Christmas 2020

2020 - The Year that Became Fairly Quiet (for a time)

At the last communication we were looking forward to a fabulous garden. Well, that has been finished and it is indeed fabulous. Classic Margaret Merril roses at the front, rising above an elegant ground cover of green things with white flowers.

Around the back are raised garden beds in which we try to grow things of an epicurean nature.

(The above is a still from a music video - more about that later.) Gracie believes we installed them especially for her use.

In late 2019 we said bye bye to the most wondrous tenant, Jin, who relentlessly baked and cooked, and who effortlessly twisted our arms to sample her wares. During harvest season we welcomed the lovely Denise and Nico into the sleep-out, and the lovely Jessee into the spare room. Later in the year we welcomed the lovely Giannis into the sleep-out, and that’s how things are at the time of writing. He periodically helps me to finish off the couple of bottles of one thing or another I might have lying around.

And now a few words from Vicki:

On reading through last years Christmas letter I wrote that I had an amazing year sales wise and hoped to keep on improving in 2020 - well if last year was the best this year has been the worst to say the least. It was very distressing seeing your hard work disappear with concerned clients enquiring and then ultimately cancelling. Leaving work on the 25th March we all thought that by June travel would be back to some form of normality – well that didn’t happen and as I write we are still waiting for a bubble to form with another country.  Lockdown for me was difficult work-wise with trying to keep clients updated as best we could, seeking refunds (which are actually ongoing, even now) and interpreting airline/supplier rules which kept changing by the day. Then there was the uncertainness of whether I still had a job. We have lost two dear colleagues which was sad and currently I am working 4 days a week. Whilst I enjoy a day off during the week, I’d rather be doing a job I am passionate about. Who would have thought that a virus would change the world.

On top of all this I had pressure to use my annual leave which had accumulated to 35 days, making me a liability to the company.  Alistair has mentioned about our week in the Catlins, and the Alps to Ocean cycle ride and I also did the Wilderness trail on the West Coast, each of which I thoroughly enjoyed.  If I have learnt anything about holidays in New Zealand it’s that we really should be a tourist in our own country.

 

My out-of-work activity of volunteer ushering at the local theatre certainly took it’s toll and it seems that a lot of the touring and local shows had all been rescheduled for November and December.  I really do enjoy it seeing amazing talented people and spending time with some other lovely volunteers. I still go to wool spinning - one of these days I will need to make something with all the spun wool.

Back to Alistair:

Er… I invented a jazz festival. In January there was The Great Onamalutu Jazz Festival (the inaugural one). Heather had said, “let’s have a picnic at the Onamalutu domain - it’s lovely there. Bring your instruments and we’ll have a bit of a play. Invite anyone you like - the more the merrier!” So I created a Facebook event and published it and made it public. Over the next few weeks the event gained a bit of traction until it had become quite the talk of the town! One person we met had said the event had been shared with him by six separate people. Then on the day, when we were setting up the generator and sound gear, someone turned up with a large trailer carrying tables and chairs. Another person claimed they had heard it advertised on Brian FM (not our doing). I think in the end approximately 150 people attended. There was a strong desire to repeat the event in 2021, so on Sunday 17 Jan 2021 there will be a repeat. But this will be bigger for sure. In time we might have to think about funding, but for now it’s just a free fun day out for all the family.

Lockdown was for some. It turns out that wine is an essential commodity, under the Food and Beverages category, as well as being a significant export for NZ. So I had to go to work as normal, except it was a bit abnormal during alert level 4 and 3 when we had to keep a distance from each other, take breaks in small groups, sanitise surfaces and all that stuff. The traffic was marvellous, owing to the many who were either working from home or at home not working.

There was one week when my bottling line did not operate so we all took that week off. I started working on a music video. But first I had to record a song except something on my old laptop was no longer supported so I upgraded its operating system, which caused other software to run very slowly. In the end I bit the bullet and upgraded to a new computer. Long story short, there are significant delays in the release of this video. There is also a steep and high mountain of learning for me before I get the hang of the newer recording software, and the video software. But it should be quite entertaining when it’s finished, in a B-grade, hammed up kind of way.

Gracie managed to reach 16 years, though she is a bit of a lightweight, having lost quite a bit of weight about a year ago. No matter how much her mother encourages her to put on a few kilos, she remains Ms skinny-malink. She’s still happy though, and has moments of kitten-like behaviour so she’s likely to hang on for a while yet. Apparently she’s got good teeth.

We went on a couple of NZ holidays. First we went to the Catlins because we’ve been hearing good things about that area for years. So that was a Winter road trip in which we stationed ourselves at Owaka for three nights and drove around the region from there. And it’s true - it’s beautiful part of the country for sure.

