Penang 

It's funny how different a destination can be, on each further visit. We had toyed with the idea of spending half our time by the beach but ended up spending the entire week in George Town. It was smaller, easier to get around and much more interesting than I remembered from our last visit, which was ten years ago.

We split our time between two hotels. Firstly we stayed in a restored, old boutique hotel located in the Old Town. It was great to be in the thick of restaurants and street art. We were fortunate to catch a Chinese festival on our first weekend. 

Chinese gods - very well known  ones, apparently!

Another one of those travel stories when you have no idea what is going on or why (and even if someone explains it, it doesn't really make much sense to you). However, it was very colourful and the locals seemed to be having a ball.


Street art is spread out over many buildings in the Old Town. Really interesting and fun art, and we spent a few evenings just wandering around and discovering different art styles. 

Food, featured high on our list of activities again. Penang has some fantastic food, we had some great meals in - yes, you guessed it - Little India. However, we also tried some local cuisine that is a mix of Arabic, Malay and Indian and finally found a brilliant seafood restaurant. 

Our hotel, Old Town, George Town, Penang

We spent an afternoon at Batu Ferringhi, but decided it wasn't really worth moving to the beach, so moved from the Old Town to the outskirts. We choose a hotel with a pool, so we could still enjoy George Town and chill out. In the end it ended up storming and raining and thundering, but it was still a pleasant change.

Street art, George Town style

Practising my Korean pose... hmm not so sure.....

I spent a lot of time working, during the Penang week. We also had a bit of a spend up. I needed to buy some work clothes and Richie was just sick of his t-shirts. We had fun getting around and spent quite a bit of time jumping into taxi's, only to jump right out again, as they threw a towel over the metre and then said "oh no meter, give me X" (five times what the cost should be). We don't mind paying a bit extra, but there is a limit on how much we are prepared to be fleeced.

Nest of robber taxis, in their natural habitat!

On the other hand, I got a bit of an eye infection. When one of my eyes was nearly swollen shut, Richie forced me to the doctor. The cost, including  a whole range of drugs was only $15 - bargain!

Seriously stormy weather, Little India, George Town

When we left Penang, I flew to India for a weeks work. I have been organising an agents workshop with Curtins' International Deans. Man, what a lot of work, however it's now all over - yeah - so my work level should be more manageable. Richie flew to Siem Reap, to catch up with our friend, Wazza. From his emails, it seemed like he had a good time. Wazza was moving to Phom Penh, so there were quite a few leaving dos' to attend!

Me, being very professional...

We will catch up again on Wednesday morning in KL. We are staying in the same apartment that we had last time in KL. I miss my beloved, whilst we have always spent time apart, due to work commitments, after two solid months together, it seemed a bit harder to go our own ways this time. 

We have two days in KL before we fly to Seoul, Korea. I have both days solidly planned: massage at my favourite Thai place, lunch at our favourite Indian restaurant in Bangsar; Iced Kajang and bowl of noodles at the food court in the Pavillion Food Court, and cocktails by the apartment pool.
Two more days in Mumbai.......

Dalat & Saigon, Vietnam over and out.


The bus ride to Dalat was painless. It was a small bus, however, it wasn't very crowded so we could all spread out. It was raining gently and lovely and cool, when we arrived in Dalat and continued to rain gently pretty much off and on, for all of our three days. 

We had a fabulous room at the Ngoc Lan Hotel, massive, comfortable and with fantastic views of the Lake. We spent a lazy few days walking around Dalat, strolling along the lake edge. I had a work Skype session one morning and spent quite a lot of time gearing up for my upcoming India trip, but apart from that it was pretty chilled few days.

Xuan Huong Lake

View of the lake from our room

The best thing we did was visit the crazy house. Designed by a Vietnamese woman, with a PhD in architecture from Moscow. It's a weird and wonderful house - kind of Salvador Dali meets Gaudi. Words can't really describe it, you wouldn't believe me - pictures will have to do. 

Dalat Crazy House

Dalat was a pleasant, cool interlude and it was nice to go somewhere in Vietnam, we haven't been before. Very cute, relaxed kind of town. The only downside was the food - very bland and not full of love - not bad just not particularly good.

