Red wine and Rummikub

We arrived into Brisbane in the middle of the mild Australian winter and went to stay with Meg's cousin Caeli and his housemate Mike in New Farm. They lived in a traditional Queensland timber house with no central heating (the house is designed to promote effective natural cooling!) so our evenings were mostly spent sat on the sofa in front of a log fire, drinking, talking, and playing Rummikub.

After two months without a glass of wine we'd been looking forward to Australia and quickly set about making up for lost time. Meg was delighted to find that a bottle of sparkling Aussie wine was about half the price of a sixpack of beer and so Mark's previous jibes of her having a champagne taste on a beer budget were completely flipped on their head.

Caeli and Mike had both made plans to go away for the weekend leaving us with the house to ourselves. The first thing we did was to go to the supermarket and then cook ourselves dinner! Not exactly rock n'roll but it's funny the things you miss when travelling.

We did some sightseeing in Brisbane including a visit to the Castlemaine XXXX brewery (according to those from New South Wales, it is so named because Queenslanders can't spell BEER), listening to some live blues guitar in a pub in West End and taking the ferry along the Brisbane River at night. However, we have to confess that mostly we enjoyed the relaxing effect of a slightly more domesticated life with Mark going to the gym and Meg pottering about in the kitchen. We haven't quite started to miss normal life enough to want to find a job just yet though!

On our last day, Caeli treated us to a delicious seafood lunch on the river at Bretts Wharf which included oysters, barramundi, and an unexpected education in cuttlefish by our very charming and helpful waiter. Not sure if it will be this luxurious in the campervan!

The Hong Kong high life

After two months of travelling we reached Hong Kong, which would be our last stop in southeast Asia. Having finally mastered the art of being thrifty, we decided to blow the budget and experience Hong Kong in style. We were extremely grateful to accept Sandra and Stu's offer to stay with them in their flat in Causeway Bay for the 5 nights of our visit. We were even more delighted when they gave up all of their free time to be our personal tour guides.

Other than enduring England's dismal display against Germany in the World Cup, we had a great time. For the first 48 hours, we experienced the relentless Hong Kong rain as we dashed between shops, trams, and the metro. Fortunately, the elevated walkways of the Central area are well designed to provide refuge from the rain and traffic, and also gave Meg the opportunity to do some shopping.

For an adventure, we decided to visit Lantau Island to see the giant Buddha statue. Our journey consisted of a ferry to the island, a coach to the statue, followed by a spectacular cable car ride down past the airport and then two metro trains to take us back to Causeway Bay. The size of the statue was impressive, but what amazed us most is that we never waited longer than two minutes for any of our modes of transport. The efficiency of Hong Kong was certainly a welcome change from Vietnam.

On another occasion, however, Mark decided to forego the transport options and climb the 522 metres to the top of The Peak for a panoramic view of Hong Kong. Meg didn't think this seemed particularly sensible thing to do in the stifling humidity and that a (long-awaited) air-conditioned shopping expedition was more her style!

But the real highlight of our time in Hong Kong had to be the food. We were taken to a number of S&S's favourite restaurants and introduced to some real delights. These included pork and soup in a dumpling, a Korean BBQ where we grilled our own food at the table, afternoon dim sum in a fancy restaurant and homemade BLT sandwiches which made us realise how much we'd missed good western food. We also tried some of the more peculiar Chinese specialities. These included chicken's feet (similar to chicken wings, but less meat and more bones), ox tongue (chewy texture but quite tasty) and pig's neck (like fatty bacon). But the most memorable was when Mark literally put a foot in his mouth by jokingly stating he wanted to order the pig's trotter, only for Stu to actually order it! Fortunately Mark wasn't made to eat his own words so he cannot report on the taste.

Our enjoyable stay in Hong Kong was capped off with a scenic view of the island at night followed by a trip on the Star Ferry across the harbour. Next stop Australia...

Menu madness

As alluded to in an earlier post, we visited a local seafood restaurant with our fellow tour members whilst staying on Cat Ba Island.

We may have managed to upset the owners not only by asking (purely out of curiosity, naturally) how much the large live turtle in the seafood tank cost ("Not for sale! For good luck!") but also by crying with laughter with every page turn of the extensive menu. We think you'll see why.

