Our last week in Vietnam was a lot like our first; waiting around for the visa for South Korea. We explored a lot more of the old town, and went to a Water Puppet Show, did a little shopping and a lot of eating and drinking coffee.

We met up with Kate and Ami, some friends from our time in Sheffield, and spent a few days with them, swapping stories and eating and drinking a bit more. It was really nice, and a much-needed diversion from waiting around. We also made friends with a couple in the same dorm room as us, one from South Africa and one from America, who were also waiting for jobs teaching English in Vietnam. They were just as bored as us, and were easy going and we had a lot in common. They complained about not having enough to do, so we invited them out every time we went out, and they declined each time....and then we saw them in a bar with some other people....we took this personally.

Ho Chi Minh is the founder of communist Vietnam, and the God of the people, so they have preserved his body in a mausoleum in Hanoi. We went with Kate and Ami one morning to see him, and it was a weird experience. White clothed guards direct you about a kilometer out of your way around the very edge of the park, and then take your bag off you, but leave you with your electronics, which you have to carry down to the next booth, and they give you a red bag to put them in, and then this has to be handed in another couple of hundred yards down the road. That was strange. The body itself is in a really dark room, again surrounded by guards, and its silent and really eerie. He looks like a waxwork, but just like the pictures, and was an interesting part of Vietnamese culture to see.

The Water Puppet show we went to was equally as strange. It's a big pond, with a screen behind which the puppeteers stand and the puppets appear out of the water on sticks. It's just a series of skits depicting different parts of rural Vietnamese life, like farming, buffaloes, picking coconuts, fishing, smoking, and carp turning into dragons. I think there are about 4 puppeteers, but one of them was definitely on something as his puppets were a little lopsided, and not at all in sync.

We spent the last few days in a nice hotel, sorting out our bags, weighing things, throwing things out, and eating pizza watching some new DVDs. The calm before the storm.

We have a business class flight to SK, (to get the extra baggage allowance - no other reason, honest!) and we're up really early, so from Hanoi goodbye, and see you in South Korea. The easy part is over, and from now on we are officially expats, and we also have to work a 9 - 5 job again. Oh how will we cope?!