The next trip was the Alps to Ocean cycle trail. This was a multi-day cycling tour for which we would need to train. But since time was limited we thought it would be a good idea to bike over the Taylor pass (33km) AND Redwood pass (29km) in one trip and on one charge and on a windy day whereby 80% of the time was spent cycling into the wind. All I remember is asking myself ‘why’ a lot. Vicki’s battery did actually run completely out and e-bikes are pretty heavy going if you’re running on muscle power alone. So that was the training.

The Alps to Ocean is from Aoraki/Mt Cook village (though we - a gang of nine - started at the alternative starting point, near Lake Tekapo). Nights were spent at Ohau, Omarama, Kurow, Duntroon, then finally Oamaru. Daily distance varied between 24km and 70km and the landscape, food and company were all sensational.

After that trip I came home and Vicki did another cycle trip on the West Coast with Sally. Both these gals had accumulated too much annual leave and this was a good way of reducing it.

The music scene has been pretty quiet this year. To begin with, all the planned shows and concerts got postponed a little bit, then postponed a lot (like one or two years), some actually cancelled. Things are now gradually picking up but I expect it will still be a while before we’re really busy with it again. Having said that, I was asked to play a gig in the Wellington Jazz Festival in November because this band’s regular bass player couldn’t make it, and all the other bass players in town were busy with other gigs. So I was imported all the way from the exotic South Island.

Pizazz gets to play on New Year’s Eve at a nice eating establishment, then it’ll be time to prepare for the Great Onamalutu Jazz Festival. Remember this! You heard it here first!

We would like to befall a great amount of peace and happiness upon you, yours, theirs, friends, family, colleagues, passers by, your home and all who sail in her.

Alistair, Vicki
& Gracie

Christmas 2018

Holiday Time
We decided it was high time we had an overseas trip. Vicki has too much leave and is a liability to her employer. “Phuket!” exclaimed Alistair. “We should go there!” Vicki organised it, because therein lies her expertise. However, she has no influence over the weather so we started the trip by being stuck in Blenheim for a few hours waiting for the fog to clear at Auckland so we could land there and board our connecting flight to Hong Kong. The previously ample time between our flights at Auckland became quite compressed, causing us to run at maximum speed from the domestic terminal to the overseas terminal. A couple of weeks earlier, we had signed up for the Saint Clair Half Marathon in May 2019. Now at the airport, we became acutely aware how unfit we were. Anyway, we both made it onto the flight, but one of our bags did not. Luckily we were staying two nights in HK so the bag eventually caught us up.
We did as much as we could in HK then pressed on to Phuket. We stayed at the Metadee Resort on Kata beach. It was hot and humid so one couldn’t do anything too strenuous. Luckily the bar staff were very skilled and attentive. Also the Metadee had an extensive swimming pool with a giant inflatable unicorn, so that was nice.
We went to the elephant sanctuary to give Natalie the elephant a mud bath; we went to the Big Buddha to take a selfie along with all the other tourists; we went to a Thai cookery class and had a grand old time; we went on a kayak trip out to the Hongs. Everything we did was great fun and highly recommended.
    We also had another holiday – a weekend excursion to Mapua to meet up with Sally and Andrew and cycle around the place on the Great Taste Cycle Trail. It was therefore necessary to taste many things, both solid and liquid. We also stayed at accommodation that was pretty flash, with it’s underfloor heating and whatnot.

   

Music
It wasn’t supposed to be a year of back-to-back shows. Mary Poppins of course was a big show where the theatre levelled up their skills in having to fly actors around the place. Next was the combined colleges production of Grease, which was a shorter season and contained easier music. But somehow I found myself in Little Shop of Horrors. I’ll try to do less next year, right after Phantom of the Opera… oh, and there’s talk of Les Miserables too… so right after those.
    Pizazz of course is ticking along, and we’ve played at some really nice venues – a couple of weddings, spectacular fund raisers, The Captain’s Daughter in Havelock, 5-Tapped and Chateau Marlborough in Blenheim, plus two appearances in one day during a wonderfully creative ‘magical mystery tour of Marlborough’ called Gumboot Epicurean. It involved playing predominantly train songs at the miniature railway station at Brayshaw Park, then high-tailing it to Framingham Winery to entertain the same punters later in the cellar. There’s even internet footage of me wearing a rainbow Mohawk wig, skilfully playing a djembe.

The Job Front - Alistair
This year I started a new job at WineWorks, a bottling and warehousing facility. The workplace is close enough to cycle to, weather and after-work commitments permitting. The work is actually fascinating – who knew there was so much involved in putting wine in a bottle! I spent most of the year learning the ropes on various bottling lines, and now I supervise one line by myself. There’s still plenty to learn and look forward to. The seasonal dynamic is different – we’re extremely busy and operating 24 hours a day leading into harvest time as wineries free up their tank space and get their remaining finished wine into bottle. Then we’re quieter when the wineries are full and fermenting. Vicki claims that my work stories have become terribly boring, but I can’t believe that – I’m sure she loves to hear about label heights and pallet stacking patterns.

