Arena

From the main train station in Rome we then decided to go down south to visit my families original house situated in Calabria, in a small town called Arena situated steeply up a massive hill. As a child I have heard so much about this town, trough family gatherings the family would always talk about what it was like in arena. My father was born in the town and his parents and so on. So I knew there was a large history of my family in this town.  We traveled to Vibo Valencia and when we arrived there we decided to catch the bus to the nearest town but after waiting for a while we decided to take our chances and spend the money on a cab. This turned into a wild goose chase as the road leading to Arena was under construction and had been for the last 5 years! So  the taxi driver asked local people as they would drive past directions on how to get there. Luckily a school bus heading to Arena stopped and gave us a lift there. This is the first time that I knew the language barrier was going to be a concern.  Because this town was off the tourist map we noticed the whole time how difficult it was to get our point across. The only break through we had was when my girlfriend pulled out Google Translate we then realized we could finally say what we needed to say. Arena is a small hilltop village barely changed for hundreds of years. The houses all grouped together literally built on top of one another. It has this amazing old world charm and beautiful views over the surrounding vistas. The streets all paved with cobblestones and the people all still stopping and shutting up hop at 1pm in the day for their lunch. It was a good thing to be able to connect with where my grandfather once lived. The house we stayed in was where he was born so it made it ever more so special.  People were also very warm and accepting as well, we made some fantastic connections with people. Even the old lady next door gave us home made wine, salami (supressa), olive oil, Lemons, Fresh beans, and you could tell when we told her we were leaving she truly was sad to see us go!. I seemed to be quite productive art wise in Arena, I spent everyday playing my guitars, writing and obviously painting. The landscape there was something spectacular; because you were nestled on such a big hill you had these beautiful undulating hills all around you. And all the scenery was such a vibrant green; in Australia the green of the landscape seems to be a lot more muted. I also started walking around as well, out of the town in the surrounding countryside area past people’s old farms and working little plots.  I really enjoyed doing this as it kept me in contact with nature.  It also allowed me to decipher a new type of landscape. One that was close to my heart .In this post I have attached a group of photos that show the town and also the landscape. It really was a great experience.

Rome

After spending time in Istanbul it was time to travel to Rome and other parts of Italy. There was a great excitement heading to Italy as my father side of the family was originally from the southern part of Italy in Arena , Calabria. I was also really exited to see the architecture and see the culture of Italy. I was not disappointed when we arrived in Rome things seemed to be larger than I had expected it to be, the buildings the fountains the piazzas. All had this grandiose feeling behind it. We could only afford to stay in a dorm room but this seem to work out fine. Rome is one of those cities best seen by foot, as everything is so closely located. I was amazed that around every corner there was another monument or another outlandishly extravagant church. On the first day we decided to just walk around the local area and we discovered a church close to the hostel that was one of the main pilgrimage churches in the catholic religion.  I remember as I had walked In the door I was totally shocked and taken back by its sheer size and scale of the church. The roof being 4-5 stories high was covered in gold. It literally left me speechless. I had never witnessed anything like this before. And that was one of many that we visited in the time we spent there. We visited the pantheon a massive church with a monstrous dome roof. It was almost impossible to get a decent photograph of this as it was so huge. The good thing was that the churches were free for you to visit. The churches on the inside were all truly covered with statues and huge paintings absolutely lavishly decorated.  We also visited the collosseum  and once again this was something truly remarkable, but I couldn’t help think when I was there about the people who would have died building and fighting in this truly remarkable building. We were going to go inside of the collesseum but we didn’t want to fight the huge crowd of people waiting to get in. You couldn’t visit Italy without trying pizza and on the first night we decided to go to the local pizza bar, they have the pizza made up in large slab style and you pay by the kilogram and then he takes it out the back and heats it up. We decided to visit the Vatican city and this is well worth a visit for anyone going to Rome it was absolutely amazing, in this post you can see the photographs taken inside the main area. It truly is difficult to put it into words as I think the pictures tell the story better. We also visited the Sistine Chapel situated in the Vatican and this was truly breath taking, no photographs could be taken inside as also no talking was the other rule, but people were certainly talking in there. It was the first time I have ever seen a masters work so we certainly sat in there for a while, we were advised to try and find a seat in there as the guards push people in the door and out pretty quickly. The amount of people in the Vatican and Sistine Chapel was staggering but I still found it quite manageable.

