meanderstravels

Dawn broke through a bit of smog in Ho Chi Minh City, HCMC from now on. This is the city of scooters, motorbikes, noise, pollution, hawkers, chaos. We have never seen so many bikes, going in all directions horns going as they all manage to miss one another. Crossing the road is a leap of faith!!! The hotel is simple and clean a step down from KL, but OK. The staff are friendly and helpful. We decided to walk the local sites, so after breakfast we stepped out into the heat. Paul did get involved with a man carrying coconuts and water, should have kept moving, but asked a question and that is a yes to selling you anything. He bought a coconut with the top sliced off and a straw for £4.50, probably 10times over the market rate, but when you ‘re dealing in thousands it’s a bit confusing. As a result all today’s purchases related to one or two or more times a coconut drink!!
First stop was the Cathedral Notre Dame and the post office. The cathedral was very simple inside and out. Great French influence here not shown in this particular piece of architecture. The post office definitely had a European style. Hawkers outside and tourist police to make sure we carried our bags and cameras safely and to help us across the road!

Notre Dame Cathedral

Post office

Inside the post office

From here we walked down Dong Khoi towards the Saigon River. We took in the Opera another old colonial building before we went inside an air conditioned mall to cool down and have iced coffee.

Front facade of the Opera, pity about the posters

From there to the river frontage. Bliss I hear you all sigh, rubbish, smelly, and muddy was the reality. Not a pleasant river frontage. Paul enjoyed taking photos of the river boats and motor bikes, I just was looking to plug the aroma, not my favourite place this holiday!

Boys at work?

We walked from the river back to the hotel and decided a cool down was in order, so we organised and booked tickets. Firstly for our bus trip to Phnom Penh on Sunday, and then a day trip to the Mekong Delta tomorrow. We also browsed trip advisor for restaurants for tonight’s meal and asked the receptionist to book it for us.
A walk around the market was the afternoon trip. A real experience. Butchers with no refrigeration, fish and eels either on ice or alive, loads of dried fruit and fish, nuts, teas, coffee and that’s just the foodie bit. The photos will probably give you an idea!

Fish sellers

Butchers!

General picture of the market

In the evening we took a taxi and went to a great restaurant called Cac Gach Quan, very busy and really good Vietnamese food. The menu was huge, so we asked the waiter to choose for us and he did a great job.

The beautiful river

All packed up and ready to go for next leg to Ho Chi Minh City.
Back to KL in a week or so and will explore a little more then.
KL airport is an hour from the city centre by Skybus. There is fast train but our Air Asia tickets include transfers from and to KL which is very useful. Arrived at the LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) which is the opposite side to main International terminal. A new Terminal for all the low cost carriers is being built but for now LCCT is the only one. It is mainly for AirAsia and is huge with zillions of people flying everywhere around this part of the world although I did see a flight to Gatwick.
The planes and flight no problem but the passengers are a nightmare. Chaos finding their seats, wanting to change seats, kids jumping about on seats ( one actually on takeoff) ignoring seat belt instructions etc etc. different world and different culture I suppose but that is why we are travelling here.
Next experience was immigration at Ho Chi Minh Airport. We had our electronic “letters of approval” to enter the country that we got from UK together with filled in visa application with attached photo all ready for immigration. The idea is to speed up the visa which is then stuck into your passport on the payment of $25 each. Well Butty thought that this could be done using a card but no no has to be cash. You know me, no cash. OK I ask what now. Go get money. Where? Outside . What! So I try to go through passport control and get stopped. Need money. OK. Went through another security check and found an ATM and took out 3,000,000 Dong. Yes 3 million. Took me while to sort out exchange rate to get enough cash to release Me and Er from the grips of Vietnam border guards.
One pound is about 32,000 Dong. Went back in through security and passport control without being questioned and paid up our dues. A mere 1.2 million Dong. By the time we got to baggage claim there were just two lonely bags revolving, but at least we had them. To finally exit the airport which I had already done very successfully we had to put our bags through a security scanner to make sure we had no weapons or bombs I suppose. We had just come off a plane !!. What fun.
Took taxi to hotel and that could be another short story.
What a city but will leave that to next blog.

