Saturday, February 19, 2005
boring, boring arsenal
First things first, the football.
As detailed earlier our hotel had retuned the tv so we could watch Arsenal v Palace. The days of being able (and willing) to stay up all night are consigned to history and faced with a 3am kick off we decided to go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 3am. Party animals indeed though it was a Monday night..
Minor problem when returning to the hotel to find the night receptionist had retuned all the tvs and replaced ESPN with some bobbins movie channel. Upon discovering this, tensions were rising somewhat in room 401. In view of this we decided it was wise to delegate Ms Love to go back down, alone, to reception and point out to the new guy the error of his ways. Whether she told him 'to stop f**king around with the tv' as directed is not entirely clear but it did the job and ESPN was restored. As for the rest of the story, well the first 30 minutes were knockout and then we fell asleep...
Anyway, less of the scintilating tales of retuning tvs to watch the football and back to Asia and Vietnam..
If Dal Lat and Nha Trang hadn't exactly set the pulses racing then we were definitely in need of arriving in Hoi An. Yes pop pickers, straight from nowhere, a new entry in the top 5 of places visited since August.
A great little town, full of tree lined avenues, slightly fewer motorbikes, a lovely market (where the locals appeared to wear the conical hats for real and not just as a photo opportunity) and some great restaurants.
The town was literally covered with tailors and silk shops. Clearly the thing to do when you came to Hoi An was get a suit. Entering the shops you were sat down, given this years Next catalogue and told to pick any outfit and they'd make it for you in 8 hours. One outlet even had 10 pages torn from a Guicci catalogue and was claiming to make perfect reproductions of the latest catwalk creations. Anyway, only a fool would believe such protestations and clearly we weren't stupid enough to have bought 3 suits, 8 shirts, a pair of shoes and a new dress by the end of our 3 day stay...
Elsewhere we visited some ancient Cham ruins called My Son which were noteworthy only for being the sight of probably the best 'traditional dance' we have seen since August as well. Despite starting with the usual token guy playing a triangle, this one somehow progressed to a rousing finale of local women dancing with flower pots on their heads. Anyone wanting more details better ask the loser sitting in front of us, as he's videoed the whole thing.
Other events included an afternoon at the beach, cooking lessons, a cycle ride round some lovely little country lanes and more needless shopping for junk that Courtney likes but costs about 30 times more to post home than it does to buy.
Plus our favourite meal of the whole trip. Run by a young 'Texan Vietnamese' guy, it had everything - riverside setting, innovative but local food, nobody shouting at potential customers to come inside, great service and even free nibbles while you ordered. The Mango Rooms, Hoi An. You read it here first.
As detailed earlier our hotel had retuned the tv so we could watch Arsenal v Palace. The days of being able (and willing) to stay up all night are consigned to history and faced with a 3am kick off we decided to go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 3am. Party animals indeed though it was a Monday night..
Minor problem when returning to the hotel to find the night receptionist had retuned all the tvs and replaced ESPN with some bobbins movie channel. Upon discovering this, tensions were rising somewhat in room 401. In view of this we decided it was wise to delegate Ms Love to go back down, alone, to reception and point out to the new guy the error of his ways. Whether she told him 'to stop f**king around with the tv' as directed is not entirely clear but it did the job and ESPN was restored. As for the rest of the story, well the first 30 minutes were knockout and then we fell asleep...
Anyway, less of the scintilating tales of retuning tvs to watch the football and back to Asia and Vietnam..
If Dal Lat and Nha Trang hadn't exactly set the pulses racing then we were definitely in need of arriving in Hoi An. Yes pop pickers, straight from nowhere, a new entry in the top 5 of places visited since August.
A great little town, full of tree lined avenues, slightly fewer motorbikes, a lovely market (where the locals appeared to wear the conical hats for real and not just as a photo opportunity) and some great restaurants.
The town was literally covered with tailors and silk shops. Clearly the thing to do when you came to Hoi An was get a suit. Entering the shops you were sat down, given this years Next catalogue and told to pick any outfit and they'd make it for you in 8 hours. One outlet even had 10 pages torn from a Guicci catalogue and was claiming to make perfect reproductions of the latest catwalk creations. Anyway, only a fool would believe such protestations and clearly we weren't stupid enough to have bought 3 suits, 8 shirts, a pair of shoes and a new dress by the end of our 3 day stay...
Elsewhere we visited some ancient Cham ruins called My Son which were noteworthy only for being the sight of probably the best 'traditional dance' we have seen since August as well. Despite starting with the usual token guy playing a triangle, this one somehow progressed to a rousing finale of local women dancing with flower pots on their heads. Anyone wanting more details better ask the loser sitting in front of us, as he's videoed the whole thing.
Other events included an afternoon at the beach, cooking lessons, a cycle ride round some lovely little country lanes and more needless shopping for junk that Courtney likes but costs about 30 times more to post home than it does to buy.
