Chad Is Everywhere

Ok so it's been a few weeks now since I returned. And well I never did finish off the posting onto the blog. So here is a more detailed viewing of photos for you all to see. A bit more of Vietnam. In case you were wondering yes crossing the road is interesting in Hanoi. There's nothing like a game of Hanoi Frogger. It doesn't though take long before you've got nerves of steel and have no problem with just edging out between 30 scooters to cross a road. Halong Bay on the other hand replaces the scooter with the 2 stroke. Imagine the sounds of a 2 stroke mower going putt, putt, splutter as it goes on by. You can almost feel the serenity.

It wasn't Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare by any stretch. Nor was this any school lunch by Jamie Oliver. This was Vietnamese Cooking 101 with some random chef from the Highway Four Restaurant, and 9 foreigners with a fang for food. I have now been shown how to cook Vietnamese Banana Flower Salad Shrimps Sauteed with Cashew Nuts Sour Fish Broth and Imperial Spring Rolls. And all I remember was the Sweet Chilli dipping sauce was fantastic. And I didn't even get to make that part of the dish.

Bingo! Yep at this rate I'll be yelling out Bingo before everyone else. Because I'm now up to 2 Communist Leader Mausoleums. I did Lenin the other year in Moscow. I now have Uncle Ho's. It leaves only Mao in Bejing, Fidel in Cuba, who we all think is not alive. And that crazy North Korean one from the "Team America" movie whom we all wish wasn't around. I didn't go in I must admit. If you look at the photo closely. That's the queue leading out to the left of shot. I've done the freaky wait in line to see a dead person for over an hour before. That's just weird if I did it again.

Ok I've been to Halong Bay. Mission accomplished. It was not though with picture perfect weather. After a 3 hour drive traveling only 100 or so kms away. Yes its a slow drive when you're in Asia. Longest involuntary game of chicken with oncoming trucks and mopeds you can play. The bay is actualyl spectacular. The first afternoon was taken up by traveling to the main cave sightseeing point. Quite surprising. The 2nd day we had our first ever prisoner exchange. Whereby myself, 2 Swiss, 3 Canadians, and 4 French were exchanged for a a mix of other nations on another boat. Some would say it was because we were on the 3 day tour and not the 2 day tour. But it was as if they were experienced in the process of exchanging us. After the exchange we headed out to our 2nd day of touring. This entailed a bicycle ride on one part of Cat Ba Island before trekking up a hill into a cave and back. After which we visited monkey Island. And well lets just say Monkey King is not nice ...

When you get onto a good thing you stick with it. Hence I went back to the Fanny Ice Cream place. This time I had to have the Banan' Hanoi. Only because it had the cute little hat.

Sure this place may have been a french culture. It may pride itself on being a artistic centre in Asia. But ask what is the hottest ticket in town and you'll find out it's a ticket to the Water Puppets. Best way to describe it is... It's Punch and Judy on Water. Sadly though it is now the most meaningful way I have learnt about the Vietnamese culture.

I'm now 2 days into the Hanoi experience. And yet to see Dog or Cat on the menu. But it doesn't mean it isn't. I mean sure. It may say chicken, or pork, or beef. But how can I be sure. Really. Well it ain't certain but last night I'm pretty sure it wasn't pigeon. Yes pigeon was on the menu served with honey. But to prove in my head that I will not have strange urges in the future just to fly home I point out to you that Pigeon is a small bird. Yet my meal had a drumstick. And there are no pigeons in the Hanoi City Centre. (Or they're in hiding.), So on this flawed unrelated train of thought I have convinced myself it wasn't pigeon. Sure I do not have absolute proof. But can you make a pigeon into this? I didn't see the lady with a pigeon Feather Duster for sale. There is only real chicken feather on that there stick. Alas customs will not be having to tell me that I can't bring a feather duster through customs.

Everywhere I go the Vietnamese women keep asking to see it. They keep asking for it. I just don't know what to say. Check out my Big Dong. Don't be shy. It doesn't bite. Sure it may look just like everyone else's Dong. But it must be good or they wouldn't keep asking for it. Perhaps they're excited by its size. Because every time they say something, they then ask to touch my Dong. They then take it in their hand, and hand me back a smaller Dong. They love my Dong so much they then shower me with gifts when handing me back smaller dongs.

Last night marked a weird moment for the hotel here in Hanoi. They had a weird crazy women ranting outside. She was actually getting quite violent waving her motorbike helmet around. Even attacking a staff member with it. We all have no idea what it was about. Luke and Sarah, the Australian hotel managers could do nothing but hide up the back with the rest of us. It was as if she was pissed off at the hotel. Perhaps for bringing in the tourist or pissed off at the hotel taking her customers away. The lady just stood on the step trying to incite the crowd watching her into flooding into the hotel and join her in screaming. Perhaps it was an attempted shakedown. Who knows. All I got to see was the Vietnamese business partners ended up sorting it out. They spent the time up the back on the phone. I got entertainment for a half hour. Luke, Sarah, if you're reading this. I had your back if it went down. I would have put on my best french accent, and then re-enacted the best french retre...

