Went with the school swim team. It was cool and I could get out and look around. A different city to Saigon, the lakes in the middle have long history, and I began to appreciate the significance that water has played in how Vietnam evolved. Many of the myths and legends revolve around water, the big rivers and Mekong delta have shaped the southern parts.
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A quick trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels and then the AFL grand final at the Sheraton spider Everet was the guest speaker.
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At the end of the year the team took Cathie and I to a local Karaoke.
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Great fun!
Cathie visited in late September 2012 and we took a trip to the highland city of Da Lat – another 8 hour drive, you can also fly so it turned out, a tad quicker, but then you don’t get to see the sights.
It is simply a lovely area, over 1000m so no humidity, much like the highland areas of Sri Lanka.
Here are three slides shows.
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In early September 2012 I decided on a weekend trip to see the sand dunes of the coastal area of Mui Ne, this turned out to be a bit more time consuming than I expected. I turned up at 8am at the tourist office in HCMC and eventually boarded a bus, which was a normal local bus….all very interesting, comfortable and with a few stops as it took 7 hours to trek the 200klms!!
The bus weaved its way in and out, passing regularly on the outside into the on coming traffic, and this was a wall of traffic and on one occasion an inside route around some slow moving truck.
I was dropped on the side of the road not the resort I had booked….fortunately I saw a sign and walked the 1k in the hot sun and hot and flustered when I arrived, but the room was sunning and the view beautiful, after a walk on the beach and dinner I got set for an early start – 4am to see the sunrise over the sand dunes.
Two wake up calls got me into the jeep at around 4:15 am, and off we set, with me jammed up the back bouncing around – no seat belts, but running commentary of what we will see – and suddenly there the dunes were, a great expanse of sand inland by about 10kms and the seen was magical, as you will see in the slide show below.
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At around 6:30am we set off to see the local beach scenes and have breakfast, this was some glutenous prawn things but I liked them and consumed plenty. The locals were out in force – best part of the day as boy did it get hot around midday.
The fishing scenes were great, see the pics, all the traditional boats, the round ones included and much activity on the beach, and everyone was so friendly.
The final things was a walk up a creek to look at some interesting erosion and colours of the sand and cliffs were striking.
Off back to the resort and then a 7 hour trip home – all terrific, next time I will take the train, it is only 4 hours.
I live in a resort called the Riverside, right next to the Saigon River, initially I was in a third floor apartment, the a ground floor with a garden view and now we have a ground floor with panoramic views of the river out cover our sliding door to the patio – the river is less than 10m away, as is the bar.
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The above slide show I think needs Flash MAC people! The pictures of the rive and boats is what happens all day and night, endless traffic and the sunset can as picturesque as any place on earth. There are some views of the down town – the Cathedral and on of the tangle of Internet cables which adorn every intersections.
The following two slideshows are just more of the city and surrounds, the hustle and bustle of Sai Gon and the mass of bikes is hard to comprehend at first. There are also some cloud and sunset pics – I am told I over do these, but like Tuner the colours and patterns of the light in the sky are endlessly fasinating.
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This blog entry brings me to about mid-September when I made a visit to the Mekong via Mr Son’s taxi.
The Mekong is just amazing, a place of wilderness, vast tracts of water, canals dating back thousands of years, French developments, all sorts of plants and animals, many only found in the Mekong. It is home to the Charm people who as Islamic and date back 2000 years when they colonised from Indonesia and at that time were influenced by the Indian religions. They lost power and influence in the mid-1400’s, but there building legacies lives on as we shall see in a latter blog about My Son.
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I did the standard tour, all very interesting. The low boat is carry sand dredged from the river and is bound for Singapore’s beaches!
I started this a year ago and never finished the first line, what follows is a bit of a short summay of the first year.
I have started a new job as Director of Technology at the International School of Ho Chi Mnh City, August 2012. On my own, Cathie will join me after Xmas. Settling in to a new set of surroundings is always difficult, but the only way is to get out and about. On waking I was greeted with the most beautiful sun rise over the wide expanse of the Saigon River, which slowly meandered along past my third floor balcony view…..the school had put me up in a resort next to the school, after a short flirtation with the idea of living in the community, I eventually found myself ensconced in a lovely one bedroom apartment.
