Paris in the springtime.

Day Two. 

Today we were on a mission to find the Eiffel Tower. Rumour had it, the edifice was tall. Imagine our surprise when we saw it peaking up between the buildings as we turned a corner. We decided to climb to the second floor, being the budget travellers that we are. The climb was fine but the weather was a nightmare. We had rain slanting sideways and wind to match! Great view from where we were but of course it would have been better if we could have seen far into the distance. On the way down the girls and I were separated from Terry and so a twenty-minute wait in the rain ensued while we tried to meet up with each other. Needless to say, we were all a little grumpy and frozen as we hightailed it to a metro station to get out of there. Unfortunately, we did not take the metro right beside the tower, we walked two blocks in the pouring rain with a broken umbrella, to find one. The upside of that journey was that we found a supermarket. We also visited Les Invalides which is a building that was commissioned by Louis XIV as a home for wounded soldiers but it wasn't a long visit, just a shelter from the rain and a quick nosey at the courtyard. 

At night we headed back to see the Eiffel tower in colour. The rain had stopped and the tower was so pretty in yellow. It was lovely to be there at night. We wandered along 

Les Champs-Elysees and did a little shopping in the frightfully expensive shops. Ours was called Mac donelles. The chocolate sundaes went down well. Next was a visit to the Arc de Triomphe to watch the traffic hooning around one of the largest roundabouts in the world.

On the way home on the tube, musicians played live accordion and violin which is just my kind of music. The girls would not let me tap my feet or move to the music in any way! Far too embarrassing apparently.

Bonjour from Paris

It's cold here! We arrived in shorts and singlets and quickly dug out the puffer jackets to combat the cold. Little did we know it was only going to get worse. The weather here is like winter and I believe it's lovely at home. However, we are in Paris! So push complaints about weather aside and just get on with it. We settled into our apartment with great joy. A space to spread our stuff out and just leave it there for 5 days. Terry and I wandered down the street 2 mins and fell upon a Parisian market. Oh, the joy! We delighted in buying olives, blue cheese, gruyere, camembert, bread, wine, eggs, nuts, vegetables, and some things we did not have a clue about but wanted to taste. It was such fun and slightly daunting trying to communicate and it did take some observation before we worked out how it all worked. Lunch was delicious.



Next visit we decided to walk to Notre Dame and back, wandering along the Ile de la Cite, the historic centre of Paris with elegant 17th-century mansions, according to the guidebook. It was charming and we popped into a brightly lit sweetie shop and in and out of a variety of other funky shops. Notre Dame did not disappoint. There was a mass while we were there and the singing was eerie and filled the space. So old and so beautiful and not bad looking for 850! On the way home, we found the padlock bridge which was quite romantic. Hundreds of padlocks attached to the wire with the names of loved ones and sweethearts. Oh, how Parisian. It was hard not to keep taking photos because everything is a picture. the fence, the building, the lamps, the cobbles, the street scenes.

