R.I.P Sooty (Big Bear) Hosback

Some very sad news today. We found out that poor Sooty, also known as Big Bear, was put to sleep last Monday. Sooty lived a great life reaching the grand old age of 15 or 105 in dog years which is fine age for anyone.

Sooty was possibly the most spoilt dog in Coolock, enjoying a freshly brewed bowl of tea with extra milk in the morning and a nice dog biscuit on the side. She was also possibly the best walked dog in the world averaging an impressive 5 miles plus a day but never got tired. She was an absolute softy at heart, bullied by two fluffy cats most of her life - you know who you are!

We will all miss Sooty. She grew from the most mischievous pup into a mature old lady who always wagged her tail when you walked into the room. She also had the biggest floppy ears and had the best smelling paws (they smelled like popcorn).

R.I.P Big Bear,you were the best friend anyone could have. Enjoy chasing those cats in heaven :) xxxxx

Love Tina

Hanoi

In Hanoi the last 2 days, really nice city, we definitely prefer it to Saigon. Today was a very Ho Chi Minh orientated day, we went to his Mausoleum, Museum and his House... His house was a modest house on stilts because he wanted to be at one with the people.

We booked our tour to Ha Long bay...3 days 2 nights, one of them on a Chinese Junk ship (Junk as in type, not a rubbish ship!). We did a bit of shopping today and some serious hardcore haggling! Tina got some runners for 5 dollars, the woman wanted 16 for them to begin with!

The last picture was some woman beside our hotel burning a big paper elephant?? Must be some religious thing.

The Sleeper Bus to Hanoi and Vietnam Annoyances

The Phone rings in our room at 11:32am the receptionist tells me I should have checked out at 11:30, I told her that she told me 12 o'clock after a yes,no debate I told her I was packing my bag now and will be down before 12. This was only the tip of the iceberg. When we went to pay our bill (we booked our bus and city trip through the hotel) they tried to stiff us on the Dollar - Dong exchange rate, after much arguing we got them to give us the proper rate. So NGOC HUNG Hotel of 46 Chu Van An, Hue City, Vietnam...expect a review on Tripadvisor reflecting this

We left our bags at the hotel and went out for breakfast and a walk,while waiting for the bus we were approached and offered cheap accommodation in Hanoi, no pressure, someone will collect you,etc, brochure looked impressive. I cracked open the laptop and through the Hotels name into Tripadvisor, it had to be the worst reviewed hotel I'd ever read on TA.

Our sleeper bus arrived at 5pm and we got on it. The most uncomfortable 14 hours I've ever spent, we were wedged in the back with 3 other people (the rest of the seats were 2 tier singles) for a good bit of the journey. Camel Tours I could not recommend again, the ugly bastard that was in charge of the bus was giving out to people who put their shoes on before they got to the front of the bus, so much so he kicked Tina in the foot. I confronted the ugly beast and his friend intervened and said he was a stupid man and to let it go. So Camel Tours aren't on the Christmas Card list this year.

Arrived in Hanoi, absolutely wrecked, a guy with Tinas name outside the bus waiting for us, we looked the other way. The bus driver bunged us into Taxi and he took us into the city, now I'm well versed in the whole Taxi scam thing but was caught off guard this morning (Only use Mai Linh and Vinasun Taxi's anywhere in vietnam or agree a price before hand). The guy from the bus put our bags in the front seat conveniently blocking the view of the meter...the telltale signs were there. As our destination was only 5km or so I didn't think there would be too much of an issue, the fare for this jounrey would cost normally $3 - 4...His meter read $17!!!! I said nothing and grabbed our bags from the cab and then told him where to stick his $17 up his arse. I pulled a notebook out of my bag and went to the back off the cab and wrote his reg number down, at this point he hid his ID badge in the car, I then pointed to the distance price on the side of the car and told him we'd have to do 36kms for it to be that price, I threw him $5 which was probably too much anyway and told him that's all he's getting, he asked for another 5 and I told him if he wants the fare on that meter, he'll have to get the Police, he left surprisingly without haste after that. I read online that when the Vietnamese Police investigated Taxi's 90% of the meters were rigged in some way.

Anyway it's a good lesson to get and a first for us since we arrived in SE Asia. Don't just take what they say for granted.

Hue Tour

We decided to give a tour a bash, there was alot to do in the Hue area and I felt it would be nice to sit down and relax and let someone else do the work. I won't go into huge detail of every place we visited but the temples we saw had huge Chinese influence in their design, it was refreshing to see something abit different.

First stop The Citadel / Imperial City for an hour and a half.Thi area house 2 sets of 9 Cannons, which have never been fired, the number 9 used is because the Chinese see 9 as the highest, longlasting and also a lucky number.The Imperial city is huge and now a UNESCO world heritage site,z after that we headed to another temple.

Next sop was Thien Mu Pagoda - This Pagoda is 7 stories high and displays the 8 symbols of Buddhism. It house the Austin car Thích Quảng Đức drove to Saigon to set himself on fire during the Diem Regime in 1963.

Now time for our lunch, which was complimentary but middling at the same time.

Minh Mang temple started in 1840, he died himself in 1841 and wasn't laid to rest until 1843 when his tomb was complete.

Next the final resting place of Khai Dinh Tomb. He proved himself an unpopular ruler by asking the French to raise the taxes by 30% to fund the construction of the temple. This was by favourite temple as it housed lots of beautiful mosaics and ceiling paintings.

We saw a Conical Hat / Incense Making factory next, alot of effort involved in making those hats.

We headed back on the Perfum River (It doesn't look or smell like Perfume!) on one of the Dragon Boats, can't fault the tour especially for the low price of $7 (Tomb Entrance fees separate), but not sure I could jam pack everyday like this, you'd certainly get fed up.