Sunset on our trip

Last time we left you we were headed back to Vietnam to spend some time in Hanoi and then Phu Quoc Island. This was great and it gave us lots of opportunities to catch up with great friends and relax at the end of our travels. We thought we would post our final blog post when we had settled back into being in the UK and knew more about what we were doing.

We flew into Hanoi just before Tet and although for us this was great, because it was quieter than usual, there were fireworks, and we got to see some people. We would not recommend it for tourists as it was like a ghost town! It is pretty much the only big holiday the Vietnamese people get, they were always astonished when you explained the school year in England: half term, christmas holidays, half term, easter holidays, half term and then the summer... and we didn't even start on inset days for state-run schools. During what I guess is New Years Eve we met up with Yen, who I taught with at Tran Phu, and also her lovely mother. We were introduced to a massive spread of wonderful Vietnamese traditional food. The lunch started with some candied fruits which Becky got herself stuck into over coffee with Yen. We both always found these spreads of traditional food extraordinarily filling. One of the traditional tet foods is a called Banh chưng which consists of pork, rice and beans covered by a green leaf. Becky loved this. Yen had a favourite pudding which was really really sweet and covered by a leaf that went sticky and black when cooked. She loved them so much she had several in the morning before we arrived and could put a whole one in her mouth! Sticky rice was of course part of the spread and lots of chicken and other bits. We gave Yen some lucky money which is traditional around Tet. During the evening there were big fireworks in Hanoi around Hoen Kiem Lake.

Photo credit Yen

Whilst we were in Hanoi we indulged in lots of good food at some of our favourite restaurants and also had Liz to visit. It was good to say goodbye and enjoy a couple of days with her. We also met up for coffee at the Note cafe with Thao and Nga from Thach Ban B. It was so nice to catch up. They brought a beautiful parchment which talked about friendship and the new year and some lucky money. We managed to see Ha as well who works for BME - our ex-employer - and she was kind enough to give us lucky money too as we caught up in Tay Ho. Becky will miss them all a lot.

We flew to Phu Quoc towards the end where to be honest we just were really lazy. We relaxed by the pool, got to sleep in (which actually hadn't happened much during our travels), spent time at the beach, and ate loads of tasty food. This was much needed before we headed home. We flew to Bangkok at the end of this and had one night there where we mostly took time packing and making sure we had everything ready. Then it was time for the big flight home! Becky got herself in the middle of the middle of the plane which meant she was often able to get two helpings of wine to help her through her flight nerves. We both watched loads of films and stayed awake so we could adjust our body clocks.

Photos from Phu Quoc

We arrived back into England on 25th February in the snow! Then we literally got snowed into Becky's parents' new house. We had a bit of return celebration which naturally involved lots of wine! The house Becky's parents have moved into is lovely and we aim to spend a bit of time there - it will be a great venue for a relaxing weekend in the country. We finally got around to celebrating our 5 year anniversary and also embarked on a pub crawl with Becky's dad - he was inspired after watching World's End.

25/02/2018 - papped at Heathrow

Becky has been busy with pupillage interviews and we have been up north to see the Pellow family, south for the Mcknight family, friends from home for both of us including Cole, Edward, James, Sam, Roisin and Alex for Rob and Nick, Amy, Lizzie, James, Charlotte, Mike, Claire, Ben, Kirsty, Alex, Becca, Brendan, Immy and Victor for Becky. Becky went back into her old workplace and caught up with everyone, then seeing Katrina and Shafkat for coffee. We are hoping to have some reunions with friends from Vietnam soon and still have many people we need to see on our returners tour.

Photo credit Liz Dimitriou

Since arriving back, although we definitely miss Vietnam, it has felt quite natural. We feel privileged to have had our experience but also grateful for the people we have around us at home. After much thought we decided not to go to China, largely because it was better for our CVs to stay. This means we are now job searching and you will not get an exciting Pellknight blog part 2 for China. However we have definitely got the travel bug so we are sure you will experience more of our blog writing in the near future - lucky you! For now it is job searching we are getting on with and I guess a bit of 'real life'... whatever that entails.

Thanks for reading whilst we have been away and thanks to everyone who made our experiences in Vietnam so brilliant.