Cairns

We arrived in Cairns on Tuesday morning. The town itself is nothing special, its just one big tourist information centre. We headed to the Great Barrier Reef to see the fish the next day which was amazing! The weather was overcast and windy so the boat ride there and back was really rough and the bumps were great! Being in the water was pretty scary sometimes as it was quite choppy and the currents were strong. But the reef was so beautiful. So many fish! So many colours! It really is a different world under there.


On Wednesday we went up to Cape Tribulation and saw crocodiles in the wild. We stayed the night at a beach house and went horse riding through the rainforest. When we reached the beach the weather was bucketing.

Apart from the the rainforest it could have been the West of Ireland. We loved it, especially when we got to go really fast! Our horses Raja and Little Red were the biggest and smallest of the group. They had to go through dense rainforest and muddy hills and were so well behaved.


Tomorrow Dave is doing his bungee jump.....


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More Melbourne

We met Susan Kennedy from Neighbours on Friday! She was so lovely and chatted away. She said she was born in Carrickfergus! Libby and Paul Robinson drove past but we did not get a photo. Chris has now seen 8 Neighbours actors and saw Dr Karl twice. Ramsay Street was a lot smaller than what we thought. We also met a cat and a dog who live there. How exciting!


That night we went to get Thai and a few drinks at Melbourne Central and then went to a comedy club on Collins Street. The comedians were not great but we still got at laugh, laughing at the shape of them. Later Edel took us to St Jerome in this cool alleyway near Shit Town where we had a wee boogie.


The next day we went out for dinner with Doireann, Stephen and their flat mate Adam.The food was so gorgeous! We headed into the casino for a while but found the whole thing a bit daunting. While lot of minging people in there! Dave briefly won $20 but promptly lost the whole $40 with two more spins of the roulette.


Yesterday we headed to St Kilda for a dander and tonight we are going to Melbourne jail for a night tour. I hope it is not too scary! Then off to Cairns tomorrow at 5am! Bring on the good weather!

The Gallery
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Melbourne

Coming back to Sydney and not being able to go back to Stanmore sucked!!! We stayed at this wee crummy hostel in Kings Cross but at least we got a chance to have a drink with Erin, Emily, Jenny and Leah from Chris' old work at the CWA. (Two for One at the Fountain rocks!)


Our Qantas flight from Sydney to Melbourne was great apart from the delay. They loved giving us food and drink. As we flew over Sydney we could see the Royal National Park coastline. The park is so big that we only ever managed to see part of it by foot.


On Saturday Melbourne was filled with mental Irish people dressed up like ejits. It took us a while to realise that Ireland were playing Australia in the rugby. Theoretically we could've gone to the game. There were tickets about on Saturday afternoon but we settled for the warmth of the pub as we were knackered and had no warm gear to sit on the terraces for two hours.


We have done a good few things since we got here. We visited Christine's Uncle Francie and Elaine in Garfield and had a barbeque, had a few drinks with our friend Edel that we met in Sydney and had coffee with Doireann at Southgate. We also went to the Austrian Centre for Moving Images and saw the Game On Exhibition where we played away on old video games from Pong, Space Invaders, Packman, King of Fighters (where Chris beat Dave's ass!, Lemmings, and Nintendo Wii. How cool is the Nintendo Wii by the way!!!! We want one!


On Tuesday we went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. The weather held out and we managed to see some beautiful sights. Our tour guide was a complete mentalist which added to the craic. His name was Bernie and he looked like a crazed Santa on holiday. He was a typical Ozzie - big, brash and politically incorrect. He slagged everyone from the French, Belgian, Pommes, Canadian, Japanese, Dutch and American. He just called us the the Paddy's but we didn't get as much stick as everyone else which was surprising. He was impressed when we told him where we lived in Sydney as he said all the 'Paddy's' usually live in County Bondi. The two Belgian people got it the worst. He kept calling them Frenchies and Froggies and picked up snails and asked did they want a bite. Aww and the 'Ducthie' got it pretty bad too. Apparently everyone in Holland is big headed!


We stayed with Uncle Francie on Wednesday night. They took us to Phillip Island where they have a Summer house. We went to the zoo and saw The Nobbies. We also had another big barbecue but this time it was a proper barbecue with a fire. We weren't able to stay for the penguin parade but maybe another time. We took a walk on the beach and saw the sunset where Auntie May used to sit when she visited. It was beautiful.

