Feb 7, 2010 Posted by Daniel & Kitty in Vietnam

Goodbye Motorbike!

So after almost two weeks we now bid “adieu” to Vietnam; we’ve had our ups and downs… our highs and lows. Actually, it’s mostly been ups and highs. I think we were both surprised (in a good way) about the Vietnamese and their country. On our previous travels we heard a lot of negative things about Vietnam, mostly about the famous touting and all the scams, which was why we didn’t include it in our travel itinerary that time. And even though we will be very glad to not hear “Hello! Motorbike?!”, “Hello you buy something sir!” and “Where you from?!” anymore, we’re going to miss Vietnam. The country is beautiful and the Vietnamese are very friendly and outgoing; even when they’re trying to sell you something (which is every 10 seconds, no joke).

It’s also a bit of a shame that we didn’t have the time to go into the countryside and experience the rural part of Vietnam, but we really liked the cities and towns we visited. So, taking off from where Kitty left off last time we posted, we arrived in Hoi An.

Hoi An is the tailoring capital of Vietnam (if not the world). The town is very relaxed and there’s much less commotion and traffic there than in the other Vietnamese places we visited. It’s a very touristy town, but it is heritage listed and filled with beautiful old houses, which are all worn in a way that just adds to the character. And in almost every one of these houses is a tailor shop. The whole town is filled to the brim with tailors and I have no idea how they make any money with all that competition. Naturally, we had to get clothes tailored so we spent a few hours at a recommended tailor, picking out clothes and then they were ready two days later. They should be en-route to Sweden as we speak!

After chilling out in Hoi An for almost four days we flew (the flights were so cheap and we didn’t feel like another 14 hours on a sleeper bus) down to Ho Chi Minh City (we often sung the name to R. Kelly’s “Gotham City”). Everyone still calls it Saigon though. This is where we spent our last 4 days in Vietnam. We mainly just strolled the streets, constantly almost getting run over in the absurd traffic. We ate Phó (noodle soup) and visited sights. Especially interesting was the War Remnants Museum, which, despite it’s bias, had some great but horrible exhibitions about The American war, as they like to call it here. They had tanks, helicopters, bombs etc, but also a lot of photos showing some disturbing stuff, which really illustrated what a cruel war it was.

We also visited the Cu Chi tunnels just outside of Saigon, which is an underground tunnel system 200 km long (!!) that the Viet Cong used during the war. And even though this too was extremely touristy, you got to squeeze into and crawl 100m through the tunnels. Apparently they had widened this part of the tunnels to twice their original size, so the tourists wouldn’t get stuck. During the war, food was scarce and the Vietnamese were very thin, so the tunnels could be very narrow (about 50 cm if I remember correctly). It was extremely claustrophobic and nerve-racking. It’s hard to imagine that they lived underground like that for months at a time. Eating, sleeping, working… and all the time getting bombed from above. Many of them must have been buried alive when the tunnels collapsed. One of the people who worked at the site was actually born in the tunnels during the war! Amazing! She worked at the shooting range right beside the tunnels, where you could shoot all manner of guns. No hand-grenades though, as the tour guide mentioned a bit gloomily.

The tour guide didn’t take anything too seriously though, as he was making jokes through the entire tour. At one point he was demonstrating nasty traps that the Viet Cong used to kill Americans with. One particularly terrifying trap involved a plank of bamboo spikes that would swing down from the ceiling (this was used when the American soldiers kicked in doors of houses) and hit them in the groin. The tour guide then jokingly said that they would have to turn “lady-boy”and move to Thailand. He also advised against farting in the tunnels, as the people behind you would not appreciate it. All in all, it was a very interesting visit. Even with the “nearly-propaganda” film they finished off with!

Anyway, I’m finishing this post off at Kuala Lumpur Airport and I’ll leave you now. Until next time, when, hopefully, we have some interesting stuff to tell about Borneo!

Thanks for reading! And for your comments!

Daniel & Kitty

Feb 1, 2010 Posted by Daniel & Kitty in Vietnam

Surf to Vietnam

Alrighty then, we’re back.

It’s one of those things, like exercise, you keep telling yourself that you need to write your blog cause it’s good to have the record for the future and let your friends know what you are up to, but no, it tends to be ignored. But now we have a bit more time to just sit down and write, so hopefully there will be more frequent updates in the future.

Mr and Mrs Lindros have now reached Vietnam, I’ll give you a quick update of the gap since last entry.

Fiji was great, after our amazing wedding we just chilled out on the beach and snorkelled for two weeks.  All the days were practically the same which was just heavenly. We ate, drank, swam, became masters of snorkelling and just enjoyed being newly weds, as you do. Christmas went by in the same fashion only that it didn’t feel at all like Christmas sipping your cocktail looking at the palm fringed sunset, but hey, what can you do.

We went back to Sydney to meet up with our friend Asa from back home. A tough itinerary awaited us with New years in Sydney, a three day tour in Alice springs, a farewell weekend to Melbourne and surfing days in Byron Bay. To avoid a longwinded story about all the fun we had, here is the shorter version.

New Years we met up with our Sydney friends “The Campers”and from Melbourne there was “The Dutch”and Sumi. It was a great party which included a barrel full of ice for the drinks, blue hair as the new years theme was blue, many many many jeager bombs competitions (which Asa won all of them…) and a wicked view of the bridge, the city and the fireworks! Best friends we’ll always be!

The three amazing Swedes went on to Alice with a three day tour of Uluru, The Olgas and Kings Canyon. Good fun, lots of treks in the 40 degree heat and sleeping under the stars in our swags. We also got to see lizards, wild horses, wild camles and of course a few skippys.  It all ended in the Bogan pub in Alice were Asa and Daniel held the house snake, of course strengthened by a few beers.

Melbourne was both fun and sad, saying goodbye was not easy but a wild night out with our friends brightened it all. We also did a day tour of the great ocean road. The taxi ride out to the airport was heart breaking, looking at all our beloved places that we were leaving. Worst part was saying goodbye to all the beautiful people we met.

Byron bay, ahh sun and fun. Beautiful beach and we even did a surfing lesson one day. Kitty was of course the natural star and beat Daniel several times in standing the longest on the board. Wish we could have stayed longer.

16^th of Jan we left our beloved Oz, a goodbye drink at the airport with our lovely Sydney friends sealed the deal. BYE! And bye to Asa to, it was GNARLY. (awesome for you who don’t speak surf)

Our trusted Hua Hin taxi driver picked us up at Bangkok airport and delivered us promptly to my beloved family in

the middle of the night. It was so good to see them again; it’s been a year and a half since we saw my sister and her family. We had a wonderful week on the beach and eating great thai food. One Sunday was spent (children free I might add) eating the most amazing brunch on the beach; fresh seafood, bbq, salads, clod cuts, cheeses and a huge dessert table topped up with champagne. YUMMY!

It wasn’t so bad to say goodbye this time as we’ll be home and see them soon again.

A few days getting shopping in Bangkok was on the list before we headed off. Best night was the first class cinema at World centre, amazing lounge chairs, free food drinks and popcorn, last luxury before the backpacking began.

We flew to Hanoi were we had few days. First thing that hit us was the traffic, crazy!! As our Halong Bay guide said: in Vietnam we drive with sound, not with our eyes. Horns sounded everywhere and seemingly no logic in where and how you drive. Crossing the street? Just go straight out and walk slowly across, the traffic will hopefully go around you.

Hanoi was messy and loud but still quite charming. We had beers by the lake watching the old men meeting up for a talk in their suits and berets, saw the beautiful old university and ate wonderful food. Best meal we had was on the street, squatting down on the mini plastic chairs with the locals, we still don’t know what we ate but it was delicious.

From Hanoi we went on a two day junk tour in Halong Bay. Halong bay is full of limestone mountains and is very mystical and beautiful. We met some lovely people and had a really good time.

From Halong bay we started making our way down towards Hoi An, we have picked out a few places to go to as we don’t have too long in Vietnam. We want to leave before Tet (their new year) which is on the 14^th of Feb (guess who’s birthday?!?!) but travel chaos apparently erupts a week before and after. Getting on the local buss in Halong city showed that the travel chaos might have started already. The local bus is a 12 seater van where I assume they would normally pack in about 20 people. We were 35 people sitting on top of each other. Me and Daniel got a plastic stool about 15 cm in height to sit on in the isle and we were lucky compared to some. Ignoring the cramped situation it was actually a really nice bus ride (4hrs) were we for the first time actually met some Vietnamese that were interested in us without wanting to sell us something.

Now 24 hrs later we have reached Hue, had a 5 hrs stop to see the beautiful citadel with the old emperors quarters, and will be in Hoi an in about 3 hrs.

New adventures to follow!

Jan 11, 2010 Posted by Daniel & Kitty in Australia

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Dec 20, 2009 Posted by Daniel & Kitty in Australia

Do you? I do. We both did!

So after 10+ years together, Kitty and I are now lawfully wedded! Imagine that! It’s still hard to comprehend. A long time coming, some would say! And it feels great! (if a little strange). The 17th of December… it was an amazing day and we couldn’t have wished for a better one. The island and resort we are staying at is so incredibly beautiful (even shortly after a cyclone) and it was the perfect setting for the private beach wedding that we wanted. I’ll try to account for the day (excluding the nightly hours) and we’ll have to write another post later about non-wedding related stuff. Also, we unfortunately do not have any pictures of the actual wedding yet; they are due in a few weeks.

