Hot in the City

OK boys and girls. Am still in Hoi An with Vicky and Clare- who are beginning to insist I mention them and have given me permission to post photos of them here- the fools!! It is bloody hot here so what better place to get a winter jacket made? It is a gorgeous jacket but trying it on in this heat hasn't been fun. Things might have got out of hand with this tailoring thing and all the careful thought that I put into arranging the contents of my rucksack have gone out of the window with all the new additions. Ah well.

Hoi An is a very pretty city- the old area anyway, it starts to get a bit crumbly around the edges the moment you walk away from the old part of the city and by the time you get to the beach the wooden shacks have almost totally taken over from the brick buildings. Unfortunately, it is the kind of place that money just drips through your fingers. Today I am going on a day trip to My Son in the hope that I will spend less- I'll let you know how that works out.

Had a pedicure in the marketplace and my eyebrows threaded the other day. Watched Vicky get her legs threaded. Went to the beach under a deluge of hawkers, not as relaxing as we thought it would be.

Will try and get back to you later- blogger has been a bit hit and miss here. Now it is time for brekkie.

The English on the bus go whine whine whine

The bus ride was long but not actually as long as we thought that it was going to be. Which helped at the end of the journey but not at all at the beginning. It took us about an hour just to get out of the city and 90 minutes after that we had stopped for our first rest break. The guy in front of me had got on the bus and popped his seat right back as far as it would go so that he was basically leaning on my chest. I asked him to put the seat forward which he did, then slowly but surely eased it back again over the next few minutes in the hope that I wouldn't notice. At the point my breathing became constricted once more and the choco pies and cheese that I had hung on the seat in front of me had mashed firmly into my knee, I protested again. And again. Now seats back is OK when there is room to do so or when everyone is asleepy and certainly not OK when you put your seat back then lean forward to look out of the window.

There was quite some battle of wills going on and I have to say that in the end he won. Dammit!

And, while I thought that I was in a bad place, it was nothing compared to the Danish girl at the front of the bus. She was sharing her space with a man and his daughter. The daughter being young the guy hadn't bought her a seat- the understanding being that she would sit on his lap- but he just popped her on the seat next to him and edged his way into the Danish girl's seat. The only way that all three of them seemed to fit was if he put his hand on the Danish girl's knee. She wasn't comfortable with this arrangement at all and actually took the girl onto her own knee for a while just to get the bloke's hand off her.

But we arrived into Hoi An at 6.30am and mistakenly got off the bus early and confused. Suddenly we were surrounded by moto drivers - 'please you want a motorbike??'- chaos as we tried to find out 1. where we were and 2. where the hotel we wanted to be in was. Turned out that we did need some motos after all.

The hotel had been recommended by the previous one in Nha Trang and it is very nice. It has a courtyard with a pool in it and we are in a triple room for only $13. Very nice indeed. It is called Thanh Van and has some of the rudest staff I have come across in my three weeks in Vietnam. The guy on the desk accused us of being snide when we insisted on knowing the price of the room before we went to look at it. If we hadn't been so exhausted that would have been the end of that. Instead we checked in.

But weren't able to go to sleep straight away so decided to scope out the neighbourhood. Everything you have ever heard about Hoi An and its tailors is true. They are simply everywhere round here. We thought that we would have a look around and then go back for clothes later when more awake and showered. And I didn't think that I would have anything to do with them at all.

So we went and booked the sleeper train to Hanoi for Tuesday night- I have never been on a sleeper train before and am pretty excited about it. Not too sure about 16 hours on something described as hard berth and there are three beds in each stack but I am sure that it will be interesting and couldn't be worse than the bus- could it???? We also booked a trip to My Son for this morning.

