Onward to Rome!

Have I mentioned my upcoming trip to the Continent. I’m going back to the land of my ancestors with the clever woman who played a key role in my being Italian, MJ. (who brilliantly thought to marry an Italian man – sure we don’t get passports, but the nice surname is something).

Today I started thinking about the itinerary which is being guided by a conference that MJ is attending in Rome and visits to places that relate to her work. I can accommodate that I suppose.

I drew up a spreadsheet just to extend the lovely planning process as long as possible. I’ve never really planned a trip before, tending to use the, “let’s get there and see what happens” approach, but I realise now that this way I get to THINK about Italy for much longer, which is certainly pleasurable in itself.

I’ve got an Italian dictionary next to me so I can slowly trawl though Italian websites and a million butterflies in my stomach as I worry how we are going to fit everything in.

This will be my third trip to Italy but there is so much I haven’t seen and would really like to do. We’ll be in Europe for three weeks and also have dates with Paris and Bruges. How is this possible?

If only it wasn’t winter and I hadn’t become allergic to cold weather…I could have just stayed.

Oh, there’s one other brilliant aspect to this trip. We’re going in December, in the lead up to Christmas – which is my favourite time of year. There will be Christmas markets and actual religious references (novelty value!), and I won’t have to listen to everyone hating on Christmas, (ugh, so many parties, have to buy presents, have to eat delicious food, everything looks pretty, grumble grumble grumble), because they’ll be doing it in Italian!

Christmas day in Hanoi

Wow, that was the longest break between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ever! If kids had to wait as long as my readers did for Christmas Day they’d wage war against Santa.

So after a late night of revelry on Christmas Eve, celebrating Vietnam’s soccer victories, it was time to get up and do the business of Christmas. Turns out that the business of Christmas in Hanoi (when you plan accordingly) is the same as everywhere else. You eat and eat and eat until you can eat no more.

We decided to go somewhere nice on Christmas day. This was made incredibly easy because Nicole knows all the right people and got us free lunch at the Intercontinental Hotel. Oh, did I mention the complimentary bottle of Roederer champagne?

Christmas dinner by the window

Simone, Cat and I arrived at lunch to find Nicole waiting for us at an elaborately decorated table with a view. We exchange gifts (I forgot that Nicole was the gift-giving master, this part was extremely fun) and got started on the buffet. Because we were in a fancy hotel and not Smorgies there was an air of grace to our binging. When we piled food on our plates we did so with our pinkies extended.

So much food!

There was every conceivable food at this buffet so we ate and ate and ate all sorts of things, and then decided it was time to settle into the traditional Christmas dinner.

Christmas dinner

Sadly, the eating and eating and eating didn’t warm up the troops for battle, it just weakened the battle stations and we were overthrown early.

Christmas dinner wins

And then we ate dessert…

but surely there is room for a little more

We emerged from battle sometime in the afternoon and made it all the way to the hotel pool before taking a rest.

working off the meal

After an extended lounging period by the pool, we made our way back to the hotel and found Bridget Kelly wandering the streets of Hanoi. We made phone and skype calls to various families and then decided to make the most of Christmas in a non-Christian country and went shopping.

’twas the night before Christmas

I arrived in Hanoi in the evening of Christmas eve. On the way from the airport I saw Santa Clause TWICE. On motorbikes.

When I arrived at the hotel, Simone and Cat were waiting for me (they’ve arrived from Aceh earlier in the evening) and without unnecessary delay we headed out for Pho.

mmmmm pho

After dinner we wandered the streets a bit and bought balloons.

I bought a Santa balloon

Eventually we landed in a bar called the Loo Pub, which had converted toilets as bar stools. Towards the end of the evening the DJ played a very funny and danceable version of Jingle Bells and the crowd got pretty excited.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells!

The smoke machine went into overdrive though and we were driven out into the very crisp fresh air to take a breath. And met this extremely CUTE little girl!

Hanoi's cutest kid

She was on the run from parental supervision but eventually the olds caught up with her and she had to go home. Stupid no fun parents.

