January 21, 2005

Hoi An, Vietnam

Silk Drying, Hoi An, Vietnam

Lantern Frames, Hoi An, Vietnam

One of the great handicrafts of Vietnam are the beautiful silk lanterns.

In Hoi An, shop fronts would be hung with many gorgeous lanterns of different sizes, colours and shapes, and you could peer through the darkness to the back of the shop where workers would be busily constructing hundreds of lanterns.

Posted by pipstar at 02:48 PM | Comments:

 

Hanoi - The Temple Of Literature

Guard Statue - The Temple of Literature, Hanoi, Vietnam

Pete and I visited The Temple of Literature on Christmas Day, right after we had lined up and walked around a waxen looking Ho Chi Minh.

The Temple is the site of Vietnam's oldest university, there are pagodas, lily ponds and 84 stone stelae on top of turtles (which record the names of graduates of the University).

Posted by pipstar at 02:42 PM | Comments:

 

December 30, 2004

blue's shoes

Let it be known that I once travelled Europe for over 6 months and I didn't even buy one pair of extra shoes. In fact I actually threw away one pair of shoes once they fell apart.

The last 10 days hold quite a different story. I've thrown away one pair of shoes (my dunlop walking boots which got wet and smelt and which weren't drying out at all) but I've purchased 5 more pairs of shoes for myself and a couple of pairs of flip flops for gifts.

Honestly it's all quite ridiculous.

But there's a truly sad part to this story of a consumer gone bad. Today I purchased a very cute pair of orange and royal blue Chuck Taylor hightops in my standard size of 39. But, as I found after 3 hours of walking around looking at electronics, they are incredibly uncomfortable. I'll give them another trial go in Adelaide, I mean, maybe my feet have swollen from the heat*?

But in the case that they don't actually fit me, is there anyone out there who'd be interested in paying me $30 for them?

*It's not actually that hot in Singapore. The air temperature is perfect and I'm really enjoying the monsoon rains when they come pouring down.

Posted by pipstar at 06:44 PM | Comments:

 

December 29, 2004

in restless dreams i walked alone, through narrow streets of cobblestone

There's a certain silence which overpowers a traveller when their fellow travellers and friends depart on the next stage of their journey.

I can remember that silence when I said goodbye to Aidan and James in Valencia. And in Turkey, I took a tour to the Gallipoli memorial site on my 22nd birthday after saying goodbye to Rick, Tish, Jon and Simon. And then I had to endure a ferry ride to Italy after leaving Karen in Croatia.

I've spent the last five days hanging out in Hanoi with my dear friend Pete and I wanted to avoid the silence after he left for Taipai at any cost. So I decided to change my ticket to come back via Singapore 3 days earlier.

I like to think that I escaped the friend departure silence fairly well today. I'm not sure how well Pete is going in Taipai by himself.

Aside from some more souvenir shopping (sorry to anyone I promised Communist memorabilia to - I just couldn't find the badges this morning) there was nothing I really wanted to do in Hanoi for the next three days. Because two days ago the weather in Hanoi suddenly became very cold.

Once Pete had gone I really don't know what I would have done with myself. Sure, I could have gone to see the West Lake and assorted pagodas: I could have looked at revolutionary museums and finally gone to see the Water Puppets of Hanoi while I froze to death and regretted my decision to travel to Vietnam in the winter. But who would be there to help me create the story of Barbara, the barren smoker who'd travelled to South East Asia in order to steal a baby? Who would support, nay strictly enforce the ordering of more delicious French pastries?

No one.

Truth be known, Pete and I spent a fair amount of our time between looking at dead famous guys and temples, sitting around in cafes and Buddhist vegetarian restaurants eating obscenely cheap and good food.

Pete and I did make two concerted efforts to act like tourists... Though we did spend a long time striding confidently around Hanoi in the hope that people would believe that we were two very cool expats / diplomats. I'd like to think that we did fool some people.

Not only did we go on two tours, but we went on one which involved trekking up a mountain to look at some pagodas and we also had to sit in a horribly uncomfortable tin boat for two hours total. The pagodas were very pretty and the Perfume Pagoda in a cave was unusual, but the boat thing?

Devastating.

My bottom became numbed from the uncomfortable plank / stool I was perched on, I experienced bizarre cramps in my leg, the farmer rowing the boat kept on hitting his oars into our backs and it drizzled for the entire hour we were sitting on the boats on the way back to the minibus.

