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.

happy new year!

although this blog has not been updated recently, or on a regular basis, i plan to change that. as of lately i have been attempting to learn html and create something that isn't a carbon copy of every other blog page. i feel like i divulge enough personal information on this page for the page itself to warrant its own personal feel. i'd like the page to be of my creation, and not a simple copy and paste template.
anyways, this past week saw the celebration of chinese new year! becky and i took advantage of the five day weekend and went off to the island of jeju. it was gorgeous with volcanic rock everywhere. it was as if the people wanted to make sure its visitors knew that the island was formed from a volcano. it reminded me a bit of scotland with its rural landscape and its stone fences. the vacation was a good and relaxing time, although getting to and from the island was a bit trying. we took a boat from busan and traveled along the coast. this would have been a beautiful ride with spectacular views - except, the voyage was eleven hours long, and it was made overnight. departing at 7pm and then arriving at 6am, this lengthy boat ride made me feel like i just spent a full day at wonderland, riding every roller coaster twice.
the ticket prices varied from about 36,000 won ($36) to about 150,000. seeing as we are both in korea to pay off debt, we opted for the 39,000 won tickets - not quite at the bottom. it turned out that the lowest class tickets were for these medium sized rooms that were supposed to hold up to 125 passengers overnight. no chairs, no mats, only floor to sleep on. and a bathroom to share. the tickets that becky and i purchased were for a little nicer surroundings: a room that held ten people, with little foam bricks for pillows. the lack of sleep and the rocking of the boat made the next day fairly interesting.
when we arrived on the island we headed off down a main street, dreaming of breakfast restaurants back home. "would you like coffee or juice?", "you want the hungry man's breakfast?", "white or brown toast?". as we meandered along, completely unfamiliar with the area, we reached a mcdonald's. i'm ashamed to say it, but i was super happy that i found a place that served a standard western breakfast. not surprisingly, we ran into the other foreigners who were also on our ship. also not surprisingly, the big breakfast that i ordered turned out to have been a classic case of false advertising, where the food in the picture was fit for a sunday brunch, but the food delivered was like the leftovers from the sunday brunch.. on monday.
anyways, not to make a long story out of every aspect of our trip, i'll just say that i enjoyed it. becky and i were able to meet up with a friend of ours who worked with us back in july, who is now teaching at a camp on this beautiful island.
funny story - so in our groggy, dizzy state, becky and i decided to pick a place we could put our stuff down, and maybe have a nap to get over the ... boat-lag. we were looked at a map wondering which direction to head towards and decided on this hotel (looked inexpensive with an ocean view) that was close to these 'lava caves' that we wanted to check out. anyways, the place we chose turned out to be within walking distance to our friend's place - and it is a fairly big island; big enough to be a province anyways.
so, the holiday was a good time. i plan on going back, and maybe bringing my bike. the 11 hour ship ride was pretty brutal, but on maybe the next trip we'll get a bigger group to go. and maybe on that trip, we'll opt for the room with bunk beds, rather than floor..