Blast from the past

Tobs - aren't you happy that your trip will become infamous with my blog readers throughout the world (read: you and my mum......).

I took delight in meeting Murrill at the airport and racing him the 20 minutes or so into District 1 (town center) via motorbike. If you don't know already, the roads in Vietnam are, well, unorthadox.

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.

Old friends

Blessed I was indeed to have Vietnam graced by the man they call 'big', that man is Toby Murrill. Reuniting with the Hoff after almost 2 years, there could only have ever been one outcome. It involved drink. It involved sand. It involved sun. Most importantly, it involved HT. There were fruitbats galore. There was Irish dancing. There was barbequed lobster, 5 pounds for a kilo. There was a boat trip with monkeys. In true Valencia/Prague/Thailand style however, the law of the stag remains omnipotent, and the finer details of this hedonistic fortnight will be ommitted. Picture too slow to load today. Coming on Monday.

Now I understand

Finally, the reason that (some) people don't get my jokes.........

Some people just don't have the brain power for it.

Where have you been??

This is a favourite of mine. According to this, the 21 countries I've visited account for 9% of the world. Check yours on http://douweosinga.com/projects/visitedcountries

SPECIAL SCHOOL

Yes, in the picture, if you notice behind me on the board, is the exlamation 'I am special'. What I am doing here is pointing it out MYSELF, rather than have people think I hadn't noticed it and laughing and sending it into FHM along with a brilliant picture of a Chinese sign that is hilariously translated incorrectly and sounds a little bit rude. Actually its a conception to give certain students a little more self awareness and self confidence. Everyday one student is selected and will have the 'special' treatment - for example, they get to leave class first for lunch, the other students are expected to treat them well through the day, and I personally promise to not take the belt to them that day. Well, within reason, you've got to get some enjoyment out of the day. As you can maybe see, we had this class on the life cycle of a frog. Now please don't email me about the specifics, you'll just have to look it up yourself, or better still, look in a 4th grade science textbook to quell you now salivating desire to know more.