How to Cross The Road in Saigon

Here is my 3 fold method for crossing the road in Saigon. 1. Pray 2. Close your eyes 3. Go!

On the Ho Chi Minh Trail

As stated before, I arrived on Monday evening and immediately had to negotiate the taxi system in order to get to my hotel. Once there and settled, I headed out to explore the area - plus I was quite hungry at this time. The hotel is in the main backpacker district, in district 1, on Pham Ngu Lao street. This street is littered with hotels, shops, stalls, restaurants and lots of scooters parked on the footpath (thus making safe passage near on impossible as you then have to venture on to the road). In addition to this, the street is full of locals trying to sell you things and get you to hire a scooter or a cyclo tour of the city. They're not as persistent as in some countries (e.g. Egypt), but after a while it does still become pretty draining. Anyway, I made my way around exploring the area. It was pretty warm, and you also have to take very good care with your luggage, the scooters can just fly past and rip your backpack off - considering at times I had to venture on to the road I was extremely careful. I walked around a bit, amazed by the sounds (and smells - lots of locals have their own street food stalls with noodles cooking and so on, with others sitting around eating their noodles - and then of course there are some areas where the smells are less savoury!) and then tried to find a restaurant - again the waiters approach you and try to wave a menu under your nose so you'll go to their restaurant. In the end I found one with relatively cheap food, and people in there eating (and it looked clean!) so in I went. I ordered pho, which is a traditional Vietnamese noodle soup dish - it was very yummy and I was quite pleased. However at the end of the meal I began to suspect that perhaps all was not above board in this restaurant, as i observed a young man who was approached by the waiter (as i had been), who then turned bright red, looked up at the second floor of the building, smiled, nodded, and then was ushered to the back of the restaurant and up the stairs. He certainly didn't reappear during the time I was there, and when I left, I too looked up at the second level - and it didn't look like a restaurant to me! It reminded me of a time in Lisbon where we thought we were in a restaurant / bar but in fact turned out to be in a brothel!

I headed back to my hotel and enjoyed a very good night's sleep. I awoke refreshed the next morning to the sounds of people clambering up and down the stairs - the breakfast run had begun. So I headed down to breakfast, which consisted of eggs any way you wanted them, a baguette, and coffee. The woman cooked it there and then in the little hovel in the breakfast room.

The night before, on my way back to the hotel, I had pre-booked (for $9) a one day tour to the Mekong Delta. The tour took in the cities of My Tho and Ben Tre. The bus met us at the tour office where I booked it, and then took us for the drive to the first stop - a cafe on the side of the road. As we were driving out of Ho Chi Minh I was amazed at the scooters - crammed full of items, stacked very tall and not looking terribly stable. One bloke was carrying a TV strapped to the back of his scooter, another had a load of boxes stacked very tall, another had 2 adults and 2 kids all on the one scooter. It was astonishing.

We arrived at the cafe and immediately were accosted by the street sellers wanting to sell us sunglasses, postcards, jewellery - you name it, they were selling it. The cafe was of interest apparently because of its hammocks - all along the highway there are loads of cafes with hammocks, designed for the traveller. The idea is that as you are driving long distances on your scooter you often get tired, so you need a rest - so you buy a coffee, lie back in a hammock, and have a little nap. Quite a good idea really.

It was then back on the bus and off to the next stop, which was a small village within the delta itself. At this village we enjoyed fresh fruit whilst watching an entertaining show given by the local family. One of the singers was the Japanese guide for our tour. He gave an amusing performance of a love duet with his daughter - quite strange, particularly for the unusual nasal sounds that are typical of traditional Vietnamese song. The accompanists were interesting too, with one guy playing a traditional Vietnamese guitar and foot castanet, and the other guy on regular guitar.

The fruit was quite nice - the most unusual being the dragon fruit, which just looks like a poppy seed cake but which is obviously not.

After this they put us in sampan canoes and ferried us, gondola fashion, up the delta. In my sampan was 2 Canadians and a British girl. The Canadians were a bit older and were lovely - Helen and Doug - and we had quite a good chat.

The sampan cruise was very interesting for its insight into river life along the delta. The people use the river for everything. Anything that can float is used as a boat or a form of transportation. We even observed a boat which was dredging the bottom of the river and dumping the sand on the deck of the boat, to dry off and thus make bricks for houses. It was pretty cool (but apparently illegal as they're not supposed to dredge that part of the river!).

