a mushroom adventure

this week saw the celebration of a dear friends birthday. what better way to do that than a mushroom filled dinner. we took her to a delightful restaurant, when in vietnam, vegetarians may enjoy without the slightest suspicion of meat, even stock, being part of the meal. once the serious decisions were underhand with selecting mushrooms from some thirty varieties for our hot pot. a delightful evening was had.


things have been busy in hanoi as we bunker down to work our way through winter. it has gotten seriously cold here in the past month, with one delightful week of blue skies and sunny days it did not seem so bad. now, it is cold gloomy, and my neighbourhood nemesis - the dog - has been barking consistently for three hours. clearly he is cold too.

we ventured into the old quarter yesterday and found ourselves at what can only be described as impromptu christmas street (it was not there a few weeks ago and i do not know what it normally is) but kitchy vietnamese christmas glamour it was. in abundance. it was an explosion of sparkle, lighting and fake snow - a level of tackiness that only could be achieved in asia. disappointingly i did not have my camera, but excited i did get, and purchases i did make, so we got a little bit festive in our apartment after all. 

i have to be honest, i did not imagine that hanoi would really be touched by christmas, i thought it would be limited to some meagre decoration in hotels and the very western type stores that are, i admit, abundant in our neighbourhood. however, i was wrong. was i ever wrong. a sign of changing times and traditions, hanoi has gone quite crazy...to varying degrees at least. from the white plastic tree on the pharmacy counter, to the full blown twinkle light store fronts and fake snow deer scenes played out on the stairs of hotels. it is a sight to be seen. hopefully next weekend i will remember to pull out the camera and capture some of the oh so unique style, where no colour is neglected, no amount of lights is ever enough, and plastic is oh so very fantastic. 

it just ain't singapore without some chilli crab

It was not a trip to Singapore for us without a trip to the Hawkers Market to get a fill of Chilli Crab. We also managed to have the biggest prawns I have ever seen - I think they were actually bigger than the crab. And with all of that garlic on top we were maintaining a fair distance from each other the following morning. Eating delicious food was a main focus of the trip to Singapore, indulging in some western treats and finding delicious Malaysian, Chinese, Indian and Singaporean in the food courts. 

 

With all of the eating, walking be it the botanic gardens, along the quays or in the shopping centres was critical. With the rain largely held at bay for the afternoon, Mr Lonely Planet guided us from Robertson quays, around, about and finally finishing up at the famous Merlion on the esplanade in time for the torrential rain to arrive and us to jump in a taxi to ride back to the hotel. 

 

There is an intriguing architectural vibe in Singapore that was mixed with art installations and Christmas elephants throughout the town. Well no specifically for Christmas, the Elephant Parade (two of featured below) is supposed to help save the Asian elephant, but seems to coincide with all of the Christmas decorations plastering the city streets and store fronts.

There are many well preserved and stunning colonial buildings of old, some spectacular high rises, and then there is the other side of the coin. The flying submarine as our Taxi Driver fondly referred to it, something rather bizarre that looks a lot like it belongs in Dubai (I don't think you will have any trouble spotting this in the photos below), and tourist Disney crossed with Las Vegas along the water front, complete with rides and themed bars. A very interesting place indeed.

roaming the gardens.

Last weekend we had a weekend rendezvous in Singapore. It was quite a shock to find it such a blissful reprieve from the relentless hustle, bustle and pollution of Hanoi. In large part, I think it was the day spent wandering the Botanic Gardens that really accentuated how magnificent clean, green spaces are. The gardens were a pure delight (until it started throwing down with rain and then it was a touch less pleasant...)

Whilst the gardens are not huge, they were well set up with small surprises when you looked closely, such as the hundreds of turtles in the lakes, of orchids growing on sculpted moss covered wood. The orchard garden was quite spectacular, the flowers coming in more shapes, sizes and colours than I had ever imagined. Although I do not think we appreciated it quite as much as those in the garden at the same time who happened to be in town for the world orchid show. Who knew!?

