Zoom zoom!

I had the best xe om driver last night! I'd gone out for food with some friends in the Old Quarter to a place called Highway 4. It's a bit of a chain in Hanoi that sell pricey but good Vietnamese food. We got a selection of dishes and shared between the 5 of us. There was tofu with spring onions/ chicken with cashew nuts/ beef in black bean sauce/ papaya, peanut, beansprout and rice noodle salad/ and catfish spring rolls. Healthy and very filling! We also had a selection of Son Tinh which is traditional Vietnamese rice wine. It comes in a selection of flavours (we had the fruit flavours) but basically tastes like petrol with a hint of a particular flavour. Bloody strong stuff!

The Vietnamese like to drink and it's certainly noticable. I'd heard about these things called buckets when I was in London and I ended up in a bar last week that specialized in them. Pretty much what it says on the tin...a bucket of booze with straws supplied. Some bars give you a free t-shirt if you drink the whole bucket. I'm not sure why there's such an obsession with t-shirts here but there you go! So needless to say I'm feeling pretty rough today but I've got to go across Hanoi later and sign my contract later so I can't stay in and hide under my blanket.
So yeah, back to my xe om driver. Myself and 2 friends had just finished up at a reggae bar called Roots and were walking round the Old Quarter. This came can whizzing round the corner on his bike and asked if I wanted a lift so I asked if he had a 2nd helmet, which he didn't. The Vietnamese are pretty laid back about seatbelts in cars (it's pretty rare to find a taxi with seatbelts that work!) but you can get fined on a bike if you don't have a helmet. You can get you way round the police with most things if you have the money, but I don't and I don't want to spend a chunk of cash on a police man! The xe om driver was really enthusiastic and said "Wait here! Wait here!" as he drove off round the corner. In the 2 minutes he was gone I was approached by 2 other xe om drivers and one of them had a 2nd helmet. I was just about to get on his bike when Mr Xe Om Driver Number 1 came hurling back round the corner, waving a 2nd helmet and grinning like a child. I had to get on his bike now! Bless him, he misunderstood my destination and took me to a completely different part of Hanoi. I'd asked him to take me to Thai Ha and he took me to Thai Ho, but the journey was great fun! The roads were pretty much empty as it was gone midnight and most places have a curfew of 12 (although most bars stay open for hours after, they're just very subtle about it) and during the ride home he pointed out some famous landmarks as we passed them. He showed me West Lake (which is right near where I'll be living). It's HUGE! We also went past Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which is somewhere I also want to go. Although we passed them I didn't see much as it was so dark. I'll definitely be exploring them soon.

There some crazy noises coming from another room in the hotel and I don't really want to sit here and listen to them..! This will be continued later.

------------------------------------ SOME TIME LATER ---------------------------------------

I don't know what was going on in the next room but the noises this woman was making were going on for ages! She did not sound like she was having fun. She sounded more like she was giving birth! Hahahaha!

So I'll continue...my latest bit of news is that I have found a house to live in! I was really lucky. It took me just one day to get the room. I'm going to be living in a big 5 floor house with various male and female teachers dotted round Hanoi. I only met one of the girls (who is actually moving out 2 days after I move in) but she was very positive about me getting on with all the housemates. She said one of the girls is a wacky hippy and a yoga teacher! I can't even find a yoga mat in Hanoi so I've really hit the jackpot there.

Each house in Hanoi has a shrine, either to the ancestors of the house or to the land. This particular house has a shrine to the land, which is a beautiful pond with 2 big rocks in that are meant to bring good luck and in the pond are fish...and turtles! I've also been told that during summer most houses get regular visits from geckos. I'm excited! I love geckos! The house also has a roof terrace that looks over Hanoi and it is very close to West Lake so I can have a proper explore of the location when I move in on 4th. However, 2 friends of mine are moving in to a house tomorrow and they have a spare room, which they said I can occupy for free until I move in to my place. I won't have to stay in the hotel much longer! It will also save me a lot of money too.

As nice as the hotel is (it's not the most plush of places but the people are very nice to me here) I want to get settled in my own room now. Then I can get a bike and feel like I've really found my feet.

Singapore Stop Off. Hanoi As Home.

Hello there. Welcome to my blog. I was told to start one by various people, mostly Helen (as persistent and wonderful as she can be) so here it is...an up to date(ish) account of my happenings in Vietnam.

So, let's start at the beginning. On a very cold and dark Friday morning in February (11th) I woke up at Sam's and made my way to Heathrow airport. My flight was at 11am and was to last for 12 hours. It was the first time I'd flown alone and fortunately I ended up sitting in the middle of 2 women in their 60s. One was from the Phillipines so didn't speak much English but the other had a good cockney accent and she was on her way to Australia so we spent a good amount of the trip chatting and giggling away. I'll be honest, there was a moment where I had a little cry to myself but due to the plane distributing pillows and blankets to all it's passengers, I think I managed to hide it well. I guess it was just the reality of everything setting in, and the uncertainty of what was to come. Missing home, missing Sam (which I still do, greatly)
Anyway, 12 hours in the sky later, we touched down in Singapore, which now made it 7.30am on Saturday as they are 8 hours ahead. My body clock was set to about midnight so I needed to get some sleep before I got up and went out that day. I planned to hang around in Singapore for a couple of days as my cousin Iain was there, working at Drop Inn hostel with his girlfriend who owned the place. They were very lovely and let me stay for free in the big 19 dorm room.

