Milford Sound, New Zealand. February 2011

 Myself, mum, Aunty Clare and Aunty Janelle decided to walk the Milford Track in NZ. Why, I have no idea. However during the 5 night, 4 day hike we walked approximately 70km through sun, rain, hail, sleet and snow......  

Lostock, January 2011

Sunday, November 27, 2010

Our last couple of days have been spent wandering the streets of Hanoi. This town is quite different from the rest of the country. Communism is still in force in Vietnam and it’s most evident in this town. We went to visit Ho Chi Minh today, his embalmed body anyway. Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen….. Had to line up for about an hour, then as you got closer to the mausoleum there was to be no talking, no raising of arms or hands, no sudden movements blah, blah, blah. Ian thought for sure  I would be arrested.

Take-away Vietnamese style, baby chickens in a black soup!

We did discover “Beer Hoi” – 20 cents a glass. Ian was ecstatic, however the glasses needed a good wipe before the beer was poured. Our glasses were a tad dirty.

We leave for OZ tomorrow. We fly from Hanoi to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur to Sydney.  It should only take us approx 3 days to get home, which includes the 10 hour stop over we have in Bangkok. This is what happens when you book the cheapest flights possible.

So that’s it for Heidi and Ian ‘carry-on’ Vietnam. Looking forward to drinking out of the tap, having a bathroom with plumbing, that works, not seeing rats outside my bedroom window, although they do appear friendly. And not being able to walk down the street and see restaurants that have pictures of pussy cats on the menu! I keep telling myself that as well as serving food they have a pet shop business as a side line…..



until next time......

A thought to ponder, do you think you can get a skin disease from using too much hand sanitizer?

Friday, November 26, 2010

We arrived at Halong Bay at 12pm just in time to have lunch while we cruised around the many rock formations. It’s spectacular and there are so many things to look at. We spent the afternoon exploring, eating, swimming and canoeing. Then spent the evening just hanging out on the deck.  

Our boat is a little bit fancy, so fancy that at dinner the chefs had carved flowers out of vegetables. Now I was always told to eat all my veges and its rude to leave them – so I ate all of them. Not 10 minutes later Tan asked where my carrot flower was, “I ate it” I replied. “Oh no”, he says “they are only for decoration and have been soaking in bad water for hours”.  WTF – really, why would you put something edible on my plate that’s not edible!!!!! I’m not use to fancy shit, I’m still wearing man shoes with socks and some family back in Nha Trang are using my nickers for blankets!!!!!!!

The infamous vegetable flowers.....