Hanoi

I would have to say that Hanoi is just another city. It could be that we are ready to move on and don't have the energy for another city and more temples. We decided to limit where we went given that we had such a short time to do some things. Our first outing was around the street of Hanoi to get our bearings. We were near the old quarter so there were plenty of interesting buildings and narrow streets packed to the gunnels with people and business. It was interesting enough just to witness the daily living. Vietnamese people eat at any time of the day. it could be the first thing in the morning and they will be having noodles or they could be eating fried tofu at 11am. There does not seem to be a set time for eating and I have to say that works in well with me. The water puppets were our next trip out and they proved to be very entertaining. For a start, we had no idea they were performing inside a theatre! We were looking for them on the lake. I loved the use of the traditional instruments and the singers live while the puppets performed some somewhat random sequences that told stories of daily life in Vietnam. After a while, the singers were a bit much but such a clever show and nothing we have ever experienced elsewhere. Determined to walk around and see some of the sights, I dragged the family around the lake, just because. we came across Fanny's! such a blessing on a hot day. For those not in the know, fanny's is an ice cream parlour of the very decadent kind. We each ordered too much icecream which arrived in parfait glasses decorated with flowers and wafers and cream and chocolate sauce. I had green tea ice cream. Wouldn't you? in the evening Ella and I headed for the market armed with our map. We wandered along not really knowing just what to expect. The next thing we knew we had been invited by a little person from Vietnam to talk to university students at his stall who wanted to test out their English skills. What could we do! Ella and I sat and chatted for about 45 minutes and it was lovely. On our way home and quite unexpectedly we came across the market we were searching for in the first place. Covered sites filled the centre of the road. There were t-shirts, bangles, watches, bags, trinkets... many things that we did not need but bought anyway.
On the day we were leaving we headed for the woman's museum. I was particularly interested in this because of the history of Vietnam and the diversity of the women who live here. It was an incredible experience. Such strong and determined women. It was very inspiring and somewhat moving to read and hear about their lives and what they sacrificed in order to give their families the same as what we give ours. We learned about the wedding ceremonies, the clothing through the years, women who work and how they work, inspirational women of Vietnam and revolutionaries.
From the museum, we headed to the prison where many Vietnamese were incarcerated and also the Americans. Interesting and shocking.
Next step was to get packed ready to head for Paris and after an hour or more standing at the check in waiting to hear whether we were going to Paris or Hong Kong, we were on our way. Paris here we come.

Sapa

Spot the Europeans among the locals! Ella was right at home and Grace was a giant.

Sapa would have to be one of my favourite places and not just for the place itself but for the people. We had a guide who took us to our homestay for the evening and she had such a great sense of humour and good English so we could find out a lot of information and share stories. What was so great was that we walked along the same tracks, 12kms in total, that they took to walk between their villages. This gave us the chance to smell and hear and see what the locals are doing rather than just from a window. We could hear and see the interaction between the locals which was often very entertaining. They are friendly people the Hmong and they have their own language. In fact, the villages have different languages and they are really only a stone throw apart. Pingh (our guide and my new bff) took us to a village that had a flowing river! Needless to say, after walking I was desperate to plunge in and we did. Travelling with us were a Danish couple and two Argentinian brothers. They were all good fun and we were together for two days. In that time it is incredible how you can bond through sharing a similar experience. We struck Sapa on a good day. We had good views once the initial mist cleared and then blue sky and plenty of sun. Sapa is very lush and fertile. Every available space has been planted with rice and crops that the locals use to dye the clothes. We saw how the clothes were woven and how they dye them. The fibres are hemp and Pingh explained that the locals don't smoke the marijuana, just the tourists do! We walked along clay banks, through the bush, past houses where dogs lay, children roamed, chickens scratched and locals cleaned. What was not pleasant were the hawkers selling their wares. three or four people shoving bracelets and bags in your face is fine but the come in waves and it does not matter that you have already bought something, because "you did not buy from me." There are only so many items made from this fabric that one person can have and I did not really want anything.
From Sapa, we caught a very nice overnight train to Hanoi.

Hanoi and Halong Bay

The overnight train was a huge success and it could have been otherwise. We discovered that we were in separate cabins but at least two and two. Grace was not very happy about who might have been sharing with us.  Terry and Ella shared with a French man. In the middle of the night, Terry was woken up and told to move berths because he was sleeping in the bottom bunk when his ticket showed a top bunk. Absolutely not to be done apparently. Grace and I both sighed with great relief when a lovely older Vietnamese man and a younger girl came into our cabin. We spent many hours happily chatting away, often using sign language to communicate with the older man who did not have a word of English. A second language would have been very useful for us with our interaction with many people we have met. I think if we had a bit of French then we could get a little grasp of Spanish and Italian. The girl, Anh acted as translator. Grace came up with a game to play and it was a great way for her to join in with the cultural exchange. Needless to say, she was right in her element and often hopped to Terry's cabin to report the stories and come back with news from his cabin. All very entertaining and new for her to realise you can speak to absolute strangers and it is okay and they are not so different from us. We arrived in Hanoi at 4.30 am, grabbed a taxi and sat outside the office where we needed to get our Halong bay tickets, in the dark. Grace was not happy and Ella fell asleep on top of the bags. I loved watching Hanoi wake up. There were people jogging, walking, old ladies carrying their panniers full of fruit, locals sweeping the front steps and ladies setting up their corner cafes with their plastic chairs and huge pots of soup and noodles and fried tofu.

