Da Nang in Vietnam

A four hour trip from Auckland to Melbourne.  Then 8 hours Melbourne to Ho Chih Minh City.
After that 1 and 1/2 hours to Da Nang.

Looks easy written out, just your butt turns to concrete in the process.

The 2 hours in Ho Chih Minh City airport were obviously not sufficient, because you have to factor in the customs and visa checks.

This is a city of 10 million people, and so the airport is a busy one.  The trick is to have an electronic visa done before you go, so all you supposedly have to do is walk up to a Visa window before going to the passport control and have them stamp this.

After queueing for half an hour, the man said no need, just go to passport control.

An hour in the queue for them only to be told no good, and then to be taken back to the visa window to get the back of the visa stamped and initialled.

By which time we start assuming we have missed our connecting flight, so down to get our bags.  Oops, one of them is missing!  It's only a bag, it's only a missed flight, so why stress, but you still do.  Note to self: sometimes travelling is a stressful business, so travelling is to be avoided.

If ever anyone from Vietnam Customs Department ever reads this, please consider:

1. Why not make the customs man stamp the Visa?

2. Your government spends money advertising Vietnam as a destination for tourists, so why make them wait an hour in a queue?

3. If you are trying to create a good impression, might it be an idea to have the customs man give a smile? Even a smirk would do.

So off to the domestic terminal where they say: 6pm flight, its only 10 to 6, sure you can get on that.  Seems they were running a bit late anyway.

This is Da Nang from a distance, to give an idea of size:

We had heard the traffic in Vietnam is a bit different to ours.  

You can say that again, as the trip from the airport to the hotel had the flavour of a race track or dodgems or something like that.  Most terrifying are the intersections where it is a bit like the formations of marching girls where every one is going at right angles to each other and just missing each other.

To go with all this is much tooting of horns.  It takes a while to realize this is not a hostile thing, more of a communication device. 

After being there a while you realize there are rules that they seem to use but from the outside it appears there are none. Never did figure out what they were.

A walk around the block near to the hotel was quite interesting:

Then there was an ultra modern coffee bar, complete with fishpond out the front:

Hue

Our first trip was to Hue, with a driver and a guide. We were with friends who had been there before and they said this was the best way to go. 


So we were introduced to Huyen Trang, and I can recommend her as an excellent guide.  
She lives in Hoi An, which is close to Da Nang, about 20 minutes away.
Her mobile is +84 387 117 888

Here she is, the smile says it all and she is wonderful company.  Not only that, but she went the extra mile on a couple of occasions:

1. I went back to the airport to get my lost bag, but it seems you cannot go from the outside world into the arrival hall for obvious reasons.  But that is where the lost bag office is.....
She was able to talk to the airline concerned and someone came out with the bag.

2. The husband of the friends we with had his wallet stolen while under the dragon bridge.
Yes, everyone but the silly tourists know that the dragon spouts water after the fire!
In the ensuing melee, he had his wallet taken from a pants pocket.
Huyen made several visits to the police station with him to allow him to receive the form that says it was a theft, so insurance claims can be settled. You could almost bet this is a very common occurence when the dragon show is on.

Apart from that incident, it feels like a safe place.

Hue is where generations of kings had their palaces. Each one seemed to have the need to build a palace for themselves, so everywhere seems to be a palace.

Some of them were quite ornate:

The French invaded around 1858 and took over most of Vietnam calling it Indochina. They kept the idea of kings but these men had no real power.

Vietnam seems to have suffered a lot from invading forces. The Chinese ruled Vietnam for at least nine centuries. Then they had the French. Then they had the Americans.  

Then off to the Perfume River to check out a pagoda:

This is a typical restaurant:

My Son

The next day we went to area called My Son.

It was a drab, overcast day, so not shown in it's best light:

This is an area just to the west of Da Nang that was discovered by the French somewhere around 1950s. It is a complex of several Hindu temples.

Built in the 4th and the 14th century by the kings of Cham. 

All built in carved sandstone.

Bomb craters from the Americans are still there.

We have moved house. Just sort of happened, and we cannot believe how quickly it all came about.

We were thinking of someday moving into a retirement village.

