Emergency?

I thought I'd post this separately as it is worthy of standing on its own.  Obviously with Tony's work he has an interest in the ambulances in other countries.  We always manage to get piccies of ambulances where ever we go and we had seen a couple of ambulances out and about yesterday but were unable to capture them in a photo.

So, imagine our delight when returning from the Mekong we were passed by an ambulance with lights a flashing.  He was travelling quickly so only managed to get a photo from distance.

A couple of minutes later we noticed that it had stopped on the roadside up ahead of us.  Tony readied his camera to get a better photo of it as we went past.  He did!!  And this is the photo...

Yes, he stopped on the side of the road, back to the traffic and was peeing on the side of his ambulance.  At least he kept the lights flashing so we knew it was an emergency...

OMG they grow corn

Up bright and early today - 5 am to be exact.  Couldn't get back to sleep so the boys and I hit the pool at 6am for a pre breakfast swim.  The traffic was really just starting to get noisy so it was a great backdrop.  Buffet breakfast then it was off to our Mekong Delta day trip.

Our driver was Mr Phoung and our guide was Duan.  It took just over an hour to get out of the city, and considering that were right on the outskirts that's a lot.  We got onto highway 1 which is a motorbike free zone so it was suddenly like a ghost town.  We got to see many strange things as you usually expect to see in a foreign country.  Like the snackman...

 

We crossed paths with a Buddhist funeral (cremation) which was bright and colourful, and then we got to talking about city vs country.  In the city when you die you're going to be cremated.  Obviously land is at a premium here.  Our guide told us that when you live in the country you re allowed to be buried so most people bury their beloved in the rice paddies.  I of course imagined the amount of fertilizer they provided to the rice, and actually didn't think he was serious at all. Until we saw the rice fields - complete with tombstones (see far right on the pic below)

A bit farther down the road we got to learn about all the crops that are produced here and of course the one that got the biggest response was the corn.  Yep they have corn here and a lot of it.  I guess they must export it to Thailand (do they even know what corn is?  lol)
We went on to My Tho (pronounced me th - o) and boarded a boat for a ride to a little island in the middle of the Mekong river. 

Here we took a tour of a coconut candy factory and saw them making the rice paper (aka the stuff you wrap cold rolls in).  Next stop was a horse and cart ride to a quaint little cafe for fruit, honey tea and some traditional music.  Ive kinda put the horse and cart ride out of mind because 4 large white people, Nate and the tour guide do not really go so well with a skinny old grumpy horse.  When the horse nearly collapsed we demanded to get out and walk - would have been to traumatizing to explain to Nate why they had to kill the horse...

After the little break we were mobile again, this time on a 'paddle boat".  Was a nice slow pace to take in the natural growth, including lizards and dragonfly's.

Lunch was next, a 5 course delight of Vietnamese food.  The look on Dads face was priceless when the first course arrived.

The fish was turned into fresh rolls with cucumber and rice paper wrappers.  It was followed with river prawns, a chicken noodle soup, a seafood pancake, fried spring rolls with fried rice and jasmine tea with dried coconut bread.  All in all yummy.

We were then homeward bound, and stopped in Chinatown at an ancient temple that was originally on tomorrows agenda.

We decided on a light dinner of canapes and alcohol in the executive lounge.  We met a pair of fellow Aussies who had literally just arrived in Vietnam and seemed to be kinda terrified...lol

Sorry but the beer is shite

Up early again as we have another flight to catch.  Malaysian again, to Ho Chi Minh City.  No big plan this time, a little one so instead of all 5 of us sitting together Mum and Dad had the pleasure of Nate's company and Tony and I sat behind.  We had an early breaky at Delifrance - croissant based of course.


The flight to HCM was only 90 minutes which I always find odd for an international flight.  When I think of international flights I always think long and drawn out.  We got served a brunch box which had an omelet and other little goodies in it, including a cadbury choc Id never heard of before - Gold.  I tried to find a picture of them but alas no luck (Ill take a photo later lol).  The landing for this flgith was almost the exact opposite - the plane actually bounced on the runway and we seriously thought we were in trouble.  It felt like it was going to roll over.  But, it didnt and we were happy to get off of it :-).

HCM airport is like pretty much all others these days - lots of steel and glass.  What made this one different is that we a) cleared it in about 10 minutes which must be a record of some sort, and b) the people waiting to meet you are all outside.  Outside in the heat with the other 1000's of people waiting to meet their loved ones too.  Bangkok airport is bsier and yet Ive never seen a crowd like there was there today.  I think Tony captured a bit of it.

I was very please that I had booked the hotel minivan as there was no way we could have safely found a taxi to deliver us to the Windsor Plaza Hotel.  The ride to the hotel was as expected, took about an hour and was filled with many near misses with the various vehicles we crossed paths with - mostly motorbikes of course.  Weve never seen so many motorbikes, it really is a sight to behold.



The hotel is beautiful, old style elegant. 

We upgraded to Executive rooms for the free minbar and free afternoon snacks and alcohol (theres more to it of course, but they are the highlights  hehe).  We spent the afternoon resting, and swiming and snacking and then had dinner downstairs at this amazing buffet.  We were able to sample lots of vietnamese food, and some not so asian (ie I tried snail!!).

Oh yeh the title of this post came from Tony's assessment of their beer - "333"  He only had one this arvie but I doubt he will be going back for more. 

We have lift off

Finally the day has come.  It kinda felt like holidays would never arrive, but in reality we really only started planning the trip after Christmas last year, so not really long at all.

The five of us pretty much had little sleep last night - Tony and I were awake at 5am, mentally repacking our suitcases and filling out that last minute checklist.  My morning thereafter included a quick trip to TTP to sort out the third and final Christmas lay by.

I managed to catch up with Greg briefly to check how the doggies went - well I'm guessing because they got upgraded to the laundry in case they got cold outside...

Our pickup arrived at 11am on the dot.  We always use Come cruisen as it takes the hassle out of getting to the airport.

Don and Anna met us at the airport to get a sneak preview of the check in process (in prep for the 15th when they lift off for Thailand).  Of course book in did not go well, an issue with paperwork were guessing although they wouldn't say what.

We left on schedule and although service isn't what it used to be the Malaysian flight to KLIA wasn't too bad.  Dinner was served at about 4.30 and we chose the chicken - curry this time.  Mixed feelings about that, Dad and Tony enjoyed it, me, not so much.  Mum had lamb and I think that would have been a better choice.  Supper was a Chicken "Pie", which in fact was more like a sausage roll.

The landing was probably the smoothest ever, so gentle that it was well after landing that I actually realised the tires were on the tarmac.  I think we were on time, just as well as we had opted to avoid customs/immigration and stay at the Airside Hotel.  The advantage of that meant we could have been in bed 20 minutes after disembarking and no queuing with the masses.  The hotel was a bit daggy, but the bed was comfy, the room was dark and quiet and the view was awesome - the planes in parking bays C3 - C5 were right outside our window.