We popped our heads into a couple of the tailor's shops but didn't really know what was going on. Then we found one that was really nice and welcoming and had loads of stuff that Viky liked just sitting there. It is weird. They have mannequins at the front of the shop and when you go in they give you something like the Next catalogue and you just look through and choose something for them to copy. Now I hate clothes shopping as much as the next man (not the Next man) so wasn't interested at all. Then I saw a beautiful corduroy jacket hanging on a mannequin. It is bloody hot here in Vietnam but I am off to a cooler Oz in three weeks then onto cold old New Zealand and very cold indeed USA. Before I had time to think I had been measured, had picked out some material for the jacket and two new skirts!

We went back at six last night for our first fittings and so far so good. One of the skirts that Clare was having made looked so good that I ordered another one for me. Oops! Today I have to take in my favourite shirt to have it copied so that I have something to wear with my new skirts. Second fitting is today at 4. The jacket is every bit as gorgeous as I had hoped and at $33 for a lined jacket not bad at all. The only thing is that it was almost too hot to try it on! I had to stand in front of the fan just to get cool enough to do the jacket up. I have to admit that I did feel a bit of a princess and it is very addictive. I can see why my friend, Rebecca, couldn't keep out of Hoi An last year. But I am going to limit myself to the three skirts, one jacket and maybe three shirts, depending on the price. Photos to follow!

Going out last night for a couple of beers it became obvious that we weren't going to make it to My Son today so Vicky went and moved the trip to Monday, which means that we can go out again tonight- assa! I actually had an early one last night and was tucked up in bed well before midnight. The bar we were in was playing a lot of the Bumpin classics. It is the weekends when I miss my mates the most. I was getting a little emotional so came back to read and relax. Not a bad day for one that started at 6.30!

Here's mud in your eye!

There is a bar here in Nha Trang that gives street kids lessons for free. You can volunteer to give them free English lessons in the morning. This was just one of the things that we thought we might do over a bottle (or five) of wine the other night. We didn't do it and judging on their persistence they don't need any help with their English. But we did make two other decisions which we did carry out. Yesterday we went on a one day boat cruise around four islands and today we went to the mineral mud baths.

The boat was fun but my throbbing head wasn't. We had spent the whole of the previous night at a Mexican restaurant (I have lived in Asia for the last three years so really feel no guilt at taking a break from Asian food) until we had finished all the wine there. Seemed a good idea to go back to the hotel, buy some beers, and sit on the roof. We made it up there but really didn't manage much of the beer. Ah well.

The bus to take us to the boat was late but we made it in the end. There were many Vietnamese on the trip- including one little kid who I played with for the first five minute or so and who then screamed his little head off for the next two hours. Not my fault, honest. WE cruised, we swam, we snorkelled but my favourite part was the floating bar. Which was basically a guy on a little float giving out free wine (well, he said it was wine but I have never tasted wine quite like it) while we floated around in life rings. It was cool and relaxing and no-one tried to sell us anything which made a change. Unfortunately I was having too good a time to notice the sun slowly making its mark on my back and across my shoulders.

Got back to the hotel and bought some much needed after sun cream to the amusement of the girl there- I don't know if she was laughing at my sunburn or this often happens to people who have been on the boat trip. Last night I refused even one beer over dinner to make up for the damage done earlier.

Today we rewarded ourselves with a lie-in and went off to the mineral baths around 11. We hired three motos there and even after four days on the back of a 125 I must have looked like a novice as the guy grabbed my ankle and forced my foot onto the pedal. Once inside we went outside again to a bunch of showers and showered off. Then onto the baths which were open air pools. We bathed in one bath and a guy came over to take souvenir photos. At least we think that is what he wanted and not for his private collection. He wanted us to pour mud over each other while he took photos. We imagined that any minute he was going to try and get us to wrestle.

This was the first time that I have had a mud bath since being a grown up (not sure playing in the back garden as a kid had the same health benefits that this place claimed to). The mud was thinner than I thought it would be. And it was a mineral mud bath so pretty salty which meant that we floated around all over the shop. We hippoed around in the mud for a while before moving onto the high pressure showers. Then a hot bath. Then the swimming pool. Even after all that I was still finding mud in my swimsuit and ears.

