Been doing a few things with my days off these past few weeks.

One Saturday I went for a walk part way across Long Bien Bridge to get to the island that is in the middle of the river. It is a little bit of countryside in the middle of Hanoi. To get to the bridge I walked along the main road, which was a pit pollutiony, but has a mosaic along its length. I was also able to finally snap a photo of the goldfish vendors I've always seen around town when I don't have a camera!

Just before you reach the bridge there is Long Bien market, which on that day appeared to sell nothing other than watermelon! Once on the bridge there are some nice views back to Hanoi, and then when you get down onto the island there are fields and banana trees which is pretty awesome!

I ended up walking back across the bridge as the sun was setting, which was pretty.

Another day my day off coincided with a friend who has recently moved up from HCMC so we spent a day out and about in the city. We drove a few common routes to give her some confidence (just like my friend did with me when I was first getting to grips with Hanoi's roads!) and stopped in at the fabric market to get some ideas (I'm addicted to tailoring). We then headed into the centre for a spot of cardigan shopping, before heading to the Metropole hotel for a drink and a posh bite to eat. It wasn't nearly as expensive as we were expecting, so we lingered for a bit and enjoyed an afternoon people watching.

  

The massive typhoon that battered the Philippines bought a bit of wind and rain to Hanoi, and once that had cleared up it left behind some really clean air (for a change). It was so clear you could see the mountains in the distance!! That's rare in Hanoi! Met a few people by the lake to enjoy the sunset and it didn't disappoint.

I also decided it was time to visit some of the museums I've been wanting to go to for a while. I went to the Fine Art Museum which had some nice stuff in it, including lots of lacquer paintings, and then I went to the Women's Museum, which is supposed to be one of the best museums in Hanoi. One of my old students works there so she gave me lots of info, and the museum itself is actually pretty well done. It has a lot of information - something that is often lacking in other museums. Quite often here you'll see an object that might have a card next to it saying what it is and when it's from, but there's only so much you can learn from "Ring: 1975". In contrast, the Women's Museum gives you a bit of history behind the objects - who the ring belonged to, why it was important, and so on. They also had a bunch of info boards telling you about the different areas of life the museum focuses on. I actually learnt something! Also got to take another photo I've been trying to get ever since I've been here:

A dude precariously dangling down the side of a building.

Full set of photos here

I went out for a drive over Long Bien bridge and into the countryside on the other side. Once crossing the bridge it doesn't take long to start seeing bits of countryside in the city:

The road follows the river on the left and the city on the right, until the buildings start to fade out and fields appear.

When the sun started setting, I turned around and headed back into the city, and sadly that was where it all went wrong. I ended up sucked onto a bridge out to Bac Ninh and had to drive for about 30km before I could turn around and head back into Hanoi. I couldn't find my way back to the river road so instead I had to drive through Long Bien district, on some of the busiest roads in Hanoi on a crazy busy Saturday night. Not such a great end to the day!

Pics here

Slack!!!

A few weeks ago there was a long weekend in Vietnam, so I used it as an excuse for a quick trip to Bangkok for a few days of fun and shopping. I found myself a nice little budget hotel right in the centre of the shopping mall area and settled in for a few days.

I arrived around lunch time on the first day and headed straight to the shops! Also indulged in some lovely Thai food. This trip I also finally checked out the weekend market. Despite many trips to BKK I'd never made it to the market so I decided to put it right on this trip. It is next to a nice park so I spent a bit of time there reading my book and enjoying the relative (to Hanoi!) peace and quiet before tackling the market. It is pretty big! A lot of the stuff is generic SE-Asia market handicraft stuff but there were plenty of shops selling stuff I've not seen before in other cities so I had a fun couple of hours browsing.

The following day I decided to check out some tourist attractions I hadn't been to before. I got the ferry along the river to go and check out Dusit Palace and the marble temple. It was probably a bad decision to be trekking along the streets at the hottest part of the day, and I underestimated just how far away from the river these things were so it was a bit of a grim walk to get there. The palace didn't seem to have much going on - I don't know if it was just shut for lunch, or shut to the public in general. The temple was pretty tho, and super white in the sun.


On the way back from the temple, I got off the boat around little India and went on the hunt for fabric. There was so much pretty stuff! I was quite restrained tho and only picked up enough stuff for a couple of skirts. The rain clouds were rolling in at this point so I ditched plans to go have dinner by the river and check out the Grand Palace after dark and instead made my way back to the shopping centres for a bit more retail therapy.

