Blogs from Vinh Long, Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia - page 2

I woke up with the telephone buzzing on my bed side table. My wake up call. I looked at the clock, its 6:00 am. Usually I am up by this time without any wake up call. Last night I was tired. It’s more than 10 days now, and I have been always on the go from the morning until sundown. My body needs a break. I suddenly remembered, today is my last full day in Vietnam…I’m leaving tomorrow. I felt sad. In the past 10 days or so, I traveled many places from the North to the Central to the South of Vietnam. I fell in love with this country and the people. I lied down on the bed for five more minutes, just relaxing and thinking about my journey to Vietnam. Slowly, I glanced at ... read more

um kurz nach fünf in der früh beginnen wir den tag unter bereits erhelltem himmel um mit einem der ewig langen boote den mekong und seine unzähligen arme zu erkunden. wir staunen über brave sonntags-kirchen-besucher, schwimmende tankstellen, fischerfamilien und das morgendliche treiben an den ufern. die vielen wasserpflanzen mögen zwar den bootsfahrern ein dorn im auge sein, gemeinsam mit den zum trocknen aufgehängten fischernetzen tragen sie aber sehr zum verträumten gesamteindruck bei. nach endlos verwirrenden kleinen kanälen läuft das wasser auch immer wieder in riesigen, seenartigen ausmaßen. zitat markus:“is schon ein fetter fluss, der mekong!”. ja, der mekong ist riesig und auch, wenn er erwartungsgemäß viel müll mit sich trägt, ist er ein in sich beeindruckender lebensraum. nach einer kleinen paddel-tour durch einen besonders flachen kanal, treiben wir auch noch am floating market... read more

Hi everyone! Sorry no pics on this blog just an update this time. After 2 months in Can Tho where I was working sparsely, I got an opportunity to move about an hour and a half by motorbike north, still in the Mekong Delta, just outside Vinh Long a town called Cai Be. I was told by my recruiter it was a VERY small town, but while smaller than Can Tho it's a medium sized city with just about everything I need except a grocery store which is ok, I want to go down to Can Tho to visit another teacher at least once per month and can do my "Pasta Run' to the supermarket there anyway. The classes are starting to pick up a bit now, but still not getting to that 25 hours per ... read more

The next day we woke and went to get some photos of the cave in daylight before having breakfast. We then went to a place called Titop beach and climbed a few hundred steps to a viewing platform. From there we got a spectacular view of some of the islands of Ha Long Bay. We then went for swim in the sea before going to the boat to sail back at Ha Long City. We left the boat and we were quite sad it was over. Before going we got a photo of some of the crew members and then transferred back to Hanoi by private car. When we got back to Hanoi we were all quite tired so went out for tea and a few drinks and then went back the hotel and got an ... read more

Sat 12th - The car collected us to take us to Halong Bay to board the boat. This is the trip that I have spent the last 6 months researching and planning as a surprise. I knew exactly what was to happen but Louise or Corrine didn't and there was an extra surprise for Louise to come at a certain point of the trip. It took us 3.5 hours to get to Halong Bay as I'd arranged us a Private car :) rather than the bus with everyone else. We then boarded a small boat and Louise was totally clueless about what our boat would look like. As we boarded the bigger boat we were all surprised as we were greeted by our man in a mask banging a traditional drum as a welcome. We were ... read more