The scooters! We only saw 5 people on a single scooter twice. 4 people several times. 3 was pretty ubiquitous and 2 not worth mentioning (but when has that ever stopped me?). Hanoi didn't have extensive use of helmets generally and especially on kids. Which is kinda understandable: their heads grow fast, helmets are relatively expensive, they ( Read more... )

Trip was great:

1. Hanoi was beautiful (the old quarter at least, didn't really get very far out of it). I really liked the weathered old narrow multi-story terrace buildings* (although staying on the 6th floor (12 narrow steep flights of stairs) for one late-night-arrival-with-early-morning-departure seemed like a lot of effort). And narrowish ( Read more... )

Just found out that leave which wasn't accumulating cos I had 'maximum' leave already accumulated, is being re-credited to me (union was kicking up a fuss ( Read more... )

New Zealand
Was good fun.

Yes, went with CIG/Q and did family stuff half the time and travel-relaxing stuff the other half.  We hired a car and drove from Auckland (where we had br/lunch with CIG's little bro and sis-in-law, who drove in from their farm a couple of hours out - we might try and go visit them next time), to Hamilton for a couple of ( Read more... )