Where are we now

Well folks, we have left OZ and headed back to Asia. Saigon, more specifically. Viet Nam. But first a bit of a rap up on Oz. We had some fun the last few days in Oz, well mostly Deeds and Lena as the “Surfing” pics below show. Wow, they just had a gas.

Deeds ready to hang ten on the left and Lena ready to go for a flip on right!

Day before we went on a bit of a bush walk out to Tamborine Mountain. Was great to see the countryside and talk to a real funny live Aussie. Our tour guide Darren. He told us a story about his Dad, who was a rough and tumble guy. Real mans man. Anyway his birthday was coming up and Darren decided to give his dad a special gift for his birthday. Went to a souvenir store and bought him one of those collector spoons, told a few of his friends about it and he got a hand full of spoons for his that birthday. Well it appears that there are a lot of sentimental people in Oz. It caught on. People who went on the tour heard about it on the web and they started presenting him with spoons. His mother in law gave him her full collection for Christmas one year. Now his collection is a little over 200 spoons.

A water fall and creek in the park we had our bush walk

A rain forest in Queensland, Australia

And any good turn deserves another. His dad repaid the favour. Darren now has an ongoing collection of miniature thimbles that is growing weekly as well.

He was a great tour guide and a lot of fun.

Then it was on to VietNam.

We had wanted to go to Viet Nam all the while that we were in Thailand but never seemed to get around to it. Our reasons to go were mostly food driven. You see we have a great Pho restaurant up the street that we frequent for take out. Great dry noodles with shredded pork and egg roll, #47 I believe. Myself I am a Pho guy, pronounced “fer” it means soup. They specialize in beef soup but a chicken is also available, which is my favourite. Big ol bowl of noodles with all kinds of greens to put in like basil, lemon grass, bean sprouts and mint. Makes an awesome lunch.

Many military pieces in front of the museums and memorials around Saigon

The Old Court House. Architecture shows the French influence on early Viet Nam

So we find ourselves in Saigon. Staying at the Rex Hotel. Why the Rex. Well my hotel research had told me that this was the place that the news reporters hung out during the war. There is a famous roof top bar originally called the “Five O’clock Follies" where all the reporters would gather and drink bourbon, smoke cigarettes and talk about the war before they filed their reports for papers back in the States and other major papers across the world. We had to go. Turned out it was a great place to see District 1 of Saigon. The only part of Ho Chi Minh City that is still referred to by the locals as Saigon as well. HCMC is about 6 million people and spreading fast, like a lot of major cities in SEAsia.

We went to a few war museums here but frankly it was too depressing. It was an ugly war for Viet Nam and the world for that matter. Reliving what the Yanks and others did to this country was not fun and we cut that part of our Saigon visit way shorter then most. No apologies, just the brutal truth. Nearly 40 years later the country still suffers immensely for that war. What we didn't cut short was our distaste for war as a family, we do not understand the need for it or can we come to grips with anyone justifying it.

While in Saigon we did a little touring around the city looking at some of the great architecture. They have a huge market open all day and all night. Took us about 7 minutes to go through it. After BKK, been there done that and have many many tee shirts to prove it. It’ll take you two full years before you see me wear all of them because I now have that many. And yes I did buy one in Saigon.

One day was spent on a tour to the Mekong Delta. Cool for us since we had seen the Mekong up at the Golden Triangle (Burma, Thailand, Laos). The delta is a thriving place. Many communities and different ways of life. Fishing of course, but also fruit farms, coconut plantations and one of the islands in the delta has a city on it that is 1.8 million people.

We have had some issues this trip that I need to tell you about and the impact of same.

Somehow I got a bug of some kind the last week in BKK. I was suffering from flu like symptoms. Spent the weekend of Mar 16 in bed and running to the loo. It seemed to pass later in the week so I did nothing about it doctor-wise thinking it was a common flu bug. Well it came back just as we were packing to leave. In Oz I made it to see a doc thinking I may have food poisoning but because we weren’t in one spot long enough to go through any kind of treatment program we had to take a shot at a med that might work. Hehehe, it didn’t. So it was very frustrating for me as well as boring. Travel on 8 and 9 hour plane flights was not much fun at the best of times. I would actually go the day before a flight not eating so I could manage my time on the plane. Knowing we had the return flight to Saigon from Oz, 13 hours in total with lay over in Kuala Lumpur we tried to get a resolution while in Australia. Well it was a good try but no success.

With this physical dilemma staring at me when we arrived in Saigon we decided it was best to forgo another 9 hour flight to Bejing at which point we would turn around and then fly 18 hours to Italy. Looking at flying to Bejing and not having a medical solution was too scary for me.

So we changed our Bejing flight to Rome Italy. If we don't get a resolution in Saigon I will be in Italy long enough to go through a treatment plan to resolve the issue. So we arrived in Italy on April 11, rather than 14. And as I write this blog note we are on a train from Rome Central station to Firenzi.

No final diagnosis is available but I am feeling a lot better with the meds that I got in Saigon for what is now diagnosed as a bout of Giardiasis. Hopefully this will be the end of it. Imagine, no alcohol now for three weeks because of the different antibiotics I have been taking. Ok, stop the weeping, I am ok with no alcohol for a time as some of you may know.

It is Wednesday. All seems well and I hope to be able to raise a glass of Italian red wine with Deeds on her birthday celebration this Saturday evening. I would think that Lena and I will take her to one of the nicest restaurants in Florence for her birthday.  The BIG birthday present is a cruise on the Adriatic starting on April 16, her birthday. Lena will also celebrate her birthday on the cruise. 21. Anyone besides me remember how turning 21 was such a big deal!. You could finally legally purchase liquor. Yes that's right. 21 before you could drink. Ohh how times have changed.

So a long 18 hour journey to Italy, nearly 3 hours on a train and we are in Florence. Firenza as the Italians call it. I am finishing off this post here in Florence. It is 9 pm our time. 3 in the afternoon back home. Maybe I will rouse the girls and see if we are going out for dinner. Or just sleep? We went down to a local restaurant for lunch. Three plates of pasta all round. Some nice local vino rosa, not for me, and we were happy as clams. Feels great to be here.

Tomorrow we go into the city and see some of what we saw back when I worked for Celestica and we took a family vacation here. I think that was 2001. Lots of museums, actually some of the best. The Palace of Uffizi perhaps the most famous with Michelangelo's David, the best of Renaissance Italian and European art. The museum itself dates back to 1581.

It's cool to see this old world.

Many places in Asia you see temples dating back to 1300. Mostly just stone buildings or ruins. Here in Italy, you can walk in the footsteps of Ceasar in Rome dating back 2100 years. See paintings and sculpture from the 13th century housed in buildings that are still used everyday. Too amazing. We love it. When you go to see the painting of the Last Supper in Milan, the street where Leonardo walked on his way to the chapel is the same as it was 500 years ago. You walk in his steps to go to see the painting!

Ciao Bella