Last day in Vietnam

I am sitting in the Prima Taste True Singapore Cuisine and have just finished a coffee and about to down a 333 Vietnam beer. Coffee is an interesting experience for me as I only ever have the occasional cup either from carol or a coffee shop. I am always uncertain of the taste as it always varies so much but beer is the one I can trust. The pricing here is a real conundrum. 333 a local budget beer costs 7500 D in the supermarket and 83000 D at the airport. So there is nothing consistent about that at all. I have really enjoyed the experience of traveling with a group. It is not something I was really looking forward to and will only do it again if I feel the benefits are there for me. I have travelled with some really amazing people and hope I have the opportunity to once again connect with them.
The fight is about to start boarding,,,,, Bye for now

Friday Sept 30 We fly out today.

Honey honey Honey ......

I am so pleased I met a bee man today. My guess is he saw our bus while on his way from A to B. He called in to the Marble sculpture display centre where we were stopping for a relief break and a spot of Marble shopping.Bee people are the most interseting people in the whole wide world. They are able to easily deal with 1000s of potentially killer bees. He was clearly a lover of his craft and a gentle man to boot. He rode into our carpark with a 20 litre bucket of live bees and loaded honeycomb between his legs on his scooter. He was not trying to sell it or himself. He was only trying to share the experience of native VN honey bees. I loved it and we looked and gestured at each other. I tasted the honey and found it to be delicious and in doing so I accepted his offer and found it to be amazing.

Water Water everywhere and not a drop that we will drink

Water has been an interseting journey here in VN. AEF has instructed all participants to only drink BOTTLED water. So how does this really go down? I don't want anyone to get sick. You can catch very bad stomach and bowl bugs that can alter your life forever. We were going through more thsn 100 bottles a day. We now buy the 20 litre drum with the tap and reuse botles. The bottles are returned and reused so the outcome is excellent. Well done EQ EE teachers.

Departure BNE International Airport

Well I am in Can Tho the capital of the Mekong Delta, an amazing place. I have some photos from the day I left Carol has kindly sent that I must put up. Well I can't up load them SORRY. So we sp

ent most of the day driving and some of the day on the Mekong River.

Tuesday school visit day

Today we went to the HCMC EPA office to listen to Mr Ha van Dung talk about the environmental issues and challengesthat face the Peoples Committee.It was really facinating listening to what the agency were able to do and not able to influence. HCMC has 4.1 million scooters. After lunch Angela ,Nell and myself headed off to the AIS Australian International School. Mr Why gave the taxi driver instructions but we went to the junior school rather than the middle school. We did arrive on time and had a great expe

rience.

Day 11

We left Qld 11 days ago. My camera didn't like the humidity and stopped working. I have been unable to blog due mostly to the hectic nature of the trip.I do apologise for this and hope you haven't waisted time looking.For me not be able to fit this in to my day is amazing. The trip goes on and today I am very excited about the visit the AEF has organised to a school in Vietnam. The school is the Australian International school here in HCMC. We have looked through the fence at plenty of Gov. schools but have been told they are hard to get into.

Finally some rest

I have been very surprised how full each day has been. I am very tired but want to be sable to tell a fine story,,,,, I hope I will still
be able to develop a story.
Lozza

Hue Sunday morning

We are now in our Asia Hotel after leaving our Hanoi hotel at 4 am.

Tam Dao NP

We started off heading out of the city through the fast developing mid zone between city and rural that is fast disappearing under urban sprawl VN style. First stop was a relief stop followed by the Animals Asia Foundation Moon Bear Rescue Centre. Then on and up to Tam Dao a retreat in the mist and mountains. We all appreciated the skill of the driver on many sections of this journey. We then headed off for a quick walk down to the waterfall and a plunge for David and myself before returning to Tam Dao and the golf club for lunch. I just missed out on meeting with the chairman but did conduct a quick tour of some local points of interest.
We then headed off to our hotel and on to dinner at KOTO (know one teach one). We aren't quite sure where Margaret went today as we don't have any photographic evidence of her being on the tour.