The journey brought us to the lunch venue, which was lovely. The lunch however was a bit skimpy, I thought - a tiny piece of pork with some steamed vegetables and small portion of rice. You had to pay to have anything extra with it!

After lunch we were taken to the candy making workshop, where we observed family members crushing coconut and making a sticky toffee paste to create coconut candy. You could have a go at cutting it up and wrapping your own in rice paper, and of course you could buy - but seeing as no one seemed to have very clean hands, and they were making these on top of an uncovered aluminum bench under a straw roofed open walled hut - no one was really up for it. So instead they gave us honey tea and then one of the guys brought out a python for people to have a hold of. Strange!

After this we headed back along the river in the bigger boat. It was again very interesting to see the river life - particularly the houses along the bank, which looked like there was no way they should really be standing at all, they were like little shanty towns.

Upon our return to the city we boarded the bus and headed off to a nearby Buddhist temple. This particular temple had a very ornate bonsai garden - not the real little bonsai trees that you get in the shops, but rather large ones, at least human height tall. The temple also had a large fat little squat Buddha statue with the dirty great big grin - but what I thought most amusing was in the title underneath the statue, it said "phat" - which of course he was!

Eventually it was time to head back to Ho Chi Minh. I dumped my stuff at the hotel and then promptly headed out again - now in search of the hotel I will check into tomorrow for the start of my Gap Adventures tour. Apparently it was (according to Google maps) only a 5 minute walk away. Clearly though Google hadn't accounted for "crossing the road in Vietnam" time! It was literally mad - I had been warned by Helen and Doug about crossing the road near the Ben Thanh market roundabout, but seriously, this was something else! It was near on impossible to get across! Eventually I had to just go for it, and luckily didn't get hit. I found the hotel we will be staying at, and then ventured over to the Ben Thanh market - but it was closed. I did however have a look at some of the shops nearby as I decided, starting to do some research on a new daybag as my current one, a free "Fitness First" gym bag that Iva gave me when she left London, really has seen better days.

After much searching I finally gave up the mission - I was really tired after all - and tomorrow is another day...

Visa on Arrival

One of the reasons why I picked Vietnam as a holiday destination was that thanks to the wisdom of google, it appeared getting a visa wouldn't be too tricky. This was a primary reason, along with the fact that (a) I had never been there before and (b) I got a really cheap deal. All important factors in the decision making process. But I will admit, I was quite skeptical, never having heard of this process before. Essentially, you go to www.myvietnamvisa.com, pay $19USD, fill in a form and they'll send you a letter which you present upon arrival (only if you're coming by air though), pay a $25USD "stamping" fee, and you're good to go. Seemed a bit dubious. But astonishingly it worked! The only downside is that every other traveller to Vietnam was clearly trying to get their visa at the same time too, so it took quite a while (especially as some had taken the option of paying extra to have someone meet them there and take them to the counter - something I didn't think worth doing - but the benefit of this though was that the customs guy then dropped everything and did your visa next. Or so it seemed to me. An hour or so late I was good to go - but now there was a new problem, as the luggage belt for my flight was no longer showing on the screen, and no one seemed to know which one it had been, or indeed where the luggage was now. It was only by chance that I, in the course of completing a "lost baggage" form, overheard an official tell someone else who said they'd been on my flight that it was belt 2 - so i stopped filling in the form, hoofed it over there and luckily my bag was there! Thank goodness. Next step after customs and baggage handling was to get to the hotel. Easier said than done - the bus stops running at 6pm everyday and by now its 730 - no trains, no bus - what to do? Taxi was the only option but we all know how much of a rip off they are. Alas I had no choice, and headed for the ranks, only to be accosted by touts trying to charge me a good but exhorbitant "deal" - not one of them wanted to put on the meter, and several tried to say that i had to buy a taxi card in advance for 400 000 dong (about $40 USD). The guide book fortunately warned against all these and I eventually managed to find some poor soul willing to put on the meter, and we set off. Which I then immediately regretted. Now I've travelled by car in many different countries, especially those with intriguing road rules, but I tell you now, nothing can prepare you for the traffic experience in Vietnam! There's something like 8 million people in Ho Chi Minh, and half of them own scooters - and all seemed to be on the road at that time! Talk about madness! Even in the Middle East their driving was infinitely safer than this - here not only did we have several "lanes" of traffic - as many as you like, but no one abides by traffic lights! So you've got cars and scooters going every which way, even on the wrong side of the road - and there's beeps and light flashing going on everywhere. Madness. But on top of it, no one goes slow - my driver was weaving in and out at a ridiculous speed, so much so that i had to close my eyes as scooters, trucks, buses, cars all veered dangerously close to us. It was so rough that in the taxi in front of us the poor passenger stuck her head out and had a vom! Eventually we safely made it to the hotel and I checked in. This hotel, the Bich Duyen, is on the main street of the backpacker district, and is pretty clean and equipped with the mod cons, all for a very reasonable price. I paid $35USD for 2 nights which included an air-conditioned room, ensuite, tv, free wifi and breakfast. Pretty good. The only funny thing was having to take shoes off at the door - but other than that, all good. Oh and the fact that I didn't have a window, which was odd. But I did however sleep very well...

