Photos from Hanoi

I had booked a Tiger Airways flight at 6am, which meant that I had to be at the Airport at least 2 hours before.  This was pretty crappy, because it meant I had to be up at three in the AM, to leave the Hostel at half past. I got some sleep, but not enough. Reception ordered me a taxi, and I was lucky enough to get a Limo Taxi, a Mercedes Benz with a very friendly English speaking driver. He was a very nice man, who chatted with me about where I was from, and his family, and Singapore.

I arrived at the budget terminal (one of four terminals at Singapore) with time to spare. The check in didn’t open until about half past, which I was pretty annoyed about, but there were no hassles, so I headed through security, and immigration and into the very new looking lounge. There was only one food outlet open, so I ordered a pork bun, which turned out to be chicken and settled in.

Whilst I was ordering, another girl was also ordering food. I invited her to sit with me, and we chatted about traveling, and she shared her spring rolls. Her name was Sarah, a Canadian, working in London. She was traveling for a few months before she began her new job. We agreed to meet up at Hanoi Airport.

The flight was pretty uncomfortable, I got a window seat as usual, which was good, but the chairs were not very big, and the headrest didn’t even make it to the top of my neck. I spent most of my flight in a half conscious state, waking up when my head would move. It wasn’t a long flight, about 4 hours, and eventually it was over. I met Sarah, we cleared immigration, and the usual lax customs and headed for baggage claim. After collecting our baggage, we set out to find the minivans, a service that costs US$2 to get to the city centre. I changed some money over on the way, and the conversion rate was quite bad, compared to when I was here last. One Australian dollar gets you 11,000 dong, in 2007 it was about 16,000-17,000 dong.

After being hassled by a number of taxi drivers, we found the minivan area, and negotiated the fee with little resistance. After a short wait, we were off into Hanoi. The drive was the usual organised chaos, and we only had two near misses with a few stray motorbike riders. Sarah took it pretty well, as she had just come from Egypt, where the roads are apparently worse. We arrived at the drop off point, the Vietnam Airlines head office in the old quarter. After being hassled by about six motorbike riders, one of which even tried to take money out of my hand, we set out to find Sarah’s Hostel. Hanoi Backpackers Hostel as it turns out is a very nice establishment, and cheap. I probably would have stayed there, if I hadn’t paid the deposit on my Hotel.

On the maps we had, we couldn’t find my hotel, so we asked the Hostel staff, and they drew the street in on their map. Sarah offered to come and help me carry one of my bags, the little one obviously. We found the Hotel Phoenix pretty easily, and successfully navigated the crazy traffic surprisingly well. The hotel was quite nice, with an open eating area, free wifi, and clean rooms. I checked in with no hassles, apart from the girl loosing my passport momentarily. I dumped my stuff, put some sunscreen on, used the toilet, then Sarah and I headed out to grab some food. We asked for a recommendation from the reception girl, who gave us the option of about 5 places. We chose the ‘spring roll’ option and headed out to navigate the crazy streets again.

The ‘restaurant’ was packed, and everyone shared large tables, and sat on plastic stools. There was no ordering process, and no prices listed. We were given a plate of noodles, a bowl of what we believe was a pickled vegetable of some form, then a bowl of broth and meatballs, and a plate of freshly cooked spring rolls. Sarah asked for eating directions from our table neighbors. They didn’t speak English, so the man mocked it out for us, with his friends laughing at him and us. The meal was good and quite filling. We paid too much in retrospect, 70,000 dong, or about A$6.80, which was the tourist price.

We set out to see the town, heading first to the Ho Hoan Kiem lake. My iPhone came in handy, giving us the history of the lake and the old quarter. We walked around the lake towards the Ngoc Son Temple. Admission was 10,000 dong (A$1). It was very pretty and the gifts to the gods inside the temple were amazing. There is a legend attached to the lake, involving King Le Loi, who was given a magical sword and with it, drove out the invading Chinese. When he was at the lake, it was said that a giant turtle came and took the sword back to the depths, returning it to the gods. The temple features a mummified turtle, which is really strange. I ran into an older couple on the other side of the Temple from Perth, and had a chat. They were a little bogan, the guy kept calling ‘Sa-pa’, ‘Sap-ah’, in a really aussie accent.