We came back to Nha Trang and had lunch before I went back to the hotel room for (another) shower which revealed more mud in places that I didn't know I had places. Goodness. Now the girls have gone to the beach while I have, sensibly, decided to rest my sunburn for a while and blog instead. Tonight we are on a bus to Hoi An which will take around 11 hours. Not looking forward to it much. I'll catch up with you all there.

Photos finally!

I have found a place here in Nha Trang which has the stuff which allows me to look at my photo CD. Yesterday we (yes, I have made some friends, two English girls I met on the road last week) went on a boat trip which involved snorkelling and generally splashing about in the water drinking wine. It was good. But I made this CD a few days ago so there are no photos from that day. The day before we just lazed on the beach all day. And then drank too much wine in the evening. Today we are going to a mineral mud bath (maybe) and then getting the night time bus to Hoi An.

Here are some photos from the last week. I am sorry but I am way too sunburnt to even attempt to be entertaining right now....

this is a silk worm presilk producing days

this is a stairway in the Crazy House guesthouse in Dalat

this is the very cute farmer's daughter who held my hand during the whole tour

Elephant Falls. Not in the guidebook but gorgeous anyway

When we went to the Chicken Vilalge it started to rain and some girls lent me a hat. Nice.

When it was still raining later at the Dragon Pagoda we had to give in and put on ridiculous raincoats

This is a long house in Lac Lake. You probably can't see all the animals that live under it. The village is a Mnong tribe one. They live in longhouses and keep elephants.

See! An elephant


This is the elephant next to Binh's bike- our own beast of burden

Me at some other waterfall

Ancient Cham temple in Nha Trang

Probably ancient beach in Nha Trang

Silk worms ready to be harvested.

Girl weaving silk in the Chicken Village. She is a member of one of around 55 ethnic minority groups here in Vietnam

This was mad bamboo chopstick making- fast and furious with no safety controls at all.

And there you go. I could post hundreds more photos but I have other things to do today. Hope you enjoy them!

No photos- will this do?

Can't do the photos thing today- no hole in the computer to put the CD in. I did try. So for the more visually minded of you (and those that just like to look at the pictures) here is a map of Vietnam that I nicked off the Lonely Planet website. I am currently in Nha Trang

I arrived into Saigon and have been to Mui Ne and Dalat. Then bike trip was three days in the Central Highlands. Next stop maybe Hoi An, after a few days of chilling here. Must go now as the sea is waiting.

Am Alive

The clouds were closing in on the mountains around us. Binh flipped up the visor of his helmut and leaned back.

'I think that we might have rain today' he confided. I was hard pressed to disagree. Moments later the first drops appeared. Binh pulled over to the side of the road so we could unpack and get into the rain coats that he had remembered to bring this time. Back on the bike we hurtled along the road, clouds now obscuring the previously daunting drop a few feet away. Lightning flashed down and struck the trees on the mountain next to us. I was glad that we were on our way down.

I could barely see the road ahead now but it didn't seem to stop Binh waeving the machine through the scant traffic we came across. By the time we reached the roadside cafe for lunch we were both soaked to the skin. We sat and ate and watched the rain. Thunder booms filled the valley we were sitting in. The dampness now made itself known and I felt for the boy going past on his ox drawn wagon with no shelter other than his arms over his head.

After a time the rain began to get lighter and we headed off again. We were only a couple of hours from our destination and the end of a four day road trip. Soon it had stopped and we took off the raincoats and reapplied sunscreen. It was not long after that that I spotted the patch I had missed on my neck getting redder and redder in the rear view mirror. The sun was now scorching and too late I realised that my knees were also unprotected. More stupid sunburn to add to the collection.

It was a shock to the system to find myself in a city after three days on the road. We had seen lakes, valleys, mountains, cows, pigs, countless chickens, fish farms, passion fruit farms, rubber plantations, cinnamon trees and even an elephant appeared while we were eating breakfast in another Ethnic minority village yesterday morning. But I had forgotten that the bike got a lot more scary in heavier traffic, this wasn't herds of cows or goats we were trying to navigate now.

