March 31 Motoring Mayhem

Crashing the car today was a proverbial pain in the backside.

I was travelling merrily along a 2-lane busy road, heading off to have my toenails polished, followed by a swan around looking at clothes in the shops, when an elderly gentleman (I was soon to find out he was no gentleman) pulled out from the side of the road directly across the lane next to me and then across my path in an effort to turn around and go in the opposite direction.  There wasn't anywhere to go except smash bang into the front drivers side of his car, then over a road sign, and then up onto the centre area that separates the traffic going in each direction.  It must have been an almighty bang because people came running from every direction.  I was completely unscathed, but he kind of faked the wobbles and kept looking over at me shaking his head.  I estimated his age at about 80 years old.

A weird Samoan man of about 50 came out of his house and across the road to get to me and he just kept insisting I come inside his house to make a phone call to the police.  I'm fairly familiar with stranger danger as I've drummed it into my kids heads long and hard for the last 12 years.  You know "Even if he looks nice and has all the lollies in the world...etc etc" kind of stuff.  Anyway, this guy was unrelenting.  He kept motioning me towards his front door with his hand behind my back.  I had my own phone for God's sake, he wasn't going to get me inside his house.  About 1 minute later he is on his phone out on his front verandah talking to the police, and he yells out that the police want to speak to me.  Up I go.  Then when I finish speaking to the police, he pops his hand on my back and pushes me into his lounge room saying "come and have an orange juice."  Jesus! Now I'm sitting at his breakfast table drinking juice.  All I could think of was what everyone outside would think of me just disappearing into his house and not emerging again.

He went on and on about how he sends his sister money in Samoa; what the exchange rate is; why he came to Australia.  He kept speckling the conversation with things like "your husband must know all about that" and "lucky you didn't have your kids in the car".  Anyway, the crowd outside must have gotten sick of waiting for me and I think the police had arrived and were looking for the driver of the car that was half on and half off the median strip.  Someone came to rescue me, and I was free.

Lucky for me, there were 2 witnesses to the accident because the old man was a real meanie.  He was uninjured.  My ex-nursing skills come in handy sometimes, and I figured that unless he was complaining of chest pain all that he would suffer was a really sore old rickety body tomorrow.  So I attempted to make his acquaintance with a gentle handshake.  Lets remember that he had careered directly across 2 lanes of traffic to turn around and go in the opposite direction.  He snatched his hand away and kept yelling that I was speeding.  Well funny thing was, I could see his head as my car was sailing towards his.  You know that 2 seconds when you know it's inevitable and no amount of braking is going to change things.  He hadn't even seen me.  He was looking straight ahead, and the crash was the first thing he knew of me.  He was kind enough to tell me I needed driving lessons, and that he bet I didn't even have a licence.  He kept saying over and over that he'd been driving for 65 years and not had an accident.  I left him to it.  He was a nasty bit of work.

Anyway, I got my 3rd trip in a police car in 13 months because the police gave me and the wicked old man a trip to our respective destinations.  The previous 2 were in the back of a paddy wagon, so to be free in the car with the police just chatting to them was a new experience for me.  The Samoan man did try to get me to go with him in his car to the shops, but I declined.  Once in the police car, the old man Vlad (that was his name) kicked up a bit of a stink about travelling in the police car with me.  He started his diatribe about my poor driving skills and how he would bet that I had no licence.  He sprayed saliva as he spoke to me, and as he spat his words out he looked me up and down with a foul sneer on his face. I was far enough away to avoid his spittle, but he covered the police forensic bag with it.  I was heading to the nearby shopping centre, and Vlad was heading to his friend's house to check his friend wasn't dead.  That's what the police said anyway.  Vlad hadn't heard from his friend for a couple of days.  They dropped me off first in case Vlad's friend was indeed dead.

So tomorrow I shall collect my rental car.  My super expensive car insurance covers that.  There is only 1 week till we leave for Vietnam.  I need the car because how else would I get the cat to the kennels next weekend, buy easter eggs for the kids, and basically enjoy myself while my children spend the first half of the school holidays with their Dad.

