Hoi An Day One

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It’s 4am and I’m sitting by the pool at our hotel listening to the occasional boat putter by on the river. After a very early start the day before yesterday, and no sleep all night, I was pretty impressed with myself for having enough energy to hang out at the bar for a few hours before flopping into bed at about 5pm. No caffiene along the way either! 

My very first impression of the hotel was a cement stairway on a dirty side street (to be fair, all the streets here a pretty dirty) but then we climbed up to the airy, flower-filled reception and a view over a long pool to an emerald lawn leading to the river – it was gorgeous. The grounds are full or orchids and frangipani trees in flower. I met a staff member, Nu, who showed me that if I dipped a finger in the little pond around the dining room, little goldfish would come and nibble my finger. 

  

  
The hotel has a four hour Happy Hour, which started just before we arrived. Two for one cocktails, which made them around $2 each. 

They also do a street food tasting on the lawn at 4:30 every afternoon. We tried a bunch of tasty fritters, rolls and noodles and I failed to pronounce ‘that was delicious’ in Vietnamese. The only consolation, when trying to pronounce Vietnamese words, is the obvious difficulty Vietnamese people have with English. Even people with big vocabularies are barely intelligible.  

 

 After being shown to our rooms, Luke and I had a quick, much needed shower, then went for a wander down to the pool and found Matt and Michael already on first name terms with Tin (or Super Tin, as he is now known). Although I try hard to be friendly to everyone, being with Michael and Matt is like being with two Crocodile Dundees – if Crocodile Dundee spent all his time looking for bars.

The weather is looking like being very warm today (and always sticky-humid) but possibly cooler after that so we’re thinking of having a day by the pool to relax then getting our tailoring underway the next day, plus signing up for some cooking classes and tours. Or maybe we’ll just sit by the pool or the riverside bar, which we seem to have commandeered.

  

Up, Up and Away!

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It’s 2:56 am, and despite preparing myself as best as I could for this red-eye flight, with two pillows, a blanket and comfy clothes, I don’t seem to be able to sleep. We left Melbourne at 1:25am and are stopping over in Kuala Lumpar for a few hours before our last short leg to Danang. I don’t really mind being awake, even though I haven’t slept since 3:30 yesterday morning. I understand people who hate flying (particularly on classic cattle-class flights like this) but I’ve always seen planes as a sacred space, somewhere I can’t be online, can’t work, can’t do anything but contemplate whatever I want to contemplate. It’s nice – even with a baby crying. I suppose you could say it’s a good time to practise mindfulness. Just be in the moment, look at the view, do whatever you can in the tiny cramped space. 

The day leading up to our flight went almost to plan. Charmaine stayed over last night then we did a few last minute things before sitting around with several hours of nothing to do – the down side of being organised people. We picked up Lauren on the way to the city – I’d arranged dinner before heading to the airport to ensure we’d all arrive on time and together. Nothing would have stressed me out more than waiting for someone to arrive late for the flight. I’d booked a table at Fancy Hank’s BBQ because my brother Michael and his friend Matt had travelled down from Orange to meet up with us and they are both mad BBQ fans.  

   
A few friends came along too, we had a few drinks then headed to the airport, getting there rather early. We’d heard rumours that customs staff were going on strike in Melbourne starting the next day but we didn’t want to get caught out just in case it was earlier. We ended up with several hours to kill so more drinking was done and Matt and Mick had a game of ping pong. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a ping pong table in an airport – but what a good idea. 

Anyhow, we boarded, they turned the lights off and now it looks like everyone but me is asleep. I will contemplate the many hours of lounging around a pool in my near future, and listen to some podcasts. Hopefully that will send me to sleep. 

Three hours in the KL departure lounge.  

Vietnam and Thailand: Going Away For My 40th.

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It’s been awhile between posts lately, with work taking over every waking moment. I have been planning though – because we all like to have something exciting on the horizon, even if it’s years away. After our last big trip I decided that I’d like to go away for my 40th, and go back to some of the places I’d enjoyed in Asia, but this time with friends. I gave everyone two year’s notice and now I have over 20 people coming along for different parts of the trip. Very exciting! 

So, the trip itself is going to be in three parts. Eight days in Hoi An (in Vietnam) and then five nights in Bangkok then a night in Koh Samui before taking a ferry to Koh Phanang for ten days. Unlike our last sight-seeing trip, this one is all about relaxing – with some trips to the tailors, a cooking class or two and some shopping thrown in. 

We leave on the 23rd of March at 1:25am, so the first group are meeting in the city for dinner on the 22nd before heading to the airport. There’s eight people going to Vietnam, including my brother and his friend Matt. Everyone else is joining us in Thailand. 

This Sunday I’m having an information session (so professional!) at my house to answer questions and make sure everyone is on the same page. After that I have school camp for four days, then a few days for packing and last minute organisation the we’re off! 

Here Comes The Planet 54 – Tanzania 07

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In this episode of Here Comes The Planet we take a cultural tour around Mto wa Mbu Village in Tanzania. This consists of walking through the village’s farms and sampling an amazing array of delicious food, learning about the village’s history and entertaining its children.

We also watched some local artists at work, sampled banana beer and found the village nightclub!

Also – DISCO TOTO!!!