Good Morning Vietnam (had to do it, sorry)

Vietnam rocked. When I got in line to check-in at the Jet Star counter for the flight to Ho Chi Minh City I was the only white person in line, it was awesome. When I landed I only had carry-on luggage so I was first past the baggage and immigration clearances and the first to walk out the doors of the secured area into the greeting area. Well, that was my last moment of any sense of solitude. When the glass doors opened I had around a thousand pairs of eyes on me as Vietnamese were there waiting to greet people arriving. I snaked my way through the barricades set up and through the throng of people. After a brief wait outside looking for a white face I heard “KRANSKY” being yelled from the back of a cab. Jeremy pulled up, I hopped in the cab, and he had a Tiger beer waiting for me. Instead of heading to his place we were off to a Christmas party he and his other expat friends were having that night.

My first day in HCMC… I picked up a Vietnamese breakfast sub for 6000 dong (~40 cents) and hit the streets. I just walked around for most of the morning in the heat, smog, humidity, and exhaust… getting used to crossing busy streets packed with motorcycles (scooters to us), cars, and buses. Supposedly there are 8 million people here, but they think the number is actually up around 10 million due to people from the countryside living ‘illegally’ in Saigon. I met Jeremy for lunch, then hired a motorcycle (with a driver) to take me to the sites. I paid 50,000 dong an hour, which was about double the going rate… live and learn. I made stops at the HCMC Museum, the Military Museum, the Vietnamese Museum, and the War Remnants Museum. This last stop is the big one where the Vietnamese shows the gruesome results of American bombing and military occupation and was definitely the highlight of the day. A couple more stops included a Reunification Palace, Chinese Pagoda, and Vietnamese Pagoda, and the biggest market I’ve ever seen. The Ben Tanh market was apparently set on the most valued piece of commercial real estate in the world according to Jeremy, so who knows if that’s true.

After that I went home to Jeremy’s house to wipe the fumes off my forehead. I know now why Asians wear those hospital type looking masks when walking/driving around outside. Next it was off to meet Jezza for a couple drinks and dinner. For the 5 days I stayed in HCMC this was typically the routine.

The next day I set off for the Cu Chi Tunnels. The area of Cu Chi is only 60-70 kms from HCMC and was where many villagers and VC soldiers hid from the American occupiers. It was a long 1.5 hours motorcycle ride and there was lots to look at along the way. After a brief orientation we went on a tour of the tunnels, crawling through sections that were enlarged for fat tourists like myself. The actual size of some of the trap doors is amazingly small, and it’s a wonder anyone could fit in them. It was an eye-opening experience, learning about people who lived down there for years and years. The Vietnamese are a determined, resourceful, and forgiving people.

Jeremy and I then took off to Hoi An, half way up the country and 30 minutes from Da Nang, for 5 days of relaxing… pshaw right! This part of my Vietnam trip was filled with great food, cool sites, partying with backpackers and other travelers, falling off motorcycles, shopping, getting clothes hand tailored, buying pirated DVDs, Christmas party at the Hoi An Hotel where we stayed, snacking in the market, beers, renting and driving our own motorcycles, the Marble Mountains, Pagodas, pool time, massages, and much much more.

It was whirlwind, and probably not very relaxing for Jeremy who was on his only 5 days off in a row since moving to Vietnam. But that’s what you get when you join me on my international pub crawl.

Back to Saigon for a rest after 5 days of Hoi An. This left me with 2 days to feel out the rest of the city… I spent some of that time in an International clinic licking my motorcycle wounds. Only a scratched and bruised elbow, but I didn’t want to risk infection in the jungle, you know how that goes, you’ve seen the movies…

Anyways, my flight is about to board, so I’m gonna jet.

