18/02/2012 by Russell.

What do you do on a cold February weekend? have a day trip to Bangkok of course!

My visa had expired, so I was boarded on to a plane to get me outta Vietnam to come back again to be a legal alien.

I had a visa extension, which apparently couldn’t be extended without a fine, which my employer declined to pay, so I was packed off to Bangkok for a day.

Finished school, sped off for the last bus to Hanoi at 5pm, arrived by 7pm, hunted down a hotel, the usual one was fully booked so had to pay $14 for a night on a 4th floor.  Up at dawn, chauffer to the airport and that’s where my troubles began…

First, as I knew the visa had run out so she refused to give me a boarding pass, until I had been to customs and paid a fine, 20 minutes later 1,250,000 VND had been parted from my wallet - approx $70.

Off to Bangkok with only about 30 people on my flight - yes 30 people on a 200 seater plane.

Arriving in Bangkok is a doddle, no visa for EU citizens…until you see the mass of people trying to enter the country, it took just short of an hour to get through passport control (eat yer heart out Heathrow - you are a model of efficiency), so that was my next delay.

After gaining entry, I had decided to visit the MBK shopping Mall - shops (inc Boots) and markets and there is a whole floor dedicated to Mobiles (like being in the Harlequin centre, Watford and it only sells mobiles and electronics bits..) Only to get there I missed a train by a whisker, another delay of 30 minutes.

Arriving at the Mall, it was how I had remembered from previous visits, I went to Boots for a toothbrush, 5th floor for a new t shirt and some boxers (they don’t make them big enough in VN) - not that I am fat - lol!

Very tempted to get an iPhone for half the UK price - in hindsight I am glad I didn’t. Sticking with my BBerry.

My highlight of the day was certainly eating a Burger King at the airport…

However, onto the flight and into VN, and a new visa upon arrival for $25 for 3 months.

Very tired and watched a snowy Stoke City play Sunderland  play on my tv until ZZZZZ’s beckoned.  A grand day out (Wallace would have said)

I thought my troubles were over…it was just the beginning

Sunday afternoon I managed to get a game of football, I had played earlier in the week, and all was well no hamstrings, groins etc.  Only on Sunday, I did my knee again, it was very much like the injury in 2009, it never really went away, so I have now offered to hang up my boots at the age of 53.  Or have I?  I was laid in bed for 2 days, couldn’t walk and had a witch doctor.  She used acupuncture and marajuana.  Acupuncture into the damaged ligaments (I think cruciate ligaments) and made a huge roll up from marajuana leaves and some powder and lit it.  She used i to put heat into my wound.

That was anothe $25 for two days treatment, back on my feet Tuesday to teach Wednesday……then the final nail into my woes is 1 Rectory Drive, a burst pipe, just as I was going to exchange…insurance invalid because the property has been empty for 60 days..ho hum…then 3 days later the ceiling collapsed.

Thank goodness for Enid and her resolve to help me out, goodness what her partner must think, but perhaps typically summed up by her mother when she went to the house with Enid, she always did have a dry way with words..she said “Its come to something when you have to help out an ex boyfriend” I can just picture her saying that to Enids partner, I can imagine he didn’t laugh…

The house is drying out, and needs a ceiling repaired..wait for more news…

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19/12/2011 by Russell.

“Ding Dong Merrily on high, the Christmas bells are ringing….”

I just can’t find that Christmas spirit we get at home, I feel something is missing, the shops are all decked out to sell gifts, with trees and everything, costumes for kids, but its not like home with Big outdoor lights, shops all looking pretty, pantomines, Pubs and special gifts for christmas.  It just is lacking that christmas feel.  There aren’t the malls to stroll and look, its ‘park yer moto and buy’.  Big C is doing its best with christmas songs being piped out of the PA - jingle bells in Vietnamee is not the same. But the country is embracing change and the children we teach know of Christmas, but the religious aspect is lost, who is Jesus? It is a commercial exercise here. No pictures of Jesus anywhere, there are christmas cards but not religious.

The Shelton staff had a trip around HA Long BAy, if you don’t know this place it is now one of the top 7 modern wonders of the world.  Great on a sunny day, but not on a cool winter’s day.  Well 17-18 degrees, to us Brits it’s still Summer.

It was a grand day out as Wallace would say.  It is a place everyone should strive to visit for its calming atmosphere, over 1969 limestone hulks of rock everywhere in the bay, 7 floating villages, and calm waters, very tranquil.  i guess you have to be of maturing years to fully appreciate.

What else? well the schools have been having their end of year exams, and so we had some down time, and we paid a visit to Ha Noi, principally to help Tom get a box through the postal system. He was experiencing the same difficulties as I with Saigon - DHL - and my tv in Ha Noi.  He had to play the same games as i did…hand over bribes, declare his goods were new, despite being years old….the system wreaks here of over officialdom.  Whilst in the post compound, I can easily vouch every item is opened and re-sealed when it enters the VN postal system.  Everything, I saw a ‘JD Sports’ parcel opened, inspected, catalogue was read by the staff and never returned to the package.  Tom’s package contained an old leather biker jacket, helmet, gloves, of no real value, put he was going to be initially charged 1m VND ($50) for him to get the parcel. 

Also our 16 and 17 yr olds participated in an English speaking contest, to be concluded this week.  Some of them are excellent, especially at Tran Phu School for gifted children.  They would give British students a run for their money.  However, others were disappointing, reading their notes verbatim, but you can have two points, its understandable, after all English is not their first language, or another view is that they were not prepared sufficiently after 3 weeks of work.  Some students were really excellent, global warming explained fully to me in English, to Shakesperian acting to telling me about Wayne Rooney’s life story.

The children are generally great with me and lessons fly by as have all the weeks since my arrival here in September.  I have been back to Tam’s hometown a couple of times for admin purposes, but all in all I have been in Hai phong.

Here we are outside one of our favourite restaurants in Ha Noi

Iwantoneofthose.com??? Free to take

Decorations galore, Ha Noi

Am going on little trip by bus early Saturday to Ninh Binh about 100 km away from Ha phong.  One night, back to teach on Boxing Day.  It is supposed to be very nice here with an old church and some caves and rice fields, and cool weather…but they really don’t get excited here about Christmas.  Its Tet for these people - but this is their lunar new year - like China.

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19/10/2011 by Russell.

Rats, squashed like hedgehogs in the road

Been here in Hai Phong teaching English a month now. Have managed to escape the surroundings of a hotel and move to a 4 bedroom house, recently completed, for $250 a month.

Tam and I share with Alan and Carme his Catalan wife and Tom an American applying for Canadian citizenship, so not quite sure whether he is going to be part of the Commonwealth brotherhood next year or what. I guess a bit like Greg Ruzseski in reverse?

I teach English to 16/17 year olds in two schools. There is a marked difference, the Tran Phu School for gifted are like Grammar school kids, my other school – Le Quy Don, is like a normal comprehensive.

I teach groups ranging from 30 to 55. At Le Quy Don (LQD) I teach a group twice a week, for 45 minutes each session. At the Grammar, Tran Phu, it is for an hour and fifteen minutes. Children here are pushed – education is number 1 for children, they go to school for 6 days a week, they have little free time to be children.

Teaching 50 odd kids is hectic and challenging and I wonder how much can sink in, especially in 45 minutes. They are all taught English grammar by Vietnamese English teachers.

I have become a bit of a cult status, thanks to Adrian Cronaur (aka Robin Williams). There is always someone to inspire us, and my Vietnamese teaching model follows Robin Williams. I am now being video’d and photographed each lesson now and am loaded up on facebook. The kids delight in this, its like a secret society, and membership of the club to be one of my friends appears to carry great kudos. I have been taken to heart by so many kids, I feel as though I am changing their lives, they seem to be inspired.

