Working hard and hospital visit

It been a month since I updated the blog. I seem to be getting a bit slack with the updates compaired to last year but I will try harder in the next few months to update things.

So whats been happening? Not too much. I had to visit the hospital about my knee I hurt when playing football back in January. It was a private place and a little journey outside the centre but it was good on the bike. I saw a knee specialist and had an MRI. The good news it that it should heal without surgery but I will have to rest it for a couple of months.

Lady selling stuff to tourists

A couple of my mates are coming to visit me at the end of next week and then we're going to Hanoi and Ha Long bay for a week. I'm looking forward to this as it will be good to see the north of the country. I can only take a week off work which means I'll have to do another trip as some point as theres not enough time to see it all in one week.

The weather is starting to get hotter now. Its pretty much in the late 30s every day and very humid.

Notre Dam catherdral in HCMC

Not much else to report but I'll blog before my trip next week.

Hon Tre (Bamboo Island), Vietnam

I've just got back from my TET holiday break from a place called Hon Tre. I went with some Vietnamese friends. The Island is just off the coast of south west Vietnam and not on the tourist route. Hon Tre means Bamboo Island in English.

 

The only road around the Island

 

Only about 1,000 people live on this small Island and during my trip there I was the only western person there. I don't think they get many western visitors at all as everywhere I went everyone stopped and stared at me and ever ran into their houses to bring out their families to have a stare.

 

It only take about 10  minutes to go around the only ring road on the Island on a motorbike, there are no restaurants or hotels or Internet and no one speaks English. Most people live around this road and in the middle of the Island is a big hill and jungle.

 

Trekking up the hill

 

The only things to do were to go around the one road on the Island, trek up the big hill or relax in a hammock. My kindle came in very useful!

 

We trekked up the big hill one day which was very hot and sweaty but gave a great view of the Island. There is so much fruit that grows here, Mangos, bananas, pineapples, dragon fruits, star fruits, jack fruits, all of which we were picking off the trees and eating. It was good to see how people live and really eat off the land. The only other food was seafood which obviously they catch themselves.

 

View from my room with offerings to Buddha

 

My bedroom was nice and had a great view of the sea. I needed a mosquito net for sleeping and could hear the sea all night which was lovely. It was a nice relaxing holiday. One thing that was strange was that the Island had a speaker system set up all around the road on the Island, one was outside my bedroom. Every day they broadcast the news with various communist information with stuff about what great things the government are doing and how lucky everyone is. There are also a few communisit tunes too. Sadly this came on a 5am every morning! Yes, 5am! I was still pitch black, was really loud and went on for an hour. As there was no Internet I was hoping they'd have the football results but they didn't even have them.

 

You can see the 5am speaker in the middle of the picture.

 

On the last day I looked out my bedroom window and saw some poor chaps boat had sank (see the picture) They were trying to fix it or rescue stuff from it, I felt sorry for the man but watching it killed an hour or so.

 

Sinking boat

Below are a couple of videos I took when on the Island, onw is on the back of a bike and the other is up the big hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TET Holiday, Vietnam

I've now finished work until a week on Friday because of the Vietnamese holiday of TET. Tomorrow I am taking a night busy to Rach Gia on the south west coast of Vietnam where I will take a ferry to a place called 'Bamboo Island' where I will be for the next 6 days. Its supposed to be very remote (no internet access) whith not much to do except relax. I shall get some photos for the blog when I'm back.

 

As its TET they sell lots and lots of flowers in the park. I went and looked at some today and they were very nice. It did present a good opportunity for taking pictures with people getting them home on bikes so below is a load of photos I took this morning for people carrying stuff on bikes.

Tall flowers on the back of a bike

 

Flower delivery man

Traditional bike threesome with flowers

No room on the bike so this box is on the womans head

 

Check out this guy - paper for the office??

 







Nearly time for TET

I'm well back into the swing of working. I've got lots of classes at my school and I'm busy. At the end of this week however is the Vietnamese holiday of TET which is a bit like their Christmas where they also celebrate the Chinese new year. This means my school will be closed to 6 days!!!!

 

My school logo viewed from our teachers room balcony

 

During this time I'm going to a very small Vietnamese Island to the south west of Vietnam. There won't be much to do except relax. I'm going with some Vietnamese people and not may western people have been to this Island. I'm also told I maybe the first Englishman to visit the Island.... I'm not sure if this is true though.

 

The post office, a nice building and also a tourist attraction

 

I'll try and get a picture of the Island. I looked on google maps but it doesn't even show it on there so it must be pretty remote.

 

 

Back in Vietnam

It's been over a month since I updated my blog and a lot has happened since. I went back to England for three weeks. It was great to visit family and friends and spend Christmas with my family. It was strange to be back in England after so long away. I think three weeks was long enough to catch up with everyone and at the end I was looking forward to starting work again.

 

Dubai Airport with the Burj Khalifa at the left side

 

 

I was a bit disappointed I didn't get to see any snow. Pretty much every day it rained and was grey and miserable. I used to really like the cooler weather but having been in Vietnam for so long I think I'm starting to prefer the heat.

 

I flew back to Vietnam on 2nd January and started working again on 5th January at ILA in Ho Chi Minh City. During Christmas my flatmate asked me if I'd consder moving back into the house I'd just moved out of for another year. As I liked the house (and thought it was better than going through the stress of looking for a place to live) I agreed.

 

The town of Bath in England during my visit

 

 

So, I've been working again for the past three weeks. I've been given so adult classes at ILA which I didn't previously have as well as children's classes at the weekend.

 

Not much else has been happening. I did enter a 16 man / woman charity poker tournament the other day and come third which was good.

 

In two weeks its the Vietnamese holiday of TET which is their equivalent of Christmas. I'm going to visit a small Island off the South West of Vietnam where I plan to lay in a hammock and read for 10 days.

 

 

Flying back to England

 

Today is the day that I'm flying back to England. I'm leaving for the airport, which is only 20 minutes from my house, in a few hours time.

 

I'm flying with Emirates who I've flown with before and are very good. I fly from HCMC to Dubai, wait a couple of hours then get another plane to Gatwick.

 

Total flying time is about 15 hours and I arrive at about 7am London time. I come back to Ho Chi Minh City on 2nd January 2013.

 

Not sure how much updating of the blog I will do when I'm in England as the whole purpose was to let people know how I was getting on in Asia. I suppose now I will let people I know in Asia know how I'm getting on in England.

 

One thing I'm intested to see is how used to the heat I've got since I've been away. We will see....

 

 

 

Getting ready for England.....

Erosion of the sand dunes by thee fairy springs in Mui Ne

I got back from holiday from Mui Ne yesterday. The journey took about 7 hours which was much longer than it should have. The Ho Chi Minh City traffic was particularly bad on the way into the city.

 

For the next few days I'm going to be sorting all my stuff out and getting ready for my flight. I fly at 2025 on 10th December. I change in Dubai before moving onto Gatwick. Then its the National Express back to Poole.

 

 

Cham tower in Mui Ne. Picture makes it look quite good

I'm getting myself ready for the cold, it will have been 572 days since I left England when I arrive home. 

 

I've added a few pictures from my recent holiday. Both places would be great to go back to for a holiday.

 

The first one is of some of the sand at the fairy springs. It was fascinating to see how the sand was been eroded away.

 

The second is of one of the Cham towers in Mui Me and the final picture is of our chilli plant in our garden. Its a great plant, it makes so many chillis!!!

 

So many chillis!!!