A rather chilly weekend with Louise

Louise Sanderson (a friend from Singapore who I’ve known since birth) came to visit this weekend. She arrived on Thursday, and despite strict instructions from me that she should bring warm clothes as it is Hanoi’s winter, she appeared at arrivals wearing cropped trousers and crocs!! The weather in Hanoi has gone a little bit nuts, and it’s the coldest winter in about 20 years or something… Although I’m hesitant to admit it, I think it’s about the same temperature as it is in England right now (about 10 degrees)!! So Louise definately needed more than crocs and cut-offs. Fortunately, I had a fleece, north-face trousers and walking boots for her to borrow (lucky that eurasians all have little feet).

On Thursday night, we had a late dinner (Pho Xao Bo) and went to bed… Then on Friday, we donned our many layers of clothes and braved the artic streets! It was mostly a weekend of eating (need fuel to keep warm, plus I knew Louise would appreciate Hanoi’s culinary delights)! For breakfast, we of course had Pho Bo… we then took in some sights (the Sofitel Metropole, Hoan Kiem Lake, Gia Ngu Wet Market, the streets of the Old Quarter…) before feasting at Quan An Ngon for lunch… we then watched the Water Puppet show at Thanh Long… and then met up with a Ukrainian/American/Aussie guy (who I met at breakfast one morning) and his Brazilian doctor friend. We all went out for Cha Ca (you barbeque your own fish at the table, with lots of veggies and bun noodles), followed by some Bia Hoi on a street corner. Bia Hoi is fresh pilsner beer without any preservatives added. It goes off after a day or so, therefore the point is to sell it on very quickly (thus at very cheap prices). It’s the street corner drink of Hanoi, and you basically sit on low plastic stools drinking your bia hoi for dirt cheap prices (and I mean DIRT cheap). A glass of the stuff costs 2000 dong (which works out at 6 pence (UK), or 12 cents (US)). I actually really like Bia Hoi, it tastes fresher and lighter than normal beer. Plus (oddly), it has a delayed red-face reaction for me. I go red when I drink alcohol, usually within 5 minutes of my first sip of alcohol. However, Bia Hoi doesn’t make me red until about an hour after I start drinking it. Wierd huh?

Here’s a photo of us at the Bia Hoi place:

 

Normally, people stay out on the streets drinking Bia Hoi for ages (think how long £1 could last at 6p/drink). But on Friday night, after one Bia Hoi our hands were like ice… so we had to retreat to Mao’s Red Lounge (an indoor bar) for some warmth! It was a nice bar, and we stayed for a few hours having normal beers…

The next day, Louise and I went to a few museums (I was trying to come up with as many indoor activities as possible). The problem with a lot of the museums in Hanoi is that the English exhibit descriptions are quite brief. You have to go their being clued up on all the background history info in order to really understand the exhibits. We thought that the Museum of the Vietnamese Revolution might give us more insight into the Franco-Viet Minh War and the American War. But instead we just saw lots of photographs of people during the war, or chairs that Ho Chi Minh sat on when he signed key documents, or the microphone he used when he made key speeches… and we left none the wiser about the actual chain of events! (We did read up on it all later in the Lonely Planet… I began to feel quite ignorant for not knowing important facts about Vietnam’s history despite having been here since November!)

Anyway, we also made a trip out to West Lake (Ho Tay) to see a pagoda, and sit at Highlands Coffee (they have a cafe on a boat on West Lake). We considered hiring a goose/swan paddle boat to paddle around the lake, but there was a light spitty rain, and we were feeling lazy! So instead we spent ages at Foodshop 45, a great Indian restaurant overlooking the lake.

Our last stop of the day was at the Temple of Literature where we wandered around for a bit… That night, we had a cheap but tasty meal at a Bia Hoi street corner, along with a glass of Bia Hoi (I got Louise hooked!). We had an early night, because the next morning we were off to see Uncle Ho!

Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) is embalmed (against his wishes… he specifically asked to be cremated and scattered at various spots around Vietnam), and you can go and pay your respects to his yellow, waxy body at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. It’s an experience I would recommend to anyone visiting Hanoi. I went three years ago with Will, and it was just as fascinating the second time! There are lots of locals as well as tourists, it’s free entry, but you have to leave your camera’s in a left-luggage facility, and put your mobile phones into a clear plastic bag (that you have to carry in your right hand… very specific instructions!). You queue outside the imposing square marble mausoleum, guards alongside the queue shout instructions at you, for example ‘no hands in pockets’ ‘remove your hat’ ’shhh no laughing, no talking’… then you are ushered through the mausoleum, single file… you can’t stop walking, you have to keep perfect distance with the person in front… the gap should not widen. You spend about 30 seconds walking around Uncle Ho’s body (he’s inside a glass case, surrounded by 4 guards), and then you’re back outside and it’s all over!!

Anyway, other activities on Sunday included more Pho Bo, a trip to the temple on Hoan Kiem Lake (mostly because we wanted to see the Giant Turtle remains… it was a day for seeing embalmed things!). Hoan Kiem Lake has giant turtles in it (quite how they survive the pollution I don’t know). It’s name means Lake of the Restored Sword, because legend has it that a giant turtle came up and took a sword from King Le Loi, and took the sword to the bottom of the lake, where it still lies. I don’t know whether the whole sword thing happened or not, but the turtles definately exist. There have been several sightings over the years, and photographs too. Plus, at the temple, you can see the embalmed body of one of the giant beasts! Quite massive!

The last stop on Louise’s weekend trip was to Dong Xuan Market, and then a late lunch back at Quan An Ngon (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve eaten there!).

Today, I went to Hanoi Medical University to get all my paperwork signed… and then I had lots and lots of waxing! It’s so cheap! I went to a great salon near my hotel, and had the full works (half leg, bikini and underarm) for less than the price of an underarm wax in the UK. The lady doing the waxing was adorable… she would warn me before tearing the wax strips off ‘very hurt, very hurt!’… The salon was very posh looking (it wouldn’t look out of place on High Street Kensington), the floors were marble, with marble columns, lots of water features everywhere, soothing music, feng shui style rocks lining the stairs… I felt pampered!

Well… that’s all for now. Mum turns up on Wednesday… Tomorrow is my last day in the hospital. I’m meeting Dr Ha at 8am in the Operating Room. I’m sad that it’s all coming to an end, but this freakish cold-spell here in Hanoi is sure gonna make leaving easier!! Whereas England can’t handle hot weather, Hanoi can’t handle cold! My hotel room is freezing! At least I can convince myself that the amount of food I’m eating is because I need fuel to keep warm…

The emergency department, and lots of eating!

I’ve just returned from an evening in the Emergency Department. One of the Vietnamese medical students (Thuong) invited me to join them on their shift. They’re going to be there all night, but I decided against that!

It was quite a night… I was only there for a few hours, but I saw so many interesting cases. Literally every two minutes another motorbike trauma case gets wheeled into the ED. Tonight I saw a subdural haemorrage, extradural haemorrhage, three patients with legs shattered to pieces, acute appendicitis, a patient with a rigid abdomen (rock solid), a patient with frank haematuria (blood in urine), a patient with malaena (blood in stools from upper GI bleed), an elderly patient involved in a motorbike accident who suffered major head trauma and passed away (well actually she was sent home intubated with her family squeezing her bag and mask valve to enable her to pass away at home… here in Vietnam, I think people prefer it if their relatives can die at home).

