Sad about sinking

Just heard about the sinking of one of the junk boats in Halong Bay in Vietnam. About half the people on board were killed when it went down overnight :(

German surfers

Well I'm back at work again, on my second run of shifts since returning home. Before my shift this evening I went to see a movie in the German-French film festival that's currently running in Wellington. "Keep Surfing" is about the Eisbach river surfers I saw when I was in Munich in August.

Actually, it's not about the same guys. This documentary film was made a few years ago. Apparently there are hundreds of people who river surf in Munich. Now I know the individual stories of half a dozen of them. Seeing the film took me back to that afternoon when I sat on the banks of the river watching their skill and taking some photos.

So my long journey ended last month now. Looking back I recall that and other highlights. I've stood in Red Square in Moscow, and been inside the Kremlin. I've attended Chile's celebrations for 200 years since independence and photographed the President at close quarters. I've been to the Evita museum in Buenos Aires, and to the cemetary where she was laid to rest. I've attended the wedding of two dear friends in southern Spain, shared meals with a former colleague while we were both in Vietnam and made new friends in many countries.

I went to the site of a mass grave in Cambodia, to one of the cities where the Americans used weapons of mass destruction in Japan and walked alongside the Jewish memorial in Berlin. I caught colds in Hamburg and Bali and got bitten by bed bugs in Agra and Ho Chi Minh City. All my flights took off and landed close to their scheduled times. One of my trains had to be replaced by a bus. I kept track of how much I was spending as a daily average, but can't tell you the total cost of my trip. A lot was pre-paid during the planning process, and it will take a great effort to find all that on my credit card statements and calculate the figure.

In 161 days I saw and did so much. Now it's almost as if the adventure was a dream. I am, of course, making plans for future trips. I believe I've seen 70 or so countries. That's about one third of the United Nations-recognised world. My new goal is to have visited half the world.. meaning I've got to get another 35 countries under my belt. I relish the challenge :-)

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.