You don't know man... you weren't there...

However we were. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of adventures through Vietnam, as we've cheated death (which is every time you cross the road), got jobs, and realised that it doesn't actually rain THAT much in Manchester. In fact, in comparison to Vietnam, it could be as dry as the Sahara Desert.

We are never going to describe Manchester as 'rainy' again

The first city we arrived to was Hanoi, and as we got a taxi to our hostel from the airport, we learnt that it was perfectly fine for motorbikes to go the wrong way down a motorway. When you get to traffic lights, the rules are "At a green light, proceed with caution. At a red light... also proceed with caution". Despite being here for two weeks, we've only seen one crash (and that was a minor bump); and we remain incredibly jealous of all our friends who've seen big crashes (or been in them).

Nobody crashed

One of the must dos for Northern Vietnam, is a trip to Ha Long Bay. Over 2,000 huge limestone rocks stand over a vast stretch of sea. It's simply stunning. The wonders of the rocks made up for the dodgy company we took our tour with. Called 'Joy Travel' - the cheapest tour company there was - we later found out their ships are prone to sinking in the night. If that doesn't happen, you can guarantee that half-way through the first day, a random selection of guests will be told they have to change boats, they're over-subscribed, and more and more nonsense. We were unluckily selected to change boats - though this was a blessing in disguise, as we met a load of cool people on our new boat.

Ha Long Bay

Our three days at Ha Long Bay also included an epic beach football match on a beautiful beach of Cat Ba Island, kayaking through caves in the islets, and playing Ring of Fire with a Polish guy, who looked as though he might cry when we told him he had to give away some of his drink to put in the middle glass. More hilarious, was that you weren't allowed to drink your own alcohol on the boat (there was a fine in place, to make you buy the expensive boat beer) - hence we kept on slipping away to our room, to fill up our empty beer cans with $1 wine.

Ring of Fire

Before we left Hanoi, we decided we wanted to see Huu Tiep Lake - where a B52 bomber landed after it was shot down in the American War. The less said about the trip there, the better. We got a taxi to somewhere near it (the driver hadn't heard of it - neither had many others; for some reason a crashed plane in a lake isn't the biggest of deals in Vietnam), and then proceeded to spend around two or three hours walking round the streets before eventually stumbling upon it. It was only when we got back to our hostel to look at the route we'd walked, that we discovered we'd walked in a big circle - AROUND the lake.

Huu Tiep Lake and the B52 bomber

Following Hanoi, we took a night train to Hoi An. Surprisingly, it wasn't quite as nice as the night train we took in Germany, and inevitably, it wasn't made for people above the height of 5ft.

Lots of room

Our time in Hoi An was a slight struggle, solely due to the constant rain that was around. Apparently we missed the worst of it though. We recently spoke to someone who left Hoi An a few days after we did, who had to get a boat out of his hostel. The rain (and this isn't just standard England rain - Vietnam rain is a completely different breed. It's like comparing Bucks Fizz to Vodka) meant we had to stay in our hotel for a couple days - which did give us the benefit of catching up on some quality films. We'd particularly like to recommend Trading Places starring Eddie Murphy. Give it a watch.

Great film

When we did manage to leave the hotel, we predictably bought suits. Hoi An is the place to buy a tailored suit, and we both picked up a couple for the bargain price (you'd struggle to find a nicer suit) of 100 quid a pop. We also managed to brave the streets of Vietnam with a couple of motorbikes, driving to the beach for the day. Once you've got past the initial 'help, I'm going to die' moment, you end up thinking Vietnam has great road laws, and that English laws are pointlessly strict/annoying.

Yehhh we're rich

And so now we're residing in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. Saigon is an awesome city, with a pretty amazing history. We took in the war remnants museum one afternoon, and in between the parts of seeing the awesome planes and tanks they have there, you do some reading, and see some pictures, and you realise that the USA is one of the scummiest countries that's ever existed. Much of it was on a similar level to Germany and Japan in WW2.

Tank with a rather large gun

Day-by-day, we've taken up the local sport - shuttlecock kick-ups, bought a watch a day, and even got jobs here. After a couple days of wandering around the city handing in our cvs to schools (to teach English), we had interviews with a school who are evidently stupid clever enough to want to employ us. A short lesson demo later (which consisted of teaching to two staff members - one a 40 year-old woman who was acting like a kid with ADD - hard not to laugh), and we were offered jobs, which will hopefully be starting sometime next week.

Wild street celebrations after the Vietnam football team scraped to a 2-0 win... over Timor-Leste... in the GROUP STAGES of the South-East Asia Games. God knows what will happen in they win the whole thing...

So the foreseeable future, we'll be living here in Saigon. So long as we don't get sacked. Which we don't think will happen. As were the bestest english teachers that has ever exited. Right?