The most difficult adjustment for me was simply the humidity, i just resembled a tap and whilst keen to get out and look around i quickly found that I needed to change my approach. To give you an example, I am used to shopping locally at home in Melbourne and whilst there is a small shop on site I wanted to visit the local supermarket, I chose the one across the double lane highway, four lanes each way! I had read that to cross a road just walk out and the bikes will avoid you, I don’t recall the advice including what to do about cars, cement trucks, buses and huge lorries stacked with all many of things. So, i observed for a while, there was a tricky set of lights where bikes lined up waiting for a green light, but this only applied to some many just rode into the oncoming traffic, and when the light turned green, there was much anticipation of this event, the riders would sweep around and across the road in a rather frantic but well organised charge. I then noticed some locals who seemed to share my trepidation, so I sidled up and used what I been taught in Rome to use a human shield to cross the road, well obviously we all made it and by using the more or less walk straight out technique, but not when crazy bus or lorry drivers where in abundance….lesson 1 learnt use common sense.
The supermarket called Metro is a wholesale place, and for businesses, but as an expat I got in after much gesticulation and by handing over my drivers license, i am always wary handing over cards of any sort for fear I may never see them again! I need not have worried as the card was returned with a huge smile and a delightful and respectful ushering towards a lady dressed in traditional dress who scanned my card and who instructed me in perfect English…don’t lose that and show when paying….ok I said.
I love a good shop, and the place had aircond – putting aside environmental concerns as to where the power came from – I had a ball looking around and buying some cheap local beer, some wine and nothing to eat. I then set off back across the road back to my apartment, about 30 minutes, and it is something I have never done again: dangerous and dehydrating ensuring the beer was quickly consumed.
I have since discovered taxis are excellent and affordable, there is free bus and a boat into the city, And also a bus service that goes to the aforementioned Metro, all included in the rental charge, which I must admit is tad high, but then I do have a bar 10m away out my back door: there is also a pool, gym and tennis courts, I did venture into the gym once, no twice, the first time made ill and the second confirmed the feeling, so,I adopted Oscar Wilde’s suggestion …when I feel the urge to exercise I rest on a bed until the urge passes…seems good advice to me.
The first days at school where uneventful, I have seen it all before, I was asked to talk briefly to the staff and I did so, only person to do so without a bloody powerPoint, One person came up latter and said to me..thanks for your nice little talk we were reassured…she left it at that, and I was a bit perplexed as to whether I had reassured the staff I was another IT dick head or somebody that was about meeting their needs, thankfully it turned out to be the latter. I won’t go into details, but the year turned out to be one of fixing things e.g. Network, getting new servers, doing a budget and starting the process of accountability for expenditure based on clearly stated educational and administrative objectives, qualitative and quantitative ones..the idea of objectives and plans did seem to strange to many it seemed. Apparently it had been a case of, if you want something fill in a PO (purchase order ) and you get it…i said that is not budgeting or planning is it? Anyway, much was achieved in the first year and all of the credit goes to the highly skilled IT team, by far the best I have worked with by a country mile.
I tend to use colloquial Aussie language with a liberal sprinkling of rhyming slang picked up mostly from Dad, and also wise sayings I learnt from a Yorkshireman who told me when I was computer sales rep..if you want to know how somebody thinks find out how they get paid..i will return to that idea in a subsequent blog about Budgeting and Planning.
The IT team operates as a respectful family, this is their core value, we help each other and I quickly learnt that what was important was the outcome not necessarily the process, Vietnamese have there ways of doing things and these work, well mostly, but ways certainly do not work all the time either!
I have taken it upon myself to try and explain a few of my sayings, this is usually meet with much laughter and obvious …what is he talking about…., here is an example:
Running with the hares and hounds….this necessitated a discussion of the practice of the upper landed classes in England fox and hare hunting, in the end the general idea of two bob each way or having your cake and eating it, was understood, and yes there are always plenty of examples in schools, deputy heads responsible for staff welfare, for instance, rarely stand up to the Head, in fact one of my pet hates is bosses who will not disagree with their boss or bosses.
The year ended and for some reason know only to the good Lord or rock spirit or the cat fish the parent company decided it would install a new admissions system during the June and July the busiest period, do a timetable without reference to room numbers or student choices and to cap it of install a new student admin system the week before school starts without the timetable being complete. Dick Head Andy pointed out, I must say it was one of my better direct missives, that this was all likely to end in tears, put people under undue stress, against all principles of IT projects and straight bloody idiotic, possibly the last word was what got the powers in a flap, who knows and I don’t much care.
