Mekong Delta, Phnom Penh, Angkor, Bangkok, Ko Samet, New York

Are the places, in that order, where many a photos have been taken by yours truly since the last post.

Highlights (again, shall be brought to you in full colour on picasaweb when I find a computer to upload them and a few hours to caption them):
Mekong delta-- homestay 30 mins from Can Tho (capital of region), which is only accessible by motorbike, and a leisurely walk through a foot of water in wellies. Floating market at Cai Rang (and on-land market too). My Tho canal ride. General feeling of being as in the bush as possible.

Phnom Penh-- lots of crazy Khmer Rouge genocide-related thing (e.g. Choeng Ek Killing Fields, Tuol Sleng genocide museum), Royal Palace. Meeting cool Swedes and Aussie.

Siem Reap/Angkor-- Remarkable temples from 1000 years ago. Angkor Wat, Preah Khan, Banteay Srei, Bayon, and so much more! 3 days and 4 nights well spent.

Bangkok-- The principal tourist attractions of Grand Palace and Wat Pho, as well as the christmas tunes on the subway in the leisurely 28 degree (85 F) weather.

Ko Samet-- The perfect way to end the trip. Relaxing and magnificient. The seclusion of our wooden bungalow and the tiny beach.

New York-- the constant feeling as if I've never left despite having been here not more than 15 days over the past 15 months.

We built Ho Chi Minh City on Rock and Roll...

So we arrived into HCMC (Saigon) on Monday afternoon and leave tomorrow morning at the butt crack of dawn (technical speak) for a 3day/2night journey to Phnom Penh via the Mekong Delta, which will get us into Cambodia's capital on Saturday afternoon. HCMC has been great-- very different from Hanoi, much bigger, more Western, etc. Photos forthcoming but fear not they exist! Monday night we met up with Paige, who was in the year below me at Stuy, and went for dinner at Bo Tung Xeo, this beef place Benny recommended and was quite good. Afterwards we went to a bar near our hotel in the backpacker area, met up with Huy, another one of Paige's friends, and had a hearty and healthy night of Tiger beer.

Tuesday rolled out of bed quite late but managed to see some sites, went to Notre Dame Cathedral, the Opera House, walked down Dong Khoi (formerly Rue Catinat), had lunch in a very nice cafe called Mojo, part of the Sheraton I believe. Afterwards saw the beautiful People's Committee Building (former Hotel de Ville), and did a bit of nighttime wandering. Everything is so busy! The main difference from Hanoi is that even at 10 or 11 o'clock things are still lively here whereas in Hanoi everyone is asleep by then.

Recouped at our hotel after that, watched a bit of Western TV *cough* Desperate Housewives *cough*, and had some decent Vietnamese food nearby. Bought fruit juice from 999 Mart.

Today we filled up on western breakie in Kim Cafe on De Tham, walked around and went into Ben Thanh market (we walked around the outside last night), then the Fine Arts Museum (though the 2nd floor with all the political stuff was closed for renovation), and had some very nice fruit smoothies at Cafe terrace in Saigon Centre. Then War Remnants Museum (very crazy), followed by a trip to Pho Binh, the Pho (noodle soup) cafe which served as the secret headquarters of the Viet Cong during the US-Vietnam War. It was just 100m from the former US Intelligence HQ!! US soldiers ate in there everyday!! And it was here that the VC planned the 1968 Tet offensive and other attacks. Very crazy indeed to be sitting there slurping up some (rather good mind you) Pho.

After that headed over to the Jade Emperor Pagoda for some religious vibe and then taxi'd through rush hour back to our hotel. Exchanged what was left of our teaching salary into USD and some Thai Baht for use over the next couple of weeks. Should hopefully see Paige again tonight and get some more of this high quality South Vietnamese food Benny has hyped up for the past two months!!

Next post should be from Phnom Penh.

P.S. Picked up some old "Banque de l'Indochine" Piastre money from 60+ years ago. So if I fall into a time warp and land in French colonial Indochina I should be good to go for at least a bowl of Pho.

Relaxin', Tam Coc, Hoa Lu

heyhey so today we went to Hoa Lu (capital of Vietnam at end of 10th and beginning of 11th centuries under Dinh and Le dynasties) and Tam Coc (billed as "Halong Bay on the rice paddies") which was quite nice though for what it was quite over-run with tourists. When we went to Perfume Pagoda (about the same distance and quite a similar experience with rowing around in a boat for a couple hours) there were far fewer tourists despite Perfune Pagoda definitely ranking way higher on the "must see" list of things in the area to see. Maybe its just a busier time of the season.