This restaurant recommended by hotel a short distance away on foot. Traditional Vietnamese. Four courses and 3 beers for next to nothing. Great .

We have now found out there are about 5 million scooters in HCMC city and we have seen most of them.

Breakfast in the hotel this morning and what a breakfast choice there was . We have not ever seen such a spread for breakfast as this. All buffet style from traditional, sushi, curry, healthy, waffles, fruit, savoury etc etc. wonderful.
The hotel is absolutely exquisite With respect to quality, decor, friendliness and helpfulness.

This is reflection of part of the hotel in the building next door

The beautiful reception lobby

Two magnificent stair ways but of course only one Rene

We decided to have a fairly lazy day rather than trying to see all in the city
We were told about a craft centre next door so we popped along there and ended up spending a couple of hours chatting to all the craft people. These ranged from artists, batik printers, wood carvers etc. The most interesting wood carver was a guy who specialised in carving noses. Why I asked and ended up half an hour later with all sorts of info on noses which will be too lengthy to go into here. We bought a nose though and a very nice nose he assures us it is.

A small selection

Our friend the nose carver

Lazed around the pool in the afternoon with a brief interlude supping jasmine tea and a few bikkies in the lounge

Indulged in a couple of Singapore Slings before we went out to eat

Up at crack of dawn as our taxi was ordered for 07.00 which was actually a little early. The journey the the station known as the “Woodlands Checkpoint” took less time than expected owing to light traffic so we had plenty of time to kill.
The station is situated at the north of Singapore island just across the water from Malaysia and is the main crossing point. The “station” has one platform that is mainly deserted (which is technically on the Malaysian side) and on the Singapore side there are no facilities at all, not even a loo. Most bizarre. Singapore is such a chic and organised place this was a bit of a shock. It felt like a checkpoint you might of expected going from east to west Germany years ago. Big signs saying no photos for fear of imprisonment ! We went through immigration etc and boarded our train which left on time. The train had been really advanced in it’s day! However it’s days were long since over and it was a grubby, bumpy ride to Kuala Lumpur, KL (as we travellers say).
Taxi from station to was another rickety experience, with our bags held in with one bungi strap!!!
HOWEVER on arriving at The Royal Chulan Hotel, we were really pleasantly surprised. A beautiful, elegant Malaysian style hotel. Upgraded room and the journey was long forgotten. Also had the privilege of watching the arrival of the King and Queen of Malaysia, a friend of the Royal Families daughter was having a wedding reception at the hotel. Everyone arrived in traditional costume and greeted each other Malay style. Paul and I sat in the lobby like uninvited guests and watched the whole thing. We were even invited to watch the rest of the proceedings in the ballroom, but felt somewhat under dressed in shorts and T shirts!

Typical view from train, en route to KL

Lobby of hotel with reception party for Royal Wedding

Although in Malaysia we ate Chinese again because we came across this “open air” but covered restaurant with lots of people queuing for tables. Must be good we said and it was. They must have served 500 people while we were there which wasn’t that long. There were also lots of small private dining areas around the perimeter.

The Hakka

A great atmosphere and as you can see it is really very basic ( metal exposed roof girders, green plastic garden chairs and all the ” crockery” was plastic and of course the chop sticks)

For a multi faith country Xmas is a big thing as per this shopping mall next door to our hotel.

It is amazing what can be experienced in just a day. Tis just great.

On our first and only full day in Singapore. We got up early to take full advantage of it. We started going to an ATM to get Singapore Dollars, and needed up having a traditional Singapore breakfast of soft boiled eggs, toast, sweet coffee and coconut spread. And very nice it was too, as usual we were the only Europeans in the place. On advice from hotel concierge we took the bus to the botanical gardens. Our 4th so far, but different because of the ginger and orchid gardens, and they were truly beautiful. After that another bus trip to Raffles Hotel. Paul wanted to go there for a pic, as he has one his Dad took outside 60 years ago. Raffles was as you imagine, old colonial and full of Americans! Then a walk in very humid conditions to the sky park. Maybe you’ve seen in on TV, during the Singapore Grand Prix. A three tower building with a boat across the three roofs. An amazing structure. We took the lift to the 57th floor for a great view of Singapore. We enjoyed it so much we are back there tonight for dinner and a view of the lights, should be great.

