First assigment in Bac Ha

So surprised when I got a call from Thao, office worker for SNV in Hanoi at about 8.30 on 12 July to offer me the first job: interpreter for a workshop in Lao Cai and that I left with two other women that night. At that time I was still in bed. Oversleeping because I watched the World Cup final match between the Netherlands and Spain from 1am to 4 am or so. You know, I signed the contract with this organization long time ago. When I let it be, not much expectation from it, job came. In fact, I felt a bit nervous and excited anyhow. I just discussed with my friend that I might take another tour in my vacation and thinking of Sapa to explore mountains. Now suddenly opportunity came. What I found nervous was that the training workshop was divided into three sessions. The first and second had an interpreter. I was responsible for the last one. It is much better if you follow it from the beginning to the end. So you know the content well and you are familiar to the foreigner's accent and speed (maybe). I could turn the offer down but I didn't. I thought it was a good chance for me to learn and to apply what I teach to a real situation and to travel. We do not know what we can do until we do it. :-)
It took me time to read the material and pack my suitcase. And at 8 pm I caught a taxi to the train station. I met three accompanies there and as soon as we got to the cabin people started to sleep. The cabin was in the last coach. The interior was nice but it was so shaky to be at the end of the train. Luckily I had 'travelsick' medicine.:-) A bit sick.

We arrived in Lao Cai station early in the next morning. We stayed in a hotel, near the station, until 8.30 am, when a bus came to pick us up to move to Bac Ha, a poor district of Lao Cai, 80 km far away. I could not brush my teeth. Dirty. Cleaned my face with wet tissues. First time. During the time in the hotel, the two trainers explained the programme for me so that I knew what they would talk in the workshop.
We left for Bac Ha on time. Half way through it was fine. But the rest was so winding and up to mountains. On the one side was cliff. On the other side was abyss . So dangerrous. The speed was 30-40 km/h. My first experience, a woman living in flat areas.
We got to the town at around 10.30. It was a town but not very populous. So quiet and peaceful. Therefore a bit boring here. We stayed in a two star hotel. No air conditioner, no mini bar, smelly sheet, broken TV, no wardrobe but wifi. I still got in touch with my friends in Hanoi on skype and via sms. I stayed there for two and a half days. We worked intensively. No time for exploration. In fact nowhere to go in the evening.
When the workshop finished on 15 July, everybody was eager to go home. The participants were from 8 different northern provinces. On the way back to Lao Cai, down the mountains I feft really sick. But nothing came out, I still survived. We got to the hotel at 4 pm and our train was 8.45 pm. I spent time walking around the town while the two women were busy with their project. Hot. There were some bruises on my feet because I walked in shoes. Poor me. According to the map the border gate was just two km from the hotel. I tried to walk there but could not far enough to reach the gate. :=) Too tired and I gave up my wish and came back. Perhaps another time. I sat in the bar on the top of the hotel and enjoyed the view and drinks. At 6.30 I went back to the room and walked together with the two women to a restaurant serving Vietnamese food next to the restaurant my friend suggested. Couldn't eat much. And at 8.15 we checked out and walked into the station and started our journey back to Hanoi. The coach was number 5, which meant I was in the middle of the train. Not much shaky. Lucky. We got to Hanoi at 5.30. My normal life came back again.

Canada in Bob's eyes

While we were in Cat Ba, Bob's art teacher informed me that Bob was invited to the prize-awarding ceremony. His painting was chosen to be in the final round of the contest with the theme 'Essays and paintings about Canada and red-haired Anne (a charater in a story for children)'. This contest was organized by some organizations including Canada Embassy.

At first, we thought he won a prize (we often receive an inviation to the prize-awarding ceremony when he wins a prize). We felt very happy. But it turned out to be that he didn't. He got the certificate saying that his painting was chosen to be in the final round with 29 other paintings. He was a bit disappointed when he knew that. I told him that no big problem if not winning a prize. He needs to try more. The most important is that we do with all our best.

I took a photo of him and his classmate in the art club. Bob's painting is about a hill of pine trees and it is at the top on the left.