Kickin' Back In KL

What an interesting (and long) day it's been today. I arrived this morning in Kuala Lumpur at 610am after very little sleep, extremely tired and to be honest, pretty reluctant to do anything. In fact, I was seriously tempted to check in to the transit hotel and spend the 8 or so hours I had in transit there instead. I think I would've quite enjoyed it - until I got the bill! Anyway, as I got off the plane I decided that, as nothing would be open in the city for a while (I knew the hop-on, hop-off bus I was intending to take didn't even start til 830am), I would have a coffee at Starbucks and just sort myself out for a bit. I was glad I did. Feeling much more refreshed after a coffee, I then made my way through the terminal (this year they are working on the train so you had to get a bus), through immigration and onto the KLIA Ekspres train. From there it was a 28 minute journey to KL Sentral. Surprisingly, there was free wifi on the train, so I did a bit of browsing to try and figure out where to get the tour bus from. That was when I happened to discover that upon my return to KL, I will be leaving from a different airport. This started to put paid to my plans to pick up a couple of Barbie Christmas presents for my neices on the way home. Hm. Will have to rethink that one. Anyway after a bit of wandering around the station I finally found the bus stop for the tour bus, and managed to be on it by around 845, which I thought was pretty good. The tour wasn't so cheap, it was 38ringgits, but hey, I had nothing to do - and trying to negotiate the randomness that is the KL public transport system would have resulted, no doubt, in tears - so I was happy enough to go with it. Especially when we pulled into the national museum and had to wait 10 minutes so the other bus could be 30 minutes behind us - and I discovered free wifi on the tour bus! It was fast wifi, too, and enabled me to keep posting Facebook updates throughout the day! Photos, too! I had thought just to stay on the bus until Petronas Towers, but Independence Square (Dataran Merdeka) looked really interesting, so that was my first "hop off". Just near there also is St Marys "Cathedral" which is the oldest church in KL - and just near that was a strange old man waving his dingaling around... hm. I didn't stay there too long! Hopped back on the next bus, which was at least 30 minutes wait - worked out pretty quickly that with the limited time I have it's not possible to hop off at every stop, given that the next bus is 30 minutes away - and given that the bloke reckons a full loop takes 3 hours. I didn't believe that until we hit terrible traffic in Chinatown - in fact the traffic, and the roads, in KL is just ridiculous. The roads remind me a lot of Singapore (the main ones in the more commercial area) as they are quite big and wide - but there's an awful lot of people on them, and their driving skill is not really all that - I doubt they'd get a license anywhere else but perhaps the Middle East, or Italy...! Then in the more dirty, squalid parts of town, the roads are exceptionally narrow - quite difficult in spots for our tour bus to negotiate - and that's more likely where you'll see the shanty towns I spotted (particularly round the back of China town). The Indian district was quite interesting also, very colorful - but I was in heaven when we arrived at Petronas - literally. Because although you couldn't go up to the sky deck (it's closed on a Monday - and they only give out a limited number of tickets each day anyway) - I discovered the most wonderful thing - Suria KLCC mall. Oh my goodness, I was in heaven - all the big names were there, Bally, Armani, Ralph Lauren - plus a few old favourites - Zara, Top Shop and Gap - and that's when I worked out the rest of my Christmas shopping. I'll need to buy a new bag though, and I'll also need to double check AirAsia's luggage policy - but I think I can do it. So I spent quite a time there doing "research" before making my way back to the tour bus. By this stage it was getting late and I was getting anxious to get back to the airport, especially as the traffic was picking up and our pace, most definitely wasn't. Fortunately all was good, I got back in time and had no hassles getting to the airport. Next stop Saigon...

