Travelling through Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

This is the final post about our journey through Vietnam which ended on the 5th February 2014. We travelled from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City - the North capital to the South capital - and stopped at Ninh Binh, Hué, Hoi An and Nha Trang along the way. We travelled the whole way by sleeper bus which turned out to be an interesting experience (see other posts)! 

The three of us had flights booked out of Ho Chi Minh City on the 5th February so, by the time we were in Nha Trang, we were running a bit short on time. We had originally planned to stop in Mui Ne but decided against it as we preferred to spend longer at our final destination rather than at the beach resort. We travelled overnight from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh and arrived ridiculously early in the morning (I forget the exact time). Again, not wanting to get ripped off by taxi drivers, we made our way to our hotel on foot. When we got there, however, we found that it was completely shut up - doors closed and shutter down! We ended up having to wake up the family who ran it to let us in. To be fair to them, we had booked for that night and we arrived so early that we had to pay for another so they weren't expecting us! It was also during the festival and it seemed that there were not any other guests in the hotel. 

Ho Chi Minh seemed different to anywhere else we'd been in the country, more European than the other cities. There is evidence of much more European-style and modern architecture, as well as wide roads and statues. However, there was still evidence that we were still in Asia. There were still loads of scooters. Everywhere. We walked down a more traditional market street and the Benh Thanh Market near where we were staying was full of people trying to flog fake goods for the best price.

The roundabout in front of Benh Thanh Market

Lights celebrating the new year and lots of scooters!

Market street

Meat stall

One of the things that Alex had been particularly looking forward to in Ho Chi Minh was going to visit the  Cu Chi Tunnels, a vast network of connecting tunnels from during the Vietnam War. We booked a half day trip to go out to see them having decided it would be difficult to make our own way there. It was a good thing we did, as everyone there seemed to be with a tour group and our guide was good. He had been in the Vietnam War himself and showed us his gunshot wound. However, he spent most of the day singing which didn't really fit the setting! "Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen, You come from different countries, To Vietnam on holiday, Come along and sing with me" (or something like that!). We were able to walk around the forest looking at various exhibits of weapons, a tank, underground rooms etc. as well as the gruesome traps the Vietnamese made for the enemy. There was also a shooting range where tourists could pay to fire various guns. The gunshots added to the atmosphere of the forest. Tourists were allowed to get into a replica tunnel opening for photo opportunities and crawl through one of the tunnels, which had been made bigger and had lighting installed to accommodate large Western tourists! The tunnels are definitely worth a visit.. 

Me in the entrance of the tunnels

One of the traps

A tank

Another trap

They must have been lethal!

Exploring the tunnels

Alex in the tunnels

We seemed to visit Ho Chi Minh at a good time as the flower festival was on to celebrate the new year. There were thousands of colourful flowers for people to look at, some of them in different shapes, with lots of horses to celebrate the new year.

Pretty flowers

Colourful

This was all the way down the street for at least 500m

We enjoyed wandering around the city and seeing the various sites.

Modern buildings (with Alex and Chloe)

Municipal Theatre

Statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of City Hall

Notre Dame Cathedral

Reunification Palace

On the 4th February, our last full day in Vietnam, it was my 21st birthday. We discussed various options for what to do, thinking we ought to do something special, but realised that we'd been doing so much over the three weeks that it would be nice just to have a relaxing day. We considered visiting the Mekong Delta but were sick of being herded around on organised tours by then and preferred the idea of a lie-in! After some research, we found that Ho Chi Minh had a bowling alley and some Indian restaurants so we decided it would be a day of home comforts instead. The night before, we went to a really nice Thai restaurant (in preparation for mine and Chloe's next destination!), followed by a  few bars late into the night, so a lie-in on my birthday morning was just what I needed. It was fun to go bowling, something I hadn't done in a few years, and hadn't done on my birthday for even longer! I did have a bowling birthday party for my 10th birthday though. It is often joked that the typical food of Britain is Indian and at home we enjoy our Indian takeaways and occasional meals at Indian restaurants, so it wasn't difficult to choose which cuisine I wanted to celebrate with. 

Action shot!

Results of the first game

Enjoying our Indian

Birthday girl!

The next day, I went with Alex early in the morning to get a taxi to the airport from one of the travel agents. He was setting off to fly from Ho Chi Minh, back to Hanoi. Then from Hanoi to Xiamen via Hong Kong (the same way we came). Then from Xiamen to Dubai via Hong Kong. Then from Dubai to Denmark! That's an awful lot of travelling but I'm glad he arranged it so that he could be there to celebrate my birthday. Chloe and I left later on that day. On the way to arrange our taxi, we saw a lion dancing show as part of the new year festivities. That evening we flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand, via Bangkok. It was sad that our time in Vietnam was over and that we no longer had Alex with us, but we were looking forward to our next adventure!