Botanical gardens lake with swan sculpture

Orchid garden

Raffles Hotel

Skypark on top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and the Science Museum.

The boat shaped Skypark that sits on top of the three towers is modelled on the container ships that sit out in the bay waiting to be unloaded at the container port that is very close by.
The “bow” part of the boat is where the observation deck is situated on the 57 th floor and where some of these photos were taken.
There is also a cocktail bar and restaurant where we are going tonight. If you go to the restaurant you don’t have to pay to go up which we had to earlier.

A small section of the F1 Grand Prix circuit to the right of the wheel

The infinity pool etc for the hotel guests

Singapore at night from the stunning roof top of the Skypark

We had great cocktails and a superb meal but the price of the wine was a joke ( only to be expected) . Well worth doing. It was quite special.

Got back to the hotel very late because our dinner reservation wasn’t until 9.30 . Never mind only have to get up at 6.00 to catch our train in the morning to Kuala Lumpur. Nighty night.

Rain, rain, rain and more rain. This is the 5th day of rain and the sun has not shown itself for a minute.
Popped over the road to a local Saturday farmers market full of lots of great goodies all mainly local and organic. Could of had a field day buying all sorts but sadly not possible as we are on our travels again this afternoon.
Had a light lunch before M&C took us to the airport for our 4.30pm flight to Singapore.

Chris fed the birds after lunch.

Well the sun has finally come out and it is pretty warm again so we leave OZ in the sun

Chaos at Sydney Airport with passengers departing on international flights. It seems everyone has to be “checked out” of the country which is all very well but need it take half an hour. I was told very impolitely to remove my hat by a very stern lady with no humour whatsoever. Thanks for coming !! . Also with no automatic check-in and security queues it all took about an hour which meant we had little time to wait before we boarded for our 8 hour flight to Singapore.

No more moaning as we are now looking forward to the next three weeks in lands anew.

Bye bye Oz and thanks to all who put us up and put up with us.

Plane left a little late but arrived on time after a nice smooth and not too arduous flight.
We arrived at 9.30 local but this equated to 00.30 Sunday morning Oz time.
Went straight to bed on arrival.

Still rainy on and off but had to take another trip to the Sydney Fish Market.
We decided to walk with Martin ( Chris was out to lunch) which took about an hour and were just ready for some lunch at Doyles. Two lots of fish and chips and for Er a mixed platter of prawns, scallop, squid and various fillets of fish all washed down with a bottle of Sav Blanc.
We also decided to buy some fish for dinner and Er and Martin decided on fillets of Blue Eye Cod.
All very difficult when you see what is available as below.

Martin transported the fish home and we made a trip to the Australia Museum which is very much like the NHM in London. We concentrated on the Indigenous Australian section which was about the Aborigines who were obviously around a long time before European settlers. It is hard to believe that they only got the vote in 1967. Oz definitely had their own Appartied . For a long period children were taken away from their families to be “educated” properly.

The Blue Eye was great.

Still raining, so not seeing Sydney at it’s best. Paul and I decided to take in the Opera House. We were tempted by the fact they had seats left for tonight’s performance for the ballet at £110 per ticket, or tomorrow’s Mahler at £75 per ticket. In the end we splashed out on a tour around the Opera!!! It was great, saw rehearsals of the new Romeo and Juliet, which starts on Dec1st. Architecture was amazing and very interesting.