We had planned to go to Istanbul from Nepal. We arrived in Istanbul in the middle of a large storm, it was hard to grasp a picture of the city for the first time in this storm, but by the next days adventures we could see how much of a vibrant metropolis it really is. The city itself is absolutely huge, it keeps spanning on for miles and miles. The city skyline is filled with the domes of the mosques nestled all throughout the city, the call to prayer is evident very often throughout the day. The city is very beautiful and filled with an old world charm. For first timers to this city it can be quite overwhelming as there is so much to do and see.  But we had been given some great advice of things to do and see. We visited a few mosques. I was truly impressed by the mosques, as they were so well preserved and such large structures. The beautifully painted ceilings were something I could spend all day looking up at. I found myself drawn to the beautiful tile work that was in all these mosques. These motifs’ are continually surrounded and adorned on all the walls.  We also visited the main shopping area that was one of the largest shopping areas I had seen. We visited the spice bizarre and also the grand bizarre; I was really impressed by the spice bizarre, as it was just a treat for the eyes and the senses. I was not that impressed by the grand bizarre, as it felt like the same things repeated over and over again, there is only a certain amount of carpet stores I can look at. I had my first taste of Turkish delight in turkey; we also visited the blue mosque, but was ushered in then ushered out rather quickly because it was prayer time. I was really impressed by the blue mosque as it had this magnificent glow that made everything sparkle inside of it. we wanted to visit the Hagias Sophia, one of the biggest mosques in the world but the line up to go into it was huge. So we decided to not go. We visited the Topkapi Palace the home of the ottoman empire king and his entourage of people. There was that many people trying to get into all the rooms and courtyards it made it a little less special, but tit still was very interesting, if you were religious this would be the place to go!, we also visited the Harem inside of the palace. This was quite interesting.  Istanbul has some of the best music shops in the world and I could not help myself, I had looked up online before I got there  where to go and I was shocked at the amount of variety of beautiful traditional instruments. I was in the market for a Turkish Oud  (lute) and I certainly spent a few days looking at the different instruments and then decided on the ones I wanted. I also decided to buy one more instrument called the Baglama (sass) and I have been traveling with this instrument and have truly fallen head over heels for this instrument. It has a very unique sound.

After considerable deliberation and organizing we had decided to go on a larger trek through the Himalaya’s. we had decided to do the steep accent on the first day as it had more of the beautiful views but we were both shocked especially i was at how steep the accent was over 1000metre within the first few hours and yes all surrounded by beautiful settings of traditional farms nestled within the hilltops. we passed little goat sheds where you could hear them doing there thing, communal running taps where they would use the water source from. After 2 or so hours we reached the first town, we sat on top of a rooftop and ordered a pot of masala tea. I watched the clouds darken and knew we were about to be rained on. we asked some locals, the men tended to give us more of an inaccurate estimate of weather as the women were a bit more like i don’t know.  this seemed to be a bit of a trend along the whole journey. So we were hit with a hail storm and just had to ride it out under a shaded area, i had found a local cat that had liked a cuddle and she warmed up in my lap for a while. The rain stopped and things cleared then we were off again to the next place after another approximately 3 hours of walking through fairly gradual terrain we came to the first Town “tea house rest place” the place we chose was quite run down and we stayed in the top floor so every step you took you could hear. the people were very kind and they even allowed us to go into there kitchen area and out the back where they were making traditional mulled wine called roxy, tasted like a watered down version of spirit. all in all it was a good experience. Day two consisted of very much the same thing much hard walking up and down slippery and steep steps and rocks, some lady had sold me a big stick used for a walking pole and it really came in handy the whole time, each day you could see the landscape change ever so much more dramatically.  the second night we stayed in the town of landruck and was pleased to have some other travelers there for conversion… we sat in the dinning area and talked about every r=topic under the sun for 5 hours. when i say a town i mean a village that has been calved out of the hillside hundreds of meters in the air. the view from this place of the Himalayas was breath taking it made everything else look like ants. more posts on this to come!

