Nic in Asia

2012-02-05T11:42:00.007Z

I'm so lazy when it comes to writing on this thing now!! So the last thing I wrote about was my trip to New Zealand. A couple of weeks after I returned to Hanoi my Grandad died so I had an unplanned trip back to the UK to go to the funeral. While it was a horrible reason to be coming home, it was nice to spend a week and a half back in the UK.

I was lucky enough to find a flight back to the UK at such short notice so close to Christmas that wasn't ridiculously expensive, so this time I got to sample the delights of Qatar Airways. Most other airlines were well over a grand, some several thousand pounds a ticket, or were sold out completely. There were one or two that were tediously long and required 36+ hours to get from Hanoi to London. Qatar was a pretty good deal though and although I had to go via Bangkok and Doha I didn't have to spend long in either place. As an added bonus they let you onto the plane at Noi Bai as soon as its ready so instead of having to spend ages on uncomfortable metal chairs in the worlds lamest international departure lounge you get to go onto the plane and start watching movies a good hour before you depart. The plane to Bangkok went on to Doha but instead of kicking you off the plane at BKK you get to stay on and once you've identified your bags you can continue watching your movie while the ground staff come on and clean around you which is much nicer than having to fanny about getting off the plane just to sit next to it for a bit before getting back on. See LAX, it can be done!! There is no need to put people into a little room next to their plane when they fly from London to Auckland!

Once I got to Heathrow I had the speediest ever exit from the airport as there were no queues for the biometric passport barriers so I managed to get a relatively early bus to Reading to get a train to Swindon. Decided to get a taxi from there to my house as it had all been a bit last minute and so I really wasn't prepared for the cold - after shivering at Reading station in my flip flops I decided to give waiting at the bus station for who knows how long a miss! Once back in Bassett I walked into the town in an attempt to not give in to the temptation of having a nana nap and discovered that Costa Coffee have moved into Bassett. As I walked past I saw one of my friends inside so I went in and had a chat in the warm. It was nice to catch up with an old school friend! That evening I was treated to a roast which hands down beat the one I'd had in Auckland and was all the incentive I needed to not give into the jet lag too early!

Spent most of my time at home doing a bit of shopping and eating pub grub with the family, but I also took a couple of trips to meet people. I went to London for the day and met Nina in the evening for dinner after spending the day doing some shopping and checking out all the Christmas stuff that was going on. Hanoi doesn't really go all out for Christmas so it was nice to see some fancy lights and pretty Christmas trees. I went to Hyde Park but the icy wind blowing across it meant I didn't stay there long. I went to Covent Garden which always goes overboard on the festive spirit and I also went to Somerset House. Was killing time waiting for Nina in the evening and managed to time a walk across Waterloo Bridge as the sun was going down which was rather lovely.

I also went to Bath to meet Kyle and Liz. It was freezing but at least I wasn't wearing flip flips this time! We went to a few shops and then went for lunch at a buffet place. It was actually pretty good, plus they had Yorkshire puddings on offer!!! They also had an ice cream station where you could choose your flavour of ice cream and then get it mixed with smashed up malteasers. Awesome! After lunch we stayed warm in Cafe Nero for a while before braving the cold a little more for some photos complete with Asian posing.

My friend Mat also came to visit Bassett and we went for an lovely pub lunch at one of the pubs in Bassett. I'd been there for drinks before but never to eat but it was a pretty nice meal! When we left the pub it had started to snow so we headed to Avebury. Sadly the snow had stopped by the time we got there but we still had a nice walk round some of the stones and paid a visit to the National Trust shop. As it was so cold there weren't many other people getting in the way and cluttering up the place!

As my sister came home for the weekend to go to the funeral we were put in charge of decorating the christmas tree - I don't think we did too bad a job!

It's certainly nicer than my pokey little store bought Christmas tree I picked up in Hanoi on Xmas Eve.

The day after the funeral I had to fly back to Vietnam as I didn't want to be cheeky and push my manager's kindness too far by taking off more time than necessary. It really sucked to get back to Vietnam on the 21st Dec, especially as I arrived late at night and had to be at work at 7am the next morning. In the end though Christmas wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be even though it's not such a big deal here. Some people from work were going for dinner on Xmas eve and I joined them. It was actually quite a nice evening - the buffet was one that had been on offer since Thanksgiving so it had some rather strange non-Christmassy food like macaroni cheese but there was lots of turkey and stuffing and so many types of potato so it wasn't all bad. There was also sangria and beer and we spent a few hours there before trying to find another place for drinks afterwards. We went to a shisha bar someone recommended and they were closing up but when they saw the size of our group they decided to reopen and even agreed to turn off the loud techno music they had been playing! On Christmas day I didn't do a whole lot, but as I'd been able to bring back some gifts from the UK and I had some Christmas movies I managed to entertain myself. In the evening I made a baby Xmas dinner and my friend Tuan joined me before going to the airport to pick up some tourists. He bought with him the biggest bunch of flowers I've ever seen in my life! I made him watch the Snowman and he seemed to enjoy it, and also fed him Christmas candy after dinner. All in all Christmas wasn't too bad!

Here are the photos

2012-01-07T10:24:00.035Z

Time to write about New Zealand!!

As expected the journey over there was rather lame. 12 hours in Seoul isn't an exciting way to spend a day, especially as it was all spent in the airport (it seemed like too much hard work to go out end explore the city!) but at least it is a big airport with free wifi all over. Also the seats aren't too bad for sleeping on - they aren't metal and there are no annoying armrest. If you set yourself up by gate 17 (the gate for flights to someplace in China) it's pretty quiet for a couple of hours, then you get to watch the entertaining sight of Chinese people trying to get onto their plane, then it all goes quiet again for another couple of hours!
Arrived in Auckland and the parents were there to meet me, then we walked round to the domestic terminal for our (separate) flights to Wellington and some western food. Managed to stay awake until the end of the day by indulging in some shopping and then going for dinner a little way away from our hotel.

The next day we went for breakfast at a cafe close to the hotel that did awesome eggs benedict (continuing with the theme of Western food!) then we went up the cable car to the gardens.

We walked back down through all the assorted parts of the gardens. Of course I had to make a daisy chain!

At the bottom we walked past the Beehive to the waterfront and walked along to Te Papa where we spent a couple of hours. It's an awesome museum!

The next day we went across to the South Island on the Interislander. It was a bit of a crappy day to start with but as we got closer to the South Island the sun came out and it was quite pretty sailing through the sounds to get to Picton. Once there we picked up the hire car and then went for some lunch in the town. After lunch we drove to Blenheim but instead of driving down the man highway we went along the coastal road. It was a pretty dodge road in places, but there were some beaches/bays along the way to stop at and also this view:

Pretty awesome! In Blenheim there was much excitement in the supermarket as I found lots of exciting food that isn't available in VN like crumpets and L&P. In Blenheim we went to a couple of wineries, a hydroponic strawberry farm, a chocolate shop and the domain where we were mobbed by ducks while eating our lunch.

Next up was Kaikoura. The guy at the motel in Blenheim suggested a couple of places for us to stop on the drive. The first was a place called Kekerengu where we stopped for a drink at the cafe and a I spent a couple of minutes on the windswept beach before I got too cold and had to head back to the cafe to warm up by the fire. The next stop was Ohau Point where you can walk along next to a stream for a few minutes to arrive at a waterfall where heaps of seal pups are swimming around and playing on the rocks. Totally worth walking through a damp wet forest to get to! Once arriving in Kaikoura I got myself an attractive bright pink coat to try and stay warm and dry as the 2 stops on the way to Kaikoura had shown me that my little Laos hoodie wasn't gonna be enough to get me through the crap south island weather. Don't be fooled by how blue it looks in the picture below - it was freezing cold!

We spent that afternoon doing a whole lot of not much as our whale watching was cancelled due to wind. We walked from our motel into the centre for a spot of shopping and drove out to the seal peninsula but as the tide was in there weren't many seals around compared to last time I went there. In the evening we went into the centre again for dinner at a pub and had the slowest service in the world - we waited aaaaaaaaaaaaages for a simple steak. That evening was very clear which meant it was freezing, but it was very pretty on the beach with the moon reflected in the sea.

The next day was sunny enough to see the top of the mountains and the sea looked a lot smoother but whale watching was still cancelled.

As a result, we got on with our long long drive to Hokitika via Arthur's Pass (after a quick stop at the fudge shop). We got a little lost on the edge of Christchurch but it wasn't too bad a journey. There was some pretty scenery driving across to the other side of the country and we stopped at a few lakes/viewpoints/random walks as well as the cafe in Arthur's Pass surrounded by Keas.

We only stayed in Hokitika for one night and that was probably enough! On the first night we tried to go out for dinner but the two restaurants in the place were full so we ended up at the chippy and then we went to the glow worm dell on the edge of town. It is a couple of minutes walk from the road to a bunch of rocks covered in glow worms. Maybe not as impressive as the Waitomo glow worms, but free! The next day we spent the morning in the town and found a surprisingly large number of things to do. We went to the museum which had an exhibition all about Whitebait fishing as well as the standard collection of random objects found in all museums in small town New Zealand. Also went to a few of the shops - lots of greenstone and sheepskin stuff for sale, plus another small fudge shop - and to the kiwi centre. We got there in time for eel feeding time and saw the sea life that they have there before going to see the kiwis. After that we had lunch then drove to Franz Josef and our dodgy motel. After dinner we went out to Okarito beach, about 1/2 hour away from Franz. It's a bit of a drive to get there and it was freezing cold, but there was a really pretty sunset!!

The next day was a pretty crap day weatherwise but thankfully I had my attractive pink coat to get me through the day.

We went to Franz Josef glacier and walked to the face of the glacier and back as well as to some reflective lake pool that doesn't really reflect much on a cloudy day then went back to the hostel to attempt to warm up and eat some lunch. After lunch we went to Fox Glacier and walked to the face of that one too.

The next day we had another long drive, this time to Wanaka. We stopped at Lake Matheson and walked round to the viewpoint where you are supposed to be able to see the mountains reflected in the lake but there were clouds over the top of the mountain and ripples on the surface of the lake from the wind. It was still a nice enough view tho so it was worth stopping. The next stop was Knight's Point overlooking the coast and then we stopped at some place by a river for lunch where I was eaten alive by sandflies. We also stopped at a waterfall and then we got to the top of Lake Wanaka and stopped at a couple of places along the way to take pretty pictures like this:

We stopped at Puzzling World and I managed to convince mum to come into the illusion rooms with me. Eventually we arrived in Wanaka and had a bit of an issue finding the motel but once we did it was a very nice place to stay for a couple of days. We went into the town and had dinner in time to watch the sunset over the mountains which was pretty cool.

The next day was a bit cold and grey again so we went for a walk along the Clutha River then spent some time in the town. The next day it was all pretty again so we went to the lake before leaving to drive to Queenstown.

We stopped in Cromwell on the way as well as at a random hydroelectric place and the AJ Hackett bungy.

We had a very nice place to stay in Queenstown a little way away from the centre so lots of walking to and from town happened over the next few days. Of course we went up the gondola and we also went jet boating as well as spending some time in the centre and taking a trip to Arrowtown.

Perhaps the best thing we did in Queenstown was to go out to Milford Sound by plane. It was teeny tiny plane for just a few people and we flew out of Queenstown over the snowy mountains...

...out as far as the coast where the plane then came in to fly over Milford Sound before landing. The weather was much better than the last time I was there and it was very pretty, plus there were penguins!!!!!

Left the parents at Queenstown and flew up to Auckland. Didn't do much the day I arrived, but I did get taken for a roast which always goes down well with me, even if it was a strange takeaway roast served in a box! The next day I walked around the Viaduct area that had been all tarted up for the Rugby World Cup then I got a ferry to Devonport. Tried to find the bookshop I used to go to all the time but it seems to have gone :o( Did find another bookshop though so I was happy. I had to take a trip to the chocolate shop to get some gifts and then after lunch I walked to Cheltenham Beach. Walked along the beach to North Head and went to the little beach there before walking around for some awesome views of Auckland.

No trip to Auckland is complete (for me) without a trip up the Skytower. The weather wasn't great but it ended up being a more impressive sunset than I thought it would be.

Didn't do much with the rest of my time in Auckland - lots of shopping and aimless wandering - until my last day when Liz set me up with instructions as to where I should go. I obeyed and went to Parnell to the rose gardens and Parnell Rise, and in the evening I went down to the waterfront.

I managed to get to go to some places that I missed last time on the South Island and the weather was so much better than before in most places so it was a nice trip with the parents.

All the photos are here

2011-12-25T16:08:00.001Z

Will try and update soon!!

2011-11-01T11:59:00.002Z

I went to a nice Thai restaurant last week with my friend Tuan. He's never eaten Thai food so it was an experience for him, and I LOVE Thai food so I wasn't about to say no to a trip to restaurant that serves pretty genuine stuff!! We had thai curry which tasted pretty good (Tuan enjoyed Thai curry much more than Indian curry - our Indian meal was the only time I've ever seen him not finish a meal!) and some beef thing, and also one of the special dishes in the restaurant:

Deep fried morning glory with a chili sauce. Yum! It was billed as deep fried morning glory and prawns on the menu but there were only 2 pathetic prawns in the sauce, however the fact that the morning glory was really tasty with the chili sauce made up for it.

Also finally had one of the strange Vina desserts called che which is some kind of soupy dessert made with something like taro and served with assorted coloured jelly kinda stuff and coconut milk. It's very popular in Vietnam but I've never eaten it before coz it looks a little strange as you can see from those pics in the link. It was on the menu at the Thai restaurant tho so we had some of that along with sticky rice with mango. I still think Asia isn't so great on the whole dessert thing!

Going to New Zealand on Friday!!!!!!!!!!! Trying to decide right now if I should spend some of my 12 transit hours in Seoul going into the city to have a look around or not. It would give me something to do but what if I get lost? I've no idea how easy Seoul is to navigate without speaking Korean!

NEW ZEALAND!!!

2011-10-16T11:51:00.001+01:00

I am still alive! Haven't done much recently so haven't really had much to write about. I am going to New Zealand in 3 weeks tho!!!

2011-09-04T12:15:00.005+01:00

Had a day off on Friday for Independence Day so I went out for a walk around the city. There wasn't much happening but I guess it made a change. Walked past Truc Bach lake and watched people walk past this bin to throw their rubbish in the bin. Perhaps the sign should be written in Vietnamese?!

Also finally got a pic of the statue to John McCain who was shot down into the lake.

I walked past Uncle Ho and the massive line of people waiting to see him then went through the Old Quarter to a cafe for a couple of hours to read my book. Walked along the railway line for a bit - would hate to live in one of these houses. The constant noise of passing trains would suck!

Then I walked back home through the Old Quarter via the market for some pineapple. Finally got a pic of the random chairs by the side of Chau Long street - I have no idea who sits on them but they've been there as long as I've lived in this part of town!

Full set is here

2011-07-31T15:06:00.008+01:00

My cousin came to visit so I've been busy this past week!

Met Ashley at the airport on Monday evening and we headed in to the Old Quarter to his hotel to find they had no idea about his reservation. Thankfully Tuan was with us and we went across the road to a hotel where he knew the dudes and we managed to get Ashley sorted with a decent room. The next day I met him for lunch then sent him off into the wilds of Hanoi, and then successfully met him a few hours later in a bar close to where I work. After he got a couple of beers in him I got him on the back of my bike to drive him through the mental rush hour to the Old Quarter to arrange the rest of his trip.

As I had to work in the days I didn't see much of him, only meeting him for dinner, and he went to Ha Long Bay too but on Friday we went out to the North Korean restaurant. Food was as strange as last time, but this time the entertainment was happening. The waitresses got up on stage and sang some songs, much to the delight of the South Korean businessmen!

On Saturday Tuan came to meet us and we went for some noodles for breakfast at a popular place. Some TV people were there and wanted to interview some white people. Of course as they were Vietnamese they refused to accept it when I said no so kept pointing the camera in my direction even after I made it clear I didn't want that. A camera isn't subtle so when they point it right in my direction when standing in the queue it's pretty obvious what they're up to! Not the smartest people those ones. Was tempted to smash their camera so they would finally get the hint! Ashley didn't mind though so they got some film of him. After that we went for some coffee on midget stools then went out to Bat Trang pottery village and had a look around.

We then drove out to But Thap Pagoda and stopped for guava on the way

This turned out to be a good thing as the guy selling them pointed us in the direction of a short cut through the countryside. It was a bit of a drive to get there but it was quite nice driving through some of the small villages and countryside. Couldn't look at too much as I was focusing on not killing myself, but what I did see was very pretty! We got to the pagoda and walked around - not many tourists make it out there so it was pretty quiet, but it did start to rain halfway round.

We had to drive back to Hanoi in the rain which was not nice once we hit the main road. Ended up covered in muddy spray.

Once back in Hanoi we went for some Bun Cha at the place Tuan took me before and then went to sit at Bia Hoi corner until it was time for Ashley to leave to go get ready for his overnight bus down to Hue.

Pics are here!

It's always nice to have someone visiting and it gets me out doing things. More of you need to come and visit!

In other exciting news the Communists finally let me receive a package from home! Now have a sock puppet sitting on top of my TV courtesy of Mr Morris!

2011-07-04T12:50:00.002+01:00

From the fancy pants hotel onwards!!

We got to Sihanoukville as the heavens opened but as checking in took so long (fancy welcome drinks!) it had pretty much cleared by the time we were ready to explore. We walked along the private hotel beach to a nice restaurant by the sea which had amazing food on offer. We were very lazy in Sihanoukville and other than a brief trip into the town to get supplies and enjoy (real) bangers and mash we stayed at the resort using the peach, the pool and the spa. From there we had a crappy overnight bus ride to Siem Reap on a bus with broken air con (couldn't turn it off and they had it set to blast out all night long so we pretty much froze) but once there we checked in to another nice hotel, the one I stayed at last time with my sister. We didn't do much the day we arrived other than shop and swim in the pool but as there are lots of shops and a big market in Siem Reap this meant we were busy for most of the day! The next day we went out to Angkor Wat and saw some of the temples on the circuit. Just as we came out of the second to last temple a monster storm rolled in so we left actual Angkor Wat for the next day and headed back to the hotel for some relaxing. We got up early the next day and went to Angkor for sunrise, then as Nina had never ridden an elephant before we had to do that! We then ventured further afield in our tuk tuk to another temple then stopped at the landmine museum on the way back to Siem Reap - it was less depressing than you'd imagine it being! On our final day in Siem Reap we intended to go out to see the sunset but there was another major storm raging so we stopped at the museum instead. Sadly the storm cleared while we were inside so sunset probably would have been nice after all, but you can pretty much guarantee that had we gone it would have just rained on us.

After Siem Reap we headed back to Phnom Penh and on the last day we went to the Palace and had a nice meal by the river before we had to head to the airport for Nina to get her flight. Once she'd gone I was rather lonely and bored! Went for a massage and a facial to try to alleviate that boredom and then the next day in the afternoon I flew to KL. Spent the majority of my time there shopping and indulging in good food (including an awesome roast with real Yorkshire puds!) but I did head up to the Genting Highlands for a day trip. It is about an hour from KL and is up in the mountains (as the name would suggest :op) but I picked the worst day to go. Woke up to rain and although it had stopped by the time I got there it was still pretty cloudy. Made the cable car ride to the top of the hills a bit spooky as at one point the clouds were so thick you couldn't see the car in front or behind so the only way to be sure you were actually moving was when a car would pass by in the opposite direction. At the top of the hill there is a resort with a bunch of casinos and an indoor theme park/shopping centre thing going on and there is also an outdoor theme park. When i first got there pretty much every ride was shut because the clouds were so bad but gradually they started to open and there was some fun to be had! I don't think I'd bother going back there again as it was pretty tacky and full to bursting with Chinese people who had come to gamble but it gave me something new to do this trip. Have been to KL several times now but I can still find something new each time!

Got back to Hanoi last week with a massive bout of food poisoning so suffered with that for a couple of days, then went back to work. I now have a full time post so have a bunch of induction sessions to go to over lunchtime this week and I have to get back in to the world of full time work. That's gonna be hard!

The pictures are here!

2011-06-13T13:12:00.002+01:00

Am in an internet cafe with a lame keyboard but am waiting out a tropical storm so thought I'd write here!

Am in Cambodia with my good friend Nina. Had a long journey to get here - a flight to HCMC where I stayed overnight and then a bus across the border the next day but it was worth it! Met Nina the day after I arrived and we had a chilled couple of days in Phnom Penh, then we got the bus down to Kep, by the sea. Sadly it overheated and broke down about 1 1/2 hours into the journey so we had to wait for over an hour at the side of the road for a replacement bus. Eventually when we arrived it was chucking it down ao we weren't particularly impressed. It stopped raining for just long enough for us to walk along the coast to the crab market and have a really nice dinner of super fresh crabs and prawns but then it begain to rain just as we left. It continued raining the next day so we headed off to Kampot and the rain stopped just as we got there and held off just long enough for us to spend a few hours there and get back to Kep before the rain began again. Thankfully there was less rain today so we spent the day on the beach at Rabbit Island, a very quiet chilled place and we've just got back from stuffing ourselves again with crab and prawn. Tomorrow we are going to Sihanoukville to stay at this fancy pants hotel and we are really rather excited about this! Will write more when I have access to a fully functioning keyboard!!

2011-06-06T16:16:00.000+01:00

Holiday time tomorrow!!!!! Will maybe have a chance to write on this while I'm away!

2011-05-20T15:49:00.004+01:00

Had another random culinary experience last week here in Hanoi. Someone from work was leaving so after work on Friday night we went out for dinner. There ended up being a massive group of us and we went for beef BBQ. It was in the standard grubby Vina restaurant with sticky floors, stained walls, dangerous looking stairs, plastic tables and chairs and the washing up being done in grey looking water inside a big plastic bowl in full view of the diners, but after so long here I have come to realise that even though the restaurant looks like the food will kill you it actually does no such thing (either that or my stomach has hardened up and is able to take things that might kill a pansy Englishman fresh off the plane), and even tastes pretty good (usually).