9 DAYS TO GO!

Rang the travel agent this afternoon because someone at work said "So, have you got all your seats booked together."  I said "No, can I do that this early out from the flight?" and she said "Yeh, derrrr, I've already booked my 3 seats together for Thailand in 6 months time."  So I shat myself and rang the travel agent who calmly said "Please hold."  She then came back on the phone and informed me, ever so casually, that there had been some adjustments in the times my flights were leaving.  They would look into it and get back to me.  Apparently my flights don't quite connect anymore once we get to Guangzhou, China.  Jesus!  Will we have an even longer wait in that Chinese airport.  Wasn't 6 hours in a chinese airport enough?  When we do get our seats, are we all going to be sitting in different areas? Hmmm. Got to wait until Monday to find out.

Shopping for my uniform

Oh phew.  I have the passports (with visas) back!  It said in the information on the visa application that it should take 4 working days to process the application once it arrived in Canberra.  Well, ours took 4 weeks.  I would probably suggest NOT getting the travel agent to send the passports off to Canberra for the visas.  It cost me a bit over $100 to courier them down and back using the travel agent.  I think 2 priority paid post packs might have set me back about $20-$30, and it might also be easier to check up the progress of the visas myself rather than having to ring the travel agent to get an update. 

This weekend will be busy.  Of course there are the constant demands of cleaning, that's a given.  The house is a pigsty.  I need to buy myself a uniform for Vietnam. Kind of like Terri and Bindi Irwin. I'm thinking something along the lines of goucho pants teamed with a t-shirt and sensible walking shoes.  Yes, goucho (South American cowboys) pants still exist.  I think the beauty of these soft and flowing pants is that they will feel cool...and I will look cool!

Once I have purchased a uniform, I shall attempt some foreign currency exchange in the city, buy a final bag for Gus, and then spend the afternoon drinking beer and cleaning my house.

I have also decided that after Ho Chi Minh and then Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, we shall travel back to Ho Chi Minh and take a plane to Dalat. Apparently teaming with local beret wearing bohemian artists.  It's referred to as "Le Petit Paris".  In the 1950's this town used to abound with deer, peacocks, pheasants, pigs, black bear, panthers, tigers and elephants.  Thankfully, hunters have killed most (all, I hope) of those animals, which will leave us free to cycle on bikes around the area.

Bag Day

The quality of the video is very disappointing.  It looks way clearer on my iMovie.  I admit that George and Max did most of the filming in this, but that aside, I really don't know why it uploads so much more blurred than the original.  Could be that it was all filmed on my phone.  Need to get a little camera recorder.  This blog doesn't let me upload HD video for some reason, and I'm not savvy enough with computers to work out why.  I don't even really know what High Definition means to tell the truth.  Clearer?

Arguing children prevented me from getting better footage for this video, but I've done my best.  Now go and grab a cuppa, sit back, and enjoy.

Bag Day tomorrow. How very exciting!

Stay tuned for the adventures of Bag Day.  An insight into an astonishing mother's quest to find bags to put her children's clothes in.  A journey of discovery and (mis)adventure...

Big dongs are scary

I'm freaking out!  2.5 weeks till we leave!  Where the frig are our passports?  Gave them to Flight Centre weeks ago to send to Vietnamese Embassy (I assume) in Sydney for our visas.  No sign of them yet.  I've rung Flight Centre (FC) twice this week and they assure me that all is on track.  In the time I spent in FC I've had the opportunity to watch those pretty girls closely when they answer the phone.  They're very adept at keeping freaks like me calm.

I sill have 5 'snap and drag' bags to buy.

I just applied for a visa debit card. The bank informed me this was crucial to have while overseas.  It'll take 7-10 days for the card to arrive at my place, and then a visit into the bank to activate it.  Cutting it fine, but I think it will be right.  Apparently, you need one of these so you don't get charged ATM withdrawal fees and foreign exchange fees each time you withdraw money over there.

I need to get some dong to play with.  That was "some" dong.  Not "a" dong.  he he.  I really don't want to be working out the money situation when I get there.  Need to build up a small amount of familiarity with the VND (that's the abbreviation for the vietnamese dong)  At the moment $1 Australian = 21600ish VND.  It seems to come in quite large amounts in the notes. For example, this is like $4 - $5 to us:

I'll have to find out who the dude on the front is.  Nothing comes up when I google "dude on front of vietnamese dong".  Having trouble finding info on him. Anyone able to help?  Secretly just hoping for my first comment on this blog.  Don't be shy.

I found this site which seems simple and helpful with the general principles of travel.   Specifically designed for imbeciles, so I'm using it a lot at the moment:  http://www.activetravelvietnam.com/

At this time in the morning (just after midnight) I need simple.   