But we made it to Nha Trang in one piece. The English girls that I had met two days previously in Lak Lake had booked me a room and were waiting when I got here.

I had to say that I had an awesome time. Yes, it was expensive but I feel that it was worth it. Easy Riders seem to have set price lists so there was none of that feeling of being ripped off when talking to other travellers. I think that the elephant yesterday may well have been my favourite moment of the two weeks that I have been in Vietnam so far. He was so calm as his rider clambered about securing the seat on his back. Just awesome.

I have only been in the city for a couple of hours so forgive the lack of photos. I will endeavour to get my act together and get them online in the next couple of days. Also, for whatever reason, probably the same gremlin that won't let me onto Lost Seouls, I can't see the comments on the last post. Hopefully I will find a better connection tomorrow.

I will leave you now with visions of elephants over a breakfast of fresh baguettes and cheese.

Helen and the Art of Motorcycle Balance

It is Friday here in Vietnam so I know that this post will go largely unnoticed. Posting on the weekend is like shouting into a long empty corridor knowing that no one will hear you but wanting to shout anyway. And I am happy with the attention of even one person so here I go.

I believe that I posted this morning to say that I was going on a motorbike trek today. And sure enough I did. Here in Dalat there is a loose knit group of bikers who act as tour guides under the name Easy Riders. Just as the guide book predicted, I met one as soon as I left the hotel last night and, again as the guide said, he got out his notebook full of recommendations from previous satisfied customers. Sounded good to me though at twenty dollars it was not the cheapest tour on offer. I signed up and arranged to meet him at 8.15 this morning.

Since I am staying at quite possibly the noisiest place in the entire world it was easy enough to be up at that time. In fact, I had been up long enough to have a shower, breakfast and post on here and still get there early. Binh was standing next to his battered old 125 and greeted me warmly, checked I had my camera and suntan lotion (one I am never without the other, well you know that story) and off we went.

I have to admit to being a little nervous at first. Some of you know that I am a big girl's blouse when it comes to stuff like fairground rides and rollercoasters- even the carousal can be a little too much for me if the horses go up and down as well as round and round. So imagine me clinging for dear life to this machine as it speeds through the mountains. I did shut my eyes a couple of times.

Now we have done so much today that I am hard pressed to remember in what order we went. Hum, I think that we went into the country first so that I could see where the forests used to be before being napalmed out of existence during the war. Now some of you already know that the war we in the west call the Vietnam War is known here as the American War. If I get a little confused when writing about it you will understand why then. Binh himself is North Vietnamese and talks fondly of the three years he spent in East Germany as part of his military service. He studied Architecture at University only to discover later that he would end up living in an area where the houses are built of bamboo.

Ah no, I remember what we did first. We went to the Crazy House- a guesthouse which is a little crazy, as the name suggests. It reminded me of Mu Bar in Seoul, a maze of staircases and huge metal spiderwebs. Each room has a theme such as the Kangaroo Room, the Bear Room, the Tiger Room and the Gourd Room. Several of the rooms have mirrored ceilings and walls. If I hadn't already chosen to stay in the noisiest hotel in the world I would have stayed there. Binh tells me that it is noisy because of all the tourists looking around during the day but at least there didn't seem to be any clog wearing hippos there that I could see. It was very cool and photos will be posted. The designer lives there and her father was once the President here. She studied Architecture in Moscow though the Crazy House looks anything but Soviet austere.

Then we went into the country, bear with me, it has been a long day. Then onto a silk worm farm where a group of small children showed me the silk worms lying on woven mats and gorging themselves on mulberry leaves. Apparantely each worm produces a kilometre of silk in a month and then is eaten- hum, silk worm larva, wonder if I know any other places that might like that.... They also grow mocha coffee there. Binh tells me that 70% of coffee production in Vietnam is shipped to Brazil. So that Brazilian mocha that you are drinking maybe more Asian than you think.

