Day 18 and 19 To hell and back. Our 31 hour journey home.

Phew!  It's taken me a while to collect myself after our return journey from Vietnam to our home in Brisbane, Australia.  Our  house has not recovered from our arrival and is still a pigsty.  My bag is not completely unpacked 4 days later and I am in the thick of the school routine - preparations for school in the morning, work during the day, and then dinner, homework and all those lovely housewifely duties that go hand in hand with raising 5 quite unhelpful children.

I have a wine within easy reach (God it's nice to drink wine again) and here I go...

I woke bright and early on Day 18 and grabbed a quick shower before I woke the little'ns.  We had to be in a taxi on the way to the bus stop by 5:30am.  Tip: Never let a travel consultant book your plane tickets. If you book your tickets yourself at least there is one person who has your best interests at heart. What an ungodly hour to begin our trek home!  Our flight out of Vietnam was to leave at 8:30am and I had my trusty Lonely Planet Guide that had advised me it was a 45 minute - 1 hour journey by bus to the airport.  Organisation was crucial.  I was just a teeny bit frightened that we would miss our flights and we would have to apply for citizenship in Vietnam.  We caught a taxi to the bus terminal about a kilometre from our hotel.  The extra bag we had bought to accommodate our booty made it impossible to walk the distance.

Lucky for us the bus driver was an absolute maniac and we arrived at the airport in under 30 minutes.  It was good to have one final taste of traffic in Vietnam.  We tried to eat the bread rolls I had brought for our breakfast while the bus negotiated the traffic, but it was way too early, and the dramatic weaving and lurching of the bus created an atmosphere that was way too intense to focus on eating.  When we arrived at Noi Bai International Airport the queues were already building.  I spent the first half hour looking for any indication that I was even in the International Airport.  I could see no signs for China Southern Airlines.  Silly me, I only had to ask.  As it turned out I was supposed to be lining up under the heading "23" where the international flights for China Southern Airlines were processed.  Twenty minutes later I was at the front of the line.  When I produced our 6 passports for processing, the man behind me gave a great sigh.

While we were waiting in line, we chatted together quite normally, marvelling at some of the weirder things we had seen in the streets the day before.  With every haircut, one is entitled to a free ear clean.  The ear clean is performed with a pair of surgical tweezers.  I guess these guys get training.  We also saw women having their toenails cut and cleaned on the busy sidewalk, 2 women having lice removed from their hair, and one man having a haircut.  I assume his ear clean was to follow.

At least there are no expensive rental overheads for this hairdresser.

It took a while to get our boarding passes, but before we knew it we were waiting at our boarding gate...1.5 hours early and eager to get home.  George decided he wanted a pair of sunglasses (again), and James focused on his need for a coffee.  Drew, a creature of habit, settled back with her computer and headphones to watch yet another episode of Castle.  I began to deal with the boys.

All went according to plan and we arrived in Guangzhou at about 11:00am.  In a desperate effort to pacify George who was whining about his position in the plane, and his lack of view out of the plane window, he was promised a window seat on the China to Brisbane flight.  He was most upset that he had ended up in the isle, and I knew from 3 bitter weeks of experience that it is way better to give in to George than to try to reason with him.  Everyone ends up happier in the short term, and that was what was the most important thing.  Only 10.5 hours until our flight to Brisbane was scheduled to depart!  You may recall that I did enquire about Chinese visa's when I first found out about our ridiculous wait for a connecting flight to Brisbane.  The price for each Visa - nearly $100.  It was a difficult decision, but in the end I decided that boredom was easier to deal with than a $600 look at Guangzhou.

We were the picture of a happy family for the first half hour.  Both computers were fully charged, the travelling sidewalk was a novelty for the first few rides, and George had not yet found anything he wanted to buy.

The cards killed about an hour

George takes up his position.  

Drew in a typical pose.

George blissfully occupied

Sooner or later someone else was going to want a turn on that computer.  I watched the clock tick tock slowly onwards.  God help us all when George was not fully occupied...

