Teacher training

The Bi-texaco tower

Today is a good day. Its one year ago that I started my teacher training at ILA. Today is also the last day of my full time schedule for the semester so now I have two weeks off. I still work at my old school until Sunday but after then I have two weeks off. When it comes to Sunday I will have worked 59 out of the previous 61 days which I feel pretty good about. Teaching is going well and I'm now at the point where I get regularly asked to have new teacher sit in my classes to observe an 'experienced' teachers lesson, which is quite a complement.

View of Ho Chi Minh City from the 49th floor

This works in my favour as I tell my students someone is coming to watch them to see if they behave so naturally they do. I've got two teachers coming to watch one of my classes this Saturday - its my rowdy class, 19 11-12 year olds who enjoy messing around. It should be interesting.

I went up the Bi-Texaco tower the other day again to see the sunset. There is a great viewing platform on the 49th floor. It was nice to be up the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City but sadly the smog prevented a good sunset. Although I did get some nice pics which you can see on the blog.

Smoggy sunset across Ho Chi Minh City

One of my teacher chums is leaving ILA today which is sad, another one is leaving this Sunday which is sadder so this afternoon we are going for another all-you-can-eat Brazilian BBQ which I'm excited about, we are also going for beers and since I don't have to get up tomorrow I can let my hair down, which will be nice. Some good news is that I'm buying one of my mates motorbikes for $200, so ever cloud has a silver lining. Details of the motorbike are that it's red, it's reliable and it gets me from A - B.

Ho Chi Minh City at night

I've booked a ticket for an overnight sleeper coach this sunday to go to a place called Dalat with a friend which is supposed to be very pretty and is in the Vietnam hills. The journey takes 7 hours and I have my own bed, it leave at 11pm and I will arrive at 6am, refreshed from a good nights sleep. As its in the hills I'm told it will be cold and that I may need my fleece. I've not even come close to needing my fleece since I left Heathrow over a year ago so have my doubts. If anything it will make a nice pillow. 

One year in Vietnam!!

Amazing beef!

Today is one year since I arrived in Vietnam after my 10 or so weeks of travelling. Can't believe it was a year ago. Things are still going well and I'm working hard. At the end of next week I have two weeks holiday so am currently planning where to go during m break. I've been confirmed that I'll be lecturing e-commerce again next semester and have English teaching hours so I'll be very busy for the next three months.

Amazing beef with mushroom sauce

As I've been busy I've still not done that much interesting stuff. I went to an all you can eat Brazilian BBQ place for lunch the other day (see attached pictures). It was quite expensive for Vietnam ($25) and the food was amazing. The steak was up there with the best I've had and they just kept bringing it. They also had ribs, prawns in bacon, lamb, sausages and other stuff. All amazing. We spent a few hours grazing before it got to the point where I just couldn't swallow any more food.

At the all you can drink for $5 bar on Pasteur street

As I have some free time on Wednesdays I've been going to a bar with my work mates where it all you can drink between 3pm and 7pm for the small fee of $5 (yes, $5) Tiger draft and San Miguel draft. Its good fun as we play darts and get some good games going. Due to my darts experience I get ganged up on so have to result to making allies and manipulation. The standard of darts drops as the day wears on.

We went yesterday and I can't remember getting home. When I woke up in the morning I found an empty doughnut box and a bag full of uneaten munchies on the floor so I must have stopped on the way home at the doughnut shop and 'shop and go'. Not sure if I got a taxi or motorbike home though.

Blog - Flowers edition

Nice yellow flowers

Not much to report as I’ve been working everyday recently so I thought I’d do a special ‘flowers edition’ of my blog. These are some pretty flowers that I took pictures of when we were in Mui Ne recently. Not sure what they are but there very nice.

I just finished working 29 days in a row. Then I had a day off. I’m now in the middle of working a 30 day stretch, after this I get two weeks off. I feel pretty good considering. I make sure I get enough sleep and still make time to exercise, play football and relax.

Nice pink flowers

As expected there were repercussions for chasing the cat with my motorbike the other day. It left a present right in the middle of our motorbike ramp. Fortunately I didn’t discover it and one of my flat mates found it and cleaned it up. Operation ‘drive it to another district and leave it’ might need to be put into action.

Still in rainy season and its much worse than last year. Trying clothes outside is difficult. It can be nearly perfect blue skies in the morning and baking hot but within an hour it can be a completely black sky with thunder storms.

Nice yellow flowers again

On more than one occasion this has caught me out. The other day I was racing the black clouds home so I could get my clothes off the washing line before the torrential downpours commenced. I was running up the stairs as It stared to come down. I just managed it in time.

I finish my semester on 29th July so will have two weeks off. Holiday planning is underway!

Our garden

Old bees nest

Still working hard so I've not been doing much exciting stuff. I'm sad to report that my darts team - The Blue Gecko is no more. Our captain was sturggling to get a team each week so resigned which left us in a stop of bother as no one else wanted to do it. Because we had to forfeit out last three weeks we have been chucked out the league. I'm considering joing another team but will see how things go at work as mt current timetable classes with darts night.

The old / new bees nest

Other news is that the bees that were in our garden have vanished. The did move to another tree in our garden but gave up and left. I'm not suprised as it can't be very nice trying to make honey in the current rainey season. Sadly that puts an end to the idea of making our own HCMC Honey.

I've still been seeing the cat. I chased it the other day on my motorbike. It escaped down and alley and up onto a ledge, no dobut there will be reprecussions for doing that

pomegranate in our garden.

