While New Zealand is – again – pulling up the drawbridge, I’m cycling off in the other direction.
This morning, with news that the travel bubble with Australia has burst, I registered my tiny wee gesture of defiance by buying a bike. That above, $60 AUD with lock included.
It’s a commitment to cheap travel here for the next few weeks while the bubble is inspected, pending its possible re-inflation in September.
I’d planned to stay at least two months anyway, and I just couldn’t face myself in the morning if I crawled home now after arriving on July 14.
Of course I risk paying for the hubris. Either by having to cough up for quarantine if NZ stays closed, or by working long hours. Or by finding a real job here to support my feckless self.
So, what’ll it be, then? – chill-blains, rain for days on end, grey skies, freezing cold, or….
This guest house lark is all very nice and comfortable, but it isn’t cheap, so I move into a flat next Tuesday.
It’s in Clare St, Parramatta Park, where I’ll share a downstairs flat with two others. Private bedroom, aircon, desk, broadband, and shared bathroom, kitchen , living area, $165 AUD / week.
I’m a little nervous about the caper, having told myself in 2018 after a cold winter in a Railway Terrace, Whg flat, that that was the last time.
But the house-owner seems like a straight-up no-bs sort, and it was advertised as a “non-party” ( read codgers’ ) household, so all may be well.
Pedalling
I’ve been putting in the biking miles, and will be buying my own ( second-hand, circa $80 ) for transport as I’ll lose the free use of the guest house two-wheelers.
Sights
.. and I’ve been further exploring the Esplanade and waterfront. Evidence below.
July 22, 7:47 a.m., the Bay
July 20, 10:29 a.m., the Salt-Water pool
July 22, North End of the Esplanade, looking over the Bay
Day six in Cairns, and what follows is the stew produced from throwing the spaghetti at the wall. A hodge-podge.
On that note, here are some random pictures taken since arriving.
Outside my airBnB
Early morning
The living room
cycle path
Cycle path 2
cycle lane
Cycle City
There are bikes lanes, dedicated bike paths, centre-line cyclist stops, and even lanes for bikes on the major arterial routes.
Cairns is the purple spot , probably covering about 25 kms each side
Cairns is also pretty much flat for miles around , as you can see at left. When there’s been a breeze, it’s pretty mild.
And lastly, the airBnB guest house I’m staying at includes free use of its three mountain bikes. One at a time.
Waterfront
The waterfront is spectacular. Ok, it’s not Nha Trang bay, but it is very nice.
How many words is a video worth?
This is looking out over the bay from The Esplanade, near the town centre;
And this is from a similar position looking more toward town;
The Briny
The tide was out, but even so, it looked inviting enough so that I was fixing to swim there one day soon. The host has told me, seriously, that this just isn’t done. People fish there, and eat the catch, but it’s considered unsafe for swimming. Go figure.
The Colourful Side
While I was near the town centre, I stumbled across the colourful side of town, notably four Vietnamese restaurants and an entire “night market” mainly dedicated to food.
Pho is Vietnamese for ‘soup’ [ roughly ]
Banh Mi Vietnamese rice cakes
… and another
Also from the “good news for gluttons” department comes the discovery that dairy here is good quality and cheap, including cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt.
The Digs
The guest house has been blessedly quiet after Queensland started shutting out those scurvy southerners from Victoria and NSW. It’s bad news for the host, with a slew of cancellations. But good news for yours truly who, along with a quiet young couple, have the run of the place.
It has good cooking and bathroom facilities, and the bedrooms are ok. A minor annoyance is that its proximity to a well-trafficked road. The laptop mike picks it up, meaning I’m confined to barracks ( my room ) for online teaching.
But it is a little outside a budget I can manage longer-term. Accommodation is going to be the major challenge if I decide to stay on here. It’s the ‘High Season’ for tourists right now, and the best option for me appears to be finding a room in an established flat.
The Weather
Below is the view from outside at around 8.15 a.m., about 21 degrees celsius.
After spending most of yesterday aloft at 30,000 feet, today is a recovery day in Cairns, Australia.
I arrived at the BnB at just before midnight. Exhaustion, and too much rubbish food, meant I slept only about 4 hours.
Nonetheless, the first order of business today, before parking myself on a couch, was a trip to stock up. Recovery equals eating, right?
The AirBnB place I’m staying in provides free bikes, and the lazy 3.5 km trip to Woolworths and back took about half an hour each way.
The BnB I’m staying at is comfortable, an older house large enough for the four guests to easily avoid each other.
The Trip
I left Whangarei ( 5 deg C on waking ) at around 10 a.m., sitting next to a ruddy, chatty type on her way to an automotive convention in the South Island with her husband and son.
Then it was 6 hours at Auckland airport. Auckland turned on a warm day, of course, given that I’d dressed in as much clothing – with as many pockets – as possible. All in an effort to reduce my baggage weight, since it’s fair play for myself and clothing to weigh 80 kgs for the day.