One hour later all hell broke loose.  George saw a miniature plane in the toy store that he desperately wanted and needed.  So commenced 3 hours of torture and torment.  By George, directed at me.  George argued why he needed the plane and how much pure joy it would give him if I bought if for him.  I'm embarrassed to say that he wore me down completely and I eventually bought one for him and for Max for the grand total of AUD $20 each.  Blessed relief followed.  He was completely, albeit strangely given his age, entertained for the next 2 hours.

We spent our time at Guangzhou Airport moving from boarding gate to boarding gate in an effort to avoid detection by other passengers as a group of complete freaks.  Our family was fighting a lot by this stage and we were becoming entertainment for the bored.

George soon dropped and broke his plane just as I had predicted to him a few hours earlier.  I lasted an hour before I went and bought him another.  It just wasn't worth listening to him anymore.  He was becoming unmanageable.

We were due to board our flight home at about 9:00pm, so as 9:30pm rocked around we didn't really crack much of a smile when we heard the announcement that our flight had been delayed by 2 hours due to bad weather.  I managed to dab my eyes with the sleeve of my dirty jumper before any tears spilled out over my cheeks.  It's important to maintain a look of "everything's under control folks, no need to worry, I'm cool".

Plane play

James starts the school work he was given 4 weeks ago

Flight delayed for 2 more hours.  What a fantastic opportunity to bond!

The hours become unbearable

George seems to get great enjoyment from his plane.  Max awaits
further instructions from George.

Tempers become frayed

Diagnosis:  ???

James can't take it anymore

We entered the plane about 11:30pm and took our seats.  George assumed his position beside the window and the rest of us just took what was left of our 6 allocated seats.  We buckled up and checked out the vomit bags and the eyepads, the free toothbrushes and the inflight magazine.  I doubl-checked quickly if any of the children felt the need to open their bowels, then we proceeded to prepare ourselves for a night of deep sleep before arriving home.

...and then the announcement!  Another 2 hours delay due to the weather.  Jesus CHRIST!!

We were all asleep before takeoff.

Well, maybe we weren't all asleep.  Thank God someone's happy.

Sleeping Beauty.  I believe dehydration was setting in at this stage.
I had abused my body, yes, but beer had been a great friend to me
during our travels in Vietnam.  I think I may have been dreaming
about sucking on a "coldie" when this photo was taken.

George woke some hours later and berated me for not waking him for takeoff.

The rest of the flight is a blur.  Food trolleys came and went, I read an entire book and a fairly inappropriate Chinese inflight movie was shown.

We arrived in Brisbane after midday on Saturday.  My lovely and very patient mother was there to greet us after waiting 5 hours for us to arrive.  Luckily we skipped through customs without a bag search.  Very lucky actually, as no-one had informed me that bringing in a jewellery box made from buffalo bone was not entirely legal.  A bag and body search however would have topped my blogging off nicely.  A short ride from the airport later...and we were HOME sweet home!

I found Vietnam to be a beautiful, colourful country, completely different from anything I've known, an extraordinarily interesting land, with an amazing cultural history.  Would I do it all again?  If I had the money, I'd travel with my children again, yes.  I'd probably travel somewhere new.  Not because I didn't love Vietnam, but because there are so many other countries, cultures, sights and people to see, and so little time.

I hope I get the opportunity to travel at least once more with my children before they move on with their lives.  As much as I've joked about the difficulties we encountered, I'd have to admit the entire trip was very simple and straightforward.  Nothing at all to be nervous about.  I'd recommend Vietnam as a travel destination to any single person wanting to travel alone with their children.

Ps:  My car is still being repaired and the man at the repair shop informed me that the part they are waiting for should be in Australia in approximately 6 weeks time.  Just like that.  He was quite matter-of-fact about it.  What the??

Day 17 Last day in Vietnam

We have spent our last day walking the streets of Hanoi.  It's been a cool day and there has been a nice breeze.

Everyone seems well and all the kids are very happy to be heading home tomorrow. The last 2.5 weeks have certainly been an education.  We been able to experience a completely different culture, eat an entirely different diet, and see bits and pieces of beautiful Vietnam from the south to the north.  All this has been an amazing adventure.  I have also, as you would know, spent the last 18 days within arms reach of each child. The only time I've had away from their delightful company is when I use the toilet or have a shower.  You would think I would have a pretty good understanding of what each of my children are like.  I raise them, I spend lots of time with them, I know my children, but I've never really gotten to KNOW them like this!  I can't say the process has been entirely pleasant.