We headed across the road to where flip-flop alley was, a street with hundreds of shoe sellers. I ran into a few people from Sydney, that I had met in the line to check in, in Singapore. We walked back around the lake, passing some cool statues, and buildings. We decided to have a bit of a ‘nana nap’ and reconvene at the Hostel for happy hour, from 5 until 6. I managed to get back to my hotel, and Skype called home. They answered after a bit, and it was fun to have a chat, for free and to be able to see them, and show them my photos. Ah technology, I love thee.

I headed to happy hour a little bit late, but still managed to grab one lot of two for one drinks. At 20,000 dong, or 2 Australian dollars, it was quite a steal. I sat down with Sarah, a few Swedish guys we had met earlier, an English couple, and four girls from Melbourne. You’ve got to love that you can travel to a completely different country, and still meet people from your hometown. There were two girls who were traveling on their own, and the other two were traveling together, and leaving shortly on a bus. One of the girls from Melbourne, Reshika, was really cool. We sat there and played Kings, which was a drinking game, that pretty much involved a series of stupid rules attached to certain cards. Sip to the right, forbidden words, and the fountain. The fountain states that the person who drew the card starts to drink, and everyone else clockwise follows. Only when the last person starts drinking, can they stop.

We got pretty tipsy, pretty quickly, and then decided it was food time. Reshika knew a place around the corner that had good Pho, (southern style Vietnamese soup). I have had it in Footscray and Collingwood many times. It was alright, but not as good as Footscrayzy, but at 12,000 dong, or A$1.20, you cant really complain. We headed back to the Hostel to regroup, then decided to go and try Bia Hoi, the 30 cent beer available at street-side stalls. It was pretty bad, but grew on me as I drank it. A few of the group decided it was time for a kebab, but I passed. We then headed for Le Pub, that was host to a lot of westerners and Coopers Pale Ale!!!!

When we got there, Coopers was 140,000 dong, and there was no way I was paying almost double what I pay in Melbourne. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome beer, just not at that price, so I settled with a Tiger Beer. It was pretty noisy and not very pleasant, so we called it a night and decided to meet at the Hostel at nine to go and see Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh). As everyone else was staying at the Hostel, I was forced to walk the darkened, half deserted streets on my own, which was quite an experience. After being offered to “Smoke Marijuana” by motorbike riders about 6 times, I was back safe and sound.
Wow, this is an epic post, but it was an epic day. If you have read this far, Well Done! Uncle Ho tomorrow. Hope you are all well!

Day 5 – Wednesday 18th of February – Phoenix Hotel – Hanoi, Vietnam

I got to the Hostel a little after nine, and met Reshika at the seats out the front. We gradually gathered the group, including Sarah the Canadian, and the English couple. It was quite a good little group. It took us about 45 minutes to walk there, and we didn’t get lost too many times. We checked in our cameras and bags etc, passed security, and started to line up. It was a pretty quick moving line, and after about 10 minutes we entered the building. There were lots of tourist around and the photo below shows a school group which we all found very cute!

So, I may need to explain this now. The city in the south may be named Ho Chi Minh, but Hanoi has the man himself, embalmed and in his own Mausoleum. It was against his wishes, but that’s the way it goes. There are no cameras allowed inside, so fortunately I don’t have any happy snaps. The whole experience was quite weird. The path is lined with bored looking guards, some of whom have rifles with those knifes attached to the top. You are hurried along if you dawdle, and only in the main room for about 30 seconds, which is enough for me. He is well lit though, actually the whole building is quite well lit, in a very retro style.

