Hue, Hoi An and Merry Christmas

The last week we've spent in the above mention cities. Hue, the old capital of Vietnam. This where the last emperors (mostly puppets of the French) stayed. Accordingly it boasts a huge Citadel, which is still being rebuilt to its original splendour after being mostly destroyed during the war. It has the typical "forbidden city" structure with only higher ranked officials allowed into inner parts. There were separate gates for the king, then members of the army and bureaucracy, then elephants and horses and far away for women. Even the Queen had a separate entrance.

There were also two royal tombs we visited: The ones of Tu Duc and Khai Dinh. The former with a huge garden a campus of buildings, where no one knows where the actual grave is. The latter is a mix of French and Vietnamese style with a lovely view. It is also the only one in the region where the precise spot of the empreror's resting place is known.



Last but not least we visited the 400 year old Thien Mu Pagoda and the surrounding buddhist monastery. The most interesting aspect of which was the car that carried Thich Quang Duc to Saigon in 1963, where he burned himself alive in protest of the governments religious policies. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c)



We left for Hoi an by car on the 22nd after touring the former Demilitarized Zone, where the VietCong tunnels were of the attraction of note. The trip to Hoi an took us through a quite scenic pass and to better weather. On the way we witnessed huge hotel and golf course development sites for kilometeres on the beaches south of Danang (a city Vietnam is trying to make into a regional hub). It made for a pretty impressive viewing. Hoi an itself is a nice little city with few landmarks like the "Japanese bridge" but something I wasn't able to enjoy to the fullest as I fell sick on our arrival. Had high fever so stayed in the hotel for 1 and half days after which we left for Saigon...

Hanoi and Halong Bay

In the evening of Thursday the 17th of December we arrived at Hanoi airport. The road from the airport to Hanoi was like 1970s Baghdad according to my dad. It wasn't a compliment, but huge trucks almost ramming us gave a cool feel (a feeling which applies whenever you're driving in Vietnam) to the ride. We had to walk 600 meters (make it 900, since our "contact person" didn't find his way), because motorcycles flocked the streets as Vietnam lost(!!!!) to Malaysia 1-0 in the final of some sort of cup. Still they were celebrating.

Next morning we met Andris (bro of Veruchito) who's been working in Vietnam for 1,5 years. He proved invaluable. Nice, quick city landmark tour, great (and cheap) food and last but not least a lots of moto-riding (for Mate: without the "ciao"):). My parents and brother usually took the taxi and I rode with Andris through the flow of motorcycles in Hanoi. Normal traffic rules don't apply, neither traffic lights nor lanes is taken into account while driving. The only thing that matters is who is the bigger and who blows the horn. Doing the latter means "I'm coming, so bugger off".:) IT IS HUGE FUN!! :) Thank God the roads are so jammed people don't drive very fast so there are not too many accidents and even those result in light injuries.

After spending a day in Hanoi and seeing my family getting ripped of by the taxi (by 3 dollars :)) we went to Halong Bay. The weather was pretty bad and cold but the scenery was still fascinating. I'll let the pic do the talking. Oh and by the way, the traffic rules don't apply to the highways either. Then again since the max I've seen people drive with was 80 km/h its not (or it doesn't seem):) accident-prone.

3rd day evening we were off to Hue. More on that later...

Oh and the State here doesn't let me to access facebook, so I had to use a proxy site.:)

Pics and comments in Hungarian

Mielőtt fölteszem a képeket, két történet Szingapúrból:

1. Az egyik cukrászdában nézegettem a sütiket, és megakadt a szemem a "Trianon" sütin. Értelemszerűen nem tudtam kihagyni, bár magyarázatot nem kaptam a név eredetére. Öcsi szerint valszeg 5 éve még 3szor ekkora volt mint most.:)

2. Novotelben 10$ egy óra internet. Szerencsére volt lehetőség egy kis magyarkodásra.:) Ugyanis a szomszédos hotel wifi-jét fogta a gép, ahol egy óra 5$ míg 1 nap 10$. Az más kérdés, h nem tudták lenyomozni ki és mennyi netet használ a másik hotelben.:) Ergo ingyen net volt 2 napig.;)

The following pics are from Australia. There will be more but I don't want to flood you guys with 1000 pics.:)

Which one of these is endangered?



"Romeo" the breeding-male in Cairns Zoo. This guy is a real stallion!!



