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 Jan's Travel Stories
A Love of Melbourne
Vietnam: An Intrepid Experience
Oman: A Wonder in the Gulf
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A Love of Melbourne :
Every time I land in Melbourne I feel like I am coming home … in a way I am having lived there for two years. But I keep returning every year – to cure my almost homesickness for its amazing shopping, fabulous restaurants, sporting grounds and fixtures that blow your mind away along with theatres that will satisfy any cultural yearnings.
Melbourne is so well planned that in my whole two years there I didn’t need a car – the public transport system is such that you can travel anywhere in the city on the trains, trams and buses for a minimal outlay of money. The streets are all clean and wide in the CBD with Bourke St mall dedicated to pedestrians (and the odd tram). It is also home to Myer and David Jones (affectionately known as DJs) and your trip would not be complete without a trip to DJs food hall – AMAZING…
Well if its food that tickles your fancy then you have come to the right place – Melbourne is home to over 4000 restaurants where you can eat at a Vietnamese restaurant one night and have entrée and main for $10.00 and the next night eat at silver service Italian for $200.00… There’s the Italian quarter, the Greek quarter, Chinatown, the Spanish quarter and the cakes of St Kilda – my favourite part of Melbourne. A short tram ride from the CBD will take you to heaven – cakes from floor to ceiling and coffee to die for plus an eclectic mix of retro shopping, Luna Park (rides and arcades) plus the lure of the beach and the pier that stretches out into Port Philip Bay and it’s worth the walk for the ice cream parlour at the end!!!! Plus one of the best Italian restaurants – Ciccolina on Acland St – YUM !!!
And I haven’t even touched the shopping yet – the CBD is well equipped with the major stores but then there are the Queen Victoria markets – best day is Friday when all the food stalls are at full cry with cheeses and breads and salamis just to name a few – plus the meat market which is worth the look. Out in the main market there are stall holders who come to the same spot every week and you can but everything from tacky souvenirs to shoes to coats – in fact I bought a pink cashmere coat there for AUD99.00 and it has been worn and commented on so many times that it has well and truly paid for itself. Plus if it is shopping malls that you desire – then Chadstone is the place for you – located about 20 minutes from the CBD by car (and you will need one to carry your shopping) this has every store imaginable and has discounts for tourists – just show your passport at the information desk and you will get a passport of discounts to most of the stores in the mall.. Then there is the the shopping down Chapel St, South Yarra with designer stores like Colleen Dinegan and Lisa Ho plus Country Road. Wander down Chapel St to Prahran and Windsor and watch the shops change in standard and merchandise….
Melbourne calls itself the fashion, eating, cultural and sporting capital of Australia and the events that it has means that it has no real contenders for the title. There is the Grand Prix, the Australian Tennis Open, cricket and who could forget Aussie Rules or footy as its known locally. This is cheap entertainment and well worth a look – the cheapest seats are around AUD16.00 and you get 3 ½ hours entertainment – the grounds are so well structured that there are hardly any queues for anything – drinks or food or bathrooms and they clear out after the game so quickly that you would hardly realise that you had been in a crowd of 50,000.
But Melbourne is not just the CBD – there are the wine regions of the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula, the Puffing Billy Steam Train the Fairy Penguins at Philip Island, the Twelve (or may be 11 now) Apostles rock formations down the Great Ocean Road, and the paddle steamers on the Murray River at Echuca /Moama – right on the border between NSW and Victoria where its easy to imagine these boats cruising up and down to Adelaide in the mining days.
I could go on and on and on about Melbourne and Victoria but why listen to me – go and experience it for yourself and you will come away a desire to return again and again and again. |
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VIETNAM – AN INTREPID EXPERIENCE
I have travelled in Bangkok and Malaysia and when the opportunity came up to travel to Vietnam I jumped at it. Accompanied by a work colleague and her husband we flew with Malaysia Airlines via Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon).
We walked out of the terminal into what seemed like the whole of Ho Chi Minh there to meet us and we were incredibly happy that we had a transfer pre-booked. Ho Chi Minh is a major city located on the Saigon River and is home to 4 million motorbikes and, of course, people. One of our favourite pastimes was watching the traffic – motorbikes in all directions laden with whole families and sheets of glass and produce and animals – have bike, will carry!!! Crossing the road is terrifying to start – the secret is to walk at an even steady pace across the road and they will go around you – hilariously scary!!!
Shopping in Ho Chi Minh is an adventure in itself – the Ben Thanh markets are a conglomeration of tiny stalls and a constant barrage of people telling you they have your size…. Everything from bags to watches to copy T-shirts to shoes to food to live animals – if you have the patience and the money you can buy anything. The Saigon Tax Department store opposite the Rex Hotel is an air-conditioned haven with market prices – DVDs from $1.70 and most of them go too!!!