We collected our cameras and headed into the Palace grounds to see the house on stilts and the one pillar pagoda. Unlike the Mausoleum, there was an admission fee. It was a bit of let down, but had some nice buildings and gardens. Once we had navigated past the hordes of tourists, we started the long walk back to the Old Quarter. Along the way, we decided to get some food from a roadside stall just off the main road, down a laneway. The menu was of corse not in English, but the girl from Melbourne could translate some of it, so we were all fingers crossed for something edible. It turned out to be a quite good meal, topped with peanuts, which was a change.

We got back to the Hostel and sat around for a bit. Sarah wanted to go see the Water Puppets, but I wasn’t keen. We sat around for a bit longer, then went to get more food. This time, we shared a pizza, not very Vietnamese I know, but hey, I needed some carbs. We went back to the Hostel and there was talk of heading to my Hotel room and watching Flight of the Conchords, but Sarah and the English couple wanted to see the Water Puppets, and the girl from Melbourne was off at 5 to a semi job interview. We ended up calling it a day, and I said my goodbyes to all, adding them on Facebook of course, then headed back to the Hotel, to catch up on some bloging and internet related fun!

I headed down the street and got some Pho at a local restaurant. Whilst there, I got chatting to a French lady, who had very broken English. She only ate rice, and wouldn’t eat meat or anything with broth. It was such a shame, but whatever, each to their own. A local boy, who was probably 6 or 7 was hanging around the doorway, and said hello to us, showing us his new toy, a set of magnets. He was very cute, and had great fun entertaining us with all the different shapes he could make. I got out my iPhone and showed him the drum pad application, which he thought was super cool. I had to try to tell him not to hit it too hard, and soon enough he had found the games. This of coarse attracted the whole neighborhood of kids, and for a few moments, my phone disappeared into a sea of kids. I eventually got it back and told them I had to go. They were very disappointed, and followed me down the street for a block or two.

Off to Hoi An tomorrow, on a local Jetstar flight. I am meeting up with Alex and Caitlin finally, which should be ace. I’m looking forward to having a bit more of a relax and enjoying some more beer. Hope you are all well, please let me know whats news.

Cheers,

Geordie

Australian Letter of The Year

Hope you are all well, and just another reminder to head to www.geordiebarker.com/follow to sign up to the email mailing list or follow me some other way!

Cheers,

Geordie

Application times for international visas vary depending on what visa you apply for and what country you are applying to. There are several types of visas, depending upon your intention in the country. For the sake of this post, we will use a work visa as an example.

In some countries, a visa is not required, for example in New Zealand, Australians are entitled to the same work oportunities as New Zealanders, as long as they are of good character and have entered the country legally. Australians between the ages of 18 to 30 can apply for a 12 month German Working Holiday Visa, it costs 60 Euro and takes 1 to 2 weeks to process. Work in the Netherlands can be undertaken under the Working Holiday Scheme, once again you have to be 18 to 30, it costs 40 Euro and takes a maximum of four weeks to process. Work in Sweeden is much the same, 18 to 30, around 60 Euro and four weeks to process. For work in the United Kingdom, you can now apply for the Youth Mobility Scheme, 18 to 30 year olds can apply with minimal inclusion of past work, or past education.

In December, I started the application for the Youth Mobility Scheme. First an online application form had to be completed, taking about 30 minutes. Upon completion a window was made available that allowed an appointment to be made at my local consulate to submit “biometric details” (fingerprints and facescan). The paperwork was stamped, and then required to be sent to the British High Commission in Canberra.

I was supposed to leave the country today (11:30am on Saturday the 24th of January), alongside my sister Charlotte, who is off to France for a student exchange. At 3:50pm yesterday, I was forced to cancel my flights, due to the absence of my Youth Mobility Scheme Visa, and more importantly, my passport. They are both still in the hands of the British High Commission in Canberra, who at this present stage cannot give me an indication of when they will arrive, or how far along my application is. All I know is that my application fee of $248 was taken out of my account on the 11th of January, which is a Sunday, those British bureaucrats must work hard.

