back from nam..

Becky and I had our week's holiday last week. We get one week off in our year's contract so we decided to check out Vietnam. For an illustrated update, click here and here to see the photo albums I put up on facebook.

We arrived in Hanoi (the capital) on a Saturday, and then we waited around for our flight to Da Nang. At this time we could have exchanged the heaps of Korean Won that we had with us, but we just wanted to catch our flight and get there. Big mistake. We got to Da Nang, and found out that ONLY at Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh airports would they accept Korean Won. We were stuck with no money, and I forgot my four digit pin on my credit card.. So I used the good ol' Bank of Montreal card, and it got us through (with a few costly service charges).

The taxi driver who found us our hotel assured us that the hotel could loan us the money until the banks opened on Monday, and they did. We got 1,000,000 dong (their currency is called 'dong' .. i found this funny..), which was about $58 Canadian. This trip was almost completely unplanned out (this kind of adventure is new for me), and Becky and I didn't really know what we wanted to do for the week, or where we wanted to go. All we knew was that we wanted our open water diver's license.

This could end up being a super long post if I go through the week, so i'll summarize it like this: The first 3 days Becky and I went diving; one dive in the pool and then 5 dives in the ocean. We had our license by Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were shopping days, where we perused the market and bought some Christmas gifts (we'll be back home for Christmas this year). Saturday we took a scooter to Marble Mountain and packed up and caught a flight back to Busan. The pictures illustrate the journey better than I'm going to write, but I will mention my favorite highlight.

On Friday afternoon I went to meet up with this Vietnamese family I met a few days before. I met a guy named Sang, a fisherman in Hoi An (the city we were in). He showed us "the real Vietnam life" by taking us on a boat tour with his father, and even showing us how they catch fish. It was incredible to see this side of the country.

This is Sang, a 17 year old fisherman. His English is excellent, but he has yet to complete school. He had to take two years off to save money before he can finish his last two years. He told Becky and I that a year of school costs about $100 - this gives a picture of the situation out there.

Here's Sang's father, celebrating his catch.


Bringing home the bacon, or... fish.