Vietnam Part 7 - Final Post...

Hello There

I haven't been around for a few days since I have had a few visitors - Mr Chestin Fection and Mr Sinus Fection and they brought along their friend Mr Vertigo!  Boy has this been a few rough days.  I am not sure how long I can stay on my puter as I am having trouble focusing (or staying awake) for very long.  It started late Saturday afternoon and I haven't been in my Craft Room since.  Boo Hoo!

I missed my T on Tuesday yesterday too.  The layout I wanted to share is waiting to be photographed having finished it on Friday, but I cannot look down to take the shots, so I thought I would share with you the last few layouts of my Vietnam Album.  It may make us all feel a little warmer for a few moments and we can ignore that thrashing rain and wind that is coming down outside our windows.

Once the ride had finished a little way outside Saigon, we were bussed in to our hotel.  They would not let us cycle in to the main capital due to Mr Elf n Safety!  After I had seen the way they rode in on the outskirts I was quite relieved!

Some of us went to their Blind Institution where some of the blind of Saigon earn money as masseurs.  Let me tell you it was both enjoyable and painful.  After all those miles cycling our legs were pretty muscular and some of us had mild burns on the backs of them, including me.  Then it was Dinner and on to a club where a few got very drunk.  I knew I had to be up early the next morning as I was being taken around Saigon by a friend, Mandy, whom I had arranged to meet up with.  We had 3 hours until we had to be back at the hotel to be taken to the airport.  I did not want a hangover for that time.

The top left picture is of the main market from outside my hotel room.  The card is of the hotel.  The larger picture on the right is of the main Post Office.  It was fabulous.  The Church on the left is their "Notre Dames" and as we were taking photos a newly married couple were having their wedding photos taken and we were asked to be in their photos.  Apparently it is the done thing to have Westerners in your wedding photos, no matter how casual they look!  It had happened earlier on in the trip too.

Top right photo shows you what I mean about the driving in Saigon.  Frenzied and no mercy shown!  Yes we took a ride on rickshaws.  I couldn't believe they could smoke and cycle with us on there.  We also took a ride on mopeds too.  No helmets either!  Scary.

The last page below is a montage of photos.  It seems so long ago now but is still remembered with much fondness.  We did all keep in touch for a little while, but not long after the trip Anne left RNIB and moved, and some got married and moved and it all kinda phizzled out, mores the pity.  I still would do it all again, and the hard work taken to raise £2,601 was well worth it in the end.  As I am nearing another big birthday, I have been asked if I will do something like this again.  Ask me on a day when I am feeling better!

Thanks for popping round.  I will try and get to you all over the next few days but time on laptop is limited to how long I can focus.

Hettie

Scrapbook Tuesday - Vietnam Scrapbook Part 6

Hello there!  

Guess who got so busy being Santa's Little Helper last night and forgot to post piccies up for today's ST?  That and the fact that I decided to back up my mobile on the computer as I dropped it down the stairs the other night and smashed the face on it.  If it has to go back I want to ensure I get all my December photos off it and my contact numbers.  That took a fair while I can tell you!

Anyhoos I have some more Vietnam Album layouts which I can share with you....

This is the market in Dalat.  It absolutely fascinated me with the colourful stalls of fruit and vegetables and the general hustle and bustle of life.  I was very happy to wander round here (except when they were selling fresh fish!  They were alive in those bowls but were bashed once they sold!  Talk about "fresh")  We found a great bar here where the chappie was very happy to have British people in his bar and kept plying us with drinks - more than we paid for I think!

This waterfall was absolutely stunning and tucked away off a busy main road that we had to go through some trees to get to.  We could hear all the heavy traffic that sailed past oblivious to this beauty, but you could have been in another world.  It was so calm and beautiful.  The bottom photo shows that we are in tea and coffee growing country with all the rows of plantations.

This page makes me laugh.  The lorries that are on the road would not comply with MOT standards here in the UK.  Some are built out of a box of bits.  This top left one was in a garage getting fuel and I was taking photos of it when the owner came out.  I asked if I could sit in and he muttered under his breath ("stupid woman" or words to that effect I expect) and beckoned for me to hop in!  It makes me giggle every time I see this photo.   Can you guess how many children are on the moped bottom right?  Three heads you can see and one riding on the chap's lap!  

And here we are at the end of the cycle under the banner.  We we all so happy to have taken part, tired and very fit.  After a glass or two of bubbles we were pretty pickled too!

My certificate and medal to prove I had done it!!

One more post to show you Saigon and that will be it.  I will try and get it finished before the New Year.

Thanks for calling by.  I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little of my fabulous trip to Vietnam. I have certainly enjoyed sharing it with you all.

Hettie

Vietnam Scrapbook - Part 5

Hello Friends

What a strange week of weather we have endured this week.  Fog, rain, humidity, warm, cold - I never know what to put on in the mornings!  

I thought today I would share some more photos of my Vietnam album with you.  You will recall that in my last post I told you we were up early at the Temple as today was going to be a long hard day.  Well it sure was.  We were to climb Muc Pass.  On the first layout I chose to use multiple photographs to show you the sort of terrain we were cycling.  The altitude is 980m!  You can see from the photographs just how winding and beautiful this road was.  We met up with a bunch of Australian cyclists who were cycling down the Pass - they told us we were "mad" to go South!  Hmmmn!

