Monday, October 25, 2010

Day 8 and 9 - Hanoi - Hue

I woke up at 6am and couldn't get back to sleep (a regular occurance now due to noise).

We had breakfast at our hotel again (Pacific Prince) which was delicious and different to what we had been having. A sort of pad thai dish - yes Alexis I had 2 servings!!! :) - mushroom and pasta salad, eggs, cucumber and tomato, and tea and toast.

Then we headed to the water puppets show. This was amazing. Its set in an oriental theme with a big pool (representing rice paddys) in front. The puppets come out from under the water controlled by people behind the stage area (out of sight to the audience). There was a group of very young children that were there to watch and were delighted when a new puppet came out - very cute! We were amazed at how life like and how much they moved like that animal/person they were representing. We had to go to the loo after but i wasn't game due to the squat toilet and smell. Im just not ready yet. Tony went but felt sick from the smell.

We came back to the hotel so I could pee and for some time out from the streets. We both can only handle Hanoi in small quantities. I have tried to upload some video footage of the streets but it takes so long I always give up. Will post it when I get a chance.

After some reading we headed out again for some sight seeing. We walked around for about 3 hours and saw the Flag Tower, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Presedential Palace, Botanic Gardens (with about 500 brides and groom having their wedding photos taken) and the Temple of Literature.

Then we decided to have lunch and had the best meal to date! We ordered beef and seasonal vegetables, noodles and beef. It was delisious and didnt leave us feeling too full, heavy or sick - score! We then headed back to hotel checked out but left luggage then until we were ready to go to over night train.

We wandered around the lake and just people watched. We had chikcen pho for dinner and was the best $2.50 we spent.

We then went to the train station to wait for our train. We got there at 8pm and our train departed at 11pm. It was a long wait and my head was playing up due to the heat and tiredness. But we got through it. We had a random scammer come up to ask asking to see our tickets and Tony said no. Scammers!

We boarded the train and thought we were in for an easy trip to Hue.

I thought it would be a good idea to take a sleeping tablet so I could sleep through the trip seeing as we were due at Hue at 8am. BIG MISTAKE!

At 4:45am we were all woken and told to get off the train as the flooding had covered the train tracks and we had to get a bus. We werent told thiseasily of course but everyone got off the train and waited around who knows where! Yep right about now that sleeping tablet was the worst thing ever! By the way thanks Emma it really was good having it for previous travels :) Please thank your mum as well!

So for what felt like forever we waited and I sat there almost hullusinating as my body still should have been asleep. Tony thought this would be the moment I cracked and said "ive had enough we are flying to Phuket for the rest of the trip". But no. I knew it was only temporary so pushed through and before we knew it we were on a bus travelling again. Broken English and hand signals allowed us to now find out what was happening.

The bus trip was a ride from hell and we saw our lives flash before our eyes twice. First 1 everyone deadset thought we were going to crash, but at the very last minute the bus did a massive swerve and just missed the oncoming truck by cms. Its like they play chicken with each other or something? We finally arrived at the train station so the train could take us the rest of the way. We werent sure where we were, but it was somewhere between Hanoi and Dong Hoi? We jumped on and continued our journey.

We are staying in Hue tonight at Sports Bar Hotel - Tony's pick but unfortunately for him there are no TVs so not quite sure where the sport comes into it :) - and then will get a bus to Hoi An tomorrow for 2 days on the beach.

The weather has been so hot I have been drinking (and ejoying beer) yes thats right I will now be coming home with a beer belly :)

The flooding hasnt affected us (except of course the train) and we weren't too sure where it was. We are both really well and thoroughly enjoying ourselves and dont want to come home.

Love to all
xoxo

P.S Happy 1 week and 2 day wedding anniversary :)

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Halong Bay Days 5 - 7

Hello everyone!! We are back in Hanoi after 3 glorious days in Halong Bay.

