Our holiday has been good. We spent time in Vietnam and Thailand. Vietnam is a really interesting place. It was funny to walk around and hear Vietnamese people saying "g'day mate" in fake Aussie accents. Equally funny were the people who would say "oh c'mon mate" when you said "no" to whatever it was that they were selling.
After a couple of days in Saigon, we spent five days in Hoi An on the central coast. Hoi An is an old port town that has a world heritage listing. It was an important port until the 18th century when the river it sits on changed course and the port was silted up. The central part of the town has been preserved in a sense, though once the world heritage listing was granted a lot of locals sold their properties and moved out. The shophouses are now mostly bars, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops, with the odd museum thrown in.
Old shophouse in the old town of Hoi An
Looking out the window at Green Mango in Hoi An.
Boats on the the Thu Bon River. The eyes are supposed to help the boats see danger:)
Cultural Festival on the banks of Thu Bon River.
We enjoyed Hoi An. We found a good tailor and had some copies of clothes made. The lady in the shop was totally besotted with Tilda. She has two boys already and is desperate to have a girl. When we picked up our clothes she was so stoked to get a cuddle from Tilda that she gave her a wee dress, which was really nice of her. And of course Tilda loved the dress because it was mostly pink.
After leaving Hoi An, we flew back to Saigon from Da Nang. Tilda missed out on her sleep so she was a bit grumpy on the plane and didn't settle for a while when we put her to bed at the hotel in Saigon. We flew back to Singapore the next day and she missed her sleep again. So she was pretty worked up when we got on the plane. She was so tired that she fell asleep as we taxied on the runway and slept for a third of the trip. She woke up suddenly and was upset again but some snakes helped settle her and she was good for the rest of the way home. It was really interesting to see Tilda's reaction when we got back home. She so happy to see her bed and toys again. We got her bed early (not long after 6pm) and she didn't make a peep until about 8 the next morning.
About 10 day later we were off again, this time to Thailand. We went to Khao Lak, a place we'd been before so it was really nice to go back again. We didn't do much except swim and sleep. It was awesome for the first 5 days or so. Then Tilda picked up some kind of tummy bug and was really sick. The poor wee thing couldn't hold much down, so we took her to see a doctor in Khao Lak village. After three tries we finally found a doctor that was open. She gave us some medicine to stop the vomiting, which help a bit. Unfortunately that evening Mel got sick too. I suspect it was because she was holding Tilda when she threw up a couple of times. Needless to say, the last full day we had there was pretty quiet. Such a shitty way to finish our holiday. Oh well, our trip trip to Vietnam went really smoothly. And in all the travelling that Mel and I have done over the last 12 or 13 years we haven't had too much go wrong besides the odd cancelled/delayed flight and lost luggage.
Since we got back from Thailand, we've mostly just been hanging out. We've visited some of the museums in Singapore. Perhaps more of that soon:)
That's it for a bit.
Ciao
Tone