After spending some time in Kathmandu and the surrounding area we decided to go to the lakeside attraction called Pokhara, a haven for the tourists and travelers. Here we could start to see a more clearer picture of the Himalayas. We took a 6 hour bus ride which was only 200km which i though was incredible but then i saw how windy and hilly the roads were. and what bad conditions the roads were. One thing that has surprised me is that these people have the ability to set up house,  shop and “restaurant” absolutely anywhere. and i mean anywhere. We arrived in Pokhara and found the guesthouse we looked up on the internet, which was called the lemon tree guesthouse. the first day my fiance went into a meditation retreat for 12 days leaving me to explore the landscape and the town. The town is a very bustling busy place full of locals all going out there business. Similar to Kathmandu, Pokhara has one main long strip of all varieties of shops and restaurants all catered for the tourists. When you venture further into the town you start to see a very different picture. Recycling and rubbish disposal seems to be a real problem as well as a very high level of poverty, 40% of the population lives in poverty in Nepal. Fewa lake is at the heart of Pokhara and is truly a very beautiful scene, it has these huge mountains all surrounding it. Once again you can see small dwellings and houses built into the mountain side, the lake has these iconic colored boats that are all afloat on the lake each day. the feel in Pokhara seems to be a lot more laid back and more country lifestyle, people are very friendly, they continually smile and ask where you are from, of course you still get people trying to sell you something but it seems a lot more casual. there is a eclectic collection of hippies that all congregate here. the animals seem to have a lot more freedom here  than in the cities, the buffalo are pretty much walking around the streets, they seem to walk down to the greener pastures near the lake front. The big draw card here for the tourists is the paragliding and obviously the trekking starting point. we had decided we would do a 12 day trek but i waited upon her return. Anybody looking for the laid back side to Nepal this is a good place to enjoy what it has to offer.

While in Kathmandu we decided to visit the iconic Monkey temple, a worship place over run by monkeys. The temple is based on top of a large hill with a rather large staircase leading to it. i haven’t witnessed to many monkeys in the wild before. we had an opportunity to see a few of them in Cambodia but not on this kind of scale. The temple was really beautiful, it had a very peaceful and tranquil feeling to it. There was a center dome and around this there was prayer wheels. There were scores of tourists taking photos, plenty of monkeys running around, the thick smell of insence, and generally a really good felling that came from this place. There were beautiful scenes looking down at Kathmandu, there was even one point where i spotted a monkey sitting on the edge  of a wall taking in the scene. This place is a must see if you are visiting Kathmandu.

After our time in Cambodia it was time to fly to Kathmandu. the trip involved a 24 hour stop over in Kuala Lumpa airport, i quite enjoyed the stop over as this airport is clean and extremely organized. the toilets have someone devoted especially to cleaning them. Then it was on to Nepal, i wasn’t to sure what to expect in Kathmandu, i had been told stories, i had also read a few things in the news, but i was quite overwhelmed when we arrived in the city. It had reminded me of a similar version of India with the Chaotic nature of everything. We got a taxi and asked to go to the main tourist area of Thamel, from there we were greeted with a barrage of people asking to buy things especially drugs. at one point i think i was asked like 10 times in one stretch of road.  Thamel area was a different flavor to what the rest of Kathmandu was, it had been cleaned and almost polished as this was the way the tourists liked it. The main thing that struck me was the amount of music i could hear it was like a feast for the ears. The first few days were just getting used to Kathmandu and the surrounding area. We decided to go for a walk to Dubar Square one of the main attractions to the Kathmandu valley, here you could see traditional medieval architecture still in its traditional form, with pedestrians, carts and vendors all making up the landscape. It truly is an amazing place and well worth a visit. it was around Dubar square is where i tried my first taste of the iconic Nepali dish Momo’s. We soon found being in Nepal that there was a real problem with electricity, especially in Kathmandu you could see when the power went off you would hear all the petrol generators start up. After the second day i found my throat started to get quite sore and i put it down to the air pollution.

Siem Reip at night was really quite interesting, the tourist industry was certainly making an imprint on the local businesses, the night life consisted of whole streets bustling with restaurants all trying to pull the customers in the door, also included was the heightened prices simply just for being in the area, there was a huge amount of shops selling pretty much anything you wanted to buy.  The one thing i found strange were the shops offering spa baths with an assortment of fish based in a tank. It seems that you put your feet in there and the fish have a nibble at all your dead skin on your feet. there was an abundance of people giving extremely cheap massages as well as local market areas where you could buy the whole variety of local made products, even though most were made in Vietnam. As too an abundance of took took drivers offering you a ride every second, the took-tooks here were really comfortable and large with enough room to spread out. we found this quite comfortable when we went to Angkor Wat in one of the evenings. The food experience was really great, the guest house we stayed at had the best food we have had at such small prices. The local people i found to be really friendly and warm, they wanted to start conversation with you and it wasn’t always just to try and sell you something.