We woke up Thursday morning had some breakkie then were picked up by our tour guide Nam (as he told us Nam like Vietnam). The drive out to Halong Bay was insane with trucks over tkaing trucks and then a bus overtaking both trucks. I think we both put our feet through the floor on the breaks about 100 times praying it was going to stop - and of course it always did.

Also found out how our beef got delivered - yep on the back of a motorbike. Drove past the guy with a dead cow on the back of his bike, head flapping one side, tail and legs on the other - unfortunately we didnt get a photo of this :(

Arrived in Halong Bay a bit after mid day and it was straight onto the boat. Our boat was called Amigo and our room was extremely tiny but nice. The shower was above the toilet and we had to take turns standing next to the bed to get changed etc as there wasnt enough room for 2.

Sailed out into Halong Bay to some caves called "Surprising Caves". The reason its called surprising could  be because each cave is surprisingly bigger than the last, or due to the fact that one of the limestone is shaped like a guy who is very "happy".

We then jumped into a kayak and paddled around investigating some of the 2000 islands in Halong Bay. Truly breath taking. Back on the boat for a seafood dinner - squid, prawns, whole fish, chicken rice, the works! Sensational stuff (except the prawns for Tony). We are actually surprised at how much fried food they eat! We thought we would be having more rice paper rolls and lighter meals but they crumb and fry just about everything.

After dinner we had cocktails and relaxed on the top of the boat on sun beds. It was a bit over cast but the almost full moon was out with a few stars to light the night sky.

Retired to our (tiny) cabin and drifted off to sleep with the gentle rocking of the boat.

The second day was as good as the first. We said to Cat Ba Island (the biggest in Halong Bay). Our tour group is a mixed bunch including Spanish (loud), American, English, Polish and a French couple who we have spent most of the time with. Their English is not too good and our french is terrible so we generally play charades when trying to talk - makes life fun :)

We arrived at Cat Ba Island and spent about an hour cycling through the villages. This is what I thought the trip would be like - getting up and close with locals and seeing how they live. It mkaes you wonder why we need such materialistis things and that we could go home and sell all our stuff and (shock horror) still survive. We stopped for a break and a cool drink (the humiditiy here is intense) and found out these people only got electricity 1 year ago.

We made our way back down the mountain (on our rusty, break failing bikes). Then had lunch - today it was fish, prawns, chips( they love their french fries too), spring rolls, chicken, rice and some fish dish that was wrapped around lemon grass sticks (Alexis I will be getting you the recipe so you can make it for us!)

After lunch we arrived at Monkey Island for a very welcomed swim and some monkey action (well action with monkey's as that sort of came out wrong). The monkeys come right up to you and grab food, sunnies or what ever you have in your hands. We saw one monley up a palm tree with some boardies on its head  - feel sorry for whomever it took them from.

From here we said good bye to our tour group and they were going to sleep in a hotel on Cat Ba IOsland whereas we chose to sleep on the boat again. We got on a mini bus and travelled (very quickly) across to the other side of the island where our next goupd were waiting for us. The bus had a MASSIVE crack in the front window!! Who knows how that happened? See photo on facebook.

Unfortunately dinner was the exact same thing as last night (as most people generally dont sleep 2 nights on the boat - but we figured we can stay in hotels whenever we want but dont always have the opportuinity to sleep on a boat) even down to pineapple spring roll light and the amazing swan carved out of tomato. We met 2 Irish travellers who were coming to the end of their trip. We spent the night drinking and laughing and had a great time with them. In Tony's travels he has found Irish and Canadians are great to get along with and these guys didnt disappoint.

We woke up and had another peaceful day cruising back to Halong Bay city.

Two quotes of the boat trip that we will always remember -
1) "Slapper" when being told what the fish "Snapper" was when put in front of us.
2) Me asking the French couple if they had been to Hanoi (which is where we were all picked up from) - their blank look back at me, probably thinking stupid Australians!!