Dalat Train Station

Ngoc Lan Hotel Dalat

We flew from Dalat to Saigon (sounds so much more romantic than Ho Chi Minh City), again very painless and only took a morning door to door.


It was great to be back in Saigon, lots of changes but still the same at heart. We had to start our visit with two of our favourite places - The Reunification Palace - such a grand and fabulously retro 60's building and so well preserved. We loved it 10 years ago and it didn't disappoint - it was still just as charming.

Reunification Palace, groovy baby!

home theatre, 60's style

Our other favourite place was The Rex Hotel. We had spent many pleasant evenings, drinking cheap wine and requesting songs from a groovy mariachi band, on our previous visits. Sadly, The Rex has gone upmarket and very middle of the road. The roof bar still had the crown and the elephants, yet it was missing its old charm.

Still fabulously tacky!

We dragged our sorry selves around a few museums, The War Museum, was, as depressing as remembered from our last visit, but still interesting and worth a look. Oh we posted some stuff home as well. Not sure why but our luggage seems to have grown, I swear we haven't really bought anything, maybe it all just needs a really good wash!

Apart from a bit of sight seeing, it was mainly a food fest again - we had another slap up Indian (or course). However two months into the trip and we succumbed to the urge for junk food. We spent a lovely day in bed and only arose to stagger around to KFC and get a take away. Our last evening we went the Hard Rock Cafe route - just noodled out, I guess.

Cathedral, Saigon

Central post office, Saigon

After a pleasant month in Vietnam we flew back to Penang, via KL. We few with Vietjet, perfectly acceptable airline, except the flight attendant uniforms! Ugh ghastly - who though tweed shorts was ever a good look?

Tweed shorts, not so groovy

Vietnam was somewhat surprising  - overall the food wasn't as fabulous as remembered, the great dishes - salad, pancakes, dumplings and noodles get a bit same-ish after a while (oh dear that sounds like a first world problem). 

Na Trang which we expected to be naff, turned out to be great, whilst Hoi An, remembered so fondly from our previous two visits, wasn't nearly as charming. 

Anyway off to Penang for another eat....athon and get ready for my work trip to India.

Last word - early days of Western Security

Nha Trang on the Hudson

Well the day time train ride from Danang to Nha Trang was interesting to say the least. First the train was delayed for an hour and then another hour. I was entertained by a young Vietnamese man who wanted to learn English. 

Richie photobombing my train station English lesson.

This wasn't the first time we had been approached by young people keen to practise their English, but this one had his grammar book with him. Bless! So despite my hangover from the Dalat wine, (back to the AFD for me) I chatted to him for about an hour, while we waited for our train.

We boarded the train, and our first guests were a pleasant brother and sister from Hue. However, they alighted a couple of stations later and then we were joined by a woman with her son. 

This is the day train but the airconditioning was so cold, Richie decided to rug up!

She proceeded to take over my bunk, by sitting extremely close to me when she wanted to eat, so she could access the table - I let her for a while - then did a snatch back and pushed her onto the opposite bunk. Her next delightful act was to let her son piss in an empty water bottle - which she then threw on the floor - yeww - pure class!

Next, we were joined by a father and rather cute young, chubby daughter. They seemed quite civilised, until said daughter decided to play her crappy music, on her phone, out loud at full bore - cue more teeth grinding from me. 

Danang train station

The cabin next to ours was full of upcountry Vietnamese, who ate like wild animals - when the lunch arrived all you could hear was slurping, munching and slapping of greasy lips - more yewwww! I imagined the guard stepping into the carriage and disappearing and a few gnawed bones being thrown out....

Maybe I'm getting too finicky in my old age - or I only like other people at a distance - quite a long distance in this case. Thank god for ear phones and Spotify!


Anyway we rolled into Nha Trang about 9.30 pm, the weather was delightful, and jumped a cab to our hotel, the Hanoi Golden 4. 

Another pretty decent Vietnamese hotel, just across the road from the beach. Nha Trang has turned out to be a really pleasant surprise. Yes it's full of Russians, Russian food, Russian karaoke and yes most of the menus and signs are written in Russian. However, Nha Trang has really developed into a fantastic holiday place and I think we can thank the Russians for that.

Nha Trang Beach 

There are huge beach beds to be rented for $3 a day, massage for $10 an hour and people serving all sorts of food and drink on the beach. Great water sports available,  including a weird new water jet powered thing called Fly boarding. 