After returning back to Saigon we had planned to take a 16 hour bus ride from Saigon to Siam Reap where the Angkor Kingdom was situated. The bus ride was for most parts quite comfortable with a beautiful amount of scenery to keep us amused. I thought of downloading a group of eBooks so i could read along the way, but we both spent the majority of time looking out the window at the passing country side. there was a definite difference in the look of the houses i noticed as soon as we passed into Cambodia. The houses seemed to be raised of the ground, with the general living area down stairs. we followed the Mighty Mekong for a large proportion of the time. the first place we arrived at was the capital phenom pen. A bustling metropolis of shops and people, we transferred buses and continued on further, the tour guide for this leg of the trip was a nice and helpful man, there was one point where we had stopped for some food and some Russian tourists offered us and the tour guide some scotch and we happily accepted, so did the tour guide. this added a comical element watching him try and do his speech on his microphone after these drinks. We  arrived at  Seim Reip at around 11pm and had to go find a hotel room. the first day was just getting used to the city area. The second day we decided to get met early by a took took driver to be taken to Angkor Wat. I fell quite sick at this stage and had to be taken back to the hotel room. We bought a 3 day pass to the kingdom thinking this would be enough time to get around it. we had been told that if you go to Angkor Wat at around 5:30 pm then you did not have to use one of your pass times so we decided to go there in the afternoon of the first day…Nothing cold prepare me for how much i was blown away by this amazing structure. We had been traveling around Vietnam for over 5 weeks and seen nothing of ancient civilizations and we had finally arrived at one. The monstrosity of the complex, the intricate carvings, the beautiful surroundings it just took me away. the amount of tourists there just didn’t seem to worry me at all, at a certain point i even forgot that they were there. we watched the sunset from the highest peak of the furthest towers that we payed a security guard to go and see and it was well worth it. the next day we decided to hire mountain bikes to ride around this monstrous complex and that is exactly what it is a huge complex of temples and ruins. we underestimated how far it was and soon realised that we had rode all day and still only seen the most smallest amount. overall Angkor Kingdom has been one of the best highlights as i have always been interested in archeology and this was my first taste of seeing it up close. the kingdom housed around a million people in its hay day and you really had the feeling that people had walked these corridors hundreds of years ago. A well worthy place to visit.

We took a bus trip from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island.  There was three bus rides and a ferry transfer and then you could start to see the serious geographical transformations change. The majority of the hills were covered in thick green scrub and the island itself densely forested. The Ha Long Bay is famous for its beautiful rock formation islands. literally: descending dragon bay  is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination, It was the off peak season being in there winter but there was something quite magical about it.one of the good reasons being that we didn’t have streams of tourists., Cat Ba town itself was a somewhat hotel after hotel, and restaurants all waiting for the peak season tourists.there was as well a thriving groups of towns and communities all living throughout this area. The hotel i think we had completely to ourselves and i found this great for practicing music..no people around. The island was so intricately woven together there was this ever presence that there was as much going on off the water as there was on. there was this continual stream of bustling boats that would be going on there business everyday. there were heaps of boats on the main area. and they were all painted practically the same colour.

We decided to give kayaking a go and were able to get a amazing view point into how the other side of Cat Ba was working, the people had made these floating houses  come fish farms nestled around these massive islands. there was a kind of a suburb going on and the further we went the less they become. I must admit it was incredible to think that these people lived out here all the time, they had pets out there like there dogs , that was weird. there were sprawling suburbs of people doing there thing. There were cement boats!. ones with foam as insides. i might be guessing that it wouldn’t be going to fast.

While in Hanoi we had the opportunity to visit a traditional Vietnamese type of music, it was called Ca Tru. A World Cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO. It involved traditional string instrument with also accompanied by a female singing in this weird kind of guttural voice, similar to operatic singing this was also accompanied by a person playing some kind of wooden sticks and a drum. There was a quite large focus on keeping this art form alive as it had nearly become endangered. It was really pleasant to listen and the sounds drew you further into them. At the end there came on two traditional dancers which accompanied the musicians.

Hanoi the main capital of Vietnam was a cultural mixing pot, it had a sophistication and very cosmopolitan feel surrounding the city. The main tourist part which was the old quarters was filled with anything a tourist or local would want to  buy, you also found yourself compelled to want to explore more and more as every street had a new specialty that lye down it. One night we went out for a stroll and came a cross a huge street sale. it was extremely busy and people bustling everywhere but it was fun to go for the ride of it, we ended walking for it felt like 12 blocks and we still couldn’t see the end of it , it was truly a very bizarre affair of colour and sound.

After visiting the war museum we stumbled across the History Museum right next door to the Historical War Museum, as the pictures show there was a large fort like structure with a shrine built at the top of it. The rest of the museum focused on preserving the cultural history of the Vietnamese. This was an excellent museum full of beautiful traditional style gardens and the biggest collection of bonsai plant that i have ever witnessed. The majority of the bonsai plants would have been 200-300 years of age, if not older. and there was hundreds of them. they were beautifully laid out in a traditional style courtyard. Some of the bonsai plants were all surrounded in water inside of the pot.