Lion dancing in the street

The lion

Travelling through Vietnam - Hoi An

I had been really looking forward to going to Hoi An as I had heard good things from fellow travellers, some saying that it was their favourite place in Vietnam. When I was there, I could certainly see the appeal. It isn't a big city like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh and it isn't a beach resort like Nha Trang and, I imagine, Mui Ne. It is actually a quaint town full of old Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese buildings and history. The town is also famous for tailors, something we only found out when we arrived, as the lady at our hotel spent a long time talking to us about it when we checked in.

After settling into our rooms, we went out for some food and a bit of a wander and finally understood why Hoi An is famous for tailors - there are so many of them! When I had first heard about the tailors, I wasn't too bothered about them and didn't plan to get anything. However, a dress caught my eye outside Kimmy Custom Tailor. This shop had been one of the ones recommended to us by the lady at the hotel so we decided to go in. It was a long, simple, but elegant evening gown in a turquoise/teal colour. We had a look through their various catalogues on their laptops but this dress was still my favourite. Chloe and Alex convinced me that I should get it as, at the time, I still needed another outfit for my cousin's wedding in Nepal. In the end I didn't wear it for that, but the plan is to wear it for part two of the wedding in the UK in August!

One of the workers took my measurements and asked me how long I wanted it. I then got to choose the fabrics and colours, I kept the top fabric the same but chose a darker colour to go underneath. The lady suggested I might want the back changing as the original was very fussy. I'm glad she did this because I actually hadn't looked at the back at all and was much happier with the simple halter neck alternative. The service was very professional despite there being quite a lot of customers. My dress cost 60$ which I thought was a good price for a dress tailored to my measurements. Alex also got some trousers made. They were both ready the next day after a fitting. Alex's fit perfectly first time but my dress was a little bit long so they took it up for me.

My beautiful dress

Dress fitting

Back of the dress (apologies for the bra straps!)

Before picking up our clothes, we went to the bus company to book our next bus. We had hoped to get a night bus to Nha Trang and have two full days in Hoi An, but, unfortunately, the bus was booked and we ended up having to choose the bus early the next morning instead, only giving us a day in the city. After checking that we could get our clothes in time, we set off for the ancient city. However, it seems that in Hoi An it is very easy to get distracted by various clothes shops. Chloe and I ended up purchasing "travellers' pants" and Alex got a couple of tank tops from one of these shops.

Finally, it was time to wander around the ancient town. You have to buy a ticket which allows you to visit a certain number of each type of place but not everything. This is plenty as we found that once you'd been to one assembly hall or old house, they were all quite similar. The ticket also allows you entry to the museums but we only went to the Hoi An history museum which was more like a small exhibition. It seemed clear that the town was a shoppers' paradise and it was very difficult to refrain from buying more things!

Hoi An streets

Lots of lanterns!

Some of the most famous buildings in Hoi An are the Chinese assembly halls so we decided to go to one of these first. It wasn't difficult to choose as there is a Fujian one there, the province Xiamen is in.

Entrance to the Fujian assembly hall

Mosquito coils

Dragon fountain

Inside the assembly hall

一帆风顺 - "Plain Sailing". This idiom was in my Chinese textbook!

We also went to the Cantonese assembly hall towards the end of our wander around town as we still had spare ticket stubs left. This was also very nice and had a garden at the back as well as the front. Both were very ornate with lots of detail.

Cantonese assembly hall

Inside the assembly hall

Back garden

We also decided to visit one of the old houses and opted for the one we'd been told was "most famous". Once there, a lady told us about the house which was very interesting. Apparently the house had stayed in one family for many many generations and that they still lived there upstairs but let tourists visit downstairs. The house had experienced problems with flooding and there were marks on the wall showing how high the water had got in different years. One year it had flooded almost up to the ceiling!

The character 百 - hundred - made from birds

Lines showing the water level during different years of flooding

Inside the house

Another one of the most famous attractions in Hoi An is the Japanese Covered Bridge. We walked along by the harbour to get there. Hoi An used to be a big trade port but nowadays the boats are more for tourism.

Boats in Hoi An harbour

Hoi An harbour

Japanese covered bridge

That evening we had a nice meal after an equally enjoyable day. It was a shame that we couldn't spend longer there but I think we would have ended up with very heavy suitcases if we did!

