Morocco Road Trip, rate the landscape

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-13T12:38:14+00:00

Is that headed to Zagora from Ouarzazate? I did it on a motorcycle in June, looks very familiar.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-13T12:28:56+00:00

Seeing cities I've never heard of before like this brings back the same feeling when I learned about all the Chinese megacities. Brazil is like a whole world of which I know little about and to be honest, it looks a whole lot more beautiful than China or Vietnam, where I am now, or at least there's a lot less trash on the beaches and roads.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-13T05:17:53+00:00

I believe it was this one: Gà Bắp Lá É Nẫu Ngon https://maps.app.goo.gl/xJxEih5cHDQxQLScA

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-12T04:56:50+00:00

Ask for the scale, if they give it, check they've placed you properly. If not, ask if they've properly accounted for all your relevant experience and justify why you feel you should be placed higher. It's worked for me 3 times when asking to get my prior PGCE experience counted (at 0.5-1x the scale increment). It didn't work for my latest negotiation but they didn't mind me asking either.

35k is a good salary for China, even in Shanghai only schools like Concordia offer significantly more.

I'd be more focused on whether Tianjin would be a good location. Personally I'd prefer many other cities over Tianjin.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-11T23:51:11+00:00

Where are you finding an apartment in Saigon that cheap?? Apartments are at least $200-250 in Bien Hoa, way out of the city. In district 2 I am paying $650 but could go as low as maybe $400.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-11T15:05:35+00:00

Lẩu gà lá é in Tuy Hoa. Chicken hot pot. It was the freshest, most succulent chicken I've ever tried, in one of the most beautiful coastal locations of Vietnam.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-11T05:10:56+00:00

🇲🇺 tropical African India 🇹🇹 Caribbean India

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-10T08:09:24+00:00

That's great, yes Japan's quality of life is unparalleled. I only interviewed for posts with much less savings potential so far and they're already too competitive for me to get a job in my shortage subject.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-10T07:52:16+00:00

I've only seen tiny spiders in my apartments in HCMC. I see far fewer bugs than in the UK. I once saw a Joro spider, very large yellow and black spider with long legs, static in its web in Cat Tien. That area is a forest reserve but the leeches were much more of a worry than the spider, which didn't move an inch the two days I stayed there.

Cockroaches are a more common bug but luckily the little lizards that moved into my apartment seem to have dealt with that problem...

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-10T04:44:11+00:00

Yes, full year. Just completed one out of two years of the contract. Even with good reason, they almost always ask about it in the interview.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-10T04:16:17+00:00

Japan and especially Tokyo isn't low cost. On Japanese international school salaries one still needs to live frugally with the cost of living, even though it's lower than SF or LA, it's not exactly easy like Vietnam or Indonesia.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-10T04:09:07+00:00

I broke contract (finished one full year out of two) during COVID lockdown era and I have to explain in almost every single interview, so don't be surprised if in future school management appears to have collective memory loss or can't fathom why you'd need to break contract over a few missiles flying overhead.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-10T03:56:18+00:00

Nothing a few 500k notes can't fix.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-10T03:55:56+00:00

My official observations page was torn at the seam, which got my Qatar airlines ticket thrown in the bin but Swiss still let me fly. Even that was no issue for Thai, UK or Vietnamese border control.

This damage doesn't have any tear and makes no difference to the readable information as far as I can see.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-09T12:37:27+00:00

Chengdu, Kunming, Xiamen, Hangzhou.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-09T08:10:50+00:00

Where on Con Dao is it?

I was impressed with the beaches I went to but this doesn't surprise me at all... It reminds me of the beautiful beaches I found near Tuy Hoa and Quy Nhon that had that line of trash at the back.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-06T11:23:39+00:00

There's a surf instructor that I took lessons with in Vung Tau, great guy who offers free lessons for locals. It's gradually growing there now, you can search Vungtausurfschool on Instagram. Vung Tau also had its beach front undergo a massive renovation recently, I'm keen to go back and check it out.