We had a chance to visit the Vietnam Military History Museum based in Hanoi, from a westerners perspective it was a very confrontational thing, I have never agreed with the principals of war but i was interested in understanding more about the history of Vietnam and the battles it has fought. What was interesting was seeing the museum set up from a Vietnamese perspective, It was quite confronting was seeing all the military planes, tanks, helicopters, cars and a whole variety of paraphernalia  all stuck in time and prominently displayed .there was an eerie kind of feeling lingering in this museum for me, i especially had this feeling looking inside one of the fighter jets as too some of the helicopters, i couldn’t stop thinking of what these machines would have been involved in. If these things could tell me a story what would it be. There were small ladders based around some of the planes so you could see somewhat where the pilots would have sat. there were little plaques sitting at the front of all the relics to try and tell the story of were this vehicle was captured or what was some of the story behind it. there was a flag tower also there that was built in 1805-1812, as shown in some  of the photos below. all in all i am glad the we discovered this museum as it really left me with quite a emotional impact,

We have arrived in Hanoi last night at 11:30 pm, we decided to travel to Hanoi via Vietjet Airline. I was quite impressed with the Airline and even the quality of the service. the weather is a lot different to what it is in Saigon. the temperature is considerably colder but it still has 88% humidity so it is cold but still damp at the same time. We had booked one hotel room via the internet in Hanoi’s old quarter, we were really happy with the hotel room as in the morning it supplied a buffet style breakfast, but we knew that the room was above our budget so we had to find another one. the hotel owner told us of the other hotel that the company owned and told us we could have a room for 17 dollars but it was at another location, we hopped on the back of their motorbikes to check out the room…it was shit, it was a pokey single windowed room with just a bed six stories up, and the view wasn’t anything to brag about. there was though a type of restaurant on the top floor that supplied  a similar style breakfast. i decided that it wasn’t good enough so we walked back to the hotel collected our bags and hunted down the next room. we had made the decision to try and get a room for a budget price, and we knew that there was an abundance of accommodation in the Old Quarter. We found a hotel just around the corner that was cheaper than the one we saw and it had a lot more local character, wooden carved cupboards and wall hangings, balcony  and a wierd mixture of luxurious furnishings with very basic amenities  but it suited our purpose. The city of Hanoi in the Old Quarter seems to have this cosmopolitan feeling. the streets are full of any possible thing you would want to buy. there seems to be a habit in Vietnam of having whole streets dedicated to certain item. for example there was a group of streets just devoted to shoes, A few people had a laugh as each time i would walk into one of these shoe shops the owner would look at my huge feet and he would start shaking his head and start saying no. no no, my girlfriend even had to buy men’s shoes and she is a size seven only. do all these people have miniature feet, it would seem so. , there was one street just devoted to buttons and other sewing related stuff. there was a street just devoted to different scarves and hats.there was an alley devoted mainly just socks and jocks and there are tons of jewelry shops. we decided to eat some street food for lunch  the first thing we had was radish noodles all topped with hard to identify meats, lots of herbs and peanuts all drenched in dressing, i recon it had dried liver, pork skin and beef. personally i though it was very average my girlfriend liked it. the second thing was a clear dumpling with minced offal and herbs again, see the photo for the look of this. the third and final was some fresh spring rolls. since being in Vietnam i recon i have had about a thousand different spring rolls and nothing has tasted as bad as this, it was totally fucking shit, it had some kind of dried seafood in it and it was hard to distinguish what was in there. at a certain point i was concerned that i was eating dog. But upon closer inspection i thought it was dried squid. Even my girlfriend couldn’t handle this taste and she can eat practically anything. it truly must be an acquired taste. and the whole time i am sitting on a kids chair the size of my foot. that has been a real struggle to deal with sitting in these kids chairs and there are no exceptions to this set up. Vietnam is kids chair capital. we then went to lake Hoan kiem and the temple situated on an island in the middle of the lake called Ngoc San. This was a great place to visit, very picturesque. see photos for what it looks like. From the beginning of the day we noticed that it was quite misty and this mist had stayed around for the whole day, we don’t know if it ever recedes at this time of the year but it was quite special to be in for the day. We had read online that Hanoi has more aggressive touts but we found it to be quite the opposite, people would approach you, you would say no and look away and they would just walk away.

