So it's been about a month or so since my last post. Lots of new things to talk about. Guess I'll start with the school... I have a full complement of classes now. I teach Tues/Thurs from 5:40 till 9:40, and on the weekends I have a marathon of classes: 4 classes on Saturday and Sunday, a total of 16 hours teaching every weekend and roughly 24 hours in the school. Different levels each present their own challenges. With the younger kids you have to keep them on task and have them practice the language points ad nausea (sp?). Classroom management [View Full Entry]

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Day 0 Chennai Airport Okay, quite crazy. Several international flights leaving at the same time, and only one screening machine in place. Chaos and confusion and tempers running high. And piling crowds everywhere. Long long queues. It helps to travel with a kid - we get preference queue positions, shortcuts to counters, special lines meant for only families with young children. Who says travelling with kids is difficult. The mistake we made is not doing the web check-in. So we actually dont get seats together on either flight. Lesson to oneself. My apprehensions about [View Full Entry]

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I have been to a few bars in Ho Chi Minh City during my visits. Usually I end up in the tourist bars simply because I need the air con and simplicity of ordering beer. I did have two very different experiences recently though. For the first, I had been invited to a fashion show. A friend of a friend was the designer, so we got complimentary tickets. I arrived straight from work with my large laptop bag, and immediately stood out. Everybody else was dressed to impress in the latest designer clothes, I just had my normal work shirt and [View Full Entry]

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We had a nice 5 hour bus ride to Mui Ne ($6 USD) and hit the beach straight away, walking a long way to the end and back - not the whole stretch, it is an 18km long beach! Then we swam in the sea as the sun set. We took a motorbike 40km away to the white and red sand dunes (120,000 dong) and it was fantastic. I'd never been anywhere like it - so much sand! And being able to climb up fairly high on them was cool too. If I looked in the right direction, all I could [View Full Entry]

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Am happy as larry to be away from Thailand and back in Nam.. We had to get up at 4am to get a minibus to the airport .. we kinda chilled out after checking the bags and then when we tried to make our way through customs I realised wed left it pretty short... The que was huge... and Bangkok airport is massive.. after getting through we had to run through the airport to get to our gate haha, was funny.. we literally just made our plane.. We had a few issues come up in Bangkok and we talked alot about [View Full Entry]

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At 5ft9” finding replacement flip flops in Asia has proved a somewhat difficult (impossible) task for the last week. Shop owners have been equally bemused and aghast at my request for size 6 ½ shoes. That is until we reached Hoi An (central coast, Vietnam) yesterday where the solution was simple - they made me a bespoke pair from scratch. So, like every good girl, I ordered two. Apart from its excellent shoes, Hoi An is a charming small town. After centuries as a trading port it feels like a small sea-side Mediterranean town with amazing restaurants and chilled out locals. [View Full Entry]

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As I write my first entry Im sitting in my very comfortable air conditioned hotel in Hanoi, and already after three days I have seen a mixture of the amazing, moving and bizarre. After a 12 hour flight we landed in Hong Kong which definitely has the campest jazziest money I have ever seen, forget the pink pound, their notes are actually pink there! It was only a quick two hour stop and we then flew on to Ho Chi Minh City where we landed at sunset. The first thing that hits you as you walk out the airport is the [View Full Entry]

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So we arrived here yesterday after a seven hour bus ride. Once we checked in we spent the afternoon site seeing (the German girls, Sandra and Enis and I). We went to see all the French colonnial buildings such as the opera, post office, independence palace and cathedral. We also had a wander through the market. This evening we went for dinner at the market. It was a special dinner as eight people were leaving and we had four new members joining. Marta my roomate is not going. She was going to leave us after Vietnam but has now decided to [View Full Entry]

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After 6 weeks back in the UK, I am now in Vietnam again. Being practically local now, the transition to being back was far easier this time. No problems with jet lag or the culture shock of the noise and traffic. This time it was like arriving at a second home, comfortable and familiar. Spent most of the first week catching up with people in the office and re-establishing the routine I had set previously. After a day it was like I had never been away. As the weekend was my birthday though, I decided to get away for a few [View Full Entry]

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Today was a fear factor day. Those of you who have followed my previous blogs know there is always something that makes you say "oh my god, did she really do that". Just so you aren't disappointed, I have done it again. It started innocently enough. We were invited to a lovely dinner with Mr. Longs family here in Saigon. We were excited. There was a wee communication barrier as they speak no english and well, we don't get Vietnamese. Luckly we had 2 family friends join us who spoke a wee bit of english. Made it interesting and fun. Kristy [View Full Entry]

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