The Phoenix Degree

As February 2009 was coming to an end, so was the unpaid holiday, and two choices were left standing as the possible next step:

• go back to Melbourne, should the uni approve my request to continue the study for one more semester and complete the degree; otherwise
• get to Zadar from Singapore without the use of the aeroplane transportation in time for Puhi's wedding on the 30th of May. I gladly accepted Puhi's ultimate compliment to be his best man a few years earlier.

Luckily, I passed the two out of three subjects while studying during the August-December 2008 semester at NUS. Thus, providing the proof to the UniMelb that my leave of absence has not gone beyond 2 years - one of the sticky points - and more importantly, a justification to resurrect my degree from the ashes.

I enrolled into Knowledge Management class. Landed in Melbourne on the 5th of March 2009, just in time to make it to my 1st class of the semester. Taking all the events that took place prior this into consideration, it's needless to say that I enjoyed the study like never before. For a change, I did the work as it was suppose to be done - to the best of my ability, and on time. The subject did not have the final exam - a lucky coincidence, as I choose it quickly based on the 'sexy title' (as Ray might say) - so I managed to arrange to make it to Puhi's wedding and stay for half a year - if not more - away from Melbourne. After the wedding, there was two more weeks of school work that I did remotely while in Zadar. Gratitude goes to the KM teaching team and my project group who OK-ed my contribution to be provided remotely. When it came to the last bit of work, the individual component, I did well, but not as well as I could have. At the end of the day, the grade did not matter so I compromised my effort on the final component in favour of enjoying the time being back home-home. The main objective was just to pick up few more credit points and close the chapter on the formal education (at least for now). In addition, being a teacher for a while, I knew that the work done for the group project was by itself already adequate for a decent final grade. After the final submission - the individual component - the feeling of contentment/happiness/pride was making me do the triple-backward-flips - in my head that is. On the outside, I just had a slight grin. Actually, thinking about I grin now as well. In the end, I ended up with 83% for the finial subject mark, and with it successfully completed the journey that started back in February 2002.

On the 8th of August 2009, they will call out my name - in the absence for the third ceremony of this kind (plan changed) - during the graduation for The Master of Information Systems...!

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Thirst for Travel:

As the unpaid holiday was approaching to an end, and with no news from the UniMelb, option of going back to uni was becoming less and less likely, and simultaneously, option b) more and more exciting by the each passing day: to travel lightly - very lightly - from Singapore to Zadar on trains and buses, slowly moving from on place to another... At the end of the February, with the approval to continue the study finally secured, part of me was sad that the option b) will have to stay on the back burner until the next opportunity... maybe to (motor)bike the route.

Hua Hin - carbon copy

In January 2009, just after my return back to Singapore from visiting family (grandparents included - Dad's parents were staying there for 3 months) and friends in Melbourne. I flew to Bangkok where I met Roza on the airport. She flew in from Teheran, Iran.

Upon meeting, we moved straight to the bus station to get a ride down south to Hua Hin.

There, exactly as on our first visit 10 months earlier, we:

• stayed at the same room of the same motel,
• eaten the same dishes at the same restaurants,
• rented the same bike from the same Uncle,
• went to the same beaches,
• took the same photos,
• had the same fun!

tillNextT...!

Indonesia: hop-overs

Back in September 2008, I had two quick weekend trips to Indonesia.

One just a nice resort place that's more like a Singaporean playground. Bintan is about one hour boat ride from Singapore, providing for a nice getaway from the big city routine. I spend few pleasant days there, eating and enjoying the beach with Dr Love, Irene and her mum, Auntie Vicky.

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The next was the trip to Lake Toba with the American boys. That was some crazy fun as we got to enjoy some nice herbal products of the kind that is very hard to find in Spora. The trip would have been even better if I could have gone there as originally planned at the same time as Dan and Greg and climb some volcanoes for few days. Unfortunately Kevin and I had to change our departure date, spending only the weekend on the lake. I had to change my one because Prof Henry of my Globalisation class could not bare me missing yet another session. Of course, I gave him a nice excuse, teaching related, yet he did not budge. Moreover, to make things 'better', later I failed that class (eventually it all turned out for the best - as it always does). None the less, though the trip was short, it was indeed very sweet...!

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Ps: since the Lake Toba trip I stayed in Spora on the social pass (tourist visa) as my Employment Pass expired it was taken by the customs. Three months later, this led to the abrupt departure when I did not get the extension for the social visa approved. I ended up in Iran.

