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:

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

Things I did with my sister:

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!



Rest of the 'Nam pics here.

Next stop, 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!



Some more photos from Cambodia.

We flew from Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur and then got another flight across to 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!



Some pictures of Malaysia and Brunei.

After Borneo we flew to Kuala Lumpur (after spending 3 extra hours waiting at Brunei airport and getting free but disgusting food whilst waiting) and after a few days there went to 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!




A few snaps from Singapore.

Finally after all that we headed our separate ways home at Singapore airport :o(

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!

Paying 3 months rent in Vietnam -



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

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!

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/

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.

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!