Travelling alone with them has been easy.  We haven't encountered any situation where our numbers have prevented us doing what we want on this trip.  It has never been hard finding accommodation with 2 rooms side by side or close together.  The only downside of travelling with 5 children would have to be the added expense.  If I were travelling by myself, I think I could have completed this trip (excluding airfares) for well under $1000.  I've been fairly liberal with my purchase of presents for myself as well.

I would like to have been less of a side show as we walked the streets in Vietnam.  We get stared at everywhere we go.  Most people in Vietnam who comment think that I am very lucky to have one girl (to do the work, their words not mine) and 4 boys.  "Very lucky, very lucky."  Apparently having a girl first and boy second is the lucky part.  This ensures there is someone to do all the work, and there is also someone to carry on the family name.  I think it has been a government rule since the early 1990's  that in the city areas of Vietnam, the limit is 2 children per family.   So while there are still lots of larger families in Vietnam, they are certainly not normal, especially in the areas we have been travelling to.

Add one more to this side show and we are officially a freak show.

I have never felt unsafe in Vietnam.  I've only lost one of my children once, and that was George at the home stay in the Mekong.  He rode way ahead of us and missed the entrance to the house.  It was about 5 minutes before we realised he was missing.  I took off on a bike far too small for me at breakneck speed and found him about 5 minutes later.  He was on his way back after finally realising we weren't following him.  

We've been "cased" a few times for a bag snatch, but it has been so obvious that it hasn't been hard to avoid losing my bag.  3 very dumb teenagers stood beside us in Dalat at the market after I'd bought something and they proceeded to watch with weird interest as Drew had a bangle made for her.  They stayed beside us quite a bit longer than any male teenager would stay to watch bracelet making.  Then they tried to slowly follow us.  I just stopped and said "after you".  I haven't had to use any concealed passport carriers.  I've either left our passports at the hotel reception or I've carried them in a backpack.  The only time I've lost money is when I've left my bag unattended.  Stupid me.

I wish I'd brought more long sleeved cotton shirts.  Walking in the sun all day is a killer.  

I haven't had to use any of the mosquito repellent I brought along.  I haven't seen one mosquito.  Mind you, I haven't been any further inland than Dalat, and I haven't been in any areas that are risky for malaria.  

I could have done with more than 2 electrical adapters (Australian to Vietnamese).  We have 2 computers, phone, camera, video camera, PSP and ipod shuffles to recharge, and 2 adapters just hasn't been enough.   

The scariest part of the trip, and the only time I felt our lives were in danger was the bus trip from Ho Chi Minh City to Dalat.  That was the bus driver's fault, and I'm sure not everyone would have the same experience we had.  

Worst part of the trip:  James and his vomiting.  That's been horrible for him, but hideous for me to deal with during the long bus journeys.  I'm thankful that only 1 of my children ended up with vomiting and diarrhoea.   

Worst behaved child:  A tie between J***s and G****e with M*x coming a close second. Once again, I've de-identified the names to avoid any child taking offence should they ever read this blog.  

Most depressing town we visited: Can Tho in the Mekong.  

Best town:  Dalat and Hoi An with Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi coming close seconds.

Weirdest moment: running into the weird and annoying lady from the My Son tour near Hoi An when we were in a cave in Halong Bay 5 days later.

Weirdest scene: A lady having her hair de-loused on the busy footpath.  This was equally weird to the man we saw having a haircut and ear clean on the street corner; and the child we saw being taken for a wee in the gutter of the main roundabout in Hanoi.

Worst moments:  (1) Walking into that horrible, tiny train cabin that I was about to spend 18 hours together with my children, and realising that I just didn't think I could go through with it.  (2) Wasting a whole day of the trip on a home stay in the Mekong with Ni as our guide.  

Best moment: Riding on motorbikes around Dalat with the kids.  Thank you Easy Riders.

