Flight

Pigeons from the cage in the foreground who circle the building each morning then return.

Friday the 13th

After breakfast delivered to my room which is nice, I went to the roof for a coffee with Dan who is feeling the same way I am and after a long chat I have come to a decision.

Nice 360 degrees rooftop view.

And the garden outside my room.

My regular readers may have noticed a “tone” in my writing over the last few days – weeks. After much consideration I have decided that I have gained the insight, “enlightenment” I have been looking for about my life from my journey to the east and I am ready to return back to Australia. 

I called Qantas and basically my choices of available flights home are next Tuesday, as the rest of January is booked out or wait until mid February so impulsively……it is maybe sooner than I expected or wanted, but I will be flying back to Australia next week. 


This has come quite suddenly and as I said maybe a bit sooner than expected but it is the next step for me. I have mixed feelings about it, maybe I should have put in more effort but I know I don’t want to live here, it is of course entirely different to being on holiday and with my limited qualifications and experience I would only end up scraping through and whittling down my savings. On the other hand, I have answered the questions I came looking for so I feel good about that.

It is TET next week, Chinese New Year, it is a huge celebration and a ten day holiday so basically there is no work for the next fortnight. I have seen Thailand, Cambodia and Laos and don’t want to just revisit the same places so I just wouldn’t know what to do with myself.

So I wander over to the Qantas office, get my new ticket and go for a massage to forget about it all for a while. 


Back to my room for a shower and then out to dinner where I see a couple of people I know and have a catch up over a few beers before retiring for the day and see how I feel tomorrow.

Thursday

After a decent nights sleep I grab some breakfast then prepare to pack my things and move over to my new room which will actually be Dans’ room whilst he will move up to the fifth floor where there is a great view. I am on the third floor with the usual view of the side of a building three metres away. 

There is some communication breakdown and the room Dan is moving into has not been cleaned for him to move his things yet so I drop my bags in his room and we tell them downstairs to sort it out and head out for some lunch.  

I am a little stressed, having expected to be settled in by now and because I am still a little “travel fatigued” I am just waiting for something to go wrong and end up having to find somewhere else to stay at the last minute. It is late afternoon and I really just need to put my bags down in a clean room and unpack and unwind.  

By late afternoon Dan has gone to sort out some business before teaching and I head back to the hotel to find my room is finally clean and a sense of relief sweeps over me. I shower and head out for some dinner and a couple of beers then back to my room for a movie and some peaceful sleep amongst the quiet with the knowledge I don’t have to pick up my bags and move again for a while, I feel some sanity returning.

Wednesday

Wednesday I woke up in my no window, shoe box room after a decent nights sleep. I went down for breakfast and they had the room I actually booked ready after I finished.  

Much better, I’m the only room on the sixth floor with two windows on adjacent walls making for a nice air flow through the room with air-conditioning for back up. The temperature has been moderate, about thirty degrees and overcast so that makes it easy to acclimatise before the real heat comes out, it has been overcast but the next day the sun is out, it will be hot! 

I went down to see if I could stay longer but they are booked solid so I head out in search of another room. I would like to find somewhere I can stay for a week or two so I can “center” myself with some normalcy and keep it under twenty dollars a night. 

After three hours of checking out various possibilities from dog boxes to just adequate, I stop for lunch and a coffee, my head is spinning at the possibilities and options. 

Dan calls as I’m having a quick bite to eat and we arrange to meet in a couple of hours after he finishes teaching and tells me not to worry he has somewhere sorted out. He is a good friend and we have helped each other out over the few weeks I was in Saigon at the start of my trip and I feel relief at the thought he has my back. 

We catch up and he takes me to a great restaurant for some of the best pork I’ve eaten in a long time. Dans’ girlfriend broke up with him and left back to England a week ago so you could imagine we have quite a lot to talk about and get off our chests. It is good for both of us to have someone close to finally debrief and get our heads straight. 

After lunch he takes me to the hotel he is staying in and it is perfect. Cheap at thirteen dollars a day for a huge clean room with a desk, sofa, fridge/freezer, closet, bathroom, wifi, air-conditioning and a bathroom – breakfast and laundry included.  

It is also two blocks away from the main tourist block that I am trying to avoid, I’m not ready to “announce” my return yet which also makes it quiet and surrounded by locals. This makes the streets safe at night with families and street stalls open late with plenty of people around. 

I make arrangements to move in the next day and head back to my hotel for a shower then out for dinner and a couple of beers, feeling less stressed and starting to come down from the travel fatigue I have been feeling.

From The Frying Pan Into Saigon

Tuesday morning I woke up to a rainy day and no electricity in Hoi An, not an uncommon event, luckily they cook with gas so after breakfast I finishing packing and check out. 

Mr Hoa picks me up in his friends car and takes me to Danang airport where my flight is delayed half an hour, no big deal. 

I land in Saigon and catch a taxi through the now approaching peak hour traffic, not that there’s much difference, back to crazy land. 