A couple of must do things in Ho Chi Minh are the Reunification Palace where the South Vietnamese surrendered. The War Remnants Museum where you are shown the tragedies of the American War and you simply must have a beer at the rooftop bar of the Rex Hotel where the American top brass stayed during the war and many a strategy was planned here.
We next headed to Hoi An – an hours flight and 40 minute bus ride from Ho Chi Minh – this is a small village on the coast and has a beautiful beach and little township full of TAILORS. Guys can get a suit made in 24 hours for USD60 and girls you can get whatever you want made – all made to measure from pictures or patterns and fitted – wonderful. We did a cooking school and generally relaxed.
From here we went to Hue – the old capital and site of a major battle during the Tet Offensive during the war. It has a walled city where the King had his compound but which was mostly destroyed during the war. We spent a day on a motorbike tour – amazing day – saw Buddhist monks chanting and had lunch at a monastery and travelled through paddy fields and lots of smiling faces. Hue was probably the most emotional place for me as we were walking in places that people had died but it was a moving experience.
The overnight train beckoned us and we travelled in air conditioned sleeper carriages twelve hours north to Hanoi. I thought that this would be one of the hardest legs but I was mistaken. I slept for a good nine hours to the lulling rocking of the train and arrived in Hanoi quite refreshed.
Straight off the train and onto the bus and headed out to Halong Bay – one of Vietnams most amazing natural wonders – more than 1500 islands coming straight out of the sea – lots of grottos and diving off the boat into the water in 35 degree heat was the best!!!
Hanoi is a fascinating city and has a big French influence from the colonisation in the early 20th century. Big boulevards and a lake in the middle of the city as well as a 1000 year old university and the home to Uncle Ho’s Mausoleum (Ho Chi Minh). I loved just wandering round the Old Quarter with streets of shoes and streets of toys and streets of jewellery – anything and everything you want..
All in all it was an amazing experience – we were very well looked after by Intrepid Tours and I learned so much about the country and its history and its customs – a fascinating, cheap , amazing, historical, educational and fun destination – I would definitely recommend it. |
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OMAN: A WONDER IN THE GULF
I really had no idea what to expect from Oman – it’s kept itself under wraps and is just starting to peek out from under the covers and I’m so glad that it has!!! What an amazing country – the landscape goes from beautiful coastline to the mountainous interior to the fresh water wadis (rivers) to the simply amazing dunes that tower orange all around you. There are camels and goats and giant sea turtles plus souks to shop in and the mosques to marvel at however the best thing about Oman is the people – warm and friendly and so happy to have you in their country of which they are so proud.
You can get to Oman via Dubai or Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok – there are a number of airlines who fly there and the Omanis are building a new airport. We flew via Dubai – you can even stop in Dubai and drive – it’s 3 hours by road – or one hour in the air.
First impressions are the cleanliness and the lack of sirens – it’s one of the cleanest and safest countries in the world. First full day we went to the Grand Mosque – beautiful!!! Being a Muslim country – women are encouraged to have ¾ sleeves and pants and when in the mosque you must have full length covered and your heads – having said that they are not over- zealous – it’s merely a show of respect.
Then it’s off into the interior via cute little villages and past a 15th century fort and on into the desert – a sea of shimmering orange dunes – home to Bedouins and desert camps and also a playground for guides and their unwitting guests to go dune-bashing – WOW !!!! Exhilarating, heart pounding, laugh out loud stuff – going up and down towering dunes – sometimes backwards and doing sharp turns so seas of sand wash over the 4WD and then sitting in the silence and watching the sun set over the sand…
A night in a desert camp with the Milky Way seeming so close you could touch it and drinking hot sweet Arabian tea listening to local musicians is an experience not to be missed as is the camel ride the next morning – too much fun!!!
Heading towards the Indian Sea coastline – we stopped at a wadi – a natural water flow coming down through the canyons and filling a natural pool – the water was clear and refreshing and just the right temperature for our 35 degree day… Coming to the coast is almost a surprise – the beaches are beautiful and it’s here you can do an excursion to see the protected giant sea turtles in their natural habitat – they are huge!!
Back up to Muscat via the coast and to a city that has old and new, where drivers are polite and where you can have beautiful food in the local restaurants for a very reasonable price – and again the Omani people make this country a fabulous place for an educational, cultural and exciting holiday for all ages.
There is so much more that I cannot fit in to this article however it’s safe to say that Oman has gone straight to number #1 in my top 5 countries to go!!!! Come see me and I will happily regale you with more stories and photos and help you get to Oman – you’d be mad not to!!!! |
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