Once the smoke lifted and we regained our composure after the Jingle Bells dance-off we decided to head back to our hotel. Sarah was, as usual, sleeeeeepy (it was well past 10pm I’ll have you know).

But when we got back to the hotel, one of the staff told us we simply had to get down to the lake. Vietnam had played Thailand in a soccer match that night…and WON! So clearly every person in Hanoi took to the streets.

The leader of the pack?

It was crazy at the lake. Thousands of people driving around in circles and cheering and chanting and flag waving. I made a friend who gave me a small Vietnamese flag and a flashing neon Jesus on the Cross to hang around my neck. Best friends for life. Jesus stopped flashing sometime last week. He had incredible stamina.

brum brum

Lighting a lantern

Spoiler for tomorrow’s post: When we met Nicole for Christmas lunch the following day she said she’d been down there around 10pm (four hours before we made it there and the crowd was still going strong at 2am). She had a great time too, until she realised someone had SLASHED HER BAG! The gigantic butt face stole her wallet AND her favourite lipstick which is just about the worst Christmas present you could give a gal. Way worse than a flashing Jesus on the Cross.

Christmas mix 2008

Without further delay I present my Christmas Mix for 2008. There are a few Christmas Mix 2008 CDs floating around and hopefully reaching some mailboxes before the 25th but if one doesn’t reach your mailbox in time you can download the whole thing here (using the very nifty drop.io):

Track listing:

1. Vivaldi: Gloria in D, Rv 589 – Negri Vittorio
2. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Death Cab for Cutie
3. It’s Christmas! Let’s be Glad! – Sufjan Stevens
   
4. Every Christmas – Destroyer
5. Angels We Have Heard on High – Sufjan Stevens
6. Blue Christmas – Bright Eyes
7. I Love N.Y.E – Badly Drawn Boy
8. Chestnuts Roasting on – Arcade Fire
9. I Saw Three Ships – Sufjan Stevens
10. Christmas Reindeer – The Knife
11. Ding! Dong! – Sufjan Stevens
12. White Christmas – Mark Kozelek
13. Donna and Blitzen – Badly Drawn Boy
14. Christmas Blues – Canned Heat
15. Christmas Song – Mogwai
16. O Come, O Come Emmanuel – Sufjan Stevens
17. Happy Christmas (War is Over) – Polyphonic Spree
18. Jesus the Mexican Boy – Iron & Wine
19. Holy, Holy, Holy – Sufjan Stevens
20. Fairytale of New York – Stars

Bonus Track for download only: Christmas Must be Tonight – The Band (Can’t be found on any of the CDs. Special huh?)

****

P.S.  I’ve lifted giant chunks from other compilations. Links to the original albums:

A Very Indie Christmas

Songs for Christmas

About a Boy

Shine

The Sea & the Rhythm

Going Postal…ugh, I’m so sorry for this title

I had the most outrageous experience at the post office today. Why do the most harrowing experiences in any foreign country tend to happen at the post offices. I think I will set aside another post to chronicle my experiences of post offices in foreign countries. There’s probably a whole book in it.

Yesterday I successfully wrapped and jammed into one box all my presents for nieces and nephews. The box I used was the one my lamp came in, perfect shape and easy to carry. I taped the box up like a mad man, laughing at the thought of the recipients trying to open it later. Well, joke was on me…

I printed pretty labels for the front and back of the box, and realised I’d forgotten to include the letter I’d written so made a special pocket on the side of the box for my Christmas Note. It was was a packaging site to behold.

This morning I took it down to the post office with a few other letters and small packages, so proud of my preparedness for Christmas (assuming that six working days is enough for international mail). When I got to the post office the woman greeted me with:

“You can’t send that box”

“Why not?” I asked

“It doesn’t have the Thai Post logo on it”

What?! In the best of circumstances I’m a bit of a pushover, I have a fear of authority from way back. Ordinarily if the post office lady behind the counter tells me I’m not allowed to do something I nod and plead for forgiveness for  my insolence. But not today, the Christmas (fighting) spirit infused my body and I fought back. Not so helpful with a non-confrontational culture of Thailand.