Monday and Tuesday we chilled about saw World Trade Center, did some shopping around the Old Quarter, had the chocolate buffet at the Sofitel Metropole (very nice), went to the gym, etc. Got our Cambodian visas so now we're good to go to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap! Very exciting! Should be a bit different than Vietnam I reckon.

Had Bun Rieu (pronounced "Boon Zeoo") for dinner with one of the teachers from our school which was very nice, but it was a very busy time for dinner (7pm) and so we were piled on with the other 30 or 40 Vietnamese on to this one tiny corner in the Old Quarter. Kind of funny especially when adding in the hacked up pieces of pig on a basket in front of us, Caroline's general disgust with the congealed chicken blood and unidentified bits of meat floating around in an otherwise standard bowl of noodles and soup. Needless to say I enjoyed it! Hah. Was reminded of an interesting feature of the culture here-- the teacher we had dinner with, Hung, is 25 and is not (yet) married and so lives with her parents until she gets married whenupon she would move in with her husband, a norm that seems to be the case with virtually all women here. Kind of crazy as it seems to exclude the possibility of an independent woman! Consequently, everyone here is borderline obsessed with when they're getting married (and of course, to who, how much money he has, etc.) not just for the standard reasons we have in the West (important phase of your emotional life, etc) but because its a crucial stage of someone's life in every dimension as per above.

And on that somewhat insightful note I am going to sleep! Vietnamese lesson tomorrow morning! I can't believe we're leaving Hanoi on Monday!! Ahhh

Sa Pa very nice, Mum come and gone, just one week left in Ha Noi :-(

So yes, Sa Pa and Lao Cai district in general were fabulous-- the hallmark being the overnight trek to Ban Ho village about 30km from Sa Pa, an ethnic Tay village (Tay being the largest ethnic minority in Vietnam). See the photo album for the play-by-play and many many photos of the beautiful scenery. So mum left this morning after 8 days in Viet Nam (and her first time outside the "West") and from what I can discern she had a very nice time ;-) She left with my large suitcase that I didn't want to schlep around Cambodia and Thailand so I only have to haul my big backpack (in the spirit of being a true cheesy Western backpacker as opposed to Caro who still has a suitcase) which is actually Olga's hah.

Full day of teaching today-- was cool. Had some tiny 5 year olds who I don't normally teach which was nice cos they're so cute! We also saw the Guardian (Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher) at the cinema over our long lunch though the machine stopped working in the middle and we had to leave early to make it back to school on time. Stopped by the Pacific Airlines office to buy tickets to Saigon-- we have just one more week in Ha Noi!! Very sad ;-( I'll be back in NY in just 3 and a half weeks!! I'm not ready to weather below 80 F / 25 C yet!! And I'm especially not ready for this crazy "work" thing either!

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Ethnology (with mom) which was great-- its all about the 54 ethnic minorities living in VN and had a special exhibit of life in Vietnam under the "subsidy economy" of 1975 (reunification) to 1986 (when doi moi, i.e. market economy was introduced). Afterwards mum saw the Water Puppets at the Thang Long theatre and lived it up at the Sofitel Metropole while Caro and I taught (we only teach in the evenings on Fridays). For dinner we all (me, caro, mum, benny) went to the Hoa Sua training restaurant-- this charity that trains disadvantaged Vietnamese to be waiters and make a decent living, which has great food and this really good cocktail of Havana club rum and wheatgrass (!) Photos of the day will be posted shortly in the Hanoi part 2 album.

So need to hit the hay soon since didn't sleep much last night as I was packing the suitcase for mommy to take back this morning to NY so will try to post again soon!

Hue good, Mommy and Bush arrived safely

So Hue and central Vietnam are in good order-- for the lowdown check out the album on my photo site "Hue/Central" with captions. Saw the old citadel (Hue was the capital of VN from 1802 to 1945), some fabulous Nguyen dynasty tombs (despite Khai Dinh apparently having taken some serious hate due to his being France's bizatch), the former DMZ (including these sick Vinh Moc tunnels where people would hang out for years!), and really pretty springs just south of Hue as well.