We arrived back at Hanoi tired, hot and not looking forward to the hustle and bustle compared to thew gloriousness of Halong Bay. We checked in, showered, changed, booked our train for tomorrow, then checked emails, and organised clothes washing. Then we headed out to book tickets to the water puppets and will see it tomorrow morning at 9:30.

We went to get dinner and thought we would try our luck at an alley way of food shops we had stumbled across when we were here (before we went to Halong Bay) instead of an expensive $3 restaurant - yes thats expensive here!! We picked one and sat down and the guy brought us a menu. We chose chicken and mushroom soup, honey chicken, spring rolls each (as the waiter held up 1 finger so we thought it meant 1 spring roll per serve) and 2 beers. When the spring rolls arrived they were a whole plate each - about 15 rolls per plate. We laughed at us stupid tourists and by the end of it almost ate all of them. A quick walk back via buying big bottles of water and we were back to our room, our sactuary with only the noise of horns coming from outside but we were safe and quiet again - ahhh bliss.

So far Tony hasn't quite managed to get the idea of NOT PUTTING HIS TOOTHBRUSH UNDER THE TAP, as every time he goes to brush his teeth I hear the fmailar "damn it!" I cant wait to be able to flush look paper.

We are now going to head to Hue on an over night train that leaves at 7pm and arrives at 7am. We wont have internet access so dont miss us too much.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Our photos so far will be on facebook

The photos we have taken so far will be on facebook, then we will upload future ones here.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Hanoi Day 4

Thís morning started at 4:45am when our alarm went off (or 3am when we both woke afraid of sleeping in) our breakfast box arrived at 5am (coffee in a can, orange juice, 2 crossants, danishes, apple and a ham and cheese sambo with the crusts cut off) our butler took our bag at 5:20am and we were off in a taxi.

It was a much quicker taxi trip back to the airport than arriving, but unfortunately still in darkness. We checked in, but got a shock as there were some concerns with tony's arrival date on visa letter.

Flight smelled like a toilet at a music festival, but was so smooth take off and landing all was forgiven. We were even served a snack for a 1 hour flight. 

Arrived at Bangkok and re-checked baggage. Vísa letter approved!!! Phew! Unfortunately we had suncream and moisturiser in hand luggage and was taken off us.

Had coffee while waiting for flight. BEST COFFEE EVER! Played "Guess what country they're from".

Arrived at Hanoi quickly through the Visa process. Had to wait FOREVER at the baggage collection. After waiting awhile, we sat down at the carosel so did a local - knowing smile to one another - thís is going to take awhile.

Oh my gosh Hanoi ís insane!! It is exactly how people describe it. Hot, people approach offering taxi lift (one guy then got shoved out of airport by security. They tail gate, drive in middle of 2 lanes, use their horns as indicators, and just drive how ever and where ever they want - just no aggression. We dont even know which is the correct side of the road to drive on anymore.

After dumping our bags at our hotel we wandered dowwn to a recommended travel company and booked our junk boat tour. SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT!

Continued wandering the streets, risking our lives crossing the road. Dont worry mum we are ok but wait till you see our footage of the streets. Its hectic to say the least. You have to just start crossing and continue - commit or get hit.

We found a little food stall on the street that cooks your food on a grill on the side of the road. We had different skewers of meat. We think it was chicken, beef and pork but cant be too sure :) We also ventured into the unknown - with some whole bird creature. Bec jumped straight in, chewing away, and didnt realise until after that she was trying to suck meat out of a birds head. Lets hope she keeps it down while typing this. Wash it all down with a Bier Ha Noi, and sat back and watched the potential carnage on the streets.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Phuket day 3

Ok before I recap day 3, ill just write a bit about dinner last night. "Into the Thai" was the name of restaurant but it was more like "Into the Fire" in my mouth! I learnt very quickly that "not too spicy" for the locals, is SUPER HOT!! Bec enjoyed the show as I sweated it up big time and cried over my dinner.