The restaurant was pretty full when we go there and as there were so many of us we had to be paraded past all the other diners who all stopped eating to look at the procession of foreigners passing them to get to the space right at the back of the restaurant where an assortment of tables and chairs were then provided for us to set up ourselves. The menu is pretty straightforward - beef and goat udder, tomato, and bread. The meat comes out raw on a big platter and on each table there is a little camping stove type contraption that is lit by some kind of waxy gasoline thing. You then cook your own meat as you please and create your own sandwiches (there are no plates so that is really the only option for eating your beef!!) while trying not to cause yourself any kind of horrific injury. Naked flames on rickety plastic tables and oil spitting all over the place provide a slight element of danger that you don't usually get at most other restaurants. The beef was pretty yummy, but not so much the goat udder. It was kinda chewy and tasteless. One of the Vietnamese girls however loved it, and after eating all the udder next to her stood up and loudly shouted down the table that she would like them to pass more boobs to her. Entertaining! There is no tab kept while eating so at the end of the meal we were all shifted out of the way while they counted up all the empty beer bottles and platters. It ended up being pretty cheap, only £3 or £4 per person and there was a LOT of food and beer.

Good stuff!

2011-05-08T06:43:00.010+01:00

I had a week off this past week and spent it here in Hanoi. Most days I didn't do a great deal but i did have some nice days with my friend Tuan who also has some time off right now. He is a tour guide in Hanoi and he asked me to visit the museums in Hanoi with and help him with some English. We met on Friday and Saturday and ticked the first 2 museums off the list. On Friday we met in the Old Quarter for lunch first - we ate Bun Cha and spring rolls. Yum yum yum!

After that we went to the history museum and had a nice couple of hours walking round the museum and looking at all the cool stuff in there - it was much more fun to go with someone else than to go by myself!

When we finished at the museum we went for some nep cam, which is sticky black rice with coconut milk, condensed milk and a little bit of yogurt.

mix it together

and enjoy.

Yesterday we went to Hoa Lo prison, aka the Hanoi Hilton then came back to my place for lunch. I've introduced Tuan to the delights of Campbell's soup with buttery toast so we enjoyed that! I've also given him an assortment of other foods he's never eaten before in the past few months like lasagne. He's also been a guinea pig for my baking adventures. I fed him cookies and cakes, and he also sampled some of the scones I cooked earlier in the week.

The scones were good! (recipe so I can find it again! ) I also attempted crumpets but they weren't quite as successful. They were a pain to cook and took forever to make. They tasted OK but not amazing so I don't think I'll bother with them again.

Finally, a pretty picture of the sunset seen from my apartment!

2011-04-22T13:18:00.000+01:00

Forgot to say, the rest of the pics are here!

2011-04-21T07:18:00.014+01:00

Finally I'm gonna tell you about Thailand!!!

I had to work til 6-8 on the day I went so I spent the day killing time by watching documentaries online, including a bunch about the war in Vietnam. Headed home after work to pick up my bag and then went out to the airport. Tuan had arranged a car to take me to the airport and he finished work in time to come along with me. I pestered him with a bunch of questions about life after the war as he grew up in the poor countryside after it ended so was pretty interesting to hear about a real experience. I'm now releasing my inner history geek by helping him to find out more about the war as he feels he has big gaps in his knowledge. Had quite a late flight to Bangkok and arrived at about 1am. Got a taxi to the fancy pants hotel and it didn't look like much from the road so I wondered if I was at the right hotel

but when you turn into the driveway you see the real hotel and feel a sense of relief that the taxi driver has actually brought you to the right place!!

Met the parents the next day and we got a water taxi along the canal to a shopping centre then after lunch we got back on the water taxi to the Golden mount. We walked up to the top

and then the heavens opened. We walked back down in the rain then tried to find a taxi to take us to the bus station to sort out a bus ticket for the next day. There weren't many available so we gave up and went back to the hotel by water taxi and went to sit by the pool for a bit. In the evening we went to the night market but it has now turned into crappy little stalls in patpong. The old night market by Lumpini Park has gone so it was a bit of a failure. Dad did manage to find a taxi driver to take us to Kanchanaburi tho so it wasn't a complete disaster. We went to Sukhumvit and went to a Mexican place or dinner. It took forever for the food to arrive so it was a bit of a letdown really!

The next day we had a nice big breakfast at the hotel then got the taxi to Kanchanaburi. When we arrived we checked into our nice hotel and sat by the river for a drink

We then walked to town to go to the museum about the war railway and to the war cemetery next to it. Later on in the day we walked up to the bridge on the Kwai. We walked across then had to wait for a train to cross before we could go back.

We had dinner at the floating restaurant by the bridge and then got a tuk tuk back to the hotel as it had started to rain. Went for a foot massage in the evening as I do like a foot massage when on holiday!

The next day went on a tour in the area. First stop was Erewan national park with its seven tiered waterfall.We got as far up as the 5th tier then went back down so dad could brave a swim in the waterfall with all the fish that love to nibble on on human skin!

We had lunch at the waterfall then went to Hellfire Pass, the cutting from the railway. Next up we went to Kra Se cave then took a short train ride along the death railway route. Once back in Kanchanaburi I had a dip in the pool

then we went for dinner at a British pub - bangers and mash!!!!! Had another foot massage after dinner.

The next morning we got a tuk tuk to the Jeath War Museum then went back into town to get a British breakfast with real bangers and bacon!! In the afternoon we went back to Bangkok by taxi and went to MBK plaza and had dinner in the food court.

We tried to go and see some of the sighs the next day but it wasn't that successful! We got the ferry along the river to the Grand Palace but it was closing soon so we didn't go in. We walked down to Wat Pho and saw the reclining Buddha

but it was pretty hot so we didn't really feel up to much more. We went to a nice restaurant by the river and has some really good food - I wasn't expecting this when I ordered a salad!

They also had a nice dessert of black sticky rice with coconut ice cream and mango - a fancier version of nep cam (black sticky rice, coconut milk, condensed milk) here in Vietnam that Tuan introduced me to. It sounds pretty horrible bit it tastes great!

We got a ferry back after lunch and went back to the hotel. I went to do some shopping in the afternoon, and then in the evening we went out for dinner on Sukhumvit. We tried to find a Lebanese place but gave up and went to a restaurant for some Thai food instead before going back to the hotel so the parents could pack.

The next day I got up early to go to the airport with them and see them off on their way back to the UK then I went back to the hotel and packed up. Moved further down Sukhumvit to a cheaper hotel then went up to the shopping centres and spent the rest of the day shopping! I shopped some more the following day too (I briefly thought about going to see some more of the sights but decided against it in the end as it was far too hot and we hadn't had much luck with our other attempts to go sightseeing!) and also went to the cinema for some Western indulgence.

Now I'm planning my next trip - Cambodia in June with Nina!!

2011-04-20T15:16:00.001+01:00

I will update this soon!!

2011-03-27T07:33:00.002+01:00

I am still alive :o)

Haven't done much that is exciting enough to write about on this thing! Just been going about day to day things. Possibly the most exciting thing is I have been cooking things in my little toaster oven. I got a cooked chicken from a deli and made roasties and stuffing to go with it, and I made cookies last week. Today I am attempting to make cakes. I don't have a cake tin to make them in so I have to use Alison's yorkshire pudding tin. Hope that the cake cases are OK for use in a bigger tin than a normal cake tin otherwise I could have a disaster on my hands!

On Friday I'm going to Bangkok to meet the parents. Have a couple of nights in a swanky hotel in the city, then we're going to Kanchanaburi for a couple of days. After that it's back to Bangkok for one more day there with the parents, then after they leave I have a couple of days there to get in some shopping. Plan to find Tescos and get cake tins and a mixing bowl - who knew such objects would be so hard to find here in Vietnam! Might see some of the sights with the parents, but once they're gone I imagine time will be spent in the shopping centres and restaurants of BKK. Looking forward to some good Thai food, and there is also a great Lebanese restaurant. Am gonna check out Chinatown and see if I can find Gong Bao Ji Ding - I ate it in China and it was ace but I've not been able to find it since so hopefully I can find it there. I'm excited about all the lovely food I get to eat next week!!!

2011-03-06T11:25:00.002Z

So yet again I'm rather lazy at actually writing on this thing! In my defence, I was doing a bunch of placement testing as well as teaching last week so was at work all day every day, but there is no excuse for the two weeks prior to that!

My pictures from Luang Prabang are here

I had a nice relaxing time there. It's a pretty small town in the middle of nowhere and as I've been there before i didn't feel like I had to rush around doing heaps of things. I did a fair bit of shopping (for a small town there are plenty of places to shop!) and ate lots of good food. Also sat in a lot of cafes in the town and by the river drinking cheap fruit shakes and had a foot massage every day! I did go to the temples in the centre of the town, and I also went to some museums - the Royal Museum and the Ethnology museum. Went to the top of the hill in the middle of town to watch the sun set one evening, and also saw lots of pretty things to buy in the night market. Managed to resist buying most of the things I wanted and I waited til the last night to do my shopping rather than buying everything on impulse which I though was rather restrained for me! I did go on the elephant/waterfall day trip again - it was the same one I did last time but it was good fun so I decided to do it again. This time I managed to climb all the way to the top of the waterfall!!! Was too lazy last time but this time I managed it and at the top you can take our shoes off and walk across the top of the waterfall. That was pretty cool! I also hired a bicycle and cycled out to some craft villages and temples outside the town. It was nice, but it was pretty hot for cycling. There was some nice scenery down by the river though. I went to a temple on the top of a hill on my back into the centre and felt rather unfit having to get off my bike and push it up the hill but I felt a bit better when I saw the locals who cycle everywhere also having to do that!! It was a nice break from Hanoi - there are no motorbike horns!!! It's a great place to go and relax, plus it was much warmer than in Hanoi so that was nice.

2011-02-03T13:13:00.005Z

Another update in less than a week! Having time off work means I actually do things!

So, Friday was the day I went on my last trek around the city that I wrote about and then in the evening it was Alison and Calder's farewell drinks thing at Derry's. Lots of people came and it was fun, and best of all it only took me a minute to walk home after the police closed the party down at midnight!

The next day I met Alison and Calder at Hanoi tower for lunch and a haircut, and then the following day was their last day in the country. I went to collect some bits and pieces from them and then later in the day they bought round things they hadn't had time to get rid of for me to post on to them after Tet madness has passed. In the evening we went to Derry's for dinner and Lyle joined us. After dinner we walked down to the Sofitel for an expensive drink

then went back to Derry's for something more affordable.

On Monday i went round to Alison and Calder's place at 5.30 in the morning to help them get the last of their stuff down the 5 flights of stairs and say goodbye to them :o( After a few more hours sleep in the morning I then ventured into the Old Quarter to return Alison's bike (another thing she had no time for due to the mental traffic) and walked home through the crazy. I decided to head out again on Tuesday when I was in a slightly better mood and see what was going on. Went back up towards the flower market as it's close to the places I go to shop for food and it was rather busy with people buying all the things they need for Tet and then cluttering up the road while waiting for a taxi (there weren't many passing) or bus to take them home. There were also cars randomly parked at the side of the street causing traffic to move even slower than usual. I'm glad I was walking and not trying to get my bike through all that mayhem!

From there I walked down to the Old Quarter to see what was happening there. I went to Hang Ma which is where all the Tet shops are and walked down to see all the things that were for sale. For some reason there had been no decision to close off the street to traffic so there were cars and bikes trying to squeeze along between all the stuff that was for sale at the edge of the road and all the people walking along the street. That kinda ruined the atmosphere a bit!

The street ended by Dong Xuan market where there was the usual mayhem X 10

From there it was a pretty short walk back to my place, and on the way I passed this night light stall by the side of the street. I though that was pretty neat!

Yesterday was New Year's Eve (if you operate on the lunar calendar) so i spent the day at home to avoid to streets, but in the evening I decided to head out and see what was happening by the lake at midnight. The streets were quite busy getting there and it was pretty rammed by the lake, but I found a spot to stand at and watch the midnight fireworks. They weren't exactly up to the standard of those in places like Sydney and London but as their last attempts at fireworks for the Thang Long celebrations ended in deadly disaster at My Dinh stadium I guess the ones last night were a success!

Headed home after that and on the way back saw people setting things up on the street and burning their offerings for assorted Gods and ancestors.

Today was supposed to be quieter than usual as most people are either staying home or visiting family and friends so I went to the Old Quarter to go get lunch at my favourite cafe. The streets were quieter, I think partly because not much was open so there was no stuff spilling out onto the street. People were out visiting so they were all rather smartly dressed but were getting from place to place in a rather orderly way so it wasn't too bad to get around. After lunch I went to Long Bien bridge and walked part way across to the island in the middle of the river. There are some stairs down so I headed down and walked along the path there for a bit. It's a pretty poor place, and it's mainly farming on the island. It was nice and quiet thought, and I even saw butterflies!!

I also witnessed this guy - he spent ages balanced on his head!

I updated the album with more pictures from the past few days

This evening was supposed to be spent packing ready for my trip to Laos but so far I've not actually achieved anything much! Not going to the airport til 3 tomorrow though so I guess I have time then to pack.

I also realised I didn't describe the moving process in my last post - it's very different to any other time I've moved!. I enlisted Tuan's help as I don't think I could have pulled it off by myself. He came to my place and we got all my stuff piled up in the lounge, then he set to trying to arrange a truck to move it. Unfortunately they were either fully booked or reluctant to come out so close to the truck curfew (they're not allowed in certain parts of the city in rush hour). We didn't want to wait til 8 for one to be free so chose instead to get a big taxi. Tuan called then we waited and waited and waited and waited, then finally after about an hour a taxi came to the end of the lane. Tuan went to try and convince the driver to come part way down the lane but he didn't want to as it was busy so he told the driver to wait while we moved my stuff down the lane to the road. He came back with a cyclo driver and we piled all my stuff on to the seat then the guy pulled it down to the main road. Got there to find the taxi had buggered off so we called another one and waited and waited some more. We also tried a few other taxi companies but nothing was available as it was rush hour and all the ones driving past were full so in the end Tuan negotiated for the cyclo driver to take my stuff all the way to my new place. All my stuff was rearranged on the cyclo and tied down to make it more secure then the guy set of cycling to Truc Bach. Tuan drove my bike behind him and I sat on the back with various bags hanging from my hands and we slowly made our way there. Once outside my new place I was instructed to wait outside and watch my stuff while Tuan and the cyclo boy carted all my stuff up 2 flights of stairs to my apartment. It was certainly different! That weekend I also used Tuan to help me get some furniture for my place. There are lots of expensive ex-pat furniture places around town, but close to the gym in furniture street which has heaps of stuff available and is much cheaper. Only catch is unlike the ex-pat furniture shops there is not much English and no fixed prices so Tuan came to negotiate and arrange delivery - a bookshelf and a dressing table arrived soon after at my place strapped to the back of a motorbike. It required a bit more effort than it would back home to move but it all worked out well in the end.

2011-01-28T11:11:00.017Z

Finally a real update! Despite only working a 3 day week this term I've been pretty busy. I had to move as my landlady decided to sell the house I was living and I decided to give apartment living a shot. It's more expensive than renting a room in a shared house, but it's actually quite nice to have my own space so I think it's worth it. Plus I get this view, though right now the weather isn't great so it rarely looks like this. -

I'm about the same distance to work, but I'm closer to West Lake and I seem to be closer to the Old Quarter. I live in Truc Bach now and it seems to be tacked onto the end of the OQ so it appears to be easier to get to places in the OQ than before, but that might just be because Doi Can was such a horrible road to drive down. I decided to walk into the OQ last Saturday evening to stock up on DVDs and Playstation games ready for the crazy people avoidance/city shutdown that happens at this time of year (next week is Tet and right now the city is MENTAL! It's only gonna get worse too :o/) There are lots of lights up around Hoan Kiem Lake and the temple is all decked out.

Tet seems to be sponsored by Tiger this year - past years have been Heineken!

I've spent the past couple of days checking out the neighbourhood and getting things sorted, and I also spent an hour in the bookshop yesterday. It's now just a couple of minutes walk from my house! Dangerous... I'm now much closer to bus routes (there was only ever 1 bus going along Doi Can and it went in a direction I would never want to go in!) so I've found it easier to get places without my motorbike, which is good at this time of year as people are preparing for Tet and clogging up the streets all hours of the day and night.

This is now a common sight in Hanoi! Usually most people have just one tree on their bike but anywere you go in this city right now there are bikes with kumquat trees swaying wildly on the back!

Today I decided to get the bus to West Lake and check out the flower market and the places people go for Tet trees. I encountered this broom saleswoman on my way to the bus stop (I don't know why it amused me so much!)

Once at the flower market I walked down one of the lanes next to it, just to see where it went. Passed the local fruit shop

then the lane opened up and was surrounded by fields where people were growing and selling flowers and kumquat trees for Tet. I walked down the tracks and through a local village towards the river. I guess after Tet these people grow other things, as it was a pretty poor place without much decent housing but right now it seems to be all about kumquat trees.

The river seems to be pretty low right now so I wonder what the people who rely on it to make a living are doing right now to earn money?

Followed the river for a bit, then turned back to go to the main road. Headed to the chippy for lunch (oh, yes, a chippy has opened up in Hanoi!! It's not quite the same quality as those back home but it ain't bad! It also has a view over West Lake)

Finished up walking to the flower market where I bought some pretty flowers.

People have been asking for photos of my apartment - here it is!

Here are some more pics of Hanoi getting ready for Tet

2011-01-22T13:53:00.002Z

The lack of updates is due to the fact that I've been busy moving into a new apartment! Will try and write an update tomorrow about all the fun and games that moving in Vietnam entails.

2011-01-09T15:45:00.002Z

Have just got back from dinner at a North Korean restaurant! Can't say it was the best dining experience ever - there seemed to be a lot of cold pickled stuff on the table but it was certainly an experience! There is sometimes a performance of traditional songs but I guess there weren't enough customers in the place for it to happen tonight. It was quite pricey but some of it was nice. Not so much the kimchi and dumplings with the pickled stuff inside though! The waitresses are all from North Korea and speak good Vietnamese, but not much English so we couldn't really find out much about them. It made a change from our usual dining experience but I don't think I'm going to return any time soon.

2011-01-03T11:04:00.002Z

I had a vaguely festive Christmas here in Hanoi. Had some gifts from back home to open (I was proud of my ability to save them til Christmas day to open!) and then spent the day with Calder and Alison.

We had a Christmas lunch with lots of good stuff ordered in from the local deli. Alison also made some yorkshire puddings to go with it!

We spent the rest of the day watching TV and snacking - just like at home!

On New Years Eve I went to Derry's with Alison, Calder and Nat, and some other people were there. It was pretty much like any other night until midnight when ABBA blasted out (there is no Auld Lang Syne here!) and everyone started dancing around the place to ABBA. Thankfully it wasn't really Nat's thing either so we lurked at the back til the dancing ended!

2010-12-19T14:28:00.004Z

Have been rather busy this weekend - my weekends are usually measured in how many movies and TV shows I'm able to watch and this weekend has been a grand total of zero!

Yesterday I got up early (for a Saturday!) to go meet Tuan and help him with his marketing job (tho I think really all I did was talk a lot and keep him entertained - is that helping?) which was actually rather nice! We went for some noodles first at a place where the customers got to start their day with a good long stare at the white girl, then we took his bike and drove here there and everywhere to pick up and drop off things. Started in the Old Quarter on calendar street to get some calendars, then loaded them onto the bike and drove out to some industrial estate to get stickers. As weird as this might sound, the industrial park was quite a nice place to read my book for a bit while waiting for him to get things done! Not much traffic and no horns! I could actually hear birds, and there were trees and flowers around at the side of the roads, and I guess as it was so far out on the outskirts of Hanoi it was pretty peaceful. Next up we went through some winding lanes to a printing place that was again rather peaceful before finally heading many many kilometres out of Hanoi. The main highway of doom wasn't exactly fun, but then we turned off onto the smaller roads past rice fields and stuff and that was cool. Once the stuff had been delivered we went to some chicken place that sells really fresh, good quality chicken (I guess as they get to grow up eating real chicken-friendly foods they're tastier and less scrawny than the ones roaming the streets of Hanoi!) and had quite a feast of rice, vegetables and assorted chicken bits. There was boiled chicken, fried chicken and a selection of dodgy parts:

Neither of us went for the fried chicken head, and I didn't really fancy chicken feet, especially after all the crunching that happened when Tuan ate one. The regular chicken meat was very tasty though! After that we headed back into Hanoi and he took me to a decent currency shop to get some dollars for my trip to Laos (yeah, another holiday! Just for a week at Tet to get some peace and quiet) then I spent ages trying to decide which fancy quilt to buy in teh quilt shop. It gets kinda chilly at night right now so I decided it was time to invest in a quilt so I don't have to shiver myself to sleep any more. It's been a little cold recently (apparently due to a Siberian breeze?!?) and I've taken to wearing real shoes rather than flip flops when riding around. Even had to get some gloves out the other day it was so cold on the bike! When you get some speed up your fingers get pretty chilly from the breeze. Thankfully yesterday wasn't such a cold day though as several hours on a motorbike wouldn't be nearly as tolerable in the cold!

Once back home one housemate was leaving and another was moving in so I had a brief chat with them, then got in touch with Alison to find out about our plans for dinner. Was told that after heading to a wedding party at 11am and drinking all day (at this point it was 4) dinner probably wouldn't be happening. Went to join her and Calder, Emma and Russell and the new boy at ACET, Mark, for some drinks at a new bar. About 6.30 people decided it was time to eat so we went back to Emma and Russell's just down the road for pizza, and of course more booze. They have a dog that was shut in the bathroom while the pizza was being eaten but somehow Emma accidentally locked him in. This being Vietnam, of course the screws are all on the inside of the locked bathroom door and there appeared to be no way to get in so it took quite an effort to get the door open again. My hair grips were sacrificed for the cause, though I don't know if they opened the door in the end as by the time the dog was freed I'd got bored standing round listening to drunks discussing the problem so was sitting in the lounge having a chat!

Today just seemed to be a day of errands, and then I ended up at the gym as the step class was starting. Got talked into joining and it was hell!!! Probably good for me though.

I don't even get my relaxing start to the week, working just 2 hours each evening for the first 3 days as I've agreed to cover for another teacher so will be at work every day for an afternoon and evening shift. It is the last week of this term though so it's not too hard, particularly at the end of the week when it's just exams and a movie!

