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As the ship moored overnight at Ha Long Bay we decided to avoid the ship-provided excursions and spend a self-planned night in Hanoi.

 

 

  Ha Long to Hanoi's a two hour drive and we'd had a bit of drama with Wendy's visa prior to leaving, so we needed a new driver. Then, our substitute driver wanted a break in the middle. 

 

 

 

So it was a great relief to find that our inexpensive hotel (Emerald Waters & Spa Hanoi) was OK and we quickly found a very pleasant place for lunch. Then it was time walk about town browsing in the shops, joining the famous traffic.

 

 

Previous experience told us that the trick is to step out and walk across the road at a steady pace. As the travel guides advise: "Walk at a predictable pace so motorbikes can swerve around you and try to cross together with locals until you get the hang of it."

Standing on the kerbside, waiting for a chance to cross 'safely' is like the joke: "Have you come here to die?" - "No. I've been here since yesterday (Australian accent)."

It's not always a pretence that you don't notice them. Some of the motor-scooters are now those silent electric ones, like those in China, that eschew noise of any kind and speak up behind you. "Oh Sh..."

One would think that a Communist country would have road rules, yet it's complete anarchy, that somehow works.

Red flags abound here, reminding us of who won the 'American War'.

 

 

Yet this is a vibrant small business economy. Even many of the big businesses are managed in the private sector.

When we were in Washington DC, back in 2017 we visited the Vietnam War Memorial with the names of 258,220 who died.  As the Australian War Memorial in Canberra also records, not a few Australians also died here, or as a result of their service, including my bother's best friend, Ross.

 

 

Remind me again. Why did they die? Was it to protect the Vietnamese from all this?  I'm so grateful that my birthday did not come up in the conscription ballot.

Farewell Hanoi, it was fun. And, somehow, our bags are heavier. Then it was another two hour drive back to Ha Long Bay and the boat.

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Travel

Argentina & Uruguay

 

 

In October 2011 our little group: Sonia, Craig, Wendy and Richard visited Argentina. We spent two periods of time in Buenos Aires; at the start and at the end of our trip; and we two nights at the Iguassu Falls.

Read more: Argentina & Uruguay

Fiction, Recollections & News

Australia's Hydrogen Economy

 

 

  

As anyone who has followed my website knows, I'm not a fan of using 'Green Hydrogen' (created by the electrolysis of water - using electricity) to generate electricity. 

I've nothing against hydrogen. It's the most abundant element in the universe. And I'm very fond of water (hydrogen oxide or more pedantically: dihydrogen monoxide). It's just that there is seldom a sensible justification for wasting most of one's electrical energy by converting it to hydrogen and then back to electricity again. 

I've made the argument against the electrolysis (green) route several times since launching this website fifteen years ago; largely to deaf ears.

The exception made in the main article (linked below) is where a generator has a periodic large unusable surpluses in an environment unsuitable for batteries. In the past various solutions have been attempted like heat storage in molten salt. But where there is a plentiful fresh water supply, producing hydrogen for later electricity generation is another option.  Also see: How does electricity work? - Approaches to Electricity Storage

Two of these conditions apply in South Australia that frequently has excess electricity (see the proportion of non-hydro renewables chart below). The State Government, with unspecified encouragement from the Prime Minister and the Commonwealth, has offered A$593m to a private consortium to build a 200MW, 100t hydrogen storage at Whyalla.  Yet, the State already has some very large batteries, with which this facility is unlikely to be able to compete commercially.  Time will tell.

Read more: Australia's Hydrogen Economy

Opinions and Philosophy

The demise of books and newspapers

 

 

Most commentators expect that traditional print media will be replaced in the very near future by electronic devices similar to the Kindle, pads and phones.  Some believe, as a consequence, that the very utility of traditional books and media will change irrevocably as our ability to appreciate them changes.  At least one of them is profoundly unsettled by this prospect; that he argues is already under way. 

Read more: The demise of books and newspapers

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