17th January 2010
Ha Long Bay Photos
My blogs are a little back to front right now as this set of photos were taken on our first weekend in Ha Noi and I am about to step into my fourth but I am sure you will enjoy the photos despite that.
Ok, so we are in Ha Noi for a week and three of us are eager to go and visit Ha Long Bay. Before I move us to Ha Long, let me explian a little. Five of us arrived on the same day. Three of us from the UK, one from the US and one from India. All new recruits bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for the joys and tribulations of Viet Nam.
We had a great first week (despite the quirkiness of the language and the challenge of learning a language that has 6 potential meanings for a word all depending on whether the intonation goes up or down.....more on that another time). Two of us were keen to go exploring to this place that we had heard about and a third member of the group was more than eager to join in with the fun. The remaining two were very focused on trying to find somewhere to live and, happily, their quest was very successful and they did find an apartment in the exact area that they wanted to be. Anyway, back to Ha Long........
A three hour bus journey took us to the coast and to a truly amazing place. The photos just do not do justice to this place. It is quite mystical. You find yourself whispering at times as it just feels like it is a place with secrets that may be best left undisturbed. Legend has it that it is the place where the dragons decended to heaven and, in truth, if one surfaced, you'd probably simply take a photograph just as we would a dolphin or a whale.
We arrived around lunchtime and were taken to our boat. The first part of the journey is good...its always good to be on the water. Then the boat goes into the area of huge rocks that shoot up out of the water. They form some weird sort of fairy circle but designed for dragons rather than fairies. It's certainly an area to put on the list of must do's before you travel to the city in the sky.
We stayed overnight on the boat and were delighted to enjoy a perfect sunset and a clear starry sky. Sunday was spent meandoring through the bay and heading back to shore, lunch ashore and back to Ha Noi.
Lovely. Would do it again...and again. I just loved it.
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Friday, 15 January 2010
Arrival in Ha Noi.
15th January 2010
Wow, what a week. I arrived in Ha Noi on the evening of the 11th January with three other VSO volunteers...two from England and one from America. The fifth member of our little group had arrived earlier that day and was already at the hotel. We were greeted at the airport by one of the VSO staff, escorted to the hotel and hence our adventure began.
I was put with Sarah as my room mate. Sarah is from Orlando so we immdiately had an affinity given my years of living in Bradenton. We were very polite to each other for the first evening while we sorted out our 'territory' in the room, had a great night sleep and woke the next morning both refreshed and ready to go. Since that time, we have had a great laugh together. I cannot have asked for a better room mate. She is just great AND she is picking up Vietnamese at an unprecedented rate. In that respect we are at the opposite ends of the scale as I am really struggling with anything more than hello, goodbye and thank you.
First impressions of Ha Noi? Friendly, noisy, interesting, delicious food, polluted.........love it. Luckily I had read a lot about the weather and so was prepared for the grey sky. It seems to be 'sunny' is used to describe a grey sky that is just a few shades brighter than the norm.
First impressions of VSO Vietnam? We have been looked after with such attention to detial that I am totally in love with everyone that I have met. They really have been just wonderful .... nothing is too much trouble for them.
Wow, what a week. I arrived in Ha Noi on the evening of the 11th January with three other VSO volunteers...two from England and one from America. The fifth member of our little group had arrived earlier that day and was already at the hotel. We were greeted at the airport by one of the VSO staff, escorted to the hotel and hence our adventure began.
I was put with Sarah as my room mate. Sarah is from Orlando so we immdiately had an affinity given my years of living in Bradenton. We were very polite to each other for the first evening while we sorted out our 'territory' in the room, had a great night sleep and woke the next morning both refreshed and ready to go. Since that time, we have had a great laugh together. I cannot have asked for a better room mate. She is just great AND she is picking up Vietnamese at an unprecedented rate. In that respect we are at the opposite ends of the scale as I am really struggling with anything more than hello, goodbye and thank you.
First impressions of Ha Noi? Friendly, noisy, interesting, delicious food, polluted.........love it. Luckily I had read a lot about the weather and so was prepared for the grey sky. It seems to be 'sunny' is used to describe a grey sky that is just a few shades brighter than the norm.
First impressions of VSO Vietnam? We have been looked after with such attention to detial that I am totally in love with everyone that I have met. They really have been just wonderful .... nothing is too much trouble for them.
The only sticky point so far is the language.......so watch this space!
Monday, 7 December 2009
Preparing for Vietnam
It's December 2009 and we are heading surely but steadily towards Christmas, the start of a new year and, for me, the start of a new adventure. On January 10th 2010, I head for Vietnam to live and work in the capital city of Hanoi certainly for one year, maybe longer.
Why Hanoi? Well, I am going to work for VSO in Hanoi (Voluntary Services Overseas) as a Disability Awareness Advisor. I will be working for two companies. I will spend some of my time in the VSO office and the rest of my time with an organisation called IDEA who support the development of services for people with disabilities. So, a new job in unfamiliar country (never been to Vietnam) doing a new job working with two different briefs for two different companies. Yikes!!