A little explanation of how this works in New Zealand is in order. Here, you normally never own the unit you move into, but pay money to a large firm that specializes in these for a "right to occupy".

The money you pay is put into a trust account, and is not accessible by that firm.
When you die, the money is taken out, and most will go to your heirs, but the company takes it cut at that time.

Usually, the company takes about 20 percent. So what does the twenty percent go towards? Part of it is the company's profit, and part of it goes towards building new villages. So suppose if your unit price was $500,000, then the company's cut would be $100,000.

So if you managed to live for say five more years, the price to you is around $20,000 per year. What you get for this is the following:

The outside maintenance of grounds and building.
A lounge.
A library.
A media room, showing movies several times a week.
A cafe with subsidized food and drink.
A bar, where every Thursday are free drinks.
A gym.
A swimming pool.
A men's shed.
A hairdressing salon.
A restaurant, with subsidized food.
Round the clock security, with monitored alarms.
A bowling green.
A craft room.

The popularity of all this is in the fact that by the time you spend all your dough on this, you are dead anyway, so who cares! The only losers are your heirs.

There is a fee, payable weekly, in our case $129, which covers water, council rates, and insurance of the building, plus waste management. In our case this fee is fixed for the whole of your stay.

One of the things I thought I would absolutely hate doing is living in an apartment. But so far, it seems to be working out fine. The area where we came to has a beach a kilometer away, which is nice to go for swims in the summer time.

We have visited other retirement villages and the outlook is always of another unit, or a roadway, so the big attraction of this one is the view of bush out the window.

Melbourne September 2019

Probably one of our last overseas trips as I am officially not employed now.

Day 1. Sunday 8.9.19.

Funny how it takes all day to travel 4 hours on an aeroplane.  All the usual stuff like customs etc, seems more tiresome than ever.

We arrived in the evening with no fixed idea of how to get to our apartment, which is like a hotel room, but has cooking facilities.  This was located on City Road, in the Southbank area.

Coming out of the arrivals we thought we would try an airport bus. Lucky us, as one of the stops was 100m from our apartment.  Way cheaper than a taxi at $17.50 each.

The apartment was on the 19th floor and had fairly good views of the river.

Day 2. Monday 9.9.19

We decided to relive previous a previous visit and check out Melbourne Central, a nice shopping arcade with a shot tower and musical clock. A lot of walking involved, it appears I did around 7 km.

By the way, a good thing to know is that all the trams in the central district are free!

Getting back to the apartment, one of us rested, while I went to a nearby Coles grocery store to get one of their famous chickens for not much.  The idea was we would eat in mostly. So for $50 I collected: One chicken, one bag coleslaw, one coleslaw sauce, loaf of bread, small pack of butter, box of muesli and  4 bananas.

Day 3. Tuesday 10.9.19

Up to Victoria Markets, then on to Lygon St. The markets were busy, but Lygon St noticeably dead.
Looking at our options, a bus tour of the Mornington Peninsuala seemed a good idea at the time.
At $135 each it did not seem a good deal, no lunch included.  Looking up rental cars, we ended up paying around $130 for one day (used $22 petrol) for an Avis one.  Seems a good company, the car was our favourite, a Hyundai i30.

Day 4. Wednesday 11.9.19

Picked up the rental car and headed south down the St Kilda Rd for Mornington.
Nothing terribly scenic, apart from the surf beach right at the end, although you cannot really do justice to a large area like this in one day. Had a distinctly nice beachy feel, which could be good in summertime.

Day 5. Thursday 12.9.19

A ferry trip to Williamstown, leaving from near Flinders station.  A reasonable price and a good trip.
Williamstown that day seemed very empty, not good business for the cafes along the frontage.
Went for a walk in the suburbs, fairly ordinary looking old houses.

Day 6. Friday 13.9.19

After storing bags at reception we had 3 hours to kill and had a look at Direct Fashion Outlet, where it was decided that a trip on the Round the City tram might be more fun.  Getting on the tram it proved a very slow trip, and halfway round we bailed out and headed back to collect bags and get on the airport bus.

Our flight was 18.35 Melbourne time, but by the time we got home it was 2am.  A bit tiring!

