Vietnam, Part 5, Hoi An

After an all-day motorcycle tour from Hue, I arrived in Hoi An. I took a little wander around town and then crashed. My room was adorable; I could have moved in. I was excited to explore the next day and stay the rest of my break here.

A cozy spot for the week

Hoi An is a beautiful town, which is well-known for its windy streets, river canals and tailors. It has a European touch to it and I loved all the coffee shops and restaurants with al fresco dining options. Its lantern festivals are also famous. It just so happened I would get to experience one of these magical evenings during my week here! If you can adjust your travel plans to be in Hoi An for a lantern festival, I would recommend you do so!

Colorful lanterns on a Hoi An street

Sampling coffee and deciding what to bring back!

Downtown Hoi An is car and motorbike free, but there are a lot of bicycles. I rented one for a day and enjoyed cruising around. 

Hoi An Canal

Panorama of the main canal

Historic Brid

Banana flower salad... did you know that bananas have flowers? And, that you can eat them?

A sample of what a local tailor can do...

Dusk in downtown

Most of the teachers travel away from Yangon when we have school breaks. I love living in Yangon, but I also love getting out when we have a chunk of time off of school. As it turns out a friend and colleague, K, was also traveling through Vietnam at this time. I met up with her, and her visiting parents, for dinner and the lantern festival.

The four of us ate at a restaurant near the water as the sun set. After finishing our meal, we made our way towards the canals. Hoi An limits electric light on these special nights (the 14th day of each lunar month) and with just the flicker of lanterns, the town takes on a magical glow. It was easy to purchase paper lanterns and hop in a boat. Our captain rowed us out, where we released our lanterns, watching them as they drifted out until they mingled with the rest. 

Selfie from our rowboat

My lantern on its way out

Moon over the canal

Lanterns on the water

I ended my time in Hoi An by picking up a few new custom-made items from tailors and relaxing at the beach. The beach is absolutely lovely; it has enough development to be comfortable (beach bars, ice cream stands, seafood restaurants), but not enough to take away the calm and charm of the place. 

Beach near Hoi An

We've made it to the end of my Vietnam saga! I am sorry that my posts lag so far behind my adventures.

I am going to continue on my Tuesday publication schedule until the holiday break...so keep reading! Hopefully, this will let me catch you up on my goings and goings (if that is even possible - I have been in Yangon 1 out of the last 5 weekends...).

Favorite sweet treat:

A friend make these gluten free vegan cookie dough balls for a recent potluck and they disappeared FAST! I haven't tried the recipe yet, but it looks pretty easy and not too unhealthy.

Podcast Recommendation:

I don't follow many podcasts, but I have become hooked on Tea with BVP. It focuses on second language acquisition and it has been shaping how I think about what I do in the classroom.

Another Blog Recommendation:

One of my former students is studying abroad in Spain this year. Follow her journey and live vicariously through her adventures with El Mundo Loco.

Ha ha, this is what my backpack looked like when I got home! I took carry-on only for my two weeks in Vietnam!

A Week in Chiang Mai with the Class of 2018!

One of my favorite parts of my job is taking experiential education trips each year. In the past, I have helped organize and lead trips around the Pacific Northwest, Mexico, Washington DC and last year's finale at Eastside Prep: Cuba.

My new school groups students together by grade level and I was excited to find out that I would be accompanying the 9th grade and 3 other teacher-chaperones to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We worked with Traidhos, which is an awesome organization and school, should you ever need a host for a school trip in SE Asia.

Day 1: Traveling 
It took most of Sunday to get to Traidhos due to a layover in Bangkok. Still, we were all excited to be traveling. The students went crazy for fast-food chains and duty free shops during the stop (none of those items are available in Myanmar...yet).

Passport, Boarding Pass, Coffee = 3 of my Favorite Things!

Traidhos welcomed us with a barbecue and bonfire after we settled into our apartments.

Day 2: Team-Building and Ropes on Campus

One of the goals for the week was to help the students gel as a group. This first day of low ropes and challenge activities required the students to work together and think creatively and critically to solve problems. It's really fun to sit back and watch them grapple with these challenges.

