The end is nigh Kate It's coming to the end of our contract here in Haiphong. We finish teaching for Apollo on the 5th December and we fly back to the UK, via Kuala Lumpur, on the 12th. We are really excited about coming home now. We are not the sort of expats who can stay away from the UK for long periods of time. We don't live abroad because we hate the UK, but simply because we love the life we lead away from it. We left the UK this time nearly 14 months ago now, and for future [View Full Entry]

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Kate Prior to Rich announcing his wedding in the Philippines, it wasn't ever a country we had considered visiting. Somehow it's position in the sea on the edge of SE Asia put it outside our radar. Prior to coming to Asia we didn't know much about it other than it was a big group of islands with some beautiful beaches and that it used to belong to Spain and America. I'd heard of Imelda Marcos and her shoe fetish, but I couldn't have told you which country she came from. As we admitted during the first blogs of our SE [View Full Entry]

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The Philippines - live your dreams (a registered trademark) Kris Contrary to popular belief of many friends we really do proper work in Vietnam and we aren't spending our months lying on a beach. As a result we are even entitled to paid leave from our job. So we booked it well in advance way back at the beginning of the year so we could visit the Philippines. One of Kate's friends from University was getting married to a girl from the Philippines and we were invited to the wedding. Having never been to the country before we thought we'd combine [View Full Entry]

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The Rat on the Road expat guide to Haiphong So it's come to out attention that our travel blog for Haiphong has a new purpose. As well as updating all of you friends and family out there about what we are up to and showing you photos of our lives, it is being found by people in the UK and elsewhere who are thinking of moving to Haiphong. A few people have contacted us through it, and become part of our happy little group of Haiphong pals. The other day we were all in Maxim's cafe, drinking some beer, when [View Full Entry]

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Yes. I'm 30. Three whole decades since I appeared in a maternity hospital called Little Thorpe in County Durham on a hot July day in 1979. I had a double chin and weighed in at 9 pounds. My weight hasn't changed much since then, I just got longer. I doubt that back in 1979 anyone guessed I'd spend my 30th birthday as an English teacher in north Vietnam. For a start, I doubt many people in the west imagined a future in Vietnam in those days. And then there were the career options. Firstly, by chance of geography I might have [View Full Entry]

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Feelin' hot, hot, hot So it's the summer now. And it's hotted up. A lot. It's got up to the temperatures we were used to in Bangkok, complete with all the associated pleasures like constantly being covered in sweat. Unlike when we taught in Bangkok, here we have air con in the bedroom - which makes it so much easier to sleep. And, of course, we also have air con at work. The couple of times when it has broken has given us a big appreciation for anyone who teaches here without air con. 28 degree and humid, shirt and [View Full Entry]

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I took these photos on a walk from our house to Apollo, to give you some idea of what we see each day. When you do it all the time you stop seeing some of the most unusual sights and and it all becomes more normal. Taking photos of everything opened my eyes again to the fascinating place we live in. [View Full Entry]

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War and Peace On the 30th of April 1975 the Vietnam War ended and the two halves of the country - north and south - became one. As such, the 30th is now a national holiday know as Reunification Day. As this fell on a Thursday the holiday was extended from Thursday to Sunday. As Tuesday and Wednesday are our normal days off we got a 6 day holiday. We booked a flight to Ho Chi Minh City and became tourists again! More on the war later... Looking for a girl with long dark hair in old Saigon... We booked a [View Full Entry]

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Time for an update I think, so here goes. A rag tag mix of recent events... It's in two parts. Here goes part one..... Haiphong Medical University English Festival!!! In our kids classes on Saturdays and SUndays we occasionally have a teaching assistant to help out. This is basically someone Vietnamese who can help out with low level classes and translate some instructions to the kids. Or to help stop them killing each other - whichever is a priority at the time. Anyway, most teaching assistants are students and it's their part time job at the weekend. 2 women in particular [View Full Entry]

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More about work Kate Weekdays We have been working here for 3 months now; it has really flown by. Work is good. We are enjoying the teaching and by and large our students are lovely. We recently had our schedules moved about so that we could have our weekends together. This has been great, because it means we can go away at the weekends - to Hanoi or other places in the surrounding area. We like living in Haiphong but it's nice to get away sometimes and go somewhere we were are not the most amazing thing that people have [View Full Entry]

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