The 11th of January was three days after I posted the application, which means they must have opened the envelope. When I submitted my biometric details, I was given two pieces of paper, one piece of paper said that a return postage fee was required and another that said that I was to include a self addressed return envelope. Due to my application going through the Visa 4 UK website, I had not come into contact with any specific information relating to processing in Australia. I did a Google search and was directed to the UK in Australia website’s FAQ section. I found out that the system had changed recently and that due to courier charge increases, return postage envelopes were now required.

Looking through the FAQ I stumbled upon another question, unavailable to me before; How long will my Application take? To my horror, it stated 25 Working Days. I rang the consulate on their 1300 number, and to my surprise I was asked for my credit card number. As it turns out you are required to pay $9.90 BEFORE you talk to an operator. This was the last of my problems, so I accepted and was given no more useful information from the operator. My travel agent advised me that a letter with my application would possibly assist me, this was included with my application. I am not the only one to have had problems with the British High Commission and their processing of visas and customer service, and I call it customer service due to the fact that they have a Public Service Agreement Charter. Simply do a Google search for UK Visa Canberra Processing Time Forum, and you will find many people very disgruntled with the system. There is an upside to this however…

“Never do today what you can put off untill tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.” Aaron Burr, American Statesman and Adventurer, 1756-1836

Whinging aside, this means I have re-jigged my plans, and you can view them in full at my TravBuddy page. I am now hoping to leave on February the 5th which is Thursday week. I fly straight to Ko Samui in preparation for the Full Moon Party, with Caitlin and Alex, two friends from High School. I spend about 5 days there, enough to get ready and more importantly recover. I then move onto Hanoi in Vietnam for two nights, Sapa in the mountains of the north for two nights, and then head down to Hue which will take almost a whole day on the train. I plan to stay in Hue the mid point of Vietnam for about 3-4 nights, then onto the UNESCO World Heritage Listed Hoi An.

The final city I will visit in Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh City. From Ho Chi Minh, I then plan to fly into Vientiene in Laos. From Vientiene, I am doing a fleeting tour toward the Thailand / Laos border, so I spend two nights in Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang and then cross over into Bangkok. Becuase of my delayed departure, I am spending just three nights in Bangkok before heading to Kuala Lumpur to visit my VCA friend Govin. Govin and I will hang out in Kuala Lumpur as he is doing a large festival with Peter Wilson, the ex VCA Puppetry Head of School. He and I are planning to head to Manila in the Phillipines for three nights to party it up before I leave Asia. Govin is planning to drive me from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to drop me at the airport and also visit his Grandparents. I then fly onto Dubai.

My altered Itinerary

I am also now planning to work in Dubai instead of London. This is due to the large amount of work available in the United Arab Emirates region. Audio Visual work is in high demand due to the large number of conferences and events that are held, and the money behind the companies over there. A past collegue has just come back from there and earns about $14,000 a month, with included accomodation, and an $80 a day allowance. I am hoping to work for one of two companies, Gearhouse Staging Connections, or Action Impact. I submitted applications this afternoon after changing my flights and other details.

Thanks for reading this far in the post. I have worked hard on trying to make this post as informational as possible, and with as little whinging as possibel. I am hoping that others can learn from my small mistakes, that have turned into trip altering problems. Please feel free to comment this post with your travel nightmare stories, at least we can have a laugh in retrospect. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you, once I actually leave the country.

Packing and “Packing”

I did a test pack this evening, and had no idea where to begin, so to procrastinate, I went looking on the iPhone App Store for Travel Applications. I stumbled across one called “Packing”. It’s pretty much what it says it is; it allows you to create packing lists for your travels from pre existing templates, and then add items from the pre-existing / customisable database. The application is great, and it gave me a “general trip” template to work off, which made life very easy for me. I added and deleted things as I needed, and changed the title of some things, like “flip flops” to “thongs” and “flashlight” to “torch”. I had figured it out, so now I had no excuse not to begin.

To give you some idea of how I am travelling I have included a photo of the two (and a half) bags below. I have my Mountain Designs 75L Pack that has a little detachable day pack on the front of it (15L). For use during the day, I have the Lowepro Slingshot 350 AW, which has the ability to carry my digital SLR, laptop and other such goodies. See my earlier travel post for more info.