Mom arrived yesterday morning just 15 mins before Air Force One and despite the 6+13+1 hr flights was up and about for the whole day stopping off at the Temple of Literature, Old Quarter, and Truc Bach lake (where I live).

Am tired and need to wake up early tomorrow for another one of the killer (9.30am-9pm) teaching days and am going to Sa Pa tomorrow night on the overnight train with mum but will try to post from there with some interesting stuff.

Just a month til I'm back in NY! Will be very sad to leave but very happy to see everyone!

pho 24 good

pho 24 is a small chain of "pho" restaurants (pho is a particular kind of noodle omnipresent here) and considered by some (or at least benny) to have some of the best pho ga (the noodles in soup w/ chicken) and pho bo (ditto but w/ beef) around. AND its principally a breakfast food!! Though I just had it for dinner like the foolio western that I am.

So the Dems control Congress, pretty rad. Read Krugman's and Dowd's column, cool cool. Still holding out for a Green President though.

Today was one of the 9.30am-9pm teaching days (yes, some breaks in there but for the most part its a pretty busy day) so am pretty tired. I'm able to give directions in Vietnamese now which helps a lot (Day la cai gi? = What is this? and is probably the single most useful phrase to know). At lunch we went to Cha ca Thanh Long, a restaurant my mom actually put me on to, which was pretty good. Their dish is this fish with dill cooked in front of you on your table. The original establishment of this nature (Cha ca Va Long) probably has better fish Caro and I decided (after having been there last week) but this place was very good nonetheless. Afterwards we went to another place my mom told me about-- this cafe on Hang Gai and it was very cool. At first you're like whaaat theres no cafe here its just craft shops. But then you see the tiniest of signs peering out from behind some paintings which says "cafe" and you skeptically dismount off your bike to investigate. After going back there is quite a large and cool cafe complete with the as advertised fantastic secluded views of Hoan Kiem lake.

There was some very high quality folk music/theatre for half an hour before we had to return to school from our lunch break but definitely will be going back.

So yesterday Annabelle and Mikhaila, two of the other volunteers who were living with us, left to go back home (Maine and London respectively) and it was v sad :-( The previous night we went out to Seasons of Hanoi, this nice Vietnamese restaurant across from our guesthouse that we went to on the first night but hadnt been back to since, followed by a bit of a cheeky at bia hoi viet ha, home of the high quality 7p beer.

Thursday we went to the Friendship Village just west of Hanoi about 40 mins away, to train/educate disabled Agent Orange victims, the kind of place (though not the exact one) we thought we would be volunteering at when we arrived but ended up not working there. It was very eye-opening. Equally eye-opening was all the building sites and development you could see on the ride out there (one lane roads being expanded into 6-lane highways, etc. etc.) and Suel, the very nice former Vietnam War vet who showed us out there, told us all about how when he arrived in Vietnam just 8 years ago everything was so much less developed and none of these sky-rises which stood before us existed. Where skyscrapers towered over us used to be rice paddies and grazing cows and just a few years ago. Amazing the speed of development going on here (which one is all too often reminded of when cruising through Hanoi with the thousands of "APEC" banners and paraphernalia)

Wednesday we went to Hung's (our volunteer coordinator) wife's family's village, Thuong Phuc, just outside Hanoi, which was very nice. See the photo album (link in upper right corner) on my photo webpage complete with captions for a better look.

Tuesday we went round to three villages around Hanoi, Van Phuc (silk village), Ha Thai (lacquerware village), and Bat Trang (pottery "village" but more of a town with ceramic factories) with a guide which was very cool. Highlights included getting invited in for tea by a family in Ha Thai (and it was damn good tea!) and taking the ferry across the Red river to save us having to bike 30km unnecessarily. The tea this family served us (Son and Tuan) was so good I asked if and where I could buy it for making myself. Son (the wife/mother of the family) produced three large bags each with a dried plant of some description (leaves, flowers, herbs, etc) and was so kind she took a generous sampling from each bag into smaller bags for us to take home. Just one example of how kind and friendly people are here! Anyway, for a more up close view of the Tuesday village crawl take a look at the handicraft village photo album (again, complete with captions).

