Melbourne & the Formula One

We have had a great time in Melbourne since arriving back aftger driving the Great Ocean Road. Yesterday was our first full day in town, so we went to check out some shops and an 'Indie Crafts Market' that Izzy wanted to visit. I'm so glad the F1 brought us here, because Melbourne is ten times nicer then Sydney. It's cleaner, friendlier, nicer atmosphere and has better shops. The market was really nice too; it was in a warehouse in Docklands and most of the things on sale were hand made. One couple had a stall selling vegan cupcakes, and offered me a deal. Take some photos for them and they'll give us a couple of free cupcakes!

Obviously the main reason I've been excited for Melbourne is the Formula One! I was pretty worried the weather was going to be cold like it has been the last week, but we were really lucky with the weather, it was bright sunny skies for pretty much the whole day and well into the twenties. The result wasn't quite what I hoped for, I did want Hamilton to win but second place wasn't too bad. We also met up with mum and dad as the they were in Australia too, and Luke and Nicola.

We spent a while on the grass at turn 3 watching the Australian V8's, then moved to turn 7 for a better view, and then eventually to the grass on turn 10 for the end of the race.

Melbourne is an awesome venue for the F1, it is set in Albert Park, which for most of the year is public roads through and around a massive park in the middle of the city. At the end of the day after all the racing they open up the track and all of the spectators are allowed to walk around it. We were all so tired from spending the whole day there so didn't walk the whole thing. 

^ Kissing the tarmac on the straight after turn 10... and here's a little video of the opening lap at turn 7. The atmosphere was incredible and I forgot how loud the cars are.

Rainy Hue

We've really enjoyed Vietnam so far meaning Hue had a lot to live up to, and unfortunately is hasn't been that great. The trouble is the last couple of days the weather has been pretty miserable with rain all day everyday, and all the main tourist attractions (other than the Imperial City) are miles out of town. The easiest way to see these is to take a motorbike tour, but with the torrential rain we've been having we didn't really want to get on the back of a motorbike for the 6 hour tour of the sights.

Every market we've visited on our trip has been different to the last, so today we visited Hue's Dong Ba Market. It had rained all day today, which I think was part of the reason it was so damn smelly. Part of the market was an indoor meat market, we walked through but I couldn't even bring my camera to my face because it smelt so bad, I just had to make straight for the exit.

Sights of Hoi An

Today Me and Izzy did some sight seeing in Hoi An, checking out the culture and arcitechture. It's a surprisingly small town, but has plenty of hitsory that hasn't been destroyed by the tourist industry. For 90,000 Dong, you can buy five tickets to see some of the 18 sights around the town, all of which are within walking distance from each other. There are a few markets dotted around selling typical tourist tat and fabrics for the tailors, but a couple of them are focused on local trade and sell every type of fruit, veg and fish under the sun. Some interesting smells to say the least!

Christmas Eve in Nha Trang

I can't believe it's Christmas eve already, time has flown by. There are a few seasonal signs here and there and several adverts on the western channels on TV but otherwise it really doesn't feel like Christmas here. We've had some great weather now, and I've been in the sea pretty much every day for the last few days. Starting to look a bit brown now and not like a typical british tourist on the beach by blinding people with the whiteness of my skin.

Local kids playing football on the beach

Saturday Market at Chiang Mai

This trip seems to be getting better by the day, but I think yesterday will be hard to beat after meeting those tigers. We had the bike until 15:30 so thought we would make the most of it and travel a bit further out of town to San Kampaeng. It's meant to be full of handicraft things that Isabella was pretty keen to have a look at but when we got there it was dead... must have been the wrong day. After the bike went back we chilled by the pool until early evening, when we got a Tuk Tuk over to the Saturday Market which is similar to the night bazaar. The night bazaar had so much crap for tourists like fake football shirts and fake watches, probably because it had become so famous but the saturday market was so much better! It was a lot more of what I expected from the night bazaar with more hand made bits and food stalls.

Tuk Tuk ride to Saturday Market, Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai Night Bazaar

Just got in, we went for a walk around the night bazaar. Some really cool hand made stuff there, like buddhas carved from wood or onyx (want one!) and pretty much anything you can think of as a fake... watches, T-Shirts, bags etc. Here are some photos...

Night Bazaar, Chiang Mai