Dirty security measures

How fed up with airport security am I? I’m in the boarding area for my Sydney to Vancouver flight, with a stop in Honolulu. Before I got to this point I had to go through customs… no worries, immigration… no worries, security… no worries, then before I could enter the boarding area I had to be patted down and have my carry-on searched by had, even after the x-ray at the original security. This is because we’re touching down in Hawaii, the US. And this happens only at gates that are going in/through the US. In Hawaii I have to get off the plane, go through security / immigration / customs again and then get back on the same plane for the leg to Vancouver. wtf? It’s not even a case of it being a necessary evil… The rest of the world hasn’t gone this far. Their metal detectors are less sensitive (I can wear my belt through it), one security point is enough, and “liquids” aren’t an issue. It’s almost like they’re asking for it… Even I, mild mannered Canadian, was thinking it’s almost like they’re trying to get you to try something… Like when your mom says “Don’t touch the burner on the stove, it’s not.” Chances are you never even contemplated it until she told you not to, and what do you do next? You touch the hot burner just to see why she had to say anything at all…

Anyways, enough of that. Let alone that a flight to Australia costs the average person making $60k a year 5-6% of their after-tax income, they have to be subjected to more stringent security measures than when they go to prison. Oops, enough of that I said.

Quick update

It's been a whirlwind tour the last couple of weeks... My 10 days in Vietnam visiting a friend went awesome. Ho Chi Minh City is insane to say the least but was a blast.

I'm Sydney now after an overnight stay near the airport, catching a plane back to Calgary (via Honalulu and Vancouver) and will arrive home on December 30th at 11:20am. Looking forward to seeing as many people as possible before I head off again.

On the work front, I'm heading to Houston on January 7th... The front runner for a project is one in Egypt. I have a friend from Calgary who I worked with in Fort McMurray who is on the project in Egypt right now and is having a good time, so it sounds alright. I think the London/Qatar job is still on the radar, but unless something happens with it soon I think I'm off to Egypt. We'll see though, keep you up to date as soon as I know.

Have to go cash in on a free breakfast before the flight, see you Calgary in 24 hours... argh.

This, I could do.

Friday was my first taste of canal-living in Australia. Nadya and Peter, friends from work, invited me to their house in Birkdale on Friday evening for a cruise in their boat, which is moored up in front/back of their house in a "canal community." They can see the open ocean (Moreton Bay at least) from their dock, so it was mere minutes before we on the open water... We went for a quick burn, then toured the canals to look at other boats and the houses. And then back to their place for an Aussie bbq on the patio, what else? After 3 bottles of champers, 2 of wine, and a few beers they put me on the train for the trip back to the city. Thanks to them for having me... In fact it was so good I think I'm going back on Sunday to go out in the bay for a 3 hour tour, yes, a 3 hour tour... Nads & Peet:
Me and "the boys" on the front deck:GPS sort of takes the danger and intrigue out of ocean navigation...
Crabbing at low tide in the bay:Early Saturday morning I headed to Goldie for a round of golf, then checked into my sketchy hotel in Surfer's Paradise. It was the cheapest accommodations I could find for one night... But it served the purpose, which was a place to crash after Ed & Kate's engagement party. That started in the afternoon in the Currumbin Valley at Kate's (and soon to be Ed's) grandparents'. After many-a Pimms we piled in a taxi-van and headed to a few hotspots in Surfer's.
Sunday was spent brunching and lounging by the pool... I'm going to miss this place.

Follow the Ho Chi Minh trail!

I've mailed my passport to the Vietnamese embassy in Canberra, Australia. I'm hoping they stamp in a tourist visa and send it back to me in time for a flight I've booked from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) on the 19th of December. If all goes well I'll be ducking through doorways in backstreet markets, crawling through tunnels in the DMZ, and riding on the back bicycle taxis as a conclusion to my Asian Pacific stint. I have a friend and ex-coworker living and working in HCMC and will be staying and travelling Vietnam with him from the 19th to the 30th... Then back to Canada in time for New Years at A Bar Named Sue. Seems like a perfectly logical itineray to me.