On my final day there my flight back to Hanoi didn't depart until the evening so in the morning I went to check out the Jim Thompson house museum. It's an old wooden house in the centre of BKK and there is a guided tour around the house and gardens, and then you're free to spend time in the gardens afterwards. It was a nice place to spend a couple of hours.

















All in all, it was a nice few days break from Hanoi. Full set of photos here.

2 posts in one weekend?!?!

I was driving back from town today and decided to cross the river and go for a little drive along and see what I could find.

Agriculture:

Temples:

A pretty church:

Boats on the river:

Mr Eiffel's bridge:

The rest of the photos are in the same link at the bottom of the previous entry.

Hanoi is a bit stormy at the moment, but with the storms come clearer skies and pretty sunsets!

Uncle Ho in particular looks nice with a pink sky behind him:

There are some more photos in this album, along with some photos taken at a couple of other places in Hanoi.

After years of driving past the flag tower almost every day I finally decided to go visit it on a nice sunny day. There is a military museum in the grounds with some stuff from the war.

I also went for a walk to the river and saw all the posers having their photos taken by the river. It's a popular place to go for wedding photos and there are a bunch of flower fields on the road leading to it where people love to go and pose for photos. There are a few places set up where you can go and pay an entry fee to get into the fields and climb up ladders to get the best shot.

As slack on the updates as ever!!

A few weeks ago there were a couple of public holidays in Vietnam that created a 5 day weekend, so naturally I went on holiday!! I headed to Laos for a few days in Luang Prabang. It was my third visit there but it is such a nice place to just relax. I found a nice hotel to stay at that had a pool (coz who wants to be out and about in 40 degree heat when you can be reading by the pool?!) and decided that as long as I did something active in the morning I could totally justify sitting by the pool or in a cafe by the river, or shopping in the little boutiques!

It's a very nice town to walk around as the main part of the town is situated where two rivers meet, plus there are loads of temples and pretty houses so I spent some time in the town just wandering around.

It is also easy to get out into the countryside as the town is so small. The hotel offered free bike hire so I went out towards a craft place on the edge of the town one morning. Got distracted by small country lanes and little villages surrounded by mountains before eventually reaching the craft place. At one point I had several small children following my up a hill screaming hello at me so that by the time I'd reached the top, pretty much the whole village had come out to see what the commotion was all about!

Another day I cycled out the opposite way down some dusty red roads to the paper and silk village along the river. There are lots of little shops there to take a break from the heat, and a really nice artisan cafe run by an Australian woman. On the way back to town from the village there is a really nice restaurant overlooking the river. It has tiered wooden floors and you sit on piles of cushions to eat awesome food: 

such a pretty green curry!


I also went out to one of the waterfalls around the area. I've been to the biggest one twice already so I decided to check out the less famous one that doesn't get many visitors. As it was the dry season it was little more than a trickle, but it was a nice walk up through the jungle and back down the other side where you can then sit in the cafe next to the lake. My tuk tuk driver came with me to show me things and tell me stories which kept me entertained, and there were only two other tourists there so it was nice and quiet, unlike the more famous waterfall which is always full of tour groups.

In the evenings the hotel ran a shuttle bus into the town (not that it was exactly far away) so I'd go into town to watch the sunset from the river or the temple at the top of the hill, have dinner and do a bit of shopping in the night market. There are so many pretty things to buy there! I was intelligent this time tho and only bought a small bag with me so I couldn't cave in and buy too much as I'd have no way to get it back with me!

Full set of photos here

For Tet this year I went to Malaysia as it's a nice place to chill out for a week. As I flew Air Asia I had stupid timings for my flights so I had to get to Hanoi airport ridiculously early for the flight, but luckily managed to arrive in Kuala Lumpur in time to catch the bus to Malacca with just a couple of minutes to spare. Despite the roads being busy for new year it was a nice journey in a country with lovely roads and decent busses. I arrived in Malacca late afternoon and went to see what was going on in Chinatown before finding a place to watch the sunset - I do love a good sunset!

I spent the next few days in Malacca just walking around and seeing the sights. It is a pretty small place and there are lots of nice cafes scattered between lots of small museums. They all have pretty cheap entry, and air con, so I got a bit of culture in on my trip. There are churches and ruins of the old fort, and several mosques and temples, the latter of which were very busy for the new year. The river is really nice to walk along, with the buildings on either side covered in art work.