Vicki
Why is it, that the older you get the faster the years go by?  Work continued to be a big part of my year and some clients have gone on some amazing holidays, which I have found a pleasure putting together for them.  I walked the St Clair half marathon again this year and my work colleagues also participated, I organised an 18k training walk on Anzac day which was useful for some and painful for others.  My walking buddy Donna didn’t take part this year, however, her sister Nerida did and she stayed with us. I did a really good time so was pleased that I put the training in. Alistair, Nerida and I enjoyed lunch at St Clair vineyard afterwards. Alistair has decided to take part next year so it will be nice to have a training buddy.  I still go to spinning and recently my spinning wheel received an overhaul which after 24 years of inheriting it, I think it needed it. Having Iona & Col now living in Blenheim has been really good and we get together socially quite often, they have also become groupies of Alistair’s gigs so it’s nice to have the company. Excess leave continues to be a problem and this year I am finishing work a few days before Christmas, I am going to help out for the day at John’s Kitchen who are putting on a community dinner one evening.

The House
Iona Bichan stayed with us for a few months while she looked for and found a suitable house to buy. Col, her partner, is now down here too, and landed a job at Cloudy Bay Vineyards on their bottling line, so now Vicki can listen to more stories about label heights and pallet stacking patterns.
    During the harvest of 2018 we had one of the nicest humans on the planet, Katrina stay with us, oenologist at Delegat, usually based in Auckland. She was on the night shift, which was a new experience for us, so the house was pretty quiet for a month.
    The insurance came through for the damage caused by the earthquake and we were able to get a new log burner and a flue for the coal range. So now both are functional, with a wet-back to boot. Winter is now bearable. Comfortable, even.
    In June we said farewell to the tenant of our sleep-out, Ajosh the chef. After staying with us for two years he went home to Kerala in India to help look after his father. He’s back in NZ now, cheffing up a storm in a fancy restaurant in the Hawke’s Bay.

Gracie
Gracie has successfully attained the advanced age of 14, which is very pleasing. She still likes to interact with us at every opportunity, including in the small hours of the morning. She is doing very poorly at keeping the birds from nesting in the guttering, but then again, we’ve seen hardly any mice.

We wish you much brightness and merriment during the Yule, and beyond.

Alistair, Vicki and Gracie

Living Below the Poverty Line

Living Below the Poverty Line

Before

Day 0: Bought as much food as we could for $2.25 per person per day for the five days. That's $22.50 for all food items. The coffee machine was ceremoniously turned off. The wine fridge is still on and the bottles are tantalisingly visible.

Since we start the challenge tomorrow, we felt no guilt going out to a dinner where there was buffet-style dining. It was a delicious last supper.

Day 1: Strangely enough didn't feel like breakfast. Did some more shopping and came in under budget so we have a few cents to play around with to allow for home-grown produce or if anyone offers us a cuppa.

Lunch - Vegemite and lettuce sandwiches and tap water. We're very lucky to have the best tap water in the world. It's fluoridated but not chlorinated, comes from a secure aquifer and the reticulation system is more than adequate.

Dinner - pasta, cabbage and a bit of that giant carrot. Mint, parsely, lemon, thyme and bay from the garden. Used a wee bit of bacon fat from a cup of the stuff we found in the fridge. It wasn't doing anything anyway.

Day 2: Porridge for breakfast, Vicki had toast. Lunch was Vegemite and lettuce sandwiches. Could get a bit sick of these...

Dinner! And this is what it takes to get Vicki to cook! She did a nice rice dish with a tin of tomatoes, mixed veges and breadcrumbs on top. And she thought it all up in her head beforehand. Half an apple each for dessert. Yeah, we really know how to live.

Day 3: Getting good at porridge now; Vicki is getting good at toast. Pushed the boat out a bit with lunch and had budget bake beans and a couple of slices of toast. Vicki had leftovers, which is a turn-up for the books!

Dinner - again I was home, rather conveniently, after Vicki, so she had started the dinner. Plain pasta, a couple of hunks of that massive carrot, a fried egg each, and chips from 4 potatoes. Again with the apple.

Day 4: Again with the porridge; again with the Vegemite and lettuce sammies (three this time because two just don't cut the mustard). Vicki jazzed things up a bit with a lunch comprising a hard-boiled egg on toast.

Dinner - again with the rice/vege/tomato bake thing with breadcrums on top.

Day 5: plain old porridge was zhoozhed up a bit with some old dried fruit I found in the cupboard. Just couldn't face plain old plain old again. Lunch was leftovers from the previous night (almost plain old - treated myself to some seasoning - daring eh?). Vicki's lunch was same as yesterday.

