Last Wednesday we moved to a rented apartment near Tom on a small island on Truc Bach Lake, which is the southern part of Westlake. We were planning on having a couple of weeks 'holiday' over the Christmas period with Tom. However we have been asked to teach English to the new group we have been interviewing over the last couple of weeks as they were short of teachers. So for the last few days we have been popping over to the homestay for evening lessons. Whilst we were travelling, Chris and I obtained the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) qualification, so we have the theory but need to practice a bit! Luckily the group of students we have are great fun to teach and very appreciative.

On the weekends they have a group outing with the teachers, so this last weekend they took us to the Museum of Ethnology. We ordered a couple of grab bikes and met them there. As we left our apartment Chris' bike went one route and my bike headed off in the opposite direction, a bit disconcerting but we eventually arrived at our destination about the same time so whichever bike thought he was taking a shorter route wasn't if you see what I mean. Anyway the students were eagerly waiting to show us round the museum and tell us all about the 54 different ethnic groups that make up the populace of Vietnam. We had an enjoyable couple of hours inside the museum then we were taken for lunch which was Bun Cha, a meat, noodle and watery soup dish. Then we went back to the museum to look at the outdoor exhibits of original Vietnamese buildings, which were intriguing, as in some cases they were raised on stilts and had incredibly tall roofs. The floor was made of Bamboo and you could see the ground below. It felt very unsafe as it was very springy. I was very relieved when we climbed back down. There was also an outdoor water puppet theatre where they act out fables. The puppets were operated by people behind a bamboo curtain standing in the water. Each puppet company had different traditions and each pupeteer has his/her own secret way of operating their puppet. It is very noisy and entertaining. We watched one show and the puppets were a large pink man, a tiger and a horse. The tiger was attacking the man who, after much roaring, eventually killed the tiger. I am sure there was a story line but it didn't quite translate. Before we left we had fun dancing across the bamboo poles, a traditional game of long poles that they bang in rhythm and at the same time open and close them. As you can see from the photos Chris is very agile!