Here is an X-ray of one of the crazy fractures (this guy’s leg was completely open with bone sticking out):

 

It was quite overwhelming how much was going on. There were lots of Vietnamese students there (many more than we have on-call in the UK). There weren’t many nurses, which meant that family members tended to do most of the nursing (fetching bowls for vomit, changing soiled sheets etc). I think I’ll describe it as organised chaos… it was hard to tell who was running things, so at times it was pure chaos, but I’m sure there was some sort of organisation behind it all. We didn’t really get to follow any patients through, because as soon as we saw one patient, the next ten would arrive! It was pretty full-on. Here is a photo of Tamara and me:

Anyway, apart from hospital stuff, I’ve also been doing lots of eating… I’ve introduced Tamara and Paula to Quan An Ngon (that’s the one I eat at with Annett, and also went to lots with the Swedish girls), and they’ve fallen in love with it! We went there for dinner last night, and again for lunch today! Here we all are (Paula, Tamara, Me, Thomas and Lawrence):

 

Two nights ago we all went out for dinner to a restaurant overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake. It was a bit touristy (there were musicians playing traditional Vietnamese music by the side of the table), but it had a really nice view… They also came around and gave us roses! Here’s a photo of us there:

 The only other thing I’ve been doing is shopping… I’m trying to get some gifts and sounvenirs sorted because my time in Hanoi is coming to an end. I can’t give away too much info about gifts… but after 2 months here in Hanoi, I think I’m quite clued up about where to get good presents. So don’t worry, you have nice gifts on the way! 

Tomorrow, I’m giving a powerpoint presentation at English Club about motorcycle helmets and cervical spine injuries… and then at 8pm, Louise Sanderson arrives from Singapore… she’s staying for the weekend, and I’m really looking forward to showing her around!

Neurosurgery in Nam

Sorry I haven’t written for a while…

I started at Viet Duc hospital on Tuesday, and I’ve been quite busy. Although I can’t quite believe it, I’ve somehow ended up in the Neurosurgery department at Viet Duc! I was meant to be doing general surgery and emergency medicine, but the doctor (Dr Ha) that Hanoi Medical University contacted is actually a neurosurgeon! I’m not complaining though… I would never have though this is what I would be doing on my elective, but I’m really enjoying it. Plus, Dr Ha is great, and I’m getting proper teaching, so I’m staying put.

The reason I never thought this is what I would end up doing on elective is because I’ve always been more of a medic than a surgeon… People who know me at med school know that I enjoy a good old chit-chat with patients! I like talking about feelings and all that, whereas the future surgeons detest chit-chat and like to get on with the practical side of things. Out here in Hanoi, since I can’t chat with patients anyway because of language barriers, I may as well get some surgical experience in! 

The word neurosurgery makes it sound as if it’s all really complex, uber-complicated surgery… and some of it is (this morning I saw three patients in theatre having various different brain tumours being removed), but the bulk of their work seems to be head traumas from motorbike accidents. I’m certainly going to be able to talk about subdural and extradural haemorrhages after this, and I know how to make burr holes in the skull!

Anyway, I’m also going to shadow Dr Ha when he is on-call, so I’ll get to spend some time in the emergency department. It’s easy for me to go and see general cases in theatre too. Viet Duc hospital seems more slick than the O&G hospital, and it seems more geared up for foreign students. They take a lot of Australian students. In fact, there are two Aussie girls (Paula adnd Tamara) who started at the same time as me (but in a different department). We all met at English Club, which is held every Thursday for Vietnamese doctors and students to get together and chat in English (they loved having us at English Club).

I’m quite glad that I met the two Aussie girls because I was missing the company of Emma, Anna and Matilda (the Swedes). Paula and Tamara have been in Vietnam for the same amount of time as me, but they’ve been doing O&G in a hospital down south in HCMC. They only arrived in Hanoi on Monday, so it’ll be nice to show them all the great restaurants and shops that I’ve discovered in my time here. They’re actually moving into my hotel (they weren’t very happy with their current hotel, so I showed them mine… it’s hard not to like my hotel, the girls who work here are so friendly, and it feels so homely…)

Last night we went out to an Irish Pub for Quiz Night! I seem to be going to a fair few Irish Pubs (this one was also called Finnegans)! The quiz was run by an Irish guy (the owner perhaps?), who in true Irish fashion was pretty drunk by the time the quiz began. It was a really fun atmosphere though, and good hearty food too. We didn’t get off to good start with the quiz questions. The first round was titled Disasters… and we got 3.5/10… One question was name the only astronaut to die on a space mission… No clue! The second round was Who Said It, and we did even worse in that round! We only managed to identify two quotes, one was a Bushism, the other was a Homer Simpson quote! So the two that we got correct doesn’t say much about our intellectual capacities! We did not manage to identify the great words of Churchill, Mark Twain, Mahatma Gandhi, Che Guevara… We improved in the third round, which was (sadly) Sci-Fi! I’m not sure why we were so good at this round, it made us look like sad sci-fi nerds!! And the final round was a Bits & Bobs round, which was our best round, and we ended up coming third overall! It was a lot of fun…