Some more photos to come of our time in Singapore, although we did spend quite a bit of time in the shops, eating magnificent food, relaxing poolside and drinking some champagne. There are not so many photos of these events...

plaster fun house eat your heart out

Things have been pretty chaotic in our lives recently, consequently blog updates along with many other things, have had to take the back burner for a while. There was a planned update on our time in Manila, but that seems like a life time ago, and, well, it seems that Ash is there on a monthly basis at the moment, so there will be many more updates.
Instead. Newer adventures. We have just farewelled two friends that had visited for a quick week getaway. When they arrived on Sunday, a spectacular autumn day, we decided to get on the bikes and take them to a nearby craft village, Bat Trang pottery village.

There are several small villages on the outskirts of Hanoi, once quite rural areas no doubt. Bat Trang is home to ceramics and is supposedly renowned for its beauty and high quality ceramics. Ceramics there were a plenty. Shop after shop piled high with sets of tea pots, cups, saucers, bowls and plates of every size and shape with various hand painted patterns. The ceramics varied in degrees of tackiness, but there were also gems to be found. In many courtyards there were tables of young Vietnamese busily painting token ceramic statues, it took us all back to school holidays and the plaster fun glitter puppy dog that we all thought was so very cool at the time.


Getting on the motorbike and getting out of town was magnificent. To leave Hanoi, we headed straight for Long Bien Bridge - the Dragon Bridge - built in 1903 by the french using the famous cantilever. It goes over the Red River from Hanoi, and it makes for quite a site with hundreds of motorbikes travelling what is essentially a footpath with a sheer drop either side. Despite this, people still manage to set up markets on the roadside and small chairs to take your date for a drink. It was all rather scenic and lovely.

the depths of the blue blue sea.

I have mentioned that while we were in Palau we were able to convince the boss that a day off was absolutely critical. I am not sure that it was our convincing that sold him, but more the assistance of the local team firstly refusing to work on the day of rest and secondly distracting him with promises of lunches on a beautiful property high in the wilderness overlooking a secluded bay. While the boss was distracted, this gave us the perfect opportunity to jump aboard a diving boat and head to sea. 
Awaking the morning of our diving adventure to overcast skies and reports of an approaching typhoon we were fearful that our day off would be sabotaged, however by the time we were fitted with our gear and on the boat, things had cleared nicely and it was panning out to be the perfect weather to be out on the sea. The boat ride was absolutely spectacular. Passing hundreds of islands, from small rocky islets, to large and almost mountainous (if one counts Mt Lofty as a mountain) islands covered in dense greenery, with steep cliff faces and birds flying high above.
The first stop we dove the German Channel, this first dive was in the sea, so whilst having quite a strong current coming through the channel it was a magnificent dive having the opportunity to see many different rays, thousands of fish, sharks, coral, and all sorts of splendid underwater life forms.
Our second dive was along the wall of the Mariana Trench. In a sense this dive was most spectacular in concept alone. Swimming along the edge of the trench, knowing that this was that below us there was absolutely nothing for over 10,000 metres as it is the deepest part of the ocean. The coral wall itself was also pretty stunning. Once more we saw a huge array of colour and life, the complexity of life along the wall is really quite mesmerising and while we were down there for an hour, it felt like we were underwater for ten minutes. The clarity of the water was incredible as you look below you and see layers of traffic as fish and sharks move about, it as always, was simply spectacular and addictive.
Once completing the dive, we were fortunate enough to stop at one of the many lakes contained on the islands of Palau. What is so incredible about these lakes is what lives within them. Being cut off from the sea however many hundreds or thousands of years ago, the jellyfish that live within them have evolved without predators. Consequently they do not sting. The jellyfish survive on a symbiotic algae that lives in their tissue giving them an orange/pink/golden colour. They move about the lake attracted by the sun. 
It was amazing as you dive into the lake and swim towards the centre of the lake you see an increasing number of jellies as you move out of the shade and are amazed looking down at them. By the time that you are in the centre of the lake there are thousands of them wherever you look. You cannot avoid touching them as you swim (the first ten or so times I shuddered and could not help the jerk reaction - expecting some kind of sting, however it never came). Once over the initial weirdness it was fascinating to see them up close from the size of a little finger nail to larger than a basketball, it was quite the sight to behold and we felt very fortunate to be able to experience it.
Unfortunately we do not have an underwater camera, nor did we take our camera on the boat trip so we have no photos to share, other than some I have borrowed from the internet to show you just how spectacular the jellyfish lakes are (above and below). For all divers we highly recommend Palau and would absolutely love to return and dive many more of the sites they have!