2010-12-10T14:47:00.007Z

Things I've done recently -

Went for a somewhat international Thanksgiving dinner at Alison and Calder's place with Nat. Turkey, stuffing, roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding! Had pumpkin pie for dessert - not sure if I like it or not. Perhaps I just need to eat more of it!

Also went for dinner at their place last weekend and stole their toaster oven to make a syrup sponge with custard. It was an interesting experience baking in a toaster oven but it worked out right in the end!

Sampled some random Vietnamese food. Met Tuan for lunch a couple of weeks ago and we went to some restaurant in Hanoi that serves a whole range of Vietnamese food. Most stuff I knew but we had some weird deep fried rice paper thing with meat and bean sprouts in the middle that was then broken up and rolled in fresh rice paper sheets and dipped into a fish sauce of some description. Despite sounding rather strange, it was pretty tasty. He also took me to what is apparently the best pho shop in the Old Quarter one evening when he was killing time between tours. It was certainly very tasty, but I don't think I"m enough of an expert to judge if it is the best!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to walk into the Old Quarter on Saturday evening and see what was happening in the city. I'd gone in the week before to meet Tuan briefly and forgot how mentalist it can get on a Saturday evening so I decided to venture out (on foot - driving the Saturday before to get there had been horiffic. I was quite glad that when I met him he insisted on riding my bike. Realised that I suck at being a passenger though as I'm used to being in control of my bike!) and see what I could find.

Exercising by Uncle Ho.

Stopping for corn at the side of the road.

Hoan Kiem Lake at night - it's nicer then coz you can't see all the crap floating in it.

She's dressed in her finest Saturday night pyjamas for a night on the town!

The rest of the photos are here

2010-12-02T17:47:00.000Z

I might get round to writing something this weekend!

2010-11-12T14:35:00.016Z

Finally writing about my trip home! (Even though most of the people reading this are people who saw me...)

Apart from overindulging in ridiculous amounts of food and going crazy with the shopping, I visited a whole bunch of places and saw heaps of cool people.

I spent a few days in London and went to the Imperial War Museum (yet again) because I love the place

and then spent the rest of the time catching up with Gemma. We mainly shopped and gossiped, and it was fun!

After that was my trip to Brighton which was awesome.

Stayed in a flat there with Liz and due to access to a kitchen got stupidly excited in ASDA about simple things and the ability to buy everything you could ever possibly want to eat under one roof. After doing this I think I cooked twice (if you count a fry up as cooking!) and spent the rest of the time eating out. We indulged in chips on the beach which is aways a good experience, and went to the Chinese place for a feast. Also spent an afternoon in a pub in Lewes where there was good pub grub to be had. The other gastronomic delight was a feast of dubious snacks from China that I'd sent to Kyle, Mary and Liz back in February but they had been too scared (:op) to try. There was of course some more shopping to be done, and a couple of walks along the pier,

as well as lots of time spent generally just catching up with people. Shockingly there was no trip to Audio - we were unsure about the DJ playing there on the Wednesday I was in town so instead we opted instead for a trip to Digital to see what the cheap student night was like. We came to the conclusion that if it sucked we could always leave a go check out Audio but the cheap drinks plus (and I'm surprised to admit this) good fun music meant that we stayed put and had a merry old time,

topped off with a trip to the all night diner for a late night grease injection afterwards. We also went to a second night at Digital, the incredibly lame sounding shades rave

and I was not nearly as impressed by that one. Gem came down on that day so the trip to the pub beforehand was far more exciting as even smelly Mary came along and there was good company with kiwi fruit vodka. What more could you want?! After the lame shades rave Gem and Kyle stayed at the flat with us and then we got up at stupid o'clock to catch a bus to the station for an adventure in Wales.

Wales was far more sedate than Brighton but still good fun! Liz put Kyle and me up in her house, and I finally got to meet Mr Liz. He made an excellent first impression by cooking an awesome roast which was welcome after a long train ride following a night of little sleep! We went to Cardiff for the day and Kyle suggested getting a face pack so we spent one evening beautifying

and the other evenings were just rather chilled out at (Liz's) home. We also got shown the sights of Newport as well as getting lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. It was pretty tasty stuff and close to the real deal that I can get here.

Another weekend, another trip, this time to Birmingham to see Nina. Lots of shopping was done, as well as lots of movies watched. Of course there was a trip to the cinema, and we watched some movies at her flat too. She lives close to a canal that's been tarted up and turned into a dining and shopping place. It has a branch of the Gourmet Burger Kitchen that she took me to for some L&P (I hadn't realised this place stocked L&P otherwise I'd have been there a long time ago!) and a place that did ace breakfasts that were two for one on a Sunday so we spent a lot of time being lazy and not venturing very far from her place unless absolutely necessary.

The final weekend was filled with a trip up to Derby with the parents and the sister. We went for dinner with Dad's family at a pub (pubs featured heavily in the month or so I was home - you can't beat good pub grub!) on Saturday night and went to the cemetery to see the plaque for my grandparents. Also spent some time with Mum's family - some came to visit for a day soon after I was home,

and we went to visit my Grandfather as well as taking another trip to London to meet my uncle. Saw some truly spectacular (!) works of art at the Tate modern and walked around the place a bit. It was a really nice day - one of those days with a super blue sky and it was all very pretty - much more so than Hanoi ever is!

Also spent some time at home and went to a few places nearby like Lacock

and Avebury. Met Jen a few times to go out for dinner locally (more pubs) and did a pub quiz with her and her friends. It was nice to spend some time at home in a familiar place doing familiar things, and it was great to see people again after so long.

Was not that impressed with coming back to Hanoi and kinda wanted to stay in the U.K., but I know that the reality of staying at home would be very different to the holiday I had. For starters I spent all my money pretty much and so would be flat broke, plus I would probably have found myself in the same situation as my sister, trying desperately to find a job.

Now I'm back into the swing of things here it's not so bad. After our failed attempt at visiting the citadel in that first week back, I went back with Alison and Calder and this time we got to see it. One side is a large pit where they have found the remains of a king's old palace and it's really just a series of small walls (:op) that you can walk past on an elevated platform, and across the street on the other side is the complex with a temple or two and a bunch of random buildings that seem to now be offices. Not the most exciting of places, but apparently it recently became a UNESCO world heritage site so we thought we should check it out.

Last weekend I went to the wedding of a couple from work. The Vietnamese side of things had happened earlier in the week in Dung's hometown and the thing on Sunday night was more the British side of things for Simon's family. It started with a long time spent standing outside the venue waiting for things to start, and then there was a ceremony inside with the usual vows, also translated into Vietnamese for Dung's family, followed by the toast and a buffet meal.

The citadel and the wedding

A ton of photos from home

2010-10-24T13:04:00.002+01:00

I do intend to write about what I got up to in the UK, I've just been rather busy since getting back to Vietnam - so much so that I haven't watched even one episode of a TV show since I've been back - before I left I was watching several a day from one of my many box sets!

I got back on Friday and Calder and Alison kept me awake by taking me for a manicure and pedicure and then a drink or two in the evening. On Saturday I stupidly gave in to the jet lag and slept til late and so didn't have that much of a day! What i did have was spent trying to unpack and then in the evening I met my mum's cousin's daughter, Basmah and her friend Louise. We went for some Pho in the Old Quarter then to Bia Minh's for a milkshake or two - they're not normally very nice in this country but those ones were good! I managed to get things done the next day after sleeping til stupidly late again and then on Monday I went to meet Basmah before work and gave her a lift on my bike round to the Temple of Literature. We had a drink at KOTO and then I had to work. After work I saw my friend Tuan for a couple of hours, and then on Tuesday after work I took Basmah round to Derry's and we had a curry and a drink or two. Wednesday I actually wasn't very social, and then on Thursday I attempted to be a tourist with Alison and Calder. I only work evenings on Thursday and Friday so have the day free to do things. As it was such a nice day they decided to get out and about so we met at the citadel and were going to go and have a look around, but of course it wasn't open. They'd even got someone to phone ahead and find out if it was open but of course as this is Vietnam the info was wrong! We walked up to the top of the citadel and went to the gate tower thing that was open, then Calder declared it beer o'clock and so we went to the pub for a few hours. On Friday after work I went to the beer hall the next street over with some of the other teachers to get some dinner, and then yesterday I went to a pot luck supper that a guy from work was having. Spent most of the evening with Alison and Calder, and my boss Emma and her husband as we didn't really know many of the other people. It was a fun night tho as now the weather is cooling a bit so we sat outside in their nice courtyard, and there was lots of nice food. I'm not normally this social tho!

2010-09-20T17:52:00.002+01:00

Shiny new laptop is now being used to write this...

Oh, Vietnam :o/

Am in the UK! Have spent some time with the family, and went to London to see Gemma for a couple of days, then tomorrow I'm going to Brighton followed by Newport for some munter times. Woohoo!!!!

2010-09-10T15:49:00.002+01:00

Had a nice last day at work today. Got a free lunch at a teacher development workshop and then as it was the lst day of term today all I had to do with my afternoon class was give them their results, but they seemed quite keen to talk so I stuck around for a while. They got me flowers, and a few hours later a couple of them came back and gave me a gift and a card saying that I was the best teacher they had ever had. That was nice! Had to teach my evening class, but it was quite a fun lesson, and they bought cakes and threw me a little party at the end. It's nice to know my students will miss me!

Spent a while trying to pack tonight. I'm trying to take some stuff back home but I had far too much so I had to take stuff out and repack a few times. Think I have managed to do it, but my bag is probably over the weight limit. Lets hope that's not a problem! I still have some time tomorrow to pack and repack but hopefully nothing else needs to go in as there is not an inch of spare space.

In 24 hours I'll be on the way home!

2010-08-22T14:43:00.002+01:00

Failed to have a productive weekend this weekend. On Friday night we ended up going to Derry's for a curry and a drink that became several. I had to drive home slowly again, this time so Eva could follow me on her bicycle as she didn't know how to get home. Got up late on Saturday and went to the Old Quarter but didn't really achieve anything that I was supposed to. In the evening I drove round to Alison and Calder's place and left my bike there to get a taxi with them to the work summer party. The food was OK but the booze was free so a good time was had. About halfway through the event all the Vietnamese left to get children to bed and only the diehard foreign staff remained to finish off all the booze. Then wound up at Derry's again with Alison, Calder and Eva and let Alison order me strange drinks. One was a mouldy blue/green colour and I have no idea what was in it! This morning Alison came by to give me a lift back to hers to get my bike and I managed to make my way to West Lake to do my shopping for the week (about the only thing I managed to do this weekend!) Went to the gym this afternoon to meet some personal trainer guy who made me lift weights and stuff to see how fit (or not) I was. Need to get back into going to the gym as I've been a bit lazy recently, and it was closed for a few days last week while they renovated. I only have 2 more full weekends left before I head back to the UK so I have to be more on the ball next weekend to get stuff done. The weekend after that hopefully Tuan will be coming to Hanoi from Ha Long Bay so we have a chance to catch up before my trip as it's been far too long since he last made it to Hanoi, and the weekend after that is when I fly! I guess I kinda have the Saturday day time to do stuff, but I'm not sure how much I'll actually achieve so I've gotta do it all before then. Must be more proactive!

2010-08-07T15:41:00.005+01:00

I'm slack at updating!!

So flood day ended with me riding home through some floods but thankfully I managed not to kill my motorbike. I had to go round the long way as I came to a flood that was pretty deep and had vehicles abandoned in it but on the route I took the water only reached up to my footpegs once and the part where the flood water was green and slimy (and probably full of turds from the sewerage canal) was thankfully shallow enough for me not to make contact with the mank. Had to go to the pharmacy once I was home tho and the part of Doi Can near my house was still pretty flooded:

This dude is awsome. He's rolled up his pants to keep them nice and dry and yet hasn't replaced his fancy black work shoes with some cheap plastic sandals. Why?!

Some people enjoyed the flood more than others!

Glad that I didn't have to push a dead bike home through the flooded streets!

Life has been pretty uneventful since then. What was supposed to be an easy week without too much work last week turned into a horrible week as I did a whole bunch of covers for people. Thursday and Friday ended up being 12 hour days with stupid early starts which was horrible, plus I was the only person teaching on Friday morning so the place was empty and kinda eery. It's also meant that this weekend which was supposed to be a nice relaxing one is now busy as I have to do all the stuff I couldn't do during the week :o( LAME!

2010-07-13T07:11:00.002+01:00

Day off! The first monsoon of the year hit last night and is still chucking down over hanoi. Half the roads in the city, including the one outside the school, are flooded and so classes were cancelled! Sadly this means (presumably) teaching a make up class one weekend. Unfortunately with flooding in my part of town comes power cuts and after a couple of hours I decided to try and escape to get some air con and light asmy house is pretty dingy. Doi can itself is knee high in water so I had to find another way out of the lanes. I tried two or three routes but kept meeting a wall of water before finally my last possible route out of the lane maze was dry enough for me to drive along without killing my motorbike. Am now settled in at Joma with air con, light and hot food. Fingers crossed the route I took to get here doesn't flood in the meantime as I really don't fancy pushing my bike home through deep dirty water!

2010-07-11T15:30:00.002+01:00

Have now booked some plane tickets for my trip home! I'll be in the UK from the 12th Sept til the 14th Oct and hope to see lots of important people and eat some good British food! Ended up booking with Thai all the way as the travel agent managed to get the return ticket for $1200, which was a pretty sweet deal as on the web it was coming up at nearly £2000, so getting the same flight for less than half the price was good. Plus this way I only have a couple of hours in Bangkok each way and don't have to deal with Thai immigration whereas most of the other options I looked at involved flying out of Hanoi on Air Asia to other Asian cities at ridiculously early times and then waitng for several hours in most locations to connect. Also a lot of the deals (stuff like supposed £500 returns between London and Hong Kong) either didn't seem to really exist or were't happening when I wanted to fly. The only cheaper option I could find was a combination of Vietnam Airways and British Airways. Not gonna be doing that any time soon as I actually want to get home!

Alison and Calder are leaving Vietnam for good a couple of days after I leave so we're all counting down to our departure. 9 weeks! I will have to return though and without Alison and Calder will probably become something of a hermit because they are my main partners in crime. Nat and I usually only make it our with their encouragement so who knows how social we will be once they have gone. My trips to Derry's probably won't be as frequent after they've left either. I went there on Thursday with them for what was supposed to be just a quick drink so we could discuss the end of Dexter (no one else at work has seen it and so we weren't allowed to talk about it in the teacher's room!) but it turned into several drinks which probably didn't help my current insomnia. I got talked into covering a morning class on Friday morning (I went for my break on Thursday and Alison starts with "Nic do you love me?" followed by "YOu know you just bought that expensive ticket home? How would you like to earn $80 by covering an easy class?" and I couldn't say no!) so it sucked waking up at 6am. Haven't been up that early for a long time! It was an easy class though (exactly the same as my afternoon class so minimal prep was required) and as an added bonus the power was cut at about 10.30. The school policy says that if it's not gonna come back on any time soon we finish class early as without air con the place basically becomes an oven and so all I had to do in the morning was watch some presentations and give some feedback. An easy $80! It does make it along day though and unlike the long days I did in place like ASDA it is pretty tiring, as you actually have to use your brain for 8 hours rather than daydreaming for 8 hours whilst carrying out simple repetitive tasks. Thankfully both the classes were full or noce students.

Went to Derry's last night too with Alison, Calder, Nat and a new teacher, Poor Steve. Nat seemed to be in the mood for drinking and so was I (normally we have a drink or two each then stop) so at one point we ended up with tequila, and Poor Steve sampled some potent homebrew so it was a rather merry evening. Poor Steve wasn't entirely sure of the way back home from Derry's as it was his first time there and so at the end of the night I had to lead him back to a familiar part of town. He was on a bicycle so I had to drive along really slowly for him to follow making it an intersting journey home!

9 weeks to go!

2010-06-26T16:27:00.006+01:00

This month has been birthday month in Hanoi. A few days after I got back from my holiday it was Alison's birthday and we went to Derry's for the evening. We ordered in some Indian food from the place next door and then had champagne and strange Vietnamese birthday cake.

A few days later it was Nat's birthday and we went to Alison and Calder's place for dinner. We had home-made hamburgers and a spam birthday cake. Apparently Hawaiians love spam so Alison put together a cake of sorts consisting of crakers with spam and pineapple. There were even some candles in the pineapple! It was very bizzare.

The last birthday was mine. As it was on a Saturday I didn't have to work (woohoo!) and I skived off from the gym. My friend Tuan was in town and he took me out for lunch at the training place, KOTO. Was presented with a passionfruit cheesecake with candles in it (who knew candles would work in cheesecake?!) and we had a nice lunch in the bar part upstairs with the really comfy sofas. In the evening I met Nat, Alison and Calder at Kamon for some Japanese food and then we went on to Derry's where there was another fancy vina birthday cake.

A great deal of effort seemed to be required to light the candles:

The cake came complete with an umbrella with Alison insisted on placing behind my ear:

Special candles for special people:

2010-06-11T18:29:00.001+01:00

Update is coming soon, I promise! Have started writing it and will try and finish it some time this weekend.

2010-06-11T17:40:00.003+01:00

Vietnam -

On her first day in the city I threw her into the madess of Hanoi on the back of my motorbike and we went for breakfast at Joma, took a walk over to see Mr Le Nin, headed to the Old Quarter for a bit and then went for a Vietnamese lunch at cafe smile. After lunch I had to go to work briefly so I left her to check out the Temple of Literature then when I was done at work we came back to my house for a bit before going for some sushi and other Japanese goodness for dinner.

We went to West Lake and went to the froufy Love Chocolate cafe (for breakfast. Is chocolate cake with cream cheese icing a bad idea for breakfast?!) and ended up not only eating lots there but also taking some of their awesome cookies away with us. It's probably a good thing I usually do my West Lake shopping on a Sunday when the place is shut or I'd be there a lot more often I think!

I attempted my longest ride through the mental Hanoi traffic to go to the silk village. In the past I've always gone by bus, or got a lift from Minh but I finally work up the courage to attempt a long ride on one of the really busy roads in Hanoi *proud*

Bec experienced the joy of climbing 5 flights of stairs to Alison and Calder's place as Nat was being taught how to cook Mexican food by Alison and we were invited over to sample the end results before heading to Derry's for a drink or two.

I talked her into joining me for a yoga class at the gym. I don't think she'll be seeking out a class back home! As a reward for all the effort (it's so much harder than it looks!!) we went to the Melia for the champagne brunch.

I went to see the water puppets for the third time. As a result I knew exactly when they missed stuff out like the cat running up the tree!

We went to Ha Long Bay with the same company that I used with the parents, but this time we didn't have our very own private boat :o( Still, the boat was very nice and there was still lots of yummy food. Went to the same floating village and cave as last time but as the place is so peaceful it's a nice break from Hanoi, even if it's not as exciting as the first time I went there.

Finally went to see the war wreckage that is just a few minutes walk away from my house. I've often walked past and thought about going in and I finally did it!

Went for my second viewing of Uncle Ho as my sister was keen to go and have a look at him.

Next up we spent a few days in Hoi An where we ate lots of good food (pancakes, good Italian food and some really nice and dirt cheep Vietnamese food) and got several items of clothing made (well I did anyway). Went back to the same tailors that I've used the past 2 times and one of them invited me to join her family for coffee and breakfast one morning which was cool.

Went for a bicycle tour on some of the islands around Hoi An which was much better than I thought it was going to be. We went down the river on a boat to our destination then cycled through the countryside (the proper countryside, not the one laid on for tourists) and saw lots of local life. Took another boat back to Hoi An as the sun was setting. It was really good fun and I like that I can still find new things to do around Hoi An as this was my 4th trip there.

We hired a motorbike for a day and shot up the highway to Marble Mountain and China Beach where we went to the funky hill temple and a nice empty beach.

The last place we went to in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City and for me a trip to HCMC generally consists of eating food that can't be found in Hanoi so we went to lots of nice places to eat, including the New York Dessert Cafe which served ace apple crumble!

Went for another visit to the Independence Palace and this time made it as far up as the roof and down into the basement tunnels.

We booked a trip to the Cu Chi tunnes through the same company as last time and ended up with the same crazy guide, but this time there were no other tourists so it was our own private tour! As my ankle didn't hurt this time I actually managed to go into the tunnels and it's not nice at all. The tunnels have been widened for fat foreigners so I can only imagine how horribly tiny the original tunnels are!

here.

Cambodia!

Took forever to get there as we spent three goddam hours waiting to get stamped out of Vietnam and one hour getting into Cambodia as everyone in Vietnam had decided to go to Cambodia that day to gamble away their 4 day weekend. Plus the bus broke down on the way for some added fun. As a result we ended up in a more expensive hotel than we'd originally planned as a tuk tuk driver took us to one at the waterfront and after managing to get $10 a night knocked off the price we decided to just stay there as the thought of trying to find a hotel in the evening after that rubbish journey was just too much. Turned out to be a great hotel for watching the nightly dancing and aerobics classes by the river though! The day improved greatly with some authentic Thai food for dinner.

Did a fair bit of shopping in Phnom Penh as the tourist tat that is available there is different to the tourist tat in Hanoi. There are also some cool boutiquey shops so I indulged in a little shopping. The same is also true of Siem Reap. Oops!

We went to the royal palace and checked out the colouful buildings and temples, and died a little in the heat.

We ended up hiring a tuk tuk driver for the day one day. He took us out to the killing fields at Choeung Ek where there is a small museum and then you walk around the mass graves. There are still bits of bone, teeth and clothing lying buried in the ground and in the centre there is a stupa filled with skulls of the victims so it's a little different to many other memorials/battle sites/etc as you can still see the human remains right there. After that the tuk tuk dropped us at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum which was a school that had been turned into a prison. Finally the driver took us to the Russian Market for a bit of a break from death.

In Phnom Penh we went on a boat trip on the river. We went to a silk factory and a temple, then we sailed past a Vietnamese floating village that was pretty much identical to the ones on Ha Long Bay.

