NZ Road Trip Part 1- Christchurch to Dunedin

We left Christchurch a few days ago and (after a quick NZ driving refresher...) hit the road heading south . New Zealand has this incredible system of Travellers' Information Centres (i-Sites) staffed with people who will do just about anything to help you travel around. We wandered into the i-Site in Ashburton for some quick info and came out with: driving directions, maps, accomodation for the next 2 days (booked and pre-paid), and suggestions for side-trip activities en route and at our destination. We arrived at Lake Tekapo for the first night to a hostel right on the edge of the lake. Tekapo is apparently the largest observatory in the southern hemisphere and a "sky conservation area" (?- no light pollution tolerated in town to allow clear star-gazing). The night was a bit overcast, so we settled on watching the sun set over the lakeside mountains instead. That, and it still wasn't dark enough by 10:30pm to see many stars....

Next morning was clear skies and we headed to Aoraki/Mount Cook- home to the highest peak on the southern continent. The drive was...spectacular. From farm plains with herds of sheep strewn all around the countryside to lakes, foothills and then into the mountains. With a perfectly clear blue sky, we were able to see Mt Cook for about 2 hours of our approach around the turquoise Lake Pukaki and into Mt Cook village. Which happens to sit at the foot of the mountain! In the clear blue and sunny day, we couldn't resist a hike out to the Hooker Glacier which puts you right in the thick of the whole mountain range- it was a incredible view the whole way. The sky stayed clear throughout the evening so we got up in the night to look at the stars and it was so worth leaving a warm bed (even if it did take some convincing). The night sky looks completely different down here and we could see zillions of stars.

The next day we drove out of the mountains, past more hills and sheep, roadside lupins, and hills and sheep and hills and sheep towards the east coast down to Dunedin. Stops en route included a few merino wool shops (we have yet to successfully bypass a single NZ merino wool shop...), cheese samples at Whitehouse Cheese, a walk along the beach to see the very bizzare Moereki boulders which look like they've been washed ashore from some ancient alien lifeform...(but are in fact slowly emerging from the eroding coastal sandcliffs...equally wierd) and multiple 300+ metre altitude changes along the adrenaline-pumping drive into the city of Dunedin.

We spent the whole next day exploring Dunedin, which must be the STEEPEST town on the planet. After leaving a dent in a few more Merino shops, a picnic in the gardens of the historic railway station, a stop at the Cadbury factory's gift shop, we drove out to the Otago Penninsula for the evening. If the drive into Dunedin was steep, it paled in comparison to the white-knuckle Highcliffe road on the penninsula- creeping along sheer cliffs, blind turns every other curve, car engine roaring with the steep pitches (poor Edna). We took a breather at a high cliff beach in hopes of spotting some yellow-eyed penguins (no luck) and later at the Albatross Conservatory at the end of the penninsula (if the birds overhead didn't clue you in, the stink sure did...). Not sure if we actually saw any albatross, but there were tonnes of other cool birds, sealions and at least a zillions seagulls. How we managed to make it back to the car without getting poo-bombed is a miracle.

Next we're on to Queenstown and Wanaka for a few days of hiking. After surviving the drives around Dunedin, we're both now confident and well-seasoned enough to negotiate whatever other crazy roads New Zealand can throw our way :) Here's hoping....

Christchurch, NZ

We arrived in New Zealand a few days ago and the trip over went much more easily than anticipated. We have been staying in Christchurch with our new lovely friend Anne, who has spoiled us at her home for the last few days. She has helped us find a great rental car (nicknamed Edna so we can try to remember the license plate number when looking for her in a parking lot!) and figure out a reasonable path to travel around the country.

On day 2 (after a 12+ night's sleep in what must be the world's most comfortable bed) we went into Christchurch for the afternoon to wander around. While you can still see all the prettiness of the city is still there, the devastation from the earthquakes is incredible. Although many buildings are still standing in the city centre, most have been condemned and will be demolished in the near future. It's astonishing the scale and amount of damage that has been done by the disaster. It will be years and years and years before the city recovers.

But, Christchurch is ticking onward and has opened a small container shopping district in the heart of the destruction- with temporary shops set up in reused shipping containers! The whole "mall" has a bunch of really funky shops and booming with lots of people shopping when we were there. Then we wandered down to the botanical gardens (the Moms would have loved it!) and onto Hagley Park, where "Christmas in the Park" celebrations were going on. It was so wierd to hear Christmas carols while sitting on the grass in shorts and sunshine (although it was definitely nippy enough that when the sun went down, most locals pulled out their parkas and toques).

