Got up very early in the morning to find that no breakfast was available so we headed out for a walk by the lake and around the village in daylight. As we had arrived in darkness yesterday we could not see very much which may have been a blessing. This village seems a depressing blend of poverty and tourism. We could have done elephant riding for an exorbitant cost but declined. The elephants looked very sad and I found it heartbreaking that they were being explo...

Left Dalat on the start of our Central Highlands tour. Picked up by our tour guide Tien and driver Mr Dinh who will be looking after us for the next 5 days. Started with a trip to the flower farm where we learnt that 170 million roses are grown in Dalat every year as well as millions of other flowers – no wonder it is called the "city of flowers". Next stop was to visit a coffee plantation where we saw how the coffee got from the tree to the packet. Tanya g...

Start of our big trip across the Central Highlands of Vietnam.......Tanya and I could not wait to board the plane for our first stop in Dalat. Dalat, capital of Lam Dong Province, is located approximately 308km northeast of Ho Chi Minh City up in the mountains and for us was obviously much colder than we are used to!! The name originates from the hill tribe people in this region and translates to "stream of the Lat people". At an elevation of 1,500m, Dalat bear...

After a hectic week of exams, marking and grading papers it was time for a well earned break so with a long weekend in hand I headed to the beach side town of Mui Ne Northeast of Phan Thiet the coastal road climbs over the slope of a Cham-Tower-topped hill and descends onto the long, sandy crescent of Mui Ne Bay. The formerly little-inhabited beach south of the fishing village of Mui Ne proper has seen some serious development in the last 15 years. Now it is a ...

Greetings from Binh Duong New City I have survived teaching my first quarter at EIU!!!!!!! We finished teaching on Thursday with exams on Friday and Saturday. We will spend this week marking the exams and then it will be time to see who has passed and can go up to the next level. It is hard to believe that 3 months have passed and the turmoils that have gone on. At times I did not think I would still be here....there were many times I was ready to pack my bags an...