Holiday in Europe and a question

Living in Vietnam, it feels like we are physically closer to our European roots, but it didn't feel that close after a 30 hour trip back there at the start of July.  Flying via Abu Dhabi, Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Umea (in Northern Sweden) still landed us with an hour and a half drive to Skellefteå, where Vik grew up.  Luckily it was 9pm and we could go to bed on arrival.  Luckily not having to feel guilty about trying to adjust to new timezones and not sleep until normal bed time.  Unluckily, it was Sweden and summer time.  The sky was just as bright as if it was midday.  It turns out they've thought of that already and we had blackout blinds on the windows.

Next morning, or rather lunchtime, I awoke and the view was amazing.

Morning awesome

And it pretty much looked that way each day for two weeks.  The weather was mostly 25-30 degrees, blue skies and warm, even at night.  And the bonus of being so far north is that you can sit in the sun all day and not get burnt.  The lake was shallow and thus warm too so morning swims became a habit.

My favourite thing about Sweden (other than the accents) is their food and drink.  Well the drink is mostly just coffee, but they do it well.  They are listed in the top 3 of coffee drinking nations and its easy to see why.  I'd say they might even drink more than the English drink their tea. If you know me, then you know I only drank my first cup in 2012 and little did I guess back then that 2 years later I'd be chucking back 5 or 6 cups a day.

Swedish food is varied, seasonal, big on fish, heavy on cakes and all about the combinations.  At breakfast we made open sandwiches from hard crisp bread, butter, cheese, cucumber, boiled egg and a squeeze of fish eggs.  With yoghurt, fruit and of course coffee it was hugely tasty and filling.  Instead of lunch we tended to snack on cakes, biscuits, chocolate balls and coffee.  One evening we had the world famous Surstromming.  You can read about it by asking Mr Google but from my experience, I can confirm two things.  1. The smell is god awful and no matter how much you want to find out if the stories are true, as soon as you do you want to never smell it again.  2. It tastes pretty yummy - as long as you eat it the Swedish way on bread with potatoes, creme fraiche, onions and dill. 

Feeling like I was in the perfect dream, about a never ending holiday, we spent our days idling away on small jobs on the house (painting a fence, replacing the door lock), reading in the sun, swimming and fishing in the lake (I caught the tinniest fish you've ever seen and was told it was a whopper by local standards) and biking along never-ending, pine tree lined roads.  One evening we headed out for two hours of slow driving so that I could spot a moose.  I have been looking for them in both Canada and USA to no avail so was hoping for third time lucky.  But sadly we didn't see any.  Perhaps my moose-hunting look frightened them off.

The moose-hunter

But all dreams end and so we headed back down to Paris with Vik's mum.  The two of them were to spend a few days sightseeing as a birthday gift from Vik to her mum.  Whilst I was getting the train to Belgium to meet my folks, who had Eurostared in the day before, for a few days in Bruges.  Three flights, a metro, two trains and then walking to my hotel on the cobblestone streets of Bruges, I bumped into Mum and Dad.

I'd visited the city the year before and so acted tour guide as we wandered the canals, learnt about chocolate and chips and tasted as many strong beers as possible.  We had a day trip to visit the many memorials and cemeteries around Ypres - a very interesting tour.   But of course the best bit of Belgium is their beers.  I brought as many back with me as possible (10) and also a beer making kit I picked up in Sweden, of all places.  I set up the fermentation stage yesterday so hope to have some tasty beer in 3 weeks time.

Now the keen minds amongst you (I hope its not only search engines that read this) will know that I've missed out an important part of the story.  Being together in Europe with our respective families seemed like a good opportunity for them to meet and so the Chambers caught the train down to Paris and we had lunch in Montmatre, below the Sacre-Coeur, with the Degermans.  A quick walk up the hill to see the church and views of Paris was followed by a mad rush to get back to the train so my parents could catch their Eurostar home.

The following day Vik's mum flew back home too and the two of us had a few hours in Paris.  We picked up some of the free Velib bikes and rode around the river and Notre Dame.  I had an engagement ring in my pocket and you'd think Paris would present many an opportunity but time, crowds and maybe a little bit of nerves meant I never quite found one.  And so it took until that evening, at the airport, and the sight of a champagne and seafood bar, before an idea formed.  I suggested a drink and ordered two champagnes and a plate of oysters.  Vik looked at me a little concerned at my sudden splurging out and I could only grin back as the waiter hovered in front of us, shucking the oysters.  She talked, I couldn't answer; too busy rehearsing lines in my head.  I couldn't keep still either.  I needed 30 seconds distraction-free.  Eventually the waiter disappeared and I was free to 'ask'.  Vik was still baffled by my odd behaviour and a ring that had (unceremoniously) been dropped in her hand, but as I kept confirming "Yes, this is really happening" she soon gave her answer: "I'd love to, that's a great idea".

And so, we are now engaged.  No plans as yet, we have to decide on a country still, and anyway we need to concentrate on getting this Masters written first before buying wedding magazines.
We quickly emailed family before stepping on the plane back to Vietnam where we stepped right onto a sleeper bus for the 8 hour drive back to our home in Dalat.  The first week back in rained non stop but since then its been sunny and hot with barely a thunderstorm in sight.  Perhaps rainy season is over early this year!

ps As well as writing this I have a few other ramblings online (http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/whats-the-grossest-thing-you-ve-eaten/10362375/Oh-cute-a-baby-bird-to-eat and a few articles on http://beervn.com/) 

 Breakfasts

 Hedgehogs would scamper over the lawn each evening

 French bistro

Guess what just happened

Tripping

Woahh there. Time flies and its nearly 2 months since I last wrote.  Much has happened and much has changed in our lives. Lets begin.

Back in mid June we took our first weekend trip away. Saddling up our steed, we set off in an easterly direction towards the coast and Nha Trang.  It is, apparently, 'the new road' and it did have less potholes than normal but as it was my first long distance trip on a motorbike I took it easy, keeping the speed below 70kph.  We cruised up and down hills past coffee plantations and fields of strawberries.  Eventually crossing a high pass, the road headed down the side of a huge valley and we could see what looked like flat land and the ocean in the distance.

As we slowly wound our way downhill, the heat increased.  We'd worn trainers and jeans in-place of leathers but I wanted nothing more than jandals and speedos and to jump in the sea.  I'm joking of course- I'd NEVER wear speedos.  Pine trees turned to rice paddies and banana trees until we hit the bustling metropolis of Nha Trang and had to weave our way around at least a million motorbikes to find the beach.  Checking into the Perfume Grass we had a sea view room, a/c, TV, fridge and free (if tiny) breakfast.  We were also 100 metres from the beach so headed straight there for an afternoon paddle.

I'd visited this very beach 10 years earlier when doing my backpacking round the world thing.  I still have photos.  Tourism, I once heard, tends to destroy the beauty of a place and the very thing that initially attracts a person to an area.  What was once a quiet beach stretching into the distance, famous for snorkelling trips and seafood has now become a party town, populated by Vietnamese and Russian tourists, a beach (and sea) littered with plastic and a beach front lined with 5-star hotel chains.  But that's all very subjective and says more about me than Nha Trang.  But if you can ignore the speedo-clad Russians with big bellies, and if you can find an available sun-lounger after 8am, then you can relax on the beach, have a swim in the cool water and then nip back to the hotel for a shower and bit of a/c.  And thats really all we wanted for two days.

The only time the beach was quiet - 6am.

There is a hidden bonus in Nha Trang though.  It has not one but two microbreweries.  We of course went to both and I wrote a bit about it and sent it to a Swedish guy in Hanoi who writes his own blog about Vietnam's beer scene.  I was surprised when he stuck it up on his site: http://beervn.com/2014/07/02/louisiana-brewhouse-nha-trang/

Monday morning came too soon and we nipped into the supermarket - bigger range than our one in Dalat - to buy Earl Gray tea and then headed home.  The uphill ride was tough for our old bike but we made it and our only problem was rain which fell for the last hour and quickly turned our soaked hands and feet into ice blocks.  Funny to be so cold in the tropics but the same thing happened when I was cycling in the Andes so I should know better.  Luckily we have a hot shower at home and some new teabags so we soon warmed up again.

 On the way home, just before the rain

The following two weeks saw us packing up and cleaning our house.  We'd decided to move into an American man's empty house on the other side of town.  He only lives here 2 months of the year and so we would have the place to ourselves.  It was cheaper than where we lived but more importantly had an awesome view out the back sun-room over pine forests.  We'd timed our move with our little holiday to Europe to visit Vik's family and attend her sisters 40th birthday party.

In our last week, a new gym and spa place opened up and offered us to use the gym for a week for $5 as some of equipment hadn't arrived yet.  Our plan of going everyday didn't quite happen but we did make it four times.  The walls were adorned with muscle men and women from America.  I should have asked the grandma, who started telling me her life story while on the spinning bike, what she thought of them.  We must head back there and see it finished actually.

For our last night in Dalat, we headed out on the town (a rare occurrence) and ended up drinking quite a bit (ie 4 beers) and eating local food (frogs legs).  The next morning, with all our (worryingly growing amount of) stuff transported by bike to the new place, we got on a bus down to the beach resort of Mui Ne.

That is a frog's leg

Mui Ne is similar to Nha Trang in that its also full of Russians and has a beach but other than that its very different.  One street runs along 10km of beach and is home to small resorts, nice locals and not a high rise in sight.  Our hotel was sat back from the road on top of a sand dune which gave a lovely view but meant we had trouble getting to the beach as the resorts employ security guards to stop people just walking through their place.  Mui Ne is known for its kitesurfing but windy season is near Christmas so it was rather quiet when we were there.  And wet; it rained most of the time which was a bit of a shame.  But we are heading back there for 4 days in September when my entire family comes over to visit.

After two nights in our cosy hotel we bused to Saigon, went to a gym near the airport to work out (but mostly to use their shower) and then flew to Northern Sweden (via Abu Dhabi, Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm).  More on that in another post.