I questioned her ruling on my box and she insisted that I would have to transfer my goods into a sanctioned Thai Post box. A brown box almost identical in size and appearance to my own.

I argued (without raising my voice) that the branding strategy of Thai Post was not my concern and that a brown box be a brown box, but my logic fell on deaf ears. I even questioned whether my other mail, in standard white envelopes, would have problems if they didn’t display the requisite number of Thai Post logos. Yes, I sank to argumentative lows. The supervisor stepped in to assure me they’d give me the new box for free and even help me repack it. Lovely sentiment, but he didn’t realise how much glitter I’d added to the box before sealing it.

So we opened the box and the glitter came flying out. It was pretty funny, but I think I’d pushed the post office lady to her limits because I could only get the smallest smile out of her.

Here’s the box, never to be received by those intended:

Note my hi-tech photo editing skills

It was even fancy on the back

The last funny moment was when she’d finished the transfer to the new box and gestured to move my box behind the counter, presumably to a trash pile. “I’ll take that back, thank you!” She could take away my dignity but I wouldn’t let her take my Christmas box.

The long weekend in Bangkok: unabridged

Were you suitably teased by my long weekend teaser? I imagine the reason why I don’t have a long list of comments begging me to write more about the weekend is that your longing is so great that you can’t verbalise it. I understand…those photos were pretty amazing.

Well, just prepare yourself to have your expectations confounded.

I had a special visitor this weekend, who, until the last minute thought he wouldn’t get into my airport-blocked city. And then, as the sea parted for Moses, the PAD protesters left the terminal and all was good again.

Sooooo are you dying to know who visited? Who towers over me enough to take this photo of the top of my head?

Thaaaaaat’s right! The very tall MARCUS (friend not brother)

Looking here as though he might punch the reclining Buddha in the soles of his feet. Way to aim for the most sacred thing in the universe ever.

Taking advantage of Muslim public holidays that both countries of our residences observe (Eid Al-Adha), Marcus quickly popped over from Aceh for a wee vacation.

We just ate food and wandered around on Marcus’s first day in town (Friday) so I didn’t bother getting my camera out for that. On Saturday morning though, we did lots of great stuff and I just didn’t take any photos!  We took boats up and down the river, had a delicious lunch by the river and went to Khoasan Rd to look for old hippies who forgot to ever leave the stinky back packer mecca.

On arrival at Wat Po however, it was clear the camera needed to come out…and it didn’t get put away until sometime on Tuesday (note that Marcus left on Monday morning but by then I was just snap happy).

Some photos of Wat Pho

The temple has these excellent statues dotted around the yard.

The main event at Wat Pho is the Reclining Buddha statue, which is housed in a room whose walls are illustrated beautifully.

As we wandered around the temple Marcus was stopped by some students who asked him to complete a survey that tackled the lighthearted subject, “Are you prepared to die?”

He had a lot to think about.

We left Wat Pho and wandered to the flower market as dusk descended. I had a fleeting and rare moment of knowing where I was in Bangkok and realised we were nearby to the lovely Amarosa, a bar overlooking the river and Wat Arun.

After enjoying mojitos and playing with the settings on my camera to get these lovely shots, we went down to the pier and took the boat back to more familiar territory. We spent the evening at Suan Lum Night Bazaar and rewarded ourselves for an excellent day out with burgers at the American pub.

The next morning we headed out to JJ market to do a wee bit more shopping and I learned the extent of Marcus’s gusto and natural talent for haggling. It was such a great JJ day. It wasn’t too hot and stinky and even though it was crowded and manic it seemed a bit calmer than usual. The market was full of great smells (antiques, food, incense) and we found a corner of the market with old Buddha statues and a violin stall that was a delight to be in.

After a few hours of shopping we decided to get some sushi, one of Marcus’s “I’ve escaped from Aceh, please feed me” requests. I knew of a couple of tasty places, but thought I should ask my friend who knows the best of everything if she has a favourite sushi haunt.

Oh dear, Oishi Grand Sushi Buffet. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

Firstly, I’ve never ever seen so much sushi. Secondly I may not have ever seen this much food. It didn’t stop at sushi at Oishi Grand Sushi Buffet. There was tempura and the bbq grill (where they grill on command!), dim sum, pasta, rows of food I didn’t even look at, and a huge dessert section. Obscene amounts of food.

Ro joined us for lunch and things got a bit silly.

Best thing about this shot: after it was taken Ro said to Marcus “Don’t think you’re actually eating my gyoza”

If he wanted more gyoza he could have had 150 of them freshly grilled at his request because we were in crazyland.

This was the photo AFTER we’d finished eating. We’d eaten so much that all those delectable little morsels went begging. Actually, we did eat some of what’s shown here, but we definitely fell short by a long shot.

The next thing on our To Do list was take stupid photos amongst christmas directions, so we did.

Oh man, I love this photo. Ro wasn’t as excited by the “R for Rowan!” moment as I was. But now that she looks back on it, I bet she loves it too. Expect your R for Rowan christmas card in the mail shortly.

The end

Finding a cafe away from home

It’s Saturday morning and I’ve just set myself up at a coveted table with powerpoint in easy reach at Starbucks near my house. There are about four cafes with wireless within walking distance and about 78 million more within a short skytrain ride, and here at Starbucks I begin the journey to find my favourite. 

Early polling suggests a favourable approval rating. 

Pros:

1. Shameless amounts of whipped cream added to coffee,
2. Christmas music*,
3. aforementioned powerpoint,
4. speedy wireless access.

Cons:

1. the Thai love of the iced frappucino, there is a lot of noisy ice-blending going on, 
2. expensive wireless access. 

That’s four favourables to two unfavourables and the whipped cream is worth two points, so Starbucks is doing well. Of course, it’s still a one-horse race so we’ll see what the next competitor has to offer.

*I need to qualify adding Christmas music as a Pro because I can see that I’ll be taunted for it. I like to think this blog doesn’t shy away from the controversial stance so here I go. 

My friends have told me that Thais will celebrate any holiday, as was demonstrated at Halloween. The shopping centres are elaborately decorated (elaborate doesn’t even come close to describing the decorating style at the fancier shopping centres. It’s a site to be seen and I’m sure a whole army of illegal migrants must have been involved in the construction). Shops will devote 50-70% of their floor space to holiday-inspired sale items that they couldn’t expect to sell more than a small portion of. But that doesn’t seem to matter because it’s a holiday to be celebrated at all cost. 

Needless to say then that Starbucks (and probably every other Starbucks in the world, which kind of negates the need for that earlier explanation of the Thai love of holidays) is already well and truly Christmas cheery, with the Dark Cherry Mocha Frappucino and the christmasy mugs and chocolate eggs (…?)  The thing about it is, and this is where I get controversial, the elaborate decorations in the shopping centres or the string quartets playing carols in the atriums, don’t inspire any Christmas cheer in me at all. Maybe it will in, oh say, December, but for now it seems so blatantly commercial that I’m not that excited. Not bothered, by not excited. But, Christmas music in Starbucks…it just makes me want it to be Christmas right now! I sing along and get warm and fuzzy inside. I have no idea why…but naturally I have a theory. Two, in fact.

1. Starbucks favours Nat King Cole and jazz classics for Christmas which I think may have super powers to melt even the scroogiest heart.

2. The music and the rushing around and the noise remind me of Angus and Robertson days! And now that the long hours running and the angry, frazzled customers, and the worried looks as people whip out their credit cards again are all a thing of the past, I just remember the fun we used to have as we slowly lost our minds, working the 14th day in a row, singing to the silly songs, fighting over which CD to play, and of course, the times when we wore our pajamas for the 24 hour trading days at Chadstone. 

Regardless of expensive internet, I think there might be a few more trips to Starbucks in my future…Until December 26 at least.