Back in Auckland

Back in New Zealand. Great trip but ready for home and bed. Blue group resting.

Mekong Delta

Arrived safely at our home stay ... Also enjoyed a peaceful ride along the river

Cu Chi Tunnels

Georgia braving a very snug tunnel

Cooking School HCMC

Arrived safely in Ho Chi Minh... Well sort of safely after a rather dubious Vietnam Air landing!

First night here and we were off to Cook School... What a fantastic evening!!

So long Hoi An

What a magical little place... Hoi An has been wonderful. A relaxing resort like mini break intermingled with a splash of culture and some serious shopping. Yaly Couture did very well out of our group that is for sure! 

Tomorrow morning we brave the Danang Airport bound for Ho Chi Minh.... Looking forward to some hustle and bustle but Hoi An has been divine... Particularly by night with all the coloured lanterns.

Ode to thang longs

With every new friendly face we meet on our trip, we also have to say good bye to some very dear friends. The thang long, aka the Vietnamese hotel scuff, has been a selfless, unwavering companion. They were there as the street sewers ran thick with stagnant offal, keeping western feet high and dry. They were the unsung heroes of frequent visits to the roller coaster-esque visits to the train squat toilets. As we have moved to greener pastures, we must remember the pseudo-footwear that made it all possible, thang long you will be remembered, lest we forget

From Hue to Hoi An

Hue had some verious impressive Temples and it was very interesting seeing inside the Citadel. Crikey it was steaming hot though so now we are in the breezy ( still very warm) town of Hoi An it's time to sit back and soak up what looks to be an enchanting place. One of the special parts about arriving at Vietnamese Hotels is being greeted at the door with cold face cloths and a refreshing drink... Perfect after a long bus trip! The pool at the resort is fantastic and tonight's treat was some complimentary Vietnamese Street food being cooked for guests... The Vietnamese pancakes are most definitely my fave! The drive over the Hai Vanh pass from Hue to Da Nang was spectacular... Check out the shots of some of us at the top!

Pink Group: Boat ride along the Perfume River

Pink group - singalong

The pink group started the Singalong tradition in the Singapore Subway, surrounded by many staring people. Our Maori speaking has also come from this as we all love a good Waiata to lift the spirits. 

'Never break the chain' - pink team

Little Italy and the Order of the Carrot Phoenix (a Purple Group Highlight production)

When ordering fruit juice at Little Italy Restaurant in Hue, you may be lucky to receive, attached to the side of your glass, a hand carved piece of carrot awesomeness! This Carrot Phoenix (awarded capital letters because of its complete legendary epicness) adorned the side of a lemon juice last night and needless to say the drink recipient was extremely excited. It only goes to show that vegetables really do taste better in mythical form. 

Temple of Literature

Green Group - Halong Bay

Highlights from the Green Group

Splashing through the torrential rain in Singapore

Spending 17 hours on the overnight train from Hanoi to Hue

Dining up in Hanoi

Seeing the monkeys and white tigers at Singapore Zoo

Everything about Ha Long bay

Blue team (AKA the superior team) 👹

The blue team is currently relaxing in the lobby of the romance hotel. In this group of wonder, we have Mr West (mother duck🐥) , Amelia (the Kermit assassin🐸) , Kirsty (shopaholic👜👖) , Pip (flash💥) , Georgia (perfect #1) , Kate (perfect #2) , Erin (the bottomless pit) , Meghann (hobbit) , Lauren (Jazzercise supreme leader💃) , Harriet (Squidward🐠) , Claire (token Vietnamese) , Olivia (lucky last) and Claudia (cash money).

We have been up to a great deal of things - highlights include subway surfing in Singapore, being caught in a tropical storm (bordering on tsunami🌊) in Singapore, bonding with fellow giraffes at the Singapore zoo, dining in an attic in Hanoi to get the Vietnamese ball rolling, Jazzercise at 5am by the lake in Hanoi, waiting for Olivia and Claire (ongoing project) , 9 course meals on the boat in Halong bay followed by a rave with the teachers (10/10) , 17 hour train ride with great fluctuations in temperature (sweat to shiver) , the pagodas everywhere, the tour guides (shoutout to VIET and QUAY ❤️❤️).

XOXO blue group

(Please follow link attached)

Leaving hanoi

Ready to depart for the train station. We are sorry to say goodbye.

Happy Easter

Easter Sunday tomorrow and we are heading to church at St Joseph's cathedral. Heading to Hue on the overnight train in the afternoon. Hanoi has been great. The girls are all becoming experts at negotiating the traffic. It will seem strange not hearing the constant tooting. 

Hanoi - ethnology and women's museum

Halong Bay

We have just had a fantastic cruise around Halong Bay. Amazing scenery and superb crew. Check out the team below

Happy in Hanoi

This place is incredible! So many amazing things to see. The structures including the temples and pagodas visited today are spectacular! This is topped off by lake and river views. The buildings with their French Influence look very elegant. Tonight the girls will get to explore the Old Quarter on their own... Now that they have mastered how to cross a road.. !!

Happy in Hanoi

We have arrived safe and sound in Hanoi.   We are all loving the food. Spent the afternoon yesterday seeing the city from a cyclo and the walking around the old quarter. Our guide explained that Hanoi was organised chaos which fits really well. Today we visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and the temple of literature. We are venturing into the old quarter for tea tonight and off to Halong Bay tomorrow.

Singapore

What a great time we had in Singapore. Ms Corkery was in her element at the zoo which was a biologists dream. A great group of girls who mastered Singapore's transport system.

Departure day

Departure day!!

Time to pack

I have spent the weekend writing To Do lists and starting to pack my bags. It is hard to believe that this time next week we will be in Singapore.

Just a few final reminders from me:

Please fill in your departure cards and bring them with you.
Remember we want you at the airport by 3pm on Saturday.
We will be having a late breakfast on Sunday so pack some snacks.

You do not need to wear your trip T Shirt on Saturday we will save them for the International travel on Sunday.


Happy packing!!!

Not long now. No doubt you are sorting your luggage and planning for our trip. I have just updated the itinerary. We will use this blog to give regular updates of our trip.

Green Team

25 days to go!!!

We are really looking forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday night. Ms Bell and I are going to go through all the systems and hints for while we are there. We will have an information booklet for everyone which will hopefully cover most things.

Brooker travel are finalising tickets and I will get you to double check names to ensure we have the correct version for all tickets.

If you still have your health form I will collect these as well.

See you all on wednesday night.

Getting to grips with History

Tonight Mrs Gabbusch is going to take us through the troubled past of Vietnam. This is crucial in understanding how this fascinating country has been shaped.

Many thanks to those who got their passports and Visa applications to us. We have a small number still to complete.

Tonight I will hand out a health information sheet which I need  filled in and returned asap. I will post the form here as well for those of you who are unable to make it tonight.

Vietnamese Literature

 At Wednesday's seminar we will look at the rich literary heritage of Vietnam.

As a starting point for Vietnamese literature the following website is very interesting.

Http://www.vietnamlit.org

This site is the home of the Vietnam literature project. As is says on this site under their mission statement “The purpose of Viet Nam Literature Project (VNLP) is to present each individual Vietnamese author within the context of the nation of Viet Nam which makes his or her particular voice ring out.”

There are five authors featured on this site who you might find interesting. 

 

Getting Ready!

It was great to begin our seminar series and we all got a huge amount of information from Ms Bell's introduction to Vietnam. A number of people have been asking about clothing for Vietnam. Our advice is to have clothing that will cover your shoulders and upper legs. I have added a few photos from 2012 so you can see what the girls wore. A lot of them had sun dresses which they wore baggy T shirts over. Skirts and dresses (for the females) are really good when traveling for being prepared for different toilets. 3/4 pants are also fine but baggy is probably more comfortable. Light weight shirts and sarongs are excellent for adding a covering layer.

There will be opportunities for swimming but we do not want any bikinis. In fact even with togs an overshirt would be good.

Looking forward to seeing you for seminar 2 - Don't forget your passport and extra photo.