Concrete structure designed by a Dane and engineered and built by Ove Arup

Came out of the Opera to more rain, bought myself some good old Aussie Ugg boots and then took a cruise up the harbour to cockatoo island (actually another ferry). Back to house then off to meet Denise a friend of C & M, drinks and tasty foods bits at her place and then to watch one of their friends who plays a double base in a jazz trio. We felt like the oldest swingers in town. It was a great place, graffiti everywhere, two groups, loads of ‘hippyesq types. Really good evening.

Today was moving day. We hoped it wouldn’t rain, but it did nearly all day. Chris and Martin moved out of the des res on the north shore, heading for Darlington, our new res. they are here to dog sit Harry, whilst his mums are in USA for three weeks. He wasn’t too excited by us, he’s quite a mellow fellow! After a large lunch of pasta with Martins sauce, we took the car to Pyrmont and decided to walk to a nd around Darling Harbour. Very pleasant, except for dodging the rain. In the evening we took in the local Indian.

We were going into Sydney on the ferry that is nearby but the staff were on strike for four hours so we decided to walk. Not that far but it did mean that we could walk over the Sydney Harbour Bridge with more great views of the Harbour and the Opera House.

Drove up to Palm Beach at Pittwater which is another huge inlet and is north of the city. M&C have a friend that lives on the other side of the inlet and the only way to get there is by a little ferry. There are no cars and no roads and very few houses but a delightful spot with lots of animals and bird life. Had coffee and Tim Tam’s ( the Ausie equivalent of a Penguin bar )with Rob and Cherie. Cherie is an artist and she has just had a very nice article published in a country style magazine about their lifestyle, house and her art.

This “Goanna” was on the wall at the back and was about 1m long.

Kookaburra in the tree. Great noise they make.

On the ferry back. A little windy and Er needed protection.

Back to Sydney and stopped off at Centenial Park and meandered around the lake. A bit like Hyde Park and close to the city.

Little”white” swan. Apparently they are all black in OZ

Onward to some more of M&C’s friends that live near Bondi for another walk to the Southern Head with nice view back towards the city.

Went off to Bondi beach where there is a “Sculpture by Sea” exhibition along the coastal footpath.

Called in at the Sydney Fish market to shop for dinner. Amazing place. Lots of restaurants to eat the fish as well. Thought we would go one lunchtime and share the crab and lobster platter.

Fish market with people eating outside

Back to the city early evening for a wander round the old wharf areas of the ” Rocks” and had to succumb to a beer.

Under the Bridge. Yes that is rain.

Gosh how could I forget to show a snap of the famous Bondi Beach. How impressive is that !! ??

Arrived on time at 10.00 in the sunshine with Martin and Chris at the airport to meet us.
After a light lunch at their place took a ferry to Circular Quay passing a few of the sights of Sydney on the way.

Took another ferry to Manly which is within the Harbour but 30 minutes “cruise” away.

Strolled over to the Manly Beach on the ocean side where the surfers hang out

After the indulgence of ice creams we set out on a 10 km walk along the “Manly Scenic Walk” which was at least in the direction back home.

Caught the bus home and arrived in the dark suitably k—-d
Great first day in Sydney.

We have a full day ahead of us before we meet Andrew again tonight for dinner at our side of town. He will be a little later than before because he has to put his ” Mag” to bed for which he is the Editor.
Took a short tram ride towards the city and hopped off at the Botanical Gardens. Walked through the delightful and very informative gardens and crossed the river “Yarra” to the Olympic Park. ( yes another one)

Home of Melbourne cricket ( The MCG) but the ” Collingwood” Ausie Rules team also play here.
They happened to be training next door and we got some insight to the team and the game from their coaches that were standing near by. By all accounts quite a coup as most Ausies wouldn’t of dared talk to the coaches. We were just naive and just asked what was going on. Collingwood were the runners up in the AFL this year and have a normal match gate of about 75000 fans.

Next, to the main city centre and the Docklands area.

The very attractive Flinders Railway Station

Typical Tram

Great Italian meal tonight after meeting Andrew.

We loved Melbourne and wish we had more time to explore but we are off again tomorrow on the 8.30 flight to Sydney for the next leg to stay with Chris and Martin for a week. I wonder what they will have in store for us?