New English teaching classes - Trip to BaNa Hills

More then two weeks are already over since I have started to teach the new classes in the University and in the English Language Institute. A lot of new impression ;) In the University I have unbelievable big classes – up to 43 students! I can tell you, this is a challenge of a kind ;)

Teaching in ELI twice in the evening is very refreshing. I have only 8-10 students between 16 – 45 years old. Very nice class and you can even discuss topics properly :) I really like it. However you cannot compare these two places. The students have completely different backgrounds and both places have pro’s and con’s. I think it is good for me as a teacher to experience both so.

Yes and there are news about the paperwork, seals and stamps for the work permit – the story continuous I can promise you…..now I don’t even know where I need to get the stamps which are missing and on which paper exactly they need to be stamped on…..no comment!

Just met an American guy in a bar tonight and he told me it took him up to one year to get all his documents together until they issued a work permit to him….Am I surprised?? No not really…… so patience needed :)

Last Saturday I went on a trip to BaNa Hills Mountain with my motorbike and Mai & Tony came as well along with their bike. The way to the mountain was anything else then pleasant – the streets were unbelievable busy, dirty – a lot of trucks, sand on the street and so on…..madness! Glad we returned in one piece all of us. But the trip was worthwhile! You have a stunning view from the cable car on the way up – we could see even Son Tra Mountain with the white lady Buddha and DaNang! And there are so many lovely mountains around BaNa Hills, it is an amazing scenery. I really liked it. Unfortunately it got a bit cloudy up the top and in the afternoon it even started to rain. After the rain it cleared up again and the view on the way down with the cable car was amazing so.

In-between we had to wait for over an hour to get down from the hill again as the cable car is not running all day. They have in total 4 breaks of an hour each and of course it is all written in Vietnamese, so we had no clue!

Does this surprise me? No, not anymore! We looked at rooms in both hotels up the top and it is worthwhile to stay there one night at some stage.

Must be an amazing view in the morning if you wake up and look out of your window :)

I did spend a lot of time on planning the trip with my visitors which are coming over in 6 weeks already :) Can’t wait!

Will meet Annette in Saigon and then we travel to Cambodia by bus. Starting in Phnom Penh, then Battambang and Siem Riep with Angkor Wat before we take the flight to Hanoi where we are going to meet Jan & John :) Then we have booked a trekking tour up to Fansipan next to Sapa. Fansipan is the highest mountain in Indochina with 3143 meters!! This is going to be a challenging hike and we sleep one night in a tent up on the way to the top :) Ohh… but I am so looking forward to it!

And after 3 month I finally started running again!!!! Yes, yesterday evening after 6pm I gave it a try. 30 degrees still outside, over 80% humidity…..I was as wet as I would have come out from the shower with my running gear ;) But it felt soooo good! I made it at least to 30min, which wasn’t so bad. And I loved it to see the coastline with all the lights on and the white Buddha on Son Tra mountain!!! I was thinking, I should have started running a long time ago in Da Nang! So now there is no excuse anymore, I will continue running on the beach ;)