Is that Iron Man on Nha Trang Beach?

The beach set up is very European but still spacious. We were only staying for three nights but extended it to a week. The Russians, whilst not exactly friendly are perfectly acceptable to the Ajayi's!

Another delicious Vietnamese salad - green papaya, shrimp & pork

Again, eating some great Vietnamese food. We went to a lovely restaurant called Yens (trip advisor to the rescue again). It had rave reviews and the staff were really friendly. We ordered Vietnamese curry and the waiter said "no, it's not good here"  us: "Sorry", the waiter: "no, it's not good here, whenever people order it, they always leave it and say it's not good". Well you can't argue with that kind of honesty can you! So we never tried the Vietnamese curry - I think it might be very different to Indian or Thai curry and it's not what people expect - but then again I'll never know now, will I?

все его России для меня во всяком случае and to you to! 

 Perestroika, glasnost, Gorbachev, 

Slobodan Milosovich, da!

Also had a good Russian meal. We aren't familiar with Russian grub so thought we'd give it a go. It was okay, lots of great pork dishes. Evening was good fun - had a really great Russian singer (who looked like Nana Mouskouri and could sing in about 5 languages, bloody show off!) and lots of jolly, fat, middle aged Russians getting jiggy with it - one of those evenings when you could have been anywhere!

If you're under 40, you'll have no idea......

So we generally spent our time either laying on the beach, being massaged or eating (I must own up to doing quite a bit of work in the mornings). We started skipping breakfast as well - had to cut out a few meals somewhere !

Art museum, Nha Trang Beach

So it's our last night in Nha Trang tonight - has to be a Fred Mcmurray - off to Omars Tandoori. Just spending a lazy Saturday afternoon at the Sailing Club, watching the world go by. We're catching a bus to Dalat tomorrow - it's picking us up at 7am - we're hoping it's a big bus and not another one for people with the 12" legs!

Omars comin', Omars comin'

After our 7 days in Nha Trang, we've decided it might be the new Lombok for us -  maybe? We'd need to come off season, but it's got a great beach, cheap massage, great restaurants - what more could you want. We could either go down market again - down our Russian end of the beach or go up market at the Sheraton or Novotel, a bit further along the beach.

Dosvidaniya Nha Trang - I think we'll meet again !

My Beloved,  just because I can

Hanging out in Hue and third time lucky in Hoi An.

The overnight train ride to Hue was fairly uneventful. We decided to go for the more expensive Livitrains, which is supposed to be a more luxurious carriage on the train, similar to what we had experienced in Sri Lanka - WRONG! Luckily we shared our four birth cabin, with a couple of very quiet New Zealanders - they didn't speak one word to each other for the whole journey - not that Richie or I heard anyway. 
I slept like a dead person!

The romance of train travel

The skanky train guards tried to sell us an empty four berth cabin, which they kept under lock and key for the ridiculous sum of $100 USD - we     
 politely declined. 

Just as well I got off the train, they might have embalmed me!

However, they eventually managed to snag a couple of live ones, (read mugs) as we saw a couple, with very large back packs moving into the empty cabin. 

They also didn't bother serving any food or drink - as they are supposed to and when asked why replied "oh sorry I was asleep!!".  I expect they were flogging the food and drinks off to someone on the side, as well. Didn't matter though - we'd come prepared - but I wouldn't bother to pay top price for Livitrains first class again - might as well just go on normal Reunification Express - it's exactly the same and they DO serve food! 

Hue by night from our hotel

So arrived in very hot Hue, a little sleepy and a bit dehydrated and checked into the Moonlight Hotel. Very nice Hotel - in fact it was so nice, we decided to stay a few extra days. It was right smack bang in the middle of EVERYTHING, so very little walking was needed to explore - just as well, as it was really warm.  

Bridges over the River Hue, view from our hotel room

Hue is a bit of a hidden gem. It's a very pretty town built around a lot of waterways. We'd been to Hue before and revisited the local market, as we had some good memories of eating there. We took the obligatory river boat ride - it was hot, noisy and a bit boring - but it's what you do. 