Next up we spent a few days by the beach in Sihanoukville. It was low season so there was quite a strange atmosphere to the place - lots of sex-pats and few tourists. It was nice to do nothing for a few days though, plus there were lots of places selling British food (sausages!!) and good cheap Cambodian food. We went to a national park and sailed down a river to a beach, and we also booked a boat trip to one of the near-by islands which was really good. The boat was nice and there was lots of good food, and on the way to the island we stopped to go snorkelling over a mini coral reef. On the island we went wading throuh a river past some mangroves. I was wary at first as the water was murky so I couldn't see the bottom but it turned out to be really fun. We also went on what was billed as a jungle trek but anything that can be done in a swimsuit and flip-flops isn't really a jungle trek in my mind!

Saw lots of good sunsets in Sihanoukville as we were staying at the beach facing to the west. There were hammocks on the beach so we spent lots of time lying in them in the evening or walking along the pier as the sun set.

We took a long bus ride up to Siem Reap and checked into our awesome hotel, then went out for a roast dinner. ROAST CHICKEN AND STUFFING!!!!! It's been a while since I've had a roast and I enjoyed it very much.

The main reason for a trip to Siem Reap is of course to go to Angkor Wat and we spent a couple of days checking out some of the temples. It was stupidly hot and hard work clambering up heaps of steps but it was very impressive. The advantage to going at the hottest time of the year was that there were fewer tourists so most places weren't too packed. We went to watch sunrise one morning but it wasn't the best time of year for an amazing sunrise so it wasn't as spectacular as some of the photos would have you believe, however it was still pretty sweet. We also tried to go for sunset but the sun didn't really seem to set that night.

The least impressive thing I did in Cambodia was get my feet nibbled by fish. It was such a strange experience and I can't say I'd go back for more!

Cambodia.

Borneo.

Went back to Koto Kinabalu and just like last time it rained every single day. Spent a lot of the rainy time in the shopping centres all around the city!

We took a trip to Kinabalu national park (in the rain) and just like last time it wasn't possible to actually see the mountain. We also went to Poring Hot Springs and went on the tree-top canopy walkway which was pretty cool.

Spent a day at one of the islands close to the city but sadly unlike last time the tide was in so after sweating our way to the end of the island we couldn't walk back along the shore and had to go back the way we came. It was nice to chill out on the beach after our sweaty walk across the island.

We left Malaysian Borneo for a couple of days in Brunei, which doesn't seem to have changed one bit since I was last there, apart from the Thai food stall at the food court apparently closing down and the great Indian restaurant no longer offering blueberry juice. Just like last time every evening apart from the one with the torrential rain was spent at the mosque watching the sun set as it's aways impressive

Took another trip down the river to see the funky monkeys and the water village, and this time the tour continued on land to take in a couple of the mosques in the city. After this tour we were dropped back at the youth hostel and an ice cream van was set up just down the road selling the Brunei equivalent to Mr. Whippy. YES!

We went by speedboat to Bangar and found a local dude to drive us out to Bukit Patoi and made our way to the top of the monster hill to take in the view. It seemed easier this time than last time and I'd like to think this is due to going to the gym heaps rather than just knowing what is ahead this time!

Malaysia

Brunei.

Kuala Lumpur

Singapore.

In both places we did pretty much the same things - shopping, eating a whole range of good food from all over the world and (on my part anyway) making the most of being in modern cities.

In Kuala Lumpur we went out to Batu Caves with the bajillion stairs and insane monkeys and we also went up the Petronas Towers, whilst in Singapore we went on the Singapore Flyer (or London Eye, according to the taxi driver who took us from the train station to the hotel!) so we squeezed in some tourist activities. We went for a drink at Raffles too for a bit of sophistication.

On the last day in Singapore we walked past a British pub so I convinced my sister that was where she wanted to have lunch so I got a taste of home to end the trip with!

Singapore.

2010-05-28T20:33:00.002+01:00

I'm so bored!

I'm on my way back to Hanoi but the budget airline from Singapore had no flights available when I wanted to fly so I have had to resotrt to the air Asia flight from kuala lumpur back to Hanoi. Sadly it leaves at 6.30 am and as the last place on our trip was Singapore I had to fly up here on Friday night and am now spending the night at kl airport til my early flight back to dirty Asia. I'm not even at the good terminal :0( The budget terminal is a bit of a crap terminal with not much going for it, but they don't seem to mind people camping out here over night. There are hundreds of us! Have spent the last 3 hours at starbucks killing time and using their free wifi. Also watched a DVD until my crap Chinese DVD player ran out of battery. Can't face sitting out on the floor in the terminal to charge the thing up from the plugs out there so have resorted to trying to find stuff on the Internet. I'm running out of things to entertain me! Any suggestions?!

Once I'm back in Hanoi and have done all my chores will try and update this thing as it's been a while. Hopefully you won't have to wait much longer to find out about my exciting life!

2010-04-16T11:57:00.001+01:00

Paying 3 months rent in Vietnam -

Despite making me appear to be rich, this is worth only about $600!

2010-04-14T17:23:00.004+01:00

This past weekend I was rather social as a friend from uni was in Hanoi with some friends so we met for drinks at Derry's on Saturday night. Ended up staying there so late that banana fritter lady had packed up for the night by the time I got home - she's normally sitting at the corner of my lane til well into the small hours! About an hour after getting to bed I was woken by a phone call from brusque German Tomas telling me my friends had left their bag at the bar they had gone on to and that he needed to know how to return it to them. He called several times over an hour asking for info like their hotel, full names, room numbers etc. I'm glad that he was the one to find their bag as he knew who to call to go about returning it to them and didn't steal anything from it but it still sucked that every time I was drifting back to sleep I got woken by another call from him. On sunday I was pretty tired as a resut and so I very slowly marked some assignments in the aternoon before going to Alison and calder's place for dinner. The art of lowering the key down from the fifth floor balcony is improving but I'm still crap at wheeling my bike up the ramp into their parking garage. It's too steep for me! We ate beef stew and then settled down to watch some Phoenix Nights. They're into British comedy so I thought I'd take it round so the could give it a try. Wasn't sure if the Northerness would be an issue but aside from having to explain a few things to Calder they enjoyed it. Alison did at one point ask if Calder needed the subtitles but he battled throughthe heavy accents without them in the end. The night before at Derry's he and our German friend Carmen had had issues dealing with the poncy British accents of my friends and I but apparently Northern accents pose no problems!

It is the last week of term again this week so the usual lazy week has been under way. Have slacked a bit on the gym this week as I just couldn't be bothered - I needed more sleep on Monday, and I got there a little late yeaterdy so didn't have much time and then today I had to cut it short as I had one of my strange sicky leg crampy things and I didn't want to make it worse so instead I had a shower and went to work where I just walked back and forth through reception to control the cramp, much to the amusement of the Vietnamese staff. Will be doing lots at the gym tomorrow to make up for it as there is no preparationto be done for tomorrow's lesson so I can go in later - I love exam days! After work tomorrow I'm gonna come home and kill time til the taxi comes to take me to the airport to meet my sister (provided I actually get round to booking it tomorrow morning)!!!!

I have a 6 week holiday lined up with her which I'm excited about. Hoping for some good weather on this trip as he weather in Hanoi has been pants recently. There has been a very British rain which has settled over the city recently which is no fun! Have a feeling it is monsoon season in most places tho :0/ Still, my sister is bring some creme eggs with her which will make everything better!

2010-03-28T14:12:00.003+01:00

Yes that is my motorbike. And that is a massive beanbag strapped to the back of it.

I picked it up yesterday and then made my way home with it balanced on the back. I stopped for bread on the way and the parking guy at Joma gave me a strange look. I succeeded in weaving through the traffic though and got home with both me and the beanbag in one piece.

And today I've been treated to this ALL GODDAM DAY!

There is a funeral going on next door and this is what happens at a Vietnamese funeral. They pick the most uncoordinated and out of tume musicians as they possibly can then get them to start playing at 6am. It stops at random points throughout the day for a little while but for most of the day they're making this racket. After being worken up at 6 I tried reading my book for a bit but eventually I gave up and headed to the gym at like 8.30 this morning. Dung looked rather surprised to see me there so early as I'm normally there at 10 at the earliest on a Sunday. I spent aaages there today - partly to avoid the funeral of doom and partly as I didn't go yesterday because on Friday I had a really bad back. I could barely stand up straight, much to the amusement of my students and although it felt better yesterday I didn't wanna risk it at the gym. It was fine today though. I also finally got round to buying a yoga mat thing today so that I can do sit ups and stuff at home without the humiliation of other super fit people watching me! AFter the gym I headed up to West Lake to buy food and to further delay my return home. I thought about getting lunch there as all the Bun Cha places smelled really nice but I couldn't be bothered in the end. Got home to some peace and quiet but it wasn't long before the lame musicians got back into their "music". At least I'll be gone for most of the day tomorrow so if they're still doing it tomorrow I'll miss it. Just hope they don't start up at 6 am again tomorrow :o/

2010-03-21T09:07:00.003Z

A couple of week ago it was Women's Day and I got two fancy bunches of flowers from both my Monday classes.

Had some nice students last term! My classes this term are pretty nice too. Some of them I taught a couple of terms ago but between now and then the retards have been weeded out so I'm left with the good students!

Just four more weeks of this term and then I'm off on another holiday, this time with my sister. We're spending some time in Vietnam, and then going to Cambodia, Borneo, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Shopping!! I've also managed to convince my sister she wants to stay here in Siem Reap. Dunno if we will go for a villa or just for a suite/the hotel but all the rooms there sound pretty sweet with the swimming pool and stuff as well. The villa sounds extra fancy tho. Will be going to Ha Long Bay again and am going with the same company as with the parents. This time no private boat tho. Did manage to get ex-pat rates so it's only $129 for an overnight trip on a fancy boat. We're also going to Hoi An and I'm gonna get another dress made. It's about time to add some more clothes to my wardrobe! I'm also looking forward to eating some good food. Indian food in Borneo and Chinese food in KL!

Had some good Singaporean food on St Paddy's Day. On my way out of work Alison convinced me and Nat to go to Derry's with her and Calder for green beer and satay. passed on the green beer but the satay was good. There are a few Singapore dishes available there now which sound nice. Will have to try some of them some time.

I've managed to get to the gym most days these past two weeks. Getting my moneys worth! It wasn't too traumatic with the trainer boy the other day but I suck at sit ups and stuff. Have been trying to do stuff like that each time I go and today he made me do more with him - I'm getting better! I can do a few more now compared to two weeks ago, but I still can't do too many before I die! Dung also made me pinky promise to go to his 8am aerobics class tomorrow morning :o/ What a way to start the week! Don't know if I'm even fit enough to make it all the way to the end of the class without dropping dead as it looks pretty hardcore - will have to see how it goes.

2010-03-07T14:52:00.003Z

Had a nice dinner at Alison and Calder's place yesterday. Had to go via Derry's to meet Nat so that he could follow me to their apartment, then Calder had to send the key down on a piece of string as they're on the fifth floor and can't be assed to walk up and down the stairs unless absolutely necessary. Alison cooked meat pie (from scratch!!!) with mash and veg and it was yummy yummy yummy. We had apple crumble and custard for dessert as I'd stopped at Joma (an ace new cafe we first investigated last weekend. This place sells real bread! None of this sweet bread nonsense - it's the real deal! And you can buy loaves to take home so I intend to indulge in some marmite sandwiches at work this week. The best lunch ever!) earlier in the day to pick some up. It was nice to just chill out for a few hours and eat good food in a nice Western apartment. I get jealous of their place sometimes as it's a really cool apartment, but I can't be bothered to pay two or three times my current rent for my own place (or to faff around moving stuff around Hanoi!. My house isn't actually too bad, particularly considering how little we pay for a fully furnished 4 floor house. And it is nice to have company without having to actually venture outside. We have a new housemate moving in sometime soon as Mark is finally off to Cambodia and so he managed to let out his room in less than 24 hours. We had heaps of people to choose from and hopefully we picked a nice normal housemate from the bunch!

I finally joined a gym (again!) today so am now all motivated to go and be active again. The super hot and humid time of the year is coming so my exercise will dwindle down to nothing which is not good for my plans to go climb a mountain before leaving Asia. When I got back from my big trip I didn't really have the funds to rejoin the hotel gym so I put it off. A new gym actually opened up fairly recently so I'm glad I didn't go back to the hotel as this one is heaps better. For starters it's a real gym rather than an attachment to a hotel and it is full of top quality equipment (including cross trainers! Yay!)that works really well. The staff there actually know stuff about training and there are a whole bunch of classes on offer like yoga, pilates, kickboxing etc. Will try some of them out at a later stage methinks. There is a $300 joining fee which kinda sucks but I get an appointment with a trainer as part of that so on Tuesday I'm going to embarrass myself and find out how unfit I am with this dudes help.

This week is the last week of term for all but one of my classes so a cruisy week is coming up. Time to relax!

2010-02-27T13:42:00.019Z

So...China!

Arrived in Beijing on Saturday afternoon and got the bus into the city. The hostel was supposedly next to the bus stop but I couldn't for the life of me find it so I wandered around in the freezing cold attempting to find it. No one seemed to know where it was and then finally I spotted the hostelling international sign up high on a building and eventaully managed to check in. Was starving by this point as the lunch on the plane had been so bad it'd made me feel sick so went next door for McDonalds, figuring Big Mac is the same in any language! Then I walked around by the hostel for a bit but got very confused by all the Chinese, and was also feeling cold, tired and grumpy at this point so I gave up and went back to the hostel to speak with crazy Brightonians on Skype.

Was a bit more cheerful the next day and made my way to Tiananman square. It's big! Walked across it to the other end and then went to the Forbidden City. Just as big!

Spent most of the afternoon there as each time you think you've reached the end there is another section hiding behind it waiting to be explored.

Once I was done exploring I went to the shopping street to have a look around. Got some meat on a stick for dinner and then got excited about real shopping centres! Found a foreign language book shop and managed to buy just one book, and also got myself a stupid hat with ear flaps and pom poms as I'd pretty much lost all feeling in my ears in the afternoon.

The next day featured more shopping. Went to Silk Street for some fakie goods - got myself a proper winter jacket and a pair of hideously unnatractive (but very warm) ugg boots . In then walked for a bit with no real purpose until I was so cold I had to go warm myself up in a cafe. Next up I went to the cold and windswept Olympic park.

I didn't really want to pay lots of money to go inside things so I just spent a bit of time walking around on the lovely windy expanse of concrete and then went back to shopping street for some more shopping time. Also went to see Tiananmen Square all lit up at night.

Had an early start the following day for my great wall tour. It had a lot of other parts to it too and in the end we only spent a couple of hours at the wall but given how cold it was a couple of hours was more than enough! The first stop was a jade factory where they tried to sell us expensive jade products, and then we went on to some Ming tombs. It was set up in a temple complex similar to the ones in Vietnam but it was cool to see. Next up was the wall where we climbed up over 1000 steps (I gave up counting after 1000) to various assorted watch towers.

On the way up to each one we'd say "after this we're turning back" but then we'd see the next one and think that perhaps the view was better from there, so off we went up and up and up. And then we had to come down and down and down.

We then went for lunch at a local restaurant and had some good Chinese food then we were taken to a silk factory where I bought the most awesome cushion - it is bright pink with butterflies on it and it zips out into a silk blanket! It's ace! The last stop on the tour was a tea place to sample various teas. I'm not a big tea drinker so this wasn't particularly exciting, but it was nice to be sitting down in the warmth.

Got up early the next day too to go and see the great chairman. Had to go back to the hostel to get my passport as apparently they take the protection of their dead leader far more seriously in China than in Vietnam and so I had to show ID before I could go and see Mao. Pretty much the same set up as for Uncle Ho - stand in a line, go through a metal detector, stand in another line, take your hat off, walk past a dead guy in a glass box, come out the other side, done.

Just got to get to Moscow now to complete the set of dead communist leaders!

Once I'd gone back to the hostel to collect all the junk I carted around with me each day (you can't take your bags in with you to see the great leader!) I went to Yonghegong Lama Temple. It was pretty busy with people burning their new years incense but apparently after the new year it was even more crazy busy.

I then went across the road and down a side street to the Confucian temple which was much more peaceful before heading to the zoo. It wasn't very exciting, and despite having to buy a ticket to get into the zoo you then had to buy other tickets to see most of the animals once you were inside. Most of the animals were huddled up away from the cold anyway - really not the most exciting zoo visit ever!

After these busy days being a tourist I had quite a slow day the next day. I went to try and find some underground city thing and aquired a crazy lady from Singapore along the way. She was staying in the same hostel and she invited herself along. I figured it'd be nice to have some company but she always walked five paces behind me and would never really speak to me. She kept staring and any Western man we passed too. Crazy stuff! Couldn't find the underground city place as it was on some obscure street so I got distracted by shops instead and bought some awesome stripy and spotty knee-high socks! I then went back to the hostel in an attempt to shake of the crazy stalker and settled down with my book for a few hours whilst waiting for Alison and Calder to arrive. Once they were checked in we went across the road to the station to look into buying train tickets to Harbin to go to the ice festival. Unfortunately whilst there were still tickets available to get there, there were no tickets left for me to get back to Beijing in time for me to fly home so I couldn't go. Once htey had bought their tickets we went for a classy meal at Maccy Ds then back to the hostel for a drink or two in the bar.

The next day was new years eve (if you're Chinese or Vietnamese) and we spent it visiting the summer palace. It's out towards the edge of the city and was rather pretty, plus the sky was really clear and blue. It was a really nice (but cold) day for a bit of sightseeing.

We then tried to find lunch near the drum and bell tower and ended up in some local restaurant with Alison ordering food for us in Chinese. It made a nice change to the fast food/food that could be pointed at that I'd been eating prior to their arrival as a lot of local places were beyond my capabilities. Paid a brief visit to thr drum tower just in time to watch the drummers going crazy and then we made our way back to the hostel, picking up supplies on the way. Spent the evening watching dodgy Chinese new years eve TV and listening to the endless fireworks going off outside.

On new years day we joined what seemed like the rest of China in visiting the temple of heaven

where I modelled my beautiful and rather fashionable Chinese look.

The ugg boots, the stupid hat, the knee-high spotty socks and the flappy mittens all add to the look. We then ate more yummy Chinese food in a local restaurant before calling it a day and chilling out at the hostel for the rest of the afternoon.

The next day was the last day with Calder and Alison and we went to a (somewhat busier) Tiananmen Square where I joined the locals in posing a for a photo or two.

We then walked through a hutong or two away from the crowds to find a place for lunch before discovering another shopping area that I made plans to return to the next day. We made our way back to the hostel after that and after getting in supplies for their journey (McDonalds and beer!) Alison and Calder left for their overnight train ride to Harbin. For something to do (as bizzare Chinese TV is less entertaining on your own) I went back to the original shopping street for more meat on a stick goodness. It was much busier this time so I just people watched for a while and took in all the crazy fashions that Chinese people seemed so keen to show off to the world.

For the last few days I didn't do very much. I did a fair bit of shopping (H&M!!) and when I was ill I watched some DVDs in the warmth of the hostel. I did make it to the ruins of the old summer palace which was nice as it was really wintery. I miss those cold crisp blue winter days but the old summer palace was a good place to enjoy them again as there were lots of frozen lakes to walk around.

I also went to see the Chinese acrobats which was entertaining. Their big ending was this:

5 dudes on motorbikes riding around inside that cage behind them. Whilst I was watching it I couldn't help but think that if you put 5 Vietnamese people on a wide straight road they find a way to crash into each other and yet these 5 guys managed to ride around that confined space without crashing! OK so they've probably worked pretty hard to get to that point but I still found it amusing.

And that, ladies and gentlemen was my trip to China. Next up - Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and maybe even Brunei when my sister comes to visit in April!

As always, people without Facebook can see my photos here

2010-02-21T16:30:00.001Z

I am now back from China, but despite having the best intentions to be productive today and do Stuff, I have in fact wasted the day and achieved nothing other than paying my moto rent. As a result you'll have to wait for exciting stories and photos from China!

2010-02-06T18:05:00.002Z

Am finally packed! Has taken me the longest time to actually get round to packing today. I went into the Old Quarter when I got up to get a bunch of stuff and ended up meeting Alison at Puku for some eggs benedict whilst waiting to find out if Calder had made it to Thailand safely. I thought my attempts to get a Chinese visa were tedious but it's even worse for Calder. He had to get a new visa for Vietnam as he didn't have enough time left on his current one accordng to the Chinese embassy. It's not as simple as just getting the visa sorted here in Hanoi - instead he had to fly to Bangkok this morning and then fly back this afternoon with a letter of invitation to get a Vina visa. All this was arranged over the course of yesterday and Thursday and at about 6pm yesterday Alison finally got all the paperwork needed after a lot of stress.

We ended up spending quite a bit of time in Puku gossiping and waiting to hear that Calder had arrived safely then I set off to get the various things I needed. The big thing I was after was some US currency but again, this is Vietnam so I couldn't just go to the bank and change money. Had to go to some gold shop instead and change it on the black market and I got ushered out of plain view to count out the dollars, just in case anyone of a suspicious nature was watching the shop. Managed to get $300 at a little higher than the official exchange rate but at least now I know I've got some instant cash if the ATMs in China have a hissy fit and don't accept my card. Didn't really get up to much else in town as I'd left my list of Stuff To Do at home. The only vital thing was the dollars so once I had them I went for a browse in some shops and got myself a new coat. Prolly shouldn't have, but it was so lovely I couldn't resist. Plus I got a lucky red envelope with it with a 50,000 dong gift voucher and some stamps on my loyalty card so technically I gained something from it! The streets were pretty mental too which made me pretty impatient so I just did what I had to then came home. Regret not taking my camera out with me as everyone is busy preparing for Tet. For most people this involves strapping a big kumquat or peach blossom tree to the back of their motorbike and riding through the traffic like a maniac. Quite a sight to see!

Came home and faffed around a ridiculous amount this afternoon, and caught up with some people online then realised it was 7pm and I'd not really achieved anything. SLightly crazed attempt at packing unvolved slinging some clothes onto my bed and getting together various stuff then throwing it into my backpack. At least this holiday I'm only gone for 2 weeks, and I'm only dealing with one type of weather - freezing cold - so it wasn't as convoluted as packing for the last trip I took. I figured as long as I have lots of jumpers and warm tights I'll be fine! Went to meet Calder and Alison after that - despite not really having finished my packing, and having a whole heap of other things to do - but as Calder had managed to complete the most difficult part of the trip (successfully getting a visa put into his passport upon arrival in Vietnam) I decided to join them at Derrys to celebrate. Did manage to paint my nails whilst I was there so crossed one more thing off my list. A quick drink turned into several and a good gossip, and I ended up leaving gone midnight. oops! I THINK I'm all sorted now but I have a feeling I've forgotten something vital. I guess I'll find out when I get there tomotrrow! Taxi is coming at 7am tomorrow (ugh) as Calder encountered a lot of traffic on his way to the airport today, presumably due to Tet preparations so I'm off bright and early to the lamest excuse for an internation airport ever to make sure I catch my flight. This means I'll get at most 4 hours of sleep tonight so am hoping to sleep on the flight tomorrow. Fingers crossed no clueless retards with no idea about how to fly are sitting next to me.

Chuc mung nam moi!!

2010-02-03T06:40:00.002Z

I am still alive! Have just been busy running around the city and standing in endless queues at the Chinese embassy to try and get my visa sorted. It was the most tediously complex process ever involving a double whammy of paperwork and ridiculous rules to appease both the Vinas and the Chinese. I think this might be my only trip to china, certainly from this part of the world as I really can't face all that again! I guess I should just be greatful I got the damn thing as when I went to pick up my passport yesterday they were turning away a Dutch couple saying no visas for foreigners. At least they (eventually) processed mine so now I can start getting things together and booking a place to stay. I leave on Sunday!

2010-01-17T12:39:00.003Z

Last week of this term tomorrow! Woohoo! Will be glad to see the back of my lame class who are incredibly unresponsive and make the lessons no fun at all. I'm also looking forward to having a prper weekend next weekend as I've had to teach the past two Saturdays to make up for having xmas day off. Lame!

Had another fun post office experience today trying to send a birthday pressie to my sister. The international part of the post office had no staff in it today so I went round to the main part of the post office. Ususally when I send things back to the UK I get them to wrap it for me in postal paper, but according to the woman in the main part of the post office stuff must be sent in boxes and paper can't be used. I suspect this is a ploy to charge me 90,000 dong for a crappy cardboard box (it wasn't like it was a proper postal box or anything) and a bit of tape, and I guarante that if I go to the usual part of the post office tomorrow to send something I'd be able to get it wrapped in paper there.

I am now starting to get things organised for my next holiday. In Feb I'm off to China for two weeks! Exciting!

2010-01-01T16:54:00.001Z

The trip!!! It's taken me a long time to get round to sorting the photos out from my trip but finally it's done and I have some time to spare. So this is what I did on my 5 weeks off.

I went out to the airport to meet the parents and tried to break them into life in Vietnam gently. The day after they arrived we went out to Co Loa, on the edge of the city, with Lan. She managed to negotiate a taxi for us so we got to ride out in relative luxury rather than having to brave the bus. We aquired a random Vietnamese girl on our way round Co Loa and spent a couple of hours checking out the temples and the lake.

It's got a small village vibe going on despite being pretty close to Hanoi so it was quite a nice way to escape the madness. That afternoon we went to the Temple of Literature and then walked to my house past some of Hanoi's exciting sights like the Lenin state, the flag tower, the mausoleum and the B-52 wreckage. Hanoi has a rather specific style of tourist attractions!

The next day we didn't do quite as much as the weather was a bit crap and we had brunch lined up at the Melia but it was a nice relaxing day.

The following day was my escape from Hanoi!! We went to Ha Long Bay where we somehow ended up on our own private boat!

It had a couple of nice cabins and a dining area where we spent most of our time. There was a sun deck but the lack of sun meant that we didn't really use it. There were several fancy meals on the trip!

We had a seven course meal soon after getting on the boat as we sailed out into the bay. We visited a floating village (like the one in the Top Gear Vietnam show where people live for all their life on the water) and sailed a bit more before having another 7 course meal. The next day we went kayaking to a cave and then had what was supposed to be a light breakfast but was prolly more food than I'd eat in a day before visiting one of the caves in the bay. We then got fed ANOTHER meal as we headed back to the main land. It was a nice trip tho and I'd definitely go back again with that same company.

Once we were back in Hanoi we had a few hours to kill then we got the crappy overnight train down to Hue. It rained pretty much the whole time we were in Hue but we still visited some of the sights. We went to the Citadel

and out to some pagoda by the river, and ate lots of nice food in the restaurant by the hotel.

Next stop after Hue was Hoi An. The weather was still bad so we didn't get to go over the pass and see the ace view. I'm gonna have to go back and do that another time! In Hoi An I got a lot of clothes made which filled some time, and we walked around the town in the rain. The river flooded evey evening which gives you an idea of how wet it was!

We went to My Son (the Cham ruins in the jungle)

but didn't bother with a wet beach.

The last place we went to in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City. It's like a more modern version of Hanoi and has a few things worth seeing in the city I guess. I was excited about all the international food that you could get there tho! We did a day trip to the Mekong which was nice - no motorbikes there!! -

and we also went to the tunnels from the war. Also managed to meet up with my friends Nick and Katherine for a nice French meal and now I can finally say that I've made it to Ho Chi Minh City.

The last stop of the trip with the parents was Singapore. I very much enjoyed my Subway meal for dinner the night we arrived! We walked around some of the touristy places of the city, like the Merlion and the Battle Box tunnels as well as doing a river cruise,

and we spent some time on Sentosa Island at the beach.

We also did the night safari which was kinda cool, apart from the walk-in bat cage. Did NOT like that! After the parents left I went on the Singapore Flyer (like the London Eye)

and then did some shopping. Singapore has some good shopping! There were also heaps of xmas displays and lights all over the city which was nice.

The next day I flew to Macau and checked into my fancy hotel - prolly the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in! Resisted the temptation to sleep in my nice big bed and headed out to explore the city. I wasn't that impressed at first at it seemed kinda industrial and the area by my hotel was full of casinoes and hotels. Once I got to the bottom of the peninsula tho I picked up the tourist trail through the city and it got a lot better. It's a strange place with Chinese and Portguese stuff side by side. All the street names are Portugese, and there would be a Portugese sign stuck to the side of a Chinese temple. It was a nice place to walk around tho. Lots of winding cobbled streets going up and down the hills and lots of churches hiding down side streets. It was nice and cool after the heat of Singapore and was a relatively easy place to walk around so I spent pretty much the entire day walking around the city. There was a fort on the top of a hill,

and the front piece of a massive cathedral that had somehow survived the bombing (?) that wiped out the rest of the building

and a whole bunch of other interesting places to check out. The next day I got a bus down to the southern part of the island and found a really nice cafe with ace jacket potatoes!! Walked along the coast for a bit, and looked across at the industruial greyness of China but then it got rather boring so I went back up to the main part of Macau and wandered around aimlessly til it was time to get my ferry over to Hong Kong.

On the first day in Hong Kong I went to Ocean Park - rollercoasters and animal stuff. It was pretty cool! Sadly the big loop the loop coaster wasn't working but there were some other good rides, including one of those things that drops you straight down from a great height. It was fun! In the evening I went across the harbour to watch the symphony of lights thing - a 15 minute display of lights from the buildings around the harbour, with the added bonus of some cheesy music to accompany it.

Once it ended there were a bunch of boats sailing past on the harbour - turns out it was a run through for the opening ceremony for the East Asia games that was happening the next night.

The next day I went up on the Peak Tram to get the typical tourist photo of Hong Kong.

Spent the rest of the day wandering around the city and doing the occasional bit of shopping before going back to the same place as the night before to watch the opening ceremony as it was free. Didn't have a such a great view of all the stuff on the water but I can't imagine the second time the boats sailed past was more interesing. The main reason I was there was because of the rumour of a firework display and at the end of the ceremony there was a good 15 minutes of fireworks. Yay!

On my last day in HK I went out to one of the outlying islands to go see a massive Buddha at the top of a hill. There is a big cable car to save your legs - it takes 30 minutes to sway and swing your way to the top of the hill,

then it's a short climb up some stairs to get to the Buddha.

It was nice to see a different side of the city.

I then hit my last country of the trip - Malaysia. I flew into Penang and stayed in the centre of Georgetown. It was quite a nice place with a fort and the usual Malaysian mix of cultures. It also had great Indian and Thai food and a chocolate shop that gave you free samples of pretty much everything when you went in. Outside of Georgetown was Penang Hill which didn't seem worth the effort to me. Unlike the Peak Tram in HK which runs pretty much constantly the one to the top of Penang Hill seemed to only run every half hour which meant I had to wait for ages to get to the top. Close to the hill is a massive temple complex

which was much more interesting than the hill with heaps of pagodas and prayer halls. There was also a beach, of course, that just had to be visited!

After a few days there I made my way to the Cameron Highlands. I went on a day tour in a 4 wheel drive which started with a crazy ride up a dirt track deep into the jungle to see a big flower.

The car in front got stuck

and we ended up having to nudge them with our car to get them going again. There was a crazy hike to get to the flower,

and then we had to make our way back down the steep muddy track in the car, getting a massive rock wedged under the car somewhere which then had to be bashed out at the side of the road, much to the amusement of a group of kids who were passing. The rest of the tour was a little more sedate, taking in the tea plantation (with a cafe selling scones!),

a butterfly and insect farm

and a strawberry farm.

The following day I went on a more relaxed tour to the top of a mountain. It was pretty misty at the top so the view wasn't great, but there was a short forest walk through a cloud forest at the top

with the occasional gap in the clouds to take in some of the view.

We also stopped at the tea plantations and strawberry farm again but I saw no problem with having another round of scones, jasmine tea and strawberries with honey! That afternoon I hired a motorbike and enjoyed riding on civilised roads out to a flower garden

and a couple of temples. People actually gave way to me when I was waiting to turn!!

The last place I visited was Kuala Lumpur, mainly to shop. I got there in the morning and had to wait a couple of hours before my room was ready - in that short space of time I aquired several bags! The next day I went to Little India and Chinatown but once it started to rain I gave in and went to the indoor market for some shopping and a foot massage. I had another day of shopping, then felt kinda guilty the next day so went out to the park to avoid spending money. Went past the National Mosque

and stopped in at the Islamic Arts museum, then went into the park. Took in the bird park which was pretty cool

and then went to the KL tower in the evening as I do like to watch the sun set over a big city.

Finished off my trip with another day of shopping!

All the albums are here if you're bored and fancy looking at some more photos! -
Vietnam
Singapore
Macau
Hong Kong
Malaysia

2009-12-22T07:42:00.003Z

Have made it back to Hanoi - was only 2kgs over my luggage limit! Am working crappy split shifts and fighting with my laptop to get to acknowledge my camera so i can get the photos from it so you'll have to wait a little longer to feel jealous about all the things I did on holiday!

2009-12-15T14:47:00.002Z

Yay fireworks! There was some marching band thing going on in KL tonight and there were some fireworks to kick it all off! Didn't stick around for the band thing as I was hungry and it was raining, but fireworks!

Also saw an awesome display in Hong Kong. It was the opening of the East Asia Games when I was there and there was a big opening ceremony by the harbour that was free to watch. There was a light show, and a bunch of boats sailed past, then there was 15minutes of fireworks! Thats was pretty cool! I do like a good firework display but Vietnam doesn't seem to agree on that matter. It's probably a good thing tho - Vietnam is FULL of the sort of people who would go back to a lit firework and get their face blown off :o/

Have been doing lots of shopping Kuala Lumpur. Lots of new books and clothes! Am gonna take a break from the shopping centres tomorrow (provided it isn't raining) and go to Putrajaya to have a look around. Also intend to go to a museum or two at some point, and to the park to enjoy sitting on the grass before I get back to Vietnam where grass there is purely to be looked at, not walked on.

Love my flash hotel - it has the biggest, most comfortable bed in the world! It also has a decent bath so am using up all the bath bombs I somehow found myself buying in Lush in Hong Kong - I walked past and before I knew it I was walking out with a bag full of bath bombs! I would say that this will make my bag lighter for my return to Hanoi, but thats a lie given that I've bought 10 books in these past 2 days. Not looking forward to packing on friday and getting my bag to 20kgs or less.

2009-12-10T12:21:00.002Z

Figured I'll wait til I'm back in Hanoi to give you the mind-numbingly boring blow by blow account of all the things I've done with the added bonus of some pics. For now tho I'm in the Cameron Highlands and it's heaps cooler here than down in Penang, which is nice. I spent the day at the beach yesterday and ended up with a bright red face despite using heaps of suncream AND wearing a hat. Thankfully it faded overnight so I look less retarded today. Hoping to avoid major sunburn here by spending most of my time in the jungle! Walked out to a couple of waterfalls today and tomorrow I'm going on some tour to some of the sights in the area.The day after I'm thinking about hiring a motorbike to go to some other places but I've learnt my lesson from Laos and will be covered up to avoid getting horribly burnt!

In a couple of days I'm heading to Kuala Lumpur and I've booked myself into a fancy expensive hotel as now I have a Real Job I have money and so don't have to risk another bed bug infestation in a dodgy KL hostel! Can't wait for my bit of luxury.

2009-12-03T14:45:00.002Z

I want to tell you all the mundane things I have been doing recently but whilst I'm staying in classy joints in expensive cities I can't justify the internet costs! You will have to wait til I'm in Malaysia with lots of time on my hands and cheap net access for all the details, but right now I have just arrived in Hong Kong after a couple of days in Macau (strange place) and a few in Singapore (cool place).

2009-11-26T14:14:00.003Z

Going to Singapore tomorrow - hooray!

It rained nearly the whole time we were in Hoi An so for something to do I got lots of clothes made! Sadly there was no beach time as it's no fun on a beach in the pouring rain.

Now we're in HCMC. We went for a day cruise on the Mekong which was nice, mainly because there were very few motorbikes and trucks in the area beeping like crazy, and we also went to the tunnels from the war yesterday. Today the weather has been shockingly nice and we've just been taking in some of the sights in the city. Whilst we've been here I also caught up with some friends from Sussex who live here over a nice meal at a French restaurant.

Can't wait to get out to civilisation tomorrow!

2009-11-18T14:30:00.002Z

I've escaped from Hanoi!!!

Had a few days there with the parents and took them to see some of the sights and eat some of the local food. We then went on an overnight trip to Ha Long Bay and somehow ended up with our own personal boat! It was pretty luxurious and we had lots of good food - a couple of 7 course meals that were hard work to get to the end of. We did a bit of kayaking out to a random cave and we also went to one of the big cave systems that you can walk through. Went to a floating village too in the middle of the bay - I don't think I could live somewhere like that tho as it's far too far away from civilisation for my liking.

Suffered through the ordeal of the overnight train last night to get to Hue. The bunks aren't that big and as I was at the top I had a random metal bar poking into me some of the time. The train also featured a lovely squat toilet and a loudspeaker system that made announcements through the night. Not fun! It's been raining in a very English way for pretty much the whole day here. Have got used to short downpours living here, not the crappy day long drizzle that set in today. It's been chilly these past few days too, but at least I should be grateful that it's no longer really humid. Plus it gives me a chance to wear my pink kiwi hoodie, and an excuse to get a coat tailored in Hoi An! We're heading there in a couple of days and I'm hoping the weather is a bit better as I want to go to the beach!

2009-11-10T14:53:00.007Z

Today I met Lan for an early lunch before work. We went to a nice place by the Temple of Literature and whilst waiting for food to arrive we faffed around with cameras taking photos of random things, including the Bun Cha man on the street below:

He's cooking up the pork which will then be added to a bowl of broth and served with noodls and some other veges. It's good stuff!

We started our meal with some Nem:

Otherwise known as spring rolls. They taste so much better here than the ones you can get back home at Chinese restaurants. You dip them into the sauce and eat them with noodles and a leafy herb of some description, or just eat them by themselves.

We then had an assortment of food

with some fried tofu action (the texture was a bit too weird for my liking) and some pho xa which consists of noodles with lots of garlic and green stuff. This place also offered a croque with FOUR!!! kinds of cheese so I had to have it as this is practically unheard of in Vietnam!

The place also had some nice looking cakes in the window but we were full from lunch so we didn't try any of them.

Tomorrow there is a teachers meeting at lunch time so we get fed with pizza and ribs, and then on Thursday it is exam day so I will have a longer lunch break than usual between my morning and afternoon classes and no lesson to prepare so shall no doubt end up going somewhere for lunch with other teachers in the same position.

After that the parents are here so there shall be lots of eating out. Yay!

2009-11-08T12:46:00.002Z

This term has gone by pretty quick! I've not done a whole much else other than work and chill out at the weekends. I did go to the silk village last weekend with Minh and I managed not to buy quite so many scarves this time. I did see some awesome bags though and I couldn't leave the shop without buying one for me and one for Gem as they reminded me of our countless shopping trips! I've also managed to catch up with a few people on Skype the last few weekends. Last night I caught Gem and ended up scrapping my plans to mark assignments as we ended up chatting for over 4 hours. I did my marking today instead and it wasn't as painful as I thought it might be.

Today I've finally started booking some hotels for my trip - I have four more days of work, then the parents arrive and I have Stuff To Do! I found a couple of decent places in Macau and Hong Kong and have now booked some stuff. I had a look on some of the hostels websites for Macau but there was only one place that came up on the sites. Instead I found this place for around the same price as the dodge hostel place. It's right next to the ferry terminal to Hong Kong which is convenient (now I sound like one of my students - everything is convenient for them!)

I also booked my hotel in Hong Kong - I managed to get a decent price at the Ibis so get to stay in a real hotel. I looked for something cheaper but most of the cheap places were in that Chungking Mansions place which I don't really want to stay in. I then looked at some of the guesthouses around the city but most of them would say privates starting from a price like $20 but then once I looked into making a booking with them it would turn out that it was $20 per person in the room so most places would end up costing $40 just for me. In the end I was getting bored and frustrated with looking at all these small places in HK so just went for the Ibis as it was the same price pretty much as these guesthouses but much better quality - it's in a good location and as there is quite a bit I want to do in HK I think it's worth staying in a decent hotel rather than some crappy fire hazard so I can actually get some sleep at night.

I haven't got as far as looking for places in Malaysia but as I don't really know exactly where I'm gonna be and when there's no real need to book things now. Plus there is a lot more in the way of budget accommodation available there without resorting to a really bad place so it will be easier to find something closer to the time.

Most things are sorted for when the parents are in Vietnam, and they are trying to find a place in Singapore, but they leave Singapore the day before me so I'm trying to find a place to stay for one night. I have to be at the airport at like 4am the next day so I was hoping to find a place by the airport but all the places that I can find on the net are really expensive. I am bored of looking at hotels so have given up for the night and will just try and find something another time!

4 more days to go!

2009-10-24T15:31:00.002+01:00

I have quite a busy term this term! I am mentoring a new teacher so I ahve to go and meet him Monday morning each week then I teach an afternoon class who I really like. They follow the rules and work hard, and they get really stuck into speaking activities and offer up millions of opinions which makes a nice change. The teacher I share the class with said "they practically teach themselves" and it is kinda true - there is no needto babysit them - you just give them a piece of work and they get on with it! I teach them on Tuesdays too, and then on Wednesdays I have a morning class with the new level I've not taught before. So far it's going pretty well and the book for this level isn't too bad, and they're another class who work well and are willing to share their opinions. I teach them on Thursday and Friday morning too, but on these days I also teach an afternoon class who are horrible! There are a group of boys who act like they are five years old. Thankfully they other teacher had already raised the issue so before I taught them for the first time last Thursday the manager went in and shouted at them, plus the naughty students got letters sent home threatening them wih expulsion. They're better behaved than before but they're still hard work, plus as they are a lower level I have to be really careful with how I speak to them otherwise I'm met with 17 blank faces. Doubles are a real killer - geting to work at 7am to get everything sorted, then teaching for 4 hours, a one hour break then another 4 hours until 5.15. I also have to keep the lower level class entertained - I can't set them up with a big academic writing and instead have to constantly give them things to do to keep them focused on English. Still, I'm earning a nice bit of money for my trip at least!

Other than work I've not done that much recently. Calder flew to America last week and then after a week with her parents here Alison flew there to join him yesterday, so I went to Derrys for a drink or two on Thursday. They're gone for 3 weeks so my partners in crime for Derrys are no longer in town :'o( I also went to a cool cinema to see some Mexican films a couple of weeks ago. It's the place we go at the end of each term to show the students a movie on the last day and as it's set up as a private members club it means they can avoid the censors and show films that mainstream cinemas just wouldn't (couldn't) show. There is a nice courtyard to sit in beforehand and inside the seats are really comfortable, plus you can take your drinks in to enjoy during the film. It's a nice place to go - far nicer than the regular cinema! I only go to see new films at the proper cinema if I can go to a lunch time showing in the middle of the week as then there are only a handful of other people in there, but at any other time the cinema will be full of people making as much noise as possible and making it really hard to actually watch the film. This members place is much nicer but tends not to show lots of new films. There is usually a theme for each week - Mexican, Vietnamese, art house, silent films - and some appeal more than others but as membership is something like £5 for a year, plus a donation per film it's not a bad place!

I only have three more weeks at work to get through and then its holiday time! I should really start to actually think about things I want to do I guess and start getting things sorted!

2009-10-18T18:24:00.001+01:00

Also this is kinda cool!

2009-10-18T18:16:00.000+01:00

Yes yes! Shapeshifter! Sucks I missed them in Brighton this year :'o(

2009-10-10T14:11:00.002+01:00

My kitchen floor is currently home to lots of dead and dying cockroaches. The bug killers came today and sprayed the house in chemicals and now all the roaches are crawling out of theih hidey holes to die. Nice!

Yesterday was the last day of term so was a cruisy day with a trip to the cinema and then back to the school to hand out certificates. All the students in my morning class passed which is always nice. I don't know about the afternoon or evening classes I had as I don't teach them in the second half of the week so I didn't mark their exams but hopefully they all passed. My afternoon class were nice - they kept giving me random gifts. Granted, not very nice gifts, but still! I got given mooncakes (last weekend was the mid-autumn festival and people go nuts over mooncakes for the festival) but don't let the word cake fool you. They look a little bit like pork pies but are filled with all sorts of random things like green sticky rice. After Alisons description of one - "if you're really lucky there's a duck foetus hiding inside" I decided to give them a miss. Still, that they liked me enough to give me things is good. I also covered a class the other week that had quite a few of my old students in it and they all cheered when I walked into the classroom. Always a good way to start a lesson!