Tomorrow is another long day of teaching followed by an early flight Monday morning to Hue, the old Imperial capital of Vietnam during the 18th and 19th centuries.

just saved $79

A couple of weeks ago when I was in Halong bay I remembered that I had forgotten to cancel my amazon prime trial and would be charged $79 (shit!) BUT I signed on to discover it was in fact a 3-month trial and so I hadn't been charged anything and so I canceled the bad boy. Excellent.

Got back from a very nice dinner at some neighbours on the other side of West Lake, good times. Lots of Danes. Also, we met another volunteer at our school, Stan, who is a very cool guy and, notably, is 80 years old (wow!) He was in the Peace Corps in Cameroon for two years just a year ago.

Today was good times-- did a bit of relaxin and reading by Truc Bach lake and did some errands like look (fruitlessly) for helmets, we'll try again tomorrow! We work so much (8 classes per day) on the weekends that Monday (normally the worst day of the week) feels like Saturday (normally the best day of the week)... so, kind of weird but I think I like it.

Remember those "yo mama smells like baked cheese" jokes from school? I don't get what we were on about, baked cheese don't smell so bad.

Fantastic weather

Today was beautiful blue skies and a chilly 25 C making it probably the best weather since China. Had a little bit of London deja vu in the sense that when its really nice and sunny in London you're like "holy shit look at the weather!" which makes you realise just how cloudy and overcast it has been.

So today was a productive Vietnamese lesson in the morning (Vietnamese verbs are conjugated the same for all subjects! Brilliant!) followed by lunch at Cha Ca Va Long which featured some very high quality fish and green stuff in a pan cooked over a claypot on your table. Apparently its the oldest restaurant in Vietnam, est in 1871. A little pricey at 75k (£2.50) each but it was the best fish I've had since... two days ago in Hoi An!

Which brings me to our magnificient trip to Hoi An! We got back last night and left Monday morning so were there for 4 days/3 nights. We actually stayed longer than planned cos our flight was delayed but Vietnam Airlines is so cool in that they phone ahead of time to tell you (they did so for our flight out there a few days before we left). I took so many photos (365 + 5 videos) that its probably easier to just look at the Hoi An photo album on my photo page (click on upper right corner) than for me to explain it all here. I did captions for the whole album so you know what you're looking at.

Forecast is for sunny 27 C for the next 5 days!! Let's just hope it turns out that way! Booked our flight to Hue (3rd biggest city in Vietnam) for Nov 13 to 16 soo if anybody's been there give me a shout... Went to doctor today cos eye still red and got some new drops for it (diagnosis: conjuctivitis). Should be OK. Teaching tomorrow morning again so will sign off for now.

Marathon Teaching

So today was our most teaching intense day with 8 classes from 9.30 to 20.15, 6 of which (from 14.30 to 20.15) were without break (!) Highlights include one of the Vietnamese teaching assistants introducing us to a pretty nice gym (far larger and better equiped than any gym I've seen in London, not that that says much!) for £5 per month so joined up to that bad boy and hopped on the benches for the first time in a long time.

After teaching had dinner with Benny which was good good. Eye been a little pinkish lately so went by the pharmacist and picked up some special drops for it (two sets of drops, one for cleaning out the eyes, the other for the treatment. Total cost for treatment: £0.60). Had some very nice smoothies on Pho Hue on the way home--mine was pineapple, strawberries, and honey and I added some cinnamon into the mix (taking a page from the old Pieces). Bike's been acting up a bit-- its straining a bit even in top (4th) gear so a little perplexed but who knows. Benny thinks someone might've swapped out the parts for shittier ones (apparently has happened to him before without him knowing) but will take it to our bike guy-- "Danny" to see if he can figure out whats up with it after we get back from Danang/Hoi An on Thursday afternoon.

Yesterday was the old 6.30 wake up for teaching from 7.30 so thats always fun. In between classes we got some high quality Bun Cha (noodles with pork and greens all on diff plates that you mix in to a bowl with the pork and the broth, very nice) and took a little naposie before heading over to Maison Centrale, otherwise known as Hoa Lo prison, which was built by the French in 1896 to detain Vietnamese political prisoners. One third of the original prison has been made into a museum to showcase how horrible the French were to the Vietnamese detainees and how wonderfully the American troops were treated during the war when they were here (volleyball, dance classes, language classes, guitar lessons, you name it, apparently they were competing with Club Med for the contract). The other two thirds was torn down in 1993, in its place now stands the "Hanoi Towers" a modern residential and office block.

