Week 1 whirlwind

So I have been in Vietnam for a week and all I can say to sum it up is wow what a whirlwind. It took 27 hours and 5 different airports (Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Seim Reap and then finally Da Nang) for me to actually make it to Vietnam. If I ever had to be stuck at any airport for hours it would have to be Singapore there is a free movie theater, endless shops , free tours of the city and a Butterfly garden that kept me amused in my sleep deprived state. The benefit of coming to Vietnam as part of a volunteer program was that I had a travel buddy Alison who had a much better clue of where we meant to be than I did. Alison is a physio who will be working with disabled adults in Hoi An.

Butterfly Garden at Singapore Airpot
 

Waking up on your birthday always feels like a little adventure add that feeling to the fact that is your  first morning in a new country and your just blown away. Being part of a volunteer program meant our morning was filled with health and safety briefings and how to deal with a Vietnamese workplace, super exciting. I was most interested in my mango smoothie  which was so thick I could eat it with a spoon YUM! 

Eating mango smoothies with a spoon is one of my strongest memories from my last trip to Vietnam 

By the afternoon when we started our first Vietnamese lesson I was exhausted and left the lesson overwhelmed and completely confused. There are 5 different ways to say each letter in Vietnamese depending on which accent is added to the letter ,pronounce chicken wrong and you could be saying train station. Seafood in Da Nang is amazing we went out for dinner to a local seafood place by the beach with Chris and Kylie, fellow volunteers from Hue. I was given the biggest bunch of roses i have seen in my life and ate the most amazing seafood.

Chris, Hein myself and Alison with the roses

Sea snails, jellyfish salad and steamed clams 

As our in country orientation continued we learnt more Vietnamese, had a go at house hunting, learnt how to cross the road and ate a wonderful selection of street food and a sneaky hamburger as well. Sunday was time for Alison and I to part ways she was headed to Hoi An and I was headed to Furama resort to live the 5 star life for 2 days.