13/01/2012 by Russell.

Just to let you all know, the roads are quite simply dangerous.

My house mate and work colleague was coming home by motorbike and had to see a very unfortunate event.

At the corner with the two lane highway (we all use), as always every evening 26 wheeler lorries are heading to the port for their next container pick-up, and on this occasion, the lorry picked up another passsenger it didn’t really want.  A motorbike driver was instantly crushed to death.  Now deaths here are not uncommon on the roads, over 10,000 die each year in Vietnam (UK around 3,000 deaths)

Deaths like this are avoidable, first of all motorbike riders and car drivers DO NOT LOOK when entering a main road or any road, therefore crashes are going to happen, hence this is probably what happened here.  I would also emphasize the truck was probably doing under 30 kph (20 mph) due to traffic and the road conditions.

Secondly, my friend had to drive past the corpse, he could see everything, the body was not even covered by the police. Awful.

This could all be avoided by stronger road safety and greater road discipline, for example a give way sign ot two.  Kids are the same the on their bicycles, riding 3 or 4 abreast on main roads, no-one looks over their shoulders before performing any manouevre.  Bring the British police, any European police force out here for a tv documentary, it would make interesting viewing.  They would not know where to start.

You need wits, concentration and an attitude to not let anyone use your road space.  Particularly the kids on bicycles and some motorbike riders just ignore red lights…just go and ride on without thinking for safety or traffic flow… or that their might be someone coming round a corner.  It is only a matter of time before the grim reaper strikes and its too late.

My work collegue saw a girl some years ago wobble off her bike whilst waiting at traffic lights with 2 other girls…yup as she fell she was decapitated by a lorry

source:http://images.wikia.com/villains/images/f/f0/Reaper.jpg

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30/10/2011 by Russell.

Due to the lack of inaction by our landlord and our employer, or so it seems, we have a Police raid, looking for illegal immigrants working in Hai Phong, living in a house which is not safe.

That is about the nub of it all.

Truth? We will never know, but it seems immigration are waiting for some papers from our employer, so are sticking to a national crackdown on all foreign workers in Vietnam, ie, hounding them to see that they have the correct status to work. We have but somehow, a 4 week operation to get immigration papers cleared, is now turning into a 3 day job? Hmmmmm bribesville.

As for the landlord, he has to register us as foreign tenants and pay tax, and therefore has been slow in doing this, so much so we have had the owner of the property who lives in China flying in this weekend to sign some papers so the property can be declared safe for us to live in. So for the past 5 nights we have all had to retire to a hotel, specified to us by the police. If we were to be found here when they raided the house, we would have $1,000 on the spot fine.

In the end its all about money, everyone seems to want a slice of someone else’s money for doing very little, other than ticking a box.

To add insult to injury, we are told some neighbours have written to the police telling them that they do not like us living here, a form of racism? I think that is more harmful than some petty issue for my previous employers (West Herts College) to investigate. Racism against another individual because of where they are from is far more concern than whether a cup of coffee is white or black.

So we continue in our world of school by day, hotel by night and my possessions still being in Saigon.

Tam is off to Saigon this week to go to DHL and vouch for my possessions and hopefully get them finally delivered.

Tam will have a week in Chu Lai, and I will go by bus Friday night, arrive Saturday morning, sign some papers on Monday and fly back, a round trip of 2,000km for a one night stay. Ooomph!

Also, whilst on my soap box, the police say that a 35 yr old woman and a 52 year man cannot stay under the same roof without a marriage licence. Alan and Carme, have had to prove they are married, the Stasi does exist.

The three stooges who came round with the landlord and the local community chief dropped all this bombshell over a glass of water around our table. Photocopies of passports and papers were exchanged like it was an international football match where pennants are exchanged.

Ah well, at least I know my teaching is good here, number 1 of course, just as always.

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20/10/2011 by Russell.

Well apart from trawling round the Big Supermarket and going to the Parkson Mall with concessions and a bowling alley and a cinema, there is little else to do but eat and drink.

We have noticed the Vietnamese go to Big C en masse around 8pm, to just go and walk round a big store, it is like a tourist attraction, with its KFC and coffee bar.  As for Parkson, that is full of western goods, way too expensive, so is like a museum, to all but the very affluent, and it seems us westerners are in that category.  No-one buys the tv’s fashion goods or furniture, only cosmetics or the food in the food court before going to see a movie.

Then there is a 20km trip to Do Sun and the beach, which by comparison to other beaches in Vietnam is poor.   No wonder the Americans didn’t get this far, they must have heard how poor the beaches were up north.  Far better at Vung Tau, Mui Ne, China Beach et al..all in South Vietnam.

We had a little R and R with Tam’s parents and extended family in Chu Lai last weekend.  Alan and carme joined us for a very wet and thundery weekend, but we still managed a trip to the beach and sank many beers in shop tv, karaoke, food and cards.  So a very full weekend, the only thoughts on Monday was would we be able to get back to Da N ang.  The rain was flooding all the fields and some streets.  Boy oh boy was it heavy rain.

We arrived back, only to find most of our afternoon classes were cancelled, we keep missing lessons because of monsoons, strikes (once) and the afternoon school has inter school competitions cancelling days in the week.  All disruptive and so we are not really getting the hours of teaching we want to earn that little bit extra money to keep us going.

I am flying solo on the moto - only because Tam is with her family in Chu Lai, so she cannot criticize me…ha ha ha! freedom at last.  I am scooting here and there, just as if i have been on a motorbike for years.  I never realised how thrilling driving a bike could be albeit only a 125cc, but it is more powerful than many bikes here…what’s that advert?…. Zoom Zoom!! so true. Alan and I were bth cauht speeding today…clocked at 49kph (30mph) on a triple highway, a big dual carriageway, I should have been doing 40kph. (24mph)

Tam is back on Friday, so I guess I have to boring again…..no freedom, except I do now have a bicycle, I can exercise at last.  The bike was bought in Da Nang for half (yes) the price of an exact same Giant Bike for 5,400,00VND.  As a comparison, Alan’s moto cost the same, no comparison is there?  I am so out of condition, hamstrings and stuff are feeling the strain after my firstride out to the airport here in Hai Phong, a guess of 6km away, I did two laps, somaybe 10-12km.  There are no hills here to getthe challenge of using the bikes gears - all 24.  The gearing is very weak, I am able to cycle comfortable in 20th gear.

Here are a few pics of what’s been going on..

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With Tam, Tom (American), Alan (Eire) and Moi and cake!

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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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22/09/2011 by Russell.

What a difference a day makes

All my fault of course for not letting Tam use our money to pay a bribe to the Police. It  is customary to pay a bribe when stopped by the Police here.  We have been stopeed 5 times now.  Ridiculous, all because the number plate is from a  region- no speeding , pulled in because we didn’t indicate between changing lanes etc., crazy.  It’s all beer money for the cops.

As a consequence they took her licence, and now she has to travel 110 Km to another city to get it back and a $30 (600,000 VND) fine to get it back.  Stupid really.  So I was in the doghouse for the sake of a 10 dollar bribe.

We have found a  4 bed house, with limited furniture for $250 a month, we have to pay 8 months in advance! That is 40m VND.

Kida and teaching can be variable - but what can you do with over 50 in a class?

Oh and my two colleagues had their moto’s stolen from the front of the hotel.  Both were on rental, worth almost nothin, but the owners want 3 times as much in money to the value of thes moto’s.  $750, we bought replacements for much less than 250 dollars.

So its my birthday on Sunday…wonder what the day will bring….

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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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