Vietnam 2014, The 'Bears Winter Sojourn
Now that is a girl with her head screwed on the right way round. Who wouldn't love Wanaka?
If she's still around, tell her to vote for Wanaka on Home - Gigatown
Apparently, if we win Google NZ will move their NZ headquarters here.
You other guys that use Facebook and stuff might like to chuck a vote my towns way. Mighty appreciated if you do.
Last edited by kiwi TK; May 15, 2014 at 04:56 AM.
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It's difficult to fall off the Ural, so you just have to watch out for the other 45 million nutters on two wheels.
At least I still have my helmet and boots on!
I drink probably 5 to 6 litres of water a day and STILL only have 1 pee. How hot? REAL hot.
Cheers, SB
At least I still have my helmet and boots on!
I drink probably 5 to 6 litres of water a day and STILL only have 1 pee. How hot? REAL hot.
Cheers, SB
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From: Vδδksy, Finland
...and that's coming from an aussie living at the edge of desert, a potato flower colored northener like yours truly would probably survive for 15mins max without crawling in front of the AC machine with the business end of a garden hose... I'd probly look like a beetroot after a day even if covered in suntan oil with SAE rating...
Last edited by Mattson; May 22, 2014 at 06:20 AM.
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A little late but.............
What with an incredibly flaky internet connection, heat similar to the surface of the sun, a very busy work schedule with long days, the internerd is the last thing I feel like fighting each night
However, Mrs SB and I had a day off together today and went for a morning swim in Nuoc Mooc, then had Watto, one of the British cavers over for a leisurely lunch and mooched around in the afternoon cleaning up our house.
Now it's time to finalise a few things and bring y'all up-to-date.
Firstly. The Competition to name the Ural.
Entries were:
From Sprock: Uranus - both witty and sticky in this climate, then Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and MaxIvan.
From Jarvid: Ursula.
From Mattson: Miska, Asbjorn, Nanook and Artio.
From RoadiJeff: Indy.
From Merri (in Australia) Exceptural(e) feminine or masculine and Urika
From Mrs SB: Rasputin.
A great entry guys and I thank you for your inputs.
As Mrs SB disqualified herself by entering it now falls to me to choose the winner so................
It is...........................
wait for it
wait
just a little longer
ok
are you ready?
are you really sure???
It's RASPUTIN!
Mrs SB wins. No insider trading here, I just thought it was a fantastic name!
There are however two honourable mentions:
RoadiJeff for Indy and
Merri for Urika
So if you guys PM me your details we will send you a little Vietnam souvenir
Again thanks for all your entries.
Cheers, SB
However, Mrs SB and I had a day off together today and went for a morning swim in Nuoc Mooc, then had Watto, one of the British cavers over for a leisurely lunch and mooched around in the afternoon cleaning up our house.
Now it's time to finalise a few things and bring y'all up-to-date.
Firstly. The Competition to name the Ural.
Entries were:
From Sprock: Uranus - both witty and sticky in this climate
, then Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and MaxIvan.From Jarvid: Ursula.
From Mattson: Miska, Asbjorn, Nanook and Artio.
From RoadiJeff: Indy.
From Merri (in Australia) Exceptural(e) feminine or masculine and Urika
From Mrs SB: Rasputin.
A great entry guys and I thank you for your inputs.
As Mrs SB disqualified herself by entering it now falls to me to choose the winner so................
It is...........................
wait for it
wait
just a little longer
ok
are you ready?
are you really sure???
It's RASPUTIN!
Mrs SB wins. No insider trading here, I just thought it was a fantastic name!
There are however two honourable mentions:
RoadiJeff for Indy and
Merri for Urika
So if you guys PM me your details we will send you a little Vietnam souvenir
Again thanks for all your entries.
Cheers, SB
Last edited by Sebastionbear1; May 22, 2014 at 07:07 AM.
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Today is one month since we departed Mount Pleasant for the warmer climes of Vietnam.
