Ho CHi MInh city (Saigon), Wednesday 14th September, 20:33
Goooooood morning Vietnam. Man, that reference never gets old. As you may have gathered, I am in Saigon, former capital of South Vietnam. I do not exaggerate when I say that this country is insane; everything from the low, low prices (but really high numbers) to the baffling number of scooter’s on the roads is just totally alien to my fragile Western sensibilities. However, I am now getting ahead of myself- I plan to take this travelogue one step at a time, which means beginning from the beginning in Sydney.
Sydney is a cool place- we (myself and my perennial travelling companion Rebel) flew their super-early from Melbourne to meet our friend February who was there before us. We stayed, as always, in the local red light district (I really must research hostels more closely) which was fun, but very loud and lively. We took in the sights- the bridge is cool (but prohibitively expensive to climb), the opera house mildly anticlimactic, and generally dossed around on the first day. We also took in the idyllic suburb of Manly, across the water, home to the world’s highest ratio of dog owners to non-dog owners (pretty much just us) and on one day went into the New South Welsh countryside to spend a day climbing around Blue Mountaion, which was great, if rather draining. We took in a stray American and convinced her that Melbourne was better than New Zealand, a far from difficult task…
After Sydney, we went to Brisbane. Brisbane is…. dull. There is a very nice park with a fake beach, and an extraordinarily cheap cinema, and that’s about all. I hear ther Australia Zoo is good, but it’s a little rich for our blood. That being said, I had perhaps the best “night out” of my trip in Oz in a backpacker/student bar in Brisbane, where I met the Queensland Institute of Technology’s Pastafarian society, in full pirate regalia, whose commitment to alcohol and spreading the word of the FSM I heartily salute.
After Brisbane came Cairns. Cairns is…. well, you should just drop what you’re doing and go there now. Warm tropical weather, happy people, low (for Australia) prices. The jungle and the reef are so convenient from the town, which, with it’s exceptional “lagoon” (basically public swimming pool) has a lot of charm in itself. We spend a day on a boat doing some practice dives, which were pretty awesome- I should really get my PADI on at some point, and we spent a two days in the jungle- one day walking around and pointing at trees, which was entertaining (especially when Rebel harangued the wildlife guide on his faulty biology), and the second day cycling and canoeing. Now, for those of you who don’t know, I have long been of the opinion that the bicycle is a steed of the Devil himself, and secretly plotting man’s downfall. That said, I successfully completed a super long, hard cycle, surrounded by fast moving cars and dragons, entirely downhill, and did not break any limbs. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
The canoeing was uneventful. In between the two days we spend a bizarre evening playing ping pong with some adolescents. I couldn’t say why…
After regretfully leaving Cairns and parting ways from our companion, who had to return to life in the real world, Rebel and I flew to Perth as our jumping off point to Asia.
Slick
(for those of you too lazy to watch that link, Perth is super-lame)
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