Only came outside to watch the nightfall in the rain….

One of my biggest passions (obsessions) in life is music, always has been, and since the early 80’s this has been further fuelled by going to see bands play live. From my first gig (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark at the Hammersmith Palais) onwards I have been hooked, and witnessed hundreds of performances since. These have included some truly memorable occasions such as U2 at Wembley Stadium, Red Hot Chili Peppers (supported by Moby) at the Brixton Academy, Foo Fighters at Wolverhampton Civic Hall and a number of years at Glastonbury in the mud and occasional sunshine.

Since moving to Hong Kong live performances tend to be few and far between (although this has got better in recent years) and I have tended to get tickets to whatever shows are on whenever I could. Well, just recently, I have to confess I bought tickets to see Duran Duran live – something in the past I would never have considered doing. I booked two tickets the day before the show, which turned out to be front row seats (oh dear, how embarrassing). Surprisingly the venue was outdoors which is not normally allowed here due to noise complaints from nearby residents, and, noise aside, considering Hong Kong’s unpredictable weather especially from April onwards, outdoor gigs are very few and far between. (Before I arrived in here there was one famous incident where ironically Wet Wet Wet had to cancel an outdoor show due to heavy rain!).

As the lights went down the crowd all rushed forward and we found ourselves a nice little spot up against the barrier. Duran Duran opened with a new song before going on to play some old favourites. After the second song, Simon le Bon quipped that the crowd had a better backdrop than the band, before launching into Planet Earth, when, just after he sang the opening line “Only came outside to watch the nightfall in the rain…” the sky’s opened and it started to pour down - right on cue. Darling, doing her best to hide under her cardigan, gave me the forlorn ‘shall we go?’ look, to which I responded with my ‘I’ve paid so were staying’ glance.

After 45 minutes or so, the rain stopped, and, by the end of the 2 hour show, I had more or less dried out. To be fair, Duran Duran were very good live, playing most of their hits mixed in with some new songs. The 4 out of 5 original band members gave it a good go (only Andy Taylor was missing), and I do admit that I enjoyed the show.

Motorcycle Madness

After 11 years of living in the Far East, I am not quite sure why I had never got around to visiting Vietnam up until just recently. It has not been a conscious decision to not visit, perhaps just that there has always seemed to be somewhere else that I have wanted to go, or perhaps, without realizing it, I have been a little put off by the ‘traveler snobbery’ often hearing people say how Vietnam is ‘the place to visit’ and that in comparison Thailand ‘is past it’s best’. Being quite fond of the Land of Smiles, Thailand has always had my allegiance.

So it was not until the Ching Ming holiday earlier this month, we found that there was no way we could get flights to Bangkok (Darling left it far to late to try and book anything), that we were forced to reconsider our options, and settled on a long weekend to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) instead. Darling booked the flights, I got the visas, and we were off.

The first thing that strikes you upon arrival as you head towards your hotel is the traffic, which is generally comprised of motorcycles, thousands of them, and quite often heading in the wrong direction and straight towards you! As they are the main mode of transport in the city (there are over 3 million of them in Ho Chi Minh alone), it is not uncommon to see the whole family on a moped weaving their way past you as you snarl your way along.

Another observation with the motorcycles is that they very rarely stop, for anything, even traffic lights, including letting you cross the road. After the first couple of goes you soon get the hang of stepping out into the traffic, fingers crossed, hoping that you do not get knocked down at any moment. As you steadily make your way across the road, with eyes fixed firmly towards the oncoming traffic, the sea of bikes part either side of you (thankfully). A very sensible option is to adopt the safety in numbers approach - keeping your self as far ‘downstream’ as possible.

Motorcycles, and searing heat aside, Ho Chi Minh is a great city to explore on foot, with hidden gems of places to see which you would miss in the air conditioned comfort of a taxi. The food is excellent, particularly bowls of steaming Pho Bo (beef noodles) accompanied by a cold beer. The old style coffee shops are great, and I thoroughly recommend the ice cream to be had at Fanny.

We did the obligatory tour of the ‘Reunification Palace’ (where back in April 1975 the tanks rolled in to depose Duong Van Minh of power), visited the Ben Tanh market, took in a temple or two, traipsed up and down Dong Koi street and even managed to fit in a couple of well earned spa visits (well – we had done a lot of walking). By night, the number of motorcycles seemed to drop, just a little, and, noise aside, made for an interesting spectacle when viewed from a roadside bar. We ate at very good Vietnamese and French restaurants (no, not on the same evening) and tried out a few of the bars and clubs. Q Bar was rather cool and quite good for a more relaxed beer, whereas ‘Apocalypse Now’, complete with the ‘Charlie don’t surf!’ inscribed board above the door, was a more riotous place – much more to my liking (but unfortunately not to Darling’s).

I found Ho Chi Minh a great place to visit. I liked it from the moment we arrived and found it got better the longer we were there and the more we explored. The people were very friendly; no one tried to rip us off, the food excellent and the beer cold -what more could you ask for?

Roosters beware!

I am not an avid follower of astrology however I happen to find that Chinese Astrology tends to be spot on (in my case) - quite often. Full of useful advice in general I found today's outlook I considered it was worthy of reproducing here. The comments regarding avoiding alcohol and spicy food are appropriate (perhaps they know I was at the 7's over the weekend), as well as resisting my tastes for luxury and avoiding the urge to spend all my money! (All valid points which are likely to go unheeded).