Monsoon season is still freakin hot…

And so it all begins!!

Its been a few days now since we left the UK and already an amazing amount of stuff has happened. The first thing wasn’t as fun as I would have expected it to be however…

I got to the airport and began to prepare for the journey ahead only the realise that I had managed to leave the one thing that I never go anywhere without at home. My camera. Nightmare. After lots of swearing (I apologise to Becky’s parents for this as this was the first time that we met and I wasnt acting at my best) I calmed down, and figured that I was going to buy a new one anyway, and it would be cheapest abroad anyway, so not a total loss. Never the less, I was going to feel naked without it until i got the new one!

Nice bright, brand new, fashionable STA shirts

After the fury subsided, Alex (the big boss) gave us our ever fashionable STA T-shirts, which we had to immediately don to walk through the airport representing the company. Hmmm….

And so the time came to say goodbye to the family, my sister took a million photos as I headed through security and managed to hold back the tears as I wandered off. What a trooper! Got the security and for the first time in a long time managed to get all the way through without an alarm going off. Becky wasn’t so lucky. After they searched her bag (which revealed even more liquids in her bag after showing me the 500 bottles she had already removed before heading through) we were pulled aside and put through the new full body scans I had been reading about in the papers. Which was actually quite a lot of fun to be a part of! Not sure how we look like terrorists in our nice STA shirts.

The plane itself was amazingly empty and we ended up getting our own rows to ourselves. So a good nights sleep was in store.

After a long sleep (where I missed the dinner and the headphone I had from the airline were taken off my head by someone) we landed in Ho Chi Minh. At our transfer in Doha we had had 40 minutes to get to our next flight, and I never thought that our bags were going to be following us through. But against all odds, they appeared without problem!

Scooters... lots and lots of scooters

Once in a taxi we got our first feel of the Vietnamese lifestyle. And it appears that the word is SCOOTERS, lots and lots of them!

All the way to the hotel we were surrounded by them, they outnumbered cars at least 10 to 1, and there seemed to be no rules to them whatsoever. Driving in Vietnam is suicide!

Our first night

That night, I was thinking that we would have a nice quite one to recover from the jet lag and settle in, but it was not to be. After meeting our guide (cutely named Apple, who screams, loud, whenever she was drunk) and the rest of the group, we had dinner and then headed into town. The night was very much a blur after that and two hours sleep later, we were up for our first trip.

So still drunk and slowly moving into the realm of hang over we set off on the 1 and a half hour bus ride to the Cue Cho tunnels. I have to be honest, I did not think that crawling through tunnels the size of a coffin was going to be a very good hang over cure, especially when I was claustrophobic…

the bus ride was a good laugh and we got to know our group a little better, and pretty soon we were standing on the site of all those battles you see in the movies between the Viet Khong and the Americans. The sun was well and truly out and I was sweating as soon as I stepped off the bus, I could see what they meant when they said that the reason the americans did so badly was because they couldn’t handle this blistering heat!

Slightly too large for the Viet Khong

We were shown one of the original entrances, which I couldn’t fit into, but Becky could, which I was pretty glad about as what lay underneath did not look like my idea of fun. Later on though, there was a much bigger entrance and I was told I would be able to fit into it. Not being one to back out of anything I gave the tunnels a try. I got about 30 metres and had to bail. Hats off to the Viet Khong, there is no way I would have been able to stay in those tunnels for any longer than 45 seconds!

On the journey back, I thought about maybe getting a little shut-eye, but then got distracted by the scenery that I had missed on the way there. It was beautiful. there were miles of green fields all around, framed by an array of mountains, and in the distance you could see massive rolls of mist floating around the bases of the looming shadows cast across the sky. It was breathtaking.

Once back, many of the group retired for a little shut-eye, but I had spent too long without my camera, so ventured out with a couple of others from the group in search of one! It took a couple of hours, but eventually I found success, and once again I can been that geek in the back you can hear constantly snapping away!

It was on this little trip that I found out was it was like trying to cross the road. Just like driving, it is suicide. No one stops for you, but if you walk slow enough, the hoards of scooters can drive around you. Cars on the other hand you really have to look out for. Nether the less, it is still terrifying to see 1000 scooters driving towards you at speeds that would kill you. You just have to believe that those driving them know what they are doing and that the years of experience they have on them is enough to save your life.

A quick shower later and we were packed and on the 9 and half sleeper train to Nha Trang. And I welcomed it with open arms. After the two hours sleep that I had had in 48 hours it was beautiful.

We were woken at 5.30 as the train pulled into the station and heading straight to the next digs. We dumped all our stuff into one room (as only one was ready) and headed straight to the beach, at 5.30, and yet most of the town seemed to be up already. it seems that everyone in Vietnam follows the rule of waking and sleeping with the sun.

It's a hard life

We worked on the first video for most of the morning and spent the rest of the day chilling on the beach, where the water was beautifully cold, and so refreshing, seeing as sitting down for five minutes in the sun made you start to sweat. Everyone got burnt.

Painfully we all heading to dinner and most people couldn’t eat as they all had sun stroke… it was an early night for all involved. Unfortunately the hotel had had all the power cut off due to the building works next door so we couldn’t get into our rooms until later. And were we did the air con hadn’t been working all day. Nice sweaty nights sleep.

