Moving to Vietnam

We moved to Vietnam in March 2018! What a huge move for the family. It was very hard to say goodbye to family, friends and colleagues in Geelong. Never have we been so busy for such a sustained period of time as during this move; packing our house in Geelong, finalising our personal affairs, renting our house out, finalising our jobs, flying to Vietnam then setting up a new household and starting a new job less than a week after arriving.

We left Australia with about 9 pieces of luggage. The jetstar line was terribly long and about halfway to the counter all work stopped for 45 minutes as a software upgrade was made live. Thankfully Brian and Ali were there to help keep the girls entertained.

After arriving in Vietnam, we spent several days in a single hotel room while we did everything we could to start a new life in a new country. Thankfully Stan's parents were in Vietnam to help look after the girls. Stan visited his new workplace where they had arranged a representative from the bank to help create a new bank account.

We spent several days looking at apartments (they were much more expensive than we had expected) until we finally settled on a three bedroom place in Happy Valley. It includes a pool (for all of us) a gym (none of us have used it yet) and a playground (used daily by Talitha and Zara). The photo below is of the courtyard at night. We live in the building on the left.

We have bought a motorbike so Stan can go to work and we can get around. Stan has just passed his driving test in Vietnam and is now licensed to be on the road. Traffic in Ho Chi Minh city is a little busier than Siem Reap though our area is quiet.

Nicole, Talitha and Zara quickly visited Siem Reap to catch up with Nicole's parents who were holidaying there. Talitha turned three while they were there.

We will be putting some more posts up showing our day to day life here (and the delicious food available).

Birth of baby Talitha Berends

Wonderful news! Our daughter Talitha Berends was born on March 20, 2015. We were very surprised when she came three weeks earlier than expected. We spent 7 weeks in Thailand waiting for all the paperwork to be completed by the embassy and Talitha is now an Australian citizen.

We have recently arrived back in Siem Reap where there have been days of electrical outages as many pylons providing electricity from Bangkok were blown over in high winds. When the electricity came back on we lost it again as a high truck sped past the power lines near us and cut the cable to our house. Normally the trucks go slow and someone sits on the roof or hangs out the window with a broom to push the power lines above the truck.

At our hotel in Bangkok

Selfies are not easy with a baby.

Our hotel guard holding Talitha at 2 am.

Saron from Cambodia meets us in Thailand.

Oma Berends holding Talitha while the rest of us swim.

Filling out paperwork for the embassy.

At church in Siem Reap. 

Visiting friends Lida, Any and baby Eric.

Evening ride in Angkor Wat complex

It is getting so hot now we're having to go for an afternoon swim every few days to cool down. After swimming we will often go for a ride around the temples at sunset. You may find this video interesting as it gives you an idea of what we drive around.

It starts as we get to the moat around Angkor Wat. We then head north from Angkor Wat to Angkor Thom, the huge ancient Cambodian city. You can see us drive under the enormous gates. We then stop to watch some monkeys. They are trying to drink some water from a plastic bottle. We then see Bayon, the temple with many faces. After Bayon we go past the elephant terrace where they found the statue of the leper king. From here we go past a number of temples in the jungle. Finally we reach a large swimming pool that was built for one person to use (the king) and we watch the sunset over the swimming pool.

I suggest you watch in full screen and 1080P if your internet can handle it. Enjoy!

Watch on youtube here: http://youtu.be/Jr_boEIn0RA

Charity puppet parade

Every year there is a huge puppet parade in Siem Reap to raise money for charity. Several groups will start planning for the puppet parade in September and then begin to construct huge puppets for the parade.

It is a great spectacle for locals and tourists alike. There are a number of videos below. It is worth skipping through them and watching these large puppets make their way down the street. Sometimes they are so large that someone goes ahead with a long pole and pushes all the electrical cables up high so the puppets can get past.

Traffic jam in Siem Reap

Every now and then we get stuck in a traffic jam here. The reasons range from a horrible accident to something strange. Recently we got stuck while they were replacing some of the drains.

Very quick post. Updated paypal details on the right.

Changed paypal details after being informed it no longer works. (Paypal locked us out after checking the account from overseas.)

Stan's 40th Birthday

Hi All, now that Stan is 40, Nicole can tell everyone he is pushing 50 which is exactly what she said while we were sitting on the road at midnight waiting for our night bus to be fixed.

Where Stan was at midnight when he turned 40.

For Stan's birthday party, we provided a feast for a Cambodian village about 40 minutes away from Siem Reap. We had friends and family from Geelong, Sydney, Solomon Islands and Cambodia attend. The villagers ate so much food and they had tons left over for the next few days.

After arriving, we walked out to the rice fields to see the farms, buffalo and the sunset.

Group photo with many of the group.

Waiting for the food to cook.

Feast starts to arrive.

We later did some firecrackers which caused Eric our cook's dog to run away for an hour. The little kids got really into tickling the adults and if you were sitting there minding your own business, you were likely to get a couple fingers jabbed into your side. This was ok before we ate, but not so comfortable after we had gorged ourselves.