In the last week Mrs SB and I visited Father Binh, the Catholic priest for this part of the Quang Binh province.
And they run a spring water business and hotel which funds an orphanage about 40 km distant from Phong Nha. Mrs SB is providing links with schools back in South Australia to see if we can get some level of sponsorship going to help the children.
The man in the blue shirt in the photo below is Ho Khanh, to co-discoverer of the world's largest cave Hang Son Doong (Mountain River Cave).
They had just finished the rice harvest and I was invited to join the celebration - we park the Ural in Ho's compound each night as it is a lock up. I was offered a seat next to the host and some ice cold beer and then......................................
cooked unhatched duck in the egg. I stayed with the beer!
At the Farmstay life is hectic as usual with,
Grandfather drawing a cat around the belly of his sleeping grandson
Everyone wanting to have their picture taken on the Ural when it is there.
Life on the tours continues apace in the heat with a few damp respites
This is a gaggle of Google girls from San Francisco swimming at the lunch stop, Nuoc Mooc. Hard life isn't it?
A Singaporese couple who both had their bike licenses took the Ural for a blast up and down the Khe Gat airfield. Great story that one - look up The Battle of Dong Hoi in wiki.
Late afternoons on the way back to the Farmstay are always hard to take.
We have had a good laugh at this though........
Our Vietnamese driver's licenses turned up. Just love the Photoshop job on me. I almost look respectable
Cheers, The Travelling 'Bears
In the last week Mrs SB and I visited Father Binh, the Catholic priest for this part of the Quang Binh province.
And they run a spring water business and hotel which funds an orphanage about 40 km distant from Phong Nha. Mrs SB is providing links with schools back in South Australia to see if we can get some level of sponsorship going to help the children.
The man in the blue shirt in the photo below is Ho Khanh, to co-discoverer of the world's largest cave Hang Son Doong (Mountain River Cave).
They had just finished the rice harvest and I was invited to join the celebration - we park the Ural in Ho's compound each night as it is a lock up. I was offered a seat next to the host and some ice cold beer and then......................................
cooked unhatched duck in the egg. I stayed with the beer!
At the Farmstay life is hectic as usual with,
Grandfather drawing a cat around the belly of his sleeping grandson
Everyone wanting to have their picture taken on the Ural when it is there.
Life on the tours continues apace in the heat with a few damp respites
This is a gaggle of Google girls from San Francisco swimming at the lunch stop, Nuoc Mooc. Hard life isn't it?
A Singaporese couple who both had their bike licenses took the Ural for a blast up and down the Khe Gat airfield. Great story that one - look up The Battle of Dong Hoi in wiki.
Late afternoons on the way back to the Farmstay are always hard to take.
We have had a good laugh at this though........
Our Vietnamese driver's licenses turned up. Just love the Photoshop job on me. I almost look respectable
Cheers, The Travelling 'Bears
Last edited by Sebastionbear1; May 22, 2014 at 05:42 PM.
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D-Day Update 6th June 2014
Firstly a thought for all those who stormed Fortress Europe 70 years ago today. My respect and admiration knows no bounds for all those who participated in the D-Day invasion at Normandy.
Yes, it has been quite a few days since an update on the sojourn, but things have been either, very busy, very, very hot or we’ve been in recovery mode.
So let’s kick off with a quick update.
“What’s this rash that comes and goes?
Can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only”…………………………….54
John Schumann, Redgum, I was Only 19 (A walk in the light green)
I have this bloody fungal rash which flares up when I get wet. So, swimming in the Song River, at Nuoc Mooc, the Dark Cave or even having a shower is proving problematic – and I do all of those every day. We are now looking for an oral fix, as the ointments seem to feed the rash.
The butterflies continue to be so prolific both in number and diversity of species that I am constantly amazed every day. There are approximately 400 species in thePhong Nha Ke Bang National Park and I have yet to see half of them. Emotionally erect I tell you!