The next day, we both passed our NZ driving test (which consisted of showing the rental agent a credit card and two driver's licenses) and got the keys to our newest touring partner, Edna (well-seasoned Nissan Pulsar) and headed for the seaside town of Akaroa for the day. Keeping in mind that driving happens on the left side of the road here (opposite to us in Canada), the drive was a bit of an adventure :) We took turns driving for practice and we should be fine from here on after successfully navigating the windy, mountainous road to and form Akaroa. Aside from the passenger having to yell out, "stay left" and "move off the shoulder" a few times, we managed to make it back to Christchurch in one piece. Akaroa was beautiful and sunny- we walked around the many tourist shops, had a picnic by the bay and just chilled out by the beach.

Today we'll say goodbye to Anne and head down the coast for Mount Cook, in hopes of spending a few days hiking in the mountain. At this point, we have a rough idea of where we want to go, but this can change on a whim. That's the beauty of road trips :)

Photos of Hoi An, Hué, Halong Bay and Hanoi

Hoi An, Hue, Halong Bay and Hanoi, a set on Flickr.

Spectacular Hoi An (and Hué, Halong Bay & Hanoi)

If we were to move to Vietnam, we would live in Hoi An- hands down. It's a quaint and picturesque fishing village on the UNESCO heritage list, so all of the buildings have character. It was tranquil and a great place to slow down a bit and relax. Hoi An is the tailoring mecca of Vietnam- if you can dream it up, someone here can make it for you....overnight. Suits, blazers, coats, pants, shoes, hats, scarves- you name it, they can make it in any fabric combination you can think of. Not sure yet if you get what you pay for (prices varied wildly), so we'll have to see what we got in the few things we had made- only time and North American drycleaning will tell :) In addition to tailors, Hoi An has incredible art galleries (photography, carvings, lacquer paintings) and in particular, the most incredible brocade embroidery we have ever seen that you swear is a photograph right up until you get close enough to touch the canvas. At night, lanterns light up the village and the waterfront streets close to vehicles. If all that wasn't good enough, the homemade icecream on the waterfront was phenomenal! Stand outs in Hoi An are just too many to list....

After Hoi An, we continued on to the city of Hué, the former capital of Vietnam. Many of Hué's buildings and monuments have been damaged during previous wars and are in various stages of reconstruction. We opted to visit the Tu Duc's Tomb (the Fourth Emperor of Vietnam) and the Imperial City- home of the Purple Forbidden City where the king once lived. Both were pretty amazing despite the numerous temples we've seen at this point. Stand outs in Hué: François getting nearly trampled at the Tu Duc ticket booth by a mob of feisty little old ladies, the ruins of the Purple City, deciding to take a cyclo-rickshaw tour of the Citadel instead of hiking around in the mid-day swelter.

One last overnight train ride eventually brought us to Halong Bay. The train cars had collected enough daytime heat to double as a sauna for most of the ride which made for a slightly less than awesome travel. We got on a luxurious boat in Halong Bay and spent the afternoon exploring huge limestone spires all over the coastline and feasted on a fantastic seafood lunch.

Following our sejour in Halong Bay, we arrived to our final Vietnam destination in Hanoi. The sense in Hanoi is very different: the communist feeling is the most prevalent here of anywhere we've been. Every day starts with propaganda playing over the public loudspeakers on most street corners. When we visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, the number of military guards almost equaled the number of tourists. Even more bizarre, you were strictly instructed on how to walk, where to place your arms and hands while inside the mausoleum and the exact path you were permitted to walk around the grounds. "Uncle Ho" had just been returned from his annual freshening up vacation in Russia, so he looked quite good considering he's been on public display over 40 years now. Wierd....

Highlights of Hanoi (although few) have been: cooler temperatures, the water puppet show and Shark Week on Discovery channel (we've watched more tv in Hanoi than in 6 months at home!).

Tomorrow we leave Asia and head to our last continent on this trip: New Zealand. It will take us a day and a half of travel to get there, but we're looking forward to a change of scenery and pace.

Photos from Ho Chi Minh City & Nha Trang, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City & Nha Trang, Vietnam, a set on Flickr.

A few shots of Cu Chi Tunnels and other Ho Chi Minh craziness, plus the Long Son (big Buddha) pagoda in Nha Trang.

Vietnam- Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang

After we arrived late afternoon in Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon), we headed to the local market which has become our routine. Ben Thanh market was likely one of the larger markets to date for us and definitely the feistiest- it got to the point where we would have to walk around three sides of the market square to avoid getting accosted by the t-shirt ladies. Those girls are ferocious and see your first "No" reply as a mere challenge!

