Even though we just had a holiday in England for Christmas....another holiday was forced upon us as preparations were made for another new year. Lunar new year. Tet in Vietnam, Chinese new year around the world. In China they're leaving the year of the rabbit, in Vietnam they're leaving the year of the cat (for undisclosed taxonomic disagreements), but they're both entering the year of the dragon. Which is what Kate is, appartantly. I'm not being rude. She was born in the year of the dragon, 1976. I'm a goat (1979). If anyone sees that as appropriate, you've known us a while.... Anyway, it was Tet. So we went to the Kingdom of Cambodia! Cambodia again??? We worked out en route, on the bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, that we've visited Cambodia 6 times. Sometimes ... read more

Just a short blog this time around to get some pictures up of our most recent trip home for a visit. No, we weren't invited to the royal wedding, but we were invited to our parents' and our friends' houses. Which is even better. We left Saigon and landed in Heathrow...and then got straight on a National Express bus for a day-long journey almost the full length of England up to County Durham. By that evening I was standing in the fish and chip shop ordering some homely English fare with Vietnam seeming a very long way away (which, of course, it is!). We spent the next week with my family then headed to Leeds to meet a new friend - Logan! Mark and Helen's son. Then it was on to Kate's family and a weekend ... read more

As if one paradise tropical island wasn't enough, we headed to more. After our stay in Ubud we went by minibus and speedboat to Gili Trawangan, near Lombok, a mere 4 hour journey away. The steep $140 + return trip pricetag may have put us off but this is the wet season and therefore off peak. This added to several different speedboat companies and thus there were bargains to be had. Our journey out there cost us 350,000 IDR each (less than $40) Of course, when we only had a single ticket, the blokes arranging the boats tried to talk us into buying the return ticket, as it would be full price on the island, but we've heard that sort of talk before and decided to risk it. As it was, our return ticket, bought on ... read more

Kris This blog is late. Really late. We went to Hong Kong on a 3 night stay en route to the UK back in August 2010 and I'm writing this in Vietnam in January 2011. Ah well, better late than never... That was Hanoi This is Hong Kong As I mentioned above, we ended up in Hong Kong following the mini-tour of Vietnam with Kate's parents described in the previous blog. We flew to Hong Kong for a connecting flight home but decided that it was too important to miss out on. We flew from Hanoi to Hong Kong and we were wisked between two different worlds. Just the flight into Hong Kong was impressive - with the sea, the islands and the mountains and the view of the skyscrapers from above. It was all ... read more

It's been a long time since we blogged anything, so it seems like as good as time as any for an update. We have been in Ho Chi Minh City for about 3 months now and everything has fallen into place. We have jobs, an apartment, have joined a gym and have spent many a weekend exploring the city and meeting people. A few friends from Haiphong have also moved down here too so our social life is taking off. All in all we are settling in well. The search for the ideal teaching job Finding jobs took a little longer than we expected. Well, not finding jobs exactly, but finding jobs we wanted to do. There is a lot of teaching work in Ho Chi Minh City, but not all of it is in good, ... read more