The Sunshine Coast

Never heard of it.  Where is that you might say. This is a quick guide of what we found in a short five day stay.

It is an area just north of Brisbane, Australia. The first thing to realise is that it is a big area, with motorways and country roads all over the place.

Our stay was in two places, first in Caloundra, the second in Marcoola Beach.

The first was a hotel in a place called Golden Beach, which is strange because the sand was white, not yellow.  A yellow sand Aussie beach is a wonderful thing.

Golden Beach is on a tidal inlet with a sheltering island, with sandy mudflats showing most of the time. We were lucky to stay in a nice hotel right on the beach, with a view from the third floor.

All along the beach front is a pedestrian walkway with trees and so on.  Beautifully kept and well used by everyone, who seemed upbeat and friendly, with lots of toy dogs.

If you come here, rent a car, as there are buses, but you would never get a bus to the places we went to.

Our car was a small one, a Hyundai i30.  What a great little car.

Our first outing was a day trip to the Glass House Mountains. Apparently millions of years ago, magma bulged up through weaknesses in the earth's crust, then as years went by the uplifted ground eroded away, leaving spiky outcrops, looking vaguely like glass houses.

Some spectacular views from a lookout, coffee at a cafe overlooking Mango trees, with a butcher bird coming to the window edge to thieve some chips someone left behind.

We were told the small towns were nice and so headed for Maleny and Mapleton.

On the way got quite high up, and got some really nice views.  The towns were ok, but did not look that old, but there was the odd old building.

Back in Caloundra we did a drive around the sea front, which is quite a built up area with apartments.  Seems a popular retirement area. Nice oceanside beaches there too.

On our way to Marcoola, about 30k north, we visited the local air museum, no government funding, just a volunteer run thing.  Then off to the main shopping area to a second hand book shop for some books.  We came back to our car to find a traffic warden about to write us a ticket.  Oops, looks like the sign said 2P in big letters and in smaller writing "meter".

He was good though and said, well you are here now so no problem. We got chatting. It turns out he was a kiwi.  As was the man at the air museum.  As was the girl on the desk at the hotel. So this is where they all are!

Wednesday we decided to check out Noosa and the farmers market at Eumundi.

We had heard Noosa was a posh area, and had in mind that there would be lots of big mansions, but while the houses were nice, they not that ostentatious.

The main shopping street is nicely done up, we went up and down both sides and had coffee in a nice cafe on the beach front. A beautiful beach with nice pedestrian paths around the hills at the beach end.

We thought the markets at Eumundi might be big, but were surprised at just how big.

Not a chance of seeing all the stalls, so had an ice cream and a German sausage for lunch on the hoof.

So here we are, last day.  About to go check out the mall at nearby Maroochydore, which will no doubt be the same as malls everywhere, but you never know.

My swims at Golden Beach were not cold exactly, but not warm.  At Marcoola there was a wind blowing, so even with the sun shining it was not a lot of fun.  The hotel pool was tepid, but again, not warm enough to encourage you to stay a while.

Tree Appreciation 101

Tree Appreciation 101.

The idea is you look carefully at trees you come across and consider carefully their shape, leaf effect and so on.  We (well most of us), after childhood, just tend to walk past trees and our mind says:
It's just a tree.

A tree is not just a tree. It is an awesome product of mother nature, which we are lucky enough to
wonder at.

So, steps in Tree Appreciation 101:

1.  First, consider it's general shape.  Is it the shape of a ball?  Is it tall and cylindrical? Squashed and like a plate? 

2. Now consider it's symmetry.  Is it all pushed over at one side?  Ask yourself why is that?
For these reasons, check where North is, and where the prevailing wind comes from.  We have a Westerly prevailing wind and it often pushes trees to one side.

3. Consider it's leaves. Are they large or small, shiny or matt? Do you think they are nice looking, if so why?

4. This might need a closer look: What colour is the bark? Is there any lichen on it? What is the texture of the bark?

5. Check out the branches: Are they tortuous, or smooth and lean looking? There is an old Judas Tree near where I live that has branches like corkscrews.

6. Now start on the things that are not seen.  Start with the roots. Imagine you have XRay eyes and can see through the earth and look at the roots.  Feel with your mind: Is it damp or dry soil?  Put yourself in the mind of the tree: how do your roots feel? Nourished? Plenty of water or a bit dry?