There are lots of different cuisines in Malacca and it was nice to get a bit of Portuguese food for a change from rice or noodles, and there is also an awesome roti stall that I visited many times. Of course there are multiple shopping opportunities too, and I ended up buying a really nice hand made rug that I just couldn't resist. There is also a tower in Malacca and you get into the cabin which then rises to the top and spins around slowly a few times before going back down, which gives a good view of the city. It really was a nice place to spend a few days, despite the trishaws pumping out Gangnam Style very loudly all over the city centre!

After Malcca I made my way to KL for  spot of shopping. Saw a few lion dances around the city, both the big public ones in shopping centres, and also the smaller ones complete with fire crackers on the street outside Chinese businesses.

I spent a day around Chinatown and Little India, and Independence Square, and I also went out to a park with a bunch of lakes and a nice view of the skyline. I hadn't been there before so it was nice to find somewhere new despite multiple trips to KL in the past. Of course I also went up the tower - I can't resist a good view of the skyline of a big city.

As always, the rest of the photos are here

Last weekend was freakishly blue and sunny for Hanoi. Before Tet it is usually pretty cold, but last weekend it was 20 something and sunny so I made the most of it by getting out and about on Saturday afternoon. Somewhat worryingly, 20+ in the UK is an occasion to bust out flip flops and short sleeves, but I set off on Saturday in a fleece. I think Hanoi has broken me :o(

Soon after leaving my house I passed this sight:

which is something I've wanted to take a photo of for ages now but I never usually have my camera with me!

Every open (relative to Hanoi!) space has become a market for kumquat and peach blossom trees all over the city:

Soon I got into the middle of the Old Quarter and in between searching for birthday gifts I passed Seasonal Decoration Street and it is mental at this time of year. The shops along the street always sell stuff like wrapping paper and ribbons, and then add in extra stuff to suit the holiday of the month eg Christmas or Tet. Tet is by far the most popular holiday of them all and there are lots of things you are obligated to buy for assorted gods to get yourself some good luck for the upcoming year, all of which can be found on this street, and it also serves as a backdrop to festive photo shoots. For some reason they don't do the smart thing and close the road to vehicles, and people just pull up outside the shop they want to buy from on their motorbike so it was pretty chaotic.

After a trip to the deaf lady to buy some cards I headed to the post office to send said cards home. By the time I fought my way through to the counter and got the cards on their way back to the UK it was dark outside so I did what large numbers of locals do on a Saturday night and walked around the lake taking photos:

The atmosphere in the city right now is a bit like the UK just before Christmas. On Friday, my students were not interested in studying as it was the last day before the two week holiday, and at work today there was a staff lunch accompanied by Tet gift bags which got local staff all excited. There are no classes this week so it is just full time staff doing a selection of the more tedious jobs that don't get done during term time. At least this year we're working at the centre closest to my house making it more tolerable than last year, as we finish right when rush hour is starting up. At this time of year there is an extra level of chaos to rush hour as in addition to the general going-home-from-work traffic there are also heaps of motorbikes zooming around with trees or many many crates of beer on the back of them. Last year when we were working at the other centre it would take up to an hour to get home as the roads on that route were particularly hellish, but from the centre we're at this time it only takes about 20 mins which isn't much more than it would take at any other time of the year. Fingers crossed it stays like this for the rest of the week! I've just got to get through a few more days then it is time to relax in Malaysia. Yay!

As you can see, it's a lovely day in Hanoi today and I'm suffering with a cold so other than a quick trip to the supermarket my plan for this weekend is to hibernate, giving me no excuse to not update this thing!!

I'm sure the only people still reading this already know that I went home over Christmas so it will come as no surprise that that trip is what I'm going to tell you about.

I flew home on a Friday evening after a week of work that didn't include any teaching (which was probably a good thing as I doubt I'd have been able to give a class my full attention) but got food poisoning just in time for the journey. How lovely of Hanoi to provide me with a parting gift! I flew via Seoul (which isn't even remotely on the route between Hanoi and London but was much cheaper than anything more direct that wasn't Aeroflot) and the 9 hour layover ended up being a great chance to vom every hour or so and get it all out of my system in time for the long flight to London. Got lucky and ended up on a flight with hardly any people on it so I had a whole row of seats to myself meaning I could lie down properly and get the laptop out to watch movies. Taking this extra long route home also meant that I landed at 5.30pm so by the time I was back in Bassett I didn't have to try and stay awake for long which was much nicer than the usual 6am arrival followed by a whole day of trying not to fall asleep.