I check in to my Agoda booked hotel but they only have a no window, shoe box room left for me, my first room without a window, not what I booked but hey, roll with the punches. 

By now it is approaching dark and I am hungry and exhausted so I can’t be bothered unpacking the computer to update the blog, I can’t even be bothered opening the back pack since I will be moving rooms in the morning. 

I head out for something to eat without a change or even a shower. Alley Booz is close by so I stop there for spring rolls and a beer and who is the first person I see that I know? The lovely Lan. We have a chat and catch up then I move on to another restaurant for a main course and another beer before returning to my shoe box for an early night. They will be sorry they didn’t give me my room with a window, the smell of tobacco stains the air. 

I have a room here for one more night then they are booked out so Wednesday will be spent trying to find somewhere to stay for a longer period, again it may take me a while to unpack the laptop to update the blog however I suspect there will be nothing of any real interest in the next few days anyhow. I will update you when I get settled.

Hai Van Pass

I knew putting off the bike ride until today was a good idea, sunshine! After breakfast I book a flight to Saigon for tomorrow and go to see if Mr Hoa is ready to go. He gives me the thumbs up so I pop back to the hotel for my camera and a jumper.

It is 25km to Danang and halfway we stop to put on rain ponchos, there is a few drops and it looks gloomy ahead but it is only clouds and light drops. 

I had to show you my poncho, I knew you'd love it! The mountain pass is looming in the background.

We pass through Danang and start the ride up Hai Van Pass, another 25km. about 3km up the hill…………..Mr Hoa gets a flat tyre! 

We roll back down the hill and leave his bike at a repair shop so he rides my bike which frees me up, sitting on the back to look at the scenery and take photos. It is not the best day for the view, fairly overcast but the photos don’t do it any justice, it is still very stunning and not as chilly as some of the parts of our three day ride. 

We reach the top part of the pass with mountains still towering over us and clouds rolling through. From here you can see down the mountain and north up the coast to Hue on one side.....................

............and fifty metres on the other side of the road dogleg, tourist stop, the same thing south to Danang. 

After a coffee and attempting to get the exposure right in some photos we go back down and pick up the newly mended bike and head back to Hoi An, stopping for seafood lunch along the way.

Then of course after the 100km ride, the obligatory massage, cash up at an ATM, Mr Hoa arranges a good priced taxi to the airport in the morning for me then back to my room to sort through the photos before a final dinner with Catherine who has been great company to spend time with and talk through all the things that are running through my head………but that’s another blog.

Tomorrow Never Knows

Today I wake to the sound of rain, not a good outlook for the bike ride. The rain comes and goes. After breakfast I go to see Mr Hoa who looks relieved at my suggestion that we put the ride off until tomorrow.  

He suggests that I come back at one o’clock and if it’s not raining we can go then, it is only a three or four hour ride. I turn up at one because it has stopped raining for the last hour although there is still some light spitting. We start the ride but about fifteen minutes into it the rain is getting heavier so we decide to turn around and hope there is no rain tomorrow and try then. 

2009

2010

Today, new location and the little one is not here but - me with Hoa, Hein and Nga.

I spent the afternoon catching up on the blog and lazing about with some TV and WWF, a lazy rainy day.

As I head out for dinner a full moon enchants the sky. After dinner at Solo restaurant two Aussies, Bruce and Kylie join the table with a few of us, it is good to hear some Australian accents.

Saturday 7th - And Back Again

Although my room was quite good there are no curtains on the window and after some light tossing and turning sleep the sun wakes me early for the 80km ride back to Hoi An of more dams, minority villages and beautiful scenery.

Today we ride over the dam we saw from the other side yesterday.

Everyone is fascinated by the westerner and loves to wave and yell "Hello!"

After one last pee stop for Mr Hoa we arrive back in Hoi An. We will do the last day of the trip north of Danang to the Hai Van pass, a huge mountain, tomorrow.

I move my things into a hotel and of course, go for a good back massage. As darkness comes I head to Solo cafe where I made friends with an eccentric Canadian lady, Catherine, before the trip for dinner with her and the owners who want to know all about the experience. She has sort of "adopted" the owners of the restaurant and comes to stay with them for a couple of months each year. They are all nice people and I am enjoying their company, it is my "regular" dinner spot just up the road.

Friday 6th - Dam That River

The scenery is much the same as Laos except I’ve timed it badly (winter) and it’s overcast the whole way making the exposure on the photos harder to get right, apologies. Today there was a lot of dams as we ride along the river, both operating and being built.

I did go and see “O beautiful one” before we left so at least he held the rain back for the whole three days. Also in the tiny backwater areas where we stop for lunch they have electricity here as opposed to Laos so I can have a cold beer for lunch!

We stopped at this little tin shed on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere where these guys were making the most amazing wood carvings.

After one last huge dam we stop in Kham Duc, population 2,500 with enough time for a back relieving massage after the 120km before mountain deer and a few beers for dinner in a local restaurant.