The final picture is of a pomegranate that has been growing on a tree in our garden. I picked it and ate it. It was pretty nice.

Finally, I've got four more weeks at work and then I have two weeks off. I'm currently looking at the options of going to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and / or Dalat.

Working hard and the cat

Policeman hard at work

Over the past few weeks I've been working pretty hard which means I've not been up to that much interesting stuff. I've picked up lots of extra teaching hours which will last until the end of July when the semester finishes. I'm working 7 days a week until this time but Its OK as its my choice and I quite enjoy the work. It's also good as whilst I'm working hard I'm not spending money so I'm saving a nice bit of money. I have two weeks off after the end of July so am already looking at my next trip. I will probably be to the north and / or central Vietnam. 

Gardeners hard at work

I'm still playing football twice a week and darts. Both are good fun. We had a work social yesterday and which had a raffle with some excellent prizes. I won a voucher for some posh tea at this shop called 'Operation Tea' I shall look forward to going to cash that one in.

Pictures this week are just random ones I've taken at various points over the past month or so. Rainy season is here and we are getting some great down pours!

Shifty looking man

Probably the only news work mentioning is the cat is back to its old tricks. Since it can't get into our house its taken to dumping in the corner of our porch. I've found two to date. Fortunately they are outside the - what I like to call - walking zone so I took the decision to leave them and see what happens in the hope that some sort of magic fairy would clean it up. 

I'm pleased to say this worked! However it turns out it was our cleaner who cleaned up the mess. This made me feel a bit guilty as although we pay her the going rate its not nearly enough to deal with things like this. Plus it must have been the first thing that greeted her as she pulled up outside our house. It's not what you want first thing in the morning.

The sugar cane industry

The one and only sugar cane man

I've been very busy at work this week so have nothing new of interest to report.

One thing people are fascinated by and that I frequently get asked about by people who read my blog is 'sugar cane man', seen in the picture to the left doing his rounds. This chap goes around the city selling raw sugar cane from the back of his bicycle. It looks like tough work but I used to see him lots which means there must be a big demand for the stuff. This has led many people to ask me questions. Who buys the sugar cane? where does he get it? what happens to the sugar cane?

typical sugar cane retailer

Due to these questions, over the past several months I've been researching the sugar cane industry to get some answers.

Well, it turns out that sugar cane man sells his raw sugar cane to the numerous sugar cane stalls across the city. The picture to the right is of a typical sugar cane retail outlet. Notice the sugar cane retailer happily posing in the right of the photo.

What happens is they buy the sugar cane and put it through the machine which crushes it down to a white liquid called sugar cane juice.

Sugar cane consumer

You can see the rotating arm on the left side of the sugar cane machine above.

The sugar cane juice is then stored, mixed with ice, orange juice and sugar to make a refreshing drink. It retails for about 25,000 VND ($1.25) for a cup.

This is then sold to the sugar cane consumers as demonstrated by me with some sugar cane juice I had on monkey Island recently.

The locals here love this stuff. It is quite nice but pretty sweet.

typical sugar cane farmer

The only question I can not answer is where sugar cane man gets his sugar cane from. I know that sugar cane is grown by the sugar cane farmer as shown in the picture to the right. but I'm unsure as to whether sugar cane is purchased directly from the farmer or some type of intermediary such as a wholesaler. I'm not sure how to find this out.

I could ask sugar cane man but he doesn't speak any English and was not happy with me posing in a photo with him when I saw him last.

So just to summarise. We can see below the sugar can supply chain which gives us a good idea as to how the industry works.

The sugar cane supply chain

As you can see the only missing gap is the uncertainty of the step between the sugar cane farmer and sugar cane man. I'll ask some questions and see what I can find out. As always, I'll let you know when I know.

Mui Ne - ILA's annual outing

View from the restaurant

I've just got back form a trip to  Mui Ne which was an annual outing provided by my school ILA. We left HCMC on Monday morning for the 6 hour journey to the coast. There was a total of 6 coaches full with staff and support staff.

I must say the school looked after us very well as the 4 star hotel we stayed in was possibly the best I've visited.

I shared a room with two other teachers that had a sea view and its own private pool. (See the video below).

Gardens at our resort

The gardens at the hotel were beautiful in addition to having its own private beach. We had lunch upon arrival and after a little rest there was beach games organised throughout the afternoon. I played volleyball, where my team lost in the final which was great fun and other silly water / beach games. One game involved trying to protect a bucket from having balls chucked into it whilst having your leg tied to another person. Again I got to the final and lost.

BBQ men hard at work

Beer and food was provided. In the evening we had a bar-be-cue which was probably the best I've ever had. Fresh fish, chicken, kebabs and rice dishes.

Sadly it was only an overnighter and we had to come home the next day. I didn't get to see much of Mui Ne so its definitely a place I will go back it. It was great to spend some quality time with my teacher buddies.

Garden at the resort

I'm going to be very busy for the next 8 weeks. I'm working everyday which is OK (it was my choice). Then I'll get two weeks off work and go on another trip. I may well come back to Mui Ne then as there are some cool things to do however I do really want to see the north of Vietnam at some point.

It's still pretty hot at the moment but I'm not feeling it as much as last year. Also rainy season has arrived so we are getting some pretty impressive downpour which are like walking under a shower.

The video above is of my hotel room at the resort in Mui Ne. I could have happily stayed their all week.