Swimming at Nouc Mooc with a lunch served on a banana leaf platter remains very hard to take on a daily basis.
The rice harvest has finished and the fields are now being ploughed for the second crop. There was a couple of mechanical harvesters in the region for the first time ever. The interest these caused with the local farmers was immense as it shortened the harvest from approximately 1 month down to 10 days. The crowds surrounding the mechanically harvested paddocks was a sight to see.
Ploughing however remains firmly old school
We have been invited out to a few dinners with the younger ex-pat community in Phong Nha. Here Josh proudly stands with a tuna we cooked up for dinner – with the obligatory roast pork.
It doesn’t pay to go to sleep in the hammocks at the Farmstay. Here’s Josh in a slightly less flattering pose the next day. He had been asleep for less than a minute when one of the other staff carefully placed a bruschetta on his nose. When he awoke –to great laughter – he picked up the fallen bread, popped it in his mouth and said Hmmmmmmmm Bruschetta
This is the Glass House – our home is the top room at the front for the duration. The cows come free with the rent.
The bike chugs on daily with a few little problems but an overall feeling of robustness that astounds me. After all it only weighs a few pounds less than the Titanic.
One problem I did have to fix though as my Chinese safety boots (flip flops) were not keeping the hot oil that was leaking out of the left rocker cover.
I did the tappets and the old rocker cover gasket refused to seal, so a trip to mechanic Son fixed that. Here he has stripped off the rubber from a bicycle saddle – about 3 mm thickness – and he carefully cut out the shape of the rocker cover, punched holes for the locating pins and central bolt then used scissors to cut out the centre sections. It fit up perfectly and not a drip of oil has leaked. Ingenious!
That job, with a litre of oil, a drink and the gasket construction was $14.
There is a growing anti-Chinese feeling in the country. We had read about riots and factory burnings in the south but really hadn’t noted too much up here until we saw these signs outside the local Catholic Church.
The tours are going well although there have been a few UXO explosions this last week that killed a 5 and 9 year old (cluster bomb) and a couple of 40 year old men who were trying to saw a large bomb in half to get the explosive!!! Snakes have become very prevalent as well with approximately 90 species (including Cobra) in the park of which MOST are deadly poisonous. We generally see 1 to 2 snakes each trip now. The one in the picture was in the shrine at 8 Lady Cave and when it escaped the shrine climbed a VERTICAL wall. ****!
Phong Nha Bridge
Sunrise looking to the east.
Sunrise this morning looking toward Laos (west) with a nice rain storm headed our way. It was nice as it cooled things down a tad and made the trip into the Farmstay blissful.
Mrs SB and I are off to a wedding in Dong Hoi tomorrow, so we will be dressing in all our finery (??) for the event!
Cheers, The Travelling ‘Bears
Yes, it has been quite a few days since an update on the sojourn, but things have been either, very busy, very, very hot or we’ve been in recovery mode.
So let’s kick off with a quick update.
“What’s this rash that comes and goes?
Can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only”…………………………….54
John Schumann, Redgum, I was Only 19 (A walk in the light green)
I have this bloody fungal rash which flares up when I get wet. So, swimming in the Song River, at Nuoc Mooc, the Dark Cave or even having a shower is proving problematic – and I do all of those every day. We are now looking for an oral fix, as the ointments seem to feed the rash.
The butterflies continue to be so prolific both in number and diversity of species that I am constantly amazed every day. There are approximately 400 species in thePhong Nha Ke Bang National Park and I have yet to see half of them. Emotionally erect I tell you!
Swimming at Nouc Mooc with a lunch served on a banana leaf platter remains very hard to take on a daily basis.
The rice harvest has finished and the fields are now being ploughed for the second crop. There was a couple of mechanical harvesters in the region for the first time ever. The interest these caused with the local farmers was immense as it shortened the harvest from approximately 1 month down to 10 days. The crowds surrounding the mechanically harvested paddocks was a sight to see.