Keeping up my French

The problem with the BA Modern Languages degree is trying to keep all three languages at a good standard. The University of Southampton only allows students to spend their year abroad in one country to better understand the culture, improve the language and to complete the YARP (Year Abroad Research Project).

I chose to spend my year abroad in China rather than a French or Spanish-speaking country as I saw it as a great opportunity. My level of French and Spanish was already quite high but as I'd started Chinese ab initio (from scratch) in first year, I wanted to improve it as much as possible. 

In order to graduate from the BA Modern Languages degree you need to have completed Stage 6 in at least two of the three languages. For those unfamiliar with Southampton's language stage system, there are 7 stages. and each stage normally takes one year to complete. Stage 1 is where I started with Chinese. This is when you have little to no previous knowledge of the language but, on completion, is similar to GCSE standard. Stage 2 is roughly equivalent to AS and Stage 3 is roughly equivalent to A2. I therefore began French and Spanish at Stage 4 having completed A-Levels in each. I was fortunate enough to take part in a 6-week summer programme at Nanjing University in the summer after my first year which counted as my Stage 2 as it was an intensive course combined with the immersion of being in China. This meant that in second year at the University of Southampton, I completed Stage 3 - the required standard set by the university for spending your year abroad in China. It was agreed that it was possible for the year abroad in China to count as two stages - Stages 4 and 5 - on the condition that those wishing to do this write 2000 Chinese characters rather than 1000 for their YARP. I did this so am now hoping to complete Stage 6 in all three of my languages in my final year at university. 

However, choosing to spend my year abroad in China meant somewhat neglecting my other two languages. It was not possible to continue studying French and Spanish at Xiamen University as Spanish was not taught and French was taught on the main campus - a 45 minute to hour and a half bus journey away. This would mean that I had to use my time either side of the year abroad wisely to ensure that I maintained a good standard in both my French and Spanish. 

I spent two months in Madrid last summer working as an au pair and found that my Spanish did improve a lot and I am still quite confident with it. I occasionally spoke Spanish with some of the Spanish-speaking students in Xiamen as well. Although I learnt a lot from the experience, I was not keen to repeat it as things did not go very well with the au pair family. I decided that I would need to find a more formal job in France the following summer.

I started job searching after the month-long holiday for Chinese New Year, week in Nepal for my cousin's wedding and week of my family visiting me in Xiamen. After all of that, this ended up being February which I thought was still quite early for finding a summer position. I was interested in finding jobs that allowed me to speak French but applied for English-speaking jobs as well just to have the opportunity to be in France. I applied to various jobs such as receptionist, hotel assistant, childcare, camp site work, TEFL teacher etc. but struggled to find anything. The issue with a lot of the jobs in the hotel and tourism industry, were that they either wanted people to work the entire summer season - from beginning of May until the end of September - or they wanted to interview in the UK. I obviously could not conform to either of these requirements as I was in China until 24th June. 

Eventually I received two job offers. The first was working as a hotel assistant for a UK-based company in the Alps. They had not yet filled all of their summer vacancies so wanted me to start straight away (after a week and a half in the UK) and stay until mid-September. I found out that all the staff and customers were British so I would therefore not be speaking French whilst working, that I would be working 6 days a week for a low wage doing menial jobs such as cleaning, and that I would not be allowed an extra day off to go to my cousin's wedding in August. After much consideration, I decided not to take the job as it seemed unlikely I would speak French and I would miss out on spending time with my family and friends, visiting Alex in Denmark and attending my cousin's wedding.

Instead, I decided to take the other job I had been offered. This is a three-week TEFL placement for newly qualified TEFL teachers in Châtellerault, Western France. I completed my TEFL qualification with TEFL England in February this year consisting of 20 hours in a classroom and 100 hours online and found this job advertisement on their site. This seemed the perfect opportunity to get some teaching experience and use my new qualification. I will be working as one of three teachers at a children's holiday camp. There will be classes in the morning and activities in the afternoon. Although I will be required to speak to the children in English, I do get weekends free and will be in a more French environment than the holiday resort. The position is unpaid but accommodation and food is provided and I think it should be a great experience and am really looking forward to it. I leave on 10th August. 

On top of this, I have also enrolled myself onto an Advanced Revision course at the Alliance Française de Manchester. It is a four-week course with two 2.5 hour lessons a week (20 hours total) costing £130 or £120 for students. The course focuses on conversation but there is also some useful grammar revision. I have been to two classes so far and am enjoying it. The teacher is very good and gives us little bits of homework to do. I also get free one-year membership to borrow various French books, DVDs and magazines from their extensive collection so am hoping to make use of that soon! They also run a course specifically aimed at final year university students in September so I may do that as well if I still feel that my French is a bit rusty. 