 The group photograph at the bottom left is at the halfway point!  Onwards and upwards as they say.  I was determined that I would NOT be going on the follow up bus if I had to walk the route until midnight!  I am pleased to say I succeeded!

 Here is a picture from the top of the Pass.  I really did feel I was on top of the world!

And my Victory Photo!  The Team Doctor, having completed the ride, cycled back down to see who else was coming up and came across me.  I did not have far to go but she turned right round and cycled back up with me encouraging me all the way.  There was a particularly long and steep corner to go and I still don't know how I did it but I did.  You can just see the joy in my face on this photo!  

See those groves on the mountain opposite?  They are the tea and coffee plantations of Dalat.  No doubt you have drunk some.

A little rest at a "coffee shop" and we were back on the road once everyone had caught up and a few miles down the road we came on this temple.  The layout may seem a little strange, but the bottom of the page contains the book which I bought and the ribbons hold it in place.  I managed to buy some postcards and some gorgeous tassles from here, one of which decorates the spine of this album.  I shall show you that once I finish.

Anne-Marie and I asked if we could take photos inside the temple and they gave us permission (we learnt that some were told no).  However, in the heat my camera decided not to work and Anne-Marie's batteries had gone flat so we were unlucky.  I have the little book so not to worry.  When we got to the hotel I put my camera in the fridge, having taken the sim card out, for a while and it came back to life - phew! 

That is all from me today.  Thanks for calling over.  

Hettie

Vietnam Scrapbook Album Part 4

Hello Again

Would you Adam 'n' Eve it!  I made a layout to show you today, but now realise I have not uploaded the photos to my blog, though I had thought I had done so.  Never mind ey!  I get to show you some more photos from my Vietnam Album for Scrapbook Tuesday.

After our second day at cycling, which was considerably longer than the first day, we were all feeling pretty tired in the late afternoon when we all gathered outside a Cemetery in order that we could cycle the last part as a group.  We went down a long winding road with trees either side of us not being able to see much around us, though we did have a sense of sea air.  Then we turned at the bottom of the road to see what can only be described as a "village" of small wooden chalets.  Shelley and I were given the key to our challet and the photos below are all taken from the veranda!  Aren't they just stunning?  This is the South China Sea.

I can tell you that I had never seen a bunch of 20 or so people get out of lycra cycling gear and into costumes and trunks and into the water so quickly!  Boy did we love it.  It was not cold like our seas in the UK but soothingly cool.  Only thing is watch out for the spikey urchin things as they hurt!

The two photos here on the left are taken on our way to breakfast.  If you look carefully you can see a coracle like boat with men fishing and this really is the sun rising.  The photo on the right is our breakfast table view!  I would definately go back to this resort again, and maybe even try scuba diving.  I shall just have to keep doing the lottery!

Here we all are at Po Klong Garai Cham.  Another temple and in a wonderfully good state and in use.  The carvings are beautiful and we were able to fully watch the sun rising here, which is the best time to see these temples.  Inside there were oil candles burning and fresh offerings left.    

Oh to be back there again.   We had to be up very early as this was to turn out to be the hardest day of all.  I will show you why next time.

Thanks for calling by.

Hettie

Vietnam Scrapbook Album Part 3

Hello There Peeps

I should be out helping Mr Hettie with the log cutting and stacking, but he suggested I did something inside whilst he sets up the chainsaw etc!  I think he was thinking more along the lines of the dreaded H word but nah!  I had something to finish for a friend which I will share later and I wanted to share some more photos of my Vietnam Scrapbook for you.  If you have missed the first installments click HERE and HERE.

So without further ado, here are the next few pages for you....

On Day 2 we cycled from Hoi An to Da Nang where we popped in to a hotel for some lunch, a shower and change of clothes before boarding a train to Nha Trang.  The hotel also furnished us with a packed lunch (well kind of).  It was just as well as the food on the train was not to be desired!  I kept the chopsticks tho!  The photo above the train is the railway station!!!  We arrived at Nha Trang at about 1 am due to the train being late and then held up at nearly every crossing!  So it was a case of finding our rooms and then hitting the beds. 

As usual it was a very early rise to enable us to be ready to depart from the hotel at 7 am to avoid the heat of the day (it got to 45 degrees most days).  This was the sight that beheld us when some of us undertook a short diversion down to the breakfast room!!  It is no wonder that the hotel and grounds were a former summer residence for the Royal Family of Vietnam.  It was a wonderful sight to see with the sun only just rising!  This photo very often is put onto my screen saver!  This was my first layout of the album and only my second layout I ever created.  A little basic but you have to start somewhere!  I did contemplate remaking this page later but I feel the simplicity of the page highlights the photo and the layout below makes up for it!  The business card is one of the many I picked up on the trip!

These are a few more photos taken at the vantage point we found as well as the building showing our bedroom.  What we had not realised when we went to bed was that there were tiny Geckos in our room, which we did find in the morning!  Not sure I would have been too happy seeing those but realised they were quite harmless by the morning!

