Apologies that we have not posted for a couple of weeks. The weeks seem to go so quickly and we keep forgetting to write up the blog!
We last posted with the news that we were going to Halong Bay the next weekend on a trip organised by our employer, BME. We both had another excellent week of teaching and got excited as we heard about the projects we would get to do with our students for halloween. On the Friday night before heading to Halong Bay we went out to get halloween outfits for our classes in the Old Quarter and grabbed a bite to eat at the beautiful Lantern Lounge with Sabrina and Liv. We had intended to have a couple of drinks and then head back before our early start the next morning... however we were having such a good night that that didn't go quite to plan. We had some cocktails at a rooftop bar, then had two bottles of wine and more cocktails and before we knew it we had played several rounds of pool with beer and were in a club in Beer Street. We didn't get home until about 3am and had to be up before 6 the next morning to head to Halong Bay.... Sabrina, Rob and I hadn't even packed! Although Sabrina was quite unwell the next day we all made it to the coach and had such a good night out.
The coach took a few hours to Halong Bay and when we arrived we grabbed lunch and then caught up on sleep before heading out to dinner. After dinner we took the cable car up to the Sun Wheel which gave us spectacular views across the bay. We also played in the arcade which was great fun and walked around the Zen Garden. The bridge in Halong lights up different colours and the views you get are pretty magnificent. We then got an early night as we had to be up early the next morning.
The following morning we woke up early to the delightful buffet breakfast which did involve bacon... and then made our way to a boat to go on a tour of Halong Bay. Along the way we saw the Fighting Cocks - two lumps of rock which look like cockerels - and some caves. The sun began to come out so we decided to catch a bit of a tan on top deck. We would like to come back to Halong at some point and stay on a boat overnight. After a quick lunch the group headed back on the coach, we invested in a beautiful picture of Halong on the way back before getting an early night.
One of the things we have realised we have not discussed much in these blogs is the Vietnamese culture - what are the people like? Whilst we were sat in Fast Food one evening this week Becky was thinking about this as she watched the people passing by. We live near a street everyone calls Meat Street and for us it perfectly symbolises one feature of Vietnam which is that the people work really hard. Along the street you will see families running multiple businesses out of their homes. The opening hours of these businesses varies but normally they open very early and close pretty late. The place we get our laundry done obviously operates the laundry business - we've been known to take/pick up clothes at 9:30pm before - they also have a Banh My van selling food and operate some sort of mechanics business in the back. All of the family muck in, even the younger children and the heavily pregnant women. We imagine some of our students finish school, go home to do homework/more English, and then spend a few hours helping in whatever family business is run from their home. They literally don't stop... except for the midday 3 hour nap which everyone seems to take full advantage of!
The Vietnamese women are beautiful. They are dressed immaculately and despite Vietnam not having the same levels of gender equality as in the United Kingdom you see women in Vietnam doing pretty much any job including construction/labour jobs. It is absolutely fascinating. The men often hang around the Bia Hoi's smoking tobacco before heading off to work. One thing you can be sure of in Vietnam is that you will normally get honest answers - the people here are extremely direct and can give you some blunt truths whilst still smiling at you and being friendly. We have been told that if someone Vietnamese offends you and then has to apologise they will often awkwardly smile and this is their sort of way of apologising. This often happens in class when you tell students off.
Last week we spent our lessons on halloween projects which for the majority of our classes was to make halloween masks. The children absolutely love halloween here and it is a pretty big deal! Lots of the local cafes are decorated in a halloween theme. Robert had a fantastic week doing his halloween projects. As expected, unfortunately, his grade 8 class did not do particularly well on their test. The secondary school teaching here is notoriously difficult as sometimes you have students who have never been taught English before... this means the standard can be lower than primary school standard in a secondary school class. Rob's grade 8 class is a bit like this. But he was able to have some enjoyable halloween classes to distract from this. He had lots of pictures taken this week dressed up in his pirate hat. Becky had a witches hat and her week ended with dancing to Shake it Off with her favourite grade 3 class and singing Let It Go. All important skills to learn of course.
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| Lovely Mai |
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| Becky and Duan |
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| Yen B! |
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| Danni with some Thuy Linh ladies |
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| Rob in action |
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| Pirate Rob |
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| Rob and Hiyun |
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| Teacher Hang |
At the weekend we spent Saturday going to Perfume Pagoda with Liv and Aaron. Again this was hungover.... Liv, Rob and Becky spent a little too long at a Wine Bar on Friday night. The trip involved getting on the boat for an hour to be rowed to the pagoda, grabbing lunch and then we all hiked up to the caves. It was spectacular. On the way up lots of businesses were abandoned as it is the low season and it was a bit creepy. We decided to get the cable car down which offered some spectacular views. When we got home we headed to Spices with Faye and Sabrina for a good curry before getting an early night.
Yesterday (Sunday) we slept in and then finally broke and decided we needed a Sunday roast which was DIVINE. After this we watched Thor: Ragnorok at the cinema before catching another early night. This week we have another solid week of teaching and then this weekend we are planning on being Hanoi tourists as we feel we have not properly explored this city yet. Shortly after that Rob's parents will be visiting which will be great fun!
Much love.