The next term is the last one before the parents come out and I have a term off. I'm teaching a new level that I've not taught before so I have new stuff to teach and I'm also being a mentor for a new teacher who is starting this term. I even get paid for doing this - $50 at the end of the term! I do have morning classes three days a week which means early starts, and on two of these days I'm also working afternoons so I'm gonna be knackered by the end of the day but the money will cover lots of shopping in KL and HK!

2009-09-26T16:05:00.002+01:00

These past few days a friend's brother has been in town so I've been meeting up with him and giving him some advice about Hanoi and (more importantly I feel) taking him to good places to eat. There are some people in HCM City who went to Sussex Uni and studied on the same courses as me and one of then had a visit from her brother. After spending time with my friends in HCMC and Cambodia he flew to Hanoi for a couple of days and I offered to meet up with him here. He arrived on Thursday and we went for dinner (timed beautifully to avoid the worst of the torrential rain) and I gave him a few ideas of places he could go on Friday and Saturday and and then helped him find his way through the maze of the Old Quarter back to his hotel. I had to work on Friday but we arranged to meet in the evening for Indian food and then some drinks at Derry's. In the end I went to Derry's to wait for him to arrive as Alison and Calder were already there so we just ended up ordering Indian food into Derry's. As they are pretty much next to each other you can place and order and they just bring the food around on a tray - one of the good things about this country! We stayed there pretty late - well beyond curfew - so as we waved him off in a taxi at the end of the night I was concerned that he'd get back to a locked up hotel but thankfully there was still someone up to let him in. It probably wouldn't have been a great idea to end up getting him accidentally locked out of his hotel! Today we met up and went for lunch where we witnessed some responsible Australian parents letting their 2 year old kid drink beer - what?! - and after he got in some last minute shopping for gifts we parted ways and he went to the airport for a flight to Hong Kong and I went to the bookshop (AGAIN!).

It's always nice to meet up with random people in Hanoi. Usually if they are in some way connected to friends then they're good fun as we tend have things in common (as well as meeting Michael this week I've also met up with a friend of a friend from home, Rachel, which was cool). I've also met people occasionally in places like Hoi An and deemed them cool enough to meet up with them when they come through Hanoi which is nice. It gets me thinking about the positive things in this city rather than just the negative stuff I encounter all the time. It's also good to have some interesting people to talk to!

In the bookshop today I picked up a guide book to South Korea for £1. It's from 2005 but I tend to only use a guide book for ideas of places to visit and general info about travelling around a country, not to find places to stay so it's not so important if it's an old book. You can usually pick up guide books for places like Laos and Thailand pretty cheap as there are lots of second hand copies in this city but there aren't so many books for Korea, and those that I do see are usually pretty expensive so when i saw this one for the bargain price of 30,000 I had to buy it! I plan to go to Korea at some point so now I'm prepared with a guide book for the place! I did also buy yet more books despite the fact that I have plenty already that I've not yet read. Oops.

I have no plans for tomorrow aside for a trip to the gym and a bit of swimming. I'm gonna get that out of the way in the morning then I have the rest of the day to get reading some of my books! I might watch a film or two as well as next to my massive pile of unread books I have a stack of unwatched DVDs. I must stop buying books and DVDs!

Randomly this has entertained me greatly - how to fly in Vietnam!

2009-09-20T17:26:00.017+01:00

On Thursday I ventured to the dentists to get a filling sorted out. I decided against taking my chances with a cheaper Vietnamese dentist as the filling was behind my veneer so I didn't want them to make a mess of it and leave me needing a new veneer as I HATE having the old one and then the temporary drilled off. Instead I went to a modern foreign owned dental surgery with modern and hygienic equipment and got a good filling put on by a French dentist without damaging my veneer. It was expensive for Hanoi but still cheaper than a filling back home plus they gave me a free mug and were tripping over themselves to help me and offer me things in the waiting area beforehand - a much better experience overall than some of the horror stories I hear about Vina dentist destroying people's teeth or doing unnecessary work to rake in more money. Once feeling returned to my mouth that evening I got me a delivery of okonomiyaki-

Good stuff!

On Friday I went to the Old Quarter in an attempt to find string. I went to a massive stationers but they didn't have any and from the amused looks on their faces I think i was the first person to ever go there looking for string. It wasn't a total loss though as I got some cheapie books and a detailed road map of Vietnam for motorbike adventures. I then tried to get string at the post office but apparently they couldn't sell me a length of string - it seems it is reserved for wrapping packages only. I decided to go to some hardware stores but they had nothing of any use there either. Finally I walked past a paint shop where everything was hanging from the ceiling with red twine so I stopped and asked if they had any for sale. At first the woman thought I wanted to buy various assorted paint brushes but finally she understood my request. She pointed to a big roll of twine on the floor and sold me several meters for a few pence so I've finally been able to hide the dodgy paint job in my room with all my pretty scarves (you can also see my funky elephant throw thing I got in Laos!)-

I also learnt that string doesn't exist in Hanoi, or if it does it's kept in a top secret location that no foreigner has access to.

On Saturday it was really sunny and when driving past the temple near my house I saw that the gate was open - it's usually all locked up - so I went to have a quick look around

Also on Saturday our housekeeper Huong came and she bought us flowers!

She's much happier now our dirt-monster housemate has left - Huong felt really intimidated by her and was never sure what she could move after Fiona went crazy one time when Huong took some old beer bottles to the recycling place. Now Fiona's gone Mark and I have cleared out all the crap and we have a grown up house again with clear surfaces. This makes Huong's job much easier as she no longer had to clean around piles of crap and our house is now much nicer as there are no longer piles of paper all over the lounge and we can actually use the table in the kitchen for eating as it's no longer covered in bags and books and whatever else Fiona felt like leaving there.

My motorbike burn is finally getting better too which is nice. Fiona didn't bother using the kickstand on her motorbike and instead she just propped it against a step outside our house. One day I was putting my bike into the yard when I got home from work when hers fell over. I turned to catch it to try and stop it crashing into my bike and in doing so I ended up with my leg pushed up against the burning hot metal of my exhaust pipe. First my leg was all red and stingy-

Then after a few days it was covered in blisters and was really itchy-

then finally all the scabs fell off and I'm left with a strange patch of skin on my leg that's lighter than the rest around it-

Most people in Hanoi have a scar like this tho so now I'm part of the club!

As I'm going crazy uploading pics here is my pink sparkly Hoi An skirt (tho it's too blurry to see the sparkles!)

2009-09-12T15:22:00.002+01:00

Got caught out in the rain THREE times today! At work all week Chad has been telling us a tropical storm was on the way in and it started raining last night whilst we were eating dinner (Japanese!! Salmon sushi, ebi tempura and okonomiyaki makes the best meal ever) so I got soaked riding over the Derry's after dinner for a drink or two with Alison and Calder (and some Germans) then it rained all night as far as I can tell. It was raining this morning but I dragged myself out in the rain to go to the gym as I figured if didn't go first thing in the morning I wouldn't go at all today.

The rain stopped later so I decided to go and find the fabled cross stitch shop in Hanoi so I have something to stop me fidgeting when watching my stack of DVDs. It's tucked away in a lane by the citadel area so round every corner there were soldiers with guns guarding army buildings but I found the place in the end and got some Vietnamese cross stitch - they're not bad actualy I guess. I then stopped in Bookworm on way back home and got some books - my punishment for buying books I don't need was to walk home in an absolute downpour that I would have missed if I'd gone straight home. I've just been out for dinner and when I came out of the place it was hammering down again and I'd left my wonderful poncho at home drying out after the afternoon soaking so I had nothing to keep me dry.

I now have various pairs of shoes and all sorts of clothes aroud the place drying after a tropical drenching. The rain is quite something!

2009-09-05T14:41:00.002+01:00

On Wednesday everyone went crazy celebrating independence day with a big traffic jam over pretty much the whole city. I had the day off work and went to the Old Quarter to meet Alison to pay bike rent. It took me forever to get there as my normal route takes me past the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and I didn't take into account the fact that the entire population of Vietnam appeared to be making a pilgrimage there to celebrate independence day. People were ambling along in the middle of the road and all the intersections were a disaster with nobody obeying the traffic lights. Eventually I made it in and the Old Quarter was filled to bursting with tourist and locals getting in the way so we escaped to a nearby cafe to kill time til we could get the bikes back. We sat out on a balcony and watched a retarded tourist stand in the middle of the road to take a picture and nearly get mown down by a taxi - you can get just as good a pic from the pavement with a reduced risk of death so why stand in the middle of the road?! Was glad to get out of the melee once my bike was ready and I escaped to the gym - it was empty! I also went swimming in the fancy outdoor swimming pool and made use of the jacuzzi before heading back home. I contemplated heading out later on in the day to see what was happening for the celebrations but after the experience in the morning of all the crowds just milling around I decided instead to just stay home. From what I saw on TV I didn't miss a great deal and staying at home meant I managed to stay sane!

Thursday at work was exam day so it was a pretty easy morning, and then yesterday I went to watch a movie in the morning before going back to the school to give the students their results. I went back to the cinema in the afternoon but didn't fancy watching the movie for a second time so instead I went to the bank and then sat out in teh courtyard of teh cinema with some of the other teachers. Finally in the evening I had to teach for a couple of hours but I made the lesson pretty cruisy with a song, a game and then a timed writing so in the end although the day was long it wasn't too taxing!

Today I helped the housekeeper clean the kitchen and chucked out all the old food that's been there since before I moved in. I wan't much use when I opened one of the drawers to find some cockroahes but Huong set upon them with a rolled up newspaper and slaughtered them all. Unfortunately there is no air con in the kitchen so it was horribly sweaty work but at least our kitchen is clean now and there's no more mouldy food!

I've just been out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant as I was craving some okonomiyaki. I tried a different one to the usual and found a place that specialises in the pancakes so tried that one instead. The chef cooked it up on the hotplate right infront of me which was pretty cool! I was origianlly gonna go to the usual place with Calder and Alison but they are suffering this evening so instead I tried this new place and I'm glad that I did. It was so good! We have plans to go to the usual place later this week which will be nice as the place I went to tonight doesn't do sushi so later on in the week I'll be able to get my sushi fix. Good stuff!

2009-08-31T15:52:00.003+01:00

After finishing work on Friday I got a taxi to the airport and checked in for my flight to Hoi An. Was given this notice when I checked in -

Not what you wanna see before boarding a flight! As I didn't get one on the way back I presume it was because I was sitting in an exit row but at the time I had visions of someone opening the doors mid flight! The said, seconds after landing when the plane was still going at some speed people started standing up to get at their stuff so it's not too hard to imagine that someone was so desperate to get off the plane after lading that they made a dash for the doors before they were opened. It's quite entertaining to watch Vietnamese people being forced to wait to do something - they're not very good at it! They were all desperate to get onto the bus to the plane (maybe they thought it would go without them?!), then they pushed and shoved their way off the bus to try and get up the steps onto the plane as if they were racing against the clock, only to have to sit there waiting for the rest of us to get on. They were also itching to get off in Da Nang and were pushing and shoving to get off. I did notice though that all the exit rows were pretty much filled with foreigners, even those who didn't speak English as a first language and that each one of us read the card about the emrgency door and had a good look at the door itself. The only Vina who was in an exit row just put the card into the seat pocket without even looking at it!

I shared a taxi to Hoi An with a Canadian and checked into my fancy hotel before going down to the river. Last time I was in Hoi An I didn't get to see the place in the evening as I had to get transport back to my beach shack so it was nice to see it this time - it's quite a pretty place! There are lots of lanterns all over the place and everything is lit up. I also went to a tailors and got measured for a dress and a couple of skirts then went back to the hotel to collapse into bed.

On Saturday I briefly contemplated hiring a motorbike and driving out to some Cham ruins but it seemed like too much effort in the end so instead I had a lazy morning ambling around the town and getting measured for a pair of shoe and another skirt. I then hired a bicycle and cycled out of Hoi An. I came across a random Japanese grave

and a river

but it was a bit of a killer in the midday heat so I headed back into Hoi An to get something to eat. I picked up my new sparkly pink skirt (not as lame or childish as it sounds!) and then decied to cycle over to Cam Nam island to see what it's about. There's not a great deal there but it was a nice place to ride around for a bit, plus there is an ace bookshop where I was able to pick up another James Clavelle book. I went back to the hotel after that as I was a bit sunburnt and had a monster headache but after lots of water and a bit of time relaxing I went out to find some nice local food for dinner and caved in and got another dress made.

After breakfast yesterday I hired the bicycle again and cycled out to the beach-

It was pretty! The sand was pretty hot though and trying to walk across the sand burned my feet up, but apart from that it was a really nice place to spend a couple of hours, plus the ride there and back was nice.

I had to head back and check out of my hotel and then I went to collect my silk dress - not very practical for Vietnam but so pretty!

This week is the last week of term and there is a bonus day off on Weds for a public holiday so it's not too bad a week this week, apart from my 8 til 8 shift on Friday.

Rest of the pics here

2009-08-27T16:32:00.002+01:00

I'm really looking forward to going away tomorrow after the monster long day I had today! I couldn't sleep last night so I got to work at 7am after about 4 hours sleep and was really looking forward to finishing at 12, spending a bit of time marking assignments and then coming home to get stuff sorted for tomorrow and watch a film or something to relax. Instead I spent nearly three hours marking the damn assignments after lunch as half of them were absolute crap. There were also some issues with students who had copied from past student's papers which meant I had to get the director of studies involved and so I finished marking at 3.30 and headed home for all of an hour before going back to work through the horrible rush hour traffic as I'd somehow let myself get talked into covering an evening class. It was a pretty cruisy class but still it sucked to be working til 8 and then having to get all my stuff sorted for tomorrow when I got home.

Am about to go and pass out in my bed now. I've just gotta make it through my morning class then at 12.45 I'm in a taxi to the airport. Woohoo! Beach!

2009-08-23T10:58:00.005+01:00

After several days fighting with the internet company they have reconnected our internet! It died on Tuesday and finally yesterday morning it got fixed. I think they got sick of the sight of me showing up at their offices all the time to pester them so yesterday a guy finally came to sort it. There was a problem with the cable and fixing it required him to balance on the seat of his motorbike and fiddle around with a bunch of wires in the rain. I had visions of him getting electrocuted but thankfully that didn't happen and he was able to get the wires sorted. Somewhere in this jumble of wires is our internet cable:

and the guy had to cut bits off and faff around with live wires. At least he got it sorted!

Now I've got the internet back I've been able to book some plane tickets for December. They day after the parents fly home from Singapore I'm flying to Macau to spend a couple of days there, them I'm gonna get a ferry across to Hong Kong. After that I'm flying to Malaysia - Air Asia only fly to Malaysia or Thailand from Hong Kong so those were my two options for budget flights. I'm flying into Penang so I'll spend some time in Georgetown then I'll go explore the island and go to the beach. Then I intend to go to the Cameroon Highlands to see what that's all about. It's up in the hills and there are tea plantations and stuff and a bunch of hikes so I think it'll be a nice place to spend a couple of days. Then I'll head down to Kuala Lumpur. I think that's my favourite city in Asia so I'll prolly spend a bit of time there. I want to go out to the forestry research centre place for a day as they have a canopy walkway there which sounds cool, and I'm sure there are still a bunch of sights in the city that I've not seen. There's also a lot of shopping to be done there and lots of good food to be had so it'll be a nice way to finish of my time off before I return to Hanoi and go back to work.

I also found a hotel yesterday for my weekend in Hoi An. I got some cheap flights to Da Nang so on Friday I'm heading down to Hoi An for a couple of days. Last time I went there I stayed in a cheap shack by the beach in the middle of nowhere for $5 a night but this time I've found a decent hotel in Hoi An with a swimming pool which will be nice. I don't intend to do too much whilst I'm there - go to the beach or lie by the pool mainly. I'm gonna prolly get some clothes made and get a couple of my skirts copied, and I might hire a motorbike to head out to some Cham ruins out in the country but thats about all I've planned. I'm looking forward to getting away from Hanoi and getting a bit of peace and quiet for a couple of days!

The beast now has a basket on the front:

so yesterday I kitted myself up in my riding gear:

and went up to Tay Ho to get some goodies from the shops there. It was quite a nice ride over - the sun was out and the sky was bright blue. I realised it's been a while since I've seen a blue sky here and the city just looks so much better in the sun. Even the polluted lakes don't look too bad! I did witness an accident as I was leaving the supermarket - it wasn't major but a couple of bikes crashed into each other and the riders ended up on the floor. What really bugged me was that whilst these people were getting up and picking up their bikes other people were beeping their horns as they had to wait for a minute or two whilst these people got out of the way. The beeping of the horns here is really starting to annoy me. People beep for no reason and hold down their horns for an unnecessary amount of time. When I was sitting in the internet cafe by my house on Saturday I was there at peak time in the lanes and pretty much everyone that rode past felt the need to beep their horns. It drove me insane! There is also far to much beeping on the roads too and I think I'm starting to go deaf from all the horns! I want to get at the electrics on all the motorbikes in Hanoi and rig them so that if people hold down the horns for too long or too many times in a period of time they get an electric shock!

I've joined a gym at a swanky hotel and I went there this morning. There is also a swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna so I made use of all of them today to get my moneys worth! The swimming pool is open air and it was nice to swim under a blue sky for a change. I've spent the rest of the day doing nothing much to make up for my hectic day yesterday running backwards and forwards to the internet company trying to get reconnected.

2009-08-14T12:22:00.002+01:00

Yesterday after work I went to West Lake for a fix from the chocolate cafe. It perked me right up after my early start and 4 hours with my lameo class! I sampled a caramel coffee and a selection of their cookies. They were soooooo good! I then went to a few of the import shops to get things that are a hard to find in bog standard Vietnamese places, and I went back to the deli for more lovely French ham and bread. I finally managed to round up all the ingredients for Mexican food and discovered a stash of bounty bars in one of the shops so I returned home happy. The good thing about working mornings and finishing at midday is that I have the whole afternoon to do stuff. Just about makes up for dragging myself out of bed at 6am!

The parents have just booked some flights to come out and visit at the end of the year so I'm getting excited about planning trips again. Once they've gone I'll have nearly 3 weeks left of my holiday so I'm thinking about going somewhere lik Hong Kong. I was origianlly thinking about going to Taiwan too but flights seem pretty expensive so I might ahve to give that a miss. There are no budget flights between HK and Hanoi so I think I'll prolly end up flying from HK to Kuala Lumpur and then back up to Hanoi a few days later. That's no real hardship I guesse! I might even have some time to go to other parts of Malaysia as the only place I've been on peninsular Malaysia is KL. Yay holidays!

2009-08-01T10:04:00.002+01:00

I played some Crowded House to my students yesterday!!! As we lost a day due to floods last week yesterday was a full lesson rather than the usual movie and so I had to entertain my students for 4 hours with no books to teach from. Ended up playing games most of the time and using songs as fillers. Jim had a few Crowded House songs so I used one to numb the pain of the Savage Garden song I used earlier in the lesson. It was actually quite a fun lesson in the end. Lots of phots were taken at the end though - this class seemed to love me so I had to pose for numerous photos with them all at the end of the lesson.

2009-07-28T18:07:00.004+01:00

After work today I went to Derrys as usual and met Alison, Calder and Lyle there. A little while after arriving one of the owners, Huong, got back from Singapore. She brought McDonalds with her!! We had some Big Mac and some cheeseburger goodness. Man it was good!

BOOKS!

2009-07-27T15:15:00.003+01:00

Apparently BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Look at the list and put an 'X' after those you have read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6 The Bible (parts of it anyway)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman X
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Total 1-10: 3

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk X
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger X
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

Total 11-20: 5

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X

Total 21-30: 2

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein X
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres X
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X

Total 31-40: 5

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan X

Total 41-50: 5

51 Life of Pi - Yann Marte X
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley X
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Total 51-60: 3

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt X
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold X
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

Total 61-70: 3

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson X
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome X
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

Total 71-80: 5

80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry X
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

Total 81-90:2

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Eupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Total 91-100: 1

Total: 34

I've just finished Bill Bryson, Notes From A Small Island. The last part of his book was all about Scotland - now I have tentative plans to head up there whenever I'm next home! I'll prolly take a term off whenever I decide to go home so will hopefully have some time to squeeze in a trip to Scotland whilst I'm there! It won't be for some time yet though so I have heaps of time to change my mind! I'm now keeping an eye out for his book on the English language as that cound be pretty entertaining too.

It's the last week of term this week so I get to do heaps of speaking exams and then mark a bunch of other papers on Thursday. Fun times. As the school was closed for a day last week due to flooding we have regular lessons on Friday rather than the usual movie and party thing. This means that I have to try and motivate a bunch of teenage girls who really don't care about learning English on a Friday afternoon after their exams are all done. That's gonna suck.

2009-07-26T17:12:00.002+01:00

I've finished my cross stitch!

It's taken me months. I don't know what to do when I'm watching films and TV now - I need something else to keep me occupied and stop me fidgeting.

2009-07-25T15:48:00.002+01:00

For the first time in a long time today I got up before 8! I went to Derrys as usual last night for a drink or 4 after work and the owner Victor invited me to join Alison and Calder at his hotel for a buffet breakfast this morning. It was worth the early start tho - the eggs were freshly made to order and there was lovely jam! I was kinda surprised to find that it was really hot so early in the day - I always assumed it would be a lot cooler first thing.

After breakfast I caught the bus back to where I live and there were a bunch of tourists on the bus going to see Uncle Ho. The conductor herded them all off at the appropriate place and then tried to send me off with them too, assuming I was a tourist too. It took a lot of work to convince her and the driver that I did in fact want to head further down the road to go to my house but they got it in the end!