That night, Vietnam won the football (soccer) match in the South East Asia (SEA) Games going on right now. This made for total hysteria in the streets- a sea of motorcycles and Vietnamese flags. To put this in context- Saigon has had the craziest traffic we've seen yet, even including India. Luckily, the bulk of the traffic is motorbikes which are agile enough to avoid you when you take your fate in your hands negotiating a road crossing. On this particular night, there was no crossing the street. Period. That is, until the police decided it was time for the fans to disperse and within 10min, relative order was restored :)

The highlight of Ho Chi Minh was visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels, used by the Vietcong guerrilla fighters during the war. We were privileged to have one of the few remaining war veterans to be our guide. He delivered more than just a site tour- we got a history lesson and the inside story of the Vietnam war, which turns out to be much more complicated than we ever knew.

Following a surprisingly enjoyable night train trip, we arrived to the oceanside town of Nha Trang. First impression- there appears to be Russian everywhere- tourists, street signs, menus, entire restaurants and night clubs. They almost outnumber the locals in some areas of this town (the local market being one example)! Nha Trang has been a bit of a hardship- we have been subject to mud bath soaking, natural hot spring wading, snorkeling and sunbathing in the bay and yet another massage. *Sigh*. Seriously, the massage here (Vietnamese-style?) was the MOST divine experience of this trip. Some comical mis-communication led to many giggles, from both the masseuses & massagees throughout the 1.5hrs of bliss.....for a mere......$6 USD.
We now know why Russians come here for vacation :)

Now that we're all relaxed and rested, we should be in good shape tonight for our second overnight train adventure- destination Hoi An.

Photos from Siem Reap, Cambodia

Siem Reap, Cambodia, a set on Flickr.

A few snapshots of the highlight temples at Angkor Wat and spots around Siem Reap

Cambodia

Our Cambodian adventure started in Siem Reap, the home of Angkor Wat. We watched the sun come up behind the main temple and then spent the rest of the day exploring the various sites. This place is HUGE- you have to drive around and could easily spend a couple of days and not see it all. We started at the most infamous site, locally known as the "Tomb Raider" temple, where the large trees have grown over the ruins of the temple. So named from the filming site of Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie. From there, we moved on to countless others (Bayon temple with the giant faces carved in stone, Angkor Thom) and definitely had our fill by the end of the day.

Next stop was onto to the capital city, Phnom Penh. Here we had a very different experience as we visited Choeng Ek Genocide Centre, the killing fields and S21 prison from the Khmer Rouge era. It was a difficult day but well-worth the experience. To end the day on a lighter note, we were the local entertainment at a street-side restaurant: we were the only non-locals, no one spoke English and we had no idea what we were ordering. We got quite a few laughs throughout our supper trying to communicate (pointing to other people's plates, charades, etc) and figure out how to eat whatever arrived on our plates.

Then we headed to the beach town of Sihanoukville, the coastal resort mecca for Khmer people (Cambodians) and tourists alike. We bobbed in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand for most of the day and dined on fresh seafood on the beach- not too shabby. The fact that this sejour coincided with the Water Festival, Full Moon Party and Indepedence Day festivities was great. You could buy sticks of fireworks to let off on the (crowded) beach- public safety seemed to take a back-seat to a good lights show :)

Our border crossing into Vietnam was a different experience. Firstly, the flooding made the road to the border seem like it just appeared in the middle of a lake that had been rice paddies only a month earlier (Thailand isn't the only area experiencing pretty severe flooding this year). We stamped out of Cambodia and then walked an eerie strip of no-man's land between borders to get to Vietnam immigration. At this point, it was pouring rain- where the water keeps coming from is a mystery. The Vietnamese border patrol had a good look at François' passport but I was just waved through without having to take my passport out of my pocket. Hopefully I'll be allowed to leave the country later on.... ;)

We had a quick overnight last night in Chau Doc, a small town on the Mekong Delta. We made a quick visit to the local market (lively with both people and creatures) and tried some mystery fruits which were mostly good :) Today, we arrived to Vietnam's capital, Ho Chi Min City (formerly Saigon). Tomorrow, we'll visit the Cu Chi Tunnels used in the Vietnam war and try our hand at ordering something exotic for lunch at the local market. Should be fun as there is very little English spoken here, despite that all signs used English characters, but none of the words are recognizable. More charades will be in order....

PS- I never thought I'd see the day when I found icecream I didn't like. Durian fruit (banned in several hotels because of its stink) should NOT be an icecream flavour. Believe me :(

Photos from Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand, a set on Flickr.

Highlights of Bangkok