Wedding Photo

We went for a stroll down to Hoan Kiem

lake on Sunday afternoon and came across a number of weddings.It also seems that scooters are the main form of transport with a 150% tax on new cars.

Finally All together Hanoi International Airport

KL Airport

My High tech seat

Taxi anyone?

KL Airport is monstrous

We have been here a couple of hours and I have really enjoyed looking around. They have a light rail that takes you from arrivals to departures. Check out the 31 pieces of rubbish that was my KL dinner

11 hours to go till take off

Well I am all loaded up with lots of tourist giveaways, some VN Dong and US dollars. I have had lunch at my all time favourite Vego place "Gavindas"in the city with beautiful Carol.

Family Dinner at Brothers Leagues Club

Where is my plane ticket?

Well I didn't get the regular email confirmation today with my e ticket attached,,,instead I got the one where your heart starts to race and beads of sweat start to gather like rain clouds on your forehead. It said something like the Airline spelt your middle name incorrectly ( Luke ) and well we hope it can be sorted out real soon.
oooops NOT HAPPY JAN

Packing, Packing and repacking

I have most work weeks in the last 11 years packed a backpack for a hike or camping trip. I am really good at this type of packing and can do it blindfolded but this is where my extensive experience seems almost to be at its limit. I have proven to be very ordinary at packing for car camping or even trips away with friends. It seems I am only good at packing for an extremely lightweight multi-day off track bushwalk. Which means such things as only a spoon and cup for eating, no towel, or change of clothes, one spare pair of socks and undies, an enormous first aid kit, no tent just a bivvy, my own stove and fuel, emergency clothing, a raincoat, food and water.
So you can see my problem, I have to work off lists.

Vietnam School Visit

Fantastic,,,, I will be visiting a school in Vn after all. I was hoping to visit many to meet the students and the teachers so 1 will have to do. Who knows another opportunity might just appear from nowhere and fall into my lap. I will certainly keep all my options open. I have a better chance as they attend school 6 days a week. I might have to settle for the Australian International School in Ho Chi Minh.

Teleconference

I dialled in at 3:31 and was neither early nor late but right on time. It was great to hear from all the participants Nel, Rene and Hilary. 90 minutes later and it was done. I will have to look for information on sleeping bag inners and the moderate 6 hour trek from Cuc Phuong to the Muong village to share with the group.

Final mailout arrives

Phone Hook up Monday

Flight MH 134 Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur September 17 draws closer minute by minute.Vietnam now has an Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) outbreak . Twitter does not sound like it will be of much use to the Study Tour as a tool.
I am trying to get the group to visit some schools and it seems it might be just too hard at this late stage.

Tambo Camp 500 + km one way

This week Columboola went 500+km West, Julie, Ranger Nick and I with 9 canoes, tents, sleeping mats, archery gear and lots of activities for 44 Tambo students did the trip and it was a fabulous time for all. Kiralee, Selina and Belinda made the week run very sweetly. These wonderfully generous teachers welcomed us into their homes, fed us home cooking each night and provided fantastic hospitality. I must commend them on their dedication to teaching, they all have great rapport and a lovely sence of country community.
What a great week.

Me at Work

One Month to go

I am very keen to start to chat with the other tour members but I haven't been sent the go ahead. I have a list already to launch, just waiting now. My business cards arrived yesterday and they look great. carol has done a great job with them. I also have an introduction card I will be using and once again thanks to Carol for getting it converted to Vietnamese. It tells the holder who I am,why I am in Vietnam, what I am doing, and asks them if I can help them in any way. Cool hey, she is so talented.

My Netbook

Well I picked it up Friday on my way through Toowoomba. This is my first message.I would like to say "I love you Carol". Thanks Carol very much for your support and all the wonderful things you do. Lawrence x x x

Paper marathon complete

Well all the i s are dotted and t s are crossed now. It is all up to Australia post for the next amazing leg in this tremendous journey. So I now have the signed participant agreement, the travel insurance cover note, the medical certificate, the visa documents, a copy of my passport personal details page, my dietary requirements, emergency contact information, Carol's approval and blessing and the professional support of my Principal Mick. Do I have the patience to wait the month and a half till we fly out?

