Two things I learned mid-way through my tour of 'Nam: 1) Hoi An is probably one of the most beautiful cities in all of the country. 2) Getting there via a Camel line night-bus from Nha Trang is not such a great idea. Earlier, I wrote about how efficient and stress-free the Fula/ Pula buses were. On this journey, I met their bizarro world counterparts, the Camel bus line (or to use their full name, the "You'd wish you ridden a camel instead bus line"). Not to get into all the nasty details, because #1 is the memory I am taking away from all this, but the bus was filthy and smelled like feet. For 13 hours, the driver was reckless, even by regional standards. And they crowded the aisles with local villagers sleeping on the floor, making it impossible to reach the (possibly working) bathroom. Not that this mattered, I guess, since I woke up to find- first thing in the morning- a toddler with his penis in a water bottle and a group of women making "ssssss...
Orange bitter liquor...it's what's for breakfast
Clock him with an egg and win 20 euro
April 30th is the day when the Dutch (and the tourists that love them) manage to outdo the usual everyday bacchanalia that is Amsterdam. Ostensibly, it is the celebration of the Queen's birthday (although it is actually the birthday of her mother, since the current Queen pragmatically realized that changing the holiday to her actual birthday in December would probably put a damper any outdoor celebrations and had the good sense to leave well enough alone). So now as before, in springtime, everyone dresses up in orange (the royal family is known as the House of Orange), drinks orange liquor, walks arounds streets strewn in orange debris and in general sleeps off an orange hangover come May 1st. Or was that just me?
Orange u glad you were there? Sorry, couldn't help it ;)
ReplyDeleteRoland, that's hilarious! Berti _ wow, I just caught up with your St. Kitts/Nevis adventures! It sounded like such an amazing trip!! Makes me want a Carib and a rainforest tour of my own, right here in Brooklyn. And these pix of the flower parade in Amsterdam are so cool! Really puts the Rose Parade to shame (and also, sadly, the Dallas Arboretum, which I recently visited). All of your pictures are fantastic _ now that you have this blog, you can get a big-time book deal, I think! I will work on it...
ReplyDeleteNice tulip pics! Wish I was there!
ReplyDeleteHellooo woman!!! Welcome back to Europe for a long stay!!!
ReplyDeleteSo did you wear a little bit of orange? ;)I was thinking that one of my choises if I would move from Bucharest it would be Istanbul, but thining over might be Amsterdam too ;)) This people are amaizing...enjoing every second of their life ;)
Any plans for your visits this summer? ;) maybe we see each other somewhere!
Bert: I love the flower pictures! But, I wonder: did you take pictures of the 5 bloodied tourist you had to shove out of the way to get snaps? I'm not suggesting you change the family nature of the blog to a more Grand-Theft-Auto version or anything, but seeing the battered rag of a pushy tourist in sandals and socks does have a repulsive allure. PS: We'll be cruising the Baltice in late August. Wanna come to London or Copenhagen for a drink? I hear alcohol is really expensive in Sweden on account of the alcoholism... I'm dreading the desert already! Ciao, F.
ReplyDeleteHey Berti,
ReplyDeleteCool pix from queensday. What a celebration isn't it? I am back in Holland. If you guys want get in touch with me and w'll have another Dutch adventure.
See you soon,
Marc.