Unexpected holiday

The extension for my Singapore Social Pass (tourist visa) was declined, and I had 2 days to pick the destination outside the boundaries of this paradise island to disappear to for a while. Taking the current circumstances, cost and timing into the consideration, I got the ticket to Dubai, and Roza got me the one from Dubai to Iran - Thanks! Unlike my 1st time in Iran, this was the very lazy two weeks - for me, Roza had to continue her workaholic lifestyle, pardon the day and a half of annual leave she managed to organise. With no (workable) Internet connection - mobile roaming did not work either - I watched DVDs (two seasons of CSI Miami and few movies) and lots of CNN. Also, I read two books. Still, I had too much time to think about how the ever slowing economy and failed degree will effect my job search, and thus, the decision making process in the months to come. The winter is white over there, so I did not get to use my running gear, as I diligently intended to. It was nice seeing the snow again for the first time since my 2004 skiing trip in Christchurch (NZ), though this time enjoying it only from inside the warm apartment through the closed window. Apart from catching up with Roza after three months, the highlights were: Iranian dinner, Iranian wedding, and playing tennis for the 1st time ever.

Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be on my way to Melbourne for 10 days.

...!

Homeland stopover

Two years and two weeks ago, I was on my way to Singapore to start this big OE.

On the way there, I've done a 'little' D-tour to visit Croatia for the 1st time in 7 years.

The holiday was spend in Zadar:

...with the family:


Of other notables:
- they are all big, as in metric scales big. My grandma called me 'crops'. Einstein would have said 'it's all relative'.
- they are all genuine, full of love for each other. ...And love for their drinks, food, coffee, cigarettes...
- they are all pessimistic, cynical, and love the sound of their own voice
- understanding the previous two points, served as a big relief 'it's not me, it's the genes'
- on arrival to customs at Zagreb airport, I was notified of the issued 'ban on the exit from the country', as I have failed to serve the army before my 27th birthday.
- the bureaucracy insured that it takes full month an a half - till the two days before departure - to sort out the paper work, and get the ban lifted.
- when kissing, do you start first kissing the left cheek, and then the right, or vice versa ?

Dubai & Iran

A day of marking after the Indonesian trip, and I was again on the way to the airport. This time to Dubai for 3 days, followed by 7 days in Iran.

- Iran! -Why Iran!? - 'haven't been there', would be the short, usual answer. In this case: -Well, the day after our Thailand holiday, Roza moved to Dubai to take her new position, which requires her to stay in Iran during the 1st year (or 1st and a half, depending on who you ask).

Dubai - The construction site

I've never seen so many cranes in one place - it's a real crane forest over there. The latest tallest building, The Palm islands, The World Islands, etc... everything is on sale, to be completed in few years from now. If I was into construction, finding a job would have been a breeze - but I'm not... All that development made me wander about three questions: who are they expecting to move over there, how many of them, and why?

The highlight, the sightseeing highlight (;) of Dubai was the lunch at Burj Al Arab.
Having three waiters asking you if 'everything is fine' after every serving - that's: manyServings X 3 = annoying - was the only thing that wasn't up to the standard of the world's only '7 star' hotel. Food was really nice, and the view from the 26th floor was even better (e.g. impressive Palm Jumeirah)... The interior of the hotel doesn't really agree with 'my style' – mainly it seems ‘too busy’. Whereas, I really like the sail inspired exterior.

On my 2nd day in Dubai, I went for a walk-around between 1 and 4pm. That was one tiring walk. The super dry air with temperature of 40 degrees Celsius does that to you. The better time to visit Dubai, when maximum temperatures don’t surpass 30, is between November and March.

Iran - The pretty contradictions

There was lots of talk about visa before my trip. At the end, it was only Emirates Airlines who gave us some trouble... everything else, visa related, was smooth.

This is another country is a place that I really would have liked to travel more.... It's a similar impressions that I had after the India trip... There are just lots of interesting/surprising/insightful things...

The place itself reminds me of both things India and things Europe... guess geographical location of the country would point out at that one. For example, in the capital, Tehran, the crowds and the traffic, and more so the way navigating through traffic - w/o much reference to the rules - is very similarly to what you would find in India. Though majority of cars in that traffic are made by one of the three famous French brands (Renault, Peugeot and Citroen). Moreover, a considerable parentage of those cars are quite newer models. French car makers have their factories in the country, making the cars, relatively speaking, 'more affordable'.

I am not big fan of going to museums during travels - manly due to the time constraints. Though, on this occasion I ended up there. National museum in Tehran is not all that big, but what it lacks on quantity it definitely makes up for it in quality. Impressive amount of things date well into the B.C.s years... some going back all the way to 40-50K B.C. Number of artifacts look as though I have seen them on some TV show.

