The things we see on the streets of Saigon...

Living in this city has really opened our eyes to some interesting sights.  Some of my the best things I've seen on the roads are:  family of 5 on a motorbike, guy carrying a full size refrigerator on his motorbike, construction worker standing on his construction worker friend's shoulders to fix a road sign, electrical worker climbing up the pegs of a telephone pole barefoot to reach the top and start meddling with the wires with his bare hands, a woman riding a motorbike with around 5 bags full of live ducks with their heads poking out tied to it, etc.  I could go on and on...

On a daily basis we see people riding motorbikes carrying huge panes of glass, long pipes, women holding newborn babies without helmets, etc.  On our drives to school we have also seen the lovely scenes of people squatting on the side of the road pooping, naked toddlers playing too close to traffic, and men peeing in the trees.  Last week I saw the most shocking thing yet... I have no photo evidence but there were other witnesses so you'll have to believe me...

On the way home from the steak restaurant we were in a taxi and everything was normal until we saw an adult man - fully naked - walking slowly down the centre line of the road into traffic!  Absolutely naked... no clothes, and he wasn't even wearing shoes!  Our cab driver didn't flinch but the rest of us were pretty amused.  Just to be sure we weren't dreaming, we looked back and we definitely saw his butt cheeks walking down the road into the darkness.  CRAZY!!!!!!!!

The Steak Place

Last week it was Greg's birthday so we went to "The Steak Place" which is really a small Vietnamese restaurant in the middle of a Vietnamese neighbourhood, we don't even know the real name of the place!  This place has been frequented by a number of staff members (I think someone's Vietnamese friend introduced them to it) but it was the first time I went there.

The best thing about the steak place is that it's so good and cheap... only 75,000 VND (around $3.50) for steak and a small portion of french fries.  The steaks are small, but if you're someone like me who doesn't really eat that much meat, it's the perfect amount.  I'm not a big steak person but this steak was pretty tasty!

The Steak Place is a typical Vietnamese restaurant in the sense that you just walk up and sit on a stool at a low table.  They come around every once in a while to change your ice cubes to ensure that your drink is still nice and cold.  It was a good night!

OZ, Part 4: The Fair

The last part of our trip was the job fair in Melbourne.  We weren't sure what to expect, and when we first arrived it seemed like it would be hard to get interviews since everyone else seemed to have a lot more experience.  One of our coworkers was attending, and we also made contacts with people from all over.  The fair was run very well and most recruiters were pretty nice and open to interviewing candidates.

We had 8 interviews... Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Germany, Malaysia, and Jordan.  It was a really long day!  We turned down an offer from HK and decided not to continue pursuing more interviews for the job in Saudi, but we accepted the offer from Dubai!  It was a great feeling to know that we had succeeded.  There will definitely be more adventures to come in 2014!

OZ, Part 3: Sydney

After the very long night train from Melbourne, we arrived in Sydney.  We checked in at our guesthouse, cleaned up, and then met our friend Amanda for lunch at a restaurant called Ripples under the famous Harbour Bridge.  Amanda grew up in Sydney, but we met her when we were all teaching in South Korea.  It was so nice to catch up with her and her fiance Cameron.

After lunch, we walked around Luna Park, had ice cream, and took photos with the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House in the background.  It was a nice afternoon!

 

 

After saying goodbye to Amanda and Cameron, John and I decided to walk across the Harbour Bridge on the pedestrian walkway to the other side of the harbour, down near the Opera House.  We had great views of Sydney and even got a glimpse of the "Bridge Climbers" who were climbing the top of the bridge as part of a tourist attraction.

It was pretty cool seeing the Sydney Opera House up close.  It's always fun when you see many photos of a building but then you finally get to see it in person.

In Sydney, John and I also took a ferry to Manly Beach.  The beach was pretty busy with sunbathers and surfers.  Walking up to the beach was a nice pedestrian road called "The Corso" which had tons of shops and restaurants.  We had a picnic on the beach and had ice cream afterwards.  It was nice to just relax there and take in the nice views.

