Project Vietnam Inc – Building Project 11-24 March 2012 The Job This year’s building team project for Project Vietnam was based in Phu Ly, the same as last year’s. Phu Ly is a small provincial town about an hour’s drive South of Hanoi in Ha Nam Province. The actual site...

With Sunday being an official day off work from our PVI project, Christine and I organised to hire a bus and travel South to Ninh Binh, a trip of about an hour.We were only able to get a bus for the morning, Sunday being a very big day for weddings and the driver having already booked up an...

Our annual building project with the team fro “Project Vietnam” was due to start on 10 March so we flew out of Perth on the 3rd, for an overnight stop in Kuala Lumpur then on to Ho Chi Minh City. THis would give us a week in Vietnam before the work started. We made an early start,...

Sentosa Island, Singapore. Originally called Pulau Blakang Mati (Island of Death from Behind), this tiny island had been a British Naval Fortress, home of the British forces in Singapore and a powerful defence against attack from the Straits of Malacca. Unfortunately, it proved to be woefully...

We spent 4 nights in Ubud, having travelled over from Lombok via air. We had arranged a pickup from Denpasar, a useful move because the price is set at 25,000Rp by the Ubud tourism group anyway and it means we didn’t have to deal with the taxi touts out the front. It took about an hour...

We flew into Lombok on Nov 28th, leaving Perth the night before and flying via Singapore. This is definitely NOT a preferred option, the whole trip taking around 25 hours, only 4 of which could really be counted as sleep. However, circumstances meant that we already had tickets to Singapore so...

Charnley River Station. What a hidden gem! We have never before ventured off the Gibb River Road and travelled the 47kms North that it takes to reach this delightful station stay. Previously known as Beverley Springs, the station has recently changed hands and the facilities are currently...

Our big destination this trip was to be Timber Creek. For those who don’t know, Timber Creek is a little town on the Victoria Highway in the NT, roughly half way between Kununurra and Katherine. It is quite a historic spot, it being the centre for the booming cattle industry created around...

Since our last post, we have driven to Broome, parked the yacht with friends, and headed up the Dampier Peninsular for a week of work at One Arm Point Remote Community School. We thoroughly enjoyed the week, largely helping out in Admin with a whole variety of tasks that badly needed catching...

Our trips to the Gascoynes and Pilbara so often prove to be a battle with the weather. This year, we have endured both rain and wind, with very few days when the winds have dropped to pleasant levels. We seem to spend much of the day huddled inside the yacht, outside being too bleak to soak...

Malacca doesn’t seem to feature too highly in the tourist brochures back in Australia but it is a place worthy of a visit and a stay. We usually see it promoted as a day trip from Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, the former needing a full day and half a night most of which is bus travel. We...

We spent a week and a half on the Central and South Central Coast, taking in Hue, Danang, Hoi An, Dong Ha and the Demilitarized Zone. The travelling was done by a mixture of train and bus, the former being very pleasant and the latter at least bearable. Train Trip Phu Ly to Hue We rose early,...

The project has come to an end. As I write, we are waiting to head off to Trung Luong Village (the other job) for a hand-over ceremony. Our job, at Ma Nao Village, was completed yesterday and handed over amid much speech making, dancing girls (5 year old ones), karaoke singing and beer...

I am writing from the hotel, having spent the day resting up with a “touch of belly”. After the things we have been eating, it’s not surprising. Christine, as usual, had a quick bout of mild illness then straight back on deck while I seem to take a couple of days to get over...