Hardly a person missed out reminding me of the unfortunate experience 2 years ago when I was last in Asia. There was a resounding be careful before I left. Today I arrived into Hanoi, Vietnam. I organised a "Private Car" to get from the airport to the hotel. Thankfully I've done my research and ended up with a good hotel, Hanoi Rendezvous Hotel. A good hotel with a Brisbane couple managing the joint. If you can't trust another Brisbane person who can you trust. Anyway after dropping the bags I set out. Set out in search of direction. Which I still lack. I tried following the map. Really I did. But I can say without a doubt I have no idea how these streets lay out. The only positive I can say is that my previous travels have me unconcerned at "playing Frogger" crossing the road. After finding my direction of north and south I managed to find the centre of Hanoi, the Hoan Kiem Lake. Around the lake there are lots of locals sitting around enjoying the scenery. ...

What's funnier than engrish. Yep it's tough to think of anything when you come across examples like this as you leave the airplane. If you can't read it into being funny. Then you don't get my humour. I'm not kidding when I tell you this was the first add I saw as I went to walk up the ramp to customs. What's really disturbing is the kids playing in the background.

I've just gotten into KL for the 1 night stay. Staying at the airport at the TUNE Hotel. Malaysia's version of a cheap hotel like the Super 8. And we'll it's what you'd expect for a $40 room. But main thing is it's only 500m from the airport. Good position when you have a 6:30am flight tomorrow.

This week I'm off to Vietnam. Just for a week. Because I can. Can't but go forthe price. The flights have cost me all up less than $600 return to Vietnam. And that's after me lashing out and spending an extra $40 each way to get extra leg room. Hopefully I'll find an internet cafe along the way so I can keep you all up with my latest mis-adventure.

South Africa.... it's time.

So when you live on the east coast and someone says "we should go east". Where do you go? To Byron Bay of course. Steve and I headed to Byron Bay just for the day, with couchsurfer in tow. Just because we had both never really been to Byron. Or well I had been there overnight briefly but had never seen the beach. And when at Byron you get a photo outside of the sign of "Australia's Most Eastern point". But there is controversy. This point when standing at the viewing area doesn't seem to be the most east position. There is a little bit of a point down the cliffs about 100 metres away which seems more easterly. I put it down to the marketing department didn't want to have people climbing down a steep walkway.

To be able to call oneself a Queenslander has its advantages. And they're not all obvious. Take for example the "My Fun" card. The purchase of this card is restricted to residents of Queensland. It gives us unlimited entry to Seaworld, Movieworld, and Wet'n'Wild for about 9 months. That is our compensation for having people from the south come over the border at will.

Rank the following items in order of their cost from most expensive to cheapest 1. A train ride from Sydney Airport to the City. About 15kms I think it is. 2. A 5km Cab ride from Brisbane City to Coorparoo where I live, and 3. A flight from Gold Coast Airport to Sydney on Jetstar. If you answered 2 then 1 and then 3 you'd be correct. A Cab ride home cost me $18 usually. ($20 bucks if you're talking graveyard hours). The flight to Sydney was $11 after paying the $2 or so credit card booking fee. And the train ride was $14.60. That's right for the Ekka Show Day local public holiday Steve and I were not in Brisbane. Cheap flights made for one hell of a great day trip away from Brisbane. I couldn't believe it when Steve told me he got us tickets. Glad he did book. We spent only about $60 each for transport for the whole day to get to and from Sydney. Sure 10 hours in Sydney doesn't seem like a lot of time. But it's enough time to see the big sites in the city centre...

In terms of seeing Australia I now have 1 left. One more capital city and I've seen the lot. Fortunately for Adelaide they were not last. Darwin will be last. Luckily for Adelaide they had more cheap flights with Tiger Airways to direct me there. Merely a weekend was allocated to seeing Adelaide. A trip with only a few goals. 1. See the Don Bradman Statue outside the Adelaide Oval 2. Go do a Winery Tour, and 3. Eat a Pie floater I managed 1 + 2. So I did fail to complete a goal. So perhaps a second trip will be required. Any excuse to see another winery valley will do really.

Beer and Churches. That's what history preserves I say. And therefore as a result I like to tour these places which have been preserved in this tradition. All in the expectation that I'll again get to hear from the tour guides how refined and revered the local brewery chief was to the local population. It is with great regret that I must admit I missed one. I didn't have time in Hobart to see the Cascade Brewery. Bad Chad, bad. It wasn't for the lack of trying. It was just that they don't run the tours on public holidays.

Tiger Airways has a lot to answer. Like how long do I have before they figure out that I'm just using them for cheap flights and don't buy drinks on board? Another weekend away for me. This time I paid $55 to get from Gold Coast to Melbourne. Return. Inclusive of fees and taxes. And then $77 to get from Melbourne to Hobart. Return. How's that work? Don't ask. Just accept and collect the boarding pass.