Coming home

We were all so excited about coming to New Zealand.

The kids because they got 13 hours on a plane, each with their own TV.

Shoshi, because it was a dream of hers to get here.

Me, because I'd always wanted to see for myself if the water really went down the plughole in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere.

The kids got their wish.

Shoshi has been on Cloud 9 since we arrived on 10th March.

Me - well, it's true, it does.

But I found the first couple of days in NZ to be pretty tough.  Not because it isn't stunningly beautiful, not because it is tough to travel here.  Quite the opposite.  It feels pretty much like being back in Scotland.  The language, how the people look, the food, place names, supermarkets, driving on the left hand side, tree covered mountains, salt & vinegar crisps, sheep and cattle everywhere.

It feels like home.

And after 4 months in Asia, I wasn't ready for such a 'culture shock'.

I don't want the familiar.  I have become used to the unfamiliar, not understanding, having to explain things using sign language, trying to decipher the menu, Google Translate, chopsticks, motorbikes and noise.

There is something very enjoyable about not understanding, it allows you to live in a bubble as much of what is going on around is just filtered out. As they say, ignorance is bliss.

Arriving in New Zealand, I lost that privilege.

I understand everything.

It feels a little like coming home.

Just on the other side of the world.

Hong Kong Phewy

We got out of Vietnam, all of our limbs just about intact and flew to Hong Kong on 4th March for five days.

We had planned to explore the city and also some trekking for the best views of the legendary skyline.

We hadn't planned on the weather.

Grey skies, fog and rain.

We could have been in Glasgow (although it seemed like there were less Chinese restaurants in HK than there are in Glasgow).

So we did our best and managed to soak up the atmosphere of this incredible place. We stayed on Hong Kong Island, in the Wan Chai district, a bustling area of high rise apartment blocks, shopping and restaurants.  Noisy but relaxing at the same time.  This was actually something we felt throughout our stay in HK - despite the incredible energy and crazy population density (in the top 5 in the world) - the place has a strange serenity which we really liked.

Everything works so well and is unbelievably clean.  So much so, than one day we were eating sandwiches in the main railway station and we actually cleaned up our crumbs off the floor as we didn't feel right making a mess! Hong Kong, a city so clean that you can literally eat your food of the floor.

So our our first morning, we caught the Star Ferry over to Kowloon Island.

11am, this was the view.  Dark and moody and rapidly disappearing.  David Copperfield would have been impressed.

But by the evening, the weather had improved and we were lucky enough to see the iconic skyline and Light Show.  Amazing experience.

The following day, we spent on Hong Kong Island, first on the HK equivalent of the London Eye, then going up to the HK Central Bank Museum which has amazing views from its 46th Floor.  The rest of the day was spent on the Central–Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system which is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. The system covers over 800 metres  in distance with an elevation of over 135 metres from bottom to top.  It's quite amazing, it is a commuter system for the city and helps hundreds of thousands of people get to and from the Financial district each day.

The weather on the 3rd day was supposed to be slightly better so we got up early and started hiking to the top of Victoria Peak, the famous viewpoint which gives stunning views of the bay and skyline.

This is what it usually looks like:

This is what we saw.

A 4 hour hike with a damp ending, but at least we saw some views on the great walk up...

We consoled ourselves with some great DimSum for dinner and a walk the city.

When the rain got too heavy, we also  hit a couple of great museums, The Science Museum and The Space Museum, both of which the kids really enjoyed and are definitely recommended for rainy HK days.

To summarise Hong Kong, we certainly didn't see the best of it, it was a real shame about the weather but as we have learnt on our travels, there really isn't anything that we can do when nature conspires against us.  It's impossible to be in the right place at the right time, all of the time, and sometimes we just have to make the best of things.  We still had a great time but left with the feeling that it could have been a whole lot better.

Hong Kong marked the end of our the South-East Asia leg of our travels.  We spent over 4.5 months which had taken us to Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and finally Hong Kong.  So many amazing experiences, some tough moments and countless memories.

On 9th March, we boarded a Qantas plane bound for New Zealand, pretty much as far away as we could get, excited about what the next 2 months are going to bring.