Dinner - I couldn't persuade Vicki to eat the tin of budget spaghetti so I ate it myself to show just how edible it is. Tasted funny. Vicki had plain old rice/veges and an egg. She doesn't need to follow the recipe book for cooking a hard boiled egg any more so things are looking up.

So that's it then! Five days of living below the poverty line. We had food left over, so if we had known, we could have bought something with some flavour. Meat, even!

After

Vietnam 2004

Vietnamese Road Rules:
1. You must drive on the right-hand side of the road at all times, unless it is more convenient to drive on the left
2. At traffic lights, GREEN means "proceed with care". RED means "proceed at your own risk"
3. You must stop for pedestrians when they have a cross signal, unless you can get past without hitting anyone
4. You must obey the ONE-WAY road signs, unless it is more convenient for you not to
5. You must drive entirely on the designated road at all times, unless it is more convenient to use the footpath
6. Note to pedestrians: Cars stop for nothing; motorbikes can go around you.
7. Never sound your horn unless you are behind someone, in front of someone, beside someone, approaching a corner or intersection, see someone you know, see someone you don't know, or haven't honked your horn in a while.



Sat 12 Jun 2004
Flew WLG to AKL and had coffee and toast at the AKL airport. It was crap. Definitely a couple of degrees warmer in AKL than in WLG. Stayed at the Hotel Grand Chancellor. Had dinner at the hotel and were the only two dining because everyone else was watching the NZ vs England game (yawn). Apparently NZ won.
We asked for a wake-up call 30 mins before the bus was to pick us up which, in hindsight was a bit of a mistake because we missed it! Thankfully though the hotel chap rang through and got the bus driver to pick us up (he was still picking up people in the vicinity anyway)
AKL domestic terminal is crappy; international is not too bad.



Sun 13 Jun 2004
Flew to Singapore. On the way I diligently got my chemistry study material out but soon realised all I could think of was all the movies that were available to watch. So bugger this - away goes the study material and hello to 50 First Dates (actually quite enjoyable)... Shallow Hal (pretty lame)... Cold Mountain (very good)... Butterfly Effect (very good) but we landed before I could finish it! Damn!!!
Caught the train to Bugis then started walking exactly the opposite way to where we should have been heading. We got hot and bothered, realised the streets were getting less and less shiny, then did an about face and went back. Finally found the Allson - we were hot and sticky and grateful to be in a cool environment at last.
Visited Chijmes, called in at the Peter Hoe shop, went for a Singapre Sling and a half-yard at Raffles. Didn't get a lot of change from $NZ50.
Went to an authentic sushi place in Chijmes, didn't know what the prices were but it looked like just the ticket. Had a really amazing meal expertly prepared and served but when we had finished the bill was in excess of $200 holy crap!!! One of the dishes was $115! If we'd known, we could have skipped that one. So we skulked back to the hotel.



Mon 14 Jun 2004
Today we gave ourselves an hour to get ready and an hour was about right. Caught a taxi to the airport even though we were now train-savvy and had return tickets. However we could return our train ticket cards for a $1 refund each, woo hoo!
At the airport we made use of the free internet service and Vicki sent a message to Shona (Petone United Travel).
Flew Singapore Air to Hanoi and I was delighted to discover the same movies were on offer. Yay! I got to see the end of The Butterfly Effect. I then proceded to watch X-Men 2 (the biggest bunch of crap I've so far wasted my time on apart from anything with Vin Diesel in it). I did, however, manage to score three glasses of French red wine so I was happy. Sadly we landed before I could get my chemistry books out again despite being in a holding pattern for 20 mins owing to heavy rain at the airport.
When we finally landed we were in a bleak, wet, dim place with a difinite military feel about it. We changed $US200 into more than 3,000,000 Dongs! (Three mmmilllllllion buaaahaahaa.) We were met by our tour guide and driven to the hotel. That was an education in itself! If there are two lanes, you can straddle the line so you can pass slow people and fast people can pass you, making three virtual lanes. Pedestrians can and do cross anywhere at any time as long as it's slowly and predictably. I got the hang of the road crossing after a couple of attempts. Vicki still tended to cross like a scared rabbit so I made sure I had her in a death-grip when we crossed the road.
The hotel is very nice. We went to the old quarter where photos really can't capture the utter cacophony. At one point we got caught in a heavy downpour and sat in a shop doorway for a while. Ate at a posh restaurant called Wild Rice which cost us 224,000 VND which equals $US15.96 or about $NZ 22.40). The streets are uneven and grubby. There are produce people and motorscooters everywhere.
We had a go at chatting to the Asian guy at the front desk and he greeted us with a posh English accent! He was Richard from Birmingham!


