vietnam is really nice, the people are lovely for the most part and it's extremely pretty. Looking out the bus as we drove through the country side was so interesting, with School kids dancing in the playground, water buffelo wandering in the rice fields, a chicken legging it across the road, little temples outside the villages to honour the village founder, miltary graveyards from the Vietnam war, tiny shops selling everything from sugar canes and fruit to car parts, all of the them held together with Bamboo, a shop selling coffins in all sizes (big and, unfortunately, very small)...
Its an amazing place and really worth a visit.
Electric Shock #1 Parts A, B, C and D
The showers on our island retreat in Cat Ba were interesting in that every time you touched the tap, you got an electric shock. Shock part A was the discovery shock, at first I thought I'd just twinged my elbow, but then shock part B proved that it was more than that. Shock C was for fun and shock D for pleasure... After that we thought it wise not to have anymore showers.
Electric Shock #2
After we got back to Hanoi from our trip we went to our hotel to dry off. We had a nice relaxing evening and an early night. When I used the switch on the cord to turn out the light there was this almighty blinding flash. The cord fell apart in my hands and I was left holding what remained. Thankfully I didn't receive any current, but my finger was covered in black soot.
The Great Escape
Picture a 1940's bridge in Germany, with a couple of German soldiers each armed with a bayonet, stabbing at a farmers hay truck checking for escaped POWs. That what it must of been like for the Cockroach hiding in Kate's Vermichelli. With each stab of her chop stick, he must have been sweating more and more until it just got too much and had to make a break for it. Dispite the shock of the situation for us, I managed to capture the roach in my chopsticks to show to the waitress. Kate has come along way from standing on a chair, screaming at the sight of the little buggers running round our room in Australia. She received a new serving of Vermin-chelli and carried on eating.
The night bus for little people
14 hours on the night bus was easier for Kate, hard for Tim. The bus is made up with about 40 bunk beds, each with the head of one person, resting over the legs of the one behind. The concept is fine, but the designers must have used the height of the average local man when deciding how much room to give. Kate as a result had loads, I on the other hand had none. Add to this the fact that Vietnam doesn't have roads, and that the bus driver needs to beep his horn constantly to prevent him from running people over. The best bit was when the bus drive started praying at the front of the bus for a safe journey, that really made me feel comfortable.
Hue, tally ho, Barf Barf!
When we arrived at Hue, I felt really rough, so we had an hour or so sleep before heading off to see the sights. As the day went on I began to feel worse and worse, until eventually, just after we went to bed in our shared dorm room at 8pm, I started to be ill from both ends. This went on every hour all night, much to the delight of me and the poor sods I was sharing a room with. The next day, Kate looked after me whilst we decided if I could make the 3 hour bus journey to Hoi An as planned. I plugged myself up on Imodium and we made a dash for the bus. In the end all was fine, we arrived in Hio An without trouble and a very nice place it is indeed.
All this makes Vietnam sound like a place worth missing, but it just adds to the fun. Vietnam is really nice, the people are lovely for the most part and it's extremely pretty. Looking out the bus as we drove through the country side was so interesting, with School kids dancing in the playground, water buffelo wandering in the rice fields, a chicken legging it across the road, little temples outside the villages to honour the village founder, miltary graveyards from the Vietnam war, tiny shops selling everything from sugar canes and fruit to car parts, all of the them held together with Bamboo, a shop selling coffins in all sizes (big and, unfortunately, very small)...
Its an amazing place and really worth a visit.
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Saturday, 16 January 2010
China catch-up
Believe it or not, but the Chinese government don't like you visiting some websites whilst within their country. The ones we couldn't access were Picasa, Facebook and our Blogger site. In fact you would do well to access any blog site. Here in Hong Kong its not quite the same, they have different rules which means we can update the blog a bit more. Above are a collection of pictures we couldn't post due to not being able to access the blog site.
Thanks for all the comments on the blog, there will be more to come once we can access them better. On Monday we fly to Vietnam, its a whole other country...
HongKong, China lite with 10% service charge all round
Light shows to cheesy music, neon everywhere, bird markets mixed with IT stalls, its China light with Soho prices.
Our room is nice but has no windows and is about the same size as my car boot. Yesterday we took a ride up the Victoria peak to take a peak at the city scape. Today we purchased a new camera. Our old camera broke in Queenstown, our new camera has developed a spec of dust which is really annoying, not to mention ruining our pictures. The new new one is waterproof, freeze proof and shock proof. Hopefully it will take some pictures.
Tomorrow we're going to try and scrub up and have afternoon tea at a posh hotel, I'll be OK, Kate will need a lot of work.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Climbing Low Mountain with China Climb
A fun half day had by me! I took up a chance with the local climbing company Climb China to climb one of the many lime stone mountains. This one was called Low Mountain, which is odd as they are all the same size. I didn't climb all the way to the top, but I did 5 climbs on a total of 3 routes. The climbing was excellent and the guides Si, Katie, Joe and Andy were good fun.
Whilst I was climbing, Kate was drinking tea and shopping, she brought a lovely skirt :)
Kate and I celabrated our achievements with the thickest milkshake ever!
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