Here are some photos

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Leaving Vietnam

Vietnam is great! We visited Ho Chi Minh City, Hué, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Mui Ne in the space of 2 weeks. It has only stopped raining now after 3 days being stuck in our resort. Chris was ragen we could not get out to the famous sand dunes but we will see plenty on our Aussie travels. The highlight of the trip was definitely Hoi An. Our hotel was amazing and the people were so friendly. The town itself was beautiful. We would love to come back again if they ever have cheap flights from home.

The photos are at the usual place...and here!







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Hoi An

Hoi An is great!

The town is nice and small and the streets are old and full of atmosphere. But what we love the most is our hotel! We could not believe our luck. When our bus arrived in the town we saw a man holding a piece of cardboard with the name Mr DAVID. He brought us via motorbike to the hotel and handed us juice. All the staff are so friendly and helpful. Our room is really beautiful and the food is class, especially the Spring rolls and the Vietnanamese Beef Curry. Chris is contemplataing getting a pedicure because her feet our disgusting but is nervous as she has never had one before and she will only get them dirty again on her next trip.


Hoi An is full of old buildings and character as you can see from the photos. After walking through the manic market we saw the cutest Vietnamese hat for Dougal that we could not resist. When we were sitting out having a drink at the river one Vietnamese woman saw him wearing the hat and thought he was lovely and offered to buy him for her son! But we would never sell wee Dougs even though Dave did think about it!


All our photos are piled together for this one but you can click on Dougal's Gallery for the rest of them.

Hué

We just about survived a short but painful plane journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Hué. The people on the flight were really loud and about 10 babies screamed the whole journey time. One spewed near Chris and another one kept knocking against her chair. Everyone nearly had a fit when we were 'queuing' to exit, impatiently hitting us in the back to make us hurry up. This seems to be a feature in Vietnam, people crowd around you for tickets or anywhere else where you might find a queue back home.

Hué has an incredible Imperial City and royal tombs because the royal family moved here from Hanoi at the beginning of the 1800s. A lot of the old sites were sadly destroyed in the French and American Wars. The Hué arts festival, held every 2 years, coincidently was on when we were there so there was a carnival atmosphere. Parties took place inside the walled citadel all night.

Hué was a welcome relief from the noise and pollution of Ho Chi Minh City. For one it is much smaller and the pace of life is much slower and the Perfume River is pristine and does not smell. We ended the day on cyclos driven by two naughty cyclo drivers. Mind you, Dave drove his most of the way back to the hotel. We were only slightly ripped off. They tried to ask for $8 each. Never gonna happen!


Photos here!

Cu Chi Tunnels

We spent the second half of The day at the Cu Chi Tunnels. We had a great time. It was fascinating to learn about the ingenious ways in which the Viet Cong guerillas fought against the French then the American army and remained undetected so close to Saigon. Dave went into the tunnels for the longest section that tourists can take, around 100m. It was pretty horrible down there, so claustrophobic and hot and these have been enlarged and cleaned up for tourists.


We watched a documentary film about the Cu Chi struggle from 1969. They referred to the successful guerillas as American Killer Heroes which suppose is a good description as any and no worse than the body count methods that the US forces used. Still though it must have been a little uncomfortable for the American tourists.


The group we took the trip with were great, really good fun. One American guy was even a Paul Anand lookalike if a little rounder.

Photos

Cao Dai Temple

As part of our second trip we were taken to the Cao Dai temple which is of a religion set up in 1923. They worship 4 times a day. We watched part of the noon ceremony but we had to leave as the smell of the incense was overpowering. It was an interesting, colourful spectacle though and one of the guys looked really cool with shades on. Not sure if he was the leader but he should have been.


Photos here

Mekong Delta

Took a one day tour to the Mekong Delta about 2 hours from Ho Chi Minh City to get a feel for what life is like outside the city. 80% of the people in Vietnam are still engaged in farming, they need to get some call centres here.


Dave held a big snake, a python we think. The photo has him looking scared but it was fine really. We tasted some honey tea and rice wine but we didn't go for any of the snake or scorpion wine.


We were taken on a short boat ride through the canals, the water is brown but it's not dirty just full of the goodness that plants crave. Mind you we did see a dead kitten, not sure if this is a regular practice.



We took a speedboat back to Saigon (which is what the South Vietnamese call it). It was an interesting journey as all the kids in passing boats and on the banks waved at us like we were famous. A big storm came in too which reduced visibility for the driver but he got us back safe and sound.

Photos here