We also made a trip to Darling Harbour, a colourful spot with a great view of Sydney's tall towers.  At Darling Harbour we watched street performers and had a nice 3-course dinner at a pretty good price for Sydney.  Travelling in an English-speaking country much like Canada was definitely a treat, but it came with a nice price tag.

Our final full day in Sydney was spent hanging out near the Harbour Bridge, waiting for the fireworks show on New Year's Eve.  We arrived at one of the parks near the bridge at around 1:30pm and stayed there all day until midnight.  It was pretty packed when we arrived, and we were lucky to get a decent view.  The place became CRAZY busy... people everywhere, sitting anywhere there was a shred of space.  The line for the public toilets was long, but getting to the toilets was an ordeal.  It was quite the trek passing through the crowds of people in the quickly narrowing pathway.  In the end, it was worth it for a great experience!  We saw the "family fireworks" show at 9pm and then the midnight showing.  I always saw TV clips of the New Year's Eve celebrations from Sydney, so it was very cool to be there live to do the countdown to 2014!  Getting back to our guesthouse after the show took a while due to the massive crowds.  At least public transportation back was free!

Our visit to Sydney was lots of fun, but it seemed like the end of our holiday since we were headed back to Melbourne for business... the job fair, the main reason why we came to Australia for our holiday...

OZ, Part 2: Melbourne

Melbourne was a pretty cool city.  It had a European vibe to it with its many cafes and quaint alleyways.  There were some cute Christmas decorations up around the city, but for some reason we didn't feel like it was actually Christmas due to the warm weather and lack of snow!

In Melbourne we did a free walking tour which took us around the central area of the city.  My favourite part was walking through the narrow lanes filled with street art.  It was so colourful!

For Christmas day we had a nice lunch at a cafe and walked near the Yarra River and also around downtown to see the decorations and watch street performers.  On Boxing Day we attended a performance of King Kong at the Regent Theatre.  It was very creative how they portrayed King Kong - if you get a chance to watch it, I highly recommend it!

Our stay in Melbourne was a fairly short one before we headed on to Sydney on a long, uncomfortable night train (unfortunately didn't have sleeper seats)!  We would visit Melbourne again at the end of our trip.

OZ, Part 1: Adelaide & the Great Ocean Road

Australia is a place I'd wanted to visit since being a little kid.  It seemed so far away (it is), but luckily when there was a seat sale on Air Asia we scooped up the 2 for 1 tickets and were on our way from Vietnam (still far away, but not too bad)!  We had a short flight to KL, then flew to Adelaide which was about 8 hours away.

Upon arrival in Adelaide we rented a car with Thrifty at the airport and drove into town.  I forgot my license so John had to do all the driving.  Australians drive on the "wrong" side of the road so at first it felt weird.  Adelaide is a small city and we didn't have a lot of time to explore it.  Our guest house was within walking distance of Central Market in China Town and a nice street with many restaurants on it.  We ended up having our first dinner in Australia at the famous "Hog's Breath Cafe" and ordered Angus steak burgers which came with "chips" (aka fries).  Yum!

In Adelaide we also visited Cleland Wildlife Park, where we got to see animals roaming free in the park.  We were given some kangaroo food (a pack of pellets) and although some kangaroos seemed shy, most of them came right up to eat out of our hands!  Some of the emus even liked the food.  We also got to pet a koala.  Apparently koalas sleep for 20 hours a day and the koalas at the park were feeling tired since it was the end of the day.  We only got to see one up close for a short period of time before it went back to sleep again.

On the second day of our trip we began the official road trip to Melbourne.  We rented an orange Nissan Micra and took to the empty country roads.  Honestly there were times where it felt like we were the only car on the road.  We took a wrong turn and backtracked on a side road at one point, and it was so empty except for a tumbleweed that blew by... we actually had time to get out of the car and do a photo shoot in the middle of the road without any traffic whatsoever!  One cool stop we did on this leg of the trip was to a lookout where we could see pelicans flying overhead.  They were huge!  It was peaceful there, and of course no one was around.

