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
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