I arrived in Do Son yesterday afternoon at about 1pm after a 3 hour drive from Hanoi. It's a strange place to try to describe. Basically it's an out of season beach resort, a little bit down at heel and rather like a Vietnamese version of Scarborough or Bogna Regis ;-) The weather's pretty grim at the moment (misty, overcast, drizzly and grey) so I'm obviously not seeing it at its best, but the beach doesn't look like the kind of place I'd like to take a dip or even sunbathe (apparently, the locals like to take photos ;-)). The town itself is quite cute, with lots of little quirky-looking houses and there are a couple of temples to explore. We get stared at quite a lot because we're the only Westerners here and the locals aren't used to seeing tourists.
Our accommodation is something to behold - three HUGE villas on a hill overlooking the town which were built to house military generals. I'm waiting for the sun to come out so I can post a photo on here and you can see them in all their glory. I have one to myself at the moment because the others are full, but two teachers are leaving on Saturday so I'll be able to take over one of their rooms. We each have a large ensuite room with a double bed, TV, fridge and internet access and then a shared living area and kitchen.
I've been warmly welcomed by all the other teachers, who vary in age from late twenties to late fifties and seem quite friendly. Some of them are friendlier than others and Ursula (from Cornwall) and Simon (from London) are my two favourites based on first impressions. They're a good laugh and don't take things too seriously. It's an extremely cushy deal we've got here because there's almost nothing to spend our money on, but other teachers seem to find quite a few things to complain about. Wherever I've lived, that always seems to be the case.
Yesterday, we got a taxi into Hai Phong to the 'Big C' supermarket which is where you go to buy stuff other than weird tofu shapes and strange fruit. It reminded me of Walmart in Daejeon with the Asian pop music blaring through the speakers and the rows and rows of instant noodles. While I was trying to choose some apples, a couple of girls sidled up to me and started checking them for bruises. They didn't speak any English but showed me which ones were OK and which ones were best left well alone. I could've done it myself, of course, but they were obviously loving the opportunity to help with a foreigner's shopping :-)
I also met a lovely Turkish girl called Pinar who is married to Rob, our Academic Manager. She showed me the sights of Do Son and took me for a coffee (it's very strong here and is made with condensed milk and ice) on one of the street stalls and to a Bia Hoi. We worked out the price of the beer and half a pint was the equivalent of 12 pence or something ridiculous. Everything is soooo much cheaper here than I expected it to be which is a very pleasant surprise :-)
Today, I went to the military base where I'll be teaching and Rob showed me around and took me into some of the classrooms to meet the students. They're incredibly friendly, smiley and seem to have quite a mischievous sense of humour. When I went into Zach's class (our only American teacher) I was immediately bombarded with questions; Which football team did I support? Which other countries had I taught in? Was I married? Could I describe my ideal man?? I was in there for about 10 minutes until Zach rescued me by suggesting I came back tomorrow and do a 20 minute question and answer session with them :-) I'm looking forward to it - should be a laugh!
The teaching seems to be very straightforward - just follow the coursebook and supplement lessons with any appropriate materials. We have the same class for 5 hours a day (8am-9:30am/break/10am-11:30am/lunch/2pm-4pm) for 5 weeks. Then we change over and teach a different level. Some students stay for 6 months and some do 9 months. They all stay on the military base, some as many as 6 to a room. They're all living away from their families and friends so I think they're quite keen on socialising in the evenings when possible. I'm going out for dinner with Ursula and her group tomorrow so that'll give me a chance to chat to some of them properly. I've been given an upper-intermediate group as my first class, which I'm very happy about. I'll start teaching them on Monday :-)

My hotel in Hanoi

Hahaha! Signed into my blog today to find that all the instructions are now in Vietnamese! Should be interesting.There's going to be a lot of guesswork going on until I can work it all out.....
Went out in the hotel's shuttle bus today to see a bit of the city and try to get my bearings. The traffic here is mental! No road markings whatsoever and everything just coming at you from all directions. Loads and loads of scooters (more than 2 million according to the Lonely Planet) and as many people crammed on to them as possible. Record of the day: a family of FOUR, with the little kid at the front to take the impact ;-) Another cool motorbike fact: They make helmets here with a little U-shape missing at the back for ponytails to fit nicely into :-)
I've spotted loads of karaoke places (will get stuck into those once I've settled in) and there are some very cool buildings and quirky little shops.
First impressions? I think I'm going to love this place :-)

Singapore airport ROCKS! It's like trekking through a jungle from the 1980s. Huge areas of graphic carpets, palm trees and rubber plants. There were even some oasis areas with little rockeries and fountains where you could recline on a lounger and pretend you were somewhere else. I could've easily stayed there for 9 months and just taught random Asian travellers just passing through....

I arrived in Hanoi at about 12pm yesterday but then had to wait for an hour to get my visa. They had created this great system where you fill in a form, give them a passport photo (which they attach to the form by putting a staple through your forehead), hand in your passport (they don't take the form) then go through the gateway and wait on the other side with the 60 or so other people who arrived at the same time and also filled in the form and handed in their passports. We formed an orderly queue (of course) but then after waiting for half an hour, realised that they were just shouting out names randomly. So the queue became a rugby scrum out of which people slowly emerged, slightly battered, clutching their passports like they were winning lottery tickets and looking extremely relieved.
After I'd fought my way through (and paid 50 dollars for the pleasure) I was picked up by a lovely little man (nothing dodgy, it had been arranged) and driven to my hotel. It was cool to see all the rice paddies with people working in them wearing their little conical hats and kids herding buffalo with sticks.
First impressions are of very friendly, smiley people and parts of the scenery reminded me of Bali. It suddenly occurred to me that previous homes I've had in Asia (Daejeon in Korea and Hong Kong) were much more affluent and therefore not that different from what I was used to. Vietnam is nothing like them. There is obviously a lot of poverty here and it's clear that English is not widely used. It's going to be interesting to see how I cope with that.