Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Singapore

People everywhere and all on the move in Changi.
 
 They are serious about recycling.

Cable car to Sentosa Island
 

One of the Worlds best toilets on Mt Faber at the cable car turn around.


Cruise ship terminal in Singapore.

Sentosa is one giant fun park.
 
The bridge that doesn't allow bicycles.
We get around.
 

Our trip home

Our First taxi the wrong one and our second in the background
 
 

The early arrivers including Carol.
Yes more than an hour later and we and our bikes are the last ones .
 
Our Plane amid the smog and pollution.
I am still trying to get this shot right.
 
 
 
 
 

 

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Changi Airport

We are about to start our second last leg and last flight. Carol is off having a shower in the Ambasador lounge as I blog away. I had a swim today at Santosa Island and a shower just by the way. Our flight departs from terminal 3 at 0:45 Monday. Singapore is an amazing place it is wall to wall shopping except at Tanah Merah MRT. Changi Airport is enormous it is 10:30 pm and the place is almost all open the only shop shut is the Worlds largest Lifestyle store,,,the only one I wanted to window shop in. Our last leg will be the 5 hour drive home to Miles and our lovely comfortable soft/firm bed. The power has been off at home for the last month so the fridge and freezer are both empty. We will have to do a shop before we get home. Richard Carol's son will be picking us up from the airport and then it will be off to get Henry and then over the Great Divide and West across the Darling Downs to HOME Miles.

Singapore photos to follow when I get some time.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Heading South, Vietnam to Singapore

Well we are all packed and fully fuelled for a another day of taxis, airports and planes. We just hope they accept our quality box creation/ packing style.

Scooter Videos

Below is a short selection of the best videos of our scooter trip around Hanoi. It is our attempt to show you just how exciting the traffic flow is. Some are short and some are shorter.
 








 

Bikes all packed ready for the flight home

 The end of any trip always invovles a lot of packing and I hope Carol has done it all properly.
Our two bikes are in the cardborard boxes / envelopes in the corner that we hope the airline will accept.

Hanoi Easy Rider

Well we finally got some fine weather and so off to the scooter hire we went and got ourselves a little Honda. Check out our day. We filled it up and it cost $3.50.  We then headed off to the Long Bien bridge a dual train/cycle bridge. Next it was the one of the many local towns around Hanoi.  There are stacks and then back to town over the next bridge. Then off to a sector where we hadn't been before through the maze of one way streets that is Hanoi.
 Now there are no tourist maps that show the traffic flow so it has been a facinating challenge trying to navigate not knowing if it is a one way street.
All was going well till I knowingly felt the rear starting to drift. I am so glad it was not the front as that may have had worse consequences. So we did stop and a kind man got out his pump and so pump I did but to no avail. He pointed us to a section of town but before we had a chance to push the scooter another man came to assit us so he pushed the scotter to his repair stand. It consisted of foot pump, a small stool, a small tin box of tools and a bowl almost full of water. No he couldn't help either as we had tubeless tyres.  At this point Carol noticed we were opposite the Australian Embassy. Surely they had a pair of pliers and some fencing wire for us.
 So now I pranked the Scooter Hire company and they rang back. Yes the man on the street would lead us for 40 000 VND to a repair shop. He then started to push the scooter off across the 4 lane road. I followed as Carol took some happy snaps of the Enbassy. I looked back and couldn't see my love so I ran back to the corner and collected Carol. We ended up at a proper motorcycle trye repair shop and after some phone calls and moreViettel phone credit the job was done. While all this was going on Carol had ordered a lovely lunch from a totally Vietnamese restaurant, no english menu.

 Our lovely automatic scooter
 50cc Automatic scooter $10 a day
 
 Honda 250 XR $50 a day
 On the table minus rear wheel.
 The valve stem seal was screwed.
 A workshop with a mirror ?
 6 lifts is a big operation.
The tyre shop with client waiting lounge on the footpath.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Thursday 2 days to go

The rain kept falling and so I packed up Carol's bike today and it only took two boxes and 2 whole rolls of sticky tape.
In the afternoon I decided I wanted to go for a blast across the river on the Long Bien bridge one that carries trains and bicycles/scooters. It is a very old and famous bridge. You can eat out on the bridge and it has plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables for sale at all the extra wide sections that are on the bridge.