Tour of Hue and Cat Ba

Recently I have been Hue. Again. For the third time. So I can say I get to know that city better and better and this time I travelled to different destinations: a ride on bicycle along the outside walls and to the Vong Canh Hill and a ride on motorbike to Thanh Toan Bridge and Minh Mang Tomb and Thuan An Beach (the beach is clean and you even can see your body in the water). I also went to the tailor's to have two long dresses made. Nice ones. Unforgettable holiday. To prepare for this trip I read some articles and checked maps to make sure that I would not miss my target places. Everything went smoothly, even better than planned. There were only two things I regretted. One is Tinh Tam Lake and the other is Kim Long Village. The lake was full of wild weed and not well-preserved. It is said that the lake is very beautiful. But not. And I could not find a garden house in Kim Long.

Unlike the tour of Hue, my stay in Cat Ba was a disaster in term of journey time, service and hotel. All of my colleagues said that they did not want to come back here at least in five years.:-). It took us nearly 10 hours to get back to Hanoi. What consumed our time was the ferry. But luckily I travelled with my best friends so we chatted and made jokes to kill the time. The streets were full of people and litter. Beaches were crowded and waves were too strong and dangerous. One beach on an island we visited in Lan Ha Bay has got sharp stones in stead of soft sand. I hurt my feet when swimming there. I liked travelling on boat around the bay but suffered a bit from seasick.

Enjoy some of my photos.

Being lazy at home

We are in one of the hottest days of this summer. The temperature is about 37 or 38 degrees, terribly hot, which discourages people to go out. The pool in my neighbourhood is always too crowded in the afternoon. I haven't been to the swimming pool for over ten days. High time to go this afternoon. :-)

I don't have to work much in the summer: just going to university to be an exam supervisor (students are doing a computer-based test in this photo), 3 mornings (finished 2, one more left); going to an evening center twice a week; taking Bob to his art class twice a week (Wed and Sat morning) and teaching him English almost every day. I spend the rest of the day going to the market, cooking, cleaning and reading books.

After my trip to the central I bought 2 boxes of jigsaw puzzle of 1000 pieces: Keukenhof garden for me and Acropolis for my son. Honestly, this is also the last time I bought this puzzle: it took me so much time (5 days) to assemble the garden.:-) Bob quit because he was not patient enough to build the temple. But he gave me a hand. Now a nice picture has appeared in the living room.

Tour of Da Nang and Hoi An

I have just been back from a 5 day tour of Da Nang and Hoi An. The tour was successful: the same as my original plan (visiting all places I wanted to); nobody was ill; nothing lost; flights were on time; and pleasant weather.:-)

Day 1: after checking into the hotel (one block away from the river) in Da Nang, we had a sleep until late in the afternoon. My mum and son and myself needed to refresh after a long journey. When we got up we walked along the Han river. A nice walk with fresh air and cool wind. We had dinner in a restaurant called The World facing the river. It has got a good location, friendly staff and lovely food. Then we walked through some streets, ate Hue sweet soup and went back to the hotel. Danang was so peaceful in the evening.

Day 2: we spent the second day exploring Ba Na Hills, a resort about 35 km from the centre. The journey to the hills was divided into some legs: from the centre to Gare Suoi Mo by minibus, from Suoi Mo to Gare Ba Na by red cable car; from Gare Ba Na to Gare De Bay on foot and from Gare De Bay to Gare Morin by yellow cable car and from Gare Morin we walked to the the top called Nui Chua. The weather on Ba Na Hills was cool. That is why it was regarded as little "Da Lat". We went sightseeing there and took some photos. It was said that on clear days you can see Da Nang from the hills. But we could not see anything because it was cloudy when we were there. On the way back to the hotel we had lunch in a peaceful and old-fashioned restaurant called "Pho Xua" (Old Street). In the late afternoon, we went to My Khe beach. It was clean with high waves. My mum couldn't swim, so she sat on the beach deck. My son and I waded in the sea and played with the waves. Bob now was so confident playing with high waves. He wanted to be there more but I told him to stop after 30 minutes because it rained. We came back to the hotel and walked to The World to have hot pot with mushrooms. Then I walked to Highlands coffee nearby to buy a take away caramel freeze coffee and two pieces of tiramisu. That night I finished the novel 'Where are you?' by Marc Levy.