The above necessitated a new saying … there is whiff of dick head in the air … Seemed to bring much mirth to a few people I used it with.
Fortunately because of pure luck, the professionalism of the teachers and the remarkable tolerance of the kids, othe kids are in classes happy and being taught, the IT staff worked three weeks straight including weekends otherwise this fairy start would not have happened.
My dear wife tells me I have an ability to predict the future, in so far as that maybe the case, it is a curse rather than a blessing as they say.
The following blogs will concentrate on our many trips and all the wonderfully positive things we have experienced, I hope you get some enjoyment reading each…there will be pics too! Love to all.
Today I have been listening to music to spark the mind, to lift the curtain. My mother who was a classically trained musician introduced me to Handle’s Messiah and Mozart’s Great Mass Cm and the Requiems – in Dm and others. If you are keen you can listen via YouTube.
These are uplifting, whilst celebrating Christ it is hard not to be emotional involved when listening, at least this is what happens to me and I am an atheist, but as someone said to me recently you are spiritual. I also listened to some Wagner – the old joke being “Does you name start with a V Mr Wagner, IX W”, anyway, I have always fund his music confronting almost brutal, in modern terms he was heavy metal – the Overture to the Flying Dutchman being a good example: Overture
Wagner had some odd views, the existence of inferior races being one, and his music adopted by the person responsible for the greatest world tragedy yet. It raises the question, which Derrida et al. posited that “there is nothing but the text”, this is the basis of post-modernism, in that literary works can be interpreted and deconstructed in multiple ways, each of equal validity. I have always puzzled on this, Tolstoy as I understand him argued that artistic works, primarily literature I guess, has a serious purpose and the writer should try to communicate clearly, he reportedly was most put out when readers or critics did not interpret his writing the same way he did – play writes like David Williamson are the same . You can image Tolstoy saying to Derrida “You can stick your multilayered post structural analysis – I mean what I say and that is that, there is no other valid interpretation”.
Bob Dylan did not want to be held up as a beacon of rebellion, he reacted against being included into the protest and political movements – I think he was probably saying I am free to write what I write: you are free to interpret in whatever way you wish – Blown in the Wind and Time They are a Changing being the two most adopted songs by the left.
It is interesting when you view a painting, it affects you – or at least some do, it is clearly subjective, but on the other hand how come experts can decide what is a good and bad painting. Doesn’t this imply some level of objectivity, but it is clearly different to the objectivity of Science. All that is happening with art critics is a kind of power over what you should think, hence we had Picasso et al. saying no, the old masters where fine but art is about…..well about what?
My first blog for a while, if you have got this far I am going to update the recent travels and possibly you will find something there, and maybe in what I said above, which is purely my opinion. Love to all.
The King moved Labour day and made a long weekend, so of I went to visit Beirut. I booked the flights, hotel, transfers and tours at 10am on the Thursday and was on the 4pm plane, it is only 45mins and was full!
I was in my hotel by around 6pm and off down town, in the wrong direction as it turned out, but a cab took me to the right place – boy are we spoilt with taxi prices in Jordan! Beirut turned out to be reasonably priced except for taxis, I found it odd that a full day tour coast $80US but a 10 minute taxi ride could cost $10US, apparently it is all down to the cost of fuel!
As I got out of the taxi the vista of the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque came into spectacular view. It was built after the war (1975-2001) and opened in 2008, modeled on the famed Blue Mosque it certainly lightup the night.
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As a symbol of unity with the Christians of Lebanon next door to the mosque can be found the Cathedral of Saint George, this was buitl in 1755 for the Maronite community.
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The down town area is surrounded by reminders of the war, ruined buildings can still be seen, but there has made a lot of effort to restore the area. The central eating area is next to the Roman ruins which are aslo being restored.
The other main mosque is the Al-Omari mosque which is just other the main eating area and has an interesting history. The Crusaders built the church that is now the mosque during the first crusades around 1115AD.
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On the Friday I toured to Byblos and old sea harbour area used by the ancient Phonecians. The old castle sits high on the hill with lovely views.
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From here we Harissa by cabel car and then saw the caves at Jeitta.