A four-hour flight to Brisbane was next. The plane was maybe 25% full, so there was ample room to spread myself over the spare seat separating me and a young Aussie guy on a short trip back to Queensland to visit relatives.
I did get “taken aside” but breezed through Aussie customs in 10 minutes. There were no requests for proof of the travel declarations ( one for Queensland, one or Australia ) I’d scrambled around to finish at Auckland airport. I’d read that only one was required, but that wasn’t the case, according to Auckland airport boarding staff.
Two hours at Brisbane airport, and lugging everything from the international to domestic airport, followed. The last leg to Cairns was a Qantas flight maybe about 70% full.
I won’t be taking too many taxis here, with the fare from Cairns airport to ‘home’ costing AUD $25 +.
Right, I’m off to find a dark corner and turn on the Tele for a while until that depresses me too much and youtube takes centre stage.
Yes, I’m still champing at the bit to get out of here, but it won’t be happening on Tuesday July 13.
So I was told via text at 11.55pm last night. Their explanation was “operational reasons”. The Air New Zealand phone support spent nearly 5 minutes to tell me they couldn’t explain that further.
I’m now escaping this miserable winter from Wednesday July 14, in the morning.
I’m not overjoyed about it, because it means a six-hour wait in Auckland, and a two-hour stopover in Brisbane.
Meantime, here’s hoping Queensland continues its good covid record.
Above is the local market on Lạc Long Quân St, Nha Trang. It’s 5 minutes walk from my apartment on Van Kiep. As you look at the map below, follow Lac Long Quan down, and to the right, and Van Kiep is the second street.
The hobble, on crutches, has become a daily morning ritual, before the blessed caffeine injection.
I finally got it together to pull some old tricks in the New Place.
The dodgy looking … matter in the bowl is my first successful Vietnam attempt at almond bread / cake. Ingredients are pretty simple – baking powder ( mixed myself from baking soda and cream of tartar ), a duck egg, and almond flour, or ground almonds.
It soaks up anything – I could use it to mop the bench – and is healthy and satisfying.
In today’s case, it’s on the menu with the crockpot dish above. That’s Basa fish, red peppers, pak choi, and carrots. Here’s the directions – throw the veges in with some water, bring to the boil, let cool, add fish. Maybe some salt. Simmer. Forget until hungry.
At chow-down time, I’ll usually add coconut cream, and maybe turmeric, but today, I’ll be sampling it with said almond bread.
A couple of recent emails from the NZ Embassy in Hanoi have injected some urgency into my languid bones.
Things change quickly, of course, but it’s on the cards that there’s an affordable route back looming on the near horizon. Late August, according to the emails below, which is sooner than I bargained for.
On the upside, it would mean avoiding some ongoing costs, i.e. rental + electric etc ( ~NZD 330 / month ), and Visa renewal ( ~ NZD 175 / 1 month, ~ NZD 278 / 3 months ).
On the downside, it gives me that much less time to prepare. And for
Securing the insurance payout I’m due for the bike accident. The company will only pay a Vietnamese bank account. So if I left before they cough up, I would need to rely on a Vietnamese friend – yes, Henry – to launder the money through his account, and send it to my NZ account.
visiting Dalat, as I’d always told myself I would do after the end of school term, June 30.
Enjoying the beach, which I can’t do now with my leg in plaster. It’ll be 8 weeks, and time to remove it, near the end of August.
Sampling more fully the beautiful Vietnamese food.
So I’m torn between episodes of loving it here ( most of the day, and especially early morning ), and wishing I was home ( for example overnight, especially at the infamous four in the morning – thanks Leonard Cohen ).
So without further warbling, here are the emails from New Zealand’s fantastic Embassy staff member in Hanoi. She’ll remain nameless.
Email August 8
If a flight is going to go ahead generally we will have some idea 2 weeks out. That is plenty of time to organise a ride from Nha Trang into HCMC.
In regards to transit through Sydney. You can apply for an exemption to the 14 days in quarantine. If your transit time is over 7 hours and less than 72 hours then you will be required to leave the airport and go to a quarantine hotel during that time and it is payable, though not at the same cost as 14 days. You would not be permitted to do that because you cannot enter Australia.
There sounds like there may be a couple of options on VN Airlines coming up late this month so we can see if Air NZ has resumed flights from Sydney to Auckland by then. I will keep you posted.
Email August 10
The last flights that were going from HCMC to Sydney were around $1100-1300 NZD and then there was the onward flight from Sydney to NZ which fluctuated depending on what baggage you had but I think they were around NZD 400.
This sounds promising. But given the wild fluctuations in flight prices, that price is far from Gospel. A day or two ago, I found a flight listed on Google for around $1300 NZD, and found that the airline website, through which I had to book, was charging $11,000 or so.