Plus our favourite meal of the whole trip. Run by a young 'Texan Vietnamese' guy, it had everything - riverside setting, innovative but local food, nobody shouting at potential customers to come inside, great service and even free nibbles while you ordered. The Mango Rooms, Hoi An. You read it here first.
two wrongs don't make a right...
to be organised, i had been reading ahead in the rough guide, marking comments in the margins of all the activities i like. all museums (particularly those with pottery), all shopping, all historical houses, certain low key physical activities - lovingly underlined (as if pete needed reminding!)... sometimes even marked with smiley faces.
unfortunately, i neglected to notice the opening line of the chapter on Da Lat, a mountain town famed for ethnic minority villages and strawberries, 'Western tourists may find this Vietnamese playgroud a tacky tourist hell-hole'... i did however notice not one but 3 summer palaces complete with original 1960's decor. i thought i was heading to paradise. pete, being a details man realised otherwise. oh how wrong i was.
confronted with thousands of vietnamese tourists crammed into the summer palaces and paddling around the lake in giant plexiglass swan paddleboats, we decided to retreat to the hills for a trek and a visit to an ethnic minority village (even though it was not one of my underlined activities!). even that was slightly marred by the 200 people/boyscouts we passed on the way up and then again on the way down the mountain. the visit to the minority village was not much better - our host, the village elder, sang to us manically in french.
we left the next day.
the next stop nha trang, a coastal beach town, wasn't a lot better - but at least this time i wasn't the only one who was fooled. we both agreed that we really should do a day's boat trip around the bay - highly praised in the rough guide (even warranting colour photo). this time 60 of us were herded onto a boat meant for 30, and hosted by a guide who called himself 'Funky Monkey'. For those that know the TV show 'The Office' he was a perfect vietnamese version of David Brent. Every joke was a bad joke and he was determined to get us to 'paaarty'.
pete doesn't do organised tours at the best of times - but under the circumstances all we could do was laugh. The highlight of the day was the floating bar. the idea being that anyone willing/able to swim 10m to the 'bar' floating in the open sea was rewarded with unlimited free strawberry wine. a combination of free booze and treading water that is, no doubt illegal in most of the rest of the world. every western tourist on the boat looked distinctly sheepish as we halfheartedly shouted 'paaarty' everytime someone said 'no' to another drink. just thinking about it still makes me cringe.
unfortunately, i neglected to notice the opening line of the chapter on Da Lat, a mountain town famed for ethnic minority villages and strawberries, 'Western tourists may find this Vietnamese playgroud a tacky tourist hell-hole'... i did however notice not one but 3 summer palaces complete with original 1960's decor. i thought i was heading to paradise. pete, being a details man realised otherwise. oh how wrong i was.
confronted with thousands of vietnamese tourists crammed into the summer palaces and paddling around the lake in giant plexiglass swan paddleboats, we decided to retreat to the hills for a trek and a visit to an ethnic minority village (even though it was not one of my underlined activities!). even that was slightly marred by the 200 people/boyscouts we passed on the way up and then again on the way down the mountain. the visit to the minority village was not much better - our host, the village elder, sang to us manically in french.
we left the next day.
the next stop nha trang, a coastal beach town, wasn't a lot better - but at least this time i wasn't the only one who was fooled. we both agreed that we really should do a day's boat trip around the bay - highly praised in the rough guide (even warranting colour photo). this time 60 of us were herded onto a boat meant for 30, and hosted by a guide who called himself 'Funky Monkey'. For those that know the TV show 'The Office' he was a perfect vietnamese version of David Brent. Every joke was a bad joke and he was determined to get us to 'paaarty'.
pete doesn't do organised tours at the best of times - but under the circumstances all we could do was laugh. The highlight of the day was the floating bar. the idea being that anyone willing/able to swim 10m to the 'bar' floating in the open sea was rewarded with unlimited free strawberry wine. a combination of free booze and treading water that is, no doubt illegal in most of the rest of the world. every western tourist on the boat looked distinctly sheepish as we halfheartedly shouted 'paaarty' everytime someone said 'no' to another drink. just thinking about it still makes me cringe.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
happy valentines day..
...to Nan Doris for it is also your birthday. All the best from both of us.
The roadshow has moved on, through the mountain tacky resort that was Dal Lat, and now resides in Nha Trang. Full story to follow once it has happened.
The important news though is that we've already got the hotel manager to retune the tv - he's come up trumps and we have ESPN. All set now for 3am Tuesday morning when we make it 2 home defeats in a row for Arsenal. Happy times indeed...
The roadshow has moved on, through the mountain tacky resort that was Dal Lat, and now resides in Nha Trang. Full story to follow once it has happened.
The important news though is that we've already got the hotel manager to retune the tv - he's come up trumps and we have ESPN. All set now for 3am Tuesday morning when we make it 2 home defeats in a row for Arsenal. Happy times indeed...