Halong Bay was spectacular in lots of ways and shocking in others.

It was crazy busy with tourists and there were boats and people everywhere. It seemed like chaos and yet the tour guides knew what they were doing and who was in their group. Before long we were on our boat and heading into the bay. It didn't take long and we could relax and enjoy the gentle hum of the engine and the engines of the other 15 boats that were surrounding us. The formations were something else and there were so many more than I had imagined. What they don't show you in the promotional photos is the pollution of the water. Five years ago there was none of it according to a french lady we met. Now you will find oil, plastic bottles, wrappers from biscuits, polystyrene, clothes... all quite disgusting and very sad. I can only imagine that in another five years... However, we were on the boat for two nights and on the second night, we were taken to a beautiful spot where the boats are few and the sea pushes the unsightly stuff away. Terry and I swam and it was glorious to escape the heat for a moment. We also had a wonderful kayaking experience through some caves that the boats could not reach. We saw monkeys and a few fish and a variety of coral. Very peaceful.

Grace sang karaoke on the boat with a guy from New Zealand and a French lady and the food we ate was delicious and local fare.

Hue

Arrived here about 5.15pm and were met by people from the hotel we were staying at thank goodness because the light was changing and it was just getting dark. What a great wee hotel. Thanks for the recommendation Shells. We are on the 5th floor so a great view from the window. We showered and then headed out to get something to eat, using a map as our guide to navigating the streets. Thanks to some lovely locals we were steered in the right direction when we wobbled from the path. hot and sticky tonight but plenty of activity on the streets because we have come at festival time. For the benefit of the girls, we ate at a little cafe that had pizza! I had a chicken curry and Terry sampled crunchy noodles and seasonal veges. All very tasty but quite embarrassing when the fatties from New Zealand had such a lot of food on their table. This was made worse when my large beer arrived. Ah well, very much needed to combat the heat. Desperate for a glass of wine though but it will have to wait until France. We had a wander around some shoe shops and around the streets to see what was happening in the festival. A lot of light shows lit up the bridge and specific scenic viewpoints. There was street theatre and I met a lovely girl from Hue who walked and talked with us for a while.
The second day was spent walking around the Citadel in the old city. What a fabulous place and so big. Again we wandered around without much of an idea of everything we were looking at except for an introduction video that told us the emperor used to live there with his wives and children and a few concubines on the side. Ella and I had an elephant ride which was pretty cool and we fed it at the end. I nearly shoved the sugar cane up its trunk until I realised it grabs the cane with it. Could have been ugly. We hightailed it back to the hotel to check out ready for our next adventure which is the overnight train to Hanoi.

                             

Hoi An

We are about to leave lovely Hoi An. We have had three fabulous days here in a lovely hotel with a pool, so all is good with the world when you are not sweltering. Hoi An is charming. The pace of life is much slower than Ho Chi Minh but still with the scooters and the tooting and the trucks and the bikes. You get very used to it, and as long as you don't make sudden movements out into the traffic, it seems to work. A slow slide into the face of the oncoming cars and they just move around you. In Nelson, there would be nasty gestures and much aggression, and here there is none. We grabbed some bicycles and rode around the streets just looking and eventually we ended up in the old city. Such lovely old French architecture in the buildings, narrow streets lined with stalls, flowers, dogs, the river and the boats all add to a quaint place. Yesterday we went on the cooking tour. We first toured the markets where we were told about each vegetable and herb, how they were used and what they smelt and tasted like. Before that, we walked through the meat market. Never again; they waste nothing! Grace and I were practically elbowing people out of the way to get outside! It's just not like that in the supermarket. From the market, we travelled by boat to an island where we were going to cook. In the summer this island is like a resort although it looked very much in its natural state. A small boat trip again and we were shown how they extract the rice milk to make their crackers and rice paper. We stopped for a taste and a drink; very pleasant. I desperately tried to imitate David Attenburgh crashing through the bushes to get a picture of the butterflies but no luck, they just didn't stop. Our cooking spot was set up beside a river and we each had a stove. The ingredients were prepared for us as a time-saving measure. We had to watch the demonstration which was translated. The chef was a cute, chubby Vietnamese lady with a great sense of humour. We made a broth for soup, a pancake, Vietnamese rolls and a beef salad. Nothing terribly complicated but the flavours were great.