Later on today we’re heading to the hot springs around the corner and hopefully getting into a mud fight with the locals, at least that’s what we’ve been told!

Till Next time!!

Matt M

STA WTI 2010

Vietnam!!

Leaving Exeter Round 2

Since my last post there have been a lot of goodbyes. I could only spend the one night at UEA with my sister as all the things that I had to sort out started to mount up; jabs, pills… and shopping. Headed back home on thursday via my Grans house for a quick lunch and farewell and went straight onto my GP’s and got a couple of needles stuck into my arm. Fun times.

Me and Jordan trying to be cleaver with a camera flash... how cool

After my mum got a bit teary (the first time of many) I set off to Exeter for a farewell weekend. A friend of mine, Jordan Lee, was driving me down and driving me back to join me in my celebrations. Thanks to him for the 8 hours of driving he went through!

Gotta say that it felt weird that I was heading down there for the last time as a student. No graduation, no grad ball, I would have to make the most of the weekend ahead.

Unfortunately we broke down half way there.

There was something wrong with the clutch… or something… I’m not what you might call a good mechanic! After a bit of a panic and a lucky encounter with someone who knew a bit more about cars, we called the AA and had to wait around in the service station for an hour and half for them to turn up. Luckily I had some mobile broadband and my laptop with me. Three episodes of Family Guy later and they showed up, only for the problem to have fixed itself. Bummer.

After a few good laughs with the AA man (ahem) we were back on our merry way, but only managed to get into my house at around 1.15 in the morning. Turns out travelling is pretty exhausting (who knew) and so we crashed out…

The History Boys at Exeter Uni

Eager to make up for lost time we headed to the Vic (our local) for a good pub brunch the next day and met up with a few people. A few games of pool, and couple of beers later it was suddenly evening. A friend of mine was in the play ‘The History Boys’ at the uni, so went up to watch him strut his stuff. Well done to Matt Harris, Theo Fraser and Kate Shlugman for all the hard work they put into it, it was a brilliant show and would have loved to see it again!

Once the curtain come down, myself and Jordan went straight into The Ram (the uni watering hole) and began the weekend celebrations with the rest of the cast. One thing led to another and we were both nicely drunk. Time to move on…

The Lemmy... on a good night

To anyone who does not know The Lemmy, it can only be described as a very big school hall, with a bar and a dance floor. It isn’t the most flashy place in the world, but then which Student Union is? I can’t go into much detail about the events that took place there that night, as I can’t fully remember them. But suffice to say that I had good night, thanks to the video that I took (and incidentally can’t remember taking) of what happened when we got back. Jordan you are a legend.

The next morning I spent a long time trying to get me and Jordan out of bed. I can’t honestly say that I was trying that hard.

Still not in the mood to do any sort of cooking ourselves, we went back to The Vic for our second pub brunch. As hung over as we were I thought it would be a nice opportunity to watch the muchly anticipated season finale of lost. I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone who wants to watch it, and anyone who just doesn’t care… all I need to say about is that I was not amused… it did NOT cure my hang over.

That evening a friend of mine, Jess, had said that she wanted to take me out to dinner as a congratulations thing. As if paying for my dinner wasnt enough, she presented me with a bound book of pictures over the past three years of uni. What an absolute star. on the way back home, to a house where I thought there would be a few people waiting to have a couple of drinks with, Jess said we had to swing by the Amber Rooms, a little bar on the high street of Exeter, to say happy birthday to a friend who was having a party upstairs.

Singing at Amber Rooms

As I walked up the stairs to the party room I could hear no music, no background noise and no bar staff. I thought nothing of it and kept on going. On walking into the room I was greeted by a roar of people rushing forward and shouting ‘SURPRISE!!!’ and I almost knocked over the bar as I flung myself against it. It took me about 20 minutes to stop shaking and drink after drink was thrust into my hand.

Me and Glynn after a few...

There was karaoke, a friend was DJing and after another 20 minutes I was sat down in front of a TV screen and played a video of all my friends saying well done and goodbye. Jess is an absolute star!!!! It was a great night, and such a great way to say goodbye to so many people.

The next day I spent in a hung over blur, and spent my last night in a room with some of my closest friends until the early hours of the morning, filled with many emotional goodbyes!

Since then I have watched the video 6 or 7 times, and it never fails to get me a little choked up. I’m back at home now ‘packing’ or so I hope, and getting ready for the trip of a lifetime!!

Thank you to Jordan for driving me down there and keeping hush about the whole thing the whole way down.

Thanks to everyone who said something on the video and who were there on Sunday night to say goodbye!

And thanks especially to Jess who made this weekend so amazing, I will never forget it!

I have already planned what I am doing for graduation, but I will definitely miss being in Exeter with all the drama lot as they walk up to the podium. But what a way to say goodbye instead!

Tomorrow night I’m having a small send-off back home, which will be a nice way to start the travels and a great way to try to stop mum from crying… again (we went to dinner the other night and she got all emotional… im starting to feel like im dying or something).

Till next time

Matt

WTI 2010