Maverick begins!

Malaysia and Vietnam Adventure - aka MAVerick - begins! (like what I did there?) Sunday 5 December 2010 Finally! The big day is here, I'm at the airport and the big adventure is about to begin... but of course, not without a few Kylie-flapping moments! Obviously, having visited some 52 countries in my time, I guess I would be what most would call a "seasoned traveller". Unfortunately, I am also what most would call an "incredible flapper" as well! This sort of 'flapping' behaviour used to drive my travel companion, Agnieszka, completely nuts. How it goes is this: firstly, there is the saga of packing. For most, this is not such a big deal - but for me, this is one of the biggest problems for me in travelling. Why? Because I can never, no matter how much I try to prepare in advance, figure out exactly what I should take. Toiletries, tech, books - that's all fine - but clothes? Oy ve, therein lies the problem. Firstly we go through the dilemma of exactly how much is too much, and how much too little? Then we go through the drama of what will be the "going out outfit", before capping it all off with the "what shoes will we bring and what colour" saga. And that's the tricky one - because the shade the majority of outfits are affects which shoes we pack - brown doesn't go with black you know - and that then becomes the entire crux of the matter - determining whether to have a black or brown hue to the wardrobe. You see, the majority of my functional travel outfits have a brown hue, but my waterproof jacket is black, and as it usually doubles as the "going out jacket", this then causes all sorts of problems. As a result, packing can take me several hours (especially as I tend to multitask the preparation of the tech at the same time - you know, convert all movies to .m4v so I can upload to my iPad and iPhone) - and today was no exception. In fact, today was especially extra-faffy, as in the middle of it all I dropped everything to go have lunch with Mel and her kids at Chermside (oh and do a little Christmas shopping as well!) Eventually I decided on a mostly brown hue with the occasional black thrown in ($3 black flip flops to accommodate), and by about 5.30pm I had finally zipped the bag up (impressive, considering I started packing at 9.30 this morning!). Having wangled a lift to the airport courtesy of Mel, I then set down to wait - but the tech still needed some work, and then I realized I needed to print out some stuff, and recharge some batteries, and clean the house - and all of a sudden Mel was ringing the doorbell, it was time to go - and the real flapping began! Did I have my passport? Have I got the visa approval letter? Hang on, where's my travel money? House keys? Is the door locked and all the windows shut (I'm actually still convinced, even now, sitting at the airport, that the backdoor is wide open!). When I eventually got down to the car I didn't even have my shoes on! So Mel thought it most amusing mid journey to the airport that I suddenly start frantically searching my bag for things I think I've forgotten! Fortunately I don't think I've forgotten anything... Then we had the dilemma of checking in. As Mel was pulling in the drive I was trying to check in online and not having any luck due to the fact I couldn't find the booking number. And when I arrived at the airport I wasn't even sure I had a valid ticket anyway - and couldn't check as check in didn't open for another 50 minutes! Fortunately all was well, I checked in successfully - and even had time to go to the internet desk to print off the pre arrival form for Vietnam visa on arrival (which I had forgotten to print off in advance). So now I'm sitting relatively calmly in the departure lounge awaiting boarding. Let the adventure begin! Monday 6 December 2010 So the flight was relatively uneventful - but not as comfortable as I am used to. I think once you've travelled Singapore Airlines for any reason, you really have been spoiled. Malaysian Airlines are ok, but they must be the only airline left on the planet (I guess outside of Garuda Indonesia, who were always rubbish, and whom I don't even know if they are still operational) who do not have personal TVs in economy for 8hr flights. Hm. I would love to say I slept the whole way, but after an incident whereupon I lost my pillow (thinking the person behind me had taken it) only to discover upon arrival that sometime during the night they relocated and in fact the pillow was still the, tucked far behind my seat, I really did not sleep all that well. So here I am in KL now with pretty much a whole day ahead of me before my last leg to Ho Chi Minh tonight. What to do? First things first, coffee at Starbucks to plan the day. I'm thinking at least I'll need to go to Petronas Towers today, or do a "hop on hop off" bus tour - but it's 630am and nothing much open yet (other than SB) so my guess is I'll hang here a little longer and make my way into town. Will let you know what happens! Update to the above - I am now on the hop-on hop-off tour - complete with it's own, free bus wifi - we could benefit from this in Brisbane, seriously! The bus is having to wait a few minutes so I'm quickly hopping on and off the wifi too! Gotta love Asia eh?