Johnny goes for a walk




"Wally" the Maori Wrasse patrolling the shores

Singapore

Dropped off to Singapore for 3 days to thought I'll give you quick resume:

Visited the NUS (National University Singapore) campus where my bro studied last semester. Compared to our unis back home it is huge, with several bus-lines transporting students around the place. New faculties are still being built, like a the donated by a local businessman for 23 million S$. ☺ The Singapore National Museum is a must if you are interested in the city’s history, takes a bit long though. We were nowhere near finished after 2 hours. The city itself is amazing, with various arcitectural feats littering the centre. As for Singaporeans: If they decide to do something they do it big: Gambling was outlawed for a long time, but when they realized that people just go to Macao, they decided to make their on casino. Its a massive building with three 55 storey hotels (connected with a sky bridge) built by the side of it, just in case. They want to finish them until the Chinese New Year so that the Chinese spend all their money here and not in Macao. Thats why work goes on 24/7. Oh and its only free for foreigners. Singaporeans still have to pay 100 bucks to get in. ☺

Sydney (gonna be a bit long) :)

After Brisbane, Cairns and Surfers Paradise, Sydney is a truly metropolitan city. It feels a lot like London, just better weather.:) The wealth that you see is quite impressive, apparently the recession didn’t hit Australia. I read about it before but I still cannot get to terms with what I am seeing. Huge constructions are springing up in all parts of the country that I’ve visited so far, people seem to be dining out even more then the Spanish do.

Now for the 4 y poco days that we’ve spent here:

Apart from a couple of landmarks (Opera House, doing the Skywalk in the „TV-tower”, ANZAC war memorial, Sydney Aquarium) we met quite a number of friends and a family member. First up on Friday was the Australian division of the Sai Halasz family (Pali and Hanna) who showed us around the eastern suburbs including the Watsons Bay and Rose Bay. It was all very impressive. Just a small drive from the city centre its where some of the poshest suburbs are located. Beaches, beautiful views, parks, nice bars, restaurants etc. Could be hoarding adjectives for pages...

Then we met Zó and his lovely girlfriend-wife-to-be Regine. Zó emigrated in 1969 and then made it big as a professor (and consultant) in accounting. The guy really is larger than life (http://datasearch.uts.edu.au/business/staff/details.cfm?StaffId=53 in his sixties), with loads of stories and small jokes: „Sorry guys I came with the small car, so one of you might have to sit a bit uncomfortably in the back.” We were already guessing what could this „small” car be. Of course it was a black Porsche Carrera. Any guesses for the big car?:)

We also went to one of his MBA lectures on Saturday, which was really good. Afterwards we went with the ferry to Manly, a northern suburb. Also a really nice place, with some really posh bars, where women wear glittery dresses during the day as well. I guess they are looking for husbands.:)

Sunday we met János Beretvás. Now he may not sound anything special but he is the brother of my grandma who emigrated in 1951 and whom we haven’t yet seen in our lives. He has been suffering from cancer for more then 10 years and is called the miracle-boy back in Sydney. As he says, he was supposed to „go to the morgue” a couple of months ago as he fell into a coma after his heart slowed down. It turns out that it only „recharged”.:) (I know this sounds as very morbid but these are his words) Its the upteenth time he has come back from the brink, so I guess our future wives will have a tough time ahead. We are stubborn buggers.:) We had a big lunch (kaszinó tojás, rántott hús stb.), prepared by his wife Margo, to whom I have to convey a „big respect” for taking care (and putting up with) him.

Afternoon we spent walking down from Bondi Beach and then chilling at Bronthe Beach. The former is the more well known, but the two beaches further down south are much cosier. All in all Sydney was beautiful (maybe even better situated then Budapest)☺ and the only reason why it doesn’t win outright in terms of where to live is because it is so freakin’ far away from everything. Otherwise even the working hours are cool. Not even accountants or consultants work overtime.:) (or at least not to the extent as back in Europe)

Off to Singapore now, to upload the pics (bro left the cable there) and to meet our parents. Y luego Vietnam...

Update

Last couple of days we spent in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. You guessed it we were surfing alright. It was fun though I will need some more time to hone my skills.:) The instructor was brilliant (37 year old everyoung) and I have to say he looked more at home when in the water then when on the beach. He also had a knack of saying "Bavaria" when being on photos, though he only said its a "long story" when asked for an explanation.