Persians are pretty people... some ladies are just 'wow'... It was interesting to see your usual trendy hottie (make-up, dyed hair, manicure ...) and then, for the finish, there's a colorful scarf on the top of a head... How high on a head the scarf is, how little hair does it cover, and how colorful it is, - apparently - is a telling sign on how religious she is. People enjoying the luxuries of 'western life style' (think party) is not uncommon, though they only do it in the safety of their own/friends homes.

Esfahan trip was an adventure. We came back to Teheran without the car and without the camera. The car's engine gasket blew 4h into the journey, 50km before arriving to Esfahan. (I was not happy to have guessed the problem straight away, but my 1989 Nissan Bluebird showed the exact same symptoms a while back).

The taxi driver who picked us up after the car got towed away was not the most 'ethical' guy out there. But let's be nice and blame part of the unknown and over-priced taxi fair on the misunderstanding.

And then to top it all off, I dropped the camera during the (different) cab ride to the bus station at the end of the day. - ALL THE PHOTOS, LOST :(

None the less, Esfahan is the place to visit. The city, at the time, was the biggest in the world, and it was a political and cultural center of Iran. The amount of lavishly extravagant (Lonely Planet's vocabulary to describe it) architecture build in the name of the religion and rulers is definitely worth witnessing. E.g. Imam Mosque.

The day-trip to Caspian Sea was - luckily - straight forward. Also, Roza brought her camera along. The weather wasn't the best, and as I didn't have the 'speedos' I did not try to 'read the paper while floating' - the sea has a high salt density.

Driving from place to place, was by and through the 'naked' mountains. On the way south from Tehran the mountains are further apart so it seems as though you travel along side them. In the northern area, you travel trough the mountain gorge to get to the sea.

After all that driving related talk, credit is due to Roza's driver for all the extra driving he did during my stay. Also, the dinner and pistachios - did you know Iran was famous for pistachios? - I thought they come form Italy :)

My flight back in Spora landed at 7:30am. I was in the apartment at 8:45, and in the classroom at 9:15 - what a teacher!:?

What a holiday!

Thanks Roza...!

Ps: wish I had the next travel in sight, but for the 1st time in a while looks as though I'll have to 'lock' my passport.

Padang

And so thanks to all the long weekends, the 1st part of the last semester came to an end in no time. It was the time for the usual holiday travel. First stop: Padang, Indonesia.

Veki and Ive were on their way to Croatia, and decided to stop by for the week. A week is just a bit too long - imo - to spend it all in Spora, and not quite long enough to go around and travel.

After lots of yes, nos and maybes, I finally got the Tiger tickets for our four day trip to Padang.

Traveling in my style, we had little idea of what to do and where to go once we landed... The girls coped well - rather well - with all the uncertainty... Thanks :)

The first and last day of the trip, we spend in the Padang city. During our 1st day, we found out that there are lots of interesting activities around the West Sumatra. E.g. jungle tracking and active volcano, Gunung Merapi climbing. Though, as we did not have the time on our side, we settled for a lazy couple of days on a 'paradise island', Sikuai.

On Sunday (8th June), when we arrived to the island, there were number of people there, mainly Padang residents who came over for a day trip. After they left late in the afternoon, together with a young Swiss couple and their 7 months all baby(!), we were the only guests on the island.

Sikuai, is a typical volcanic island that has a mushroom like shape - with steep drop down towards the bottom of the ocean. It reminded me of Sipadan.

We went snorkeling with Henry, the massager/waiter/guide/diver... all in all, the legend of the Sikuai. During the snorkel, the underwater Sikuai, reminded me more of a poor man's Sipadan. The notables we've seen: one turtle, one small shark (that Henry saved from the net), one moray and two cattle fish. Sadly, there is lots of dead coral. Ive and Veki had enough after half an hour or so, Henry and I went all around the island. That was some 4km, 2h, and one very burned back snorkel.

The only disappointment on the island was the food. The last night back in Padang, we were on the mission to find a see food restaurant serving nice Indonesian food. In particular, we were keen on the Gulai Ikan, a fish curry dish recommended by Henry.

Kuching

Another long weekend (Monday the 19th of May was Vesak Holiday), another trip. Most of us current IFs went for an exploration of caves around Kuching, and Bako National Park - in Sarawak, Malaysia.

...!

Ps: Kevin's post.

Tioman

Tioman, known for diving, is an island about 5 hours away from Singapore, off Malaysian east coast.

The long weekend (Monday, the 1st of May, Labour Day, in addition to no classes on Fridays) gave four of us IFs an opportunity for a diving (snorkelling for me) trip.