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City

Yesterday we took a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. Our guide was a Vietnam veteran fighting on the American side, so it was interesting to hear his take on events and how they dealt with the strategies of the Viet Cong. He had many stories to tell of why the Americans had it hard physically compared to the Viet Cong given they had distances to travel and heavy gear and how the environment was very much against them with hidden traps, a river and the jungle surrounding. The tunnels are amazing. I had no idea there were three levels of tunnels reaching to a depth of 10 metres. They had rooms for different purposes and even a special way to remove smoke from the tunnels so they would not be detected. At the end of the tour, you could fire some pretty hefty rifles! Needless to say, we did not choose that option. Instead, we sat and waited for others, had a corn on a cob with butter and salt and watched the rooster and chicks attempting to collect the fallen bits.

After a break back at the hotel in the aircon, we headed back out to explore the shops and have a cold beer. Then we were set upon! Bangles, fans, books, shoe polishing, massage and hammocks. Good grief. I bought from a street stall some amazing paper like noodles with all of the traditional flavourings plus chillies! It was delicious and all for 50cents N.Z.
We wandered along the streets just looking and taking in the environment before heading back for dinner. Out again when it was dark to Soho which is a cafe that supports getting disadvantaged people off the streets and into employment, teaching them skills. I had a foot massage and off to bed.

Ho Chi Minh City...first impressions

First impressions from the girls..hot and humid and lots of scooters. A lot more friendly than Hong Kong and smaller buildings. Busy as hell. We arrived in 34 degrees and thankfully were greeted at the airport. Madame Cuc where we are staying is fabulous and there is a wonderful woman working here called LyLy who within 10 minutes had organised us, booked our flights to Da Nang and booked our trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. Thankfully an air-conditioned bus for the journey. An interesting place. Clever buggers the Viet Gong. I managed 30 metres of the tunnel before claustrophobia kicked in. Big girl! An experience none the less and quite fascinating. Worth a read up on if you have the time you teachers out there. We are going to head out for a cool drink now we are showered and freshened up. Really hot. One needs to gather ones strength to navigate the scooters, the tooters, the buses, cars, people, stallholders and hawkers. Quite fun and not too bad with a map.

Well done Terry, another bit of technology successfully navigated. Arrived in Hong Kong 12.30 N.Z time after 11 hours on a Cathay Pacific flight. No problems there; the girls were plugged in for an overdose of t.v. Checked our bags through to Ho Chi Minh so with day packs on we sailed through the airport. A lovely lady grabbed us at the entrance of the airport to check we knew where we were going then wrote directions for the taxi driver and we were dispatched. Not a great deal to see although the skyline was pretty with the lights against a clear sky. Slight problem when we reached our apartment with only one double bed available and made up. Eventually sorted and we plopped in to bed. Temple Street night market unexplored much to my sadness. Hopefully we can do it when next back in Hong Kong.

The family

We're outta here!

The lawns are mowed, the house has every inch of it cleaned both inside and out and we have enough cat food stored to last for the next decade! Time to go once the bags are packed. It's hard to imagine the contrast between what I see out my window at home to what we are about to experience in Hong Kong. Let the fun begin...