Relaxation... we successfully did nothing. Woke up to another day of paradise with my amazing wife - god I love calling her that. We started the day with our traditional coffee in our pool, while deciding what to do first. Finally made our way to breakfast and took the locals advice and fell into "slow life".

For breakfast this morning our favourites were homemade chicken sausages, fresh guava and mango juice, waffles with golden syrup and raspberry jam, and cinnimon french toast.

Bec finally agreed with me that it was actually bees flying around the fruit and not flies, and received a comedy show of me trying to get fruit whilst avoiding getting stung - funny stuff she tells me!

After breakfast we heading to the Infinity Pool which looks out over the ocean to clear blue water. We pretty much spent the day there reading in the pool, then on our sun beds while sipping cocktails. As time didnt exist it meant lunch was when we felt hungry, so by 3 pm it was time for lunch. This time my mouth had an easy time as we asked for mild chicken curry, and stir fried beef and basil WITHOUT chilli! So we managed to appreciate the food.

All thats left now is to finish the cocktail, maybe have another = total relaxation.

We head to Hanoi tomorrow and then its off to Halong Bay to sleep on a junk boat for 2 nights. Sailing amongst the lime stone peaks that are scattered throughout the bay.

Will get some photos up soon

xoxo

Phuket

Mr and Mrs Henderson checking in...

Perfection - married life is all that plus more!! Woke to an amazing day, a beautiful wife, and paradise. It was a slow start to the day, but that's the pace we love. Breakfast was delicious - a wide variety of choices from around the world. Fresh fruit, bacon and eggs, danishes, cereal, sushi - you name it - they had it. We of course gorged and then took some muffins with us for later.

The view from the restaurant looks out over the ocean (we can't upload photos here but will endeavour to do so in the coming days) and the gentle breeze is just enough to cool you down as the heat is intense.

After a brief exploration of the resort (as it was too dark last night), its back to our private pool to unwind, relax and cool down - not that life is stressful - but because thats what you do.

It was then off to Bon Island - Evason's private island - on a long tail boat. Bon Island is exactly what we imagined New Caledonia to be like. Beautiful white sandy beach, and crystal clear water. All we were missing was the cocktail by the beach.

My beautiful wife sits peacefully down by the water edge. Time to join her and experience more of this amazing island.

We got back to the resoort and its CODE PAW PAW CREAM all through our bag :)

Monday, October 18, 2010

We have arrived!!

We have arrived!!! It has been the longest day of our lives but we are finally in Phuket!!!

Our morning started at 3am when we got up for our airport transfer. Howard (our driver) was quite an interesting character and we got out of the bus knowing a fair bit about his wife, his step son and himself - way too much info actually. He actually was so carried away with his stories that he took a wrong turn and then couldn't reverse the trailor out. So Tony and another passenger had to get out and literally pick up the trailor to rotate it - keep in mind this was 3:30 in the morning.

We then got our flight to Brisbane no sweat. Then Bec thought it would be a brilliant idea to check how much money she had in her account and forgot to take the debit card out of the ATM. I can tell you some choice words were said as I thought I had lost my card all together and we hadn't even left the country. It all turned out fine as a lady had found the card and handed it into lost property.

Our flight to Phuket was delayed for 4 hours but we have now arrived safe and sound and have checked into our AMAZING resort for the next 3 nights (thanks Bec1!!). This place is superb and we cant wait to see it in day light tomorrow - believe me there will be photos!!

Once again thanks to all who celebrated our wedding with us yesterday!! It was the best day of our lives and we loved every minute of it. We wanted to wake up this morning and do it all again - it was soooo much fun.

We are staying at here - Evason Six Senses Resort, Phuket, for the next 3 nights so will upload some photos to get you all jealous.

We dont have a phone so please email us as we have internet access while staying here.

Love you all and take care.

xoxo