Visiting Saigon at night has been quite an experience. District 1 (the main back-packer area) consists of a warren of streets and alleyways all full to the brim with all sorts of restaurants, eateries and shops catering to the tourist. The nightlife of course includes bars.  I have mentioned Go Go on one of the main corners – a real scam for first arrivals. Along with the massive neon signs and blairing music there is an army of staff trying to tempt you for a 3 for 2 Happy Hour deal. The chairs outside at first appear like a good vantage point to relax and observe the chaotic street life. We decided to have some anniversary drinks there out of curiosity more than anything else. We ordered two cocktails, and we got mostly water. I sculled the Long Island Ice Tea and we agreed that there was maybe a half a shot of spirit in the whole thing. Arguing at the bar only got us another nasty drink, so we walked on further.

As we walked I noticed in one 20 m stretch of street there was a bizarre scene. There were rows of plastic chairs on both sides of the street all facing the road like they were meant for a performance.  Westerners and locals were all drinking, obviously the drinks were half the price there, so we plonked down on these small little chairs ( That has been a problem for me is the small chairs in the food spaces. and street food , you basically sit on a kids chairs. ). It was odd because we were staring at the people across the street and they back at us, someone made a joke that you were picking the partner for the night. The time was well occupied talking to others about their journey. A local man was doing fire breathing and snake swallowing ( poor guy was gagging so much, and the petrol he was filling his mouth with looked like it was making him very sick  ) …and you had the continual bombardment of touts trying to selling you just about everything. Overall though it was a great vibe and atmosphere, such a contrast to the Go Go type places, and you get bang for your buck.

There was some noticeable unrest in a nearby bar during the night. a  fight broke out and it certainly caused some form of commotion.Its hard to say what happened but a western guy in his 30s later ran out by himself, and we saw a Vietnamese woman very drowsily being helped out by some other people – probably a spiked drink noticed by a bystander in time before anything bad happened. By about 3:30am things have well and truly packed up. The hotels in the side alleys completely lock up with metal gates and doors at a certain time – great for safety (but maybe not in case of a fire). To get back in I had to ring the doorbell. A lot of these hotels have the reception area serving as a family home for the owners, with their living room and extended family literally lounging by the reception desk during the day. Their sleeping area must have been close because it only took less than a  minute for one of them to very sleepily unlock the gate for us – oops.

We had decided to return to Saigon i wanted to revisit guitar street a bit more, i had the intention of maybe buying another guitar. we found ourselves at the gallery after we visited guitar street. And as a visual artists it had some area of interest to me. The original style of enamel painting on wood really struck a visual chord and i found myself really consumed by it. i had unfortunately not taken any pictures of them. The gallery itself was quite large, three story building full of beautiful antiquities and traditional and contemporary work .The work i was interested in was some of the war focus. And a well worth place to go. After this Felling quite depleted and we went to get a drink and discovered antique street and this was a real find, i have grown up looking at antiques and retro belongings with a real eye to selected pieces, bit this was a whole street full. there was everything imaginable as far as antiques. was a great find . at around this point i found a old style photograph album. and i instantly thought of an art journal. i have always kept a journal and visual diary and i immediately thought of how to document my journey.

http://www.lachonggallery.com

Le Cong Kieu Street, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

after some considerable deliberation we decided it was time to move on from Mui Ne the coastal town around 4-6 hours drive from Saigon. I think we started becoming a little restless being in this town for exactly a week. you have to hire a vehicle (scooter) for doing anything, you have to go to the restaurants because there was no supermarkets or places where you could buy a group of food for a few days. It was though a little sad leaving the place as i had some quality time to practice my music, make some cool filming, and really think about some cool painting ideas, and just to have some peace and quiet..it was also really a great experience riding through the coastal fishing village as it gave you a sense of how the rural people live there lives.On the last day we decided to try and work out the buses back to Saigon as i had wanted to come back and try to explore more in Saigon. After going to the bus company almost directly across from our hotel we soon realised that with very little ease we were on the bus and on another 6 hour bus ride.  Before we left we had talked about visiting one of the main attractions in Mui Ne which was called to Fairy Stream. we had tried a few times to find it while staying in Mui Ne but not to much luck,  but upon walking around the grounds of the hotel area we found a back gate that lead straight onto the Fairy stream.  This was one of the better highlights of this trip.  It was a 2o minute walk one way through a stream that  just covered your feet, all up the sides of this were stalagmite type structures.  At the end of this was a small waterfall, all in all this was a really beautiful walk. we had tried to find area of the beach so we could go for a walk in the main place we were staying and all the beaches were private and individually guarded by the hotels and resorts.. this was one thing i did not like.