Here’s a photo of us at the quiz:

Weekend in KL

I’ve spent the weekend in KL with Jonathan. (I love Air Asia!)

I had a really fun weekend shopping and being silly! We stayed at the Novotel Hotel which is next to KLCC and Bukit Bintang (the shopping area). We literally wandered the malls non-stop all weekend marvelling at how disturbingly cheap everything is!

My favourite mall was probably Suria KLCC, but I also really like Pavillion (it reminded me of Paragon in Singapore, very slick looking). I didn’t actually buy that much, Jonny bought a lot more than me… I bought a really nice bikini from Quiksilver (and in Asia there is always some promotion or other, so I got roped in… buy a bikini and boardshorts and get 30% off plus a free pair of quiksilver flip-flops! Sweet! So although I didn’t technically need the shorts or the flip-flops, why not lah!)… I also bought a pair of Nike+ Trainers (Nike+ is the ipod range… Will bought me a device to sync my ipod to my trainers to record speed, time, calories burned etc, but didn’t realise that you need the special trainers to match).

Anyway, Jonny bought a camera, headphones, work shirts and trousers, trainers, a new pair of prescription glasses… We had a great time wandering the malls. It reminded us of Singapore life. We pretty much grew up in malls like those. We also ate lots and lots of yummy asian food… Huge prawns on dry-style noodles, pepper crab, a big dim sum lunch at the Shang Palace (Shangri-La), hawker food at Chinatown (Wanton Mee and Char Kway Teow), jack fruit, yellow watermelon, mango, papaya, pomelo, fish balls from Old Chang Kee, sugar cane, crysanthemum tea, winter melon tea, grass jelly… the list goes on. It’s been an indulgent weekend!

Here is a pricture from outside our hotel… It’s of the Petronas Towers at KLCC.

On Saturday night, we went out to Bangsar Baru. 9 years ago, Jonny and I went to a swim meet at the KL International School, and although we were both extremely underage, we went out with other people from the swim team to Finnegans Irish Pub in Bangsar… (Expat kids tend to rush the whole going out scene by the way). So we decided to go back and check it out for nostalgic reasons! It was exactly the same, and we even remembered where the 15 and 17 year old versions of ourselves had sat!

 

We also decided to go to the cinema during our time in KL… Golden Village cinemas! I love cinemas in Asia, the aircon blasts way too strong, the seats are so comfy, and the price… it came to the equivalent of £2… Makes me sick!

Anyway, I had a great time just hanging out chatting with Jonny in KL. We always act so silly together! This weekend we both dragged our well-practised Singlish silly voices out of the closet!! We always used to put on a Singlish accent to annoy Mum back in Singapore, so we do a pretty believable version! Can lah… Cannot what… Wah…

I like KL, but it does have an unfinished feel to it. It’s WAY more developed than Vietnam… it’s almost like Singapore, but just an unpolished version. It’s as if not much thought has been put into things. There are loads of shopping centres, but no logical way to how they are positioned within the city centre or how the floors and shops are laid out. I think some people might prefer KL to Singapore because it’s much less rigid and more like old Asia (with the new bits thrown in)… but me, I still have my soft spot for my cushy Singapore!

Anyway, I’ve been doing far too much… I’ve been leaving a massssive carbon footprint with all my flights everywhere. Once I get back to Hanoi, I’m going to get back into the hospital life, and stop flying around like a madwoman!!

