Here you can see wrapped inside the rice and thin layer of seaweed is some carrot, egg, ham, spinach and pickled radish (mmm juicy). There are many differant kinds of Kimbap..the rice and seaweed stays the same, the contents differs. Very tasty especially with a small bowl of soup to wash it down with, and extraordinarily cheap in Korea - about 50p for one roll (maybe 15 pieces).
And here I am marshalling the little old women before their routine, with my co-teacher, Mrs Cho Yeon Ju.
That week we also had a social studies lesson in which we had to talk about traditional games and activities. I introduced some English traditions to the kids such as conkers (although we couldn't play, no suitable nuts) and foxhunting (we didn't do that either, although I wanted to....). No no, they were fascinated by this upperclass pursuit and the pictures of it from the net, and we talked about how controversial it has been over the past few years. Myself and another teacher had wanted to play either a game of cricket or a game of croquet, both foriegn sports to the far east, but the usual problem emerged of where to get such equipment in Vietnam. One thing I did manage to do is organise a shove halfpenny tournement in class.....its not difficult to get these kids excited I tell you. Here I am sailing a 5000 dong coin into the '5 point' zone (clears throat).
The next distraction was a field trip to a Mercedes Benz factory, and later, a famous market in town. The Benz factory was quite interesting as they had the entire assembly line in one building. They showed a comparison of Vietnam with Germany : the same population (80 million), Germany has 35 million registered cars, Vietnam has 500,000. So they think that Vietnam has huge potential for vehicle growth, but I don't. They need a better infrastructure before the country can cope with a large number of cars. Here is a couple of pics from the factory.
So all very interesting (stifles yawn).
I think it was the first school visit the factory had hosted so you can imagine the look of the Vietnamese welders as this lot came through the factory. I don't know who Ji Hwan thinks he is lying on the floor like that either.
I received the execpted reaction of '****** ***** Jon, this place is crazy!' (not that Toby swears a lot, thats just for an exaggerated effect). I of course was acting all casual, shurgging my shoulders and explaining how it was Sunday and the road was quiet........I don't think he ever quite got used to the roads - its not possible within two weeks, it took me at least two months!
So I helped Toby out with some friendly backstreet accomodation and a good place it turned out for me to practice my Vietnamese. Although they can speak English there, they love it when white boy can badly pronounce a few words of native tounge. Here they are <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Luckily the middle weekend I had a couple of days off school, leaving a clear run of 4 days. We went to Nha Trang by overnight train. Nha Trang is not too far up the coast, but we're not talking the most modern of transport systems. Nha Trang looked something like this:
Phew! That took me ages on Photoshop - I'm rusty. Nha Trang obviously beautiful. Despite the fact that its only 8 hours from Ho Chi Minh, it has a totally differant climate - we left the wet season to enter the non-wet season. Great! We went on a boat trip which at first looked like it would be a complete disaster, being sandwiched amongst some serious contenders for tourist of the year, and the tourleader having no trouble attracting dogs to the quayside through the 17th century tannoy system. The day however panned out to be very pleasurable indeed, our worst fears subsiding as we went snorkeling, had a nice lunch and then drank at the floating bar in the sea. The rest of the time was spent, justifiably, on the beach. Me bronzing up, Murrill trying to wiggle out of the 'milkbottle' catagory. No comebacks on here Tob, sorry.
So back to HCMC and more of the same. Evenings eating out and me having the pleasure of introducing Minh Chi, she didn't fail with her usual charm, and it was great to see my best friend and my girl getting on so well! Here we are eating Vietnamese foods including 'Banh Xeo', Vietnamese pancakes...mmmm!
Good food and good company = good times!
Finally here is a shot of Minh Chi and myself.....in my house, picture courtesy of TM.
Hope this brings back the flavor of your visit Toby.
Thats all for now.
Some people just don't have the brain power for it.