I may not have chosen the easiest option for my year abroad but I feel like it was the right one. It is nice having something productive to do during my summer holidays and spending a year abroad in China as part of my degree was not an opportunity I wanted to turn down. 

Chaozhou, Guangdong

Apologies for not posting very much these days but I've been very busy with exams and my YARP (Year Abroad Research Project). This is something I have to do for University of Southampton and counts for a seventh of my degree. I have to write 6,000 words in English and 2,000 Chinese characters as well as do my own research so it has been quite time consuming!

A couple of weekends ago we had a long weekend for Tomb Sweeping Holiday. This seemed the perfect opportunity to get out of Xiamen and visit somewhere new. We left it quite late to book tickets and were running low on money so decided to go to Chaozhou in Guangdong province, just three and a half hours away by bus. The bus cost 86元 from the Xiamen University booking office and we got the bus from HuBin Nan station in the middle of the island.

Unfortunately our journey and arrival didn't go too smoothly. After rushing down there from Xiang'an campus for our 2pm bus, we found out that it had been delayed and we would be leaving at 15:10 instead. We sat in the station playing minesweeper on my laptop to kill the time! Once we were on the bus, the journey itself went smoothly. As we neared our destination, I checked to see if my internet was still working on my phone by opening up my email as I'd never taken it to another province before. I then saw that we had an email from Ctrip saying that we needed to call them urgently about our booking which we'd made the night before. It turned out that the hotel we'd booked at couldn't accept foreigners or people from Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau so we needed somewhere else to stay. After Alex's long conversation with them on the phone, offering us Ctrip coupons to pay the difference of a new hotel they'd found, we decided to get some food while they sorted out the new booking for us. We went to a Chaozhou cuisine restaurant and asked the waitress what she recommended...

BIG MISTAKE. We ended up with Chaozhou fried rice which was ok, but also an oyster omelette. I had food poisoning from the next morning, throughout our entire stay, return to Xiamen and for another day once we were back. 5 days in total! We ended up spending the majority of our time in our hotel room which stank of smoke as it was a "Business Hotel" i.e. where businessmen go to smoke and have fun with prostitutes! Thankfully there was a Macau film channel on the TV with the films all in English with Chinese subtitles which gave us something to do.

Anyway, after the restaurant we decided to walk the 3km to our new hotel (because we disagreed to pay a higher price for a new hotel we got one that was a long way out). The walk wasn't all that interesting as it was just a long, straight road with shops, businesses and restaurants either side. When we finally reached the hotel, the receptionist was very glad we could speak some Chinese as she'd been worrying about trying to speak English with us!

Because of my food poisoning, we only made it out to do some sightseeing on the Sunday. We got a tuk-tuk from outside our hotel to Guangji Bridge which seemed to be Chaozhou's main sight according to our online research. Towards the very end of the journey, we came across a very narrow gap before a bit of road they were doing some work on. Our driver went through the gap and onto this bit of road before the tuk-tuk got stuck and the door fell off leading to us getting out and Alex helping the guy push it. 不好意思 for the driver!

Tuk-tuk

Chaotic section of road

We got to the bridge and decided to get our picture taken by a professional photographer. As we were standing together, she told me to put my hand on my hip to look 很漂亮 (very beautiful) and her colleague edited the photo to make us whiter, the bridge darker and the sky blue.

After this we went in search of food as we hadn't eaten yet that day. I only fancied plain boiled rice as didn't think my stomach could handle that much more but that proved difficult to find. Who would have thought that finding a bowl of rice in China would be difficult? We ended up in a fast-food place a bit like KFC.

Then it was time to go on the bridge itself. Guangji Bridge is one of China's four ancient bridges. It costs 50元 to cross the bridge, 25元 for students, but it is well worth the money. I've never seen a bridge like it! It had so many different sections, the most interesting of which was the middle which was made up of boats. These boats get taken away at the end of the day to allow traffic through and we were lucky enough to be on the bridge at the time this operation was happening when we were on our way back.

On the bridge

Bridge made of boats

Taking pictures with the funny white man

Hand on hip!

Guangji Bridge

On the other side of the bridge we went to a temple built on a steep hill with lots of steps leading up to it. Unfortunately by this point I was feeling really rotten and ended up throwing up so didn't enjoy it too much!

Lots of steps

Alex inside the temple

 Overall it wasn't the best of trips but I wouldn't disuade people from going there. If you do, just avoid the seafood...