Day 3: I decided to go on a tour of Son Tra Penninsula in the morning. It is covered by mountains and hills and not many people live on the pennisula except fishermen. And you can travel half way around it because the other half is a restricted area, for the army. We visited a pagoda there with a statue of a Buddha which is 67 meters tall. Inside her there are 10 storeys. We went up to the top.

Then we caught a taxi to Hoi An. We checked in and went out to eat lunch with Hoi An specialities. Back to the hotel we had a nap. My son said the hotel was a no-star hotel.:-) An old small TV, an empty minibar, a broken-door bathroom. But there was air conditioning and near the ancient quarters. At mid-afternoon, we explored the ancient town. I thought we could finish half of the town, but it was so small that after just three and half an hours we finished our exploration. We ate lunch in a restaurant near our hotel. And in the evening we walked over a bridge to a lantern street. That is also the end of our trip to Hoi An.

Day 4: We ate breakfast in a pho (noodle) restaurant nearby. Honestly I could not finish my bowl. But my mum and Bob could. We went back to Da Nang by car offered by the hotel (cheaper than a taxi ). On the way, we visited Ngu Hanh Son (five mountains - Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Land) and Non Nuoc Art Village. We stayed there for over one hour visiting two pagodas and some caves on the biggest mountain of the five called Water Mountain. We ate lunch in a restaurant around the corner near our hotel. Then napping until 3.30 pm.

We went to Cham Museum, a few blocks away from the hotel. It was a nice building in a good location facing the river. We stayed there for one hour or so. On the way back we walked along the waterfront street. Cool and fresh air. And we had dinner in The World (the third time).:-)

Day 5: we went shopping in Han Market. It was on the same street as our hotel. Easy to walk there. We bought some dried squid for family and friends. And we bought some clothing items for little children. We ate the final lunch in the corner restaurant and checked out at noon. Our flight was as scheduled. We flew back to Hanoi at 14.20 and landed at 15.30. The central tour ended.

Welcoming us back to the flat was power off. Luckily, we are on the 10th floor, so it was windy enough to forget the electric fans.Our normal life starts.

I took some photos with my Nokia. The quality was not good but acceptable. You still see our faces and some views.:-)

Summer holiday 2010

A long summer holiday has come to me and my son. As I mentioned before in my blog, as a teacher and pupil, we have longer holidays than other people. And this year it started with some nice surprises.

Bob 'graduated' from primary school with good results. This autumn he goes to secondary school. And he just won Prize B for his painting in an art contest organized in Hanoi Children's Palace on the occassion of its 55th anniverary, which made us so happy. In addition, he is now more confident to swim in the pool. I try to take him to the pool every two days. I promise to myself that during the holiday I will teach him more English. Ms Van, my friend, who is teaching children in a private centre, sent me her exercises aiming at consolidating English in Grade 6. I will use them. And one more thing I will do for him is to send him a 5 day course on living skills. I hope he will be more confident to communicate. However, I regret not being able to choose a good secondary school for him.

Another surprise is that my mum agreed to go on holiday with us. At first she refused because she thought she was not fit enough to travel. After a lot of persuading she said yes. This year we are going to Danang and Hoi An, in the central of Vietnam for 5 days from 4 June. It is a really nice gift.

Beside travelling, I would like to spend time reading books in my bookcase. I haven't finished some.

A hot weather day

The first summer days in Hanoi is extremely hot: around 37 degrees. Terrible. On such hot days, nobody wants to work in non-airconditioned places. Yesterday I was exhausted. Staying at school until 3.20 pm. I wanted to go swimming when I got home, which helped me a lot.
When driving in Linh Dam, near home, a strong wind appeared. The first time I saw it: dust and litter and dried tree branches in the air. I could not go for a while. Then I thought if I did not try to get home (about 100m) I could have some incidents. So slowly driving home. I saw some motorbikes fell down on the ground. After parking my motorbike, I touched my neck, full of dust. Then it rained a bit for a short time.
Anyhow I decided to go swimming. The pool was not crowded. I made use of the opportunity to swim to the end of the pool, the deepest place 2.1m. 30 minutes in the pool was enough for me.
In the evening, I treated mysefl by sitting on the sofa watching a film starring Jodie Foster, action film, on cinemax. Not very nice film but I went to bed when it was over.