4th July 2017
Midnight.
The luxurious but reasonably priced bus dumped us off on the side of the road in the chaotic capital!
Thankfully we wasn't too far from the apartment block, a short taxi ride and an encounter with a security guard and we were on the right floor! Around the front door was brown paper bricks giving the appearance of a castle gate, we knocked on the door (three times, once is not enough, four times is excessive and twice is just weird!) and to our surprise an enthusiastic American opened the door! This confused us a little, we thought we would be in the same apartment as the host, plus we didn't know there was going to be four other volunteers! After a quick greeting we crashed out, the modern and large three bedroom apartment was going to make for a comfortable stay! The next morning we met our host Anh, and her little twins, she was lovely and the twins were really cute although a little shy at first! We went to the kindergarten together (we didn't realise the kindergarten would be so big, three stories and around 30 kids), it was only 10 minute drive away, upon arrival we heard the booming solitary speaker playing children's songs and Vietnamese nursery rhymes. When we walked in, there were multicoloured plastic balls flying everywhere and children running around, shouting and climbing things, at first we were wondering what had we gotten ourselves into!
We had different classes to take take care of, I had three or four classes a day teaching English to children between 1 and 6 years old using flash cards, reading stories, singing songs and playing little games, with each lesson being around 45 minutes to an hour. Kirsty had the harder task at this kindergarten, she taught the English camp. She had around six kids, aged between 4 and 8 years old and although she had just one class all day everyday it was difficult to keep the children engaged, due to lack of material!
In the beginning we found it difficult and awkward (especially with the normal teachers either shouting at the children or just lurking in the background) being there and not really knowing where we should be or what we should be doing, however after the first week or so, we gradually became more comfortable and sillier each day, until the whole day was just one big game! The kids we great fun and all picked up new material really quickly! Kirsty's English camp spent their days making things like zebras masks and having watermelon races as well as other arts and crafts with a little bit of Peppa Pig thrown in the mix! Also she had a couple of outings to the supermarket and the zoo!
We quickly got into a routine, two hours in the morning, then it was lunch and after was nap time (we also got into the habit of nicking an hours sleep in the day). The lunch was always plentiful and mostly always rice, nuts with meat and lots of earthy vegetables! Most days we went to the local supermarket for bread and an ice cream just to kill some time! After lunch and a nap we had another two hours of classes! The days went really quick and we spent most evenings relaxing and catching up with things, it was good to catch our breaths! By the end of the 3 full weeks teaching we were a little sick of wheels on the bus and were looking forward to the next part of our trip. Anh and her family were truly gems, and the food she cooked for us in the evenings was always satisfying (dinner was always similar to lunch).
Other than the two weekends we spent away (check out the next post for more on these little ventures), we explored the capital! Starting with Hanoi's historic old quarter. Hanoi is a crazy bustling city with mopeds buzzing everywhere like wasps so it was a pleasant surprise when the all the roads around the lake were closed off, letting people actually walk around instead of shuffling around dodging traffic!
The Lake of the Restored Sword and surrounding area is a charming place, a great place to take a respite with grass banks and trees providing shade (you see a lot of people exercising around the lake, also a lot of public classes) from the sweltering polluted sunshine bubble that is the capital of Vietnam. Around the lake and the streets surrounding are hundreds of restaurants, cafès, a market, hotels, bars and expensive shops, Kirsty even located a vegan place where she obviously indulged several times!
We also visited West Lake for an afternoon however the grand lake is over 17 square kilometres, so we walked a small part of it and settled with a few drinks looking over the water and city skyline full of skyscrapers!
SLXLM) One of the top things to do in Hanoi is to watch a traditional water puppet show, and after attempting 3 times to buy a ticket (an extremely popular show), we finally got our hands on tickets!
The small theatre was jam packed, we took our seats and waited for the show to begin! The puppet show tells and gives you a brief lesson of traditional Vietnamese culture! Unfortunately none of it was in English. The band had all kinds of odd shaped stringed instruments and were playing relaxing peaceful music with the odd wailing vocal! The show itself was light hearted and at points quite funny, the creepy looking puppets were doing everything from fishing to chasing dragons and cats up trees! The skill of the puppeteers is effortless and made for a great show! We enjoyed it but probably wouldn't be in a rush to see another one!
On our last day in Hanoi, we stumbled across a small locals beer house, where the 330ml cups are just 7,000 dong (25p), so after 5 beers and two bowls of nuts we went back to the apartment block for a farewell dinner and said our goodbyes! Our time in Hanoi was a lot different to what we were expecting, for starters we were not expecting the large kindergarten and the daily routine but in the end we began to enjoy it and the kids were great and definitely kept us on our toes! We gathered our stuff and left the air conditioned apartment, we're heading to central Vietnam to the city of Hué, it was time to take our first night bus in Vietnam!
