End of the road

By the way, I am back home in Wellington ! I've been busy unpacking, washing clothes, putting away things from my storage locker - back to where they go in the flat... and working.

It was a delight to be met by two friends at the airport at half past eleven on Tuesday night. Now it's Sunday, and I've done two shifts back at work, with two more to go until my next days off. My compter log-in works, I remember how to navigate my way around the work systems, but my security card doesn't give me access to the office. That will have to be sorted out on Monday.

On my way back I used three airlines. Between arriving in Australia and departing again I went into Sydney and used the public pool on the edge of Hyde Park. The length of the lap pool is 50 metres, and I swam 12 lengths. That's not bad for someone who's done nothing similar in months !

Anyhow... this travel diary will soon wrap up. I'm planning to write again with some reflections on my time away. Give me a few days and I'll get around to it :-)

Photo Post : More of Vietnam

Preparing spring rolls. Cooking class with David at the Blue Butterfly restaurant in Hanoi.

Holding a snake during the Mekong Delta trip.

Lunch with Eilidh Macleod, a former colleague from BBC Scotland who is currently teaching English in Hanoi.

Thailand

I've been neglecting my online diary for the past few days, during which I've been relaxing in Thailand. Winding down for a few days at a high quality beach resort in north Pattaya, then for a couple more over the weekend at a different hotel closer to the party action in town. At the Pullman resort someone switched on the wave machine, the day I went swimming in the sea. The waves were coming in sideways and the water was warmer than that in the hotel pool. How nice to float in the sunshine, with the salty water helping soothe the skin on my arm which is recovering from some more bedbug bites -- apparently received somewhere in Vietnam.

Everywhere in Pattaya you can see Cyrillic characters and hear people speaking Russian. This is a huge destination for holidaying Russians. In Vietnam I only met one Russian. A 28 year old guy who worked for Ukoil and has two periods of 14 days' holiday a year. He was quite a character, who reinforced the stereotype of Russians taking a tipple as he topped up his coke using a bottle of golden alcohol. Colourful too, he didn't hesitate to join in the Karaoke on board the junkboat in Halong Bay (which sent me to bed early to escape the noise). When the lyrics screen malfunctioned he continued singing "Dragon Boat Cru-iss" when the default logo "Dragon Boad Cruise" came up.

Thailand isn't as cheap as it used to be. I'm sure I used to get 70 Baht for a UK Pound only a couple of years ago. Now I'm lucky if I can get close to 50 Baht. I have, however, bought myself some nice new shoes. A pair of trainers and a smarter pair of New Balance, probably for half the price I'd get them back home.

I'm writing from Singapore Airport, where I'm waiting for a connecting flight to Australia on my way to Wellington and the end of my journey. I arrive into Melbourne, then connect to Sydney. Because there's a time lag before my trans-Tasman hop to Wellington I have the chance to spend a day in Sydney. At least I will go to the central city for lunch, and perhaps a little more shopping.

Meanwhile, I'll add some more photos here from my time in Vietnam.

Video post : Sa Pa trekking

Landscape at Lao Chai village, 13 kilometres by foot from Sa Pa in northern Vietnam.

Photo Post : Sa Pa

H'mong people in the town centre, selling their goods.

Children in one of the villages near Sa Pa.

Lanterns and other goods for sale.

Food preparation facilities inside one of the houses.

Landscape.

Sa Pa

Sa Pa is in the far north of Vietnam, very close to the border with China. Tourism has developed here over the past 20 years, so the H'mong people no longer confine themselves to simple village life but make clothing and other souvenirs to sell to the many visitors who come trekking.

It's pretty cold at night, being 1,500 metres high. To reach the town and surrounding villages I've taken an overnight train from Hanoi, followed by a bus, and am now doing two days of walking. It's nice to get away from the big city for a while. The largest mountain here is named Fransipan. The people look very different to other Vietnamese. They're similarly persistent, however, in offering motorbike rides and things for sale.

Video Post : Halong Bay

Inside the big cave in Halong Bay.

One of the many junk boats that take tourists around the beautiful bay in the Gulf of Tonkin.