South Pacific

We left Brisbane on Monday evening and immediately set sail for New Caledonia. The weather started to improve, and life on the ship quickly settled into a routine - breakfast, lazing by the pool or attending some activities (belly dancing and line dancing were the ones I participated the most in), followed by lunch in the bistro, more lazing by the pool and maybe a spot of gym in the afternoon, or a massage at the Lotus spa, before dinner in the Burgundy / Bordeaux, a show, and then checking out Dakota, the resident band, in the Terrace lounge just before bed. One of the evenings was the cocktail evening, where we got to dress up in our finery. We took a formal family portrait that evening, and later Beck and I enjoyed the New Year's Eve party in September on the lido deck - it was such fun! Ah the life of the cruise...

We had 2 really pleasant days at sea and then on Thursday morning we awoke to the most gorgeous view - we were tucked away (well, as much as one can be on a huge cruise ship), surrounded by islands in Emerald Bay. Shortly after breakfast the tenders set sail, ferrying us to the shore, for a day on the beach at Poum. The locals came down to greet us, with their crafts and wares, (and hair braiding), and we enjoyed the day swimming, snorkelling (the reef was really beautiful), and exploring the immediate area. Beck and Cell got their hair braided!

Whilst the weather was a little overcast, it was still quite warm and we had a magnificent day. That evening, Mel, Kev and I (boy did I feel the gooseberry, as Anne would say!) enjoyed a wonderful meal in the steakhouse - the steak just literally melted in your mouth, and the desert, well, was to die for!

The next morning we awoke to the noise of the ship being moored in port at Noumea. Again a wonderful day was had by all. We disembarked as early as we could and made our way to the Petit Train, where we had a fabulous tour of the city. It was a beautifully warm day and we all thoroughly enjoyed our ride around the town - including the descending clutch start the "train" had to make at the top of the hill! How quirky!

After our ride we walked back into the city, where the locals were celebrating a national holiday, to commemorate Noumea being recognised as French. We explored the local markets and then the others headed back to the ship whilst I wandered about the town for a bit. I headed up to the cathedral which has magnificent views of the harbour. Beck and Dem came back out a little later and we did a spot of shopping.

On Saturday we had our last day in New Caledonia - this time at the Isle of Pines. I have to say this was probably the most special of our locations - and we nearly didn't get to go there! The reason was that in order to go ashore, we had to be ferried across on the tenders - but there was a big swell in the ocean and it wasn't safe for the tenders to pull up alongside the ship. Eventually, about mid morning, the captain was able to let some boats take passengers ashore, so we made it over around lunchtime. When we arrived there, the locals were out in full swing, with dancing, traditional singing, craft markets and so on. Beck and I bought some lovely floral dresses for the themed 'island' night planned later in the evening. We enjoyed swimming in the clear waters and playing in the sand, before making our way back to the ship. On the way back, Miss B entertained everyone with her rendition of Barney's "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family!" - everyone was laughing and smiling and appreciating the innocence of it all. It was just beautiful.

That evening was Island night, so Beck and I dressed up in our new dresses. There was an ice carving demonstration on the lido deck, and a party - we had Lachie up there with us, dancing to "YMCA" and "Nutbush" - it was such fun!

Alas, we were leaving New Caledonia, and had only 2 more days at sea. Included in that was another cocktail evening, where we dressed up again in our formal gear, and a country n western evening. Such fun! Lachlan, Mel and I got into the line dancing!

Mel and I also started to take advantage of the spa treatments available - and we booked in to a session of Ionithermie, which was brilliant. Even Kev had a session! Fabulous for treating cellulite.

But all too soon the holiday was over, and we were back in Newcastle. We'd had such a brilliant time, I really do hope that we can do it again soon. But for now, Phase 2 of the Moore family adventure was just beginning...

Sailing On The Ocean, The Tide Rolls High!

