Hollie B

A long flight...short connections...shorter flights...rubbish American food...yummy sushi...New York skyline sillouetted with dusky pink, linear clouds... ...Guatemala City. Arrived at night to the usual hustle and bustle of airports, people pushing to take your bags...heavy for the Gringo girls! It´s strange arriving at a city at night, no taste of what it´s like, only the smells and lights. Settled or rather flopped into the little single bed twin room with Rosanna, and just as we´re relaxing, a mozy...GRRR...so a few more minutes spent hunting, slapping, cursing, then FINALLY...nod. Guatemala City is violent. With on average 17 murders everyday, it´s not somewhere to walk around at night. The political instability has heightened in the last few months (against the current president) due to the recent assassination of an anti-corruption lawyer (Rosenburg)...search youtube! Th... read more

We caught a locals bus to Halong, expecting (rather naively) to step off the bus into the postcards and paintings that are famous for capturing Halong Bay's beauty...alas Halong City is one big Blackpool resort! Luckily our boat trip and island stay plucked us from this urban jungle and tourist bedlum and slowly the sunken karst peak scenery begins to emerge (similiar to the Krabi coastline in Thailand). We swam and kayaked into caves, around islands and sea-villages...I showed off my kayaking skills plus beat the tide back to the boat. Jumping off the top deck (about 15m high) during the late afternoon red sun and then watching the sun set across the bay was deep-breathingly refreshing. Although one early morning (pitch black) swim we enjoyed lazily until sizeable jellyfish were spotted! Picking out the silhouettes ... read more

A noisy morning wake-up call from some over-zealous children, who we had promised the previous evening to take to the local water-park...so much for a cultural National Day experience! A rather silly idea of ours to go to a waterpark when all schools have the day off! It felt like we were attending a massive gig but without music. We were the only white faces. No other westerners had ventured there. You could not see the water for people...and nowhere to swim. Nevertheless, we had fun on slides, not so much fun caring for the screaming kids, and feeling disproportionately huge compared with the Vietnamese. I did have one instance of feminist invigoration when spying the high diving board crammed with eager boys, wishing to show off to the crowds below...I decided to make a ... read more

Not quite a Sunday morning lie-in senario, but a leisurely morning nonetheless. Even walking out of the front door and winding alley onto the street, there is much to see and many characters to observe. There is a house under construction next door, which is fascinating to understand the complexities (or not) of how houses are built. The hired builders form the villages outside Ha Noi will stay on the building site during construction, hanging their washing from support poles, and cooking over an open fire. I took myself out for a walk along the french-style, conifer-tree lined boulevards, avoiding the heat as much as possible. In the afternoon, I went silk shopping with Hien and Huong in covered markets and street stalls. A kaleidoscopic of colour, pattern and texture. The silks were luxuorious and sensual...I ... read more

This morning I awoke to a large cockroach waving it's feelers at me, not the most engaging of bedfellows. I did try to save it by depositing it outside, however it was a frying pan/fire situaiton as the maid promptly swished it-cockroaches bleed white blood! One of the students had invited Martin and me to visit her grandparents in the country for lunch and to explore the mountains of """"" The city seemed never ending, such a sprawling conurbation. Gradually after an hour, the buildings began to give way to bright green rice fields and blue distant limestone hills. It was a scene from a guidebook, and just how I imagined Vietnam to be. Many Vietnamese travel back to their hometown to visit their families at weekends, so roads are even more chaotic. We saw two ... read more

This morning started with a bang...we had an intruder in the night! After Martin having assured me of the safety and low crime of the north, especially in this area...a man managed to get into the apartment below his where a woman and baby were sleeping-she woke up and tried to scream, but no sound came out...luckily the man just gesticulated by putting his finger to his lips before disappearing like a ghost over the balcony...another tried to get into Martin's bedroom next to where I was sleeping, but luckily his wife saw him and shouted! So the police were here early this morning...they had neglected to tell us earlier, that in the last few weeks, most of the apartments in the area had been burgled-great policing eh! Unfortuantely, like many countries, the police are very ... read more