Tue 15 Jun 2004
Woke up early but dozed for a while, then went down for breakfast at about 8am. We vowed to make an earlier start the next day because the food had lost its freshness and much of it had gone already. Filled up anyway because breakfast is part of the package. Spoke to a guy from Hamilton! Spoke to another guy from Auckland! At this rate we'll probably bump into an old friend or something!
Our guide and his driver came to collect us for a city tour in the morning. He looked like he wanted to say something about my clothes but ended up not saying it with, "it'll be OK". Well we visited the Mausoleum, and this was what he was concerned about - they didn't let me in because I was wearing shorts above the knee. Not respectful enough, apparently. So vicki went to see Ho Chi Minh's preserved body by herself with a hundred others while I got whistled at to keep off the grass. There was a bunch of goose-stepping guards marching about with a lot of pomp and ceremony.
We were then taken to see some more government buildings including a house on sticks where HCM spent his last years. Guards just stand there all day every day just... guarding it. We then saw the One-Pillar Pagoda, so named on account of its being a pagoda supported by one pillar. We then saw the oldest university and some palace or something - it had a buddha in it. Depictions of a stork standing on a turtle is apparently significant. Also they design some places with a log you have to step over - it makes you look down at the appropriate moment so you're bowing your head to the diety. Cunning.
We were then dropped off in the old quarter and went on a cyclo ride, which I found a bit pointless because I'd make better progress if I was on an ordinary bike by myself. Tried to take a few photos but there was too much shakin' going on!
After this we walked around a bit more and took a few snaps and bought tickets to the water puppet show (20,000 VND = $NZ 2.00)
Saw the produce markets where raw meat was being sold, freshly culled but not chilled. You can brush past the stalls down a long narrow walkway in your motor scooter if you like!
After a siesta at the hotel (because it just seemed like siesta time) we had a late lunch at an American-style place which was extremely expensive - ($US24.75 or 391,000 VND) - much more than the posh restaurant of last night.
When we emerged onto the street it was rush hour bedlam so another couple of photos then into the old quarter again. And who should we see randomly but Nick Wyatt, ex-Transpower employee! So he and his companion (Lynda?) and we went off for a beer at a funny little place where the fan was made to work by poking the bare wires into the socket.
We went to the water puppets and ended up sitting next to two other Kiwis (is there anyone left in NZ?). The musicians looked utterly bored but the show itself was OK.
Returned to the hotel on foot


Wed 16 Jun 2004
Had a yummy omelete for breakfast and might do it again.
Headed out to the French quarter and looked for the Quan Su Pagoda because the On-Pillar Pagoda just wasn't enough. We think we found the right one - there was a session going on with people chanting and burning incense and reciting stuff. Not knowing if we would be allowed in we just had a wander around the external extremeties and were just about to leave when a small gentleman said hello and invited us to follow him into the interior of the complex. He led us up some stairs and into an area where there were a heap of buddhas. He took us through a ritual where we grab a few sticks of incense, set them going, head for an altar with a buddha on it, put your hands together with the incense between them, take money out of one pocket and put it on a tray, put your hands together again, take the money off the tray and put it in your other pocket. Then head to another altar and repeat the process, only you can't use the same money twice. "No," he said, "New money! New money!" Soon, this chap very kindly did all the hard work for us by taking my entire wad of notes and doing the put-money-on-tray; take-money-off-tray bit for me. If I didn't know better I would say he was assessing how much money we had on us. Vicki started becoming nervous about this and urged me to end the ritual, though I believed we hadn't lost anything yet. We said, "We go now - we just make donation. We go now" then the alarm bells really started ringing when he swiftly divided a large portion of the money into three - one wad onto a tray, one wad under a low table and another wad into the donations box. "Right!" said I, "That's it!" I thrust the remaining incense sticks at him, marched over to the low table to retrieve that money, retrieved the money from the altar tray, and we both marched smartly out of there, his fading protests falling on deaf ears. Later we calculated we only lost 10,000 or 20,000 VND ($NZ 1 or 2).
Back on the streets again we headed for the parts where you get a street full of shoe makers, a street full of steel fabricators, a street full of hat makers etc. I bought an army hat because it looked like most guys wore these, particularly those on motorbikes. Later, in front of a mirror, I realised it suited Vietnamese men far better than me - it looked ridiculous!
We got a bit lost at one point but were given directions and headed back to the hotel for a siesta.
After finding a shop with fixed prices (everywhere else you're expected to bargain) we did a price check on a couple of items. We realised we'd been charged double for water earlier in the day. As tourists we stick out like dog's balls and are taken for a ride at every opportunity.
It was so hot we didn't come out of our room until dinner time. Then we went back to Wild Rice and it was still very yummy.


