We got up for breakfast and met the rest of out tour group - 9 of us all together: 2 Australian girls our age, a Swedish couple and 3 New Zealanders, so quite a nice mixture.
And then we were off on our first journey - to Halong Bay. We stopped off for some water and I was again reminded of the sweltering heat and constant sweating that comes with moving out of an air-conditioned vicinity. Being used to the cloudy English weather, this takes some getting used to.
I just wanted to take photos of EVERYTHING! But it's hard to get a balance between what's acceptable and what's invasive. I miss a lot anyway because my camera is soooooo fucking slow and it eats up battery power like there's no tomorrow.
We arrived in Halong City and I bought a beautiful Vietnamese style brolley to protect against the intense heat and sun. Lots of Vietnamese women have complemented me on it so I think I made a good choice! I figure if the locals cover themselves up all the time, then I better do so as well. Even if school children don't have hats on, they will use a book, or something to cover their head. Although people are generally quite poor in Vietnam, the school uniforms always appear immaculate and very smart. All school children and young people carry tiny stools to and from school, which presumably they use to sit on. They are so tiny - smaller than the seats I had in reception class! The children have various ingenious ways of holding the stools as they ride to and from school, piled up two, three, four at a time on bicycles - we'll come to road safety in Vietnam a little later.....
School start early. The hours are generally 7 - 11 and 2 - 4/5pm, that is if a child goes to school at all, and if they go in the afternoon as well as the evening.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment