My Son and Hoi An

I started to write out a lovely description of our team trip to My Son and Hoi An and then blogger lost my post. So instead, you can look at my photo albums on Picasa and I will write something descriptive later on.

The My Son album is here and my Hoi An album is here

Why jogging in Da Nang hurts your cheeks

And I mean your face, of course. So why would running around the lake at the Da Nang park hurt your face? It is because EVERYBODY is smiling at you and all the little kids and older people have to wave and yell "Hello". They may be smiling at me (and the rest of our crazy jogging team) because we are, well, crazy but who cares. It makes the run a blast - everyone is happy and it makes the run so much more fun to be waving and yelling "Hello!!!!" back.

Added pictures to Picasa

I will try and find time tonight to write some more (so many thoughts whirling around it is hard to keep track of them all) but in the meantime, I have uploaded a number of pictures to Picasa, including
Ha Long Bay (near Ha Noi)
and others (go to my "public gallery)

have fun!

KOTO Hanoi

In an attempt to chase the sun, we had a team trip to Hanoi this weekend. We were supposed to go to Hoi An but it is flooded (apparently more than 1.5m - did I mention that it has been wet here?). In Hanoi there is a great not-for-profit called "Know One, Teach One" (or KOTO).
The training program is designed to help disadvantaged youth (orphans, at risk kids) by providing them with a loving environment and skills as chefs/wait staff in the restaurant business. All food and service at the KOTO restaurant is from the hands of the KOTO program participants. This is a quote from their website:


Every six months KOTO takes about 25 disadvantaged youth off the streets or from extremely difficult life circumstances to undertake an 24-month intensive life skills, English language and hospitality training program. KOTO currently has up to 70 trainees in its program.

KOTO trainees are all aged between 16 and 22 and are selected for the program based on their life situation. They must have the capacity to undertake training and work in the hospitality industry and be committed to KOTO's philosophy.

After being accepted into KOTO, trainees are given vaccinations and health checks, they are provided with uniforms, laundry, accommodation in group houses, lunch every day and ongoing health care. The trainees are paid an allowance, which enables them to focus on their studies, save a little for the future and provide some financial support to their families

So of course, we had to go and have dinner at KOTO. It was wonderful - the food was great, the staff was friendly and fun, the venue was relaxed and perfect after a long day of running around Hanoi following IBMer-turned-tour-guide Sven.

From 2008-10-18-KOTO

From 2008-10-18-KOTO

Mr Golden Sun, Please Won't You Shine on Me!

Not that it is ALWAYS raining here, but it is apparently the start of the rainy season, which is the most rainy part (as opposed to the END of the rainy season where the rain lets up). Just to prove that all it is doing is raining, here are some more pictures of people getting wet:
 
 
 
 

In order to get out of all of this rain, we are going to Hanoi for the weekend. The weather report for Hanoi is for sunny and 31C (Da Nang is pouring rain and 27C).
Hopefully Mr Golden Sun will make an appearance in my Monday photos.

Mot Hai Ba, Yo!

Not sure that I got the spelling right, but more or less phonetically, this is "1, 2, 3, YO!". And what happens now? Its not that hard to guess...

And once one has been through several rounds (or more - I lost count) of Mot, Hai, Ba, Yo!?

Rush Hour in Da Nang

We are all trying to out-do each other in recording the controlled chaos that is Da Nang rush hour. So far Sven has the best
video but I am trying to get pictures/video of the kids who ride double (both pedalling) and how they have to jump on/off when traffic stops so that they don't topple over. The families (mother, father, kids & babies) manage to all stay astride their motor-scooters during this chaos.




To give you an idea of the traffic that does empty out on to the streets, this is a picture of some (not all) of the bikes outside Dong A College where Robyn and I have been working several days this week.

This is one of my videos - check out all of the things that people are carrying on their bikes - like the 13 boxes of things. I have to try and get a picture of someone carrying a mattress on the back of their bike as we saw last night when it wasn't raining (did I mention that it is now rainy season in Vietnam?)