Ha Long Bay and 'Monkey' Island

A visit to world heritage site Ha Long Bay was near the top of our list of things to do in Vietnam, so after a few days in Hanoi we booked ourselves onto a three-day, two night tour on a wooden junk and packed our pirate outfits in anticipation of swabbing the decks and growling 'ahoy, me hearties'.

Sailing out into the bay amongst the limestone karsts was magnificent, and we spent the afternoon visiting the humbly named "Amazing Cave" and observing bits of limestone that were [sort of] shaped like various animals, assisted by our guide. The Vietnamese excel at spotting likenesses between lumps of rock and snakes, buddhas, lions, embracing couples, etc.

In the afternoon we explored [a very small part of] the bay in a kayak (two person canoe for our English readers). We scored a small victory in the game of 'rip off the tourist' when we managed to sneak ourselves into a lagoon without having to pay the entrance fee because it was the hottest part of the afternoon and therefore naptime for the locals.

After watching an incredible sunset over the bay, we sat down to dinner and were astonished to find the most intricately carved food sculptures we had ever come across adorning the various dishes. The chef had evidently taken more time creating them than the food, but michelangelo himself couldn't have carved better potato monkeys, carrot birds, or melon limestone karsts.

The next day we headed to Cat Ba Island and in the afternoon set off for nearby Monkey Island to view the real versions of the aforementioned monkeys. In a further example of the false advertising so prevalent in Vietnam, we were only informed upon arrival by our guide that there are actually only 12 wild monkeys on Monkey Island and they're impossible to spot, so we'd be better off going for a swim. We did see some live sea cucumbers in coolers though, which gave Meg a fright, so that was an unexpected highlight. (Just to note- they bear no relation to ACTUAL cucumbers. Google them if you must.)

That evening, we set off to track down a bar/cafe which would be showing both the England and USA football games which were being played simultaneously. After being lured into one bar with the promise of 2 for 1 on ALL DRINKS, which then turned out to exclude everything except ridiculously overpriced cocktails once we were seated, we settled on a cafe that had two TVs and promised to show both games. We were packed off to a nearby restaurant owned by the uncle of the girl at the cafe, which will be the subject of another post. On our return to the cafe we settled in only to discover at the last minute that neither of the two TVs was showing the USA game, and the fridge was broken so the beer was warm. Our American travelling companions gamely chalked it up to yet another example of false advertising and we watched the England game whilst sipping on cans of warm lager.

We sailed back through the bay the next morning in the mist, and spent a peaceful hour at the prow of the boat watching entranced as karsts appeared and disappeared in the gloom. Then it was back to Hanoi and the warm welcome of the staff at the Win Hotel (if you're looking for cheap accommodation in Hanoi, stay there! They are so sweet and helpful.) and then to Hong Kong to see Sandra and Stu, and eat some much-missed cheese and yoghurt and drink tea with actual milk in it...

On the trail

After 7 nights in Hoi An we managed to prise ourselves away from the beautiful beaches and headed back to Hanoi. We took the fourteen hour overnight sleeper train in the relative luxury of a 'soft sleeper berth'. Our compartment comprised of four beds - us on one side of the cabin and a Vietnamese family of four on the other! Fortunately their two young girls were well behaved and slept most of the journey.

The streets of Hanoi were crazy; every junction seems to be viewed as a test of a driver's courage as hundreds of motorbikes pour through with horns blazing without slowing down. It's a surprise that we didn't see more than two road accidents and one dead body during our stay. Fortunately the body had been dead for 41 years and belonged to Ho Chi Minh.

Our trip to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum was a bizarre experience and the Vietnamese approach to queuing provided as much interest as looking at the waxy embalmed body. The museum is only open from 8am - 11:30am and with the dress code which forbids shorts and sleeveless shirts we arrived early to beat the queues and the oppressive heat which was all the more unbearable in trousers. We queued for an hour in a long line of mostly Vietnamese who took every possible opportunity to try and sneak past us.

Once inside the mausoleum a large number of guards kept the shuffling queue moving and we passed around the glass case containing the peaceful looking body. For many of the local Vietnamese it appeared to be an emotional experience to see their former leader, and they pressed together their hands and bowed their heads as they passed.

The rest of our time in Hanoi was spent visiting air conditioned museums and galleries in an attempt to escape the heat and learn about Vietnamese history and culture. Our evenings were spent drinking local draught beer at 15p a glass, and trying to keep Meg out of the shops . . . especially those selling lanterns.