Next we went to a farmer's house in the hills. He produces rice wine. I was shown how it is made and then given some to drink. SOJU! And way too early in the morning even for me to start to tipple. The farmer had three daughters and the youngest held my hand the whole time and we spent some moments tickling each other. I saw a huge pig with her very small piglets. Binh, me and the family sat down for a cup of tea before heading off to the next place.

We went to a larger silk farm. This time I saw the worms covered in the silk (and got given one of their little cocoons- a kilometre of silk tightly woven as nature intended), then a handful of them being placed in hot water and the silk taken off them by machines. Then the now homeless worms lying on the floor before being taken to market to become bundaegi- or whatever they call it here. I saw the silk being woven on huge looms into elaborate patterns and the products were sold at the front of the shop.

But we had no time to stop and got back on the bike again and off to a mushroom farm. Which is basically a large thatched roof with polythene bags hanging in it. Through the holes in the bags grow the mushrooms. Cool.

Then we went onto some waterfalls known as the Elephant Falls though the elephants are long since gone. It was hot there and I was quite worn out by walking up and down the hill. I sat in front of the waterfall and watched the spray glide across the rocks and then went behind it to get soaked by it. It was refreshing after the climb. There were several other backpackers there and they all seemed to be on longer trips than me- either to Mui Ne, Nha Trang or Hoi An. Interesting thought.

Next. We went to an Ethnic minority village. I watched some girls weave some silk scarves anc couldn't resist buying one. Since Binh found out that I was an English teacher he has been getting me to assess everyone's English. In the village, known as the Chicken Village, he took me to see the schoolroom, a battered building next to the Red Cross clinic. He told me that most of the kids in the village only go to school for a year or two before just quitting. Having seen the school, I am surprised that they last that long. It was dismal but I guess better than nothing.

By this time it was raining. Well, it is rainy season. Binh had bought a couple of cheap one-use raincoats so we put them on. It was like climbing into a whole body condom, with short sleeves. Needless to say, we got soaked. So we just made a couple more stops, one for hot chocolate and the other to see the Dragon Pagoda- so called because of the massive Dragon in the garden.

I took my shoes off to go into the Pagoda and walked barefoot up the wet steps to the tower. Several people followed my cautious figure and seemed to be staring at my feet and pointing them out to each other. They all had socks on and certainly weren't as dirty as me. I hoped that I wasn't causing any disrespect and tried to wipe the worst of the mud off when they weren't looking. The pagoda was awesomely decorated with bits of broken pottery and dragons everywhere. It was still raining hard so after the pagoda we decided to head back to Dalat as both of us could do with getting warm and dry.

Somewhere along the way I must have got bitten by the Easy Rider bug- not that I am implying that they have bugs- as I have signed up for another three days of it! Yikes! It is certainly not the cheapest way to see the country. One hundred and twenty dollars for three days to get to Nha Trang versus the bus at five bucks and a day. But even after just a few days on the bus I have wanted to get out and see some of the villages that we pass through. Stop and take some photos. There are only so many photos you can take through the bus window. Plus I think that I will learn more in these three days than I would in five weeks and hundreds of guidebooks on the bus.

Bugger it. I am not going to justify it to myself anymore. I am off on the back of a motorbike for three whole days through gorgeous mountainous countryside and down the beach. I think that I am staying in Dak Lak (which sounds like my friend, Renee, trying to order extra duk in the dak galbi restaurant) tomorrow night and then onto a National Park the next night where, I am told, that I will be able to sleep in a traditional longhouse with the cows, pigs and chickens. Do holidays get any better than that?

I guess that the longhouse may not have internet connection so if you don't hear from me for a couple of days don't worry that I have fallen off the back of the bike. I am probably just playing with the silk worms somewhere.

(Ner- dongdongju is a whole bunch of alcoholic nastiness in a bowl, similar to mukkale, it is served in a bowl and then ladled out into smaller bowls for the intrepid drinkers. I am not a fan, in case you can't tell)

Jingle Bells

Until yesterday I thought that all buses and trucks in Vietnam used 'Jingle Bells' as their reverse warning. But it turns out that any Christmas carol will do and I am hearing 'Santa Claus is coming to town' and 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' accompanying large vehicles going backwards all over the place. Maybe it is a regional thing as I have left Saigon and am now in Dalat.

