Busy moving around

Hello,


My apologies for having some issues with the blog ! The site was blocked by my hotel's internet, and I haven't actually been able to view the blog for some time. Now everything is sorted; I have moved and have a nice block-free internet.


Work has gone well, I have passed my first observations, cooked my first big family meal for co-workers and had a lovely beach BBQ. All in all, last week was great ! Very busy oranising my move and arranging my stuff, I am also buying a motorbike now. It is quite hard to get around Halong with out your own form of transportation, or at least very expensive.

I shall talk a little more about our BBQ on Friday as it was truly amazing. I met up with the lovely ladies for lunch, followed by a taxi trip to Bai Chay to move most of my belongings. We went to the street market in Bai Chay to get everyone some good, fresh food. After this we headed to Tuan Chau for the beach BBQ. We actually chilled at the wrong beach first, but luckily we were so early that it actually just worked out really well.

Tuan Chau is extremely beautiful, if I wasn't in love with Vietnam before Friday, I am now.

 

We finally found the correct beach, and everyone else arrived as well. The BBQ was great, words would never do justice to the scenery, and I met more lovely people. We grilled fresh tiger prawns, naan bread, pineapple, vegetables and marshmallows. It gets very dark very quickly in here so it didn't take long for your dinner to become candle moonlight lit.

We moved to a local bar from the beach. They usually have a Philippine band playing there in the evenings. Tuan Chau is quite quiet and under a lot of construction at the moment. All the streets are empty, and all parties seem almost private. We played some pool, listened to the band, and then headed home.

I do really miss having normal weekends, at the moment, most of my work is during the weekends so it is easy to lose track of time. I tend to be exhausted on Sunday evenings (I don't really rest on my days off, I feel like I am almost racing to do everything possible there is to do in here), and I treat Monday mornings as my Sundays.

This weekend I slept in my new apartment for the first time, I do still have my hotel room for a few more days. It is nice and relaxing to be somewhere were I know I can stay for a few months, the stress from constantly moving is just unnecessary and exhausting. We will be arranging a house warming party/ BBQ this Friday, and on Saturday we have a huge Halloween party! All weekend I was making Halloween decorations and masks with my classes. Some courses have reached their end now and we have a lot of exams going on. Teaching has been good fun lately, I do feel that it has become obvious to everyone now that I am not meant to teach infants. I lack experience in working or being with such young kids, and I don't really enjoy it as much either. It is quite sad to start a job like this, especially because I have tried my best to make it work. I hope that the situation gets solved in the near future.

This morning we did a more thorough tour around the Bai Chay food market, we had an English 'chef' with us to show us around, and introducing us to the best stalls. We bought some street food as well, unfortunately, street food in Vietnam is nothing like the street food in Thailand. The markets are great, but buying street food isn't as common as it is in Thailand, therefore, there isn't much of it. We moved onto a very luxurious local pool from the market, and enjoyed some well earned local coffee. 

Until next time,


Mira xx

:)

Hiking and riding

Good afternoon,


I did go hike that mountain on my day off ! It was fantastic, the hike up was long enough to be called an exercise, it also circles around the mountain so you will be able to see all sides on your way up. I decided to leave home at half past four so that I would be able to reach the top in time to see the sunset from there. It was still quite hot when I started climbing, the path to the stairs runs through a private garden so the residents charge 5000 dong for the entry. This equals to 20 sents. I was quite lucky; the path has just been cleaned when I arrived. Apparently, climbers dumb all their trash up the mountain because it is hard to come down carrying a lot of things so the path gets quite messy.

It took me 40 mins to climb up, I believe the walk would normally take half of the time but it was still very hot, and I did stop for photos quite a lot. The view already on the way up was beautiful ! You will be able to see far on the Halong Bay as well as have a great overlook of the City. The stairs go through a thick bush, and are quite uneven for most parts. I heard that they herd sheep up the mountain (cannot say if this is actually true), there is a cottage half way up that smells of animals quite strongly.

I made it to the top nicely before the sunset. The view was stunning, they have a huge Vietnamese flag at the top and you can see 360 degrees of perfection. The city seems so calm from the top, lights slowing emerging from  houses as the evening gets darker. I sat at the top enjoying the peaceful alone time until the sun was down.