Best find:  A street in Hanoi that has a few shops that sell authentic second hand Rolex watches. P Hang Gai Street (one street back from the centre roundabout in the Old Quarter)
Amendment:  My brother who fancies himself as an expert in Rolex watches tells me the watches are very good take-offs of the original.  Dam it!  I spent hundreds on those 3 watch faces.

We are homeward bound tomorrow.  All 24 hours of it.  I'm sure that will be another adventure in itself.  Stay tuned for the final blog entries when we arrive home.

Some more photos of Hanoi:

This is central Hanoi!

Hanoi is filled with pretty trees.  

Gus models for us again

This would actually be very hard to accomplish.

Most of life's activities take part on the pavement outside the shops.

James eats a whole baby octopus.  He's pretty adventurous, but even he balked at this
because we could see this critter's little eyes. 

This may well have been the culprit for the 24 hours of vomiting he
experienced the next day.

The heat begins to affect us.

Gecko Bar and Restaurant has great Aussie tucker!  Kids need some Aussie
respite every now and then.

Day 16 Emesis and Nemesis at Halong Bay

Firstly my apologies for this long-winded blog.  I needed to be specific so I can remember the details of the day as well when I  wish to recall our beautiful trip to Halong Bay.

It all started out so cheerily yesterday morning.  We were off on an adventure to Halong Bay to spend a night aboard a boat then back to Hanoi the following evening.

We decided to keep our room in Hanoi for the time we were to be at Halong Bay as we would need it to spend our last night in Vietnam before we commenced our 24 hour journey home.  11 hours of that journey will be spent bonding as a family unit in Guangzhou airport, China, thanks to a last minute flight cancellation.  Thank you China Southern Airlines.

We readied ourselves for the 8am pickup.  We were collected by our guide and taken up the street a bit to wait for our bus.  We had a few minutes to sit and wait and the thought went through my mind that perhaps I should have brought along a bit of electrical entertainment for the kids.  I'd told them to leave all electrical goods at the hotel as we wouldn't need them in such a pretty part of the world. Well, lucky for us, it didn't take long for Hanoi to produce it's own little side show.

We were sitting on the pavement minding our own business when about 4-5 men came running along the pavement whooping and laughing.  Just a meter or so ahead was a small rat running for it's life.  These men were having a hoot of a time.  The rat ran between one of our bags and the glass door of a coffee shop behind us.  The quickest man with the biggest book in his hand threw himself behind our bag and smashed the rat with his book.  All the men started laughing.  The rat kept trying to run and they all went after it smacking it with their thongs and ? their reading books, snorting and cackling all the time...kind of like a group of men would sound if they were playing a game of social volleyball after a few beers.  They eventually subdued their plaything right in front of George and gave it a final smack on the head with the book, blood smeared all over the pavement.  One of them picked it up by the tail and took it God knows where, while the murderer wiped the blood from his book with his shirt.  The men were breathless, but exuberant.  Job well done.  Hmmmm.  Only 42 million of the suckers left to kill now boys!  Good job. Somehow I don't think they were trying to rid the city of the rat problem, more likely they were hunting for someone's dinner.  My kids were revolted.

Then:

James mentioned he felt sick as we ascended the stairs into the bus...

I had left my anti-nausea medication back in the hotel room.

James vomited into a leaking plastic bag 2 hours later and half way to Halong Bay.

I sacrificed 2 beach towels to clean up the vomit.

James try to sleep away the nausea, while Max just sleeps on a stranger on the way to Halong Bay.
This photo is taken pre vomit.
I don't know who the man with the glasses is, but he isn't attractive when he sleeps.

After 4 hours in the bus and 10 minutes from our destination of Halong Bay, the tour guide announces to the 28 tour participants aboard the bus that the weather is going to be bad tonight and the boats will not be going out.  His alternative...a night on Monkey Island.  What the??  Just like that, no further explanation.  It took about 5 minutes and the bus, filled with tourists, began to revolt.  How could they not know the weather?  They run tours on the bay for a living!  Why did they let us get to the f***ing bay before they told us this?  Does bad weather really affect a boat in a bay?  How could we get back to Hanoi if they didn't want to go to Monkey Island?  I was one of the lucky ones who hadn't paid yet.  No way I was going to spend a night on Monkey Island with a bunch of filthy animals (my kids) and some foul smelling monkeys when I had driven 4 hours to see Halong Bay.  The weather was sunny and bright without a cloud in the sky and not a breath of wind.  I smelt a rat.  So with James about to vomit again I said no to the Monkey Island tour and I took my kids and exited the bus.

