The buildup to Tết

03-Feb-2018

It feels like a classic case of ‘life is what happens inbetween’.

A few weeks had passed from teaching Monday to Friday, having parties in Trung Hoa and visiting Ha Long bay. It was exciting to have had a big adventure, but Tết was on the horizon and approaching surprisingly fast. I had been spending my time during the evenings planning what I could do for the 10 day break in February, reading my lonely planet book and budgeting according to prices online. Phú Quốc was first on my list, but the flights there from Hanoi were far higher than during other weeks of the year. It seemed like that would be the destination I would take if I was working in Saigon. the paradise beaches would have to wait for later in the term.

Speaking of Saigon, that was another destination I was thinking of. It seemed mysterious, maybe even more lively than Hanoi, but Nick Sando said to avoid the big cities during the holiday as they would be far quieter with Vietnamese people going to their hometowns. So 2 final options came to mind of Ninh Binh and Hoi An. Reading the book, Hoi An was represented more than Ninh Binh, so I was looking more towards central Vietnam. The clinching point however was finding out many of the Hanoi teachers were going to be in Da Nang, a city roughly 20km north of Hoi An and with more of a buzz to it. Looking it up, it was an hours flight away, and had the same population as Dublin, so on paper it looked exciting. I booked the tickets on the 29th, Set to leave Hanoi on the 13th and ready to enjoy 6 days holiday! Not bad for €100 return flights.

Next step was to set up accommodation. It turned out Da Nang was a city of hotels, so I booked one near the beach, to truly feel like a holiday. The Ana Maison hotel seemed to fit the bill, and was close to a lot of the other teachers hotels, so meeting up wouldn’t be too much of a problem. The taxi from the airport was thrown in as well, so all that was needed was to wait until the day to see what the place looked like!

The other thing that was happening apart from Tết plans was BME’s end of year ceremony. Simply because I thought it would be a little extra flavor to my time here, I signed up to be a part of the teachers dance section. Over a few weeks of learning (some of which I was really not in the mood for but I did anyway) The Vietnamese teachers choreographed a dance for me and Pip to do, set to a banging tune that sounded like George Michael was on vocals and some guitarist was doing riffs like his life depended on it were thrown in. It was suitable for my style! A few other teachers joined in, and Cian would turn out to also join into the dance, but with a Vietnamese assistant. He certainly looked the part in the white emperor outfit!

The day of the event came on, and I was thankful that I was not alone. Niamh, Kelly, Liz and Jodi McGinty were also involved. They did a more flowery and traditional Vietnamese dance which looked really impressive given the prep time.

The event was in a conference center not too far away from BME’s main office, so only a few minutes walk from House 5. We were given plenty of beer along with some food designed for the locals. I had the rice and rolls, and was happy to keep with the Bia Hanoi. Annoyingly though, BME seem to have forgotten what a ‘party’ is for the first, oh, hour and a half. It felt like 2 hours to be honest, even with the beer. For most of the show it felt like a business conference with powerpoint presentations about earnings, money, and marketing buzzwords they likely didn’t understand in English. It all felt very self-congratulatory, and I just kept thinking back to Vodafone conference parties and how much better they were at incorporating the business with the entertainment.

But the time came to get up on stage and dance. I was nervous, but less so than you may think for someone performing for hundreds of people. I had made a fool of myself on stage in the past, and this wasn’t going to be seen in Ireland, so there was that…

The rest of the party was spend just having banter with other tables and having a good time. That wasn’t the end of the night however, as we headed into town to puku to watch the 6 nations. It was a wild and sometimes messy night of cheering and drama, though both matches didn’t end until nearly 4 or 5AM due to the time difference It was one long night, but it was a satisfying blowout in total, and the holidays were about to begin…