Vietnam
I expected Ho Chi Minh City to be much the same as Bangkok but it is quite different. It is still hot and roads busy and fast moving but there is a definite charm and character about the place which we warm to straight away.
The local currency is the Dong ($1NZ = 10000 Dong and £1 = 30000 Dong) so for a short time we can enjoy being millionaires!
We are staying in the Grand Hotel which is built in French colonial style architecture like many other buildings in the city and it is within a couple of minutes walk from the Saigon river.
Our first full day is spent investigating the city. We see the Notre Dame Cathedral and then visit the Reunification Hall which was formerly the Presidential Palace. Communist tanks crashed through the palace gates in 1975, marking the end of the Vietnam War. Louise and Daniel are fascinated by the tanks and fighter aircraft in the grounds so we tell them a bit about the war and then we go inside the main building and down to the basement there are the radio rooms and war control rooms. After a brief ice cream stop, we wander down the wide open streets until we get to the Ben Thanh market. It is packed with stalls selling everything you can imagine, it is buzzing and we pick up a tapestry picture and some more silk. Everywhere we go, people are fascinated by the kids, they are taking it all in their stride.
Yesterday we took a two hour drive out of the city to the Mekong Delta. On the way we passed paddy fields and stopped to watch local Vietnamese people in their familiar “light shade” bonnets harvesting the rice. At the Mekong Delta we take a boat across the river to see local life along the tributaries. A huge variety of tropical fruit is grown here, we get to try some whilst listening to some local music (the instruments are interesting but the singing is warbled at best!), we also see coconut candy making and Ben bravely pokes his finger into a beehive to taste the honey. We then get into a sampan (a small open canoe type boat), sitting carefully to keep it balanced, and we row through some of the canals.
There are great restaurants here: on our first night we ate traditional Vietnamese at a place called the Lemongrass; the following day we had a Vietnamese BBQ – cooking on a hot plate in the middle of the table and yesterday we went to the Underground where they do great Mexican. The food is fantastic and very cheap.
On our last full day we took a tour out the Cu Chi tunnels – about 250km of underground tunnels and rooms built by the Viet Con during the war. Our guide, Chou was fantastic, bringing the whole experience to life for Louise and Daniel. We were not subjected to the propaganda videos you hear about but we did get to see the many traps that were setup with their vicious spikes, examples of the camouflage used and the some of the rooms (like the weapons room and kitchen) built into the network of tunnels. The kids scramble and we crawl through about 100m of the tunnels – they are dark and stifling with different levels and routes – it is difficult to imagine how the soldiers lived and fought a war from here for 20 years.
Vietnam photosVietnam is definitely a place we’d like to explore more of sometime …
Bangkok
We arrive into Bangkok late at night, the heat hits as we get off the plane and the whole place is bustling with people and cars. It is very different to anywhere else we have ever visited.
The first morning we got in a tuk-tuk and travelled across the city, it was quite an experience!! A tuk-tuk is basically a moped with a covered trailer at the back – we squeezed in and then the driver took to the streets – it was scary stuff, these guys weave in and out of the traffic and because it is all open, you also get quite close to everything that is whizzing past. We discovered first hand why this form of transport is so cheap – not only do you risk life and limb but we also had various shop stops en route where the driver gets some sort of backhander for taking unsuspecting tourists in the hope that they will buy the suits, gems or whatever else is on sale. We found it all quite an eye opener but as there was the four of us at least we could have a laugh about it all. It could easily have felt quite intimidating. From there we took a boat trip down some of the canals off the river, the water was very mirky but it was really interesting to see where locals live right on the river – a real contrast to the high tech shops of downtown Bangkok. In the evening at the hotel we had a Thai meal with a show afterwards, it didn’t disappoint, the costumes were amazing, beautiful silk and very colourful.
We survived the heat, luckily the hotel had a good swimming pool so we were able to cool off each afternoon. We went to the Grand Palace which had temples galore and was full of gold statues and the odd Buddha. Everyone seemed to be fascinated by the kids – I think it must be good luck in Thailand to have one of each as lots of people oohed and aaghed about the fact that we had a boy and a girl. Daniel got used to people just wanting to touch him and Louise even had her photo taken with some Asian tourists.
You can’t visit Bangkok without a bit of shopping and we certainly did our bit. Ben had a casual suit tailor made, Louise bought a purple kimono and Daniel found a dragon paper light. We got into the whole haggling business and had quite a lot of fun, although I’m not sure we bagged any “real” bargains!
Bangkok photos
Our last week in Lyttelton
Our last week came around all too quickly.
It started with our leaving party at the school last Sunday, our year in the South Island has been centred around the school so it was kind of John Thawley to let us use the library. Rosie and Liza had decorated the place and we had a lovely autumn afternoon, the kids were able to play outside and organised a game of soccer against the adults. About 60 of our friends turned up and everyone brought photos and we made an album up on the spot.
Mid week and the house got packed up … we’re getting quite good at doing this bit now!
