This week saw National Teachers Day in Vietnam - a foreign concept for us. On the day, and for a few days around the actual day, students visit their teachers past and present and take them flowers and gifts - definitely a foreign concept for us. Stalls selling flowers and paintings were set up on the footpath outside the university gates and I watched as teachers left after classes (on their bikes) laden with flowers and presents given by their classes. Here it ...

Not my bike, someone else's. Lately I've been spending a fair bit of time riding around on the back of a motor bike.After some not too subtle hints ("clothes are very cheap in Quang Ngai", "I will take you to meet my tailor friend, very good", "Mr Owen always dresses very well") I finally took the plunge and agreed to get a top made.These things are not to be rushed though, two friends took me to breakfast at a local noodle shop at 8 o'clock. Then it ...

We can pick 'emWe'd been in Vietnam two and a half months, almost two of them in Quang Ngai, still in our room in the university guesthouse, so we'd been thinking we'd do a weekend getaway to somewhere nice. We decided on Hoi An, the nearest tourist destination and a lovely UNESCO listed world heritage site, about 100 km or two and a half hours drive away. Quang Ngai isn't on the tourist route so it's not that easy to get in and out of. Th...

One month has gone and it flashed by so fast I hardly know where it went. In that time I've visited several classes to listen in and answer questions, been to meals and coffees umpteen times, obtained a few Facebook friends, been taken to a Buddhist temple, and been to two weddings.We've also seen Independence Day and the Hungry Ghost and Mid-Autumn festivals go by. Independence Day (from the French 2nd September) was just as we arrived and flags were han...

You begin with the implements. Take a tissue (or more often than not a small square of cut paper) and carefully wipe the chopsticks and spoon. We felt a bit uncomfortable doing this at first, thinking it smacked of Western arrogance - but it has to be done. Then the cup or glass. Pour a dash of tea, swirl it round and tip it on the floor/footpath/nearest pot plant or into the bin which is sometimes under the table. Tea comes with everything, even coffee and the m...