Thu 17 Jun 2004
After breakfast we ventured out again but decided to explore the area closer to the hotel, just to the south of it. This area was kind of similar to everywhere else: you can visit one shop and get a flower arrangement or an electric motor rewound, buy a hat and coffee and lottery ticket and get your shoes polished. We started calling the streets by what they sold most of: TV Street, Shoe Crescent, Transformer Avenue, Birdcage Close, Welded Steel Construction Boulevard, Stone Engraving Grove, Shirt Street, etc. After a while we decided we'd seen enough variety and started saying it was the same shit, different shop.
We actually only managed an hour of this in the heat before we hot-footed it back to the hotel to cool off. We decided to splash out on room service so got a serving of potato wedges and a platter of fruit.
Later we went out at about 16:15 and headed for the old quarter again in the unlikely event that we might have missed something on our other two visits. Eventually we found out way to Indochine, a place that boasted live music. We had a beer then ordered some food to while away the time. Since we were quite early I enquired about the music but they said it wasn't tonight! Damn it! Too late to back out so we stayed and had the food anyway, which was very nice.
But was not lost because we noted that there was jazz at our hotel on Thursday and Friday at 8pm. So we went to our room and started watching the telly and fell asleep watching Bladerunner II. Damn it!


Fri 18 Jun 2004
Got up, had breakfast and hung around until our guide came for us. To be honest we didn't really want to go anywhere because it was so darned hot. Anyway he turned up and duly took us to the airport, which didn't look nearly as bleak in the sunshine as it did in the rain. We flew on an A320 to Hue - a 60 min flight. The meal on the plane comprised a roll containing bacon, lettuce and mayonaise. The box it came in said, "Have a good appetite"
We were met by another guide who took us straight to the hotel. This is the Morin which was built in 1901 and was magnificent! We had a huge room that looked fantastic, even though the fittings and furnishings were of questionable quality if you looked really close (well, they have the low end of the market covered!)
We freshened up a bit then hooked up with our guide and driver again and they took us to the Forbidden City which was, at this time, providing several venues for different parts of the bi-annual festival.
We also went to the market. Hue is really the home of the quintessential Asian conical hat so we decided to return later to pick one up.
Back tot eh hotel to cool off for a while then we walked back to the market. The sellers are a bit more pushy here and quite persuasive. Vicki got a conical hat and silk pyjamas.
Back to the hotel for a swim and dinner. At dinner all our courses arrived at once! But the beer was refreshing. We were also given forks, which Vicki was happy with but not I. I asked the waitress if I could have chopsticks and she looked at me a bit strangely and said, "dopdik?" and I said, "Yes, chopsticks". She went off and muttered something to another staff member on the way past. He glanced in our direction and that made me wonder what she said. Soon she re-emerged with a bottle of tomato sauce. She must have thought I asked for "ketchup" of course - dopdik. "No, no!" I said, "Not ketchup, CHOP STICKS", making an eating-with-chopsticks gesture. "Aaaahhh, solly" she said and got the chopsticks. We and the staff were all highly amused.
Since the guide was coming for us at 8am we tried to get an early night.
One slightly unnerving thing about this area is they take your passport and hand it into the police so we can be registered. And I guess if we rob a bank or murder someone they'll have a better chance at identifying us - we probably all look the same to them. It's OK though, the passports wil be available by 10pm that night or anytime the next morning.


Sat 19 Jun 2004
This morning before we checked out I took a few holiday snaps about the town. Always, everywhere there are guys on street corners lounging on their motorbikes chatting and they always say, "Hello motorbike" to you and "Hello cyclo" if they're lounging around on those cyclos. I just smiled and said, "No thanks - I'm not going anywhere!"
Did a cruise on the Perfume River to the Tien-something Pagoda. There are monks there and the actual car that was driven years ago by that monk who drove into town and protested against the bias towards Buddhist monks by sitting in the road and setting himself alight until he perished. Powerful stuff.
Later in the day we drove over what they call a 'mountain pass' but it's just a hill like the Rimutakas. This took us to Da Nang, famous for its marble. Visited the marble factory where they also carve sandstone. Bought a couple of small marble and onyx things.
Next stop was Hoi An and we were taken straight to the hotel to check in - another nice and spacious room. This hotel is across the road from the beach and that bit of beach is private for hotel guests only. There are people patrolling the outer perimeter chasing off the riff raff and peddlers - how odd! The hotel has two pools so one doesn't even need to leave the property to have a swim.
We freshened up then it was back into town for a walking tour, taking in the silk factory. This was very interesting. Here they grow the silk worms from larvae. The cocoon is very much like that of the Emperor Gum caterpillar. Coarse silk is made from the strands of 25 cocoons; fine silk is made from the strands of three. The fabric we saw was very nice and of course they make garments out of it. So I got two shirts made and Vicki got a dress and jacket made. They promised to deliver by the next morning!
In the evening we went to Tam Tam, a bar/cafe recommended by an Aussie ex-army bloke staying at the hotel. Can you believe - Vicki had pasta. I had sweet n sour pork washed down with a couple of beers. We caught a "hello motorbike" back to the hotel and arranged to hire one for tomorrow. We swam in both pools today.