Dalat is 1475m above sea level and so it is a lot cooler here than elsewhere. It has a very different feel to Saigon. While it is, apparantely, firmly on the backpacker trail I am just not seeing many of them about. Plus we arrived yesterday after a seven hour bus trip and not only were people not throwing hotel rooms at us (not literally, don't be silly) but all the hotels appeared to be full. Yikes! No one has tried to sell me anything so I would feel a little neglected if it wasn't for the tendency of kids to say hi.

Finally found a place which seemed nice and sedate but later (ie: after I had decided to stay) turned into the noisiest hotel I have ever been in, quite possibly the noisiest place. The people above me are all clog-wearing hippos and like to run up and down the stairs shouting for fun. There must be some kind of amplifier on the front of the building as the traffic alone surely can't be that loud. Fortunately for me, I had just spent a week in Korea and am still catching up on sleep and so slept like a baby.

Couldn't get into anything on t'internet last night but seem to be having some luck this morning. In about 15 minutes I am off on a motorbike tour for the day- and no, they are not stupid enough to let me drive. Should be good. Dalat seems nice enough, I had dinner by the lake last night with a lad that I met off the bus. Small fish rippled at the surface, horses grazed freely on the grassy banks and in the background people slowly pedalled past in boats shaped like swans. Me? Well, after swearing off beer as I was leaving Korea two days ago, I felt that I deserved a couple by the lake last night. Purely for medicinal purposes, you understand. A Saigon and a 333 later and it was time for my pre-sleep nap.

I think that a week in Korea translates to about three days solid sleep here so I am nearly back on track. Photos as and when I find a place/the time to do it. I was going to just post a lot more of Rory with his nips out to fill your photo lust but have left the CD behind in my room. Rory, if you don't want this to happen then please transfer the agreed money into my bank account at your earliest convenience.

James, still no Lost Seouls for me- have you done something to offend Vietnam?

Hi Honey, I'm Home!

I am back in Saigon now after an amazing week in Korea. Having had to leave the country so quickly I really felt that I was missing something by not saying goodbye. Thursday was big, Friday night was bigger which must leave Saturday night as the biggest. I left you on the last post as I was about to take a nap on Saturday afternoon. About twenty minutes after typing that I had a phonecall from James to tell me that he was at the Dano Festival- something we had planned to do the previous two nights but had got waylaid in Bumpin.

Many mad phonecalls later

'can you see the tranvestite making lots of noise?'

'are you anywhere near the bouncy castle?'
'walk until you get to lots of strange looking food that you wouldn't eat.'

we met up and went for dinner. We found a restaurant tent with a whole pig roast outside (in fact, they nearly all had the same thing) and cold beer inside. We quickly settled in for the day. James did put up a small protest at the first beer since he needed to be back in Seoul that night but by the time that Rory and the dongdongju had arrived he was happy enough to stay for a tipple or two.

My friends seemed to work in shifts all weekend to make sure that I was having the maximum amount of fun which seemed also to be the maximum amount of beer. Thus, Neil and Annette turned up from Gwangju to take over from James on the night shift. More dongdongju, more beer and off to the 'All you can drink' party at Bumpin.

Which turned out, as ever, to be a lot.

Much dancing, frolicking and painting of bodies later and it was more than I could do to resist that norae bang urge. I have spent the last two years trying to get Rory to the norae bang and despite him being more than happy to strip to the waist and strum away in Bumpin, he has never given in. But Tanya proved more determined than me. When Rory said that the only way to get him to a norae bang was to carry him she stepped up to the plate and took him at his word. Much respect to the girl who managed to carry him all the way from Bumpin to the other end of town, ignoring the drunk Korean guys who were mortally offended at the sight of a girl carrying a boy, and onto the steps down to the singing room itself.