Mountain Designs 75L Pack with Detachable 15L Daypack,
Lowepro Slingshot 350 AW

Travel Gadgets

Now I am going for 9 months, and unlike my last trip (2 1/2 months) I cant be without my tech gadgets. So this time I have brought the lot.

The Innards of my pack, please click on the photo for an annotated version.

Communication
My black MacBook is coming along, so that I can keep you all up to date with the happenings. Also by my side is my iPhone 16GB (with Crumpler belt holster) which will not only provide me with calls and messages, but also music, games, travel podcasts and localised applications. To keep my information safe from theft, I am bringing along a 320GB Hard Drive to use as a Time Machine (Mac OS X Back Up Utility) Backup. That will also be accompanied by a 120GB hard drive that I will use to move my photos around and free up room on my MacBook hard drive. With these comes all the usual USB leads, iPod leads and a computer lock.

Photography
I am taking the plunge and bringing my Nikon D80 Digital SLR Camera, alongside my Olympus compact digital (the one that the dog eats in the advert). I am hoping that alongside the usual barrage of travel photos I can capture some of the locals, their lives and some arty shots. I plan to keep a dedicated section on my Flickr page to these sort of photos. The Lowepro Slingshot backpack (shown above) is designed to house the digital SLR and slings around to your front for easy access. The compact digital has a belt pouch. Due to these cameras taking different memory cards (Nikon takes SD cards, Olympus takes XD cards), I have purchase an 8 in 1 Card Reader. For security, both cameras have removable batteries, so that I can keep the camera safely locked up in my bag whilst the battery recharges.

Kathmandu Packing Cells

Clothes and such
Now I won’t bore you with my complete packing list, but I do need to mention one amazingly useful thing I found at the Kathmandu christmas sale… Packing Cells. They are pretty simple, just little rectangular shaped bags with zipper tops that come in varying sizes. Very simple, but they allow me to be able to pack and unpack my bag in a matter of minutes. From my test pack yesterday, my bag came to 16kg with a bit of room to spare, although I am looking at packing slightly lighter and then buying some clothes in Asia.

Utilities
This is kind of the miscellaneous category. I am bringing an Australian power board, so that I can recharge a number of items using the one plug adapter. I am hoping to get some work in the UK, so my trusty Leatherman, and Maglite are a must. I have my Kathmandu Travel Alarm Clock with built in torch. I brought this purely so I wouldnt have to leave my phone out overnight (worried about theft). When I travel between airports, I generally don’t use my padlocks, instead I use cable ties, and make sure that when I am collecting my bags, the cable ties are intact. This poses one problem, how do you get the cable ties un-done at the other end? Enter the Swiss Card, that lives in the front pocket of my pack (the only pocket I don’t use as it can’t be locked). This business card sized swiss army knife has scissors, problem solved!

Reading and Writing
I plan to take my Lonely Planet Western Europe Guide, and probably a novel, but that’s to be confirmed (I’m not much of a reader). I am hoping to convince the Lonely Planet people to give me the guide I have purchased in digital form so that I can read it on my computer and iPhone, but it’s not looking likely at the moment. I am also taking a small notebook to fill with random thoughts or things that aren’t worthy of being posted on my webpage. A sharpie is a definate, and a pen or two (that will most likely get lost at the first airport I visit).

Security
Now call me a little paranoid, but when you are taking as many expensive items as I am, you want to be sure your pack poses some challenges to get into. I have managed not to loose my three combination locks from my last trip, one of which includes a cable, giving you the ability to tether your pack to some study item (usually a bunk bed). Last time I went overseas, I didn’t take my computer, but did have a phone and a camera, and these locks kept the theives out. This time, I am going for something a little more hardcore. I am employing the services of a group of small ninja that will follow me around and sleep under my bed. No, wait… that was Plan A, Plan B comes in the form of the PacSafe Exomesh 120. It is essentially a large net of wire that wraps around your bag and then tethers to a pole or bed and prevents access to your bag. It is a very full on solution, and I think I will only use it in backpackers where there is a high chance of theft.

