Danh Cuong wanted to experience Ten Pin Bowling so we spend last Wednesday at the alley in the Diamond Plaza building.  We had dinner before we went and we ate duck, it was very good.  There were six of us.

Trang, Huy, Danh Cuong, Su Jeong, me, Lauren.  We started out a bit shakey, but once we had a couple of turns those pins were toppling down.

There were some different techniques employed by the team and each had varying results.  But most importantly there were lots of laughs.  We bowled for an hour and in the end Danh Cuong topped the leader board.  An amazing effort considering it was his first time and also he got the only strike of the night and it was with his left hand (he is right handed)!!!!

After the bowling we needed to refuel so we went to Fly Garden for ice cream.  Interesting Vietnamese fact for you;  when we say we need to do a 1 or a 2 when going to the toilet, the Vietnamese equivalent is light and heavy…

Anyway I digress.  It was another fun night in HCM city.

One of the beautiful buildings in Ho Chi Minh is the Opera House.  We started the evening with dinner at an Italian Restaurant, Ciao Bella and they must have over heard people wishing me a happy birthday because at the end they present me with a cake and a sparkle.

At the Opera House I was lucky enough to hear  Haydn and Brahams and we had a soloist Oboe player.

They played for about 1.5 hours and we had intermission where we explored the building

It wasn’t that full but the quality of the orchestra was good and the company was great.

Elaine, Lauren, Jen, me and Dzung.

Thank you to Pip (Photographer) for organising the evening.

After my week with the Virgins it was back to work.  I was greeted by a wonderful surprise.  Not only did they create this picture for me

They also had these wonderful t-shirts made up.

We are “The Lady Gaga Motorbike Gang” and our nicknames are on the back of the t-shirt:

• Julie Millionnaire
• Teacher L (aka Lauren)
• Trang Babe
• Crazy IT (Huy)
• SJK Photographer (aka Su Jeong)

And to emphasize the point about being a millionaire, there is an extra ‘o’.

It is also a traditional at our bi-weekly staff meetings at Habitat to celebrate birthdays with a cake so I was lucky enough to share mine with Trang.

I had a wonderful birthday and it will finish on Friday 24th of June where I am hosting a party for all my Vietnamese friends.  I have had a wonderful birthday here in Vietnam and I think I am ready to welcome the next decade.

 

So after treating Ho Chi Minh to the antics of the Virgins we headed to Nha Trang about 600 km north of HCM.  When I looked at the map I saw an airport in the middle of Nha Trang so I thought it was going to be a quick ride to the hotel, so what I found out when I arrived was that the airport is 30km south of Nha Trang.  We made it to the hotel and and found some food and booked in for a massage.  I walked into the massage place and they recognized me from when I was there at the beginning of May.  We decided that I couldn’t be a spy as people always remember me! Sometimes it is not always a good thing.

We all had a massage, however Wendy got more than she bargained for.  You will have to ask her exactly what she asked for and what happened in the massage.  Maybe the policy of “What Happens in Vietnam stays in Vietnam” will apply here.

We then had ice cream for dinner, because we can and also as we had a late lunch.

The next day was one of the more extreme days of the trip.  We lounged beside the pool the whole day.

That night we went to a Spanish restaurant and had Tapas.  Susan and Wendy got dragged up onto the dance floor and danced to a Black Russian DJ.  When they finally managed to ‘escape’ the dance floor they informed us that Russian women seemed to like not wearing bras.  Interesting…

The next day we organised a tour where we had our own private car take us to a waterfall and then a mud bath after lunch.  We walked for about 20 mins to the waterfall and by the time we got there we were roasting.  We could jumped off the rocks and spent about an hour there.  I got a massive fright when something nibbled my toes.  Of course I screamed doing the same.  The fish that they have in the foot baths that eat the dead skin off your feet were in this river.

From there we headed to the mud bath and had a great afternoon in the mud and spring baths with lots of laughs.

We then had Indian for dinner.  Yes, very Vietnamese.

The next day was my birthday, and I was woken up with the presentation of a piece of chocolate cake.  My tradition is to have something sweet like this for breakfast on my birthday, and they also had balloons on my bed.

It was also Tina’s birthday in a week so we treated ourselves to a snorkelling day in a speed boat.  My version of a speed boat is different to Vietnamese, what a surprise.  Their version is more of a boat with an out rigger motor.

We had a great day and the water was colder than expected and we saw lots of fish and they put on a special lunch for us because of our birthdays.  We then went back and off to the markets via a Cyclo.  We fitted two us on there and our driver decided to go up the wrong way on the street, no so bad unless you are at the pointy end of it like I was.

