Tam Dao adventures

A couple of weekends ago we went to the Animal Asia Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao.  I'm not a person who's particularly excited about bears but I am one who gets excited about day trips. It took a couple of hours from Hanoi and surprisingly the roads out there are really, really good (I still flashback to the KOTO Ba Vi bike ride and the bum pain from the dirt roads).

Despite trying very hard to track down any sort of address online I couldn't find anything specific so I figured (hoped) that we would just "find it". Funnily enough, as we were driving up the mountain it was the first thing we came across. Phew!

The bears were awesome and so so cute. There were so many of them too! Some looked like little lions and some looked very hungover. My favourite of course was pensive tunnel bear. Biiiig night.

Afterwards we went up to Tam Dao and visited the Mela Hotel and the pool. Many of the things online mention this is an awesome place to swim. It isn't. Jade murky green. You do not want to swim in this pool/pond. On the upside it's an awesome place to sit and have a drink.

From here we walked behind the hotel down to what I though was the Silver Waterfall. Turns out there's the Silver Waterfall and Silver Fall. This was the less impressive one (I thought it didn't look as rad as the photos). It was pretty steep going down and painful walking back up. It partly explains why our driver laughed and said 'no' when we asked if he wanted to come down.

What you can't tell from the photos is that is smelled and there was rubbish and suspicious bubbles in the water. But don't we look happy?

We tried to do more touristy things after but after 1 temple fail (they do look all the same after a while after all) we headed back to Hanoi. Hungry. Very hungry. Just when we (me) thought we'd die of starvation I made us stop for corn by the roadside.

Sometimes you see 10 roadside shops selling the exact same thing and you wonder how they all compete. The secret? Inceptioning you. For example, 'hey look it's a corn stall', 'hey look it's another corn stall', 'hey look it's another corn stall', 'hmm I like corn', 'hey look it's another corn stall', 'maybe we should have some corn', 'that's it we're stopping at the next corn stall' etc.... That's how.

Anyhoo, as exciting as it was eating fresh corn on the roadside next to a cornfield is, the corn as actually pretty crap. It tasted like an old waterlogged rag. Ew.

5 Things I found out in Hong Kong

ONE. I can't speak Chinese. Obvious I know, huh? However, this certainly became clearer surrounded by Cantonese and understanding lots, but not actually being able to put what I needed to say together properly. Life fail.

TWO. To my surprise there are Mandarin speaking people everywhere. This includes "has no idea" woman who replaced "onto it guy" calling out numbers at yum cha. You can't call out numbers only in Mandarin. Not fair.

THREE. There are heaps and heaps of people. Like, HEAPS. I certainly do not remember this from my trip there years ago. We were in Mong Kok and were shocked to be swept up in a tidal wave crowd of people. We even had to ask if it was "normal".

FOUR. I am not as weird as I thought- being in my 20's and still holding on to a passionate love of Hello Kitty and all things cute, you often get certain 'wow that's a bit funny/weird' vibes from people. Almost everyone has laughed at my Hello Kitty phone case *sad face*. Going to Hong Kong has confirmed my suspicion that Asians have an inbuilt gene to love cute stuff. It was everywhere- from an air hostess with bear earrings to old people with Mickey Mouse t-shirts to bank promotions. And I freakin loved it.

FIVE. It's really easy to get around. And the city isn't scary. The train is great and is almost on par with Bangkok's BTS. Their Airport Express puts Sydney to shammmme. I'm not even going to bother comparing Vietnam.

So we went to Bali and Singapore

...and Bali was surprisingly awesome. Yep, people do love it for good reason.

And then there was Singapore. I don't know what I loved more, Gardens By The Bay or eating way too much chilli crab. My guess for Johnny that it was buying not 1, but 3 pairs of shoes (in less than an hour). 

Saigon...not so bad after all

Last weekend we went to HCMC - Johnny for work and me just to tag along. I didn't want to go actually but I'm glad I did because I became a little less of of a city hater. I still felt a tad claustrophobic but I caught up with Nikki and after we had cupcakes at L'usine, checked out a few boutiquey clothes stores and had a drink at Decibel I was a little more sold. Staying at the New World Hotel on the fancy executive floor in a bed I can only describe as a giant silk nest giving you hugs probably helped too.

Other highlights included eating Beard Papa, Warda and The Deck (staples), buying the above bunny and dinosaur knick knacks (whose names are now Nibbles & Bits) and Johnny surprising me with a new ukulele (may or may not have had something to do with him getting insanely drunk the night before).