James felt another vomit coming on.  I asked a group of Vietnamese men and women selling food on the sidewalk for a plastic bag, and a by-stander relayed my message to one of the ladies in the group.  She handed me 2 small plastic bags which James promptly filled in front of her.  I took the now full bags over to the bin across the road, along with the 2 vomit filled beach towels and the earlier leaking plastic bag full of vomit.  There was no bin but a man motioned for me to leave the towels with vomit under a table just outside the entrance to a restaurant.  Strange, but helpful that I didn't need to keep looking for a bin.  I did my best to mime vomiting into the towel in a effort to re-explain just what the towels contained, but he was adamant I leave it there.  I did as I was told.   I returned to the same lady and asked her for 2 more small plastic bags.  She looked straight at me and just shook her head "no".  What a frigging b****!    She had really angry eyes too.  No smile, nothing!  Just "no".  I ask you, is that normal?  We made do with what we could find - a plastic bag that looked like someone had been using it to cart gravel.  It was blowing past us, so we snatched it up.

I found my way to the ticket desk and asked about any shorter trips that were going out into the bay for a few hours.  No one there was able to tell me if boats were being kept in due to bad weather or not, but it seemed that boats were still leaving the dock.    I ended up having to hire an entire boat for four hours as well as pay for the kids tickets.  All up $100.  Still, it was going to cost me $300 for the overnight tour of Halong Bay, or in my case a night on Monkey Island, so a savings of $200 was pretty good I thought. (I later discovered the boat men had stolen about $150 from my wallet while we were on the cruise, so maybe no saving after all.)  A few other people around us had just had their tours cancelled, but there seemed to be no problem just going out for the afternoon.  A lovely Brazilian couple followed our lead and abandoned the planned tour.  They joined us on our own private tour of Halong Bay.

Halong Bay was very hazy.  Not sure why, but the air wasn't the cleanest, and neither was the water.  Very, very pretty scenery.  Boats everywhere but fewer as we got further out into the bay.  We were taken to look at 2 massive amazing caves on one of the islands.  Very touristy with stairs and walking path all mapped out into and out of each cave.  Trinket store at the exit of each cave and soft drink and chips on offer.  The caves were the highlight of the Halong Bay tour for us.  Unfortunately James' debilitated state made it impossible for me to get right inside cave # 2.  I was happy though as I had stolen about 15 000 dong from the wishing well in cave #1.  Overall, discounting the tour stuff up and my stolen money, I'd have to say Halong Bay was a bit of a disappointment.  I hear it was way better in the 90's before it became so commercial.  I am aware however, that it is people just like me and my kids that cause it to be so commercial and contribute to the state of the water.  A lot of messy construction was going on and lots of rubbish floating in the water.

We ran out of camera charge as we left Hanoi, so the following photos were taken from a video camera and are not terribly clear.

First stop, the caves. 

James recovers temporarily

I left my bag unattended for the 5 minutes we took to take this photo.
Cost: $150

James continues to sleep as we pull into the dock as the tour ends

We arrived back at shore and said goodbye to the 2 men who drove the boat.  I would never have said thank you if I had realised they'd been in my purse taking what they wanted.  I should be glad our passports and my credit cards were left in my bag. We managed to find a bus returning to Hanoi 15 minutes later.  The Brazilian couple had given us 2 anti nausea tablets which James had taken during the day.  I have no idea what they were, but James slept most of the way home, which was a hell of a lot better than dealing with his vomit.  I made sure he was still alive by checking his pulse rate from time to time.

Thank God we kept our rooms at the Queen of Heart Hotel.  We were able to walk a short distance from the drop off point to our hotel and sink onto our beds after a long and luxurious shower.

James finished the day off nicely with his unsuccessful attempt to pass wind.  A final clean up was in order.