The local people were quite friendly, and i found if i smiled straight away i would always get a nice reaction from people in general. some real highlight were going through some of the really smaller streets on the tip of Mui Ne, on one day the 16th December 2012 we borrowed a scooter as this was my birthday and this is what i wanted to do, we rode to the furthest point in the region, passing the Small Sahara and trying to reach the tip of the island area, there was a few side ally dirt road streets, i decided to take a small adventure off the beaten track, there was a group of boys playing soccer in an abandoned area, the kids all smiled and waived, also too did the little kids that were with there parents.they would smile and say hello. the road led to an old power station so we had to turn around and go back. it was a great insight to this small community and was defiantly worth while.

We Traveled from Ben Tre through Saigon to a smaller coastal town called Mui Ne. The bus ride was a grueling 8 hours. The most Grueling was the traffic in Saigon, it was bumper to bumper, and it just felt like it was going forever. the ride started at 7 in the morning  and was full of adventure from the second we got on the bus. I was amazed there was more chickens being transported than people, not quite but they were wrapped up in these woven bags. the guy sitting next to us had about 6 bags all around his feet with all these chickens crowing simultaneously like and orchestra but without the instruments. The bus had 3 people working it one person was driving, the other was more like a working conductor he would be popping his head out of the bus waiving his head and hands around, getting peoples money for the tickets, he also worked like a second pair of eyes for the driver directing him around difficult situation. if you didn’t like cigarette smoke this was not the place for you people were lighting up cigarettes left, right and center. we got really good seats though right up the back of the bus with a huge amount of leg room. the conductor also was really helpful calling us a cab just be fore we got to the last stop, so when we arrived at our destination the taxi was waiting for us. something i though was going to be a painful exercise turned out to be OK.

Mui Ne is a different type of feeling as it has a HUGE amount of Russian tourist, they certainly stand out, and it seems things are tailored for this large influx, my girlfriend being Ukrainian was surprised to be able to read the majority of the restaurant signs that were all in Russian. since the full solar eclipse in 1995 people traveled here and the tourist industry boomed from there. The town itself has a few cool attractions, for the rich there is 5 star beach resorts every where, there is also budget accommodation, there is Jeep hire,ones that the Americans look as though they left here, bike hire, a  quite a large coastal fishing village,  some massive Sahara like sand dunes, and water sports galore as it is always windy here. Once again there is a mass abundance of good food and really cheap beer if that is your thing. We borrowed a scooter for the day and rode around looking at all the attractions, we went to the Sahara sand dunes during the day, probably better to do it in the around dusk. Things slow down here around 12:00 – 3:00, people go home and rest, sort of like the siesta in Spain.

The sand dunes was a beautiful thing to see at dusk as it turns the colour of the sand golden. Below are the shots of the traditional fishing village, all the boats out on the ocean have the exact same look, the other type of boat is a round type of boat that looks like it is made of thatched vines that is treated, these look very cool when there is a heap of them out on the ocean bobbing around.

After staying in Saigon for a few days we wanted to go to a smaller town so we could relax more into the journey and to also see how the country people lived there lives. we caught a bus to Ben Tre an hour and a bit away from Saigon. This town has the Mekong delta running directly through it. first impressions of this town was it was very friendly and the existing areas around made it fun to go adventuring. we hired a motorbike on the first day on the instructions of another Australian staying in the hotel and we went to a floating hotel, which was originally an American war time hospital barge. The food in Vietnam is something to really experience. overall this was one of the most beautiful places to stay in the south of Vietnam.

a lane way, we went along on a push bike, when people would ride up behind us we would hop off the bike and move the bike and our self to the side, these lanes were tiny but so picturesque

A floating restaurant on the Mekong Delta. we didn’t visit this restaurant but i did sit on the shore line and watch it dock on the shore line. It was really good staying in a motel on the Mekong Delta waterfront as we could hear all the different boats at all times of the night going back and forth. these ships would be carrying anything from coconuts through to sand through to tourists. This seemed the life blood of the south. and quite spectacular at night. the people seemed to live on these boats, and they certainly didn’t have any lights to see at night

The hotel we stayed at was a warm and friendly atmosphere, the people were friendly , there was hardly many guests most of the time. Any people interested in going to this hotel it is called the Oasis hotel.i would highly recommend it, all the rooms are brand new and all the facilities were there for you. While in Ben Tre i hired a scooter and decided to ride around to see the local areas, as too to get used to how to ride in the traffic. At first it is a little intimidating but it is not that bad. every body rides slow enough for there to be no real problems. this was a highlight seeing some of the off the beaten track places and traveling through the small little lane ways.

