Author: Mike

Christmas Day!

Christmas Day started at 5AM but we persuaded the kids to go back to bed until 7AM. They were very pleased that Santa had found us even though we are far from home.

We had a lovely Christmas lunch – a mixture of traditional (stuffing from Angela’s grandma’s recipe) and not so traditional (boiled rice and soy sauce instead of roast potatoes as requested by the children).

If the afternoon we went to the beach. It was actually quite an overcast day and there were a few spits of rain. However there was no downpour and the sea was a very reasonable 24°C. We hoped that it was raining on some bushfires somewhere.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Eve

In the morning we went to a park next to a beach. Another of Sam’s teeth came out. Afterwards we went to the supermarket to get some stuff for tomorrow. It wasn’t too busy and not as hectic as Christmas Eve is usually at home!

In the evening we went to a local church for their Nativity Play and then the kids got ready for Santa and Rudolph. All in all a pretty chilled out day.

Goodbye Vietnam (again!)

Today we left Hanoi and Vietnam, flew back to Hong Kong, then flew to Perth.

I liked the Cu Chi tunnels because they were dark and exciting. I also liked the kayaking in Ha Long Bay because it was in a beautiful lagoon and it was fun.

Sam

It was very busy and there were motor bikes everywhere. But there were some nice beaches!

Martha

We managed to travel a fair amount in Vietnam, with coming back again after Cambodia – it was like coming home the second time, familiar money, sights and language! What will I remember in years to come? Meeting up with my mum and my niece in Ho Chi Minh City was brilliant, so that’s my number one memory.

Everywhere we went the people were really friendly and welcoming. I feel that I know so much more now of the history of the last 100 years in South East Asia – we really do not get the full story in western schooling. I’ve realised how Western-centric (if that’s a word) my knowledge of history and politics in this region was – I certainly don’t know everything now, and I’ll look forward to learning more on future visits but I learnt so much, it’s been great!

Angela

I found Vietnam to be very friendly, beautiful and full of interesting history. There is so much more that we didn’t see so I would love to come back and explore some more.

Mike