(An Australian guy who was staying there, name forgotten)

After a few hours of much needed sleep, I woke up and Iain took me out to get food. We went to a nearby food court which sold an array of foods for pretty cheap. I ended up playing it safe and got lemon chicken but I saw them selling turtle soup, crocodile soup, and even pig's tail soup (which I was later told is actually very nice...not for me thanks!). I seemed to time my arrival in Sinapore pretty well as we found out that evening that there was a big street parade to celebrate chinese new year. By the way, it's year of the rabbit which is the same year I'm born...1987. I remember this and tell myself it's my year every time I feel a bit overwhelmed. Good things to come, change ahoy!
So, we went to see this street parade, which was brilliant. There was a lot going on and we even got a fireworks display!
The following night Drop Inn had a social gathering in it's bistro next door, a sort of anti valentines event (fine by me!) but it didn't get very busy. Even so, I got to meet some cool and 'interesting' people! I didn't stay up drinking all night because I was leaving the following day and didn't want to feel rough landing in to Vietnam.

(My cousin Iain at Drop Inn)

(Singapore street parade)

(Singapore)

(Singapore security!)

(Singapore - throwing money to the rabbit)

((ain)

(Me)

(Singapore)

The following day I got to Singapore airport pretty early and as I was standing by check-in to open, a HUGE group of Vietnamese people gathered behind me. There must have been about 200 people there and I was the only Western person I could see. Lost in translation, much? It was pretty amusing though, even on the flight and despite it being slightly odd and me receiving a few looks, I didn't feel uncomfortable. If anything I just felt excited!
The flight from Singapore to Hanoi was about 3 hours but after 12 hours that goes extremely quick! I got a window seat this time and one distinct thing I noticed was the amount of pollution over Vietnam...it's crazy! As the plane started to fly over Vietnam I couldn't help but notice this huge haze of smog in the sky...the plane got lost of mist for about 30 minutes! It is very polluted here in Hanoi and most people walk or drive with masks on their face. I guess if you're here for so long it makes sense but as I'm only here for a year I doubt I'll bother.
So I touch down and have a driver pick me up and take me to my hotel. Perhaps now is a good time to explain the road system here...in that there isn't one. There's roads, but there's no rules! Drivers drive however quick they want, wherever they want and seatbelts? Pfft! The one piece of advice people give to future visitors of Hanoi is 'just walk across the road'. The traffic won't stop and let you past, you just have to walk out into it and they will drive round you. It's best to try and avoid the cars as they can't steer as easily as motorbikes but there are far more bikes than cars so that's OK. I've heard a few stories of teachers being hit but I'm hoping I won't fall into that category! Everyone beeps their horn here. It's not like London, which is usually followed with 'Move out the way you ****!', but just to warn people they are being approached. I tend to get woken up by the traffic, but it doesn't bother me too much. I find it quite amusing that because there are no rules to the roads, there is no road rage! So perhaps it's worth asking, do rules make things better for society, or worse? Ha...

The first morning of being in Hanoi (Tuesday) was the first day of my new job, although I wasn't timetabled to teach until Saturday. During breakfast in the hotel I met 2 English girls who, coincidentally, were the other 2 new English teachers at Apollo so we spent the whole day together. They're very nice but they are based at a different school to me (there's 3 in the city). They are at HQV and I'm at Thai Ha. Due to being at different schools my manager suggested I move to a different hotel a lot closer to my school so I don't see them as much now but we all met up last night and I met a lot of other teachers from HQV. There's some good people here.

(Hanoi from my hotel window)

(Hotel no. 2 - current location)

The teachers at Thai Ha are also very nice and despite a few bumpy moments at the start of my life in Hanoi,  I'm feeling more settled here each day. Of course it's going to be tough at first but as each day passes I'm feeling more and more like this is becoming home for me. I'm still in a hotel but I'm going to view a couple of apartments later today so fingers crossed I find something nice as hotel life is getting a bit boring now! I'm also going to go in search of a yoga mat. Bring on the zen times ;)

Teaching so far has been a lot better and easier than I anticipated. So far I've only taught children although I have my first adult class later tonight. The lessons from from 7.45am to 9.45pm and each lesson is 2 hours long. I'm contracted to do about 15 hours a week so my timetable is all over the place. On Saturday I had 3 lessons whereas today I only have one. Weekends are the busiest as normal schools are closed, so most of the kiddie lessons happen on Saturday and Sunday. My days off are Thursday and Friday. Not long to go!

The food here is amazing. I'm particularly a fan of the street food, which is not only delicious but also really cheap. For the price of $1 you can get a big plate of rice noodles, a bowl of really good meat in sauce and some salad....or there is the famous Vietnamese dish 'pho' which is noodle soup with meat and veg. So far I've had the chicken (pho ga), beef (pho bo), pork and fish variation. All have been really good but I think fish was the best, and all cost around 20,000 VND (Vietnamese dong) which calculates to about $1....or in English terms around 75p! The alcohol is also very cheap here.. Most bars sell beer for just over $1 and cocktails for about $3. The cigarettes are also dirt cheap. You can buy a 20 pack of Vietnamese cigarettes for around 50p...or you can get a pack of Western ones for about £1. Even the hotels are charging about £12 a night. The place is a great place to come to for a cheap holiday....wink, wink, nudge, nudge!
So ashamed as I am to say, I've been smoking quite a bit (yes even more than in London) as they cigarettes are so cheap here! One of my managers made me laugh. He said at least when you smoke in Hanoi you can control how you die and are slightly overpowering the intensity of the pollution! Ha!
Before I came to Hanoi I heard the local people were very friendly, and to be honest they have lived up to the hype. Although there is a strong communication barrier as barely anyone speaks English, people here are very helpful and friendly. You smile at a stranger and they smile back!

So, for now I think I'll leave it there. We're 7 hours ahead of UK time here. These are almost like words from the future! Now I'm going to get my first motorbike taxi and go in search of a yoga mat.

Until next time!

E