We piped out a couple of tunes and then the night was over.

Rory may be pissed off to see this photo here but, seriously, it could have been a lot worse!
For some. I appear to have then spent the next couple of hours in an alleyway, drinking beer with Dylan, finally making it back to Rory's shortly before 9am.

When my phone rang a mere three hours later I had to decide which was more important, sleep or friends, and was soon in a taxi on my way to Gyeongpo beach to meet Neil and Annette. My Uncle gave me a Sheffield squirrel for my birthday and so far he has been a little shy. Turns out that he is just scared of cities and very happy on the beach.

After a couple of blissful hours paddling in the icy cold water Neil and Annette had to get back on the bus to Gwangju. Shame for them as the fun was only just starting. I went to watch the contents of the bar the night before drag themselves around the soccer field for a while. Now when I heard that they were playing Korean teams I had no idea that they meant middle schools students in ties. Guess that they have been working themselves up from kindergarten since I left. But fair play to them, they were all standing upright after the ravages of the previous night and running around more than I could do after a week's sleep.

All too soon it was festival time again.

More beer, more dongdongju and a test of manliness on the rifle range. I am pleased to report that Heimi is the least manly of the bunch.

Sunday night we finished in the Warehouse before the sun even came up.

Monday, I had to go and say goodbye to my students again.

They were very sweet and gave me some letters. Fay even bought me some chopsticks from the festival because she knew that I kind of collect them. I also met Mona and Yongho for lunch. And I found the only thing that seems to draw more attention than a foreigner in Gangneung and that is a large dog being walked around town. Generally in Korea, people either have small handbag sized dogs which they carry around with them or larger dogs which spend their lives tied to their kennels. So to see a big beautiful Jindo dog strolling around town is a shock for most people. A nice surprise for some and terrifying for others.

Monday evening Dave had gathered some people together for dinner and after a surprisingly short time, considering the amount of people we had with us, a restaurant was decided on. Strangely it had changed hands and therefore menus since I was last there. And the boys supplemented their dinner with their own concoctions- see Rory's blog for the results.

We retired to Bumpin and the boys talked about soccer and fishing (or whatever it is that boys talk about) while the girls made dinosaurs. Me and Tania were finally reunited in a Jenga knockout- joined by Penny and Seung Hee.

Since we had new players we decided that the game couldn't be part of our ongoing contest (I think that Tania decided that actually shortly after she had the tower tumbling down). We didn't even get close to our best score. Ah well.

Tuesday morning, Tania helped me take my pesky boxes to the post office and after spending a fortune sending the last of my things back home it was time to say goodbye to Tania. I went back to the festival for one last look around then had dinner with Rory, Ryan and Mr Lee. One more beer in Bumpin and my time was over. Late drunk bus to Seoul and James' house then sleep.

I went to the airport with James today and got to Saigon around three o'clock this afternoon. I immediately checked into a hotel then back out for lunch and to buy a bus ticket to Dalat for tomorrow.

Now here I am digesting lunch and catching up with you guys! If I have forgotten anything, forgive me- I am tired after so little sleep on the weekend. I just want to say thanks to Dave for his support over the weekend. It was a shock to find out that he had received the sam bad news as me on the same day. I will let him say the words- Dave's blog

Overall, I am really glad that I went back to Korea. It was so great to meet everyone again and share news, good and bad, though I'm not so keen on the hangovers.

Hangovers, not fond of them

Let me start with a photo, just to keep your interest

Here I am in Korea. The flight out of Saigon was at 1am and the airport was pretty crowded with people who seemed to just be hanging around there waiting for nothing in particular. Non-passengers can't even enter the airport so there was blissful calm once inside. The flight was uneventful, usual screaming child, the same movie that has been on my last three flights, crap food (ah, Singapore Air has spoiled me forever), no socks, good blankets though. I would recommend Vietnam Air for their fleecy blankets.

Got into Seoul on time, straight through immigration and onto the baggage reclaim. Didn't even fight my way through the crowds to get to the conveyer belt, having finally learnt that backpacks usually come out last. Spotted mine on its slow journey towards me and took a step forward, only to see some guy take it off the belt and put it with his luggage. Can't believe that it was being nicked again! Went over and picked it up and the guy thought that I was holding it up for him to put on and thanked me, sliding his arms between the straps. But I won in the end and off I went.

Spent some time trying to get some money out of various ATMs when I heard a voice behind me- James! Went off to his office so that he could have a proper laugh at my sunburn. Wow, the home of lost seouls- not that I am implying that James would ever work on the blog at work or anything, of course. After a while the suited fellas in the office seem to have had enough of this dirty stinky backpacker sitting in the room and started making 'time to go now' noises. And they were right. Off to the bus terminal and onto Gangneung.

I fell into the deepest sleep on the bus and woke up very confused indeed. I was in Korea, why wasn't I at work? Why wasn't I in Vietnam? Whose bag is this? What's going on? General confusion. Pulled myself together and started texting folk- couldn't believe that my phone hadn't been cut off in the two months I had been away. Arrived in Gangneung and came straight to Rory's. So weird to be seeing James and Rory after all this time and being in Gangneung and knowing that that night there was only one place I was going to be- BUMPIN!

When Rory came back from work we went to dinner with other friends and then onto the bar. Well, we actually started at the bar, made it as far as the restaurant around the corner and then came back and stayed until we could stand no longer.

Man, I was mullahed. Having been away for a couple of months, it seemed like everyone wanted to drink a shot with and many shots were drunk. I was supposed to be spending the night at Tania's but correctly sussed that there was no way I was going to be able to move my bag from Rory's. Fell asleep on his floor and so my first night back in Korea ended.

So sick the next day, so very very sick. Spent a good couple of hours whining about how sick I was and trying to get Rory to order me pizza. He managed some cheese on toast. I am pretty scared of anything that comes out of the What Not to Cook Fridge but it seemed safe enough. He went off to work and I went to my old school to surprise the kids.

And surprised they were! Bless them. I care for my students very much and have missed them and it seemed that they felt the same way. One kid tried to barricade me in the corner of the room with chairs so that I couldn't leave and they all nearly started crying. It was so good to see them. I have promised to go back on Monday to say goodbye again. Then I went onto another one of my old schools and it was the same again, only with actual tears this time. Another promise to go back on Monday.

Finally made it to the dak galbi restaurant last night. Heaven. I sat there peeling the quail eggs with a big grin on my face. Spilt the food down my front, of course, but it was great. Just as great as I remember it being. Back to Bumpin and James arrived.

General drinking shennigans ensued, guitar playing on the balcony at the bar, explaining to people a hundred times that I wasn't back to work, and, no, I hadn't gone all the way round the world yet.

Off to my old director's bar for some more beer, stopping at Absolut on the way for some table football action, and some advice about how to get the money that my other boss owes me.

Rory and James spent some time trying to get each other drunk so that they could get the perfect photo. I'd say that they were pretty even but then Rory had to go home as he has to work today.

The bar closed and we went out to find a restaurant.

A lot of them were open late because of the Dano festival, which is on this weekend and which I haven't made it to yet.

I woke up this morning at Steve and Stacy's house and had to rush back to Rory's to catch him before he went to work, locking all my stuff in his house. Now I am here, blogging away and doing some washing, waiting for a phone call from James to say that he is alive.

I did learn a lesson from my first night and didn't drink as much so don't feel quite so crappy today. Also learnt that it isn't worth trying to get Rory to order pizza for me. Now I am just tired, having fallen asleep at 7.30 and pegging it back here before noon. I am hungry but I am so scared of the fridge and the evil that it contains that I might just stay that way until I can get myself together and out of the house. Mr Lee, the Bumpin owner, just turned up and tried to take me to the festival but I think that I am going to put my head down for a while. After all, we have to do it all again tonight.

God help us!