So when I left off, we had boarded the Pacific Sun and set off on our high seas adventure! It was terribly exciting, watching the tug boats push us off, the kids getting terribly excited (Bethany though decided it was an appropriate time to try and hide on the deck)

- finally we were off on our adventure! But then the first little hiccup struck, something that really shouldn't have affected me, having grown up on boats - but did. You see, when sailing on the ocean, the tide rolls high...

And roll it did! Coming out of Newcastle harbour! The waves started to get quite large, and although it wasn't really rough, by any standards - it was enough to have myself and my sister Mel feeling somewhat seedy - and just before dinner!

The family had adjourned to the Burgundy dining room for dinner that night. On board the Pacific Sun there are 2 dining rooms - Burgundy and Bordeaux - they both serve the same food but the Bordeaux is just that little more (allegedly) up market - so you usually have to make a reservation. We couldn't get one, so the Burgundy it was - which was fine - but when the ship is a-rocking and a-rolling, and you start to feel a bit off - well, that's not when you want to be ordering a 3 course meal! I think I managed the chicken soup and that was pretty much it... Fortunately, my sister Beck is a walking chemist, and she had come prepared with a whole swag of Stemotil, which Mel and I eagerly wolfed down - and instantly felt a whole lot better.

That evening was our first at exploring all the ship had to offer. I decided to go check out some of the night time activities - as advertised in the Pacific Daily, the newsletter that they give you each night advertising the next days' activities. Firstly we headed off to the Atlantis lounge to see the show - it was Ugly Dave Grey - and whilst it was ok, it wasn't really that funny. After that, according to the Daily, there was a "singles mingles" event in the Oz Bar, so off I went. Unfortunately, I suspect I was probably the only single on the cruise - cos no one else turned up! So I set off to explore the ship anyway... There is just sooo much on board - there's a gym, the 'oasis' (childfree, with sauna and spa), a beauty salon (for hair and so on), the Lotus Day spa (lots of massages and treatments), the Oz bar, the Terrace lounge, the Atlantis lounge (with 2 shows nightly), smuggler's bar, the casino, two pools, the buffet... lots of stuff! Plus a library that by night becomes an amazing steakhouse, and the speakeasy bar - with a bench designed like a piano (leading actually to the piano). So much to do....

The next morning, after enduring a sleepless night of Mum and Dad snoring (I was in a cabin with both them and Lach), I got up early (I couldn't sleep anymore anyway with all the snorts and whinnies from M and D). I'd decided that I wanted to go to the gym. Unfortunately when I got there (at 6.30am) it was totally busy - all the equipment was in use - so I decided to go looking for the so-called running track. As I was looking, suddenly the gym guy Tim (from Sweden) comes out, and asks if anyone is there for boot camp. I thought, why not - so I joined in. It was really good actually, but very hard work - you try running around the deck of a rolling ship raising a car tire up and down above your head! However what I hadn't realised, was that the boot camp was a charge activity - which cost me $10. Worth it, though.

That day was a day at sea, but unfortunately the weather was unpleasant - so whilst there was technically a lot on, according to the daily, I quickly realised that there wasn't a lot on simultaneously - so if you weren't interested in belly dancing at 11, then you didn't have anything else to do at 11. Fortunately Beck and I were, so we checked it out. And prior to that, Mum and I checked out the church service (which was somewhat brief - 2 hymns, a prayer and a poem - but still it was something). Other activities that I participated in was line-dancing, which surprisingly I really enjoyed - plus it is really quite tricky to do when the ship is rocking up and down! Gives a whole new meaning to the word 'grapevine'...

The next day, Monday, we were in port - in Brisbane. When we originally booked the trip, the boat was going to Brisbane, but not taking on passengers there. However they eventually opened up bookings to Brisbane so we did get some 300 new passengers on board. Mel had been feeling unwell though, and I had been feeling cold (with the rain) so when we arrived in Brisbane, we disembarked and spent the morning at Toombul - Mel at the doctor, and I in the flat getting a jumper. We made it back for lunch and spent the afternoon playing scrabble and other board games.

We also had the opportunity that afternoon to catch up with Grandma and the Heads. They came down to say hi so we had coffee at the wharf - which was really nice. Plus then they got to wave us off, as we finally set off for the high seas....