After several hours of driving we reached the town of Robe, a sleepy town on the southern coast.  Robe only has a population of less than 2000 people but apparently during the Australian summer months they have around 15000 people with the influx of tourists and seasonal workers.  There is a beach in Robe where cars drive on.  We tried it out but our car wasn't the best and got stuck in the sand near the ramp down, so we decided to go back up to the parking lot!

The second day of our trip we drove to the town of Port Campbell.  Along the way we made a stop in Mount Gambier to see the famous "Blue Lake."  It was pretty blue!  It is a crater lake with the deepest point being 77 metres.  There is some scientific explanation behind the colour, but I couldn't tell you what it is!  After visiting the Blue Lake, we made a few pit stops in cute towns before making it to the official "Great Ocean Road."  We expected the GOR to be along the coast the whole time, but this was not the case.  When we reached the section of the road around Port Campbell we had finally found what we were looking for... the coast!  We saw several scenic points such as "London's Arch" (an arched rock bridge in the water), "The Grotto," and finally the famous "12 Apostles."  Although not all 12 rock formations remain today due to erosion, it was still amazing to see.  We came at the right time... the sun was going down and the colours were beautiful.

 

We liked the 12 Apostles so much that we went back the next morning (a short drive from our hotel) and descended the "Gibson Steps" down the rock cliff to a large beach area.  Swimming down there is not recommended due to currents, but there was a large stretch of sand and it was a nice place to take some photos.

The third day of our road trip took us from Port Campbell to Melbourne.  There was a stretch of the GOR that was very scenic, as it followed the coast for a long time, with views of beautiful beaches around every turn on the winding road.  It was sad when the GOR ended and we had to get on a highway to Melbourne!

Stay tuned for part 2 of the trip...

2013 - A Year in Review

Well, another year has come and gone.  2013 was an eventful one - our third year living in Vietnam.  Here's a look back at what happened in 2013...

January

After getting engaged in Prague on Christmas, we spent New Year's in Vienna, Austria.  Ringing in the New Year with thousands of people watching fireworks outside of St. Stephen's Cathedral was awesome.  On January 1st, we watched the Vienna Philharmonic concert on the big screen at city hall before heading out to Budapest, Hungary.

Budapest was a cool city with an old school vibe.  I loved walking across the river to see views of both sides "Buda" and "Pest."  In Budapest the highlight was visiting the Szechenyi Baths, the largest medicinal bath in Europe.  It was freezing outside, but part of the thrill was running from the icy cold air to the warm outdoor pool and catching a ride in the centre of it where it was a type of whirl pool with disco lights at night.  Good times!  Visiting Hungary was special also because I was able to reach my goal of visiting 30 countries before the age of 30!!!  Mission accomplished... :)

In January we also made a pit stop in Dubai for a short time before heading back to Vietnam.  Dubai was a multicultural megacity with huge malls (one even had an indoor ski hill).  We saw the fountain and light show next to the mall, in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.  Visiting Dubai was a great end to an amazing trip to Europe for winter break.  It was hard to go back to work!

February

Luckily, living in Vietnam means we are spoiled with another 2 weeks' vacation for Tet (lunar new year).  John, Greg, Alex, and I headed to the island country of Sri Lanka.  We spent the first week of our trip travelling inland on trains winding up through the beautiful green tea fields, and going on a safari in Yala National Park where we saw tons of animals including elephants, leopards, and peacocks.  The second week of our trip was spent being lazy on the beaches of the south coast.  I read a lot of books and drank a lot of passion fruit juice.  Life was pretty sweet in Sri Lanka.

March

Back to work, fresh from our 2 week vacation, it was awesome to get away for another long weekend in March.  A group of friends and I went to Phu Quoc, an island of Vietnam, for a fun beach getaway.  Phu Quoc was relaxing - all we really did was hang out at the pool and beach, read, and play frisbee.  I miss that island!

April

This month I had my first ever surprise birthday party.  John and Will surprised my friend Angela and I with a surprise party with many of our friends from work.  We have birthdays only 2 days apart, so it was a fun way to celebrate.  We went to one of our favourite restaurants and then karaoke afterward.  I was genuinely surprised!  It was a memorable 30th b-day for sure... :)

At the end of April we also made our way to Malaysian Borneo with Alex for some fun in the sea and sun!

May

Borneo was a place that was on our "must visit" list for a while... we had heard nothing but great things about it!  Alex planned our trip to Uncle Chang's resort on Mabul Island, where we spent several days exploring life under the sea.  I snorkelled and John and Alex went scuba diving on Sipadan Island - one of the best places for diving in the world.  We saw huge schools of barracuda and jack fish, sharks, sea turtles, and tons of colourful fish.  It was definitely the highlight of our trip to Borneo!

June

With school winding down, it was definitely a busy time of year.  We had reports, field trips, success assemblies, and classroom packing to complete.  I really enjoyed my class this year and will be sad to see them move on.  June was also time to say goodbye to our dear roommate Tanya, and some of our other best friends like Andy and Julia who were leaving to go back to Canada.  It was also a happy time however, since we were finally going HOME after the end of the school year.

July

Back home and having fun with family and friends!  We went to PEI to visit John's family and enjoyed seeing everyone and hanging out at the beaches there.  We also had a lot of ice cream at Johnny's!  In Windsor Alyssa, Jeff, and I also did the Colour Run, John visited, and we went to a baseball game too.  Summer in Canada is always a good time!  

August

It's always hard saying goodbye... Summer went by so quickly and before I knew it, I was on a plane back to Vietnam to start another school year.  Our friend Jess moved in as our new roommate.  I was ready to begin our third year at our school, reunited with friends, and first year teaching grade 5!

September

The beginning of school always means a long weekend for Vietnamese National Day... so off we went to Mui Ne for the third year in a row for more beach time.  We visited the Fairy Stream again, and hung out by the beachside pool for most of the weekend.  It was tough to get back on the bus back to HCMC!

This month I also got to experience Saigon in a different way - via dinner boat cruise for our friend Jenny's birthday.  Buffet dinner, entertainment, colourful views of the Saigon skyline... a great night!

October

I love having a week off in October - it's something to look forward to after you begin the school year!  John, Greg, Alex, Angela, Will, and I went to Nepal for the week to see some mountains.  Unfortunately there was a ton of rain, and our trek around Pokhara got pretty wet with lots of leeches in the forest.  Despite that, the end of the trek was beautiful and we had a great time!  We also hung out in Kathmandu to see some amazing sites, such as the Boudhanath Stupa, Monkey Temple, and Pashupatinath Temple where they cremate bodies at ghats on the river.  Nepal was an interesting country that I wish I had more time in.  The flight back to HCMC was great, as we got a view of Mount Everest!

November

November is always a busy month at school with report cards and interviews.  Luckily I got to have an interesting cultural experience by attending my co-worker Lan's wedding in a small town on the Mekong.  It was a lot of fun and very different from North American style weddings.

December

The last month of the year flew by.  After a busy few weeks of school, John and I flew to Australia - a destination that was on my list for a long time.  We spent time hanging out with kangaroos, koalas, and other cute animals at a wildlife park near Adelaide, then made our way via car to Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road.  It was very scenic and I finally got to see the famous landmark "The 12 Apostles."  I loved it!  We spent New Year's Eve in Sydney counting down with TONS of people to watch the fireworks over the Harbour Bridge.

2013 was a fun year, but I know that 2014 will be one to look forward to since many events will be happening... many weddings (including my own!!!), seeing everyone at home in the summer, a job change, and hopefully more adventures around the world!