Back in Hanoi

I got back to Hanoi on Sunday… and then early on Monday morning I was picked up and taken to Ba Vi District Hospital (about 70km out of Hanoi). I had opted to spend a week out at Ba Vi hospital to see what healthcare provision was like outside of the main cities. A large proportion of the population in Vietnam live in rural villages, and I thought I should see how they receive healthcare in order to get an overall insight into Vietnamese healthcare.

I’m so glad I decided to go out there… The hospital was a real eye-opener! Almost no doctors spoke English though, so I was allocated to this Vietnamese lady who had done public health research in Sweden, and she acted as my personal translator. It was great! I spent some time in the Infectious Disease outpatients department, and she helped me to take histories from patients (mostly diarrhoea histories), and also helped me to ask the doctor questions about HIV, TB, malaria and other infectious diseases in the area. After that, I asked if I could spend some time in the Traditional Medicine department! It was so cool, they have a whole department devoted to acupuncture and herbal remedies!

To give you some background on the hospital… patients can come from as far as 40km away. It serves a rural/village population, and has numerous satellite community clinics to deal with minor problems. Healthcare isn’t free in Vietnam, but there is an insurance scheme that people sign up to, it’s about US$5 a year (but bear in mind that in rural areas, some people are earning less than US$20-30 per year). If you can’t pay for insurance, you receive a card which entitles you to subsidised healthcare, but you get seen in a different part of the hospital (an even grubbier part). This info is all from chatting to my translator, so it’s not properly researched or anything… but I think it should paint a general picture. 

The hospital has 150 beds. It was pretty basic… it only has one X-ray machine (no CT or anything)… here is the X-ray machine:

There was another doctor in Ba Vi who had done some research in Sweden, and the two English speaking doctors took me under their wing and made sure I had things to do in the evening. We went out for dinner and karaoke!! Karaoke was fun, and so were the dinners… the food served in the rural areas definately do not cater for western tastes! The first night, an entire Chicken was served up… it’s organs (heart, liver, kidneys, boiled blood) were on one plate… Here is it’s head, with some organs in the background:

Another thing that we did in Ba Vi was visit some of the villages, and take New Year money packets to poorer members of the community. This was an unbelievable experience for me, because it enabled me to glimpse into people’s lives and homes, and I saw things that I would never be able to see as a tourist. The villages were a myriad of little crumbling buildings and dirt paths amidst farms and fields… Here is one of the little old ladies that we visited:

I was really enjoying my time in Ba Vi, but at the same time, I felt quite bad because I was taking up a lot of people’s time, and I’m sure they had other things they could have been doing instead of translating for me! I felt that my trip out to Ba Vi was for my benefit rather than being of any benefit for the patients or the hospital. So when they told me that there was transport back to Hanoi on Wednesday, I thought it might be better for me to go back early.

It was quite cold out in Ba Vi… but when I got back to Hanoi on Wednesday, the weather was glorious!! Today, it’s hot hot hot!! Apparently it’ll go colder again by Sunday, but for now I’m loving it. Wednesday night, I watched tv all night! Thursday, I got into tourist mode and took the Lonely Planet walking route to see all the streets of the old quarter (all the streets are named according to what they sell… I walked down silk street, gravestone street, toy street, rope/string street, counterfeit money street, altar street, tin street, musical instrument street)… It was great. I went for lunch at this Cha Ca (Grilled Fish) restaurant. It was slightly embarrassing because they almost refused to serve me. They shouted out loudly ‘not for single person… must have two person… not one person for cha ca’!!! But I begged a bit (no dignity left by this point), and they allowed me to have cha ca for one!

After lunch, I wandered back to my favourite coffee shop overlooking Hoan Kiem lake, and enjoyed the sunshine! For dinner, I met up with Annett and her husband for dinner at Chim Sao. We had catfish, which was quite an experience! These little charred fish plonked on the plate, skin, head, fins, all burnt to a crisp… They were quite good, but there wasn’t much meat on them, just lots of tiny bones that kept stabbing my gums.