We then opened the bottle of Moet that they bought for me and had the cake the hotel supplied.  Oh, and a little bit of gin:).

We then tarted ourselves out, unfortunately Sus could not make it out as she was sick.  We went to the Sailing Club and had food and a couple of beers.  After that we wondered the streets and Tina went home too, sick as well.  Vietnam had taken its toll.  We found a stall on the side of the road and bought some beers, flagged down a Cyclo and then went for a cruise of the city.

It was awesome, we could chat to each other and we looked at the night life.  The driver I had had been doing it for 32 years.  They then dropped us off at a night club.  We danced the night away for 3 hours and mingled and played pool.  We got home at about 2am which is quite a big night for this old girl.  I realised that I am now ‘middle aged’.  Very depressing and that the people in the night club could be my children!

The next day we flew back to HCM and had some Bun Cha and did a bit more shopping at the Ben Thanh Markets for some last minute gifts.  Bun Cha was our favourite meal.

Thanks to Tina, Susan and Wendy for making the massive commitment to come over and visit me.  It was a wonderful birthday present, true friends!

 

 

The Virgins are in Vietnam.  The Virgins was founded cira. 2004 and made of a group of supremely talented hockey players. Some of them decided to come over and help me celebrate my 40th birthday and they landed in Ho Chi Minh on Saturday.  Our first port of call was Bún Chả and it was a hit.  From there we wondered around the markets and tried some mangosteen and then had a rest.  I had organised massages so we indulged ourselves and topped that off with a drink at a rooftop bar.

We finished the night off with Bánh Xèo (pancakes)

Day 2 was the motorbike day.  I had created t-shirts so they were mandatory.

Front: Virgins Do Vietnam

Back: The Crew: Teeny Box (Tina), Nosweato Sisters (Wendy and Susan), Here I Am (me)

I had organised with a Xe Ôm (motorbike taxi) driver to be our driver and he brought along his son.

We kicked off at 8 am and they had their first taste of Vietnamese coffee.  Strong black coffee, with ice and condensed milk.  They were a little disappointed that the coffee was not hot, but they are now addicted to it.  We headed off for breakfast, phỏ (noodle soup).

This was Wendy and Susan’s first time of the back of a motorbike in this kind of traffic and they loved it and at the same time were a little afraid.  After breakfast we headed into town and looked around from the back of the bikes.  We then went through a tunnel and then motored to Cat Lai.  I do a lot of mountain biking around here and you need to take a ferry to get there which is fun.  We had a coffee break beside a pond of Lotus, got the feel of the countryside and then headed back to town for lunch.  On the way we stopped at the temple that Obama had visited when he was here not long ago, Phuoc Hai Temple, Emperor Jade Pagoda.  It wouldn’t be true Vietnam if you didn’t get caught in the rain, and we managed to find shelter and wait it out.

After our action packed morning we deserved a lunch and maybe a drink.  From there we went to have our nails done.  The Virgins have to look the part.

We had cocktails and had a few laughs. We were ‘told off’ repeatedly for moving our hands, it is very hard to laugh and stay still at the same time.  So as you can see it was a hard day, so the only way to finish it off is to have a few quiets.  We headed to District 2 to a Western Bar and finally we were getting reactions from our t-shirts.  “Virgins do Vietnam”.  The Vietnamese just don’t get it.

 

 

Air New Zealand has just started flights directly from Auckland to Saigon and to promote this they had an expo in the pedestrian street last weekend.  I decided to go along and see what it was all about.

They had New Zealand Apples, yogurt, and biscuits so I was into that.  They then had a group of performers from Rotorua so I got some great footage.

Poi Poi Dance

It is amazing the skill that they have.  I did this at primary school and it is very hard.

An oldie but a goodie, the Haka

Haka

They got the Vietnamese men and boys up and they taught them the Haka, which was very funny to watch.  It made me a little home sick as they had a big screen with images of New Zealand.

 

 

 

Now some people may find these images disturbing, I find them somewhat liberating.  In Australia there seems to be a law for everything, at my old work we had to hold the hand rail when we used the stairs.  Where has personal responsibility gone?  In Vietnam there is plenty of that, take care of yourself and you can’t blame someone else for it.  There is a freedom that I love.

Yes, the roads are crazy, but has mentioned before, somehow it works.  I have shown the the simple motorbike can be used to carry anything from glass to chickens and pigs.  It is also the family vehicle.  Normally you see Dad driving, with the youngest child sitting in the front and then the other child behind the Dad and in front of the Mum.

To sit the child in front of the driver they put in a stool which my brother observed looked like a tiny bar stool.  There is also a pillow that his attached around the dash board where the child can rest and also protect their head.  I have seen many kids sleeping with their head resting on the pillow.