 Before we packed the bike ( Trannie) I insisted Carol perform the obligatory ride down the hallway. So here it is Carol riding her bike down the hallway on the fourth floor of a Hanoi hotel on granite.
 The view from the 9th foor of the street behindof the hotel.
 The view of hanoi from the 9th floor.
 Long Bien Bridge has its own postcard, famous bridge in vietnamese history.
 Red River island farming which all frequently floods.
 Flood plain farmimg.
 The train heading away from me with an engine at the rear and the one way cycle lane.
 The train, the walk section and the two cycle lanes visible.
 If you look closely you will see the motorcycle going through the levee gap and the concrete blocks to the left on topo of the wall.
 This is how high the levee is and lots of people live on the other side beside the river.
 This is the road and cycle bridge about 1 km upstream from the train bridge, it is much busier and it bounced as a result of the volume of vehicles crossing it. You can easily see how wide the river really is from the photo.
 The Long Bien Bridge can be seen in the distance as well as the use of the flood plain and how it runs right up to the steet.
 Some wonderful topiary in the park around the Sword Lake.
 Lotus flowers growing in floating pots/frames on the lake all around the edge.
 The World viewed through Vietnamese eyes, Vietnam almost runs from the Artic circle to the Antartic circle. Australia is in the lower right corner and has two Cape Yorks.
 The traffic.
 Traffic Video.
 Carol is getting her shoes cleaned after being approached numerous times each day for 4 weeks.
The nightly rubbish collection in Hang Hom street. The system here in Hanoi is very efficient. I would describe it as a decentralised micro managed reccyling system. The way it works is you just leave/chuck your rubbish into the  street if you haven't already sold it to the cardboard lady. The collector who works only their designated area thoroughly sorts the rubbish and extracts everything that can be sold or recycled. They seperate all the valubles and bin all the actual rubbish at this goes to landfill. Then they push their full cart to the collection point. They then spread a large tarp out under the rear of the truck to collect spill and empty the carts.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Movie Magic

Here is a collection of short videos taken either from the handle bar mount or hand.

Around Hanoi ending at the front door of Hanoi Posh our hotel. St Joesephs at start.


Cat Ba island hire bike adventures.




 

A Box Hunting we will go.....

We were on our way home from a lovely meal when we came upon some poor unsuspecting rubbish collectors working away merrily in the evening drizzle. We spyed a small pile of neatly folded very used boxes just off to the side of the trolley. We then got out some VND to talk Turkey or corrigated.
 The photo below tells the story.

 50 000 VND for 4 very used and slightly damp boxes.  ($2.50)




Cardboard is Gold.

I got the shock of the trip this aftternoon when I thought I had discovered the solution to the gai hawp sa daap ( box for  bicycle). Richard bought them is Australia from Quantas and they cost $25. So I have done my research over the past fortnight and discovered that Vietnamese bike shops don't have a ready supply of boxes to dispose of.
 Cardboard in Vietnam is an urban cash crop. We found a packing shop that had all sorts of wrappings and used cardboard boxes as well as new boxes. So I decided I should find out a price for the used boxes. I gestured to the largest one about the size of small bar fridge and was told it cost 30 000 VND. Yes $1.50 for a slightly torn and used cardboard box.
 In fact I like the whole idea of an empty slightly used cardbaord box being an item of value as in fact it is.
 So our hunt continues for slightly used cardboard boxes. So far we have three. I found a shop earlier today that had plenty of boxes and so in my best vietnamese I asked to buy 10. The man laughted at me and ordered one of his workers to give me one and said souvenir. Carol then requested one and he delivered. I totally uindserstand why he would not let me buy his new boxes.
The recycling here is actually amazing. It is a cottage industry that enables people to earn money.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Hanoi Tuesday Shopping adventure

We went out after breakfast into the drizzle and began a search for some tabs for Carol's ear ache. The pharmacy was able to sell us a 10 day supply.

 Cheese must be popular as it had security tags on it so it is harder to steal.
 Johnny Walker Black label has the same tag.
 I tried to take a photo of the Coopers but a shop assistant stopped me. It costs 67 000 VND while the local beer costs 7 500 VND.
 Pawpaw pineapple yoghurt and ice with a beautiful fruit decoration.
 Me outside the postoffice, they know me and asked where I had been.
 Testing a new camera as Kate's old one has lost some screw heads.
 We have started collecting boxes for the bicycles.
A convoy of tourist pedicabs.

Lao Cai to Hanoi

 Half an hour early and rearing to board , food in the Tasmanian calico shopping bag.
 Ahead lay 11 hours at about 40 kmph of wonderful scenery and the rural landscape.
 Yes Soft sitter is at the back of the train second last carriage but number 1`.
 Boarding
 Our soft seats
 Hard seats are half the price.
 Frenzy of packing the luggage car all by hand.
 Passenges getting on.
 Our carriage is filling up with regular hostess service all day and at every station a selection of local sellars board the train and sell food and drinks.
 Small town on track.
 Old village house
 Our view out the window through the mesh to protect passengers from stone throwing mischievous children
New house of concrete and wood with old type fibro roof.