Today, I met up with my friend Shazzy (who I met through the new hanoian website). Today we decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch at the swanky Sofitel Metropole hotel. It’s one of the old Asian colonial hotels, like Raffles in Singapore… It was built at the end of the 19th century, and is very French colonial. We ate at the poolside cafe, and felt very posh! The prices in the menu scared me a little… but it’s a treat right? I save my pennies with the Xe Om / taxi drivers so that I can indulge in poolside moments like that!! Here’s a photo of us:

So since getting back from New Zealand, I haven’t done much hospital stuff… but I’m starting at Viet Duc hospital on Tuesday, and I will start treating this more like an elective than a jolly again! Being a lady of leisure is so much fun though!

New Zealand – South Island

So… My time in New Zealand is up, and I’m about to head back to Hanoi after spending two (exhausting) days as a stopover in Singapore to catch up with old friends.

I had an amazing time in New Zealand, it is a really beautiful country, and I loved being with Will and my family, and though I am excited about going back to Hanoi for more of my elective, I would almost like to be going back to the UK with everyone (almost… but then I remember the Vietnamese Spring Rolls, the Pho Bo, the weather, the bustling streets… okay, scrap my initial thoughts, everyone else is going back to work and winter… I’m the lucky one!) However, it was sad to have to say goodbye to everyone all over again.

Anyway, since my last entry, I’ve been up to lots and lots. I left off when we had just arrived in Te Anau.

We were staying in a place called Lakeside Motel (and despite the word Motel, it was actually a really nice spacious place. Our unit had two bedrooms, a double bed in the living room, and a proper kitchen, plus it had a great view over the Lake. Sadly it didn’t have a playstation, so we couldn’t continue with our PlayStation SingStar competitons! I don’t know if I wrote about SingStar in my last entry. But Meg, we have to buy a PlayStation and play SingStar… it’s a 2 person Karaoke game where you battle to score the highest points singing songs! So much fun! We played SingStar Party and SingStar 80’s… so cool. Despite my shocking efforts at Karaoke in Vietnam, with some of the songs on SingStar I was scoring pretty high (that’s not saying much though, because Will scored highly in one song without singing a single word correctly..).

Back to Te Anau though… Te Anau is in the Fiordland area of New Zealand. It’s on Lake Manapouri, and is right next to the Doubtful Sound. In Te Anau, on the first full day, Jonathan, Will and I went on a 8 hour trek on the Keppler Track (another of New Zealand’s great walks). It was a really good walk (although we were all a bit ill, and Jonathan’s knees/hips didn’t enjoy the steep inclines). We were lucky with the weather (Te Anau has over 250 days of rain a year…). Here’s a photo of Jonathan and I at the top of Mount Luxmore.

The day after the trek, we were all feeling in the wars… We’d all managed to come down with the lurgy! I won’t go into all the details… on top of the lurgy, Jon’s knees and hips were killing him, Will’s back had gone into spasm from carrying 15kg of camera equipment in that silly bag, and although my parents had been spared the lurgy, my Dad was still fighting off a cough that he’d caught in the UK… and it was almost funny how many ailments we had between us. Will and I have travelled all over to some really grotty places and have avoided illnesses, and it was well developed, clean, perfect New Zealand that brought us down!

Determined not to let this spoil our fun, we went on a Doubtful Sound trip the next day. It was just what everyone needed, great sights, but sat on your bum in a boat/bus for the whole day! The doubtful sound was spectacular! We saw more wild bottlenose dolphins and fur seals! Here’s Jon and Dad on the boat:

The next day, Will went diving in the Milford Sound, and the rest of us took a leisurely drive to Milford Sound stopping at all the scenic spots on route. Unfortunately it was POURING with rain that day (Milford Sound has over 300 days of rain a year!)… but it was very atmospheric with all the low clouds!