I've posted more pics below... scrolling.

Queensland Realestate

Checkout this unit in Q1 in Surfer's Paradise... it's only on the 50th floor (out of 80). The penthouse which occupies the entire 74th floor is for sale for $8.8M.

How about a French Chateau in Paradise for $5.5M? Or something for your drug running uncle might like?

Pics

Me on the observation deck of Q1, the world's tallest residential building on Queensland's Gold Coast:
Greg's pet possums:
I like birds:

Me & Mom on Kangaroo Point, my actual building in the far background:
Bats on Indoorpilly Island... These flying foxes take flight every night to go find fruit, they have wingspans of over a metre:

More pics

Me at Rainbow Beach on the edge of the sandblow:

Massages at the market, why not:
Chicks on the beach in Coolum:Gold Coast girl on the beach, what's that peaking out:
Frank on Mount Coolum Golf Course:

Week in Coolum with the fam

As you know, I recently had my mom & Frank and Aunt & Uncle in town visiting. When they were each here on their own they stayed with me at my place in Brisbane, but when they were here at the same time we rented a beach house in Coolum, which is about an hour north of Brissie on the Sunshine Coast. Here are some pics of that week.

Loading the board on the mini-van:

Fam in Coolum:

Frank's big catch while deep-sea fishing:

Me playing lawn bowls... I beat this guy 10-9 for a beer. He beat me the game before when we were playing for a punch in the face.

Rainbow Beach sandblow, I'm in the orange: Mom & Frank at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary:
Me and mom at the Ashes (Australia vs England):
Video of me surfing.... Thanks for the commentary mom & Frank:


More to come...

The end of the chapter

"I've seen your face a hundred times
Everyday we've been apart
I dont care about the sunshine, yeah
cause mama, mama, I'm coming home"

It's official, my last day of work on the PNG Gas/LNG Project is the 15th of December. KBR has requested that I be made available for a new project in the new year and neither me, Exxon, or Eos has put up a fight. KBR doesn't know what project I'm going to yet, but they have a few options. Right now it's sitting at around 50% Qatar via London, 25% Nigeria, and 25% somewhere else... but this changes daily. I'm hoping for the London and Qatar option... It would be about a year in London and then a year or two in Qatar engineering and constructing a GTL plant for Shell.

The plan right now is to get ready to leave Australia... I have a flight from Brisbane to Calgary (via Sydney & Vancouver) booked for 30-December, which puts me home in time for New Years. Then I'm hoping to have a couple weeks in Calgary catching up with friends and family...

Inbetween the 15th and the 30th I'll be going to the project Christmas party, then heading to Vietnam to visit Jezzer, who I used to work with on this project but he's now working in Ho Chi Minh City. I figure I better check out an Asian country while I'm still in this hemisphere in case I don't make it back anytime soon.

I still have pictures and stories from when my family was here visiting to put up, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. I can leave you with the following pictures, which were taken on my mom & Frank's last night in Australia. We went to a couple's house who we met in Coolum, they own/run a plant nursery 45 minutes SE of Brisbane. We had a great tour of the nursery, beers, bbq, kangaroo watched, and capped the night off with some good ol' fashioned Australian Cane Toad culling. Greg tee'd them up, and I knocked 'em... Notice the head is down, left arm straight, hips turning before the arms... beautiful.

Still here!

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted last and it's because of the family I've had visiting... We've done a lot of catching up, sightseeing, and holidaying so I haven't had time to update the blog. But I have a lot of pictures and will work to get them up on the next few days.

I should also find out what my fate at work and the assignment in Australia/PNG will be this week so I'll let everyone know about that too.

Hope all is well with everyone, I hear it's been below -25 Celsius in Calgary, which sounds incomprehensible to me right now...