Then lounged in Moca Cafe on Nha Tho by the Cathedral and drank coffee, read the completely unbiased Vietnam News, published by the government and features many an article on how prosperous people are becoming and how responsible the govt is (ok its not quite that bad, it actually is quite a good newspaper considering). Then went back to teaching and met up with Charlotte and Ann at Hapro on Hoan Kiem lake afterwards. These were two women (mother and daughter, Ann being probably 40s and Charlotte being in her 70s) we met on the train from Beijing to Hanoi. Very cool to see someone so exciting and engaged travelling despite being quite old. She does talk quite a bit though! They had just come from Hoi An and said it was very nice so we have high hopes. Anyway, computer is acting up and our flight is early in the morning so will post either from Hoi An or upon our return. Lots of love, P

Power cut

So am busy minding my own business and then whamo all the power goes off. No big deal BUT then we couldn't cook lunch so had to wander around for somewhere and as it was 2pm no one had any food left sooo it was a bit of an issue. I took some photos of the engineers repairing the lines though so look for those in a couple days ;-).

Halong Bay was pretty sweet, very beautiful and all that jazz (see photos on the link above left) and had lotsa fun there. Some standard annoyances of going on an organised tour though which include not being able to see more stuff you want-- for example from the main pier you get a ticket that lets you into 8 or so caves and grottoes but we went to only one (admittedly the largest, most famous, and allegedly the most beautiful but I'd like to decide myself which is the most beautiful instead of being told this is the best one and take my word for it).

Also on the third day we could have gone round to more caves or at least swam around and done stuff but instead we basically went straight back to the pier to get back to Hanoi, which, while getting us into Hanoi by 16.30 it denied us more time in Halong Bay. Sooo will try to look for alternatives to other things for future excursions! Its tough though because even if you do get someone to drive you to Halong Bay you're kind of at the mercy of the boats when you arrive in terms of finding one to take you to the cool spots, etc. and you're not going to turn around after the 3 hour drive if everyone colludes at a certain price (likely higher than what a normal tour would cost from Hanoi where collusion isn't possible since the tour operators are so spread out and competition is nurtured). Sooo!! Its kind of annoying.

We met some cool people including a couple of Californians, Angie and Paul, who had come from HK and were on their way to Singapore going overland from Chiang Mai in Thailand.

Monday morning we're getting up bright and early to catch a flight to Danang, Vietnam's fourth biggest city, which is just next to Hoi An, a former trading town-come super tourist attraction which is meant to be beautiful and is another one of Vietnam's UNESCO World Heritage sites, so that should be fun.

Today we had our third Vietnamese lesson, this time with a different teacher, and she was quite good, we learned about the family, personal pronouns, etc. She apparently taught Russian for 30 years, pretty cool. In a couple weeks apparently our good friends Bush, Putin, and Hu Jintao, et al are coming to town for an APEC summit meeting, it'd be good to see how the old boys are doing we have some catching up to do.

Caro's busy preparing for her L'Oreal phone interview tonight so she's being a bit boring. But anyway we gotta get over to school to teach! Will try to post more often

Motorcycle blues

So we got a bike! Now I'm 900% more likely to be severely irreversibly injured before I return to the safe peaceful civilisations of the West. (nb fictional statistic). Had practiced a bit just on my little alleyway street before taking it out on the road over the weekend when traffic is lighter than the week and now I'm fairly confident (though Hanoian traffic is mad). Yesterday we saw You, me, and Dupree (this great Vietnamese film, really) and had super good food called bun cha (noodles on one plate, and then a bowl of minced pork and pork filet/bacon in soup, and then a second plate with greens you put into the soupy concoction that is the pork and noodles). So anyway it was awesome. And at lunch on a Sunday it was rammed full of Vietnamese families and the like (no whities) so that was cool, getting in touch with our inner Vietnamese. At night we walked around Truc Bach lake (just where we live) and had dinner at another awesome restaurant, this time Indian food (with a cheesy name-- Foodshop 45). But yea Sunday night is like a weekend night here (much as I thought of it when I was in primary school) so the cafes all put out loads of tables and chairs along the lake and everyone comes out for picnics and dinner, etc. very cool.

Two days ago we saw Maria Full of Grace at the UN Population Fund film festival and the director, Joshua Marston, was there so was very cool to see him and speak to him as I'd already seen the film but it was really good. anyway halong bay tour awaits!!