After Te Anau, we drove down to Invercargill/Bluff, and made our way over to Stewart Island. Jon, Will and I took a light aircraft over to the Island, whereas my parents opted for the ferry. The weather on Stewart Island was glorious, which was a welcome change from rainy Fiordland. We were staying in a place called Kaka Cottages, which was a cottage with three bedrooms, a living room and kitchenette. That day we all went over to Ulva Island (a small predator-free island off Stewart Island with squillions of birds who enjoy life without rats, stoats, cats, possums etc). My Dad’s attention span is shocking, and he misbehaved on the trip, but everyone else loved it! Here’s a shot from Observation Rock on Stewart Island:

Our first night on Stewart Island was actually New Years Eve… I booked us a table at a lovely restaurant called Church Hill Cafe on the top of a hill overlooking the harbour. We had a long leisurely meal at the restaurant, and then made our way down to the main beach at about 11.30pm. There was a big bonfire on the beach, and live music coming from the South Sea Hotel, the atmosphere was really fun! Just before midnight, all the locals (sailor-folk) let off their flare-guns, and when it turned midnight, the sky was alight with red flares falling down all around us. Will said it was how he imagined the Somme would look! We let off party poppers, and the whole beach sang Auld Lang Syne (spelling?)… it was such a nice way to see in 2008. Here’s a photo of the whole gang in the restaurant before we went down to the beach:

On our second day in Stewart Island, we took an underwater explorer boat in the morning… and Will and I walked to Ackers Point in the afternoon (with a break on the way for some Oyster Catcher photos). I was left sat on a cliff above the beach while Will mingled with a family of Oyster Catchers. I got the cutest photo of him squatting with his new friends!

 

That night at 9pm, the three of us went on a Kiwi Spotting trip to Ocean’s Beach. There were 15 of us on the trip, which is run by a Stewart Island old-timer who was very sweet! We were lucky and got to see 5 Kiwi’s that night… Kiwi’s are the silliest things, I love them! I haven’t put any wildlife photo’s onto my blog, because they’re all taken with Will’s big camera, and I can’t get those photo’s onto my computer, but throughout the trip, we (Will) got some really nice wildlife shots too.

On our final day on the Island, the three of us went back to Ulva Island so that Will could get some more pictures of Stewart Island Robins, Kaka’s, and other birdies. Then in the afternoon, we made our way back to the mainland on the ferry, and headed off to Dunedin.

Dunedin was my final port of call… and it flew by very quickly. In Dunedin we did a tour of Speight’s Brewery. Here’s a cheesey shot of Dad and I at the beer tasting after the tour!

My final excursion in New Zealand was a trip out to the Otago Peninsula to see the Royal Albatross and the Yellow Eyed Penguins… and that was the end of my holiday! Will has all the nice photo’s of the albatross and pingu’s…

I left Will in New Zealand with my family (flights got messed up, so everyone else got to spend more time in NZ than me!), and I flew to Singapore… I was really tired after the 9 hour flight, and had a shower and put my jammies on, and then called some friends to make a plan for the next day… but it was actually a friend’s birthday that night, and I was persuaded to get dressed and get my butt over to Clarke Quay for a night out!! It was a fun night out, and it was so glood to see lots of old faces again, and be reminded of my youth out in Clarke Quay (although it’s almost unrecognisable to the Clarke Quay of my young nights!)… Here’s a flavour of how the night went!

The next day I met up with more friends, and after a day with Louise, I met up with all the boys again and went for a more sophisticated evening at a really stylo-milo bar on Dempsey Road. And here’s a photo of all of us there:

I realise this blog entry is a bit of a bullet point list (and then I did this, then this, then this)… but I just needed to get it all down. I probably won’t be writing for a week or so, because as soon as I get back to Hanoi, I’m heading out to a district hospital called Ba Vi, it’s about an hour outside of Hanoi… I’ll be spending a week out there to experience healthcare outside of the capitol. Should be good, but I doubt there will be much internet. But after that, I might get back into my day by day account of my adventures!

New Zealand – North Island

It’s been a long time since I last wrote! New Zealand has less wifi spots, and I haven’t had any time to visit internet cafes…

New Zealand is a great country, it’s so beautiful… the weather is a little bit erratic, some days the sun blazes down (the sun is sooo intense), and other days it’s been pouring with rain. We’ve tried not to let the weather get in the way of things though.