This page is dedicated to the People of Vietnam, especially the children, who made us feel so welcome.  Everywhere we went children would show Hello at us and if we stopped anywhere they would gather round us like we were celebrities and were more than willing to have their photos taken.  Also you can see some of the motorbikes loaded up with goods, animals and children!  We saw 5 people on some!  The third photo down on the right was actually taken at a cemetery we cycled through.  They really were beautiful places with lots of statues, coffins and small pagodas!  I cannot quite see our cemeteries being so colourful in the UK!

Thanks for popping over and I would love to read your comments.

Have a great Sunday!

Hettie 

Vietnam Scrapbook Album Part 2

Hello Friends

Another weekend and another damp one for us in the UK.  Looks like the weather is back to normal now and aren't the nights drawing in quickly now or is it just me?

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my showing of my Vietnam Album last week.  So today I thought I would give you another instalment with the next four pages.  

We stayed two nights at Hoi An and this really is a beautiful and very old city.  This river ran straight through the middle of it and I got to see lots of dragonflies in the evening light.  Beautiful.

This Japenese Bridge was a wonderful old footbridge (and the odd cyclist) under which lives a dragon who's tail is in Japan.  It is alleged that if the Dragon is happy everything is ok, but if not, Japan gets an earthquake.

There are four monkeys which guard the bridge and the candles are lit all day.

Here we are at 5 am preparing for our first cycle ride of the trip.  We cycled to My Son which is a sacred place full of temples and burial places.  Unfortunately, during the conflict, it was used as a base for the US Army and was left in a pretty sorry state.  However, it still had an air about it of a sacred place and the carvings were spectacular.   "Xin Chao" is what children would shout to us when we passed through towns and villages!  It means "hello"!

One of our group photos which proved tricky at times as we would wander in all directions, but fun anyway.

I apologise for the reflection of the pages in the album, but the pages are pretty tricky to remove due to all the embellishments.  

Thanks for calling by.  Please leave a comment so I know you have been. Have a great crafty weekend.

Hettie

Vietnam Scrapbook Album - Part 1

Hello There

I hope you are having a good weekend so far.  I am either to be found painting windows or scraping wallpaper - depending on whether the wet stuff is coming out of the sky!  Fingers crossed it is windows as it means I can finish the task.

A blogging friend of mine is going through a bit of an Asian theme with her projects lately and it reminded me of my album I created of my trip to Vietnam, which album started me off into the world of Scrapbooking per se.  So I thought it would be nice to share this album with you (I am quite proud of my trip if truth be told!) as it was made PBD - see Hettiespeak on the sidebar for explanations of acronyms.  So here is part 1......

(Cover - the tassel came from the Temple)

I was coming to a big 0 age (yes 20!) and I had a list of "XX Things to do before I Hit XX" - quite a lot of which I had completed.  Three of the things on my list were;

• Complete a long journey by cycle (I was actually thinking of Lands End to John O'Groats)
• Cycle in another country
• Do something for a worthwhile Charity.  

(Page 1 showing me on a sponsored take Mostyn across the Severn Bridge in the pouring rain, Belly Dancing, Mostyn, Belly Dancing again and on the first morning at 5 am in Hoi An)

Whilst I was pondering as to what exactly I would do for each of these "Things", I received a newsletter from RNIB (I had already undertaken some fundraising for them) with some exciting challenges in which I could take part.  RNIB was very close to my heart as I used to work as an Optical Technician in a previous life.  I talked the options over with the man of my life and I duly sent off the application form for which I was accepted.  OMG what had I let myself in for?

(Little hand made book where I journalled the start of my journey)

After spending six months raising money through various means including Raffles, Belly Dancing, Sponsored take Mostyn across Severn Bridge, Balloon Race, BBQ, Auction I had raised more than the requisite amount and I was off to Vietnam.  What an adventure I was to have.

(I printed maps off the internet and literally cut 'n' paste them.  The brads show overnight stops)

We set off from Heathrow at 10.50 am on 11th November and headed on our way, first stopping off at Quala Lumpa (I always thought this was where Oompa Loompas came from) then a transfer to Saigon, and then a short hop to Hoi An.  27 hours in total and we were all dead beat when we arrived.  A quick shower and change and we were off out for a wander around Hoi An to get our land legs back and our first meal in Vietnam.

(Gorgeous place this.  I am leaving the pages inside the sleeves as they are a pain to get out due to all the embellishments)

The album and matching papers were from QVC and I have no idea what make they were.  The lanterns were K&Co, brads were picked up in What!  A lot of the embellishments were cut on the newly acquired Silhouette and some of the smaller embellishments were made on the Quickutz.  I seemed to have had less stash then but I just love this album.  The "Asian" themed stamps were also bought from QVC and I recently saw them on another channel for an awful lot more than what I paid individually!!  All the business cards are from this area and include the hotel, the coffee shop and where I got my suit tailor made and also my Ao Dai.  I wore this Ao Dai for New Year last year!!

That is all for today folks.  I shall share some more with you next week if you would like to see more.

Hugs

Hettie