The place is, at best, grim. There is little to do in HongSeong. Eating out, playing pool and the occasional beer at the local - wait - thats starting to sound like England! Although being in the far east is a little differant! Take a look - its the view from my school building :
The city is not so small, but it is almost as countryside as you can get in Korea. A 5 minute drive and you would be driving on winding country roads through paddy fields and cattle farms and under and between looming forest covered mountains. Korea is exteremly mountianious and most cities and towns are built into their cradles. This often makes for a spectacular backdrop. This is a typical shot of Korean countryside, in summer
And, in the winter!
It was 3 long weeks before I found another native speaker, of Scottish origin. Turned out she had a friend from Canada, and he had a friend from Canada as well and so on and so on - something like the snowball effect. Within about 2 months I knew all the foriegners who lived in HongSeong. A rough count would be about 7 or 8 people (out of 250,000 and not including filapinos or russians), and out of those I would socialise with about 5. It was through a message I placed on a popular internet disucussion board for expats in Korea that we met the guys living in the nearest medium sized town, about 20 minutes down the road. A strange day it was boarding the train and going to meet 5 completely random people waiting for us in the train station. We had a BBQ, we had lots of drinks, and I was visiting them every weekend (almost) for the rest of the year . Running into those guys really made the year as good as it was, even though most of them were Canadian......(just kidding guys ;). So, after a few months I had established a social grounding of normal people (relativly normal in this alien land) that would see me through the frustrating work days in school (another BOOK altogether).
To cut this long story short, we did many great things together including my highlights:
Countless barbeques and overnight parties in Yesan, making the weekend worthwile.
Countless drunken nights in various parts of Seoul, and all the banter that accompanies a lot of drink and good friends.
Our trip to Sapsido, a very unusual place to visit. How can I explain it? An island. The closest to Thailand your gonna get in Korea.....
Countless motorcycle journeys with Irish Joe, including down the beach and along the coast in the summer, through the countryside exploring small villages, and to the top of mountains in the autumn and spring and absolutely nowhere in winter (too friggin cold). And of course, our monumental journey to Jeonju, where at one point Joe tried to impress me with a wheelspin and succeeded in flattening himself with his bike. Not quite the biker just yet.
The constant learning curve of living in Korea. I don't think I'm far from the truth when I say theirs is a truely remote culture, just witnessing some of the bizarre events that occur unfold was memorable. Especially that of a Korean wedding - we were the guests of my friend Carlos from Peru. The cermony was a little longer than 10 minutes and including the happy couple standing in a hydraulic box which hoisted them 3 feet into the air and moved very slowly from one end of the room to the other. I've never been so embarrassed for someone else in my life.
And on and on........
Thats all so 잘가!
Well its been a little while since writing, not because I intended that but because I had a problem with Internet connection. Almost two weeks ago we went to the waterpark for our trip out. On the left you can see the usual banter unfolding. It was only a small place sandwiched right in the middle of busy saigon. The slides were OK minus the mandatory pieces of spine you lose as you grate over the rivets every 2 meters. My class is a fun. The youngest is 8 and the oldest is 19. This would obviously be laughable in England but it just about passes here. And I have some real characters, the boys especially are a handful. Take a look for yourself! 
Everyone is up and about exercising on the city streets at sunrise - that is, 4.30 in the morning. After 11.00pm, the city sleeps. These times are true except for a small minority (that I am part of).
Commuting in the city is asking for hospitilization, but everyone does it anyway, you don't have a choice. 
There are thousands upon thousands of bikes jostling for space - combined with the exhaust fumes, the honking horns the beating sun and trying to stay alive, it can make quite an intense experience. During rush hour, it borders on ridiculous. Roads in HCMC define the saying - 'The only rule is : There are no rules'. Motorbikes are king, and a trip in a taxi is agonisingly slow, as the driver has to take ultimate care not to knock any bikes down - they don't stop, not even for red lights!
Update: Still messing around with my blog trying to get some pictures uploaded. Hopefully they will work. You can see us taking a stroll through the zoo on the right.