All is well on the (Eastern) front

Heyhey so just got back from a bit of Water Puppetry by the Hoan Kiem lake in the centre of town-- very cool!! The stage is a big pool-type deal and the puppets are controlled by puppet-masters behind this sort of curtain and there is the orchestra (traditional Vietnamese instruments) and vocalists on the side. Loads of fun, I took some photos so look for those in the albums. Speaking of which I now have 6gb on the online photo albums (thanks mom!) so I can upload lots of stuff including videos(!) so look for those too!

This morning we went to see a B-52 Bomber wreckage in a lake in West Hanoi, which was shot down by Viet cong on Dec 27, 1972 during the "Christmas bombings". Its pretty crazy, like I wonder if the pilot is still down there..? Now its mostly residential buildings overlooking the lake-- can you imagine waking up in the morning and walking out onto your balcony to see that shot down bad boy everyday? Anyway, afterwards we strolled over to the Botanical gardens which were very beautifully laid out-- not many flowers but two nice lakes and lots of artists painting the scenery.

Then we had lunch on West Lake not far from where we're staying and we had some proper good fresh seafood-- Caro had these huge prawns and I had the largest fish I've ever seen-- it was definitely cooked to serve 3 people (whoops!) so a little bit of Beijing over-ordering deja vu (but this was just one dish so not my fault!). Had my haircut as well (complete with head massage :-) which was a little overdue.

Yesterday we did a day tour of the Perfume Pagodas, which was quite an amazing experience. We were up at 6.30 for a van which drove us 2 hours out of Hanoi to Duc village, where we took a canoe for an hour to get to where you hike 3km (or the brand new cable car..) to this beautiful cave-pagoda, the most holy in Vietnam. During the lunar festival in February and March thousands of Vietnamese make pilgrimmages from all over the country to get to these pagodas, hence the building of the cable cars. Then lunch and the hour canoe + 2 hour van back to Hanoi again. Got dinner with Benny again at Hanoi Garden (really good food!) and some fruit smoothies by the Cathedral in the French Quarter (quite thick... and just 5000d! 5000d=17p). Then a couple of xe om (motorcycle taxis) to get us home, whereupon we witnessed a full-on collision at an intersection just a meter from us (Caro was actually right next to one of the bikes which collided and fell) so a little traumatizing!! My driver, after this, took my arm and put it around him, which was very sweet except then he only had one hand to steer so... I had to yell at him to use both hands while driving.

Two days ago (I know, its been a while since my last post) we were also up early to teach a class at 7.30am. We were also in to teach that evening so in between we wandered around the French Quarter as we were looking for this Italian restaurant which we passed like 25 mins before we actually arrived there (whoops!) but really nice, overlooked the Cathedral and everything and quite good pizza actually. Then we had a little western indulgence at the cinema and saw Madagascar (pretty solid). For dinner we went to what is now my favourite restaurant in the universe, called Quan an Ngon--this is the place Benny first took us to but they were out of food. Its mostly outdoors and have food from all over Vietnam and people that specialise in a given dish have like a stall along the perimeter so you see it being made, etc. Definitely something that would be warmly receive in London or NY (as would the price of £4 for a 3-course meal for two with drinks). Ok well I think thats enough information overload for now! Check out my new photos and videos on my album (click on the photo of the donkey in the upper right corner). Also!! I have a Vietnamese mobile which you can call or text me on anytime. The number is + 84 936 016614. So give me a call!!

Back to school

Hey so the upper right corner of this page now features a link to the photos I've taken so far (yes all 780 of them). They're not all in chronological order though but hopefully google will implement a feature to auto-arrange them by date/time taken.

So last night we started at the school-- the "Children's Palace" (yes a partner establishment to Michael Jackson's "Neverland"). But yeah it went reasonably well, 4 classes over 3 hours and all were 5-7 years old and so forth. Not quite sure of the demographic background of these children but they appear to be fairly middle class and not the poverty-stricken bunch I at one point had imagined helping but hopefully we'll be able to volunteer in other ways since we are only teaching in the evenings and on the weekends.

Also, met up with Benny last night (who went to grad school with my sister) which was great. The first restaurant we went to had run out of food (!) so we went somewhere else and met up with a bunch of friends he'd met since moving here in July. Two friends of his live just around the corner from us apparently so may be meeting up with them at some point. Also, Benny's been working quite hard I think (he left the office at 10 the other night) as he's basically been put in charge of the (Clinton) Foundation's Vietnamese operations.