I'm off to sleep.  Tomorrow afternoon I shall have a close look at the GoPro camera that was delivered today from America.  It's this tiny camera you can strap to a bike, a helmet or a hat that takes great moving video.  The real reason I bought it is because the boys want to film themselves skateboarding down hills here at home and make videos they upload onto YouTube.  I think it will be great to strap it onto our heads (like a miners light) as we attempt to cross the road in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi.  I should get some good footage of that.  We are all taking bike helmets too, so I'm sure we can get some good shots from that.  Pop a bit of music over those clips and you'll feel like you're in the cinema when I load the footage onto this blog.  Check out the GoPro here:

Safety and Timeliness

I have spent the day preparing (in my own strange way) for our trip abroad.  

A little about us

Always good to know a little bit about the family you will follow on their "journey" in just under 4 weeks.  Firstly, a little bit of background information.  We are a family who express ourselves through dance.  Always have, always will. I have compiled a video of one of our better dance routines.  Please excuse my grossly amateur video skills.  You will notice that some of us (me and Max - the youngest) are better dancers than the rest. 

I hope this video helps you to understand just one of the things which we find important as a family. Rhythm.  Enjoy.  

I would also like to introduce Odie the dog.  We have very definite levels of favouritism in this family, normally depending on who is nice enough to pick up their pyjamas from the bathroom floor.  Odie is my 6th child and often my favourite child.  He always does as he's told, and he is always kind and gentle. 

Where to from HCMC

We have 19 days in Vietnam.  I reckon the trip to the north will take longer than I think.  I hear that travel is very slow and it can sometimes take hours to cover 100km by bus because the roads are bad.  That should be extra fun with the 5 children.  Add to that the 50% chance of contracting vomiting and diarrhoea bugs, and it's starting to turn into a real adventure!  The beauty of a blog is that I can capture all of this on film.

Anyway.  Despite the fact that this may put me back a bit time wise,  I've half decided to go backwards from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC- I can't be fagged writing that name anymore) and travel down to the Mekong Delta on day 3 in Vietnam.

For anyone as dumb as me:  The region is famous for growing rice - half of the total output of rice from Vietnam in fact.  It is the region where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the South China Sea through smaller distributaries.  We have a choice of stopping at My Tho which is a 1.5 hour journey by bus from HCMC and is apparently the "gateway to the Mekong Delta" sitting on the northern side of the closest of these distributaries to the city of HCM.  Lonely Planet Vietnam recommend this town for whirlwind visitors on day trips to the Mekong Delta.  It's a market town with a population listed anywhere from 120 - 220 000 people, depending on what website you look on.  We can apparently get a boat tour to a floating market from My Tho.  We can also hire bikes to ride around the town.  I am planning on taking a bike helmet along for each of us.

My other option is to continue on a further 3.5 hours to the heart of the Mekong Delta to a town called Can Tho.  Population about 330 000.  It is described in my readings as a lively town - the epicentre of the Mekong Delta with a nice mix of narrow back streets and wide boulevards.  The major drawcard that Can Tho has over My Tho for me though, is the there is a place in Can Tho called Van Tho 2 - an employment agency for the blind which employs professional (blind) massage therapists.  It's like a dream come true!  These massages are listed in Lonely Planet as being an absolute bargain and "a good way to put some money into a worthy project".  Yes yes yes, I get all that.  What I can't get over, is that I can finally get a massage from someone I DON'T have to show my body to.  Finally, I won't have to worry about my dimply, hairy, veiny legs.  When he/she says roll over, I don't have to worry about my hairy bikini line.  So based on this wonderful bit of information, I think we are heading to Can Tho on Day 3.  I wonder if there is any chance of something like this catching on in Australia.

Apparently there is a low risk of Malaria in the Mekong Delta, but the occasional risk of Bird Flu if I choose to visit one of the many bird sanctuaries.  I choose not to visit the bird sanctuaries.  

Actually a good point to think about is how the hell will the 6 of us fit into one of those boats to get into the thick of the floating markets?  What is the chance of drowning should we capsize?  I'm guessing life jackets aren't an option.  How likely is it that we get eaten by one of those huge catfish things that they pull out these waters occasionally?  And finally, how the hell do we meet up again if we get separated on the river from each other if we are in 2 boats?  And finally finally... can I just look and not buy?  I'd rather save my $ for prepared food such as this (not me in the photo).