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Saturday I took a tour of Baalbeek in the Beeka valley, which is part of the fertile crescent and an extension of the Jordan valley. Baalbeck is an amazing roman ruin and below is a picture of the temple of naughty Bacchus.
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To finish a nice slide show
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A very intersting long weekend!
On the 6th of April I flew from Amman and Cathie from Melbourne and we meet up around 5am on the 7th at the Tamarind Tree Hotel near the Colombo airport to start our tour of Sri Lanka.
The morning was warm and peaceful, our guide collected us at 10.30am and we started out towards Habarana in the central area of Sri Lanka. On route we visited an Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawala, and it was simply terrific. The elephants were well looked after, the viewing areas great, with the highlight being the march of the elephants down to the river at 2pm. This is not to be missed, they simply stroll through the small village along a tarred road and spread out into the cool waters. The handlers have a some work to do stopping some break away groups heading up the bank on the far side.
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All this is easily viewed from two hotel verandas where you can have lunch and touch the elephants as they march by. A lone water buffalo could be seen along the waters edge tendered by a small boy. The street is lined with small shops,seemed of good quality and the sellers were more than helpful.
The water is a food source for various types of bird, the egret and cormorant being prominent waders and divers.
It is a long drive from Colombo to Haharana, about 200klms, which takes about 5 to 6 hours driving. The driving is slow as the road is narrow, windy and is flanked on either side by endless rows of shacks, small shops, food stalls and its surface is treated as part of the village. The road is also home to a array of colourfully decorated tuktuks, that seem to be the cheap mode of transport – basically a small motor cycle with a cabin with either a 2-stroke or 4-stroke motor, costs about 10 rupee per kilometer, which is not much! There were also numerous trucks stacked perilously high with produce and old buses jammed packed with passengers – one passed us at speed, weaving its way towards Kandy, an express bus apparently: it was just full and one could not see how anybody could get on, but they did, it must have been hot and uncomfortable inside making London tube travel seem luxurious in comparison.
We were intended to see the Rock Fortress at Sigiriya but time prevented this and we made the lovely Cinnamon Lodge around 5.30pm, tucked away on the edge of the lake it was its own little world and certainly far removed from the surrounding village. However, there is a range of accommodation options, this time around I chose to go 5 star! We took a look at Sigiriya late the next day, did not do the 8klm walk nor the hike up to the top, thus avoiding 100US in entrance fees!
An early night after a Tiger Lankan beer or two and we were in bed by 9pm.
The next day started with an Elephant ride into the lake near the hotel. I am often dubious of these kinds of manufactured tourist adventures but this one was nicely done. The elephant seemed to not worry about us perched on its back and trundled off along the bank of the lake and took a dip with us clinging on! It was about 8am and the birds and wild life were still about as the heat of the day was a few hours off. The scenery of the lake was restful and the lotus flowers beautiful, overall a relaxing ride.
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One thing you get used to quickly is that tipping is expected and that the costs of rides etc. are not included in the tour package – a fact that I was aware of from the small print. It is mostly a cash operation across most of Sri Lanka and like Jordan this does not include giving change. It is funny that the mystified look you get when you tender a large note is the one thing that I will remember most! It is the same here as it is in Jordan – often it is just a ruse to get you to hand over more cash, it is funny how the change eventuates if you stand your ground, often via a whip around with the standers by.
We then ventured to the ancient ruins of the city of Polonnarwa. This is one of the previous capitals, it is high up and was established to get away from invading Tamal Indians in the 11th century. There are many statues of Buddha and ruins of the Royal Palace. The ruler at the time build what are called Tanks to store water and these remain today. There was also channel irrigation. A most impressive sight and the monkeys provided a nice highlight.
The Sri Lankan peoples are mostly Buddhist and I think the island is seen as a bit of starting point for the Buddhist tradition. Being close to Southern India the Island was subjected to Tamal invasions who were Hindus. The recently civil war was a flight between the powerful south ruled by Buddhist against the poorer Tamal Hindus of the north, a simplification I know but nonetheless accurate and many refugees have left Sri Lanka and tell and non to pleasant story of their treatment. There is also a small section of Muslims who are related to the Arabs who arrived as far back as the 13th century in search of spices to trade, they named the place Serendip and hence the more famous Serendipity – place of unexpected beauty. There are even smaller groups of Catholics mostly in the north and the Burgher people related to the early Dutch colonisers. Whilst it is a democracy corruption is a big problem and equal treatment of all something of a distant goal!