Am going to walk around a bit of the city and hopefully see a movie later!! Will post more back info soon. And look at the photos!

Vietnamese trains

Are not as modern and fast and sexy as Chinese trains. That was the lesson of the day coming from Beijing to Hanoi on the old 2-overnight train (small fish compared to our Trans-Mongolian pilgrimmage). So the room here is pretty nice, AC works quite well, shower's a bit all over the place but you know can't be too picky. Having lunch with Mr Hung, our coordinator, in an hour to sort stuff out and will hopefully have dinner with Benny tonight. I think we're going to walk round the hood a bit but will talk about supafly Beijing next time before I forget it all! And upload some of the 700 photos taken so far (though this computer is quite slow so who knows...)

Mongolian Desert not cold

So am chillin on the platform in Sainhand (a city in Mongolia) and was thinking to myself "wow its a bit warmer than it was yesterday" and then I remembered thats cos we were in the Gobi desert whereas yesterday we'd been in Siberia... really quite confusing when you'd just been getting used to the old Siberian September sub-zero pleasantries.

So the week-long Trans-Siberian/Trans-Mongolian 8000km train is over and we are rocking out in Beijing French Embassy style. The residence here isn't as pretty from the outside as it is in Moscow but the room is far larger and sexy so not too bad. Got to meet up with Chace last night (after just getting in off the big momma 7 day train a couple hours before) and went out for dinner and drinks so was very nice welcome to the city/country/continent (my first time in Asia). Super helpful to know someone who can speak Chinese (i.e. Chace) and has been living here for the past few months so knows the lay of the land a bit.

Stuff is just so cheap-- a taxi across town that would cost £30 in London costs £1.50 here. We had dinner and I had thought each thing would be a small sort of tapas-esque situation (given that each thing was between £1 and 2) and alas we literally had enough food to feed a family of 4, the waiters were laughing at the end when we had half of it put in containers to take away (which we then gave to a mother and child who were begging for food on the way back to the embassy). Anyway so slowly getting used to the whole price level being 1/10th that of London.

French keyboards are a bit poo so going to sign off now-- photos still forthcoming-- I've filled up 1GB already so not quite sure how I'm going to get them off the card yet but stay tuned!

Mockba

heyhey so Berlin has come and gone and we're now in Moscow, which is big and expensive and full of people who don't speak English and don't seem too bothered about this fact. I keep trying to tell them the Cold War is over and they don't need to fear me anymore but they don't seem to want to listen. Ah well. So ya got in last night and despite the lonely planet estimated cost of a taxi being 100R ($4) the first guy was gonna charge us $50 so we pursued the metro situation where we found a queue of literally 100+ people. So back out onto the street we finally found a taxi to take us for the amazing bargain of $20 + 200R. Though there were at least 3 moments during the trip I could've sworn we were going to die which would probably have made the $20+200R poor value since I don't think funeral services were included ;-)

Saw the cool cathedrals and soviet govt buildings in the Kremlin this morning which was good fun. I wanted to ask a guard if he would pose with me for a photo but I wasn't sure the US Embassy was open on weekends to bail me out of jail so thought better not. In general things here seem to be geared towards the very top echelons of society (not unlike NY or London I suppose) and people aren't particularly friendly but I'm hoping the 5 and a half days on the Trans-Siberian will hold for us nicer Russians :-) the hardest thing I would say is navigating since my map has the street names in the roman alphabet whereas all the street signs are in cyrillic ;-(

anyway, will post photos and stuff soon! xx

...and we're back!

So in light of the whole going away thing it seemed about right to do some more of this blogging malarky. Itinerary is as follows for your convenience:

(9/18) London->Berlin (9/19)
(9/21) Berlin->Moscow (9/22)
(9/26) Moscow -> Beijing (10/2)
(10/5) Beijing -> Hanoi (10/7)
-- Hanoi for 2 months with trips (hopefully) to Hong Kong, Kuala Lampur, surrounding Northern Vietnamese countryside, etc.--
(12/7) Hanoi -> not quite sure yet (Southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, possibly Burma?)

So yeah! In those sorts of respects I think we're almost ready to go. Should probably pack first though. (p.s. this is mostly to reaffirm I can still post on this thingie).

Cool people: