Day 2 Vietnam

Today we rented motorbikes and road around Hanoi all day. It was insane. There are no lights or stop signs and there are motorbikes filling the roads, it looks very scary, but if you just keep going with the flow it is pretty easy. We road around, did some shoping (bought 8 Wii games for $9US), went to the Temple of literature (which is the oldest school in Vietnam, and it was beautiful!), hung out with some locals on the side of the road, met a friend who showed us around, went to a traditional puppet show (it was all in vietnamese so couldn't understand it, but it was all done on water and had like music, it was really interesting), and then got some dinner. It was a very long day and thanks to the motorbike we saw most of the city. Tomorrow we get up at 7am to go to Halong. I am really looking foward to that! Also, we have been picking up a lot of vietnamese words and phrases, after trying to learn cantonese, this seems so much easier!

Vietnam

Arrived in Vietnam yesterday! Spent an hour at the airport waiting for the bus to fill up - but three vietnamese girls who worked for the shuttle bus were very friendly and taught us some key phrases, which has helped us out a lot. They then showed us where to get off the bus to find cheap hotels. Walked around the Old Quarters till we found some hotels. $7 a night per person with a nice clean room, internet, airconditioning, breakfast, and a view! The hotels here are also travel agents, so all the planning we didn't do before we came, we got taken care of for the next few days, for cheaper than we were finding online. Today we are going around the city on motorbikes and exploring some temples and attractions. Tomorrow morning a bus picks us up at our hotel and takes us to Ha Long and Cat Ba. look them up, it looks awesome! We go on a boat form there and go on a 2 day 1 night boat tour with kayaking breakfast lunch dinner and swimming. We get back on the 3rd around 5pm and then catch a train to Hue at 7pm. We will arrive in Hue the next morning. So that takes care of travel and stuff till the 4th. Then we need to figure out Laos, and Cambodia.

Dinner was great last night. Had beer with pineapple, it was in a red tomato sauce that was sweet and loaded with garlic. It was nice to get an asian meal that wasn't so spicy!

Things are going good. Will write again when I get the chance.

by clicking on this link you can see a satellite view of where I have traveled throughout the days! My friend Adam who is coming with us on our trip has a gps system that hooks up to a website and tracks on a map where you are, and I think depending on satellite signals it can update as much as every 10mins. So if you want to see how my trip to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia is going check here. If you see the track go anywhere else besides those three countries, then you may want to start to worry and call a US embassy. Also the gps has a emergency button to press, so if anything should go wrong not only will someone know but then they will also know where to find us! does that make you feel better mom? I leave Thursday April 30th and coem back to Hong Kong Sunday May 10th.


http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0NF3eAPf4uCLTr4hLqQNcAOiCg1SJamDx

I have been requested to start writing in my blog again. HEre is an update. I have been working very hard to plan surf camp for this summer. I am working with Quiksilver (one of the largest surf companies in the world, they sponsor us), to do all the marketing for the Surf Camp. Quiksilver designs the posters and brochures, and I write all the content for them. I have been writing press releases for publications in the area to advertise our surf camp, as well as put on a VIP party for all passed surfers to come and register for a discounted price. Here is an invitation to this party.


It has been a lot of work, but it is really neat to be able to do.


I leave tomorrow on vacation. I am going with James and then this Adam guy we work with. We are flying into Hanoi, Vietnam then going down the coast, crossing into Laos, and then going to Cambodia, going to Angkor Wat, and then flying out of Siem Reap. It should be a lot of fun! I am very excited. Will write about it when I get back.

Arrived in Hong Kong

I have arrived in Hong Kong safely! I started work on monday. been pretty busy at work. The new staff come in this monday so I am working on getting the training going and then we have a bunch of camps in march which i have been planning. Things are going good so far.

The weather is perfect. It is in the mid 70's and not very humid. No waves on the beach yet though.

Shawn and I went to Sai Kung, Big Wave Bay for a surf this weekend. It was amazing. It is clear on the other side of Hong Kong, takes about 4-5 hours to get there from where I live. From where I live we have to take a bus to the ferry then the subway then a bus then a taxi. The taxi drops you off at the top of a mountain where there is a hiking trail, then you have to hike about 1 3/4 hours to the beach. Unless you rent a speed boat for $80US thats the only way to get there. There is a little villiage called Ham Tim there and there is a restaurant that also rents boards and stuff. The waves were cranking! They were so big and strong, two of my surfer friends camp with us and they said they haven't seen waves that strong there before. The one beach where the waves are usaully a lot bigger Shawn and I couldn't even get passed the wave break, we just kept getting pounded and smashed by the waves, so we went over to the other beach just a 5 min walk away. The waves there were still huge and strong, but I was able to get up on a few. Had a few really nice rides. It was the coldest weekend yet... Only about 50-55 degres, and we were out in the water for a few hours. Everyone else had wetsuits, Shawn, Kristian, and I didn't. It was kinds cold. It got into the mid 40's at night when we were camping.

My flight to Thailand was canceled. So Shawn and I are looking for somewhere else to go.

Shawn arrived on Thursday morning (Thanksgiving). It was perfect timing for everything. We had a big camp going on that week, but on Thursday the kids went with their teachers to the Ng Ping and Tai O, so they were gone the entire day. Shawn and I arrived back to my work around 12:30, and my boss bought us Turkeys, and some of us prepared some dishes and we had a huge Thanksgiving meal for everyone at work. I made the green bean dish I like so much, but they don't sell the crunchy onions here, so I used dry stuffing and it worked great! There were a lot of people who never had Thanksgiving or the type of food we are for it, so it was nice to introduce it to people. After lunch we all hung out on the beach and played American Football (Shawn and mine team won of course). The weather was beautiful and we had a great time. Although we did not have home made pie; mom, I missed your apple pie.

I showed Shawn around the city and cheung chau a bit. We also went out to the bars on saturday. It was a good time. We had 2 BBQ's since he has been here, one on our roof and the other at Franz's house. Franz is the South African who is really intense and a crazy outdoor man. We had to walk through a jungle just to get to his house! It was awesome.

This weekend Shawn and I are going to Sai Kung and doing some surfing and camping on the beach! I can't wait, I haven't surfed in like 2 months, i miss it!