The kids seem to be very relaxed on the motorbikes and some see to love it.  The older they are, they either stand in the foot well or are strapped on and sit behind the driver.  Below it seems the girl is reading a book.

This is the equivalent of the family car in Vietnam.  It is very economical and has free A/C.

Now you may be wondering how babies are transported around, in their mother’s arms on the back of course.

In cars there are no child seats, they just rocket around.

Lauren and I embarked on a journey that was deemed “a long way” by many of our Vietnamese friends.  In fact it was only about 25 km and took between 45 mins to 1 hour.  It seems that the Vietnamese have a similar perception of distance to Europeans.  Our destination was a clothing shop, The Young Store, which is owned and managed by our friend, Phuong who works at Habitat and her husband joined us also.  But before you go shopping you have to be well fed and watered.  We had a wonderful lunch, one of the best that I have had in Vietnam.  The rice was cooked in a clay pot and was similar consistency to sticky rice.

After lunch we went to a bamboo coffee house which was beautiful.  On the way we bought mangosteen and they are delicious.

At the coffee house we enjoyed the view of water features and ate mangosteens.

At The Young Store we tried on lots of clothes and looked at the accessories.

I think we shopped till we dropped.  After paying for our purchases, we loaded up Oscar (motorbike) and set of into the sunset home after a wonderful day.  Thank you Phuong, we loved our day.  To see more of the fashion that is on offer check out their Facebook page

The Young Store

I had an exceptional day yesterday.  I competed in the Ham Da Mountain Bike Race and it was hot and humid but thankfully no rain so the track was not that muddy.  There were 11 in the Women’s division and I was the only foreigner.  The men’s divisions were large and the older men went off before us.

We had a bitumen start so I took off like I had stolen the bike, which was probably not the wisest decision as I have done very little (aka no) training.  I ended up in 4th position at the start of the technical part.  The course consisted of gravel, rocks, mud, very short steep hills and a BMX track.  I managed to nail the BMX track that I fell off on last week!  We even had steps that we had to go over by lifting our bikes over them and I even managed to get tangled in barbed wire.  I hear you say “what is barbed wire doing on the course”.  My reply is “this is Vietnam”.

The laps were 5 km and we had three laps.  At the end of the first lap I thought I was going to die but I hung in there and got over that.  I ended up catching some of the older males that started before us.  There was one old guy, I know his race number but will not mention for fear of retaliation!  He would not let me pass and if I did he would speed up.  I managed to pass him and then we came to a very muddy part and someone had fallen in so I was waiting for them to get out of the way and the old guy just went right past me.  Some of you may find this surprising but I let him know how I felt, no swearing of course, this is a family show, anyway I got some laughs from the spectators.  I then passed him again! On one of the steep hills a child was having trouble getting up the hill so we helped him and then this old man tried to get passed me again so I hit my tyre into his and gave him a dirty look!  I never saw him again.

I finished the race and to my surprise I was approached by a TV camera.  I have done my first TV interview now and they even gave me a drink of water before I started.  They asked me what I though of the course, the competition and then at the end, how old I was.  Only in Vietnam.  The Bike Shop then put on a BBQ for our team and so we sat and ate real sausages, and beer and watched the men’s race.  I positioned myself in a good position and captured a few interesting riding techniques.  I manged to get through this section without getting off my bike.

I secured 4th position out of 11 so I was pretty happy with that effort.  To my surprise they awarded to number 7 so I was up on the podium.  I got a bike pump, a ribbon and 500,000 VND.  How many people can say they got half a million in prize money?

That is James in the photo with the white cap on who works at The Bike Shop and did a fantastic job organising our team with transport, bike support, food and drink.

Here is an article about the race and sorry that it isn’t translated, but it is basically saying how awesome I am:).

The article

I have been asked if it was a running race by a cheeky individual and I my reply is “I am giving the competition some help”

Only in Vietnam.  So I arrived back at my desk from getting a hot chocolate and my screen was closed on my laptop.  My colleague, Lauren, who I sit beside said that I had missed some excitement at the office.

Lauren had been sitting at her desk working tirelessly when there was a pop, her screen flashed and the computer got hot and started to smell.  IT was on the job quicker than flies on shit.  The charger was quickly disconnected and shown to be the problem.

I then got IT to look at my charger as part of it was held together by masking tape.  So our IT department did some extraordinary work with scissors and electrical tape and fixed my issue.  We even pulled the plug out for extra safety.  As is commonly said in the construction industry, “Safety First”.

Now you are probably wondering what the upside down stubby cooler with “Fed Ex” and a Cheese Wafer sticking out of it is doing there.  Well if you can work it out, let me know:)