However, the bright kids can keep pace, but there are many shirkers among the classes. They are weak and can speak little english, but to concentrate on these also doesn’t help the stronger kids. It is hard to strike a balance. Often homework is copied, and herein lies the core problem for individual development, and is perhaps a cultural thing to copy. This does not unfortunately prepare them for the University courses they seek in the future. Alas kids are the same the world over – easy options. Vietnamese kids can be lazy, they are though over schooled with the 6 days a week. It must be exhausting for them….

Home life? We all get along fine, except Tom has developed kidney stones (ouch), so I was up at 3 am this week tending to him with Tam. He is waiting for the pain barrier when he passes the stones…

We commute on moto’s to the schools, I am yet to go solo, Tam is very protective(?) and yet Alan and Tom are flying solo very well, and I know the roads much better and the habits of Vietnamee drivers. They have no give way signs or stop signs, so junctions are a free for all, no looking just drive out and that includes school children as young as 7 yrs old.

Eating the food is a delight, Tam comes up with the most delicious food, every meal time, I am not only old, but getting to be a fat old man.

We have been to Ha Noi for the past 3 weeks to get my tv, which is hooked up, but we have no sound because of interference. Watching England at 2am is a joy! Ha ha ha ! I sit in silence and watch footy because the volume is such a loud hiss. We have gone back to factory settings…we now seek digital tv.

So I am going to get a bicycle for much needed exercise…also looking for a game of football….

Rats are plentiful here and are found squashed in the road, just as hedgehogs, and am glad to see every dead squished rat, whereas, I feel sad for hedgehogs because they are good creatures to have around.

PS, we have snails here as big as a 5 pound note!

THIS HAS ALL GOT OUT OF SEQUENCE  MY BLOG HAS BEEN DOWN FOR 2 WEEKS WITH THE SERVER, SO THIS IS OLD NEWS

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18/09/2011 by Russell.

Well been here a coupla weeks and many things to report.

Am staying in a hotel with some living accomodation for 450 USD a month, expensive.  I am working with Alan from Dublin and an American Tom.

We all seem to get on fine and we are looking for somewhere to live, Tam is a godsend with the language etc.  We found one place for 850 USD a month - a huge place, enough floor space to have a snooker table on each of the 3 floors, plus a bedroom each.  Instead it looks like we are settling on a 4 bed des res for only 350 USD a month. Split between 3 is quite nice.  It is a new house not too far from a supermarket, cinema and 10 pin bowling (modern society for VN)

We teach at 2 schools - 1 in the morning with a 7am start, yes 7am in class, which is like a comprehensive school.  Classrooms are like empty concrete shells.  There is a few rooms with Projectors, but its all chalk really.

The afternoon school is for gifted children, they have to do an entrance exam to get in  - like a grammar school, in all but name.  The children here are notieably brighter and more dedicated.

Homework is not really completed.  I teach from a boook and from my skills to make people smile and get them enthused by the topic.  The key thing is they can all speak good english. (Generally)

Also, the writing at the gifted school puts WHC undergrads to shame.  The words they use and in context is excellent.  They know Harry Potter but not 9/11- anything beyond Vietnam’s boundaries is not news.  Tam reads more about crime and killings here in VN.  Only yesterday, Police found 2 dismembered bodies in the city lake (akin to our Serpentine) in HA Noi - Hoan Kiem Lake is really historic and central to everyone’s morning exercise in Hanoi.

So I teach 16 and 17 yr olds, some are fine and others - like undergrads at WHC unmotivated and doing last nights maths homework  in class.

The key is to get them to talk, but I hav 45 -56 pupils in a class, and I have a 45 minute lesson with them at the morning school.  Very tough indeed to get kids to talk and practice their English.

My TV has arrived, its in Hanoi somewhere,  all for 240 quid, I just hope it works.  As for other possessions, not delivered like DHL in UK promised.  I hope they will be delivered next week.  I packed some glasses for a beer or two, but my email translation when quizzed by the authorities here about contents said ’spectacles for drinking’ all lost in translation, so customs in Saigon have held on to my package.

SO just been on a pointless journey to HAnoi to get Tam’s moto and my tv, achieved nothing except some cross words which I have no idea about, I only asked what the cops said because Tam returned to the car in tears after the Police stopped us (This is the 4 th time and we have not contravened any traffic law) - so far we have paid $25 in bribes.

I no longer know if I am with Tam or not -she has gone to bed and refuses to talk…ho hum…classes start at 2 tomorrow

POSTSCRIPT

Tam still not talking to me, only 2 hrs before she completes 24 of not talking. I am in such shit street, a tv in Hanoi, possessions in Chu Lai, a trunk being delivered by DHL…what’ll I do? all smooth until yesterday, now I am looking for a conversation with her for a sensible parting of the ways…if that’s what it is to be

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26/08/2011 by Russell.

Here I am sat cogitating and watching the rain outside.  I should really be throwing things away, but I guess I will leave til the final hours, I have tidied up so much lately that I am so conscious of how much baggage we all have.  No mater how much you throw, donate or ask for people to look after things, there is always more!

I have no bed,  or freezer or Washing maching, so the sofa a telly and Internet is my last set of possessions. Thye will be disappearing soon.

For a final fling, I am off to visit my dearest friend Barry in Cheshire, it is he I have had many adventures since we were teenagers, we have drank/drunk together, concerts, from Led Zep at Knebworth to small gigs seeing Steve Hacket (who?).  We had snooker to play, subbuteo and many card games together.  we would go to have a game of footy in the ‘top field’ and play 3 card brag whilst walking.  we have played golf, although Barry has stuck with it and is now a fine player, I just ran out of time and money to keep it up.  Barry and I shared many things, probably everything bar girlfriends!

Barry is my main man, a brother I never had, he is my harshest critic, and knowing I have his backing for this adventure I am about to set forth, means a lot.  He knows me like no other on this planet, even though we see each other so infrequently, he is still a rock in my life. When I die, he will be there, if I was in hospital, he would visit me, he is that sort of friend I am lucky to have.

Above all he knows my foibles for women, he knows my passion for football, he knows my love of sport and he knows of my triumphs and disappointments.  He knows of my emotions and can read me like a dictionary, uncanny.

If you think I had a turn of phrase, a moment to make you smile, then Barry can do it in triplicate.   So it is a farewell, albiet brief, because he is off camping on Sunday, so time is of the essence.

I have hired a car to get up there with Greg and see Barry, Ify, Ady and Jo, not seen since I returned from my travels, and they have now got a dog! looks like a ‘Marley and Me’ family situ.

So whats gone has gone, what’s to come is unknown, I travel to Vietnam, i work in Haiphong initially, was originally going to be Hanoi, but that’s another story.  I will be met at Da Nang, with Tam and we will drive 12 hours or so to Hanoi for my induction on 3rd and then start teaching on 5th in haiphong - 72miles east.  Haiphong is Vietnam’s 3rd largest city.

Emily;

Well she got into her first choice University - Brighton, to do a 4 yr BEd teacher training course for PE.  She was rewarded for her 2 year graft on her A levels with B B C, and now is setting sail towards adulthood very quickly.  She will be in Eastbourne.  God Bless her and good luck, when will we meet again? I do not have a timetable in mind.

Gregory

He too has received his GCSE results this wek, and is off to College for a computing medi type of course.  He attained 11 GCSE’s, with an A in English Lit, and ICT, grade B’s in Geog History and English Language, but a Grade C in Maths and double science and RE. I am so delighted for him, he also put in many hours shifts for 5 years twice a week to get up to scratch for maths, just reward and we thought he may get a grade b if fortunate.

Russell

Off to teach, with his MSc, Cert Ed, diploma in Marketing, HND, A level and 6 O levels some 6,000 miles away, in Vietnam.  Will I miss this country - I think now I have been back a while, then yes, it is after all my country, the one which like it or not has done so much for the world, I just hope it can rise from this desperate recession to be as ecomically strong, but I have my doubts.  Europe, like us is suffering, the growth in the far east is moving upwards and onwards. Thus, I have no worries about my destination, my only concerns are Emily and Greg, they are the only reason I kept going for 5 years of misery- children are the lifeblood of the world.  I saw it in South Africa, Cambodia, Vietnam, places with poor households, but what bonds these people and communities is their children, their families…I am told I have a family here, my view is that I want family life everyday, not a saturday and a sunday, and that is why I think I can now move forward, I see the values of family life, children and I want a slice of the action.  Emily is now off to University, I would see her all too infrequently, Greg can come to live with me for 3 months out in VN, rather than 24hrs here and there.  Hope that makes some sense.