Familiar Faces

My Aunt & Uncle (Barb & Ken) arrived on Friday after spending 12 days in New Zealand. They're staying with me until mom & Frank land on Thursday and then we all head to Coolum on the Sunshine Coast where we've rented a house across from the beach.

Our time in the city until then though has been great so far. We've hit the Powerhouse Markets, golfed Sanctuary Cove, and went to the observation deck of the tallest residential building in the world, the 80 story Q1 building on Surfers. I had to return to work on Monday and the the rels continue to explore the city during the day.

More U2 pics

Here are some more pics taken by a mate nearby...

U2 Pics

Line up outside the stadium

Sound check


Bono appears from under the stage
So close.. he looks small because he is.

Fire
Filing out of the carnage

Vertigo

Not a lot of people recognize DMX, especially here in Australia. But that's alright, I think it's going to be both entertaining and hilarious.

However, 100% of people surveyed have heard of a little Irish quartet called U2 who are kicking off the Australian leg of their Vertigo tour. These shows have been sold out since sometime in 2005 because they were originally scheduled to occur in March of '06... But it was delayed for one reason or another (I think because I hadn't arrived here yet) until NOW. And somehow, one way or another, a ticket has fallen into my lap (for the cover price!!). That's where me and 60,000 of my closest mates are off to tonight.

Everything is coming up Kranski (my Australian nickname).

One way another I need to fit the phrase "one way or another" into this entry.

NSW Surf Weekend

Always willing to expand my surfing horizons I took off on a 4-day weekend with a few mates (old and new) to camp and surf in New South Wales. We left early Friday morning and stopped after a couple of hours driving for a surf at South Ballina. While sitting on our boards waiting for the next set Steve enthusiastically recounted his week-old shark story about how a 2-3 meter long shark swam within arm's length of him in this exact location.

We decided to move on shortly after this... We drove on to Wooli (a total of 350km south of Brisbane) and set up camp where it promptly started to rain. We braved the elements though and managed to get in another surf before dark. Saturday was filled with surf, rain, kayaking, and good times. We finished the day out with dinner at the Wooli pub and watched a game of footy before chatting up the locals.

Sunday was the nicest day weather wise and we filled it with beach, surf, bbq, bocci, and general chilling out.

Monday we had to head back to Brizzie, but not before another 2 surf sessions. One of these was at Lennox Head, the next headland south of Byron Bay. Apparently it's one of the east coast's premier point breaks. It wasn't too good on this day, but it was good enough. I caught a few waves there, mostly scraps leftover by the locals. It was awesome though...

Run Dmx

I just bought 4 tickets to see DMX at the Arena. Jigga wha?!

I forgot how good these were...

Where do nanners come from?

Ever wondered? Trees like these:



This weekend I visited my friend Ed at Goldie for a surf... it was blowy and messy, and I'd like to believe that that had something to do with me not surfing very well but probably not... Anyways, afterwards we went back to his place where is awesome girlfriend [Edit: Kate is now Ed's fiancée, he proposed Monday and she said yes!] cooked us pancakes with imported Canadian syrup. Afterwards they let me tag along on a visit to her grandparents place in the Currumbin valley where they have a banana and avocado farm. Beautiful country...

This picture of Ed & Kate was taken at the farm, and may qualify as the engagement photo...

To Ed's credit the box was full of nanners, avos, soup, tomatoes, and was very heavy... probably upwards of 5 kilos.

In a carton?

Aussie sour cream comes in a carton. And it's thick, so you can't pour it out if you only open one end of the carton. Weird.

I'm cooking a roast tonight, mmm...

Indy Weekend

Well, I didn't actually go to the Indy but I did head down to the Gold Coast with a friend and his gf for some beach/surf. The weather wasn't that great and was overcast the whole time, but it was better than sitting in my flat in Brizzie.

Going to join a co-worker tongiht for his b-day at the Story Bridge Hotel. Last time I was there I ended up 2-stepping and buying shooters (not necessarily in that order) at another pub.