Sun 20 Jun 2004
This morning we had breakfast then I got used to the hello motorbike. I practiced by taking a load of washing to a restaurant/laundry (they diversify in ways that are not familiar) down the road and the lady proprietor, named Ba, charged $US1/kg and we had 2kg. She said, "come back to eat at my restaurant tonight". I said OK after wondering what the soup du jour was like. Took Vicki into town on the back of the bike though she was a bit nervous about that. We bought 10 silk purses as gifts at $US1 each but bartered down to $US8 for the 10. Each purse had two smaller purses within, a bit like Russian dolls. So 30 purses for $NZ12 made us wonder why we barter at all! We had a bit more of a look around the wee town but spent the hottest part of the day in the hotel room or in the pool.
We duly ate at Ba's restaurant and it was pretty good. For dessert the waitress, Ba's daughter, called La, kept bringing Dragon Fruit until we could eat no more. We quizzed La about school, thinking she was 12 or 13 and was a bit surprised to hear she had left school and this is where she works. Then, when questioned further she told us she was 17. They don't look their age, those Vietnamese.


Mon 21 Jun 2004
An early wake-up and early breakfast. Said "bye bye motorbike" to the local hello-motorbikes and were driven to the Da Nang airport. Tomorrow is a national celebration (not sure what - mid summer?) and there was a lot of activity in preparation. Heaps of traffic - people on their motorbikes heaped high with all sorts of stuff, many with live ducks on the top of the lofty stack. Evidently duck is the main dish tomorrow. The traffic was so dense the driver eventually turned around and went via a smaller but more interesting road.
In Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon of old) we visited the Tax Centre - a large department store with fairly reasonable prices. You can't bargain but you can get a bit of a discount if you buy more than one thing. We checked the price of a small suitcase for carry-on luggage to take the fragile stuff: $US20 = $NZ30 = VND300,000. We then went to the market and they were more expensive. We could probably have bartered but we were getting really sick of it by now and couldn't be bothered. All the time it has been, "hello madam I make for you... you buy hat... how many you want?... hello watch for you sir... look, silk, very good silk... you buy water... clothes for baby?..." and so on. We did buy some souvenir dolls in traditional dress for Vicki's window display then we returned to the suitcase guy at the Tax Centre who looked a bit surprised to see us. We got the case, some fridge magnets for Mum and a T-shirt for Graham.
Our guide had recommended an eating place called Lemongrass but we couldn't find it so we ate somewhere else only to stumble upon it on the way back to the hotel. That's OK, we'll go there tomorrow.
A wedding reception was being held at the hotel and the guests were singing karaoke which wasn't all that pleasant. However the noise was muffled almost into melody while we slept... it was actually the traffic noise we could hear with the utmost clarity.

Tue 22 Jun 2004
From a listless slumber we stunned awake at 5:00am by the banging of drums and parping of trumpet. Later on we found out this was a funeral and perfectly normal behaviour. It turns out that funeral processions can occur any time hour on advice from an esteemed but supersticious person.
After breakfast we were driven to Chinatown - a really huge one, taking in several blocks. There was another market here and there was tons of stuff stacked high. For example a hat shop might have 10,000 hats and there would be 10 similar hat shops. These people supply retailers too and we saw large wool-bale-sized packages for export to here and there. Same deal for shoes or clothes or cooking utensils or dried food like beans, fish, fruit and nuts.
after this we visited the Mekong Delta where we went on a boat ride with another guide, a young pregnant lady who was coping with the heat remarkably well, to visit a couple of islands, visited some local industries including a coconut confectionary factory employing about 20 people. They wrapped us some coconut toffee on the spot and it was still warm when we paid for it! We visited another place that made handicrafts from the coconuts and another one that grew fruit. We sampled a selection and it was very nice. We also visited a beehive place that made honey but this wasn't the amazing spectacle for us as it might have been to other tourists who didn't have such a honey industry as ours (i.e. been there; done that). We had tea at most places. Last stop was a restaurant for lunch which wasn't actually necessary because we had munched on so much fruit. But we had booked to come here earlier so felt we should honour our agreement. It was good actually because we ate stuff we might not otherwise have tried. Such as the big ferocious fish!
Our guide (the pregnant one) referred tot he toilet as the happy house because you're always happy when you come out!
When we returned from this tour we had a wee rest then visited the Tax Centre building across teh road for a bit of a browse and to find some coconut wood stirrers because we only bought two at the coconut factory and thought they would make excellent gifts. Bugger - didn't find any.
Vicki was still looking for something for her mum. We saw a dress that might have been suitable so Vicki tried it on. She thought it was be a risk buying it because she didn't know her mum's precise measurements but thought it might need to be let out a bit and the neck lowered a bit. The tiny lady in the shop said she would make any adjustment to it we liked, and there would still be no obligation to buy. Wow! That's service! But with regret we turned her down and bought a T-shirt instead. From a different shop: how mean!
Then, on Vicki's insistence, we went to a cafe and had a toasted sandwich, coffee (she apparently needed a cappuccino) and cake. The cafe people gave us a 25,000 VND gift voucher because we had spent over 80,000 VND there so we gave that to the tiny lady in the dress shop. She was absolutely thrilled and said, "I am very happy to receive this but I have nothing to give you". We told her it was in return for the time and effort she was prepared to spend on us. She asked us for our address so she could write us a letter. Isn't that sweet?
A promenade around the square on our way back to the noisy Rex Hotel.

