I'm all packed up and ready to leave Vietnam for a couple of weeks. Last night I took most of my crap round to my new place and sorted out money and today once the owners of the house I'm currently in get back I shall be taking the rest of my stuff to a hostel for the night. I have been offered a couple of sofas for tonight but I have to go to the airport at 4am tomorrow and it's impossible to get out of Vietnamese houses without needing a set of keys. There's usually no way to get out of a house, lock everything behind you then get the keys back inside - for example in my new place you have to unlock the regular door , then the shutter thing in front of the door and then finally open the padlock on the gate to get out onto the street. All this has to be locked behind you and so unlike back home there is no way I can get out of a house, lock it up and then drop the keys through the mail box (a lot of mail boxes here are OUTSIDE the gate) meaning that a 4am departure would involve waking up some poor soul to let me out and lock up behind me. As a result i am staying at the same hostel I originally stayed in when I first got here so I can get a few hours sleep before heading to the airport. I will be spending most of the day tomorrow on planes or at airports, possibly with a short trip into KL to break it up. My flight to KL arrives at 1.30, then my next flight out isn't until 6.30. That one lands in Kota Kinabalu at about 8.30 and then I am being picked up and taken to my hostel. I've found a place that has dorm rooms for only 3 pounds a night, plus they do a free airport pick up. Bargain! I'm getting excited about my trip but more than anything I'm looking forward to some quiet and some fresh air.

In a strange way I'm going to miss Tay Ho. Its nice being next to the lake and its a little bit quieter than in the centre of the city. My new place is relatively quiet though and i guess its possible to walk to some other lakes and the Ho Chi Minh complex, plus its closer to everything else which makes up for it. I can walk to work next term adn save some pennies though my motorbike rides at 7am are nice in a strange way. They certainly wake me up, plus the sun is rising over the lake when I'm on my way and it's always glowing red. There are also heaps of people playing badminton in the parks or doing some sort of Tai Chi with fans outside a temple which is a strange sight.

Wednesdy was my last day at work for this term and I spent most of it doing speaking exams. My main role in this was just to listen as they did the exams in pairs and spoke to each other. I didn't have to get involved unless there were real issues. Some of them were so scared of the exam - I remember this well from my German and Spanish exams but they all managed to get through it. Some of them didn't do too well but no one completely failed the speaking part.

On Wednesday after work I walked to the old quarter to sort out a room at the hostel and the roads were insanely busy. I could smell all the pollution and feel it burning my throat. Usually it's not this bad - I think it was jsut the volume of traffic on the roads at that time of night. On the plus side as a result of faffing around in the old quarter and getting something to eat at my favourite Pho place the traffic had calmed down by the time I got the bus back up here and so it didn't take nearly as long to get back. It was worth the horiffically polluted walk there for my Pho anyway. That place sells really nice food dirt cheap and I intend to go back tonight for another helping.

One other thing I sw on Wednesday was the front of a shopping centre covered in red lights and the coca cola logo. Over Christmas there were signs up saying that "nothing says christmas like Heineken" and now Coca Cola appear to be getting in on the act for Tet. I'm intrigued to see which beverage will be sponsoring the next holiday and plastering their name and logo all over the shopping centre! I do have a picture of the OTT Coke decorations on my laptop but I said goodbye to my laptop last night so sadly I can't show you the excessive advertising. Maybe when I get back I'll show you!

I'll no doubt get online whilst I'm away so expect some gloating about my holiday in the next couple of weeks!