Luckily the trip to Halong Bay yesterday was not as troublesome, even though the temperature was only about 11°. We got to see amazing caves, a floating fishing village which was painted the most beautiful colours and there was a reasonable seafood meal. I can't wait to visit Vietnam again because visiting the islands would be excellent if it was warm enough to actually swim and snorkel around.

However going on either of the tours without Pete would have been a most dismal experience. I'd suspected that he'd be an excellent travel partner and I am so happy that I decided to meet up with him, because I was right! I would have died from boredom or at least cried if he hadn't been there to bitch and moan about the poor service with. He followed me into clothes shops and made me laugh and was aware of important travel buddy issues like space and sleep and blood sugar levels. And neither of us felt particularly bad that we didn't end up going to look at many important places of interest.

I can't wait to meet up with him again. Reyjavik, Berlin, Copenhagen, New York or San Francisco?

I must add about how easy it was for me to change my ticket to leave Vietnam a couple of days earlier than booked. If I'd made the effort to find an STA Travel representative I'm sure that I'd have been charged some ridiculous sum of money in order to change my travel date, but at 8am I walked into the Singapore Airlines office in Hanoi and within 10 minutes I'd changed my departure date free of charge. Sweet.

So I'm back in Singapore (which promises a far more exciting New Years Eve celebration than the hotel in Hanoi, maybe I'll go see Dimitri in Paris?) and I'm back staying at Sleepy Sam's. I'm so glad that I found this hostel. It's so very, very refined. And friendly. And clean. With fabulous showers.

I'm going to look at the Singapore Zoo and I'm also going to investigate the purchasing of consumer electronics. Which means that soon I will have a bluetooth dongle and I will be able to put different mp3s onto my super technological phone. And I'll also be able to upload photos from my mobile phone.

Mirror photos galore. Photos of Pete with curly hair, uncomfortable boats and one or two amusing signs. I can't wait for my new gadgets. Hopefully, neither can you.

Posted by pipstar at 11:18 PM | Comments:

 

December 27, 2004

christmas in hanoi

This post is a little belated, but my Christmas this year was spent in Hanoi, Vietnam with the super lovely Peter.

Any Christmas celebrations in Vietnam are held on the Christmas Eve, so on Christmas day, we were left to our own devices and did what any self-respecting tourist would on their first day in Hanoi.

We visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.

For those of you who've visited the mausoleums of long dead Communist leaders you may be aware of what a big deal this was. One leaves one's bag in a booth at the gate, then their camera at another booth and then a group of 40 or so people have to walk very, very slowly along a path. Don't even think of detouring, because a military guard will clap his hands and maybe even wave his rifle at you if you're ignoring his directives.

And then, finally, you file up the steps of the mausoleum and into the actual resting place of Uncle Ho. Who, it might be said, looks like a very elaborate wax replica of how a dead Communist leader should appear.

Which made for a strange Christmas morning. The birth of Jesus was almost completely ignored and instead we chose to file past the shrine of a political figure. Considering that in Australia I'd have spent the day lying around eating food, opening presents and paying very little attention to the religious significance of the day it wasn't that disturbing. But it was still very weird to go look at a famous dead guy for Christmas.

We also visited the Temple of Literature, a very serene site which was a centre of Confucian learning. There was some very beautiful old carvings and giant ponds with water lilies.

We then went and ate super cheesy pizza at a cafe on the shore of Hanoi's main lake, Hoan Kiem. And then we had coffee and cake. Just because we can.

It must be said that the coffee in Vietnam is pretty horrible. Bitter and with a disturbing aftertaste. And apparently without any caffeine. Because in true Christmas Day fashion we ended up having a nap after lunch. We didn't wake up until much, much later.

Pete and I are approaching our time in Vietnam at a very moderate pace. We are on holiday. So we can spend our time sleeping or eating, or (in my case) getting full body massages.

Or eating. On Christmas night we went to an amazing vegetarian resaurant called Com Chay Nang Tam. The food was delicious and we went back again for lunch yesterday. The "chicken" with green pepper and citronella was delicious as was the "beef" salad with star fruit, banana and pineapple.

It would make sense that whilst in Vietnam we checked out some of the mad culture such as Vietnamese Water Puppets. We still haven't done that, and instead had cocktails at Mr Minh's Jazz Club. I kept on being reminded of the jazz presenter from The Fast Show... [slow turn to camera...]