Go Design Padlocks and the PacSafe Exomesh 120

]]> http://geordiebarker.com/archives/391/feed 1 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/289 http://geordiebarker.com/archives/289#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:07:27 +0000 Geordie http://geordiebarker.com/?p=289

Travel Purchases – Lowepro Slingshot 350 AW, Lonely Planet Guide Eastern Europe, Lonely Planet Best In Travel 2009 Guide, 4 x Kathmandu Travel Pouches, 1 Kathmandu Travel Alarm Clock.

With just under 4 weeks until I depart Melbourne, and with some recent purchases shown above, I though it was time for an initial Trip ’09 blog post.

My preparations are well underway, I still need to obtain a few Visa’s (I’ve left it quite late, bad me!). I have purchased a lovely new Lowepro Camera/Travel bag, the SlingShot 350 AW, and I love it. My father has suggested that I may have a bag fetish, due to my ownership of two other Crumpler Bags. I disagree, I just like to have everything on hand.

Just in case you haven’t had the experience of me talking about this upcoming trip, I will run you over the basic plan, and
to give you an idea of where I am headed. To do this, I have employed the use of TravBuddy, a travel website with groovy features, like map integration. Map, and full explanation below:

Please note that the links on each of these sections are to different parts of the brilliant site WikiTravel.com

South East Asia: I am leaving on the 24th of January and flying to Singapore on Singapore Airways. I am then swapping to an AirAsia flight to Bangkok, Thailand, where I plan to meet up with Caitlin and Alex, two high school friends who have been travelling since just before Christmas. I plan to explore Bangkok with them for 6 days and then head to Ko Sao, described as an un-corporate island paradise. I plan to be there for about 4 days, then travel onto Ko Samui to meet back up with Caitlin and Alex. After 6 days in Ko Samui, it is off to Hanoi to meet up with Alex’s sister Jemma, and her husband Tim. There is a little here that will be filled in later, but essentially we plan to end up in Hanoi on the 16th of February and fly to Singapore on the 24th of February. I will leave Asia on the 1st of March and head to London.

London: I plan to work in London for around 2 months, and have made contact with a possible employer, thanks to an old work colleague. This is still a bit to be confirmed, but I also have the possibility of working with a friend of the family on some large festivals and music gigs.

Big Ben, a photo from my last trip to London

Europe In General: I plan to travel around Europe and see the places that I couldn’t or didn’t get to see last time I was there. I will of coarse re-visit some of the awesome places I visited the first time around. Czech Republic is a definate, along with Munich in Germany. I am leaving this quite fluid, due to the very structured way I visited Europe last time I was there. I want the ability to meet people, hear their experiences and plans, and work from there. I am looking at a Eurail pass, instead of Busabout which I loved last time, but didn’t quite have the killer coverage of Eurail.

Edinburgh: I am planning to work on the Edinburgh Festival, which runs from the 14th of August to the 6th of September, I have made contact with “Assembly” and have a recommendation from a past colleague. This is my last stop in Europe.

United States: This is the second last leg of my journey, and once again too far away to be fully planned. What I do know is that I fly into New York City, where I plan to see the sights, catch up with a few artists from the Melbourne International Arts Festival and possibly meet up with my cousin who will also be there.  I plan to stay for 3 weeks.

Canada: This will be the last leg of my trip, and I plan to visit three friends from my past travel adventure. This is a To Be Confirmed, but I plan to stay for around 10 days.

I return to Melbourne on the 4th of October, with the hope of walking straight into a job on the Melbourne International Arts Festival, thanks to my Secondment there in 2008.

I would love you to stay in touch, and there are a number of ways to follow me, the easiest of which is to sign up to my newsletter, and you can do so below.

I hope you enjoy my journey as much as I will, and I would LOVE to hear from you, about your recommendations and daily news. Hoping to hear from you all soon,

Cheers, Geordie