For the rest of the week, we stayed with our friends Julie and Steve, Morgan and Lily back in Lyttelton. Anne has hardly left my side all week as we try to cram in as much time as possible together. Wednesday lunchtime and Ben had a BBQ at work to say farewell - he was given some duty free vouchers and also came home on Friday with his laptop (in lieu of a few hours work!!!). Louise and Daniel were both given a certificate with photos and signatures from all their friends and had a bit of a party at school on Friday.
I went out for a drink with my girl friends on Friday night, down at the Lava Bar - Rosie, Kim, Sue, Carey, Anne and Julie - we had lots of laughs.
On Saturday we spent the afternoon with the Rossies (Liza has taught both Louise and Daniel and we had Christmas with them at Rapaki) so that Louise could play with Lucy and then in the evening we stayed with Rosie, had a lovely meal and a last game of late night cards. This morning before leaving I dropped in to see Anne - we both howled - he has written me a lovely note, well actually the cast and ideas for a movie script of our life in Lyttelton - hilarious. We are lucky to have made so many friends.
friends from Lytteltonviews around Lyttelton, Mt Pleasant and SumnerTamaki villageFinally on Saturday we drove through the tunnel and out of Lyttelton for the last time and spent the afternoon on the beach in Kaikoura and then on to Picton ready for the ferry journey across to the North Island.
We're on the move again
You may have noticed a certain lack of activity on our journal over the past couple of months, partly that’s because I’ve got some catching up to do on the writing front (there are some updates which have now appeared earlier in the blog) but mainly it’s because we have been consumed by our decision to stay in NZ or return to the UK.
Most of you know the outcome so it’s not really news anymore but it has taken us this long to be feel able to put it down on “paper”. It’s all very well having the ideal of keeping the blog real but our raw thoughts a couple of weeks ago might not have been the most sensitive, never mind the chopping and changing and prevaricating we have done ever since (David, you got it spot on in your recent email)!!
So, after a fantastic year in NZ we are coming back to the UK.
This weekend, reality hit and we have finally started getting organised … the house looks like a bombsite with clothes and paperwork everywhere but we’ve done it once so the return journey should be a breeze in comparison (that’s the theory anyway!). Ben’s last day at work and the kids last day at school will be 1st June. We are then going to spend a few weeks travelling around the north island, before heading back to the UK via Bangkok and Vietnam (Saigon).
We arrive back in England on 4th July and we’ll spend the first few days with Ben’s mum and Paul (granny and grandpa). The plan all looks a bit hazy after that point – we hope to return to Oxfordshire but much will depend on Ben’s job hunt. Assuming we can find somewhere to stay, Louise and Daniel will go back to Longcot and Fernham School for the last couple of weeks of the summer term. I am starting back at RM in September, I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be doing but Gillian has been very positive about having me back.
I definitely have mixed feelings about returning to work (sorry to shatter any illusions out there!!). Before I left the UK I found it very difficult to get excited by the corporate rat race and 18 months on that has only strengthened feelings, but if I have to work anywhere, then I’m pleased it will be with RM. That’s not to say that I’m not committed to doing a great job, I am and I’m sure that I’ll get back into it all fairly quickly (she says quickly back tracking after potentially career limiting statements!) but I have enjoyed not juggling three things at once, spending time with the kids, having time to walk the hills and dabbling with a bit of writing and a photography.
At this point, Ben jokes (I hope) of now spending a year of leisure but actually he has loved his job at Insite Technology. It’s a small company so he’s had a really wide ranging role as Hardware Manager, getting involved in bid work for new contracts, technical strategy, being the IS manager (friends at RM might appreciate the irony in that one) and has surprised even himself about how much he has enjoyed not just managing a team but motivating a team and driving improvements through the business. Giving this up and stepping into the unknown will be a bit scary but also opens up new opportunities. Jan, the general manager at Insite, is disappointed and probably feeling a bit let down that Ben is leaving. Jan really stuck her neck out to offer Ben the job in the first place and subsequently has done everything within her power to help us to stay. It was a very close call.
We are very settled here and there is no doubt that living by the sea, financial security and the opportunity to try new things with our life have been very difficult to turn our backs on. It has certainly tested what we believe in and for someone used to being a decision maker, the parameters in this one have been at times, agonising. We have had more than one u-turn in the process. But just like we were proud that we had the courage to uproot our lives and come here in the first place, we are equally pleased to say that we can stand by our conviction that family is important too and is ultimately what brings us home. We have made some very special friends here and we will miss them hugely, the reality of travelling is that inevitably you end up with friends all over the world. Louise and Daniel have had some fantastic “firsts” since we have been here – settling in to a new school, learning Maori, flying over mountains, walking on icebergs, surfing, rock climbing … equally they’ll love going on holiday with granny and grandpa in their caravan, spending time with grandma and grandad in Edinburgh and just spending time at home playing Star Wars or horses. Life is very simple.
We look forward to the next part of our adventure, travelling on our way back and then spending the summer in the UK