Later on in the day I headed over to West Lake to go to a couple of places that sell lovely Western goods. One was a deli with an amazing selection of meats and cheeses with some decent bread too. I got some ham that was imported from France and it was nice to have real ham rather than the watery stuff you can buy in a bog standard Vietnamese supermarket! I had ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner and they were good! The other store was kinda like a dried goods store and had a bunch of sauces etc and MARMITE!!! They also had stuff like biscuits and chocolate - I got excited to see Cadburys but upon closer inspection it turned out to be Australian and so I decided it wasn't good enough to justify the high price. I did find kit kat chunky's though for a fairly reasonable price so I am soon to enjoy a bit of British chocolate goodness. The best thing about this shop though is the range of coke products they have - the only place in Vietnam to sell coke zero and the only place outside of Singapore and Brunei to sell lime coke (as far as I can tell!) and it's not even expensive. These imported cans cost the same as a regular can back home - bargain! I also found some sour cream so tomorrow I'm gonna make some sort of Mexican dish and them I'm gonna try a recipe to make dip as that's something that's not available here and I really miss it.

Travel plans have been discussed a bit recently and I'm getting excited about the prospect of travel, even though it is quite far away. As I have taken an entire term off for when the parents come over I will have some time to fill when they have gone home so I'm considering options like Taiwan and Hong Kong, or maybe Indonesia. Last night I discussed plans for China with Alison and Calder too which got me excited (except for the thought of the cold). Sadly there is no travel for me for a while unless I maybe have a weekend here and there, but at least it means I can save my pennies!

2009-07-15T18:04:00.002+01:00

Have been playing around with google maps (OK, looking at stuff in Auckland) and decided to have a look at Hanoi. They've finally put the street names on! when I was looking for a place to stay just before I came out here there were no street names so I had no idea where I would be doing my CELTA course but now there are street names so you can see where I live!

A map of Hanoi I live in a lane just off of Doi Can. If you draw a line up from the letter H (VIKI Weddings!!) and one across from the swimming pool you can just about make out a little to the right above the H my house is about the point where they meet! As you can see its a fairly densely packed city. I also had a look at what comes up in google images for Doi Can - on the first row there is a pic of the horrible traffic on Doi Can in this article This is why I try my hardest not to by tackling Doi Can in rush hour!

2009-07-13T15:22:00.004+01:00

After a few days with little rain it absolutely hammered down today. It was raining when I woke up and I waited for it to stop before going to work but no joy so eventually I had to give up and ride through the rain. My timing turned out to be really good - when I was driving there were rather large puddles but within about half an hour of getting to work the street outside began to flood. After about 20 mins of more heavy rain the water had risen above the pavement and was lapping at the stairs into work - this was the point the morning classes finished so all the students headed downstairs to shout loudly at each other about the flood. The delivery man bringing my lunch managed to get through as the water at that point was only at one side of the street but later on the entire street was flooded. I teach the afternoon class and my students all squelched in after having to wade through the water to get in. I'm impressed they made the effort! I tend not to leave the house unless its absolutely necessary when its raining as I really don't want to end up wading through minging water.

I've not done much recently aside from a lot of eating out. Last Sunday we went for brunch at the Melia hotel - $30 gets you free flow drinks and all you can eat food from the buffet. The Melia is one of the swankiest hotels in Hanoi so the quality of food is good, plus they have a chocolate fountain! The day before I met some people from work for lunch at a place called Cafe Smile - it is a training place for disadvantaged youth and all the staff are being trained so there is good comedy to be had as long as you have plenty of time and lots of patience. Tomorrow is gonna be decent pasta at a good Italian place as Tuesday night is pasta night, and a Moroccan place is on the list for sometime soon.

Other than that I got some awesome shoes the other day -

2009-06-25T08:53:00.003+01:00

This is just gonna be full of random stuff from my brain!

Firstly - have just been browsing a kiwi t-shirt site and found this - I want this shirt! Maybe if its still available closer to the time the parents head out to visit I may order it to be sent home and get them to bring it out for me! There are also some good hoodies but I picked up my other kiwi one when I was home and don't think I'll be wearing it for more than maybe the month or two when its a bit chilly on a motorbike so getting another one right now would be pretty pointless.

Last Wednesday I went to Derrys after work and Calder presented me with this article from the Vietnam News - dangerous driving the main cause of traffic accedents. Its almost like people were shocked to find that driving like a douchebag might get you killed! This was particularly fitting as on the way over to Derry's I'd got stuck behind a family of four on a motorbike. None of them were wearing a helmet and the father was driving with only one hand whilst using the other to hold his phone to his ear. They were veering around all over the place and several people nearly crashed into them. Also in a bid to ease congestion at some of the junctions they have put barriers across several crossroads closing off the junction meaning that you can no longer go straight ahead and instead you have to turn onto the other road, ride along to a u-turn area and then drive back to where you want to turn. There is one of these barriers on my way to work so I have to ride along then do a u-turn into the face of oncoming traffic, but I have seen several people decide not to bother with this and instead they decide to try and get their bikes up and over the median strip. They definitely need to do something about drivers awareness of rules of the road as curently the population act like there aren't rules and so are causing Ministers a great deal of puzzlement as to why people seem to keep dying on the roads!

Last night at Derrys Alsion showed us the new ad from one of the other language schools in Hanoi -

I'm so glad that I don't work at a school that wants me to take part in a lame advert!

On Tuesday morning I had to drive to work in really heavy rain. It had been raining for some time and showed no sign of ending so I had to just suck it up and kit myself out with my plastic shoes and poncho and go for it. The road outside work floods in heavy rain so there was a little bit of a flood for me to drive through and I managed to get the bike through the water which was impressive. I also managed to ride up the ramps into work for the first time! Usually I just get off my bike and push it up the ramps as I'm scared of falling off but on Tuesday getting off the bike would have meant standing in the flood so I decided to give riding up the ramp up the kerb and the stairs to the building a try. It worked! The only good thing to come out of the heavy rain and flooding.

Thats all the exciting info I have to share with you so now I'm going to get back to my TV box sets and enjoy my last four day weekend for a while.

2009-06-15T15:33:00.002+01:00

How to get home from work in the crappy rain - the lovely plastic poncho to keep most of me dry and hideous plastic shoes wont turn to crap in the water. They even have holes in to allow the water to flow out when some retard stops right in your path forcing you to put your foot into an ankle deep puddle! The dodgy face mask is part of the every day ensemble when riding a motorbike to try and keep some of the pollution out of my lungs. It's a good look!

2009-06-09T09:48:00.003+01:00

Got some pics up! I've added some pics from my detour to visit my relies on the way to the airport Home pics

I've also put up a bunch of photos from my trip to Thailand Thailand

My weekend in Bangkok with my friends involded lots of eating and some shopping with little else. We did check out an ace cinema tho. It had REALLY comfy reclining seats and they give you blankets! Check out the Nokia screen about 1/2 way down the page

The day after they headed back to Hanoi I got the train along to Kanchanaburi and got there in time to walk up to the Bridge over the River Kwai before the sun set. The next day I hired a motorbike and rode in the pouring rain up to Hellfire Pass and walked some of the way along to path of the old railway. I also went to a couple of the war cemetaries in the town. The following day I decided to join a tour thing to save riding in the rain again and went up to Erawan waterfall. It's a 7 tier waterfall and I climbed my way up to the top of it. I then slid back down and sat by the lowest tier for a bit with my book. A monkey came and eyed up my food when I was eating but soon lost interest when he realised he wasn't getting anything! In the afternoon we went out to the Death Railway site and went to the cave, then we travelled along the railway a bit before returning to Kanchanaburi and feasting on Thai curry.

On the Friday I got up early and got a bus to Bangkok where I did a bit of shopping then went to the golden mount and walked up to the top to see the view of the city. I then had to go to Kao San Road to sort ou my flight then I headed back to the hostel and went out for some ace lebanese food. The Saturday involved browsing shops so I could get my fix before returning to Vietnam and then I had to head to the airport for one last meal at Burger King before flying back to Hanoi!

Am back at work now and am dying in the heat. It set in whilst I was away and its horrible!

2009-05-29T16:41:00.003+01:00

Have been rained on every day since getting to Thailand :o/ However, as it is currently the rainy season I was fully expecting this to happen and so I can prepared with my sexy Vietnamese plastic poncho. It can withstand a monsoon!!! Sadly it doesn't extend to my feet so my converse are now soaked through after I got caught out in an epic rain storm this evening. They're gonna take days to dry out!

The past few days in Cha-am have been a bit wet but generally the rain only lasts for an hour or two and then its hot and sunny again. I just took to going swimming in the pool when it was raining! The only time it really caused much of an issue was yesterday when the heavens opened in Petchaburi. I was at a temple at the top of a hill but i was pretty much done there anyway so once it started tipping down I headed back down in the cable car then got a tuk tuk back to the bus station to head back to Cha-am. No biggie really!

Aside from my trip to Petchaburi I have done very little these past few days - just lying by the pool, walking along the beach and eating Thai food! Got the train back up to BKK this afternoon and arrived a few hours ago. Went out to try and find a place that was still open and selling headphones as mine died in one ear today (either that or my mp3 player is busted) but had no luck. Whilst making my way back to the hotel the heavens opened and although my poncho kept most of me dry my shoes got so wet I squelched my way across the hotel lobby. People (locals!) are very impressed by the poncho monstrosity tho - they all think its a great creation!

Am staying at a fancy hotel for 3 days with some mates from Hanoi. We got a good deal through someone in Hanoi but its still a lot more expensive than the rest of the accommodation on this trip. Its something like 25 quid a night compared to the ususal 10 ish I've been paying but its very fancy compared to my 10 pound rooms. They've not been bad - ensuite, a swimming pool at the last place, air con, TV, breakfast, CLEAN!! - but this place is a whole lot of fancy. I guess its still not exactly expensive tho, and it will be nice for a few days! Just waiting for Alison, Calder and Lyle to arrive now - their flight has of course been delayed so I'm just killing time til they finally get here!

2009-05-24T09:30:00.003+01:00

I'm heading back to Asia today! Have managed to fit heaps in despite the short time I was in the country.

I saw Gem in London, and also met up with the crazies in Brighton where we went for a nice Chinese meal. I also caught up with Mat in Brighton as well as getting heaps of shopping done. On the Thursday we headed up north, got some pub grub then went to my grans funeral before driving back down that evening - glad I was able to make it back for it. On Friday I went to Avebury with the family then went out for dinner with Jen in the evening - dinner included treacle sponge with custard!!!!! Finally yesterday I met up with Nina in Swindon. After going for lunch we were hard pushed to find much else to do to entertain ourselves but it was nice to see her. It almost wasn't possible but thankfully we managed to make it happen in the end.

Some pics

On the way to Heathrow today we are stopping in to visit some family as my flight isn't until 10 tonight. Joys of an overnight flight again. I arrive in BKK tomorrow afternoon and I've found a palce to stay for the night then I'm heading to somewhere, I've just not decided exactly where yet. I thought about Koh Samet but now I'm thinking maybe a place called Cha-am as its less touristy therefore less expensive and home to fewer drunken tourists. We'll see what happens tho. Who knows where I'll end up!

2009-05-17T17:14:00.005+01:00

I'm home! And I'm wearing a big sweater and slippers in a bid to be warm! Its hard to decide whats worse - being cold in MAY or sweating within minutes of leaving the house back in Hanoi. Both suck! I want nice mild British weather - not too hot, not too cold, and NO RAIN! I thought I'd escaped the monsoons but as I was waiting at Reading station it was raining very much like Hanoi rain.

I'm glad I got that hotel room yesterday. It was nice to be able to sleep and chill out before my flight. Although the view from the hotel was rather uninspiring -

- the place was nice enough. I wouldn't choose to stay there if I was staying in BKK but it was convenient for the airport - far enough away to not be right under the flight path but easy to get to and from without getting caught in traffic. It was quite quiet too!

There was a road near the hotel with a bunch of places to eat and some shops, plus a temple across the river -

so I managed to kill time in the area.

The flight wasn't too bad as there was an empty seat next to me so I had some space! I was originally gonna be stuck in a middle seat but when I checked in I asked for an aisle seat so when I got to the gate I got given a new seat! It was nice to have a bit of extra space rather than being stuck in between two people. Am hoping that the same happens on the return flight next week.

2009-05-16T11:58:00.003+01:00

Had a wonderful cab ride to the airport with a sleazy driver - such a nice start to the day. Thankfully the flight to BKK wasn't very full so I was able to stretch out across 3 seats and attempt to sleep to pass the time. I wasn't very successful tho so once I got to the airport and one of the toursm rep dudes approached me and told me about day rates at a nearby hotel I decided to take him up on the offer. 12 hours at the airport just seemed like too much to take, and wasn't really that fussed about going into BKK - I'd have to deal with left luggage, transport to and from the city and then try to find something to do once there. I'd also be all sweaty for the next flight so instead for 20 quid I've been able to have a nap on a comfy bed, have a shower, and go out for food nearby for a fraction of the price it would be at the airport. This means the next flght shouldn't suck quite so much as i won't be feeling all skanky when I board the plane!

2009-05-15T09:49:00.004+01:00

So tomorrow morning I'm flying back to the UK for a week to go to my grans funeral. Am currently trying to work out what I need to pack! I'l be flying back the following week and staying in Thailand for just under a couple of weeks so I need stuff for there too, and I'm trying to work out what I need to take from here and what I can just pick up when I'm back home. It's hard!

I'm flying down to Bangkok tomorrow morning then I have 11 hours to kill before I can check in for the flight to London :o/ As I already had an Air Asia flight booked down to BKK next Thursday it made more sense to just bring that forward but AA only fly twice a day to BKK. The evening flight gets in too late for me to catch the connecting flight so I shall be sampling the delights of BKK airport instead. I looked at other flights to BKK that would get me in later in the day and reduce my waiting time but it seems that Vietnam Airways can't keep their planes in the air long enough to get all the way to Thailand as they go via an assortment of places, including Cambodia! All the other direct flights cost close to £200 which is about 4 times as much as my AA flight so I'm just gonna suck it up and camp out at the airport. It will give me plenty of time to check out my Thailand guide books and make a few more plans for my trip, and to enjoy Western fast food. Burger King!!! All ex-pats here talk about how much they miss stuff like BK, and how exciting it is to go overseas and find BK, McDolalds etc so its good to know that I'm not the only person who sees trips out of Vietnam as a chance for a feast! If I can find some left luggage facilities at BKK I might venture out of the airport, but I'm conscious of the fact that its gonna be even hotter there than it is here and I wont have access to a shower so if I go and sweat around BKK I'm then gonna have to sit on the plane all sweaty. That wouldn't be nice. Lets hope BKK airport has more going for it than Hanoi. It might be bearable if theres places to eat, places to sit and no pervy men staring at all the women who pass by!

2009-05-07T05:55:00.011+01:00

Started the day today with a walk through the rain to go and see Ho Chi Minh in his mausoleum. We got there as it was closing but we snuck through and snaked our way along the queue to go into the mausoleum where we followed the path through and up some stairs to get to the room where Mr Minh is kept. He was surrounded by soldiers in white and ooked very much like a wax work. It was a strange thing to see!

Since I've been home from the visit to the peoples hero I've edited down my 1000 pics from Laos and put some of them up here:

Vientiane
Luang Prabang

Here are some of my favourites:

Sunshine at the top of a statue

3 headed nelly - want one!

Note the house hanging over the edge of the mountain!

An abandoned Wat - I had to cross the river, walk along dusty track and sweat my way up heaps of stairs to get to it

Nelly riding!

Swimming in the waterfall

I walked past this view several times a day to get to and from the centre. I took a LOT of photos of it!

2009-04-30T13:05:00.003+01:00

Had a proper holiday day today! I went for an elephant ride through the jungle then headed out to some waterfalls. Went swimming in the waterfalls and clambered over the rocks and generally enjoyed the peace and quiet of the place. Once back in Luang Prabang I had a crepe then headed back to my guesthouse for a shower before walking down to the Mekong river to sit sipping a cocktail whilst watching the sun set over the mountains! Am going to go find some food now - maybe Indian tonight? I'll avoid the night markets tonight but I'll probably get sucked in tomorrow and buy stuff I don't need. Currently I'm trying to decide whether I REALLY need a duvet cover. It's very pretty but I already have two kinda pricey duvet covers back in Hanoi (the choice when buying linen was expensive white stuff or cheap gaudy vomit inducing stuff. I went for the white sets!) so perhaps I should make an effort not to buy it?!

2009-04-28T16:16:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was my first positive experience on a motorbike! After wandering aimlessly around Vientiane first thing in the morning I decided to make my way up to one of the big temples on the edge of the city and then to a park about 30ks out of town full of Buddha statues. I could have got to these places by tuk tuk or maybe even bus but I decided to rent a motorbike as it was pretty cheap to do so. Vientiane is pretty small so it was easy to navigate my way around on a bike, plus I'd walked a lot of the city already so I knew where the one way streets were. I made it up to the big gold temple no problems and then headed out of the city towards the random park. I even managed to successfully fill the bike with petrol!

The road out of Vientiane was good quality as it is the road that links the capital with the bridge over the river and across the border into Thailand. The other side of the bridge section the quality wasn't quite as good but it was still nowhere near as horrific as the roads in Vietnam. It was like a smaller country lane might be in the UK - a few bumps and minor potholes but nothing major. There wasn't too much traffic and any that I did encounter obeyed the rules of the road as I know them. The road followed the Mekong river along the edge of the country and eventually I came to the Buddha park - it was basically a field full of stone statues. It was something a bit different and was worth it for the biking experience alone. I also explored some little country dirt roads on my way back into the city but I was wary of getting hopelessly lost so I didn't venture too far.

Today was a shocker of a journey to Luang Prabang. It was so long! And the whole journey was accompanied by Thai karaoke videos blasting out of the sound system. I was supposedly on the VIP bus - it looked nothing like the other VIP buses I'd seen in Vientiane with fully reclining seats etc but I guess they were maybe the buses to Thailand. Still, the bus had relatively comfortable seats and a toilet that was actually usable on board so it wasn't so bad I guess. The journey took us up and over the mountains. The mountains seemed to be never ending! After descending down from one we'd come round a corner and see another mountain to be crossed. The roads were really windy but thankfully there was no Vietnamese style driving - no overtaking on blind bends or speeding or any of the other crazy things Vietnamese drivers do. The journey was just soooo long a took two hours longer than advertised - I think it part this was due to the rain we hit about halfway here - the driver slowed down on the wet roads which I was really grateful for when we rounded a corner and saw a car balanced at a 45 degree angle over the edge of the cliff face. I guess all the occupants had managed to get out of the car but it was just balancing there over the edge of the road looking like it would roll over at any minute. Maybe the driver was Vietnamese?!

Was grateful to finally get to Luang Prabang and I joined the other Westerners from the bus on a tuk tuk into the centre where I dumped my stuff at the first decent guest house I came to and headed out for some desperately needed food. I then browsed the night market and bought a really pretty elephant embroidered throw!I looked at a couple of tour options too and tomorrow I'm going to go book some stuff - a trip to some caves and a waterfall, and a day at an elephant place trekking and looking after them. Elephants!

Must go now so the guy can close up his internet cafe!

2009-04-26T11:52:00.003+01:00

Vientiane is pretty much the anti-Hanoi. If I'd arrived in Hanoi in the state I arrived here I'd probably have jacked it all and got right back on the plane however Vientiane is an easy city to explore on just 2 hours sleep (the neighbours had the TV on extra loud last night, then the dogs on the other side went crazy a few times so I didn't sleep much at all)! There are very few things that are similar to Hanoi so it's nice to have a change of scene, and be back in civilization.

I found a pretty decent cheap place to stay in the centre of the city then I headed off to get something to eat. I was anticipating food on the plane but this didn't happen so I was starving as well as exhausted by the time I got here this morning. Was briefly excited to discover that the international terminal at Hanoi airport has slightly more going for it than the domestic one. As well as the usual souvenir tat and Pho shops there was a chocolate shop that stocked Cadbury's and malteasers! The Cadbury's comes from Oz but the malteasers are the real British deal! I didn't feel much like eating chocolate this morning tho so I went off to find the Scandinavian bakery in Vientiane that my uncle mentioned to me. It's really close to my hotel which is good and sells decent baked stuff which helped brighten my mood. I then went for a walk around the city. Have checked out some of the Wats and just ambled along slowly taking the place in. It's a nice city to just wonder along in as it's actually pretty small and not too crowded. The buildings are all really pretty rather than ramshackle and falling down like a lot of the places in Hanoi, and the Wats here look different to the temples back in VN. Here they look more Thai whereas back across the border they have a more Chinese influence. The roads are calmer here too which makes the whole experience more pleasurable. People obey the rules of the road so I can cross a road on a green man safe in the knowledge that nothing is going to drive at me - in contrast a green man means nothing in Hanoi. There might be a bit less traffic but you're still unlikely to have a clear road the whole way across! There is also no beeping! This city is so quiet - it took me a while to get used to it. If someone pulls up to a set of traffic lights and there is a bike or car in front they just sit there patiently waiting for the traffic to get going again, rather than leaning on the horn and somehow expecting the person blocking the way to magically get out of the way even though there is nowhere for them to go other than through a red light!

There are a few similarities here however. There are Wats all over the place, much like the temples in Hanoi that seem to exist on every street. They also have very similar plinky plonky waily music here so not only was I treated to it on the way to the airport this morning I've also been able to hear snippets of it the whole day! It's also pretty hot and humid here too which is a killer when walking around all day. I did succumb to an afternoon nap when the heat was too much to bear, and once I was up and about again I spent the past few hours walking up tree lined boulevards to a monument very similar to the Arc De Triomph. It was a little bit like being in France! The view from the top was pretty cool at not very French though.

Gonna amble some more tomorrow and see some more of the sights, and probably shop a bit too, then the next day I'm getting the bus up to Luang Prabang. I was originally going to get the overnight bus up tomorrow night but that is just a regular bus whereas there is a VIP bus that heads up each morning which sounds far more comfortable and cots hardly anything more than the regular bus. There will be no chickens on the VIP bus either!

Am off to find some food now and enjoy being able to walk freely around a city without encountering motorbikes parked on or coming at me along the pavement/ plastic stools set up all over the place/ people pointing at me and shouting at all their friends to do the same/ animal carcasses being cut up on the pavement/ open sewers/ kids crapping in the street/ any number of other bizarre things that makes getting around Hanoi on foot such a trying experience.

2009-04-25T18:14:00.003+01:00

I'm going to Laos tomorrow! Somewhat irresponsibly, I've just been to Derry's to meet Alison and Calder. I was just gonna pop up for a chat and maybe one drink but they'd been on the go since 2pm and were feeling flush after pay day so they coerced me into sampling some of the cocktails on offer. We had some funky drinks containing god only knows what but it was good fun. Unfortunately I have to get up in 5 hours to go wait at the end of my lane for a taxi that may or may not turn up to take me to the airport for my early flight :o/

2009-04-23T16:39:00.005+01:00

Today I went to Jaspas with Alison and Calder for some Mexican food. It's in Hanoi Tower - a swanky building in Hanoi where the rich people live/stay and have office - and it was like leaving Vietnam when we went in. There was a plush lobby, a decent lift and a nice restaurant next to the poncy open air hotel. Mexican night involves an all you can eat buffet and free flow margaritas (it's classier than it sounds!) so we indulged. The food was good - burritos, nachos, chicken wings, Mexican rice and all sorts of goodies. It only cost 200,000 Dong - pricey for Hanoi but thats about £8 so it's not exactly expensive.

I've uploaded all the pics I took on my walk through the neighbourhood a couple of weeks ago - they're here if you fancy having a look: The Neighbourhood

This past week I've been riding my bike to and from work, and I also went up to Derrys last night on my bike. I can now drive the thing but its still quite terrifying to be in the midst of all the traffic, particularly on my afternoon ride to work as the traffic is starting to pick up when I'm on my way there. On the whole its not too bad I guess but I don't think its ever going to be a pleasurable experience to ride through Hanoi!

2009-04-18T08:31:00.005+01:00

The food last night was so good and so cheap compared to what it would cost back home - anyone who comes out to visit is being taken there whether you like Japanese food or not! We ended up at Derry's again (of course) where a week on me and Calder can still mine some decent comedy out of the article below:

Push for aerospace research centre

(10-04-2009)

HA NOI — Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan wants a quick completion of the Hoa Lac space technology research centre.

The request was made on Wednesday during a meeting with leaders of the Viet Nam Academy of Science and Technology and the Space Technology Institute.

Space research was necessary, and the centre was an opportunity to develop the country’s science and technology sector, Nhan said.

The centre would have a key role in developing the space technology research industry and was a foundation for the co-operation with other countries in the sector.

Deputy director of the Space Technology Institute and the project’s managing director Pham Anh Tuan said he expected Viet Nam to have one of Southeast Asia’s leading space technology research and application centres when the construction was completed, Viet Nam would be able to design and produce small optical technology-using satellites to observe the Earth, he said. — VNS

We love the fact that Vietnam is hoping to have on of the regions leading space technology programs! Calder reckons it will be a honda motorbike with some jet packs strapped on the side - given they all drive like lunatics on their bikes the one that hits space will no doubt flying around crash inot anything else up there and knoking all the other satellites out of space!

I mixed with the lunatis on their bikes today. Alison came by and drove with me to some of the places I'd go to most frequently eg work, her house and we spent a good hour or so on the roads. I also learnt how to get petrol and put air in my tyres today. I'm feeling more confident on the bike now and we might go out again tomorrow. If we don't I'm still gonna try and drive to their place tomorrow night and provided that goes well I'm gonna risk drivin to work on Monday morning!

2009-04-17T12:08:00.004+01:00

I did it! I finally got the bike onto the road! It was terrifying but I did it!

I tried on Monday lunchtime but I was too scared to get out onto the road once I got to the end of the lane so I just did some more driving up and down the lanes. My new plan was to go out at night when there are fewer people around but as I have been working split shifts with early starts and late finishes I had to wait til my 3 day working week was over. I planned to go for a ride on Wednesday evening but instead I ended up going to the usual haunt for a drink or two after work. It was the birthday of one of the owners of Derry's and they'd laid on a big spread of BBQ food so when Alison called me afer work and informed me of this I couldn;t resist going along for some BBQ grub. I got sucked into staying late as we met some cool people there so it seemed rude to bail early to go and drive my motorbike! There were some butch guys working for the American military, involved in the team that is over here searching for missing military men from the war, and also a couple of Malaysian/Indian guys (Prakesh 1 and 2!) who were interesting guys so I stayed at Derry's til late. I couldn't be bothered to take to the roads when I finally got home so I saved that treat for yesterday night. It wasn't too bad once I got going. I got a bit lost as I was so busy focusing on riding the bike and avoiding the retards on the road that I didn't pay much attention to where I was. I did manage to get some good driving time tho, and I was even going fast enough to overtake people at one stage! I'm not sure exactly HOW fast I was going as my spedometer doesn't work, but it was definitely faster than I've been riding in the lanes.

I went out again this lunch time when there were a lot more people on the roads and I survived it. Other people still scare me but now I feel more confident in my ability to control the bike its slightly less frightening. There will be more riding at the weekend then maybe on Monday morning I can ride to work - it all depends on how confident I am about tacking the horrific junction on the way to work.

I'm off out for some awesome Japanese food now and I briefly considered riding there but the traffic is horrible at this time of day - I got caught up in it yesterday on the back of a xe om. There are so many people all doing dumb stuff, plus my road becomes gridlocked in rush hour with all the retarded car and taxi drivers who park up at the side the road and make it even narrower than ususal. No one is willing to wait on their bike briefly and then pass the car in single file so it all becomes such a mess. I don't think I'm as skilled as my xe om driver yet so I'll give the bike a miss tonight!

2009-04-12T12:09:00.012+01:00

There was little chance to ride the bike these past few days so as a result I'm still alive!

I've managed to get lots of other chores done though so this week wasn't completely useless. I got my visa sorted for my trip to Laos in a couple of weeks and I've finally managed to get all my documents together to apply for a work permit. I've managed to send some money to my British bank account which was a lot of effort - lots of forms and several different members of staff were involved at the bank yet despite all this it was easier than I had first been led to believe. I also got round to posting the stuff thats been sitting in a corner of my room for nearly a month now - I had enough time to go and fill in the hundreds of forms at the post office yesterday so the stuff is now finally on the way to the recipients. I even found time to get a hair cut this week! It helped that this week was exam week so I only had 2 evening classes to teach. The rest of the lessons I had were exams, marking and parties! Friday evening was also the night we had some ace Indian food from a place called Foodshop 45. It does really nice Indian food and its cheap! It's also next to a pub where we often end up (the same place that stocks raspberry vodka!) and Friday was no exception. We were there well past curfew, at the stage of the night when the police come looking for their bribes.

Today I planned to go and drive on the roads for an hour during nap time but sadly I was thwarted by Vietnamese people in their hundreds. There was some sort of festival going on nearby which meant that the roads were full of douchebaggery as people made their way there, plus mini buses were being abandoned all along the street as well as endless taxis pulling in all over the place. I couldn't even drive up and down the lanes as there was a funeral group getting ready to set off further down the lane. They were all standing around a coffin on a cart and had abandoned their motorbikes all along the lanes. In the end I went for a walk through the lane maze behind my house as it was a really nice sunny day.

Mad motorbike skills.

The start of the lane maze.

The B52 bomber that was shot down into a lake near my house.

Shopping in Vietnamese lanes.

I then headed back to my house and got caught up in the funeral procession making its way through the lanes. This caused issues for all the traffic wanting to come down the lanes so bikes got stuck behind or had to wait at the other end of the lane. Once the funeral had cleared out there was then a scrum as everyone tried to continue their journey yet were unable to use common sense and drive single file in either direction. Instead they tried to overtake and cut each other up and made the situation even worse!

Mayhem after the funeral procession.

This evening I went over to Alison and Calders place again for dinner, and we watched some more Summer Heights High, as we started last week but didn't get through it all. Last week we started out at the pub and had some drinks at theirs then sat watching DVDs until fairly late in the night as Monday was a public holiday. Sadly we couldn't do the same this evening as both Alison and I start teaching at 7.45 tomorrow morning. Aargh! Still, as I finish at 12 and don't have to teach again until 6 that gives me time to get the bike out onto the roads when hopefully the locals are all asleep. Wish me luck!

2009-04-07T15:15:00.005+01:00

Me and the beast, and Calder looking cool

The plans for riding the bike of doom had to be postponed on Sunday as rain set in in the afternnon. There was a slight break so Alison left her house and headed over this way but it had started raining again once she got here so we gave up on the idea of riding on Sunday. Instead, I jumped on the back of her bike and headed off to the supermarket to buy supplies for dinner. I tested out my attractive plastic poncho thing and it does the jo of keeping the rain off! The raincoat I bought over with me is pretty useless in heavy rain so I have invested in a plastic poncho. Its possibly the most hideous thing I've ever owned but it will be useful once the rainy season really gets going.

Monday became the day for trying not to kill myself. I think expectations were a little high (we planned to go places and buy stuff) as I could barely get the thing going at first! I also had issues with getting it to stop - I'd break but still be cranking the accelerator which doesn't really achieve much! In the end we just drove up and down the lane so that I could practice stopping and dealing with gears. I think I'm getting the hang of it now but I'm still prone to accidentally accelerating when it's not necessary! I drove up and down the lane again today and managed not to cause any damage to either myself or others and I believe the plan at the weekend is to get me out into the traffic. Aargh!

2009-04-04T14:23:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was pay day so I have been out spending! We went for dinner after work yesterday and we went to the Czech beer place near work where the sell the closest thing to decent sausages that you can buy in Vietnam. I sampled both the German and the Czech ones and whilst they were good in terms of what you can buy in this country, they weren't a patch on the ones you can buy back home!

Today I went into the Old Qarter and met up with Alison and Calder for a feast of eggs benedict then we set off to browse the DVD stores. Got myself a few more box sets, including the Blackadder one after talking about the show last night, and picked up a coupleof American trash mags at one of the DVD stores. I miss magazines! I also had to buy a new pair of hair straighteners as mine have finally died and I had to replace my hearphones after some lame Vietnamese person couldn't wait to let me our of the lift before getting in so instead chose to push past me. He caught my headphones on his bag and pulled them out of my mp3 player and trashed them in the process. Thanks!

The biggest expenditure of the day tho was hiring a motorbike. It has been delievered to me and is sitting outside my house looking menacing. Tomorrow Alison is gonna come and help me get to grips with it and then on Monday we might venture out of Hanoi to get me some biking experience. Aargh!

2009-03-29T18:07:00.003+01:00

The sun has been out this weekend and Hanoi looks so much nicer in the sun! Sadly, earlier on in the week it was absolutely chucking it down and I got soaked. I've been told that it's only going to get worse - heavier and more frequent. Lovely! Can't wait til my lane floods and all the street become even more chaotic than usual.

As always, after work on Friday I headed off to meet Alison, Calder and Nat after work, and Lyle was there too. We went to an Irish pub next to an Indian restaurant and were able to get tasty Indian food delivered to us in the pub. This place stocked raspberry vodka and had staff who spoke enough English to understand what I was after so I finally managed to get a vodka with lemonade, rather than a slice of lemon or red bull (as has happened in the past when I've tried to order a vodka lemonade) and the food was great so it was a nice evening. At one point we agreed with Lyle that it would be a good idea to have shots, and we also got given some of the owners home made booze. It was good fun!

On Saturday I ventured out to a place called Big C. It's kinda like Walmart on steroids and was full of Vietnamese people paying no attention to where they were walking and crashing into me all the time. It stocked so much random stuff (this seems to be fairly common here - a random selection which changes every time you visit, from the tiny shops in peoples houses right up to the big supermarkets) but it was a good place to go to stock up on weapons for a war against mosquitoes. They keep biting me at night so I am on a crusade to kill them. One of the things I picked up was a tennis racket device that electrocutes bugs that fly into them. It works really well and is a good way to get revenge on the buggers.

On Saturday night I headed into the Old Quarter and met Alison and Calder at Bia Hoi corner. Beer only cost 3000 dong but it tastes pretty bad, plus the place is full of backpackers having an 'authentic travel experience' by drinking Bia Hoi with the 'locals'. The only problem with that is that the only locals at Bia Hoi corner are the ones trying to sell stuff. You have to head away from the tourist centre to drink with the locals but this doesn't stop them rambling on about how great it is. I hope I wasn't ever as obnoxious a backpacker as those guys!

We then went on to Little Hanoi for dinner but the place was full so we headed next door to a bar called Mao's place and ordered food from Little Hanoi to eat there. Once we were done we went to a place called Tet Bar to settle in somewhere for Earth Hour. There was a rumour that the government were gonna pull the plug for an enforced Earth Hour but that didn't appear to happen in the end. The bar we were at turned the lights off but thankfully left the fans going to keep us cool so we had a couple of drinks by candlelight. Later on Lyle joined us and we spend a nice night just drinking and chatting.

This evening I went to Alison and Calder's place for dinner. I went last week too and we had home made burgers then, and tonight we had chicken, potato and some Mexican fritter things. I hardly ever eat potatoes here so that was sadly quite exciting! I made dessert earlier so we rounded the meal off with some chocolate based dish. Had lots of food that I don't usually eat tonight and it was good! I'm now looking out for any recipes for desserts that I can make that don't require any cooking beyond a stove top, as I don't have an oven or a microwave, so that I can make more desserts in future. Alison and Calder cook dinner every Sunday for Lyle and I've kinda gatecrashed it now too!

2009-03-21T16:27:00.003Z

Today I went to the silk village in the south of Hanoi with someone from work. I now have so many scarves!!

I got the bus down to Hanoi university, which is near where Minh lives. She then drove us the rest of the way out to the silk village. We browsed in heaps of shops, and saw some silkworms as well as the machines that make all the pretty silk designes. I found so many cool types of scarves that I've never seen before - ones with two different coloured thin pieces sewn together with butterflies sewn in between, really nice embroidered scarves with two different colous on each side, sparkly scarves, multi-coloured scarves with really strange textures just so many scarves! What's even better is that they're all so cheap! Yu=ou can buy some for under £2, and even the more intricate fancy scarves that would cost heaps back home are only a few pounds here. Primark prices for much more than Primark quality!

2009-03-16T16:13:00.001Z

Halong Bay

2009-03-15T10:29:00.012Z

Working every evening last week wasn't actually too bad in the end. I've got a couple of new classes this term as well as the evening class from last term. My afternoon class consists of 15 boys and only one girl but thankfully there are a few older guys in the class who keep the rest in line and they're not too boisterous for me.

I went out on Friday night after work again and yet again I succumbed to peer pressure and stayed out a lot later than I intended. This was a bad idea as I had to get up early yesterday morning to go to Halong Bay. It was quite a hideous journey out there on a cramped mini bus with an incredibly enthusiastic tour guide. We also had to stop at a random tourist rip off store on the way where they were charging ridiculous prices for things. I tried to sleep on the bus but it was uncomfortable, plus Vietnamese driving doesn't exactly ease you to sleep. I saw so much retarded driving yesterday, some of it courtesy of our driver. The stupidest thing of all is the way drivers overtake on a blind bend or when there is something coming the other way. They go at such speed that the only option is to pray that there is space for all 3 vehicles on the road otherwise someone is going off the road or crashing into someone else.

It was worth enduring the journey though as Halong Bay was really nice.

We headed out on the boat into the bay and stopped at one of the floating village places. People spend their whole lives living out on the water and never set foot on land. Weird. They are all set up with satellite dishes though!

We then got back on the boat and had lunch - lots of sea food, some rice and noodles and some chips (?)- and then had a choice between going in a boat around the village and caves with a guide or hiring a kayak and exploring by ourselves. We opted for the kayak and paddled though a cave into a lagoon place. It was good fun.

After that the boat sailed around for a bit more...

...then we visited a bizarre cave system. It looks man-made but is all down to nature. It has been fitted out with lots of coloured lights and looks pretty cool in a weird sort of way.

We walked through the cave system with a billion tour groups full of Asians who kept holding evyone up to get a photo. If you visit a popular tourist place back home you fully expect to have random people in your photos. Apprently that isn't acceptable to Asian tourists though so instead everyone else has to clear out of the way and wait for them to get their photo without any randoms in it. This gets annoying after a while!

The cave was the last stop of the day so we got back on the boat and sailed back to the mainland for another ling bus ride to get back to Hanoi. It's even more ridiculous at night. All the lorries and buses seem to have souped up their full beam headlights to even fuller beam lights and leave them on their brightest setting the entire time they are on the road, blinding everyone else. There were also a good few motorbikes going along with no lights whatsoever so you can't see then until you're practically driving into the back of them. They also drive the wrong way along the highway with no lights on and swerve out of the way at the last minute. This is just stupidly pointless - its not a one way street, theres no central reservation to get across, just one lane either way so why not drive on the correct side of the road?!? They also keep up their deadly overtaking craziness after dark. We did pass a pretty bad motorbike accident on the way. There were two incredibly mangled bikes in the middle of the road along with a big pool of blood and some police officers with tape measures recording distances between various parts of motorbike. I sincerely hope that any Vietnamese people who head to places like England aren't allowed to get behind the wheel of any vehicle at all as based on what I saw yesterday they would dramatically increase the accident rates. They just do so many ridiculous things that aren't necessary. I see it in Hanoi too - people will go through a red light and cut across the flow of the traffic just to save 30 seconds on their journey, and if they are approaching a set of lights just as they are about to turn green they won't sit patiently at the back of all the waiting traffic. Instead they cross the middle of the road and drive down to the lights on the wrong side of the road to be the first through when the lights change, even if this means driving into the path of an oncoming bus. Why would anyone think driving like this is a good idea?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Why risj your life to get to you destination a few minutes quicker? This stupid driving along with blaring horns and a bumpy ride meant that I didn't sleep on the way back to Hanoi either. After only 3 hours sleep the night before this wasn't good! And yet despite being exhausted I went along to a party down the road on a random person's roof terrace for a bit last night before finally giving in and going to bed. There were some cool people there but I just couldn't stay awake any longer.

I also had to get up at 6am this morning to escort Zoe to the bus stop so she could get out to the airport for her flight to Thailand. I would've had to get up anyway due to the fact we have several locks between us and the street and so there is no way to get out of the house and lock it up again without a set of keys. As Zoe was leaving Vietnam for good she couldn't exactly take a set of keys with her and so I had to get up to unlock everything anyway so decided to go to the bus with her. There was a market in full swing just down the road on the way and I got to see the wonderful sight of a chicken being killed and sliced up for a customer. What more could you hope to see at 6am?!

This afternoon Alison let me have a ride of her bike as I think I'm gonna try and get myself a motorbike soon. Once I'm sorted with a bike I'm going to be driving like a granny rather than a local and I'll use my Western driving skills such as stopping at red lights, looking both ways before pulling out across a road and using my mirrors to reduce my chance of having an accident. That still doesn't stop me being caught up in other peoples stupidity but I'm gonna be hyper aware of other people around me so that hopefully I'll avoid any dodgy situations. I only rode Alison's bike up and down an access road that was fairly empty but it was good to get a feel for how a bike works. I'm going to cycle around Hanoi a bit to try and get a bit More of an understanding of how the traffic works before doing much more with a motorbike as I don't even have to think about what I'm doing on a cycle so I can devote all my attention to working out what to do on the road. Then I'll rent a bike for a bit and see how that goes. Fingers crossed it doesn't kill me!

2009-03-09T06:26:00.002Z

I spent the weekend in Hanoi this week rather than heading off to a random place in Vietnam. Friday was the last day of term for my full time class so I had a pretty easy day on Friday. On the last day we show a film at a cinema so beforehand I went for lunch at a nice Italian restaurant nearby. Bizzarely they were playing an obscure kiwi song whilst I was there. When I went back a couple of days later they were playing Crowded House - the place must be run by a kiwi!

After lunch on Friday I then had a (soft) drink with the fellow teachers outide the cinema then we watched Happy Feet with the students. I then got a lift back to work woth Alison where I had to give the students their certificates and have a little party with them before sending them off on their way. I had to teach my evening class but it was only for two hours. After work I went for dinner with Alison, Caroline, Air and Calder as we got paid on Friday. We went to a really nice Japanese restaurant and had some sushi and other random dishes, and then we went to the bar near me, Ete to have a cocktail or three. It was a nice night!

On Saturday I got up kinda late and then made my way into the Old Quarter to go to Le Pub for a nice Western breakfast. I then made my way down to the cinema for a bit of Western escapism. Before the film started there was a ad for road safety with a family of three on a motorbike, with the kid standing at the front without a helmet. They got to a red light and stopped at the white line then slowly edged forward into the intersection then a truck came out of nowhere and crashed into them killing the kid. The entire audience gasped in disbelief as if it had never occured to them that going through a red light and riding helmetless might not be a great idea. That is the thing that annoys me most about Vietnam - their complete inability to drive safely on the roads and consider the consequences of their retarded actions.

After the film I went back up to the Old Quarter and had a look at pretty scarves, then I went to a cafe for a drink. Whilst there I flicked through an English language newspaper and saw an ad for a day of music in Hanoi with a kiwi band Minuit. That excited me greatly as I miss live music! That might be the week Im going tp Laos but if I'm in Hanoi I think I'm going to go along as there are a few other bands and DJs. I then met some history people from Sussex, Nick and Katherine, and we went for dinner at a place called Bia Minh with beer for 40p a glass! Met some people I worked with there too and they went on to a place called Green Mango for an open mic night. We went along too but it looked a bit pricey for our liking so instead we went to Le Pub and had some cocktails. It was another fun night and again I got home after curfew and had to get down my lane in the pitch black. Bizzarely there were a bunch of construction workers dumping carts of sand and pebbles for their work but they were doing it in the pitch black. It's crazy!!

Yesterday when I got up I had to meet potential new housemates and we decided on the one we wanted then I had to head back into the Old Quarter to pick up some badges I'd ordered the other day. I got a badge from each country I've been to and I'm going to get some fabric to sew them onto. I didn't feel up to much more the rest of the day so I watched movies and spoe to people on Skype. Finally got to talk to Nina which was nice.

I have to work this evening and every evening this week which is why I didnt go anywhere this weekend. I might be going for a day trip to Halong Bay next weekend though with Zoe as she is leaving on Sunday to go to Thailand. I need to try and sort out my trip to Laos too this week. Yay travel!

2009-03-04T18:16:00.000Z

Some pics from the weekend