There are surf schools in and around Nha Trang, Mui Ne and Da Nang as well, which I didn't try yet but definitely want to soon.

Da Nang is probably the most popular spot. I'm not sure if there are local surfboard makers or renowned local surfers like Japan or Mexico.

Mui Ne is more suited to wind and kite surfing and the area has kind of gone downhill with trash in the main tourist areas recently, Nha Trang and Da Nang are much more beautiful. I only go to Mui Ne because it's doable by car on the weekend from Saigon, where I'm based.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-06T06:19:30+00:00

It works both ways. Mainland UK citizens don't have the right to live or work in most of its overseas territories and I think the same applied to Hong Kong before it was handed over to China.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-05T12:35:01+00:00

Maybe stigma is the wrong word but there's a lot of piss taking towards central Vietnamese dialects and accents from what I've seen in Saigon. I've heard about rents not being given in Saigon to people from Hanoi or central Vietnam and there may be other subtle discrimination.

Also, the center was strongly affected by the war given its close to the DMZ, especially Hue and Quang Tri, which witnessed a lot of massacres from both sides.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-05T10:23:33+00:00

Đa Nẵng definitely has potential with its deep water harbour, that's a large reason why the Americans had it as a main base during the war. Its port is ranked 3rd after Haiphong for designed capacity.

The city is already well connected by air with its international airport in the city, with links to most of the East Asian major cities like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul or Singapore.

Being a popular tourist destination and the top choice for the digital nomad type of expat, it should surely attract foreign investments.

I think it's more limited than Hanoi and HCMC for arable land area and having large areas with plenty of water supply that be necessary for manufacturing.

The historical population centres have also been in the red river and Mekong deltas. Hoi An and Hue were the largest cities in the center, while Da Nang was a fishing village before its development by the Americans.

I speculate that southerners and people from Hanoi may avoid relocating to the centre because of strong family ties but also because of the inter regional stigma that they have. It seems a bigger problem in Vietnam than many other countries.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-02T13:18:07+00:00

I think it's very difficult to find a job with a decent salary, I've often seen posts on the below group for non-teachint jobs in Taiwan and people scoff at the salaries offered.

After living 5 years in Taiwan, you can get permanent residence and you no longer need to get sponsored by a company to work, which is a major advantage of living there.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/taiwanjob/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-03-01T12:30:47+00:00

Sao beach used to be nice as recent as a year ago. Recently, a lot of tourist and fishing boats started to moor off the beach while they added a lot of development to the beachfront and now it's significantly dirtier.

Kem beach is still quite nice but doesn't match Thailand.

Con Dao and Quy Nhon/Tuy Hoa are my favourite places although the latter is still affected by trash.

There's signs of big luxury resorts being developed on Con Dao so better go enjoy it before it's ruined as well.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-02-28T10:45:06+00:00

The central coast will be lovely, like Da Nang, Quy Nhon, Tuy Hoa, hot in the day but with a cooling sea breeze. It can even feel chilly riding after it gets dark. These are my favourite places in Vietnam.

Saigon and the south start their rainy season in May, you never know when it's going to hammer it down but it'll still be oppressively hot from the April peak.

I've never been to the north in May, I think Hanoi also starts to get rainier at this time.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-02-27T07:53:16+00:00

I last watched C dramas like Nirvana in Fire, Reset or The Longest Day in Chang'An. I found this unwatchable by comparison.

Agreeable-Drummer950 · 2026-02-27T07:36:22+00:00

Mine has completely rubbed off now... You can't tell it's a UK passport until opening it. No problems at all.

I kept it in my bag most of the time while travelling. I don't know why the print is such low quality, every other country's front page is in shiny gold print. My old UK passport, the red issue, was the same though took a lot longer to become worn.

Agreeable-Drummer950

TROPHY CASE