Vietnam - We Love You Long Time

Stanley Kubrick might have been referring to a different kind of love but the phrase still perfectly captures our feelings after 1.5 months in Vietnam.

We love this place.

Despite two pretty significant hospital dramas for Guy

We couldn't get enough of the...

Bustling, vibrant cities.

Lovely, friendly people.

Great homestays.

Brilliant tour guides

Stunning Lunar New Year celebrations

A dark and difficult past but a bright and optimistic future

Fansipan - the highest mountain in Indo-China and a quite breathtaking cable car ride

Lushes rice fields and tasty fried rice

Motorbikes and motorbikes and more motorbikes

1st Class paediatric surgeons

Israeli travelling families to hang out with

Breathtaking scenery

The best sleeper buses in the world.

The loudest Karaoke clubs in the world

Wonderful food.

And much much more.


Vietnam, we'll be back.

North Vietnam - Ha Long Bay, Hospitals, Hanoi and Hiking

So after deciding to leave Hoi An, we planned for 2 weeks from 20th Feb to 5th March to explore the north of Vietnam and decided to split our time between 4 places - Cat Ba, Tam Coc, Hanoi and Sapa.

We had been waiting to get to the North, to do some hiking and see the stunning scenery that we had heard so much about, in the end some of it lived up to expectations, some of it disappointed due to the weather and some of it turned into a nightmare!

Ha Long Bay/ Cat Ba

So we flew from Da Nang to Hai Phong and spent 2 nights on Cat Ba Island, allowing us to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site site of Ha Long Bay 1600 limestone islands in the turquoise seas of the north east coast of Vietnam, this is a must-do for anyone visiting Vietnam.

But the weather got us.  The overcast day took the edge of the 7 hour boat trip.  It was nice, the kids enjoyed jumping off the boat, swimming and kayaking but the views just didn't have the wow factor that they definitely would have with blue skies and bright sunshine.

Still very impressive to see but we would probably have skipped if we had been able to predict the weather in advance.

Tam Coc

Beautiful place just a couple of hours south of Hanoi.

Stunning scenery, great bike rides, lovely Homestay hotel, we were loving it until this happened.

Enough said.

Hanoi

Due to Guy's accident, we had to change plans and stayed in Hanoi for a week.  It wasn't a great time,  Guy could not walk and we were having to make daily visits to the doctor so we were very restricted in what we could do.

So we did the terrible tourist open top bus, we waited to 'wave' to Donald Trump, went to the great Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and spent some time with our friends Dan, Marina and kids who were spending their last few days in Vietnam.

All in all, after 7 days in Hanoi and the all-clear from the doctor, we were delighted to be leaving.

Sapa

In reality, this is the place we had been waiting for.  Although we weren't able to stay with a 'Mama', we still had a wonderful 2 days in Sapa.

We took an overnight sleeper bus from Hanoi, arriving at 3am and were allowed an extra 3 hours sleep before they kicked us off.  So it was an early 6am start, we headed to our hotel to dump the bags and start exploring.

Sapa is home to a great number of the ethnic groups still thriving in Vietnam.  Their traditional dress and customs make for fascinating viewing and add a real vibrancy to this mountainous region.

Day 1, we took the cable car up to Fansipan, the tallest mountain in all of IndoChina at 3143m.  The cable car in itself is mind-blowing, a Guiness record holder, being both the longest non-stop three-rope cable car in the world and having the greatest elevation difference by a non-stop three-roped cable car, taking passengers up  1,410m into the mountains.  On arriving, there is still a 1-2 hour walk to the summit, through various temples and monuments.  The air at the top is thin, it's a struggle to walk but the views are breathtaking and we got some amazing weather to help.  

This was definitely one of our Vietnam highlights.

Day 2, we trekked down to the traditional village of Cat Cat and spent the day exploring local cultures, enjoying the wonderful scenery and basically just enjoying our last day in Vietnam.

That evening, we took another night bus back to Hanoi, ready to fly to Hong Kong the following morning.

We had been very worried that after the accident to Guy in Tam Coc, we would finish our 1.5 month Vietnam adventure on a low but Sapa gave us he opportunity to turn things around and with Guy able to walk a little, it turned out to be the perfect ending to a brilliant leg of our travels.