Their Travels so far...
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And this is where they find themselves today: Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
Putting it Out There
So I'm going to put out there, we had a great time, actually a phenomenal time in Chiang Mai. We wanted to see more of Thailand but instead we stayed in Chiang Mai and we always had lots of friends dropping by plus we made loads of new friends. Unfortunately in order to stay there and keep our dream of continuing to travel alive we maxed out our only credit card. I have regrets about Chiang Mai only not about the credit card more about how I used it. We could have had more fun with it. Well really only two regrets if I'm honest, I wanted a Bamboo Tattoo of Ganesh and we wanted to visit the Elephant Nature Park which is a really good Rescue Centre but we were too busy living frugally.
http://www.elephantnaturepark.org
I think today I've learnt my lesson: Make the most of what you have when you have it.
http://www.elephantnaturepark.org
I think today I've learnt my lesson: Make the most of what you have when you have it.
Belfast, London, Po Lin Monastery and The Big Buddha Pt 1
The Big Buddha on the Mountain.
So we'd finally decided to leave.... Actually it was a few years back that we had come up with this idea but even though our plans had had so many critical points that needed to be ironed out we had gone and tattooed ourselves now for this occasion. So now what was a guy suppose to do? Still that wasn't entirely the way we were looking at it, to carry a mark, a totem as it were, if we didn't leave, the tattoos could easily have become a mark for what we had previously done but we were very restless. Something which the previous travels had left us with, the past had created a longing in us, an ache inside which had stayed in our lives for the last 17 years. What contributed to this ache, were those things that we could remember from the early days. Good stuff people had said to us only after having known us for a short time. I could remember once when as a greeting of friends this guy had pulled out a guitar and the three of us had started singing, some blues songs.
Climbing That Mountain Pt 1
(AKA London Hong Kong & Vietnam)
An outside view of the escalator.
London had long been an obstacle to us but more specifically to me, not in the negative way of a big city that can churn a person up and spit them out but that too. In the way that a one time traveller can feel drawn into the comfort of old routines. Routines that rarely provide real comfort but usually only quieten the mind to possibilities. Dang had worked for 11 years for a security company, I had worked in and out of bars before being declared disabled with Spinal Arthritis, but that's for another story, and nothing we were doing was fulfilling. We were becoming prisoners who try to find ease in routine. Our restlessness though was always there we just needed to find a way to express it.
Belfast, London, Po Lin Monastery and The Big Buddha Pt 2
Scary looking mothers is all I can say.
After two weeks of familiarising ourselves with Hong Kong and thanks to the hats and personalities of our old selves it was like we'd never left the place. We were making friends at every turn although the weather was on and off, good one minute, the next wet or overcast, then sunny and a little humid. Which we took advantage of by wandering around Kowloon Park. There was one thing though that contributed to a bit of sadness in those few days: We had not been able to get a room with the land lady and her husband who had put us up before for they had retired and moved back to mainland China. Her husband was in ill health too. We had hoped for a reunion there while we had also visualised that area that little space where we'd had so many great experiences and friendships but on arrival not only were they gone but that whole floor was actually closed. We did however find new rooms by way of a nephew and he give us a good deal.
Climbing That Mountain Pt 2
(AKA London Hong Kong & Vietnam)
Van with the breads we chose for visiting are Vietnamese Family. Btw that's Zo Bó smiling in the background.
We finished our stay in Hong Kong, after sampling lots of different food and visiting an old friend called Trevor. We knew him from our time here in the 90s, I found him on internet last year and told him we might be coming. All credit to him because we were invited for drinks, Mark was there, another old friend and Dave, Trevor's Brother in Law and it felt like no time had passed albeit we were all a little older. We may have all changed, I'm not saying we hadn't but it felt like we did this every Friday, if we go back to Hong Kong chances are we'll do it again and in that fashion we were just old buds meeting up for drinks. We thought that was it but we got invited again this time to play Scrabble as Dang had mentioned his interest in it. There was five of us playing and Me and Dang teamed up to end up winning 2 out of the 3 games played and we tied the third with Trevor. It was an excellent night out and any questions as to why we were doing this travelling malarkey left our minds entirely. We were doing it for this! Our Social adventure had begun...
Da Nang, Vietnam
All the staff of Danang Backpackers Hostel with Win and Jolie front and center.
Dang Says: Vietnam could not have been more of a treat to visit than it was, the big bag of trepidation that we had brought with us from London to Hong Kong. The trepidation had virtually melted away what with keeping busy in Hong Kong and meeting up with some old friends so that on our flight to Hanoi we were almost as free and as light as those clouds we watched from the plane. By the time we reached Da Nang however we had to add another notion to our new found freedom that we had been going through a very intimate experience with the Vietnamese people. The country had completely and utterly grown on us.
All this was never more noticeable than with the welcome we received at The Da Nang Backpackers Hostel. Win the young guy who runs the Hostel on seeing how tired I was beckoned me in with a
"Come in old man"
I thought this was a very genuine and warm expression.
All this was never more noticeable than with the welcome we received at The Da Nang Backpackers Hostel. Win the young guy who runs the Hostel on seeing how tired I was beckoned me in with a
"Come in old man"
I thought this was a very genuine and warm expression.