Not as though this sort of crazy, jump in at the deep end type of adventure is new to me. Back in 2005, I did a similar thing when I went to live in Florida to start my own business and a new life. That turned out to be an increadibly exciting (LOVED living in Florida), out of the stratesphere stressful and ultimately, excrutiatingly expensive adventure. US Immigration, horrendous bad luck, some bad decisions all topped off with a slice of the 2009 recession conspired to my losing the everything.
So what do you do when you have nothing and are back where you started? Well, I licked my wounds for a few months and then started to look at my live long wish list. One thing stood out for me that I put on the list in my early twenties and had never done......VSO. So I applied got accepted and here I am on the edge of making the next step into the unkown.
Why so driven?
In all truth I don't really know. I could settle down and get a job and probably be OK with my life. There are sacifices to be made for the life style that I have created for myself, of that, there is no doubt.
I think the drive for me comes from two angles. The first being that once bitten by the adventure of life, it IS a challenge to settle back to more 'normal' activities. The othe angle is my age. I am 59 and want to live life to the max. Life is such a gift to embrace and always wanted to do just that to the degree that I am able. I have missed opportunities in my life...who hasn't.....and I want to minimise that possibility as much as I can from here in.
There is one other factor that I would like to add into the mix and for some this will be a little off the wall so take it or leave it as you choose.
We are heading towards a major time in the calendar of this planet. The Mayan calendar does not stretch beyond 2012. Now this could mean that they just couldn't be bothered to write any more predictions, they lost interest of it coicided with the demise of their culture. Whatever the reason, the prediction suggests possibilties that some intepret as being the end of the world while others suggest that it is the end of the world as we know it. Enegies are shifting, changing, speeding up. Those who are responsive to 'energies' (and NO, I cannot explain what I mean...you know or you don't) experience life as being different to how it was a few years ago. There is a shift that feels like we are heading for something different developing for the planet. Some see it as doom and gloom, I see is as being different. And I want to follow any opportunities that arrive for me and just will not go away in order to be best placed for being and doing what I can to contribute to whatever happens.
So, there you are. Rubbish? Poppycock?.....possibly but all I know is that I am following my heart and there can't be too much amiss with that can there!?
See you soon
Pat
Why Hanoi? Well, I am going to work for VSO in Hanoi (Voluntary Services Overseas) as a Disability Awareness Advisor. I will be working for two companies. I will spend some of my time in the VSO office and the rest of my time with an organisation called IDEA who support the development of services for people with disabilities. So, a new job in unfamiliar country (never been to Vietnam) doing a new job working with two different briefs for two different companies. Yikes!!
Not as though this sort of crazy, jump in at the deep end type of adventure is new to me. Back in 2005, I did a similar thing when I went to live in Florida to start my own business and a new life. That turned out to be an increadibly exciting (LOVED living in Florida), out of the stratesphere stressful and ultimately, excrutiatingly expensive adventure. US Immigration, horrendous bad luck, some bad decisions all topped off with a slice of the 2009 recession conspired to my losing the everything.
So what do you do when you have nothing and are back where you started? Well, I licked my wounds for a few months and then started to look at my live long wish list. One thing stood out for me that I put on the list in my early twenties and had never done......VSO. So I applied got accepted and here I am on the edge of making the next step into the unkown.
Why so driven?
In all truth I don't really know. I could settle down and get a job and probably be OK with my life. There are sacifices to be made for the life style that I have created for myself, of that, there is no doubt.
I think the drive for me comes from two angles. The first being that once bitten by the adventure of life, it IS a challenge to settle back to more 'normal' activities. The othe angle is my age. I am 59 and want to live life to the max. Life is such a gift to embrace and always wanted to do just that to the degree that I am able. I have missed opportunities in my life...who hasn't.....and I want to minimise that possibility as much as I can from here in.
There is one other factor that I would like to add into the mix and for some this will be a little off the wall so take it or leave it as you choose.
We are heading towards a major time in the calendar of this planet. The Mayan calendar does not stretch beyond 2012. Now this could mean that they just couldn't be bothered to write any more predictions, they lost interest of it coicided with the demise of their culture. Whatever the reason, the prediction suggests possibilties that some intepret as being the end of the world while others suggest that it is the end of the world as we know it. Enegies are shifting, changing, speeding up. Those who are responsive to 'energies' (and NO, I cannot explain what I mean...you know or you don't) experience life as being different to how it was a few years ago. There is a shift that feels like we are heading for something different developing for the planet. Some see it as doom and gloom, I see is as being different. And I want to follow any opportunities that arrive for me and just will not go away in order to be best placed for being and doing what I can to contribute to whatever happens.
So, there you are. Rubbish? Poppycock?.....possibly but all I know is that I am following my heart and there can't be too much amiss with that can there!?
See you soon
Pat
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