The Storm Before The Calm

So firstly I have to apologise for not really keeping up to date with my blogging. To be honest, I've been quite busy with mundane things - and that's not of any interest to anyone, now is it? But finally I have some things which are blogworthy... I had an extremely whirlwind week leading up to our impending first family holiday ever. Everyone else was getting quite excited, but I wasn't able to join in with their sentiments, because of the huge list of things I needed to achieve before the trip could actually take place. For me, this week truly was like the storm before the calm. Firstly I had to organise my packing - no small task as, those who know me well, would know that this is the one thing I detest the most about going on holiday - because I agonise over every single item I pack, and then start to fret over how much stuff I have. What made this all the worse was the fact that not only did I have to pack for 2 different seasons (the hopefully warm, sunny and bright weather of the cruise, and the unfortunately cold, damp and depressing weather of Melbourne afterwards), but that I also had to have it all packed a week before the actual trip. This was because of a couple of reasons, but primarily because I really needed to avoid checking my luggage in on my flight at all costs - I was flying with dodgy Jetstar after all, and timing was essentially down to the wire, with my arriving on the morning of the cruise. So Mum and Dad "offered" to cart my luggage with them as they were driving down to Newcastle - alas leaving several days beforehand... But beggars can't be choosers, so I sorted it out. Painfully. And that was the Sunday. Then I had to endure the week from hell at school - marking, marking, and yes, more marking - but this is a huge problem because firstly, I detest marking, and secondly, I'm really slow at it - because I want to be totally sure that I get it right for the sake of the kids. So that was a nightmare - because I couldn't do everything else I had to do until I did this. Then I had to do my verification submissions (aka moderation hell for teachers), SAIs (aka administrative b.s. which doesn't actually mean anything but causes a major headache for Heads of Department for no real reason at this point), and I also had a staff end of term thank you dinner as well - busy, busy, busy! Oh and a concert to organise and a visit to the opera with some students. Throw into all of this the wonderful visit of my dearest friend Heather from the UK and you will see Kylie was a very busy girl. It all however came to a head on the Wednesday evening when I was up until 3am trying to burn DVDs for the verification submission due, at the really stupid hour of 9am on Thursday morning (like, the thing isn't even due at the Board until the second day back after the holidays!) - suffice to say I was very tired and stressed the next day. Fortunately that was when I got to catch up with Heather, in Coolum - such a lovely time we had! It was all worth it... Then finally, Saturday came, and everything went surprisingly smoothly (well, except for the short delay as the cab I had booked came a bit late!). Actually it all was a bit of a miracle - 12 people needed to travel separately to Newcastle and arrive at the Port by 1.30pm for boarding on the Pacific Sun - so many things could've gone wrong. Mum and Dad drove down (3 days in advance) - the car nearly wasn't ready 2 days prior and needed a bit of work (and a new battery upon arrival!). Beck and her family were driving down on the Friday, towing a caravan - their luck with cars is dodgy at best, but fortunately all went smoothly. Mel and her family were flying down the night before - with the aforementioned trouble-ridden Jetstar - whilst they had some delay (inevitable with Jetstar!), they made it (albeit it later than expected) - although they had bigger problems the next day with the traffic around the port and with trying to return their hire car in time - but it all worked out. And then there was me, flying down at the crack of dawn o'clock on Saturday morning - last to leave, but still had some timing issues as had to get picked up by Mum and Dad sometime and somewhere in Newcastle - and yet all of these things came off and we arrived literally within a few minutes of each other at the Port. Finally our boarding time came and we were off! After months of planning, the holiday of a lifetime is finally here! Stay tuned for updates of our adventures...

Long Way Round

So, Friday morning. My last full day in Tasmania (my flight leaves early Saturday morning). What to do?

Really, all I had left was to head back to Launceston. But there were a couple of options as to how I might achieve this. The first was, to hoof it up the Lake highway and try to get to Cradle Mountain so I might have a chance of seeing it in brighter weather. But the weather didn't look all that bright at the moment - and how annoying would it be to go all that way and then still miss out?

Option 2 was to do Option 1, but instead of heading for Cradle, to go see some of the things I had missed around that way i.e. the caves at Mole Creek. But that was a bit off the beaten track, and would require a bit of driving - and the day was starting to get away from me.