"Jingle Bells"

Posted by pipstar at 10:07 AM | Comments:

 

December 24, 2004

the sun rubs you.

I love sitting in the sun in spring and autumn and letting it soak through my clothes to warm my back while I drink a cup of tea and read a book. But I've never been one to actually sunbake with the intent of getting a tan.

Well, that's changed a little bit. You see, I'm not really "travelling" on this trip: there's no roughing it whilst I try to save every last cent of my precious money, in fact spending my hard earned dollar seems to be my primary activity. Which means that I've ended up in a hotel in Hoi An with spacious rooms and a very lovely swimming pool.

And I've been getting a tan. Obviously, in my mind, skin cancer is only a risk of sunbathing when you're in Australia. In Vietnam there are no signs reminding you to slip slop slap, so while I have been putting on suncream, I've also been rationing it to the nicely tanned areas and making sure that my pale, pale legs are getting less pale. I'm also counting on a hefty amount of pollution filtering the sun. I'm not sure about my logic though. So, I've been lounging by the aforementioned pool and reading Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance in between swims.

Apart from spending my time by a pool in Vietnam with friends I can't really think of a better way to spend a couple of hours.

Posted by pipstar at 08:18 PM | Comments:

 

December 20, 2004

ho chi minh city

I mentioned on dailyish a while ago that I'd be heading to Vietnam over Christmas / New Year and then I neglected to say anymore.

Well, I'm here.

But not quite where I specifically intended to be.

Last night I fell victim to fiddling with my phone's advanced features and I think that I set the timezone to somewhere in Uzbekhistan. So when I was woken up by Samantha, propietress of the stylin' Sleepy Sam's hostel in Singapore I neglected to check what time it was. It was in fact about 2 hours after I thought I was going to have my alarm go off.

Uh oh.

So I missed the flight to Hanoi. And as a consequence, the flight to Da Nang later that afternoon.

Bham! There goes $180 on the ticket to Da Nang! (maybe, just maybe I'll be able to transfer it).

Being a seasoned international traveller (does six months in Europe count as "international"? There's a big difference between European travel and Asian travel.) I decided that I wanted to be in Vietnam today! So I managed to change my destination from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city and now that's where I am!

Strangely, I feel extremely relaxed about the entire stuff-up. I get to go to a place I didn't intend to visit (pretty exciting), I've got a reasonably priced hotel room with a bathtub(!) and I'm safe.

Sweet.

Posted by pipstar at 10:03 PM | Comments:

 

June 21, 2002

News From Tartary

One of my favourite travel stories is News From Tartary by Peter Fleming. It was written in 1935 and follows the journey he made with Ella Maillart from Beijing to Kashmir.

It's weird reading about China and Tibet before the Communist Revolution and the Chinese invasion of Tibet. Fleming describes Tibet as an untouched place, unlikely to ever be forced to change (how depressingly wrong). And the Communists are just rumours which they hear of on their travels.

One day I want to make this trip, though probably not with Voyages Jules Verne (nb: tour no longer offered) [too pricey]. I think that I'll be waiting a few years.

I highly recommend this book.

Posted by pipstar at 04:00 PM | Comments:

 

February 20, 2002

organic japanese tea

i really want to go to japan. just not on this trip though. like america, the uk, germany, france and most of italy, i'm trying to avoid japan because of the prices.

but when i was looking at volunteering opportunities i came across this.

I think that I'll contact IVP to see if they'll be running the camp in future years. Rural japan would be a great place to stay.

Posted by pipstar at 09:35 PM | Comments:

 

February 17, 2002

buddhist shrine accomodation in kyoto

from the lonely planet thorn tree

I hear that there is a (buddhist/shinto?) temple where people can stay overnight in Kyoto, and the cost is quite reasonable. Anybody got any info? Jahne!

There are a whole number of them - Buddhist temples, not Shinto shrines though. The Kyoto Tourist information office (Just north of Kyoto station, on Karasuma-dori, under the Kyoto Tower building) has a list and can book them for you.
Do check that the one you choose has old traditional buildings though. Some, like Myoshinji Tmeple, put guests up in a modern, concrete block. Not much atmosphere there.
Many others though are wonderful. There is a curfew of around 9pm and vegetarian 'monks food'. Get up early to take part in the ceremonies. Have fun!

Posted by pipstar at 04:21 PM | Comments: *