Wed 23 Jun 2004
After breakfast we were met by our guide and driver and taken to the Cu Chi tunnels. There are rubber tree plantations nearby. The tunnels were pretty good - the Vietnamese are certainly very proud of them. Their catch-cry directed at the Americans is "For every one of your people, you killed ten of ours, yet we still defeated you." After the tunnels we came back, and that was the morning taken care of. Had a little rest then headed to the market. On the way there we actually found a shop selling the coconut stirrers we'd been looking for. The shopkeeper kept grabbing stuff from all over the shop and grossing up our purchase until we escaped with just 4 stirrers, a tea set and a tray to put it on. This all came in a grass basket which was very nice. We dropped the goods back at the hotel then headed to the war museum, which was very sobering and thought-provoking. We bought a book from a street hawker that looked like it had been a photocopy (so probably illegal) for VND50,000 ($NZ5.00).
We then looked at the post office building and took a couple of whacky photos. Then we went back for a beer at one of the hotel bars, then back to the room for a rest and watched Ocean's 11.
Then on our way to Lemongrass we called in to the Tax Centre to see Mai. She was on the phone but her face lit up when she saw us. She ushered us to a seat while she got off the phone then presented us with a gift which was a bit naughty but very sweet. We took a couple of snaps of her and us and she said she wanted to see us off tomorrow at the hotel and the airport! During the conversation she mentioned that her father had dies three years ago and I gathered she had been unhappy for pretty much all that time but that we had cheered her up somewhat.
eventually we pulled ourselves away and had the much anticipated dinner at Lemmongrass, and this was indeed delicious. There was even live music from a soloist playing one of those plucky horizontal many-stringed dulimer-like things with the moveable bridges for tuning it, and it's scale is pentatonic... you know? Sadly she only played for half an hour. Not much of a gig if you ask me. Still, the soup was excellent.
Here's a tip: mix salt and chilli powder, dip pineapple pieces in it. That's a real yin/yang thing.

Thu 24 Jun 2004
We got up and started packing. Couldn't be bothered with breakfast because we were still a bit not empty from last night. We got a call from Mai at 07:30 as promised. I said we'd be down in about 5mins. we went down and took her for a coffee at the hotel (but since she doesn't drink coffee she had orange juice). She had never been in the hotel so we invited her up to see our room but she was stopped by the receptionist and she had to hand over an ID card or something and wear a visitor's badge before she could proceed. Anyway she gave Vicki a scarf that her sister had knitted (do these people never sleep?) We responded in kind by giving her all the freebies out of the room. Well, not the razor, just the girly beauty product things.
Our guide arrived and took snaps of me, Vicki and Mai, then we left and Mai said she'd see us off at the airport (she'd be buzzing along in her hello motorbike). Actually we didn't see her there though we looked out for her.
BTW I bought a couple of bottles of wine whilst at HCM City airport - yes Vietnam does make wine, possibly as a result of the French influence, who knows?

The flight to Singapore was OK, the wait at Changi airport was OK... in fact if you're stuck anywhere in the world, this is the place to be stuck - we managed to entertain ourselves for about 6 hours while we were between flights.
The flight to Auckland was pretty tiring - couldn't get comfortable so we were pretty damned jaded when got to AKL. This is NOT a nice place to be stuck in if you have to wait for more than three minutess. The flight to WLG was good, the weather was pleasant (though it hadn't been, apparently) and Vicki's mum met us and got me to drive home.
Sparky was well, and asleep in the same spot he was in when we left!
The bastard baggage handlers had broken our new case! Luckily none of the stuff inside was broken but it does make me wonder what the hell they do with the bags.
Mai's gift holds pride of place on the mantle-piece.

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