The next was pretty chilled in Bassett. I met my old schoolfriend Jen for a coffee and then just chilled at home and had a lovely fry-up cooked by my dad. After that things got pretty busy! I went up to London with my mum to meet up with my uncle and go to an exhibition (and the cafe!) at the V&A (though it was pretty packed so quite hard to fully take it all in) and just generally enjoy London. Got some goodies at the Oz/Kiwi shop and had a browse around Covent Garden, and also had a nice meal at an Italian restaurant that was a million times better than any Italian available in Hanoi.

The day after that I made my way to Brighton for a few days by the sea (in December...) and to see some uni buddies. On the first night we went for Vietnamese food and then I went to my first of many pubs. The following day I met up with Kyle and we had plans for eggs benedict that ended up being realized in his teeny tiny kitchen, then we headed out for a bit of tourist action in Brighton. We walked along the seafront to get to the wheel thing, then we hit the pier for some 2p machine action, shooting games and a stick of rock or two.

That evening I went to Lewes to meet Mat in a lovely pub, and I met him again the following day for a trip out into the Sussex countryside to another pub (a pattern is emerging) for a nice lunch. After that we went to Middle Farm to look for Christmas gifts and fancy alcohol. That evening I met up with Kyle and went back to his house for dinner, then once Hetty had joined us we went for a cocktail made with kiwi vodka (can't go to Brighton and not indulge in a 42 below drink!)


Next up was a weekend in London. I met Gemma at Archway and as she was feeling a little sick we just hung out at hers and destroyed some pizzas in her oven, then went out for an awesome Indian meal. The following day started off with a visit to the post office that was almost as time consuming as it would be in Hanoi, then we went into central London to go to an exhibition at Somerset House and take in some festive cheer. We met up with Nina in the evening and we went for a drink in the bar at the top of Waterstones where we discovered their fancy cocktail list, and after that Gem and I set about heating Cranberry juice to mix with Kyle's christmas gift of vodka in her kitchen, which thankfully went much better than the attempts at cooking pizza. On the Sunday I headed to Borough to spend some time with Nina. We went to Borough market to get some last minute Christmas gifts, then we made our way along the South Bank to an awesome Mexican restaurant for lunch. We spent the afternoon watching movies in her posh apartment and indulged in fish and chips for dinner.

The next day it was time to return to Wiltshire for a day or two before heading off on my next little trip. Had another chance to visit a pub when we went to visit Shirley in Frieth one day, and she also had some mince pies in so I got to enjoy my first mince pie of the season! I then went to Leeds to visit my sister but in an attempt to save some pennies I got a cheaper train ticket that involved a rather tedious journey on 4 different trains and over 2 hours waiting at assorted stations. Was worth it though to go to another nice Indian restaurant, this time in Leeds (and to see my sister, I guess)! Managed to squeeze in a good bit of shopping one day, and we also went for a day out in Yorkshire. We went to Knaresborough and had a little walk around the castle and gardens, then we went to Harrogate for a late lunch at Bettys Tea Rooms followed by some more shopping. We then got to hang out in the vestibule of a packed train to get to Alfreton where we were met by dad and went for lunch with the family before heading back down south to Bassett.

Then it was Christmas!! On Christmas Eve I went to the pub (again...) with some old school friends and then spent Christmas Day at home with the family, with another visit to a pub thrown in. We had a very nice Christmas lunch that included yorkshire puds. What more could you want?! We spent Boxing Day in Bucks with the other half of the family and a farting dog, taking care of the leftovers. I also managed to squeeze in a trip to Marlborough with Jen for a nice lunch and browse in the shops, then it was time to head of to another country..... exotic South Wales. I stayed with Liz and Bod and was treated to many nice meals and craft goodies. Kyle and Hetty came to Wales for New Year and Newport helped Kyle achieve his goal of enjoying a deep fried mars bar, and we had a nice time relaxing and doing very little. We did manage to leave the house on New Year's Day though and went for a walk across Newport.


After that trip my time in the UK was almost at an end and I spent the rest of my time at home. I went for a walk with my mum at Barbury Castle and got to enjoy some lovely winter weather, and we went for a nice Italian meal the day before I left. Unfortunately, the plane was full on the return journey so it wasn't nearly so pleasant, but I didn't have food poisoning or  a 9 hour layover in Seoul this time so it wasn't all bad!


All the photos are here

Since being back in Hanoi I've not done much other than going to work and meeting friends for dinner and drinks, but I'm hoping that by next weekend I'll be shot of this cold so I can go out and see what's happening in Hanoi in the run-up to Tet.