After Wellington, Will and I drove to the Kapiti coast (up the west coast about 45 minutes from Wellington). We went to Kapiti island where we saw lots of birds (Kaka, Kea, Tui, other birds I don’t know the names of), and did a nice walk. When the boat dropped us back on the mainland, the heavens opened, and the rain continued for the next 2 days (grrrr…).

We drove from the Kapiti coast inland to Tongariro National Park, but our plans to do the Tongariro Crossing trek had to be postponed because of the rain. On the day we were meant to do the trek, we drove to Taupo  insteadwhere Will managed to entertain himself by doing a bungy jump (nutter)!

 

Luckily, the rain started to ease up the next day, and we got to do our 8 hour Tongariro Crossing. It was such an amazing walk (it’s described as the best one day walk in NZ). It’s the set of Mordor in Lord of the Rings, and the scenery was stunning… I’ll upload a video of us at the Red Crater/Emerald Lakes soon. Here’s a photo of me after the trek at Discovery Lodge (where we were staying in National Park town).

Straight after the trek we set off for our next stop which was a little town called Reporoa (near Rotorua). We were the only guests at this amazing hotel called River Lodge. The hotel is usually for large groups, conferences, weddings and things… but the owner didn’t have any bookings when I first emailed him to enquire, so he agreed to let us stay there. We had the whole place to ourselves… 40 acres, river, jetty, tennis courts, petanque, obstacle course… it was all a bit bizarre, but lovely! Sean (the manager) was really helpful at suggesting things for us to do, and on our first night we went to a local hot springs for a soak, which felt great after our 8 hour trek and 3 hour drive. (We did read later in Lonely Planet that you can get Amoebic Meningitis from the hot springs in the Rotorua region, especially if you dunk your head.. and I do remember dunking my head and forcing Will to follow suit because it felt so nice… no symptoms have appeared yet!)

During our stay in Reporoa/Rotorua, we tried to visit as much geothermal stuff as possible… it was all so different to anything we’ve ever done before, and we loved it. My favourite was Orakei Korako, which has lots of sulphur pools, bubbling mud pools, and the largest silica terrace in the world. Here’s a photo of me on a walkway at the silica terrace.

Another one of my favourite geothermal spots was at a place called Wai-o-tapu, which has some great geothermal pools including one called the Champagne Pool. Here’s a photo of us in front of it.

After Reporoa, we had a 6 hour drive up to Tutukaka (Northlands) where we were reunited with my parents and my brother. We rented a house in Tutukaka for over the Christmas period. The house was perfect for us, it had a hot tub (which Will and Jonathan refer to as the not-so-hot hot tub), a barbeque, a playstation (we played a lot of games in the evening, such as SingStar which is a fun karaoke game (I don’t mind Karaoke in the company of my own family, who are all worse that me I must say!)). Here’s a photo of Jonathan and I in the not-so-hot hot tub.

It was so nice to see my family… It was wierd to have said goodbye to them in London a month ago, and then be reunited in a house in a tiny little town in New Zealand! Unfortunately, my dad is a bit ill with a cough/cold. Plus, for the first few days they were all very jet-lagged. But we’re all having fun, and everyone really likes New Zealand.

During our time in Tutukaka, we drove up to the Bay of Islands a few times. We visited a historic Mauri site, and I got a cheesy photo with some Mauri warriors!

We also went on a diving/snorkelling trip to the Poor Knights Islands (world famous dive site), and went swimming with wild Dolphins (which I loved!)!!! In addition, we celebrated Christmas! Mum and Dad managed to inform Santa of our whereabouts, so we still got Christmas stockings and lots of pressies on Xmas morning! Mum and Dad cooked a very yummy Christmas lunch! And on Xmas Day we went for an epic 6 hour drive to see 6 Kauri trees (on the map it looked like it would take about 2 hours, but the roads were very winding). Kauri trees are the largest trees in New Zealand, and the ones we drove to see were quite spectacular, but when averaging a tree an hour, it was hard to keep everyone from complaining!

Anyway, today we flew from Auckland to the South Island.. and we’re now in a little town in the fjordlands called Te Anau. We’ve got lots planned, but I’ll save that for the next blog entry…