A tale of two cities

After an amazing tropical thunderstorm, complete with fork lightening, around 2am we were up  early with destination French Quarter in our sights. We are now  boldly crossing multiple lanes of motorbike scooters, dodging  rickshaws and no longer can we be taken for Vietnam traffic newbies. We know  the footpaths are not for walking but for motorbike parking 😁

The street scenes as you move from the Old Town  to the French Quarter didn't disappoint.

The contrast is dramatic. The Opera House is case in point. It was closed today unfortunately so we wandered about. All around this area are classic French colonial buildings, beautiful architecture, designer stores, wannabe Insta influencers and security guards talking into their shirt cuffs.

We visited the St Joseph's Cathedral which was built under the French occupation. 

Not far from the Catholic cathedral was a beautiful wee temple, again a stark contrast in culture and beliefs. 

There is something quite charming about the gritty Old Town, it feels well lived in, real and a world away from the designer stores of Chanel, Valentino, Piaget, Gucci etc. 

The offerings to the spirits at the temples are so touching, simple but perfect.

Hanoi

(Usual waiver applies to grammar, typos, spelling as I'm posting via  a small phone screen on the hoof 🤭, click on the pics to zoom in)

Our first day in Hanoi. Skip part this bit if you just want to check out the photos. A little bit of history.....Hanoi is the  capital of Vietnam. It's the country's second largest city and has a population over 8.8 million! Bit bigger than the entire population of New Zealand.

Hanoi  means 'city inside rivers' as it's  built on the bank of Red river and the lowlands. As we flew in we could see miles of  lush fields,  a green tapestry  of produce/veg/banana trees. No wonder the fruit & veg looks so fresh here. Great alluvial river soil. Pic below courtesy of Google as we travel sans drone 😁.

We crossed  the Long Bien bridge as our hotel shuttle got us from the airport to the Old Quarter where we are staying. You could tell this bridge  was important just by looking at it. Google told me it was designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who also designed the Eiffel Tower  and Statue of Liberty. Early French colonial occupation has certainly left its mark.The area surrounding the bridge is home to some of the poorest living under the bridge. Tough life.

After a good nights sleep we set out early to explore as the Old Town came to life.

The noise, chaos, hectic traffic, motorbike horns, bicycles traders, street food being cooked on the footpath.... it's amazing. 

You can wander down little back lanes where there is meat being cut up, flowers being sold from the back of  bicycles, shoes being cleaned and rickshaws on the move. 

You can see why  the Instagram 'influencers' love Hanoi - turn a corner and there's a money shot.

We wandered along to Hoan Kiem Lake and crossed the red Hue footbridge to the beautiful Ngoc Son temple in the middle of the lake. 

We were early in the day so it was incredibly peaceful. 

Many locals were out exercising around the lake in the cool morning air. Spot the night herons in the trees beside the temple. 

We then passed the Monument of Determination or the Martyrs Monument which honours those who gave their life for independence. It shows a woman welding a sword to acknowledge the role women played alongside men in the independence movement.

We did our own self guided walking tour, following our noses with some key locations along the way. 

Bach Ma Temple is in the heart of the Old Town, small as temples go but of major significance. As we wandered by there was a beautiful  ceremony taking place. 

The blend of architecture is amazing. Grand French influenced alongside the very humble. Lot's of houses in the Old Quarter are very narrow. Property tax, introduced by the French, was based on the building’s width, the wider the house, the more tax people had to pay.

Vietnam produces some of the best coffee in the world so it's no surprise the amount of coffee houses in the Old Quarter.

We made several coffee stops to get out of the noise and humidity. Day one over and it's been incredible. Over and out, well caffeinated, tired but happy.

 

 

  

One night in Bangkok

We arrived at Bangkok international airport local time 10.15pm last night. This made it Aussie time approx 1.10am....(we got up at 6am😬) Thank goodness we had booked a fast track immigration service as we guessed we would be flagging and we were right . We stepped off the air bridge and there was a lovely young Thai lady with our name on a board and she  whisked us off to a fast track immigration line. The general line looked hectic, so money well spent me thinks.

We stayed spitting distance from the airport and the hotel shuttle service  was fantastic. Checked in to our room, 34° and high humidity ..we knew we were in Thailand.🥵

The hotel restaurant was on the roof and it felt like the planes that were landing were way too close. Eeek, we could feel the back draft and the aroma of  av gas wafted through the air. 

Gotta love Thailand, the fairy lights and welcoming locals made up for our tiredness.

Back to the airport on the 7.00am hotel shuttle the next morning. Not before we had a brekky for 150 Thai baht ..yummy stir fried broccoli and cauliflower and fresh fruit. 

The airport is super busy, even at 7.15am....there were queues everywhere. There must be some sort of festival going on  as there were huge tour groups and families all travelling with more luggage than you could poke a stick at. 

 Next post will be from Hanoi. Right.... now to get through the customs and immigration lines...and it's still early😬.

Click on pics to enlarge 😁

We're off again

(Usual waiver applies to grammar, typos, spelling as I'm posting via a small phone screen on the hoof 🤭)

The pilgrims are on the move again.🏃

We left behind torrential rain in Northland so special thanks to our wonderful  neighbours who are keeping an eye 👀on our place and to Graham  & Gayle for the airport run. After a flight change switcheroo, thanks to Air New Zealand, we arrived in Brisbane at 7.15am on March 25th. The sun was shining and it was hot, hot, hot. We had the VIP treatment with my brother and the fabulous Narelle picking us up and whisking us off to brunch at Cooper's in Manley. Cracking start to our trip ...views out over the sea and great company 💓 

For autumn, the temps here in Brisbane are amazing, it feels like full on summer to us. Average temp 28°C with gorgeous sunny days and clear skies. Everyone here gets out early for their walks as you'd melt later in the day. 

This is the start of our trip to Europe, next stop is an overnight in Bangkok and then three weeks in Vietnam. What a time to be travelling. Eeek. We booked our tickets well before Christmas and now the airspace over the Middle East is looking very uncertain with flights being cancelled and major flight re-routing. We will be flying through Doha at the end of April so we have our fingers crossed that the airspace will be safe by then. So far we've had no change notifications 🙏

We've had a fantastic time exploring the Redcliff coast with a lunch overlooking the Scarborough pier and beach.

The public parks and community facilities are amazing. Everything seems so well cared for and not had the you know what kicked out of it as we see so often back home. The wharf had such great facilities for the fisho's with the filleting benches looking well cared for and clean!

We had another day exploring  the Glasshouse mountains, visiting Maleney and Mapleton. Talk about lunch with a view! 

 We could see right down to the coast. The trees and foliage were so lush and sound of the cicadas was amazing!

Everything's bigger in Texas, strike that .. Brisbane 😁

The bird life here is stunning. Magnificent Osprey, cheeky Lorakeets and very friendly Magpies. The 'Three Amigo's' came to the door every day looking in and clearly signalling it was time to be fed a wee treat. Beautiful warbling birdsong...they literally were singing for their supper. You could spend hours watching them, so entertaining. 

The Redlands, and especially Birkdale, is a beautiful area of Brisbane. On our last night we had fish & chips at Wellington Pt and caught the sunset....an absolute stunner. 

The park and wharf was full of happy, quiet family groups enjoying the gorgeous evening and being together. Picnics, kids trying to catch fish, sunset gazers ... perfect 👌 

Thanks to Paddy and Narelle, the host &  hostess with the mostest💓  Birkdale and Redlands Coast missing you already.... we'll be back.