Halong Bay, Vietnam

Halong Bay tucked up on the north east coast of Vietnam and about 3 hours drive from Hanoi is recognised as a World Heritage site due to its landscape and geological features. We took a 3 day cruise on a junk through this wonderfully scenic area. The 17 people on board spanned quite a mix of nationalities - 2 English, 3 French, 1 Finn, 1 Portuguese, 1 South African, 2 Americans, 2 Irish, 2 Indian, 2 Spanish and 1 Peruvian of English descent so made for some interesting conversations. Food on board was superb and we had a surfeit of prawns, crab and fish. We had a very lazy 3 days cruising around some of the almost 2000 islands and outcrops, occasionally stopping for a swim or a bit of site seeing at a fishing village or cave. It was quite a contrast from the noise, hustle and bustle of Hanoi and we enjoyed it immensely. The scenery is quite wonderful and this is a trip we would recomend.

Hanoi - Markets

One of the things I find fascinating about Asia are the markets. Wherever I go, I find myself wandering around the markets taking lots of photographs. They are all so noisy, busy colourful and full of life. They are also frequented and inhabited by many characters. Hanoi has several markets selling all manner of exotic fruits, vegetables, spices, fish and meats - I say meats because in Hanoi apart from the usual meats including live chickens, pigs trotters and the like there is also dog. I guess it is the Vietnameses penchant for dog that keeps the srteets clear of strays. Ann commented on the fact that there are so few dogs running around in comparison to Bangkok. It is also true that most of the dogs you do see are of the smaller variety such as Pekinese I guess because they are not worth the bother of cathing and cooking, or maybe they just dont taste good! Mmmmm, food for thought but in my case not for the dinner table.

Hanoi - Motorbike Madness

Have you ever tried crossing the street in Hanoi? It is truly an experience as there are thousands of cyclists and motor cyclists and they just keep on coming. There hardly ever seems to be a pause in their numbers so one has to quickly adapt to the local method of strolling across the road, letting the bikes avoid you. It is rather scary to say the least and requires a large degree of faith to venture across the road. Forget about traffic lights, Pelican crossings and one way streets as effectively there is no such thing in Hanoi. Sure they are there but hardly anyone on a bike takes any notice. The technique is to walk slowly and determinedly across the road watching closely for the subtle changes of direction that each bike makes to indicate that it is going to pass either in front of you (in which case you slow down slightly) or behind you (in which case you speed up slightly). It is not for the faint hearted especially on the busiest and widest of streets but at least I still live to tell the tale!

Feeding the Flock

Feeding the Flock
Originally uploaded by HellonEarth2006.

We wandered around Bangkok this weekend taking it easy. Ann wanted to buy some material so we went to Chinatown which is always an interesting experience. Sampeng Lane is a very narrow thoroughfare jam packed with shops and vendors of all descriptions. Shoes, jewellery, food, clothes, material etc all jostle for our attention as we picked our way through the mainly Thai hordes. This is in fact just a small part of Chinatown as there are different areas all specialising in the sale of various articles and each area has its own fascination. For me, Chinatown is a microcosm of Bangkok as, like Bangkok, it never ceases to amaze me that we keep finding different areas of interest. From Chinatown we walked up to Khao San Road which is backpacker territory. There is also a market selling mainly clothes and it is a good area to stop and have a beer or two, so not wanting to miss such a good opportunity we did just that. We passed these two monks on the way feeding their flock which made for an interesting photograph not to mention title!

Weekend in Phuket 23 - 26/9/06

2 days holiday enabled us to have a 4 day weekend at our villa in Phuket. We flew late Friday night and went directly to the Black Cat, a restaurant owned by a Frenchman which has already become a favourite. It serves food until midnight and so is very convenient as we arrived at 11:30pm. Being the rainy season, we didn't expect much in the way of weather but is was a mix of sunshine and downpours so not bad at all. We invited 3 of our new neighbours over for drinks Saturday and had a very interesting evening. Sandy is a Scot and a typical one at that while the other couple were an extremely fit octagenarian Dickie and his wife Mary. An absolutely fascinating couple who have been all over the world and have just decided to up sticks from Spain and move to Thailand. As an ex WW2 RAF fighter pilot, I guess the world holds no fears for Dickie (would you believe Richard Richards is his name!). We guess they had a good evening too as they arrived at 7pm and didnt leave until 1am when Mary (who reminded both Ann and I of the Queen), Dickie and Sandy swayed home. We flew home Tuesday evening to the spectacular new Suvarnabhumi (pronounced Suwanapoom) airport which didnt officially open until 2 days later.