Travel Insurance What a mind field!

I have been looking at a number of sites and even got a call back after an inquiry. How interesting is insurance. All the ones i have looked at so far have a heap of exceptions. I could walk all the way to Brisbane airport from here on fine print. I need it to be accepted on the study tour but all I can find is market value replacement. So I can look forward to having my stuff replaced with similar gear of the same age. WOW WEE

Netbook solution

Well after a fair degree of searching for a platform to blog from as I don't want to carry our MacBook Pro all over Vietnam I have bought an Acer netbook. Officeworks has them on special at the moment. I did the deal over the phone on Saturday and meet up with the little beast friday on my way through Toowoomba enroute to MOEC, my favourite Outdoor Education Centre.
It is black at the moment weights 1.2 kg and has 1GB of Ram, 250 GB of storage,a tiny screen, webcam,wifi, SD card slot,Windows 7 Starter and a 6 cell battery. It is as much for bicycle touring , motorcycle touring and backpacking as it is for the trip. It will be my first brand new computer.

Doctors and Needles

Monday at 12:00 is my appointment at the Dr. I have to get the Dr to sign that I am physically, mentally and psychologically fit and am able to travel and fully engage safely. I have read all the vaccination information and have already had in the past all the jabs necessary.

Documents

Well I got my letter from the online visa mob today, fantastic and interesting. I now have a list of 20 travellers who had their visa applications approved at the same time as me . People from all over the world, the letter states full name, date of birth, country of origin and passport number.
The weather looks interesting as it will be during the Autumn and the warm monsonal season. Lots of rain and temps of about 27C.

Shame SHAME Shame Lonely Planet

On Sunday August 31st the Lonely Planet 30 % sale ended. This will amaze and annoy the bloody hell out of you. I went online to find second hand guides to Vietnam. E bay has a few but they were in the UK and were not up for auction just on sale NOW. I looked at the Lonely Planet website and yes discovered the 30% sale. Wow 30% off. Great ! The price was in $US $17.49. I converted that and WOW the strong Aussie $ has the price at $15.93 and don't forget the postage. A BARGIN don't you think?
Well I put my address in for postage and WHAM all of a sudden the price rocketed. I was now looking at $28.69 which is $31.45 US. That is almost double the online US price. Now it is still cheaper than buying it from a big city shop but what is happening at Lonely Planet here in Aus.
I did order the book and also sent a question to the Lonely Planet website. I asked why it cost more in Australia than the USA to buy the same book that is printed in SE Asia. I have received a reply and replied to it. Simply it is because Lonely Planet believe that we in Australia are prepared to pay about that much for the guide. I am disgusted and will continue to shake the tree.

Technology Dilemma

Well do I take a camera, a phone and a netbook or an i Phone / i Pad. One device or three. Do I want to join the touch screen revolution.I already use our MacBook Pro as my home computer. I am always happy to get it second hand but will it fit my life goals?
I already have a brick and digital camera , so all I need is a netbook, not one for streaming or gaming or downloading DVDs. I would like one to blog on and store some photos.
I am concerned that I have no real idea of how or where any of this stuff was manufactured. I like to know or at least have some idea what the true cost is ,not just the price.
What will I do ?

Oppps

How can this be ...I have just applied online for a Visa for Vietnam and made a big mistake. I entered my birthdate as 07/08/2011???? Now this means I will be born later this week. I do hope I can fix this. I know too much to once again go down the birth canal.

"Julie and Julia" staring Meryl Streep

I decided to start a blog tonight while watching this DVD. I just love how fantastic Meryl Streep is and it is a lovely story.
Vietnam Study Tour update. I have applied, been accepted and am now waiting for the mailout. It arrives this week and I am waiting. We don't have a mail delivery here in downtown Condamine just a post office where you go to collect your mail. I hope Carol has the time to go and see if there is mail. Bruce will be closing this Monday at lunch time.