Way down is a little bit more challenging than up, the dark being a big factor as well as the stairs not being as visible viewed from above. I started thinking about snakes and other nice animals that might live in the bushes so I can definitely say that the walk down wasn't as pleasant as it was going up. I would recommend going with another person, or at least letting people know when you are going, just to be safe.

On Friday I met up with a few of my colleagues for lunch and then we did some driving around the city. I got to know Bai Chay side better, I had only been there for work before. A friend of mine showed me around her area and her apartment so now I am moving there too next week ! Our flat costs 170 dollars a month and includes two pools, a gym and a restaurant. It goes without saying that I am very excited to move. In the evening we went to the Marine Plaza, an area with a movie theatre, art galleries, a night market and some restaurants. I bough a handmade backpack and some dried mango, yummy !

Weekend went mostly at work. I met some friends up for drinks and food on Saturday night, I even tried some local apple wine. I would recommend against drinking the apple wine, the taste is foul and the outcome might be unpredictable as it is usually homemade.

This week has started well. We went to a Korean lunch buffet on Monday and had some coffee in another rooftop restaurant. I was teaching my adult class in the evening and it went so well ! I finally got myself to play a game with them at the start. I have been avoiding games etc activities a little bit because I feel like they might already consider me as such a child. Fortunately, the game went very well and the rest of the class followed. We finally bonded well and I got them talking! Very happy with this result and looking forward to continuing from here,

This and next week we are all doing some Halloween preparation, next week weekend we have a huge, 100 people, Halloween party coming up ! I am happy about this because now I can make Halloween masks all weekend with my young learners. This Friday I have been invited to Paradise Resort for a day out and BBQ with the friends. The Resort is a huge estate on an island just outside Bai Chay. The day should be very relaxed and nice.


I hope you all have a nice, sunny week !


All the best,


Mira

Day off at Halong Bay

Hello,

Today's post will be a further update into teaching and free time activities at Halong Bay. For the last two weeks I've had Thursdays and Fridays off, it's not really a traditional weekend, but I'm trying to make the best out of it.

I teach an adult class on Monday and Wednesday evenings. I've had a hard time bonding with them as the youngest is a decade older than I am. Their English is quite good, still every class they say they don't understand, and yesterday one of them even said that I have a hard accent. Now it might be hard for you to judge that as you may have never heard me speak English, but I can genuinely say that I believe I have the most neutral accent ! I do really enjoy teaching them and we have covered a lot. It is rather fun to start thinking about old grammar rules and ways to explain things that seem so obvious to us who speak English daily. For example, yesterday we drilled the pronunciation difference between walk and work for a while. They also asked me to explain the difference between think about and think of.

During the weekends I have a good mix of kids, I teach infants and young kids as well as advanced teenagers. With the younger ones we usually play and sing a lot, and with the teenagers we role play and cover a lot of reading. It is quite nice to teach different ages, I need my smart teenagers after drilling five words for an hour and a half.

I had Wednesday afternoon off so I and my newest friend headed for a walk around Halong, she had just arrived and I promised to show her around. We were walking on the Bay road when we decided to stop for a drink at one of the street side 'cafes'. Everyday the streets are full of locals who bring out plastic tables and chairs, and sell drinks and maybe some snacks from coolers they have with them. It is a very common Vietnamese past time and lunch time activity to sit in these and socialise. We sat down and the locals just got so excited, it was very sweet. They offered us oysters (a common cheap snack here) and drinks. They didn't really speak English but we managed to communicate with my little Vietnamese and sign language ! It was fun and a great display of Vietnamese hospitality, we weren't allowed to pay for anything, loads more people showed up and it was actually quite hard to tell them that we had to leave.

After work my friends picked me up and we headed to a view point by the Bai Chay bridge. Halong City is separated into two parts by the Halong Bay, there is a long bridge between the sides that gets lit up every night. The lights change color and the whole bridge shines in the darkness to guide everyone home. We sat in a cafe on the hill with a perfect view over the Bay and the bridge. I met some great new people and we all had a blast. Now we have some exciting plans for the next few weeks, and I received my first invitation to a Vietnamese wedding ! This week I have met so many great new people that I am starting to feel like home in here.