Thanks Kevin for putting in the good work to get everything organised. Thanks all for all the crunk juice (a.k.a. beer) and the great times.

...!

Ps: Kevin's post.

Parents - 30th aniversary party

The party to celebrate 30 years since parents' wedding was on the Saturday, the 27th of April. This semester I don't have classes scheduled on Fridays, and with some rearrangement of Monday's classes I managed to give the parents the best party present I could - my presence. They were very surprised to find me sleeping in my bed on Friday morning.

That Friday was David's (the lover) cousin wedding (congrats to Sonya and Sunjif ( pardon spelling)). Vesna and I went over for a short while to enjoy the wedding ceremony.

The parent's party was the next day. It was nice, with few family friends attending; lots of food and drinks - the usual.

Also notable is that, in the mean time, we got the new PC box. All that work I've spent just a month ago trying to clear out the bugs from the PC was wasted, as it turns out that there was some kind of hardware problem there as well. Not too surprising for an 8 year old box. The good thing is that now everything works as expected, plus I got my parents into video skype which improves communication, as well as lovers its cost.

Sunday we spend doing nothing, and on Monday I was on my way back to Spora.

...!

Hua Hin

Thailand, part 3. (Part: 2, 1.)

This time it was a lazy holiday with Roza before her carrier move to Dubai.

Apart from exploring a bit around Hua Hin, and couple of Bangkok centres this holiday was all bout:

• Beach,
• Singha,
• Seafood,
• ...;)
  

Now, that's what I call

holiday...!

Melbourne Visit

Now customary, Easter Break visit back (to parent's) home. Unlike before last year's visit, this time I did not send the spam mail announcing that I'm coming. As having less then a week is not enough to catch up with all the friends. Last time trying to see most friends, I felt that I didn't spend enough time with the family, so tried to change that this time around.

Though, none the less I didn't get to spend as much time with family as I wanted. During this visit, lots of the time went into reinstalling operating system on the home PC, and setting up few necessary applications that my parents would need. This complete overhaul was necessary even after Jay tried getting the bugs out on few occasions - thanks Jay. After couple of days of on-and-off work, everything seemed just the way I wanted it. Everything but the sound. And I tried, and I tried obsessively so much to get it to work that my parents got upset as I was still at it, trying yet another sound card driver 90min before the flight. (Just spoke to my Mum earlier today, PC is unusable as it keeps shutting down unexpectedly soon after starting. After all that effort to fix software issues, there seems to be a hardware one - time for a new box).

On the bright side, the year passes by and Melbourne looks real good. Everyone I managed to catch up with is healthy, doing well, and making progress with their careers, their Phd-s, their whatevers - life as usual. (Mum's ankle improved so much that she and Dad can go for their daily walk, albeit not yet as intensely as before the break)

Keep up, hope to see you all next time around...!

KL

As the previous KL visit, just a weekend trip. This time, in addition to catching up with Monkey, to celebrate Chongi's Birthday.

HK

A week long trip to Hong Kong during Chinese New Year.

The captain of Singapore Airlines' 747-400, just before the departure back to Singapore, made the obligatory announcement: "...and the temperature on the destination is comfortable 24 degrees Celsius". Hearing this, my face muscles slowly but surely stretched the lips across the face.

HK was cold. Especially cold for a person (yours truly) who hasn't seen temperature below some mid-to-high teens in almost two plus years - guess the coldest I had it since leaving Melbourne in July 2006 was while climbing Mt Kinablau. Temperature in the first few days barely reached 10 degrees. Unsurprisingly, as I've mentioned the cold/flue struggle that's been raging on since the end of the last year, I spend one day in bed with high fever - lucky it wasn't more. This was unusual cold weather even for the locals. It was caused by the snow storms that were ranging up north in the main land China at that time, and bringing cold front down to HK.

Cold aside, HK experience was great:

City, unlike my current address, is full of unique personality. Just on the way from the airport, looking thought the bus window, the forest of skyscrapers amongst the hills was providing unquestionable site - must be the influence of TV (-what else?).

Finding a dorm for SGD12 was pleasant surprise as I was prepared to pay $50 for a cheep accommodation. The only knock I have for the place is that the blankets they provide are really thin. Even though I managed to sweet talk - needed sweet talk as the place was full for the New Year celebration and most people were asking for extra blankets - cleaning lady to get me an extra blanket. Luckily friend's father borrowed me his big skiing jacket during the stay. The jacked doubled as a duvet - thanks Uncle Chong.

