Penang
Holy hell it was hot in Penang. We’d been away for some time by now and the heat had never really got to us. This place was in a sweat league all of its own, and on occasion knocked the wind right out of us leaving us gasping on the sidewalk like beached Guppies.
My only previous knowledge of Penang was from a friend who went to film a documentary there years ago, as it was then the home of top quality plastic surgery. Great for boob jobs and sex changes.
When we are given less time to explore a place, Px and I tend to go all out on the box ticking and generally achieve much more than if we have a few days in a place.
With two days and nights in SP, staying with Shen, our chef friend we’d met earlier in the year at a street food event in UAE, (there’s another story there, but not for now), and my 800th birthday to celebrate, we had a lot of ground to cover.
Getting ourselves to the Philippines turned out to be a bit of a struggle. But boy was it worth it.
After the catastrophic realisation that we’d missed our original Hanoi to Manila flight, we flapped about rebooking flights, cancelling hotels, internal flights etc. Dealing with the knock on effect of our little scheduling error meant one more night in Hanoi, I told you that city wouldn’t let us leave, and about £600 in rebooked flights and cancellation fees.
Our plans for Hoi An being thwarted by floods, meant the we took a hop flight from Saigon to Danang, and then onto Hanoi. One night in Danang proved it to be a great little city which if it wasn’t for the flooding, we would have otherwise missed out. Divided by the Han river, it boasts the famous 7 bridges including Dragon Bridge, and the unusual Han Bridge ☑ which is the first Swing Bridge built in Vietnam, instead of opening like Tower Bridge, it pivots from the centre to allow boats to pass either side.
Water water everywhere…
If there is a God, and there clearly isn’t, you’d have thought he would have done a better job with the water distribution across the planet. He’s really cocked that one up. While other countries are starving & in drought, this one has more than it needs and most of it is unusable, you really don’t want to drink this stuff.
Yes I went there with the alliteration.
We’re waiting for our flight from Phu Quoc ☑ to Can Tho ☑in the Mekong Delta, eating Burger King. My justification for breaking the rules of only eating local food while we’re away, is that I never eat Burger King in London. Therefore I am technically eating local food as they have carelessly placed a Burger King in Phu Quoc airport. It’s not my fault.
Writing this on the 3hr ferry trip from Ha Tien on the Cambodia/Vietnam border, to Phu Quoc island. We crossed the border in a rather haphazard fashion of a series of buses, dodgy security checks, zero concern for our visa status, and racing for a ferry that left 15 minutes before we arrived at the port.
With the next ferry leaving in 3hrs, not much else to do but hook up with a gnarly old Kiwi pearl fisher and an Aussie electrician with a year off, and drink the travel company’s fridge dry of beer.
