Putting the Pacific in Asia-Pacific

Aaron had a 3-day weekend last weekend, so we decided to go to the Outback (the real one, not the steakhouse. We don’t have access to the steakhouse here).



You might think traveling to Australia for a weekend is ridiculous, and so did the Australian immigration officials. We got pulled out of the line and I was asked a bunch of questions along the lines of, “Why are you only here for a few days?” Maybe they were insulted that we didn’t plan to stay longer. But we were only seeing the Darwin area, which is in the “Top End” - only about 4 hours from Singapore - so it’s really not so crazy to go for a few days.



While there we didn’t hear anyone say, “throw another shrimp on the bar-b,” but we did hear lots of people say “G’day,” and heard bottles of beer referred to as “stubbies,” bicycles as “pushies,” and sunglasses as “sunnies.” We heard the last term used by a young, drunken Aussie late at night – he was stumbling down the street and talking on his cell phone about how he couldn’t see very well, slurring to his friend, “I have me sunnies on.”


While in the Outback, we saw some beautiful country.

As we went in the last month of the wet season, some areas were lush and green – not entirely the dusty red land I had expected.





One of the trails was flooded a bit, so we hiked through fish.



We had a perfect swimming hole all to ourselves.



We had planned to swim here, too, but it was roped off to discourage limb loss.





Some spots had a sort of Califlorizona feel.






And we saw a huge diversity of wildlife – that’s why Charles Darwin went there, I guess? – including parrots, a dingo, a wallaby…

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And we also saw some dangerous critters.

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Pretty sure I risked my life to get this photo:

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Not worth it, I know.

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But the most terrifying beast of all was our rugged Outback vehicle, a Toyota Yaris.

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It was, in fact, terrifying when Aaron drove our Yaris down the wrong side of the road and then turned the windshield wipers on instead of the turn signal as he tried to get out of the way of the oncoming car. I don’t know how to drive, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how you’re supposed to do it, even Down Under.

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Darwin has a beautiful coastline, so you’d think there would be great beach life. But the water is full of poisonous box jellyfish, crocodiles, and sharks, so swimming in the ocean doesn’t seem to be too popular.

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But people still enjoy the water. Some people fish…

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And one night we ate dinner at the wharf and sat with a crowd watching a storm come in.

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The city of Darwin was completely obliterated by a cyclone on Christmas Eve 1974, and the city had to be entirely rebuilt in the ‘70s. In some ways, it seems frozen in that decade. Many buildings have this sort of feel:

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The architectural style may also be related to limits on the construction materials they can use. No wood, unless you want termites to turn your home into this:

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Termites build these mounds for themselves out of grass and other plant matter to protect their group during the seasonal flooding. We saw termite mounds of all sizes not only in the parks we visited, but all over the place (roadside, farmland, parking lots). And we may have contributed to the moundification of the Top End – a mess of termites climbed on-board the Yaris in one park and we ended up giving them a ride way across town. Their sticky feet held onto the side of the car despite the highway driving.

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Termites are handy though, as they hollow out trees which can then be used to make didgeridoos. Where would World Music fans be without termites? Listening to nothing but Andean flutists, that’s where.

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Part 2: Other Stuff from Our Trip to Vietnam

As two postings for one trip may seem a bit much, I’ll try to keep this second posting short.

Our first stop in Vietnam was Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City), a city with wide boulevards filled curb-to-curb with motorbikes. To cross the street, you step out slowly into traffic and the drivers weave around you. I was afraid to do this at first, and then realized I could place Aaron between me and the oncoming vehicles and block my view of them, which dulled my fear – and would have dulled the impact should one have occurred.

To my surprise, I was only hit once, lightly, in the nine days we were there – and it doesn’t really count because the woman who hit me apologized.

Over the last 15 years, motorbikes basically replaced bicycles in Vietnam. (Hanoi has the largest number per capita in the world). Unfortunately, as a result, the country is struggling to address terrible air pollution and very high traffic fatality rates.

For now, at least, motorbikes seem essential to life there. We saw them used like minivans, carrying families of 5 (often mom and dad were in helmets, but kids were without)...

(apologies for the semi-blurry motorbike photos -- most were taken from a bus)

And we saw them used to transport all kinds of things:

Including caged chickens:

Mattresses:

and even 6-foot mirrors:

Actually, they gave up on this idea. I don't know why.

As I should have predicted, what Aaron took away from all of this is that he needs to have a motorbike (or “scooter” as he calls them now, in a form of propaganda). I’ve argued against this idea. Those with opinions should express them (in my favor) in the poll to the right.


Also filling the streets of Vietnam are lots of markets.









Looks delicious, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t all like that. For those of you with especially weak stomachs, now its time to sort of squint up your eyes so that things get dark and then scroll down the page so that you miss the next couple photos.

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(Ok - body part section over).

Where there isn’t a full-blown market, there is still food for sale, carried around in baskets by women.

The sidewalks are also pretty packed – mostly with motorbike parking, but also with outdoor dining establishments which tend to feature tiny, tiny stools.

And, of course, there are food stands:




And on some street corners in Hanoi they serve “bia hoi,” the very popular local draught beer (which is not bad, especially for 17 cents a glass).



Aaron thought the Hanoi bia hoi tasted a lot better than the snake wine he tried in southern Vietnam. But he may have been biased against the snake wine as it made his eyes hurt for a few days. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get a pic of the wine Aaron drank, but here are some other items from the same shop).



In addition to our trip to Mai Chau (see previous post), we did lots of other fun stuff in Vietnam.

We took a boat ride on the Mekong River:

Went to a huge end-of-Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) celebration in Saigon, where they presented an enormous Tet cake (made of ground beans and pork, wrapped in banana leaves) to some rather bored but distinguished looking gentlemen. (That’s the Tet cake behind the waving lady in the first pic, and then again on the big screen below).

And we slept overnight on a junk in Halong Bay, a beautiful coastal area with almost 2,000 limestone rock formations jutting out of the water.





Halong Bay also must have about 2,000 of these floating bodegas – the women paddle around unbelievable loads of food and liquor to sell to tourists.



We also went kayaking in Halong Bay, and met some very friendly kids who were helping out with the boats, and we all had a great time taking pictures of each other and then checking them out (yay for digital cameras!).
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Ok, so much for brief. Bye for now.