In other news, back here in Hanoi we're putting our new Accor card to good use. You have to buy it but it means you get a free night in any worldwide hotel AND, this is the best part, 50% food at any of the hotels. You know what that means? 50% off at our beloved Metropole. #win

It's only recently occurred to us that we're heading off the Bali and Singapore next week too. #doublewin. Can't wait!

Hoi An: Fantastic and fantastically bad timing

Fantastic timing: Getting back to Vietnam from Sydney just in time to make Johnny's annual work trip to Hoi An. It doesn't look like there's much work on his behalf getting done here but trust me there is. It's would just make a really boring photo.

Fantastically bad timing: Since we went to Hoi An last year there wasn't much we were itching to do except one thing- visit the amazing restaurant Morning Glory (hands down the best Vietnamese food I've had ever anywhere). We saved this for the last day and when we got there we found they were closed for renovations. That's okay I thought, they owned other restaurants I figured would be just as good. Nope, they were all closed for renovations. *Insert devastation here*

On a side note, we made a little more effort to "do something" this time round and visited the Champa ruins at Mỹ Sơn. To be honest it wasn't terribly exciting but it was worth the trip just to walk through the forest full of huge butterflies down a little path that felt like it led to nowhere (they actually said not to bother walking down there). It was also very exciting on the trip out there to see a football field full of cows and a hot pink house. Hot pink! Such a shame I couldn't score a photo but it was real I swear.

Malaysia: That Place In Asia

Novelty frame

This was very, very exciting

I don't know who they were but they were dancing at the wedding

Family portrait

Watching Australia play badly in the World Cup

My dad turns into putty

Babbys

Tea ceremony

OH MY GOD IT"S A GIANT LION

Assam Laksa. NOM.

Daphne showing how it's done Penang

Malaysia was a funny trip. First of all, I didn't know how long I was going to be there for (I bought a 1 way ticket)- all we knew was we were there for a wedding. Secondly, it was a cast of thousands. Not only was there already a whole heap family there already, add 8 others from Australia. As a result, we were "going with the flow"- something which as you get older suddenly feels more and more scary.

The highlights:
:: Being surrounded by lots and lots of family. This includes Daphne being let out of the country (whoo), seeing my super cute nephew Callum, and lots and lots of new babies. I also now have a much better grip on my dads family tree.

:: FOOD. Although later on in the trip I felt physically overwhelmed and sick from constant eating, I can't say I'm not proud. It's true, Malaysian are obsessed with food. Even if you're already eating at the time, every conversation is about food and the next meal.

:: Naps. I'm pretty sure one day Johnny and I had three of them.

:: Staying in a hotel in the city for the first time. This was pretty exciting cause I'd never stayed in the middle of it all before. We were still in bed at a pretty decent hour...

:: Seeing all the traditional Chinese wedding customs and almost having an asthma attack from fireworks.

:: Visiting Melaka for the second time in ten years. I had completely forgotten it. It's positively kitsch and cute. It's fun being a tourist sometimes.

:: Going on a road trip to Penang. This was pretty much an eating tour. It was great being near a beach, but the real highlight was listening to an Auntys story about how there was a ghost was in her bed!! She actually held on to the end of the trip to tell us because she didn't want to scare us! We also went to a spice garden where out guide told us that nutmeg, cinnamon and star anise will kill us. In so many words.

:: Catching the bus to Singapore. I caught an Aeroline coach and it was one of the best travelling experiences EVER. I can't recommend it enough. A return ticket cost about $60AUD and they serve you lunch as well. Every seat had it's own little tv with movies and music you could choose. It was just like a flight except pick-up and drop off points were in convenient locations and there was stuff to look at outside. From beginning to end it was almost exactly 5 hours including a pitstop.

:: Hanging out with Ray in Singapore. Again with the food. One day included eat yum cha, going to have cake and coffee, talking entirely about what to have for dinner, then going to dinner. Singapore itself blew me away. Everything was beautiful and well looked-aftered. You could tell there was thought put into everything unlike you know where (Vietnam).

:: Being ready to come home. I actually missed it. Who would have thought?

*Disclaimer: Because Johnny could only stay 4 days because of work he actually missed out on most of these highlights which sucks. On the upside, how lucky am I to be sent on holiday? At dinner last night we talked about how even though it sometimes it's hard living here and away from everyone, we actually have it really, really good.