I wanted to make a blog devoted to Nguyen Thien Thuat Street, known as guitar street, i did some research before my trip to Vietnam on places to buy instruments, as each time i go traveling i find myself devoted predominantly to finding instruments from that country of origin. this is part of the purpose of this different continent trip. You do have to be careful buying instruments in foreign countries as they can look amazing  but if they have not been set up correctly and have smaller imperfections they can  turn into larger imperfections later.  i learned this lesson trying to buy sitars and other exotic instruments in India. below are some photos of some of the the street where i bought my guitar, i though it was fitting that i show some more pictures concerning guitar street as this was a real highlight for me in Saigon. One picture shows a really cool looking guitar all made out of metal and plastic, it had a plastic bag holding it together though!, and i commented to the owner of the shop that the guitar was famous . that i had seen it on the internet.he commented back to me “where did you see it”, then i wrote down on a piece of paper where i had seen the picture. the ranges of the instruments was extremely varied some range from $20 us through to $1000. i had been told from doing my research that around the $500 mark would get you a very decent instrument made from imported wood i spent two different days going back to guitar street as it wasn’t very far from where we were staying. I bought my guitar on the day we were leaving Saigon. The owner told me it was made by his father in there factory 40 minutes drive from the shopfront. he asked if i wanted to see where it was made If i had enough time i would have liked to have gone. I also tried a Vietnamese guitar, these guitars have a scalloped fretboard and are tuned quite low. the look of the guitar appealed to me but upon playing one i knew that it was not for me., the action was well too low and it sounded well to twangy. I am yet to take some pictures of my guitar and when i do i will be posting them online.

I have taken some photos of the guitars that i bought in Saigon, i am starting to get used to the instrument now, when i first bought it i needed to change the strings and i think some minor adjustments need to be done to the guitar when i get back to Australia, i also bought a smaller traveling guitar as i had been looking for a travelers guitar for a while in Australia, the price was very affordable, a bit more work would be needed to be done to this instrument like to change the bridge piece. but these are only minor things

first stop on our overseas trip was in Ho Chi Min City formally known as Saigon. A busy crowded array of motorbikes, hawkers and much more, our destination was to be in the backpacker district called District 1. After arriving in the airport we were to catch a bus to the district. the first thing witnessed as we drove out of the airport was thousands and thousands of motorbikes, all dodging  around each other all trying to go every different direction. Our hotel was in the heart of the backpacker area so there was a huge amount of western tourists as too there were heaps of local touts trying to sell you local made sunglasses through to DVD, trough to about anything. we were only a block away from a massive 4 story night club that played older hit music until about 7oclock every morning, this became quite confronting after a while as there was no stop to it. i wondered how all the local people felt about this. If you are a guitar player like me no trip could be complete without a visit to guitar street, a 500 meter stretch of road that just specialize in the manufacture and sale of guitars and all types of instruments. you need to shop around as some shops have a lot better products than others. but this was a real highlight in Saigon.

Any westerners looking for cheap products Saigon is a a real must  there is practically every product you would want to buy, but all at 1/10 Th of the price. The products are all imitations but i have seen a lot of imitations and these are really high quality products. Designer jeans are exactly like the real ones. designer shoes, in fact anything designer. I am looking at the pair of RayBans  i bought in Saigon compared to the pair i bought back home they are so close to the original i find it hard to tell the difference. difference being the originals cost $150 and the imitations cost $2

Recently i have started on a 12 month traveling tour though various countries. the first stop was to visit my family in Darwin. i had never been to Darwin before and being a landscape painter i was taken back by how beautiful the place was.  The ruggedness of the landscape, the condensed native flora  all made for amazing inspiration. I had a chance to visit Litchenfield National Park and was taken back by just how diverse the landscape really was. The natural swimming holes and rock pools were so pure it was though you could drink from the water. the red earth had a immense effect on me, it has always been something i have drawn from in my artwork but i had not seen soil so deep in red colour so rich and vibrant. At one point i picked up a hand full and rubbed it into my skin just to be able to see the pigment against my skin colour.

We had the opportunity to go out on Adelaide River to do some Crocodile spotting. I really enjoyed witnessing the ruggedness of this landscape, as also to witness the majestic Crocodile in it’s element. we stopped for a drink on Goat Island and had the opportunity to meet some of the locals.

walk this time

Am currently working on my first EP Called Trace of Light

Finally Decided to put some surreal images up showcasing the work i have been doing with scratch boards.