W-day
It started out as any other day, although I was nervous from the second I woke up. We had breakfast and then a quick swim in the turquoise ocean (which is filled with reef-sharks apparently, though we’ve only seen one). Afterwards, we had a visit from the photographer that we’d employed to eternalize our wedding. He was a really nice Fijian man who had traveled to the Middle East in his time as a soldier in the Fijian army. He asked us how cold it got in Sweden and winced when he heard the answer. He also asked us if the Swedish beaches were anything like the Fijian beaches, which, if you’ve seen Fijian beaches before, is fairly easy to answer. We talked quite a bit, which gave me something else to think about, thus calming my fragile nerves!

Afterwards we had lunch and the clock, by then, had obviously passed 12 (I think this might be the internationally agreed cut-off time for being allowed to drink alcohol), so we could pop the champagne bottle that we’d bought in Sydney and have a few glasses (which also helped calm the nerves.). The last drinks as boyfriend/girlfriend! Kitty, who was not as nervous and busy getting her make-up done by two “spa-girls” was drinking more responsibly than me! The photographer returned at about 2pm to start taking pictures of us getting ready and Kitty had to wear a robe over her wedding dress, to hide it from me. Later the celebrant/priest, who was from a local village on a neighboring island, came by to briefly go through what would be said and when.

The ceremony was held on the beach, right outside bungalow (bure in Fijian), so it was a short walk for me when they, at around 4.30pm, asked me to take my place under the palm-arch they had set up in the sand. There I waited with the priest, who was standing behind his portable podium, and the band/choir, made up of the different resort employees (it seems everyone in Fiji can sing and/or play the guitar!). A few minutes later the choir started singing and I spotted Kitty being escorted down by the manager of the resort, and she was amazingly beautiful! Apparently the manager was telling her to slow down and hold her bouquet correctly. And then there we were, both standing barefoot under an arch of palm leaves in the scorching sun with the Pacific Ocean at our backs, Kitty in her wedding dress and me in a three-piece suit.

The priest wasted no time and immediately started his “speech” and amongst other things reminded us that marriage is nothing to take lightly. He obviously wasn’t aware of our 10 years together! Instead of a prayer, which we had told him to keep out of the ceremony, the choir sang Fijian songs (and even Elvis!). And after we both got to answer: “I do”, we repeated the classic vow you’ve all heard in the movies:
”I do take you to be my lawful wedded husband-wife, to have and to hold this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, til death do us apart. According to god’s holy law and today I give you my promise.”

Awesome!

After another set of vows (the ring vows) the priest gave me permission to kiss the bride, which I did to the applause of the people watching around us. We we’re rudely interrupted by the priest, wanting us to sign the marriage certificate. And after our (and our two witnesses) signing, we were utterly and legally married!

Afterwards, we had about an hour’s photo-session with the photographer and then some cake (the manager again appearing to instruct us on how to cut the cake) and more champagne in resort bar area.

We were supposed to have our sunset dinner at one of the special tables, which was right on the beach in the restaurant area, but the wind was too strong that day. Instead, they arranged for us to have dinner in the back veranda of our bure, which was probably for the better as it was private and very romantic, with amazing views of the sun setting over one of the distant islands. The dinner was gorgeous and we finished off by dancing to some Marvin Gaye in the dim light of the lanterns. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is all I’ll tell you about that day!

The Honeymooners Trip

Last But Certainly Not Least
Thank you, Henrik & Helena, for the wonderful letter! We were laughing when we read it in the evening! (And know that I’ll never give in to the toilet-lid fascism!)

Thank you to my mother and Kitty’s parents for our wonderful rings. We’ve received a lot of compliments about them.

And thanks to Kitty’s parents for my suit and Kittys dress. Kitty was gorgeous in hers and I wasn’t too bad in my suit!

If anyone happened to send any emails with best wishes, we might now yet have received them as they’re having some issues with their Internet after the cyclone.

The Aftermath
Tonight is our last night at the Tokoriki resort. Tomorrow, we head off to another resort to continue our honeymoon (a little more cheaply). Hopefully, we can write another post soon with other experiences (which will hopefully also be a lot shorter than this was).

Bye Bye!

Nov 26, 2009 Posted by Daniel & Kitty in Australia

Kida is back up

So I thought I might fire up Kida again, seeing as we’re doing a bit of travelling before heading home from Australia. Think it should be working now.