One night in the dorm, before falling a sleep I had a chat with an American fellow - forgot his name - an impressive and inspirational character. He spent last year and a half in a Beijing and Taipei, and is currently studying Chinese Classical Literature at a university in Taipei - the study is in Mandarin! The guy speaks very impressive Mandarin - when I walked in the room he was on the phone dribbling away as any, from my point of view, native Chinese speaking person would. He is currently learning to read/write!!! I always felt that I'd be able to learn conversational Mandarin, but never did I think that anyone (in their sanity :) would attempt reading/writing. He did say, as one might expect, that it took lots of effort to learn as much as he did in a year and a half. Another respectful thing is that the guy's aim is to further study international policy/relations in order to work in China on environmental issues. I can only sincerely say: Good Luck!

Another interesting thing about staying at that old building filled with cheep accommodation in Tsim Sha Tsui was seeing the number of international people that work there. I just did not expect to see so many people from Africa, and especially not from sub-continent. On few occasions, coming back to the hostel late at night, I had old Chinese man whispering into my ear "young girls" and a young guy from sub-content saying "hashish". For HCMC, Bangkok, or Goa I expected that, but not for HK.

I have to thank my friends for showing me HK from their perspective. With Roza and her family I got to experience local celebration during the Chinese New Year - food, food and some more nice food, together with worm hospitality and 'red envelops' (pocket money). With Raymond I got to walk to streets of the HK Island during the day time (Roza did the night tour :), and have one of our usual endless conversations for the 1st time after some two years.

As it's becoming custom to all the travels I did since my big oversees experience has started, there's always reasons to go back. This time:
Alvin, the original Pokai, better weather,
and Macau...!

Darwin & NT

For Christmas and New Year's holidays I met with the parents and sister half way between Melbourne and Singapore. Our destination was Darwin and North Territory, at the Top End of Australia.

Out of 10 days there, we spent four exploring Kakadu, Nitimiluk (Kathrine Gorge), and fishing on Darwin bay. During the fishing, Mum was the only lucky one catching the golden snapper for dinner.


great...!

Mama visit

Mum got paid out at work (i.e. fired) so she decided to pay a visit to a family and friends back home in Croatia, including a stop over visit on the way there, and back, to her precious (i.e. moe).

Back in mid July when she first got here I gave her my - now, a very custom and routine - tour of Spora. And for her way back, I decided on something lazy, somewhere in SE Asia. Since she broke her leg on her second day back home, the resort on Lanta Yai, near by Krabi, in Thailand, turned out to be a perfect place for a week of rehab - pool exercises.

Unlike first time in Thailand, when I travelled around with my sister, this was a great week of resting: lots of sleeping, having chats with Mum and reading the book. Looking back at it, my Mum's attitude and spirit during the holiday was very impressive, not just because of the double fracture on her right ankle - one of the worst broken-bones type of injuries that have rather long and uncertain recovery; but even more, when taking into consideration the attitude of the environment in which she was brought up , and her own history with it.

zivilaDraga...!


Ps: I meant to say '...visit to one of her precious' but it just didn't sound as good - sorry Yogic :)

Turist => pay

Through all the SE Asia travels I've done so far it has been the same... after a bus arrives at an destignation it gets swarmed by taxi/bike drivers offering a ride and accomodation. ...Just people trying to make a leaving, nothing unusual there...

As I was just finishing of the post about my Vietnam trip, I got remained of a bit of an unusual situation that happened once I got of the bus in Mui-Ne, that earned me a nick name 'Sheep' with the locals for the duration of the stay.

As the bus ride form HCMC was some 6h, first thing I wanted to do was to get to a toilet... so somehow I comunicated to one of the many guys wanting to pick up tursts that I'll be back... Then while making a way from a toilet to a bar to grab some water I made an eye contact with that guy in the group, indicating to wait a bit longer... After I was finally ready to sort out the accommodation, and was going back to meet this group, some 5-10 of them now. As I was approaching one of them came forward with his right hand high, as though to give me a 'high five' ... I extended my hand forward, palm facing up, upon which he slapped it pretty hard, while giving me a visit-card of some hostel. Then he grabbed my arm and started dragging me, at the same time saying something in Vietnamese... I'd guess something along the lines of 'this one's mine'. Naturally, I didn't want to have any of this, and I stopped, trying to explain that I'm not a 'live stock'... I was using body language and cow, horse, sheep sounds... Though, in that initial moment I got a bit upset, it turned out to be a good laughter for all. And since they are all staying around the place where that guy I made an initial contact with took me, around there I was know as Sheep, something sounding like:

beyNee...!

Congrats to Marina&Mile

So I got there on Thursday evening. Spent Friday in Zaton with Uncle - he's trying to complete the house over there (been at it 10+ years, that's how things still are over there...) - and his family. That was my only dip into the wonderful Adriatic sea.

In the evening we went to the village (Rastevic; 5km from Benkovac towards Zadar) , they went to say good-byes to all the family before the morning trip back to Germany, and I stayed there for the night, before morning ride to Pag, an island some 50km away where the wedding was taking place.

Wedding and all was just nice... I was rather still buggered by the loooong trip, jetlagged... and later drunk with bit of upset stomach - to much of prsutto and paski sir, so that gave me a great excuse not to jump-around to 'good old' Cro music.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I felt great... energy to the full, no jetlag, no nothing - thought, it must of been all that Malvazija which I filtered though my body that did the trick. Spend the Sunday with cousins in the village.

Monday I was around the town, meeting with some few friends at the old neighborhood over there. For dinner, met with my freshly married cousin.

Tuesday morning at 7:30 I was on the bus, on my way back.

Reached Spora Wed evening, back at work Thursday morning.

quick&sweet...!

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Mui Ne

Since I could not decline 'the invitation' (yep, they called it an invitation :) to the graduation, I spend few days in the office doing some marking and the usual readings/procrastination. Though, I forgot bout one tiny weeny mini detail - visa!

Even though Nat told me bout it, months in advance, I needed another remainder. Luckily, I joined couple of colleagues for a tea after work on Tuesday, and one of them asked me about visa - thanks Dato. It turned out to be no worries... The next morning, straight after the graduation, I was in a cab to the Vietnam embassy. Need visa the same day? - Ok, you pay me three times the usual fee. The guy pockets the money, and goes to work with the liquid paper, changing the dates on the visa application form that I have just filled in (I presume to make it seem as thought I applied for it weeks ago. (Nope, he was not Singaporean.))

Though visa cost me a bit more, I was quite lucky with the outgoing air-fare. Initially I thought that I couldn't, but none the less I managed to change the departure date for the Jetstar ticket for a fraction of the new ticket cost.

The good thing about my holiday delay was that I got to catch up w/ Mirror (aka Dave). He came back from India, to sort out his paperwork for Shanghai. We were up the whole night before my flight, together w/ his unacquainted love (just one of many - ladies), just mulling over all kinds of BS. My flight was at 7am, so - ignoring the fact that the two of us caught 3h of sleep the night before - there was no point of hitting the horizontal.

Unsurprisingly, I - basically - slept all the way from my apartment till the rest room in Pham Ngu Lao street - backpackers destination in Ho Chi Minh City. And then, after check-in, till dinner time.

After dinner, while walking back to the room, I took a seat at the little square where guys were playing an interesting game, similar to badminton - well a 'ball' looks similar, there is no net, and instead of using the racket, they kick it, and usually they kick it over their head (i.e. the 'ball' first flies over the head and only then they kick it, at times jumping down on their hands, and doing 'donkey kick' - impressive). Just after few minutes of sitting there, something even more impressive happened. A young guy sat next to me and stared asking some questions, bit later there was another, one, and another one... up to 20 at one time. Some had notebooks (and pens), they were making notes... Every night they come there, and start up conversations with tourists, they practice English.

The next day I walked around the city.... Avoiding the traffic and people trying to sell you things you don't want to buy the whole day, during the hot summer day is rather tiring. As of now, after Bangalore, Chennai, Bangkok and HCMC, one day in a big, crowded, main city of a developing country is more then enough of time for me to spend in.

HCMC is same, same... not much different then other huge cities in developing countries of SE Asia I have visited; less chaotic (to my eye) then Bangalore, but more so then Bangkok. I liked Dan's description:

"Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is the largest city in Vietnam and is located near the Mekong Delta, the mouth of the life vein in SE Asia. The city itself seems to be in constant motion with a soundtrack of techno drum beats, beeping horns, ringing cell phones, and 'xe om' drivers yelling "Moto? Moto?" The only hope a traveler has to survive the bouncing pulse is to move with the current of the city like a leaf rides the swirls and eddies of the river it happens to encounter. Fighting the river only results in exhausting and drowning. Floating with it results in mostly calm travels with the occasional bounce or jostle from an obstacle hidden from view.

If HCMC was to adopt a symbol for itself, it would be the motorbike. A Honda motorbike more specifically. Motorbikes are popular all over Asia, but in HCMC, they make up over 90% of the vehicles on the road. I guess it makes sense because they are the cheapest mode of motorized transportation available, but nonetheless, it creates one wild scene. Watching from the side of the road provides a brief vignette of entertainment, but the real cabaret takes stage when a pedestrian decides it is time to cross the asphalt. The proper method is as follows: Wait for a small break in the stream, then step into the road looking at whichever direction the bikes are coming from. Make sure the drivers see you. Start walking. The drivers will likely encounter you before you have reached the other side, but whatever you do, don't start running. Running only decreases their reaction time. Simply keep walking at a steady pace and let the drivers avoid you. That is that. It's very odd at first, but you do get used to it. What a trip.
Other than that, HCMC is much like is other Asian cousins, but perhaps with a little more neon."

One thing to add to Dan's description is that virtually everybody, especially around the Pham Ngu Lao backpackers area, was pretty aggressive in selling, the 'front room' merchandise (books/suvenires/(moto)bike rides...) as well as the 'back room'. Possibly it was just me, guess a person looking like me, and walking around by himself is equivalent to asking for it. Maybe so, but not in this case.

The next morning at 7:30am I was happy to be on the bus to Mui Ne... I had no idea what Mui Ne is apart from the fact that it is the closest place on the cost that a bus goes to from Pham Ngu Lao.

When initially looking at bus routes, I thought I'll make it up north to Nha Trang via few days stop in Dalat. Though, as it was raining season, and Dalat's high up in the mountains, the info from travelers coming from north was that it's rather 'refreshing' up there, and I only packed my thin wind breaker along, as the only thing with long sleeves. Nha Trang on the other hand, is the city on the beach... more people, more happening then Mui Ne, and chilling out in a quite place sounded more enticing at the time. Though I had no winter clothes with me, and was happy taking it easy, the main reason I ended up stying in Mui Ne the whole time is due to wonderful human beings... or in this case being: Erik, aka Riki. Riki had the seat next to mine on the bus to Mui Ne. First part of the trip, he was happily enjoy scenery while listening to his music on his precious iPod, and I was reading the book. Naturally, eventually we got to chat... and we never really stopped for the whole week.

Regarding carrier, Riki is ex Accenture senior-consultant/PM, Phd holder, with enterpreneurship aspirations. Add to that his interest in BS, and needless to say we had lots of common points to discuss and share ideas about.

Together with my room, I rented a bike for the duration of the stay as well - it was cool cursing around... Riki rented a bike for couple of days; when we went for the exploration of the near by town - called Phan Thiết, with a big fishing harbor/marked; and the next day, of the sand dunes.

Evenings we spend at the small, sea-food, family restaurant; lots of eating, drinking, talking... meeting other travelers.

Though we had many nice chats with French couple that live and work in Tokyo, as well as couple of ABC professional chicks from New York, the note worthy is the crazy British chick who was sitting completely naked, w/ shaved/pierced beaver on the beach amongst other 10-15 ppl. She was there with her boyfriend, whom she met after her girlfriend invited her over for a threesome with her, and at the time her boyfriend. Those were some interesting convers

Unlike me, who 'wonders' around SA Asia with no plan/s/ing, Riki was adding on the personal holiday to his business trip. He had a week, and new exactly what he wanted to do - Kite surfing. Turns out that I stumbled upon place that is "...quickly becoming a South East Asian Mecca for kiteboarding and windsurfing."

That reminded me of my childhood dream - together w/ friends, I used to sit at the shore and watch windsurfers during windy autumn's days - which was revived when talking with Theo in Thailand. Though we were there in an off-season, a no wind season. Next t...

Luong, a friend from unimelb, lives in Hanoi. Since I wasn't gonna make it all the way up North, he managed to arrange a 'business trip' to HCMC. Luckily I got to check my eM in time to leave Mui Ne and meet Lu for the dinner on my last night in Vietnam.

Next time, I'll have to fly to Hanoi and make my way south.

to be continued...!

From Vietnam, 14-2...

Ps: at this blog from a SE-Asia travel writer, I got a video depicting the daily activity the Phan Thiết's market:

Land of Rising Sun

Land of harmony and peace. Land of contradictions. Land of volcanoes, geysers, hot baths, mountains and forests... -> the New Zealand look-alike. Land of 3G (clamshell) mobiles - ONLY. Land of no money exchange, no acceptance of credit cards nor international ATM cards... n of course the land of sushiiii!

Pere said lick, suck do whatever necessary to be present at the wedding. My RO (Reporting Officer) said I was lucky, again. No, not lucky 'like that'; lucky when it comes to taking an annual leave at the time when other staff cannot (one of the benefits of being an IF (i was a) teacher). The lucky break came in the form of an e-Learning week. During the week students do not have to come to school, instead they do the work on-line, and so my RO kindly approved my trip (even though some rules had to be bend a bit - thanksPam).