Til the next time…I will be in Vietnam

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12/08/2011 by Russell.

Off to Ha Noi to start another little tour of South East Asia.

Principally, Hanoi beckoned to find somewhere to live, before my contract commences in September to teach English to children and local businessmen.

I am due to be in Ha noi, for what will prove to be quite challenging, to teach my own language, to people of varying degrees of competence, and I suspect apathy towards learning, the same the world over.

Generally I will be teaching for 20 hours a week, split 10 hrs school children and 10 hours for businesses.

Ha Noi, is the capital, but not as modern and vibrant in the same way as Bangkok or Hong Kong, Saigon is very much like Ha Noi.  It seems much smaller in size and the road network is nothing compared to the wide boulevards of Bangkok.

I signed my contract with Shelton and have to get back to HA Noi for the 3^rd September. Typically it will be a new syllabus, so have full lesson prep to negotiate for the first time in many years.  Hope I remember David Opperman’s advice for lesson plans!

Needless to say, no accommodation was successfully accomplished, but there is a place in an area 30 mins from where I will teach. Tam wants to be much nearer to the school and business.

However, Thursday arrived and we left for Bangkok for some R&R, hotel by the river where I had once dined for breakfast-  Whose address had been duly noted for future reference.  Failed to meet up with Natasha Khilji – we were in and out to get to the Viet Embassy

Managed to go to MBK and find some bits for Emily’s Blackberry and over the road admire the extravagances of the Siam Paragon shopping mall.  This all fitting in with acquiring yet another Viet visa.

Friday – and it was a full day – to the Royal Palace and grounds, very cultural with colours and manicured gardens.  I had been before with Barbora, where is instantly reminds me of Shakespeare “all the glisters is not gold”. Funny how something learnt in childhood still applies from something written many hundreds of years ago from the Merchant of Venice.  Thanks to John Hollman my English tutor, sadly I let him down on my O level literature, but what he did instill in me was the desire to read, perhaps not a failing after all.

Saturday was an all day affair at the Chatuchuk market – 8,000 stalls from small things to crocodiles and that’s not the handbags.  Tam ‘not like’ - I do not understand when there is so much choice, but it was more expensive than Vietnam

However for lunch they did try to serve uncooked crab – wow – get it on the bbq and quick please.  

It was very hot, very sweaty, especially trying on clothes.  Was in dire need of a massage after that exhertion….

Sunday to the zoo and Wat Pho, and bed for an early rise at 3.30am.

Bounced into Hanoi and then a flight to Da Nang within the hour, why can’t we do that in England?  Yet I guess we have more prestige to lose if we suffer a failure in security.

Dentist in Da Nang? Well we tried to get a crown done for a few hundred dollars, and to be honest, would have done it, but was completely knacked from being up at 3 am and wanted a different crown to the one offered at the third dentist we visited.

Stayed overnight before a quick visit to BA Na

Ba Na is a hill top resort, connected by the longest cable car ‘in the  world’ (say it like Jeremy Carkson).  It is in the Guiness Book of Records.  Imagine going from Fort William to the top of Ben Nevis by cable car and you get the idea, in terms of height and distance, the journey takes about 30 minutes - and you are not at the top then!

What do you see? a fantastic view looking East towards DA NAng and the sea. You are able to visit Fantasy Land, a bit like a better mans Matlock Bath but not quiite the Pleasure Beach of Blackpool.  All the rides are indoors because of the weather? and it will be completed in 2013.  There is a 3D experience and a vertical drop of 20m obligatory dodgems and more besides.  The hotels are expensive - but the view and the cooler weather made for a delightful change.

…then back to Chu Lai…

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