Messing about on the river

Awwwwww

We did catch up with a friends' business partner - Little Lan. She took us to meet her family and visit the cathedral where her dad is a security guard. She'd just escaped the convent by the skin of her teeth, as her Mum planned for one of her 8 children to get her a free pass into catholic heaven, but Little Lan, foiled her and got married instead! Or maybe they just couldn't find a 'habit' small enough and set her free!

Richie and Little Lan at the family Lan cafe

But mostly we just ate and drank far too much (nothing new there then). We discovered another new Indian restaurant (trip advisors fault) and proceeded to stuff ourselves stoopid!

Indian meal number five hundred

We had decided this time around, we weren't going to visit The Old Town to see the pagodas, citadel or ancient ruins that Hue is famous for. It's our travels and we'll do what we bloody well want to!

We caught a mini bus from Hue to Hoi An - thinking it might be more interesting. Bit of a mistake - the van was built for people with 12" legs and of course they jammed it full. Still, we got to Hoi An in one piece.

Journey from Hue to Hoi An 

We are staying at the Essence Hotel & Spa in Hoi An. It's another lovely boutique hotel except we don't have a balcony - ohh more first world problems! 

It's full of European holiday makers, tanning themselves, within an inch of their life (balcony owning, bastards!). Even though it's pretty up-market, or maybe because it's upmarket, the staff all seem to be a bit scared of making a mistake or doing the wrong thing and so there is very little interaction between the guests. After the extremely friendly staff in Hanoi and Hue, it's a bit of a let down. We love a bit of luxury just like the next man, but would rather have a relaxed chilled out atmosphere, any day. 

Chatting with fellow travellers and locals is what we enjoy and Hoi An has moved on from being that kind of laid back place! It's our third visit to Hoi An and I must say, whilst it's still very charming, I'm really glad we came here 13 years ago. It's a bit of a carnival now - still nice but not what it once was!

Hoi An - lanterns

Food is still fabulous though - still the same old favourites white rose dumplings etc., but there are no people in the old town that aren't involved in tourism anymore. Except for one old lady, we spied sitting out the front of her house - literally just watching the hoards of tourists go by. She must have been the last person in town not to give it up to tourism! I wanted to shake her hand and ask her to sell me a cold drink!

Nothing for sale here........move along

Our hotel is just under a kilometre into town - to close to catch a taxi - so fortunately we are getting a bit of exercise between meals! Thinking of another curry tonight....I had my first AFD in weeks yesterday - might have another one today.....

AFD? not on my watch

Day 3 AFD  - might have to have a cheeky red tonight. We still haven't done the curry route again. Instead we decided to do our own food stall tour and very successful it was - the food was fabulous! We ate just by the river on very, very small stools again - had crispy rice pancakes, cao lau (pork and fat noodles) and BBQ pork in rice paper. We finished it off with some mango cakes (think - sweet, unhairy scrotum stuffed with coconut) and some Vietnamese donuts.

Richie had a moment on the Ajayi street food tour. At our second stall visit - we choose a bigger seat, but the food vendor said it was reserved for a group of 7???!!! and ushered us onto a couple of very dinky stools at a very rickerty table. 

Ajayi's street food tour - at the posh table

Then the 'chef' tripped over the electric cord and the food staff nearly collapsed, and at that moment the group of 7 appeared and chose the next door stall. Our crisply rice pancakes were delivered and came with rice paper and herbs. We wanted an extra plate to roll our pancakes, when Richie asked for it - the very annoyed food vendor, waved him away very dismissively. 'WELL' said Richard indignantly 
"if you don't give us an extra plate, we're not paying!!". I had to remind him, we were sitting in the gutter and paying a grand 0.75cents for our meal! 

Coconut scrotums - yum!

We spent the rest of the evening sitting opposite a lantern stall and watched every second person take a photo or a selfie - we'd done the same when we arrived - but now it seems a bit passé. 

Middle of the road selfie with stick....

We enjoyed our short stay in Hoi An but don't think we'll be back anytime soon - it's just too unreal now.

Banki Moon bun

So off to the delights of Nha Trang - or little Moscow as it's un-affectionately known. We're back on the train instead of flying or a private car - but decided to go with Reunification Express and on a day trip this time, it's good fun and we're in no hurry so why not - we wanted two lower births but had to settle for an upper and a lower.