The afternoon was a relax in the room before an safari into the Minneriya National Park to see wild elephants and whatever else was on offer. This was great fun and we saw plenty of elephants in their natural habitat and to the delight of the guide and the driver we were chased twice by ‘wild’, wild males when the driver ventured too close.
In the morning we visited a local village via a ox drawn cart and then a canoe ride on the lake. Very well done and the basic meal in the hut of the village was terrific – tea in coconut shells, roti made from millet and some grated coconuts and small amounts of chilli. The village is a cooperative tourist venture comprising 11 other villagers. It gave a small glimpse of how life would unfold around tilling the earth and growing small amounts of vegetables – the Elephant hideouts were evident as the they did come marching through from time to time clobbering everything in their path. Residents can keep a gun but only to warn off the elephants not to shoot them, there is joke there somewhere.
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The rest of the day was visits to various tourist sights including a Gem factory, which Cathie loved!
We had done so much in three days and we were very happy with what we had seen and experienced so far. The 4th day saw us of to Nurara Eliya which is a town invented by the Brits as a hideaway from the heat. On route we visited the Dambulla Rock Temple, which I climbed and it is most impressive. It is a Buddhist temple. We also looked in on a Hindu temple in a local bustling town. Close to Nurara Eliya we start to climb up high, around 1800m and the temperature and humidity is replaced by much cooler air, and it is also the tea growing area and we visited a tea plantation, had a tour and a nice cuppa! Another thing became evident, namely Gum tress everywhere. These had been imported over many years starting as early 1800, used for plantation timber, electricity poles, pulping, railway sleepers, bees etc.
The Grand Hotel is grand and dates back to the 1800’s. It was a highlight as you got a bit of feel for how the Brits would have enjoyed themselves in the 18th and 19th centuries, there is a golf course and a race course that is used only once per year during the Buddhist New Year, which happened to be on during our visit. The big ball room now doubled as the eating area and the food provided was by far the best we encountered. On the whole the food across all the places we stayed was excellent, with more variety in the larger establishments. If you like curries Sri Lanka is the place.
On the 5th day we headed south towards our destination of Yala and the national park where we would do another safari. On route we visited the Devon & St Clair water falls and a beautiful little town called Ella, just lovely. But alas we needed to move on after a short stay for some refreshments.
Around 3pm with a little over 30mins to Yala, which is 3klms from the sea, as we were having lunch our guide informed us that there was a Tsunami warning following a large earth quake in the Ache area of Indonesia. Sri Lanka was heavily hit by the Tsnami of 2004 with 30000 people killed, including a group of Japanese tourists on safari in Yala when the wave hit, so, Sri Lankan’s take these warnings seriously. The end result was a quick conference and a decision not to go to Yala but to stay in a small local hotel – this was wise and the hotel was fine. In the end around 8pm the alert was lifted but it turned out the Yala Elephant Reach resort was evacuated so our decision proved sensible. We completed the journey at 7am the next morning, checked in, had a rest, a swim and waited to head out on safari at 4pm.
The Yala National Park is very big and the safari only takes in a small part, but we saw plenty of Elephants, birds, crocodiles, deer, buffalo etc. and even saw a leopard sunning itself, apparently a bit of rare site – there was a traffic jam as drivers jockeyed for viewing positions. The park borders the sea and is very different to the one in the Harbarana area up north.
The last day was spent driving along the coast from Yala to Colombo – there are some spectacular scenes, but all the time you are reminded of the devastation that occurred in 2004 when the wave hit. We visited a turtle hatchery and also Galle to look at the fort which in turn overlooks the cricket ground that was all but destroyed, thankfully things are back to normal and the ground looked in good condition.
We arrived in Colombo around 4pm and stayed at the opulent Cinnamon Grand, really a bit over the top for us, but what can you do. It is New Year so not many shops are open, the saving grace is that there is not much traffic, so a half day tour of the city was over quickly, but we took in the Fort area, an old Dutch Church, the ground floor of the Museum, a Buddhist temple, Hindu temple and drove past the Colombo cricket oval!
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Here is a slide show of a selection of Cathies’ photos.
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That is it, a great holiday, varied, friendly people, seemingly safe – not discounting the roads – and reasonably priced.
Recommended – we used Miraculous Tours at http://www.miraculoussrilanka.com
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