I'm not too sure what I will do with the rest of my day off, I might hike a mountain. It is definitely getting cooler in here now, but by that I mean 21- 25 degrees during the days. Our hotel has just finished building us a kitchen so I just cooked for the first time in two months, might be doing some further cooking today. I'll keep you posted !


Love,


Mira

Greetings from Halong !

Good Afternoon,


Time for a little update about life at Halong Bay.

One week of working full time completed. I had Thursday and Friday off, unfortunately, traditional weekends don't really exist in here.

Work went well ! It took some time to get to know my students and make them comfortable with me. I had quite a relaxed week, not too full with classes and I had all the mornings off.

Since I was off on Thursday, I headed to Halong DC Hotel as soon as I had had enough sleep, Halon g DC is a nice hotel with a rooftop cafe. So I sat there all afternoon enjoying some local spring rolls, Singapore slings and a good book. The weather was perfect, music was great and I was loving life. I did a little stroll around Halong after, popped into some restaurants to try some lovely local goods. I was on my way to a very cool sports bad called My Way when one of the fishermen offered (in sign language) to take me for a boat tour. I was feeling adventurous so of course I jumped right on the boat and we took off.

The tour was amazing. Fishermen boats in here are so colorful and beautiful! There are many families who live on these boats, rowing around you see some amazing installments. Once we got past all the boats we went around some of the islands. As soon as you leave the harbor behind it is so peaceful and quiet. The islands are so funky and unique. There were some lonely fishing boats, it seemed like a perfect serenity. Images aren't even able to describe all of it. There were eagles flying and waves clashing on rocks.

I didn't share a language with my new rowing friend but a actually managed to get him to drop me off at My Way ! Little bit more food and a stroll home. Unfortunately, after that perfect day a rainy evening came so I spent the evening at home. It was a good way to end the day as it had included plenty of walking.

Friday was quite chilled, so much food. Another lovely lunch by the sea.

I spent most of the weekend at work. Saturday night we headed for a dinner buffet with a big group. Again, so much food. The evening was lovely, I had plenty of ice cream and got to know my colleagues so much better ! It was great to get some insight and some advice from people who have been in Vietnam for much longer.

Anyways, more later !


Loads of love,


Mira

All the exciting places

Hello and a lovely Monday to everyone,

Thought of today; you don't need to live in 'exciting' places to have an exciting life. Recently I have been thinking a lot about my own wanderlust. I know this is because at some point of moving around and traveling things get serious- for me I have now settled, started working and am trying to get some new friends. And all of the sudden it is all so real: you are far from home and you will be for a while. I have always considered myself semi carefree and easily adaptable person, however, I cannot lie and say that I didn't wonder whether I would enjoy living in Vietnam.

Most expats, myself included, already have a good life before traveling. I personally felt very much at home in both Africa and the UK. I really miss how easy getting around and talking to people it was, I dearly miss my friends, and I know I would have been employed easily. So it all makes me wonder 'why did I ever leave that behind?'.

I would like to think that personally I do it for the challenge and the experience. I am easily tempted and it brings me pleasure to do the extraordinary. I enjoy being able to surprise people by telling them my traveling stories and my background. Further, I do not wish to sit in a rocking chair when I'm older and not having incredible stories to tell to my grand kids.

Vietnam is obviously a beautiful place and traveling itself has nothing compared to getting to know and experiencing another culture. All these things that you can feel and learn truly make you rich as a person. I have no regrets and my wanderlust makes me very happy. Even the words 'settling down' sounds awful for me. Surely settling means that you give up on some of your dreams. I don't mean that I wouldn't want to stay in one place for a long time with someone I love, but I will surely never give up on my wanderlust. 

Enjoy your week! 

Mira 

Every storm is the worst

Evening,

My first individual working day completed ! The centre lessons are an hour an a half long which definitely is a lot for the children. I was quite happy with my own performance, I wasn't really given any materials but I truly enjoyed the class and it felt like the kids did too.

When the class was over I went outside only to realise that it was pouring down with rain. My driver was 20 mins late so by that point the whole storm was on us. I hopped on the bike and I was soaked from the first minute. It didn't take long for the rain to completely blind sight me, it was splashing on my eyes so strong that it was just impossible to keep them open. It is a crazy feeling to hold onto a stranger speeding down the road with my eyes closed. Half way through I had to ask him if he was even able to see anything. I was almost surprised when we finally made it home. One heck of a ride. I am quite sure that I have bruises on my face tomorrow.