Try Option 3. Option 3 was to head south, almost for Hobart, but stop off at Mount Field National Park (which was included in my National Parks pass) and do the short circuits out to Lady Barron Falls, Russell Falls, and the Tall Trees walk. From there either take the Lake Highway back up to Launceston, and see the lovely view of the Great Lakes, or take the A5 through Poatina and up to Lonnie that way. It would be a bit of a Long Way Round, but could be quite nice.

And that's exactly what I did. I drove for a few hours in the direction opposite to that which I needed to go, in order to see the exceptionally tall trees (and trust me, they were magnificent) in Mount Field National park, and the lovely waterfalls - Russell and Lady Baron. And then I endeavoured to head back via the Lake Highway, but unfortunately large chunks of that road is unsealed, gravel road - quite steep in places, and quite rough, according to the locals. With the recent rain, and ice, I thought that probably wasn't the smartest option. Not to mention the fact that the hire company null and void your insurance if you go off road on gravel and then damage the undercarriage of the car. Not a good idea.

So I headed back via the A5, which to be honest, was some of the most dull scenery I'd encountered in Tasmania. A little disappointing. But I guess, after having seen so much beauty on this trip, that was ok.

Got back to Lonnie in time to wash the car at a local BP (the first proper car wash I'd encountered for quite some time), pick up something for tea (not Chicken stirfry pasta again!), head to the Arthouse Backpackers and sort myself out. A quite pleasant evening.

The next morning it was up bright and early to return the car and head off to the airport (the car rental bloke dropped me off there) for my flight back to the Bris. A quite successful trip, if I do say so myself!

An Evening At Lake St Clair

When I left off I was staying in the most expensive (yet most rip off) of bunkhouses in Lake St Clair. I had decided I really didn't want stirfry chicken pasta again for tea and thought I would go to the restaurant at the main hotel for dinner - but when I turned up, it was all closed. I don't know how the patrons at the hotel got on!

I hopped in the car and headed back into Derwent Bridge looking for a restaurant, or a shop, or something which might enable me to buy some different food - but alas, there literally wasn't anything there! Even the pub which had the cheaper accommodation (which I probably should have gone for in the first place) didn't have anything of a food nature open at that time (and to be honest, didn't look like it was open at all - there weren't any cars there or anything) - so I headed back to the campground and set out to cook up my meal in the bunkhouse kitchen. It was a cold evening but at least the kitchen had a woodfire store in the middle, which was quite warming.

As I began to prepare my meal there was a knock at the window, and looking up in surprise, I saw the reception chick there. She wanted to know if I could open the kitchen for a couple with a child who were staying in a campervan but who wanted access to the kitchen. Their key (for the showers) did not have a kitchen key on it. I agreed, and suggested wedging the door slightly ajar with a wooden door wedge I found there.

I then headed off to the shower, hoping that by delaying my chicken stir fry pasta it might hopefully taste better. Alas, once I got to the shower (having paid my exorbitant room fee) I discovered that it, too, was a paid shower - and this time it required $1 coins, not 20c pieces. And hardly stayed on for very long (nor was it terribly warm). Halfway through my shower the amenties block lights turned off - so I was in the dark, standing there with lukewarm water running down my body - and not a chance of running to the door to turn the lights back on. I finished off my shower in the dark.

After this, I headed up to the kitchen to prepare my meal. The other family were in there preparing theirs (using up all the clean pots and pans too). I tried to potter about making my meal with the implements I could find - but these people were not used to shared kitchen etiquette, and had filled the kitchen sink to the brim with burning hot water - and started to use it for their washing up - but as there was only 1 basin I couldn't even clean some of the pans to then use them. Eventually they realised my dilemma and agreed I could use their washing up water.

Actually it turned out to be a very pleasant evening, as we both sat down to our various meals and had a really lovely chat. They were a lovely couple, having quit their jobs in Perth and sold their house, they were travelling around Australia en route to their new life in Noosa. They had many amazing stories about places they'd seen and I really enjoyed talking with them. Their young daughter, Chelsea, was a bit of a character too and it was nice to enjoy the family atmosphere after almost 2 weeks on my own.

All too soon though it was time for bed, so I bid them farewell with the hopes that we might see each other in the morning at breakfast. This did actually happen, but as they needed to get on the road, and I needed to get cracking, it wasn't really a long time that we spent together the next morning. But I had really enjoyed their company.

Wonder how it has all panned out for them, their new life in Noosa?