Thursday, April 26, 2007

Hello Hanoi!

You would be right in thinking that our first (and main) destination is Europe, and Italy in particular. However we are squeezing Vietnam into the mix, and actually spent a day in Hanoi as part of our stopover on the way over. And boy were we were glad to have a day out of planes being able to stretch our legs and feel like human beings again.



So we left Sydney on Monday morning, got off the plane in Ho Chi Minh City in order to show our passports, declare ourselves to customs and immigration, and to generally be shepherded around in a confusing fashion. We then got back on a plane and landed in Hanoi at night, and were pleasantly surprised to find that the airline was incredibly organised and had someone waiting to meet us and take us to our hotel. What a relief!

The next day we had the morning to ourselves, and so decided to get a feel for the place and have a little walk and explore. Although Cam had previously been to Hanoi (twice), it had been almost 10 years, so he was eager to see any changes and experience it all again. We spent time walking around the Old Quarter, senses overwhelmed by the smells (mostly lovely), amazing range of colours, and the general noise and insanity of the scooters as they sped past (respect goes to Adam and Vanessa - you only had one accident?!).

In the afternoon we actually had a tour organised for us to keep us entertained until it was time to go to the airport. Our tour guide Hang was lovely - she took us to the Temple of Literature which is basically the first university in Hanoi established many centuries ago. If you pat the head of one of these stone turtles it is said to bring a student luck.



We then went to another temple on a lake where there was another turtle - this one was a very big stuffed fresh water turtle. Cam was very impressed and we spent the rest of the time there studying the water for signs of more (although apparently it is very rare to see them).

After this Hang took us too visit some of the shops. In Hanoi they basically have streets devoted to one product. In the morning we had visited silk street, and in the afternoon we chose clothes street. It is hard to express just how overwhelming these stores are - there are so many narrow little shops squeezed in together, the walls lined with clothing. We decided it was time for dinner and went to have some Pho, making Cam in particular very happy. After dinner we treated ourselves to a cyclo ride around the old quarter at dusk. A really lovely experience, even if crossing intersections with scooters buzzing around you can be slightly intimidating.



The rest of our evening was spent in a much less glamourous fashion - waiting at the airport for our plane, and then waiting on the plane for other passengers. Hence we left late and as a pleasant add on to this experience we are currently schlepping around Rome in the clothes that we've been wearing for the last three days. That's right, our luggage wasn't quite as efficient in changing planes as we were. Sorry about the lack of photos - the USB transfer cable is amongst the lost luggage (the airlines concerned have given us a paltry t-shirt and assure us our luggage will be here soon).

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Welcome!!

Welcome to our new blog! We wanted to keep writing about our experiences and adventures - both on our travels and beyond - but felt that the PNG blog we kept was special in that it was all about our PNG experiences. So now we have started up this one. Please tune in as we fly into Italy, and wander around Rome with Cam's sister, and then move on to unexpected and lovely places around Europe (we don't even know where we are going yet!).

The photos on this blog will probably be a lot more familiar with places our readers are more likely to recognise - we hope that you will continue to get enjoyment from reading about our experiences...