7. Look at the trunk: Imagine the tiny bits of water making their way up inside the trunk.

8. Imagine you are inside one of the leaves: have you lots of water to get rid of via the underside?  How about any gases you might be sucking in from the atmosphere? What about giving out oxygen?

 9. Put yourself in the tree's mind. Does it feel happy? Or sad? Why?


Another idea is to imagine you are from another planet, say a desert type one, and you are seeing earth for the first time. Starts to look like an amazing place!

There is a theory that the earth is a living being, which would be nice if it were true-you can almost imagine all things on the surface are connected in some way to the inner earth .

The "Toe-Runner" phenomenon

I keep telling people about this and they always look politely attentive and make no comment.  Could it be they think I have finally gone fully crazy?

This all started when we lived in Waterview, Auckland, about 10 years ago.  We would take our dog "Carly" for a walk around the block.

We noticed that while walking down our quiet suburban street, sometimes a car would decide to come out of it's driveway, and "run across our toes", hence giving rise to the phrase "toe-runner".

Alternatively, on a street with no traffic, the minute we decided to cross the road, a car would appear from nowhere, and "run across our toes".

Ok, once or twice is coincidence.  Except we began to notice it happened almost every time we went out.

Then we noticed it applied to driving as well-you might be coming down a country road with zero traffic and some person trying to get out of their driveway, and you are holding them up.  This is a case of "reverse toe running"

Even now, if I decide to walk the 3km to work, there will be a someone trying to drive across my toes.

After a while, you suspect the universe is playing games with you......

A Blog from Misty the cat

Hi there. My name is Misty and I live in New Zealand with my two humans.

My story is short as I am only three years old.

Here is is pic of me as a kitten in 2015:

I am what is known as a tortoiseshell.  This means my fur pattern looks a bit like the shell of a tortoise.  Tortoiseshells are almost always female.  They are also known for their naughty nature, hence the name "naughty tortie".  I am not a cuddly cat, and if you get too familiar, you will get a warning nip or a bat across the face.  Having said that, I do enjoy sitting all over my two humans.

My story starts in Tauranga, where I was born.  At some time in January 2015, I was a kitten, a bit lost and trying to cross the road, and was hiding in the gutter considering my next options when one of the metal turtles stopped and a human with long hair got out, approached and picked me up.

She took me to the only house nearby where someone leaned out the window and probably said that I was a stray.

Huh?! So I get a terrifying trip to Auckland in the metal turtle. Well, I had to go toilet somewhere didn't I?

I immediately settled in my new home in Auckland and set about the wearisome task of educating my two humans.  I had a great kitten hood, getting under the house, avoiding other cats, and catching crickets, and running along 1800mm high fences.

About May 2015 my humans shifted house to Pukekohe, a little town about 40 minutes south of Auckland.  I enjoyed this move as there is a pond just over the back fence, with ducks, frogs and so on.

Here is me all grown up:

In the new house the humans have not installed a cat door, so I have to tell them I want to come in by launching myself at the bedroom ranch slider.

At one stage they used to leave the bathroom window open so I could come and go as I pleased.
And I did, sometimes at 3am with a mouse or bird or cricket in my mouth, whereupon the human with no hair would swear at me and remove the livestock and if alive put it back outside.

Sometimes they got very grumpy, like the time I brought a frog in to show them how smart I am.
These things scream like a baby!  The final straw was the night I brought in a rat.  This involved much excitement from the human with no hair, and confining of me and the rat in the spare bedroom where he indicated I should grab the rat and take it back outside.  I was not too keen on that idea, as now I could see it clearly, it looked a bit too big, so I decided I would just keep up a watching brief.
I will not go into the disposal details here, but I believe it involved an axe.

So after that the bathroom window was shut at night and I have to knock on the ranch slider to be let in.  A body search for livestock is then performed.

For a while, I used to catch little birds called swallows and leave the skull and a few feathers at the front door.  The human with no hair really loves these birds and he asked me not to be killing them, so I have laid off doing that lately. Or is it that I have become a bit heavier and unable to leap the required 1500mm off the ground?