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!