ANZAC DAY 2013 - We will remember them.

For the first time in a number of years I didn't attend an ANZAC day dawn parade, didn't hear any bagpipes or watch through misty eyes as war veterans march wearing their medals thinking of their mates. But I didn't forget it was ANZAC day. I read about the always well attended dawn parades online and watched some tv footage from the Wellington service before heading into the city by myself.

It's not "our" War Memorial but it is a War Memorial nonetheless in a country that knows a bit about war. So I paused here to remember soldiers everywhere, past and present.

I stepped inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Saigon for the first time today. I ended up in the "visitors" section and couldn't see any access to the "praying" section where other people were doing just that so I just prayed in the visitors section. 

I saw a streetseller with a pile of English newspapers and the top one was the Australian so I thought as my 3rd act of remembrance and symbolic gesture of mate-ship with our friends down under I would buy an Australian newspaper on ANZAC day, thinking I could then share the news articles about ANZAC day commemorations with my english class tomorrow. Streetsellers in Ho Chi Minh see me coming. My Vietnamese number skills aren't fast enough to figure out what someone is asking, convert it in my head to NZ dollars, figure out if it is reasonable and negotiate a better price for myself so I tend to just hand over cash, in this case 60,000 vnd or $3.50. It wasn't until I was walking away that I looked down at my patriotic purchase and saw it was a $2 paper dated April 23rd. So nothing in it about ANZAC day at all, just stuff about the Australian economy and Aboriginal drinking problems.

She'll be right ....

a day in the mekong delta

On thursday Mum, Dad, myself and a whole lot of other friendly sightseers went on an amazing tour around Phoenix Island in the Mekong Delta. It started off as a long bus trip to get to the dock, and on the way we saw some amazing water buffalo. Once we reached our destination we got off the bus and onto a vietnamese long-tail boat. We then travelled to Phoenix Island, one of four islands on the delta. We were shown how to make something called coconut candy, tried a sample of something called snake wine, which is basically a bottle of rice wine with a cobra, and usually a scorpion too, inside it and went for a bone-jarring ride on something called a motor cart, which is basically a trailer with benches, and a motorbike attached to the front. After the ride we proceeded, with a numb rear and rumbling stomachs to an area lined with hammocks and had a lunch of elephant ear fish, spring rolls and some really yummy soupy stuff. Finally, after having our photo taken with a python, we paddled down one of the canals lined with thick vegetation.it was very calm and peaceful, with colorful bright blue bird and glossy black butterflies flying in and out of the coconut trees. When we got back to the city it was sad saying goodbye to the other tourists, but it was good to be back in the air conditioned apartment.

Da Lat Camping Trip

On the 20th of April, at 12 o-clock, Isaac and I were in the middle of a water fall, climbing down with only a harness, rope, helmet, gloves and life jacket protecting us (so we were pretty safe!).To give you a better idea of being there, here is a cut of what I wrote in my diary after cutting back, exhausted but jubilant.

Just come back from canyoning! TIME OF MY LIFE!!!! After a practise on a hillside (the instructor said I was the best!), we went down an ordinary cliff; just smooth, vertical rock that was close to a water fall and ended in a river. Addi didn't like it.When I got to the bottom I couldn't help but notice that Da Lat looks and feels just like NZ. It made me kind of home sick. After the first rappelling we walked through some amazing bush, that looked like jungle! One plant looked like palm tree crossed with a cactus with an attitude problem! We then went down a natural water slide. It was fun! Then we walked some more to this stunningly beautiful water fall. As I was going down all I could do was grin! When I reached the bottom I smiled and smiled.; I felt amazing! We then let the life jackets float us down the river for a while to reach our final abseiling spot, along the way we jumped off a 7 metre high cliff into a lake. We saw a pair of ducks with their feet tied together, probably someone's lunch in waiting. The last cliff was my favourite. For the first few metres it was normal, then it sloped inwards, leaving you hanging by just the rope. You then had to lower yourself into a raging water fall, let go of the rope, and let the water push you under, along, then up. When I first felt the power of the water fall on my legs, for the first time in my life I felt fear of the water (which is weird because I have happily swum at beaches with waves twice my height and regular shark spottings). As soon as I was pushed under I felt fine. I have always liked water and the fear only lasted for a few seconds. Caleb, the guy who went after me, hated the whole thing. While I waited for the others to come down I used a piece of grass to make people think there was a bug on their neck. Now we had to walk. We had to tramp all the way up again and it was all stairs! For half the mountain we were climbing up stairs! At the top we had a war with our wet team ribbons. Then pizza, games, bible study, and bed.

I wish you could all have done it with me!

These photos are from the internet, not our group, but this is the waterfall and THAT is what I'm talking about!!!

Da Lat, an Expected Journey, or, There and Back again.

This weekend, Lena and I and  about 20 others went on a trip to Da Lat, a mountainous area 300 km north of Ho Chi Minh City. On Friday morning, we had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get to the airport in time for the flight we were taking. We met the others, a combined group from two churches, at the terminal and headed out onto the runway to board the plane.

It was a very short flight, and it seemed like it was only 10 minutes until we landed in Da Lat. When we did, I was blown away. The temperature was just like a warm NZ afternoon, and when we drove out of the airport, this is the view that greeted us:

It could have been home.

On the way to our hotel, driving along a road that wound through the hills, the bus we were in broke down! Brent Tarr, the youth leader from our church, had a look at it, but in the end we had to call a second bus, which arrived 10 minutes later.

The hotel wan't bad, it had the basic necessities: toilet, shower, double beds and a tv with all the good channels, but when my room-mate tried to use the shower he found out that rather than emitting a more or less focused stream of water, it blasted the stuff everywhere in the hope of hitting whoever had turned it on.

Once we had settled in, everyone went downstairs and we headed off to our first activity: the Alpine Coaster. After a short bus ride, we arrived at the park where it was and headed to the restaurant for lunch before starting.

 This is the view we had from the table. We could easily have been sitting in a forest somewhere in NZ.

 Once we'd eaten, we headed to the start of the coaster, similar to the luge but on a fixed track, bought our tickets and started down one at a time. Here I am at the start, this was taken by a guy who sells the pics for 20,000 VND each (about $2.25)

Unlike the luge in Auckland or Rotorua, passing is impossible, so if someone decides they want to stop and take a photo (as in fact they did) you have to wait for them to finish before starting again, resulting in pileups like this one:

Eventually though, we did reach the bottom. It was here I made a mistake. The leaders hadn't reached the bottom yet, so those of us who had decided to go back up using our second ticket (unlike the luge, riding back up cost the same as going down). When we reached the top, we waited for the leaders to catch up. And waited.

And waited.

We soon realised we had jumped the gun, so half walked, half ran the kilometre or so back down the hill. At the bottom, we caught up again, but now we had no ticket to get back up. Oops. We stayed down there for a while, admiring the scenery.

Once we were done, those of us who still had tickets left rode back up, while myself and the others started the long, tiring hike back up. When we came back to the start, a couple of the guys decided to buy another ticket and ride again. Finally, everyone had had enough, so we headed to a nearby grassy area for some team competeitions. We were divided into three teams - red, green and blue - and pitted against each other in games. An example is the tarp folding game: each team is told to stand on a tiny tarpaulin, then flip it over without stepping off. It took us a few tries, but we got it in the end.

Our next activity was paddleboating; we headed down to a nearby lake, split into two people per boat and headed out onto the water. A splash war began, which soon escalated until no-one was left dry. We had the boats for an hour, but because we were racing around trying to splash each other we barely made it past the half hour mark before heading in to shore.

After two leg-straining activities, we were ready to go back to the hotel. After drying off and changing, we went to dinner at another restaurant then to a coffee house for evening devotions led by a guy who had travelled from Thailand for the camp, Zac Moebius, who everyone started to call "Shaggy" because he sounded just like the cartoon character. Exhausted after a busy day, we all collapsed into bed and tried to get to sleep (though not everyone succeeded).

The next day, we had to get up early to go to our next and biggest activity: canyoning. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of this because A) I couldn't bring the phone due to the fact that we would be getting very wet and B) The two cameras the leaders had brought got flooded when the dry-bags they carried failed. However, the website http://www.phattireventures.com/canyon.php has some details of the route we took plus a couple of videos.

We met the people who ran the tour on the side of a road, geared up and headed down to the first climb, little more than a steep slope for practise, then the real stuff began. The second climb was about 20 metres, very straightforward. It ended in a river, so everyone had wet pants for the second one. This was the hard one: a 35 metre waterfall. The first part of it was a very slippery, bumpy slope, which would have been hard enough without the water going down it. This was no light spray; the water hit with pounding force and nearly everyone fell over at least once. The second part was a lot steeper, and the water was hitting a lot harder; it was incredibly difficult to keep my footing. About 4 metres above the lake that the waterfall went into, we had to jump and let go to fall into the water. A couple of the kids were in tears at the bottom; one had twisted her ankle. Once we were all down we had a picnic lunch provided by the company.

The next obstacle was the most fun: a 7 metre jump into a lake. There was a 10 metre option as well, but the leaders wouldn't let us do that one, they thought it was too dangerous (Although people from a second group were doing so and escaping unharmed). We also weren't allowed to jump a second time, this time vetoed by the guides. Still, it was fun.

The second climb had been the hardest, but it was the last one that got people scared. This was only a 20 metre descent, but only 4 of them were against the cliff; once we got past that part we had to lower ourselves into a waterfall which would carry us through a narrow channel into a lake. This was the only time I got slightly nervous; when I touched the waterfall my first though was "crikey, this is a lot stronger than it looks!" The hammering only got stronger as I went lower, then the rope ran out! The guide had neglected to mention that this would happen, so I was a bit freaked out as I fell a metre into the rushing water. I quickly recovered though, and was smiling as I emerged. 

The last league was a long hike up a steep hill to the pick-up point. After the previous day's leg-pounding, we only just made it, staggering the last few steps. Soaking wet and smelly, we piled onto the bus and headed back to a pizza dinner before another devotion and bedtime.

The next morning, the leaders took pity on us and let us sleep in until 9:00. Once we were all up we headed out to do some more team challenges. It was that day that we had the most fun one: a bungee cord with a harness at each end. Bring on the tug-of-war! My first battle was against one of the leaders. It was extremely hard, but crawling and clawing the dirt, I won. My second battle was against Zach, the guy doing the devotions. He won. I reckon it was because he wasn't wearing shoes, plus I was pulling slightly uphill. It was close though, I didn't make it easy for him.

From there we went to a restaurant by the paddleboating lake for lunch. Once we'd all eaten, we had our last activity for the weekend: a tandem bike around the lake. I was steering one, with Zach as a passenger, and we went through Vietnamese-style traffic to reach the end. Considering that not only was this the second time I'd ridden a bike in three or more years but the first time I'd driven through normal traffic, I'm amazed we survived! The thought occurred to me at this point that every single large activity we'd done had pushed our legs to their limits: hiking up the hill at the luge, paddleboating, canyoning and tandem biking. What a workout! Once we got back to the hotel, after one last devotion Brent handed out dinner (chicken rolls) and we headed to the airport.

We arrived an hour before the flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00, only to be told that it had been delayed and was now leaving at 8:00 instead. We had an hour and a half to fill. At last, the plane was ready, we settled into our seats and headed home.

Cafe Confusion

Last Wednesday was a fairly normal one at first. An early start (8:30), then Lena and I had breakfast and once Mum got back caught a taxi to the area where the Saigon Language School is located. On the way, as per usual, we stopped at Gloria Jeans so Mum could have her weekly nice coffee. All was well, mum had ordered the coffee-toasted sandwich combo for breakfast and we were waiting upstairs in comfy chairs reading. The waitress brought up the coffee... then two plates of sandwiches. Hmmm.

When Mum had ordered, the lady at the counter had asked for extra money. At first Mum had thought it was so she could get the proper change, but now it seemed she had accidentally ordered two lots. Thinking she now had too many, she gave me and Lena the second one. We plowed in and Mum was just double-checking the receipt, when the waitress came back and explained that it had in fact been a mistake. We were left with two half-eaten sandwiches, and Mum still hadn't had her breakfast! She took one of the half eaten ones and Lena and I shared the other. Ah well, we're Middlemisses, we'll manage!

Meet Jack

Before lunch today, buoyed by our success at language school in the morning, we decided that we would buy an entire jackfruit, since they were better value than the trays of pre-cut fruit.

As I took it to the weigh station, the lady working there gave me a strange smile and said "Thank you." as I left. I assumed it was because of my dashing good looks, but it was for a different reason entirely. She knew what was coming...

When we got home, we took several photos of the fruit, which we'd nicknamed Jack, to use for Vietnamese practice, eg. "Jack is not a New Zealander. Jack is Vietnamese = Jack không phải là New Zealand. Jack là người Việt Nam"

"Jack is not a doctor. Jack is a jackfruit = Jack không phải là bác sĩ. Jack là mít."

Fun over, we started to cut Jack to pieces.

Oh boy. What we didn't know was that jackfruit pith and skin contains a certain sticky substance referred to as "Jackfruit latex". This incredibly sticky and stretchy white goop does not come off without 10 minutes of washing and scrubbing.

Lena and Amberly got their fingers covered in it, and only then did I mention that a website I'd read (several actually) had suggested coating both the knife and your hands in oil before beginning. I didn't realize at the time just how sticky this stuff was. They tried paper towels; the towels came off and became just as stuck to their fingers as the sap. It was at this point I wondered if the weigh station lady had seen this coming.

Eventually we got to the nearest layer of fruit and had an awful shock: it was unripe.

Jack had stabbed us in the back (Fair enough, we had made fun of him and chopped him into pieces). Sorely disappointed, we chucked him in the bin. Hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more!

Hi! It's Amberly here.
As a lot of you already know, I LOVE to draw, and living in Vietnam, I'm practically surrounded by new and strange things just BEGGING to be put down on paper! But, what with all the excitement and distractions of this totally new environment, I'm often more focused on either A: swimming in the AWESOME pool on the roof B: playing Xbox/watching TV or C: doing school-work. However, if I was going to be serious about being an artist, than I'd have to do better than the occasional doodle! Enter Chris Ayers. Some of you readers may have heard of him, but if not, then let me tell you. He is also an artist, but unlike me, he is a whole lot better at it!On April 1st 2005, he was diagnosed with leukaemia, and on the one year anniversary of his diagnosis, he started a sketch book called The Daily Zoo, where he drew an animal a day for 365 days, and published it. ( I would definitely recommend reading it! It's awesome!) Inspired by this idea, I have started my own daily zoo, and am currently up to day #9. Any ideas?

did this one with fine tip pen and white out for highlights

great horn bill.

negative space white tiger

Ho Chi Minh shopping take 1

Attempting to wriggle and squeeze into an all too obviously small dress is discouraging enough without the dawning realisation of how red, hot and sweaty you are from that morning's motorbike ride, bus trip and a few minutes walk and the determined if awkward assistance of a hovering little (armpit height) Vietnamese girl who is being either encouraged, ordered or dared by her fellow discreetly giggling shop attendants to try and find something that fits the giant foreign lady. And hover they do - all the way into the fitting room. I am never going back there.

In shop number 2 the girls all pushed the male shop assistant up to the plate to try and find me a dress - then hovered to laugh at him and tell him in Vietnamese what they thought he should try and get me to try on. I was probably the most interesting thing that had happened there all morning. We figured out that I needed an XL size but after 1 failed attempt in the locked (thankfully) fitting room my problem was clear: Everything in the shop was fitting, short, and generally designed to look gorgeous on Ho Chi Minh Barbie. I held my head up high and decided a) I was never coming back here either b) I was never going to eat again and c) I was getting straight on the next bus home for a nice coffee and breakfast, stopping to pick up more bread on the way.

b) above was a joke.