Right, folks. I’m leaving Hanoi at 7pm on Wednesday night. Due to sitting around waiting for an ATM card that’s not turned up yet, I’ve wasted too much time so I’ve started to book things. My itinerary is now fully booked up to Brisbane:
- 16th August – Bus from Hanoi to Da Nang
- 17th – get off at Marble Mountain and take a motorcycle to Hoa’s Place on China Beach
- 20th – get to Da Nang and fly to Ho Chi Minh City
- 24th – fly to Singapore to go to the zoo, night zoo and… erm… that’s it, really
- 27th – fly to Darwin
- 28th – arrive in Darwin. Do some tours of the national parks
- 31st – fly to Sydney for a day visit, sleeping in airport
- 1st September – fly to Christchurch
- 2nd – possibly snowboarding with Rob!
- 3rd – overnight bus to Invercargill
- 4th – ferry to Stewart Island to visit the Kakapo
- 5th – return to Invercargill then back in Auckland for a week or so
- 15th – fly to Brisbane
- *22nd-ish – fly to Melbourne
Flight dates will be confirmed shortly. Essentially, I’ll have 2 days to chill out on China Beach and forget about the rest of the world for a while. Then HCM City for the obvious tourist stuff. Singapore for animals, Darwin for nature trails, Sydney for some lumps of steel and concrete, Auckland for a rock gig and Stewart Island for a very silly parrot that can’t even fly.
Then back to Brisbane (rock gig), Melbourne (more parrots, this time ones that can fly) and after that… erm… dunno. But I need to figure it out before I return to Oz as they’ll want me to have an outbound ticket.
Just so people don’t think I’ve forgotten them – thanks to Indy, Lisa and Lou who’ve offered to put me up in Auckland; Pam and Rob who it looks like I’m now seeing in Christchurch (seeing them more now than I did when they lived in Liverpool); Elaine, Belinda and Albert who I’ll be seeing in Bris; Mari and partner and the Luxford family who I’ve never met and who are kindly putting me up in and around Melbourne! You’re all wonderful human beings!