Moving on, by this point I have eaten more than two kilos of passion fruits. They are so yummy and cheap around here, just over a euro a kilo. Unfortunately, I have not yet done proper market shopping because of the western prices but hopefully I will be able to do that soon, too.

Two more classes tomorrow and then onto my first full time week !

Best wishes,

Mira

Ps. We were suppose to have a pool party tonight but I believe everyone has seen enough water for one day

Vietnam pictures

Some pictures from my first days in Vietnam. An entry below to explain further backgrounds.

A special egg yolk coffee - lunch today 

What I eventually managed to get after pointing at different products in a restaurants - water spinach with garlic is my absolute favorite 

Today's dessert : peach pudding with caramel 

A graveyard for ships with no names 

I could film these fishermen's boats all day, this is a two min walk away from my flat 

What the bay looks like from the above 

The local way of eating chips or french fries : they are sugar coated and dipped into salsa 

Our beach strip

A little aid: Hanoi is the capital, three hours away, and Ha Long is a coastal city 

More boats.. 

From our welcome meal. There was noodles, mussels, water spinach, tofu, oysters, squid. Also, in Vietnam every time someone cheers with drinks you have to drink half of your drink. They tend to bring a whole crate of beer to the end of the table and just count at the end how many you had. 

Two sides of a coin

Good morning from Ha Long City,

After settling into Hanoi I met up with my boss. It was full moon and a mid Autumn festival so he took me out for a scooter ride to see the city and the festival. Hanoi is a beautiful city, the French history is clearly visible from the buildings, and apparently the bread. Due to the festival everyone was on the move, there were millions of people driving around town with scooters (there are 7 million people in Hanoi). The festival mainly constituted from plenty of different types of street food and decorations, especially lights and lanterns. Hanoi used to be a swamp so there are many man made lakes in the city. It seems like the Vietnamese are taking down all the French buildings attempting to erase all the signs of the era of French rule in their country. It is fascinating to see a city where the old ways meets the new; there is plenty of construction going on but it is not overtaking the beautiful, peaceful culture.

I was surprised to find out that most Vietnamese people are not religious at all. Still the kind of worship and respect is strong in the culture. There are some shrines and catholic churches around Hanoi but I don't think they are used as much for religious services.

On Monday we were traveling around Hanoi on a scooter again, this time we were paying some visits for different Embassies. It is necessary to get all the documents stamped in the country you will work in, in an Embassy of the country authorising the document. I had no problems with the UK and Finnish Embassies, however, the Thai Embassy was very reluctant to certify my TEFL because it is not an official government programme. Receiving your work permit might take a couple of week which is why it is important to take care of all the paper work, it is not possible to start your new job until all the paper work is processed.

On Tuesday it was time to move onto Ha Long City, I and my future colleague took the bus from Hanoi Opera House towards Ha Long Bay. The drive to Ha Long takes anything between two and a half hours to three and a half. The buses are quite dodgy and they get packed to the max. The ride cost 100 000 dongs which makes it about 4 euros. One thing is sure: there are two sets of prices: for locals and for foreigners. 

We were welcomed to our long stay hotel and after settling in we headed out for dinner with our manager. Ha Long City is a very long, narrow city that surrounds Ha Long Bay. Everything in Ha Long is close to the coastal line which is full of fishermen boats and thousands of small islands. Only a few people understand any English in Ha Long so all my restaurant experiences have been an adventure so far. One night I was running around a restaurant trying to point at stuff on left over plates to explain what I actually wanted to eat !

During this week we have walked around Ha Long trying our best to get to know our surroundings. We had a fantastic welcome meal where we met most of our colleagues. All of us met by the sea side, during the evenings the locals bring out chairs and tables to the shore to start up a few hour restaurants. The food is brought to you straight from the ocean and it is so yummy. I met the director of our company, he is obviously a very good business man but also a very pleasant gentleman. The dinner was plenty of fun.

This morning/ afternoon we all went for a lunch together and met a few new people joining our company.

Love,

Mira

Ps. More in the pictures