And off I was for a week in Japan.

Pere lives in the place close to the small town, Taketa. In this area tourists, especially the ones that need a passport to get there are rather rare, hence the unavailability of things such as money exchange; and the place is small, thus no credit-cards. Fortunately for me, even though I was running late - as usual - I got some cash out and bought some yen at Spore airport; and also Pere agreed to take on yet another currency. By the way, though he was kidding about opening his own currency exchange business, Pere actually earns his rice by teaching English in different schools - some 15-20 of them - that are located in the area. My initial though was that after the wedding I'll go and travel around the island, Kyūshū, as the love birds would fly off for their honeymoon. Yep, that's what happens when one thinks, s/he (probably) needs to re-think it... The love birds postponed the honeymoon till August and Hiromi had to be back at work (library at one of those 15-20 schools) only few days after the wedding.

Thanks to these circumstances I got an opportunity to spend more time with Pere (once more, 'Thank You' to Hiromi for letting me spend time w/ her hubby during the 1st wk of their marriage - actually I felt quite uncomfortable bout this at the beginning - it just did not seem right; they had to reiterate to me number of times that it was life as usual for them, and the ceremony was more of a formality then anything else). And not only did I get to spend time with Pere, but instead of going around and doing the usual touristy things, I got to spend time with his in-laws. I got a chance to see (the sample of) 'the real' Japan.

I'll talk more about how great I think both, Pere's family and in-laws are some other time, here I'll just mention one of the in-laws, Muku. Muku is the 13 yr old dog that is adored for many things out of which none relates to dog-smarts. Pere's nick names for Muku range from psycho to 'professor'. Well, all this I found out after Mike - Pere's brother - and I decided to take Muku for a walk on the morning after the wedding. As we were walking the road that leads towards the top of the hill we ran into two white dogs standing on our path. Thinking we can pass by them w/o much trouble was quickly proven wrong as both the white dogs and Muku were very keen to get together. Not to sniff, kiss, or exchange regards in any way, but to kill each other. Muku, especially, was keen on clamming the alpha dog of the hill status. After managing to pull him away initially, the two white dogs caught up with us and the brawl started again. This time, as I was trying to protect Muku by pulling him away, my right leg found its way between him and his arch enemies so he stuck he's canines into my calf, upon which he copped a blow into the head from me - reflex. Thereupon, we ran back without stopping to the house. By that time my leg was rather bloody and the thing did not look pretty. Though as it wasn't hurting that much I knew it wasn't bad, but I was wondering if I needed an 'after a dog has bit you' injection. Unfortunately as Pere and Hiromi were not around, we needed a local doctor's skillful use of Japanese-English dictionary to explain to me that the dog was just recently vaccinated and that I was safe. While at the doctor's they cleaned the wound (including some shaving) and proscribed me little bag full of medicine (antibiotics, pain killers and killers of pain killers' side effects; I only used the 1st one).

Luckily, after the bleeding stopped, there was nothing impeding my walking and I was good to go. The next day Pere's patents and brother left for their Japan trip, after we dropped them at the train station we went on to check out the Monkey Mountain and a bit of Oita. Wednesday was the active day when we covered quite some walking distance on an uneven terrain. First, early in the morning, as part of Muku's walk, we climbed the hill near Hiromi's place (now I was bit very as he would run by my leg, especially the bandaged one, though he acted as though nothing happened - asshole :). Following this, we visited ruins of the Samurai's castle at the top of the hill near Pere's house. We took Pere's neighbor's dog along for this walk. After lunch, at Hiromi's, we jumped in the car, Muku accompanying us again, and drove to Mt Kanji (or something rather similar - ?) where we climbed 2 peaks. Shortly after the dinner when we got back to Pere's place we crashed at the floor, pleasantly exhausted and fallen a sleep straight away - at least me, that is.

12+ hours later we woke up. And following omelet, salami and cheese brunch we hit the road - no dogs this time - for near by prefecture in search of the beach. After driving south for couple of hours Pere wasn't sure at which intersection to turn east in order to get to the beach that he had in mind. And as he couldn't contract Hiromi for directions he turned left towards Tomi Peninsula. After a while on the road towards the Pacific coast Pere planted a seed for pleasant surprise to himself; he said that there's (probably) nothing worth driving-for over there. What we found over there was the great little bay with no one around; clear, and very refreshing water; and rocks for easy climbing.

After two days at Tomi Peninsula it was up to me to choose the activity for my last day. The choice was between touristy thing in Fukuoka or rice planting w/ Hiromi's family.

From Japan, 5-13May07