Ploughing however remains firmly old school
We have been invited out to a few dinners with the younger ex-pat community in Phong Nha. Here Josh proudly stands with a tuna we cooked up for dinner – with the obligatory roast pork.
It doesn’t pay to go to sleep in the hammocks at the Farmstay. Here’s Josh in a slightly less flattering pose the next day. He had been asleep for less than a minute when one of the other staff carefully placed a bruschetta on his nose. When he awoke –to great laughter – he picked up the fallen bread, popped it in his mouth and said Hmmmmmmmm Bruschetta
This is the Glass House – our home is the top room at the front for the duration. The cows come free with the rent.
The bike chugs on daily with a few little problems but an overall feeling of robustness that astounds me. After all it only weighs a few pounds less than the Titanic.
One problem I did have to fix though as my Chinese safety boots (flip flops) were not keeping the hot oil that was leaking out of the left rocker cover.
I did the tappets and the old rocker cover gasket refused to seal, so a trip to mechanic Son fixed that. Here he has stripped off the rubber from a bicycle saddle – about 3 mm thickness – and he carefully cut out the shape of the rocker cover, punched holes for the locating pins and central bolt then used scissors to cut out the centre sections. It fit up perfectly and not a drip of oil has leaked. Ingenious!
That job, with a litre of oil, a drink and the gasket construction was $14.
There is a growing anti-Chinese feeling in the country. We had read about riots and factory burnings in the south but really hadn’t noted too much up here until we saw these signs outside the local Catholic Church.
The tours are going well although there have been a few UXO explosions this last week that killed a 5 and 9 year old (cluster bomb) and a couple of 40 year old men who were trying to saw a large bomb in half to get the explosive!!! Snakes have become very prevalent as well with approximately 90 species (including Cobra) in the park of which MOST are deadly poisonous. We generally see 1 to 2 snakes each trip now. The one in the picture was in the shrine at 8 Lady Cave and when it escaped the shrine climbed a VERTICAL wall. ****!
Phong Nha Bridge
Sunrise looking to the east.
Sunrise this morning looking toward Laos (west) with a nice rain storm headed our way. It was nice as it cooled things down a tad and made the trip into the Farmstay blissful.
Mrs SB and I are off to a wedding in Dong Hoi tomorrow, so we will be dressing in all our finery (??) for the event!
Cheers, The Travelling ‘Bears
Last edited by Sebastionbear1; Jun 6, 2014 at 12:24 AM.
Whats this rash that comes and goes?
Can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only .54
That'll be the remnants of Agent Orange mate. Nothing too much to worry about; but, if you start feeling the urge to take a Kalashnikov to a high school, you should maybe have a bit of a chat to someone qualified to deal with those sort of urges.
Nice, smiley ladies on the Ural BTW. When my wife has to take Ural she never appears that happy.
Can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only .54
That'll be the remnants of Agent Orange mate. Nothing too much to worry about; but, if you start feeling the urge to take a Kalashnikov to a high school, you should maybe have a bit of a chat to someone qualified to deal with those sort of urges.
Nice, smiley ladies on the Ural BTW. When my wife has to take Ural she never appears that happy.
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Whats this rash that comes and goes?
Can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only .54
That'll be the remnants of Agent Orange mate. Nothing too much to worry about; but, if you start feeling the urge to take a Kalashnikov to a high school, you should maybe have a bit of a chat to someone qualified to deal with those sort of urges.
Nice, smiley ladies on the Ural BTW. When my wife has to take Ural she never appears that happy.
Can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only .54
That'll be the remnants of Agent Orange mate. Nothing too much to worry about; but, if you start feeling the urge to take a Kalashnikov to a high school, you should maybe have a bit of a chat to someone qualified to deal with those sort of urges.
Nice, smiley ladies on the Ural BTW. When my wife has to take Ural she never appears that happy.
Yup, Ural fixes ALL problems including marriages, sad days, world wars, and if you add ordinary household bleach, cleans clothes as well
Cheers, SB
