Botanicals Baby
Howdy!
Look, I’d apologise about the long time between blog posts but really, you’ve got no one to blame but yourselves. You haven’t done the yard work, your room’s a mess and you STILL haven’t gotten that SS Paratrooper out of the chimney from the blitzkrieg.
First off, Rose is 100% healthy and back to annoying me 24/7. Praise the nord!
I probably didn’t mention the botanical gardens and zoo, I just mysteriously uploaded the photos and left you guys guessing about wtf it was (or not), so I’ll give you a bit of a run down shall I? Hell, let’s make this post a real hum-dinger. Whadda-ya-say? MA! – BRING OUT THE SUBHEADINGS!
Botanical Gardens & Zoo
We’d seen a -little- rain the night before and was pretty damn impressed with the asian-hazy-humid thing that was going on in the terror-sphere and even more so when we rocked up to the Botanical Gardens.
Forget what the lonely planet says (infact, forget almost everything that stupid book says. It’s the biggest comma out-of-date comma cynical comma generically-thinking book out) about it, saying it’s past its glory days. It was awesome. It had been raining that day and the ground was wet and the air was thick and heavy from the humid mist so it gave the jungle feel of the gardens an extremely authentic vibe, intermixed with the distant sounds of baboons and lions, I was convinced.
The zoo was a bit sad and sorry with the animals looking a bit insane and their enclosures a little sub-perfect but the atmosphere of the gardens was awesome. Oh, and one thing that the Lonely Planet left out, which makes me suspicious that they didn’t even go, was the hilarious penguin bins everywhere. The sight of these hysterically surprised looking bins, looking at the elephant enclosure is an image I won’t forget in many a year. You can see the pictures here
Motorcycle Woes
Anyone who’s anyone or who even knows personally, or knows OF anyone or his or her friends will know that my opinion was that there was 3,000,000 motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh City, and I was convinced one of them was for me.
Legally, I was wrong. It’s illegal for foreigners to own a motorcycle in Vietnam. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard. On the eve of Cambodia starting the Khmer Rouge trials, another massive human rights violation has taken place to the east. I can’t buy a motorcycle.
Rose and I had agreed, and bones-to’d buying a new Honda Super Dream +, kitting it out and traveling to Hanoi on it. I put my mind to work on how we’d fit the packs to it, what kind of pannier system to make and all the possible logistics that go into setting up a motorcycle for travel. We’d committed to it and I’d even compromised on the bike we’d get, choosing function over the awesome, mighty Honda 67.
I went into the motorcycle shop, wheeled and dealed and pointed to my phrasebook frantically and when I asked “Can I buy this motorcycle” he replied “No”. No? Why not motherfudgepacker? I need a friend, he says. I finally get it out of him, that I need a Vietnamese friend to buy it, so it’s in his name, to which I then ride off with this motorcycle, in someone else’s name after forking out 18,000,000d for it.
Negative, alpha leader says Rose. It’s also possible to leave it in the shops name, but all these things are a bit too dodgy for our liking so we’ve taken a bath on this. We -can- buy 2nd hand bike, which would have actually had about 50 owners and the papers would be well well WELL out of date by now, but from what I’ve read, we’ll be fleeced quite a bit which puts Rose off, and will probably result in me in jail because Rose seems to think I have a problem with authority figures. Untrue.
If I was with Keely or Az, I’d probably give it a go. The trip requires more than nominal commitment and a major love for motorcycles which Rose, bless her cotton socks, explains to me she simply doesn’t possess.
I can hear all Mums (and most likely Dads) breathe a collective sigh of relief, but be warned. When we move to Saigon or Hanoi, I’m 100% certain I’m buying a Honda 67.
Visas
We received our 6 month, Multi Entry (smirk) visa yesterday so we’re set for 6 months! wewt!
End of Subheadings
Hey, I bought a mini tripod for the camera for 20,000d. That’s about $1.80. Chris, it’s basically identical to the one you have for yours. I loled when she told me and reached for my pocket. Beautiful!
I bought 3 tripods for $3, bargain! Shipping was only $9 or $12 or some such, oops.
Motorcycle: TTF
TTF?
Slammer: As a former owner of a much-loved Honda 400 I grieve for your loss. I declined to take it to Melbourne because of the deadly conjunction of too much rain and tram tracks. Wise call given I was only 26 at the time. Your uncle is now 58. Get over it. And what’s with the long-running puncture wounds?
Mooner,
I’ll get over it when I’m good and ready thank you.
The long running puncture wound was from Broome when I had an almighty slip with a screwdriver while adjusting a v-brake on the back of a Malvern Star. Read all about it.
Sambo