We also met Moni again and toured the coast a littlebit with her. Took part in a pub crawl which went well and we did nurse a hangover the next day. That was probably due to the drinking of "goon", Australia's version of cheap wine. I personally think its worse then "tablettás bor". Last but not least we found out on the last day that our max 18 year old „flatmates” were working as strippers. Didn’t look too good so we didn’t miss much, hehe. Ah and one of them had a Hungarian grandma... All she knew was „nokedli”, „rakott krumpli”. Or at least that’s what she told us she knew.:)

We arrived in Sydney today, more on that later.

Back again

Hi all. It’s been a while. After two days of diving and one rainforest tour its time for some rest.:) On the 3rd and 4th we went for a two day dive tour to Norman reef which included a night’s stay on a boat and 7 dives in total. It was great fun, though after 6 dives we got a bit saturated. In all we saw a lot of sharks (especially during the night dive), barracudas, cods maori wrasses, turtles and a bunch smaller fish. But I guess I only seem to care about the bigger buggers.


As for the rainforest tour, don’t expect a classic jungle tour in South America (i haven’t been to one but I guess its not like this). Nonetheless we saw cool figtrees, rat kangaroos, platypusses and loads of possums – thanks to some great Hungarian spotters in the team ☺ - during the night tour. Since I was reprimanded a reader that I am talking too much I’ll let some of the pics do the talking. Meanwhile am already in Brisbane and am off to Surfer’s Paradise and Byron Bay tomorrow. (more pics are coming a bit later):)

Pictures will follow shortly...:)

After being reunited in the morning with my brother (and sunbathing between 830 and 915 – the sun is really high up by that time) we went to the Cairns Tropical Zoo 40 kilometers north of the city.

The main attraction was obviously cuddling with a coala and taking photos with it. It was quite cool, though as it was, it had a bit of an industrialized sidetaste. We also saw wombats, crocodiles, kangaroos and various birds like kookaburras and emus. One of the crocodiles called Zont, who was captured in the wild had a curious story to it. A farmer noticed that over the year some of his cattle went missing. Looking for the cause he found a well-fed croc in the river, but instead of shooting it he trapped it (the reptile suffered - still visible - sunburn while being trapped) and brought it the zoo. He’s responsible for 30! cattle lost this way.:) Oh and we also saw snakes, one of which was incidentally the most venomous in the world. Forgot its name sorry. But one dose of his/her poison is enough to kill 255,000 rats or as the presentator pointed out about 4-5 times the 25 member audience.:)

The afternoon we spent chilling, (in my case applying for jobs) and then had a really nice dinner. Bro is already sleeping cause we are leaving at 745 tomorrow for diving at the Great Barrier Reef. Will be spending one night on the boat so you’ll have to wait 36 hours for the next exciting post.

Byron Bay és tsa-i

Hello again. Arrived in Cairns this afternoon and I have to say the weather is distinctly south asian: Hot and humid. There ain‘t much happening here for me today. Already had a walk in the city relaxed in the pool (I guess its a prerequisite of every hostel here) a bit. Am still writing cover letters in my spare time and sending my CVs to various places around Europe. I had to leave everything for the last moment...:)

As for yesterday, we went to Byron Bay where you find the easternmost tip of the Australian mainland and went to the beach there which had lovely sand but the water was a bit fresquito. We still haven‘t figured out why it was so cold. Its also worth of note that since Byron Bay is in New South Wales as opposed to Gold Coast, Queensland you “enter a different timezone“ (+1 hours) even though you‘re at the same longitude! This is because some smartass in QLD thought that they already have too much sun and therefore they don’t hold... This can become interesting when one side of the road is in NSW and the other is in QLD: imagine inviting your neighbour over for dinner, (Hey! You were supposed to be here an hour ago! The food is cold already...) or trying to get to a bank after work...



For my experience so far I can already note that if you want to go sightseeing etc., this is not country. But if you want to do stuff outdoors, it is quite amazing.(I don’t think I need to mention how good the weather is) Hiking, any form of surfing, diving or just jogging, the possibilities are unlimited. Water though is really expensive. It costs almost as much as soft drinks. I love the fruits though. Lo siento pero la cualidad es mucho mejor que en Espana.:)



Oh yeah and if you ever think of watching the movie: The Invention of a Lie... DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING SO!!!!! WORST MOVIE EVER!!! At least we made up for the evening with a one hour of youtube stan-up comedy with Gabriel Igleasias and Jeff Dunham.:)
Tomorrow its off to the Zoo for some Koala Cuddling. Ah yes, and after practically not seeing eachother for 9 months I also meet up with me little brother. Can’t wait!




P.S.: Sorry about the size of the pics, will ask Jake for the originals when I get back to the GC.