Challenge #1: Get ALL students up to the platform.

They did it and in record time!

Low ropes challenge course.

The next challenge was an especially interesting one. Students received ropes, plastic barrels and an oar. They had to create a raft to cross the river and each take a turn rowing across to retrieve a scroll. The first team to collect all scrolls, wins.

Figuring out how to keep the raft together. 

I survey the teams working from a nearby bridge. 

Paddling towards the scrolls!

Staying dry was a challenge!

And in case you'd still like an idea of what kind of experience these kids were having, here's a quick video clip. My job is entertaining on a day-to-day basis, but events like these stand out.

The day ended with the long-awaited trip to the Chiang Mai night market, full of art, clothes, souvenirs, food. Thai markets are the best I've seen in Asia. Who knows? Maybe I will bring you a souvenir from here...

My co-chaperone shows off her market spoils!

Day 3: Market and Elephant Nature Park

Our next day began with a road trip out to the Elephant Nature Park. It is a ways outside of town, so we stopped at a local market on the way. 

Thai desserts

Lots of snacks!

Chilies and spices.

Why are there pink and green eggs? I don't know, but they are pretty. 

A variety of insects... want to try?

After a long morning drive, we arrived to the Elephant Nature Park. This is an amazing spot and the owner really cares about the elephants and has invested a lot (time, energy, money) into creating this space for the animals. You can stay and volunteer at the park, or at the nearby cat and dog shelter. If you are looking for a place to live and volunteer for awhile, either of these would be wonderful options!

We received a lot of information about the elephants at the park and most are there because of injuries from humans. The park has only one rule - they don't use the traditional hook when caring for the elephants. 

Feeding the elephants!

Does it look like she is waving?

Our next stop was the river, where, yes, we got to bathe the elephants!

View of the park from the restaurant.

Group pic by the river.

Mama and baby

We returned back to a Thai arts and crafts lesson.

Painting umbrellas

Decorating paper lanterns

Evening Muay Thai lesson

Days 4-5: Biking, Kayaking and Boat House
Our next day began with a bike ride through the Thai countryside. We rode by farms, small houses and out to the edge of a national park. It was beautiful! I don't have more pictures to share because I'm not very good at biking and doing another activity, like snapping shots, at the same time.

Biking to the lake

Temple rest stop

Resting and lunch by the lake

Beginning our kayak journey!

It took about two hours of rowing to get to the boat house inn. We stopped to jump out of the boats and swim and cool off. Unfortunately, one of the students lost his Go Pro camera... But, we all made it to the small hotel and restaurant where we would stay the night. We jumped off of the diving boards, swam, ate a homemade Thai meal and played games before calling it an early night.

View from the boathouse

Playing at the boat house

Sunrise

After a short motor boat trip out of the park, we traveled to a small village to participate in community service. We worked to continue building a new school building. The students worked diligently, kept great attitudes despite the hot conditions and hard work. 

The new school will have four rooms.

Mixing cement

Slow, but steady, progress

Group shot at the end of our workday 

After we returned to campus, we had a short break to rest and clean up. Unbelievably, it was already time for our last night's activities! We had a special Thai dinner, followed by dancing, music and fire-blowing! The highlight for the students was releasing the lanterns that they had previously constructed. 

Traditional Thai dancing and music

More dancers

Fire throwing...

And fire-blowing!

Countdown to lantern release

Watching it float away

Are you thinking what I was thinking? As the daughter and sister of wildland firefighters, I wondered, "Isn't this a fire hazard?" I asked our group leader and he explained that when the lanterns burn out they are very high above ground and that any flame is completely extinguished by the time they return to earth. 

Day 6: Goodbye

Our last day was a travel day back to Yangon. The kids were sad for their adventure to end, but we were happy to return them to their awaiting parents upon arrival. 

What I'm reading: I just finished Tina Fey's Bossypants (Yes, laugh out loud funny!) and The Great Gatsby (I'm not sure how I got through high school English without reading that one... but I did!).

Where I'm typing: I'm finishing this post in Hong Kong - I have a long layover on my way back to Yangon from Taipei! Yay for great fast free wifi!