Author: ldaniels

For some, our day began with a cultural dance class by the lake. For the rest of us, we enjoyed a nice sleep in until we met the rest of the group at 8:25am to walk to the Hoa Lo Prison. At the prison, we dove into the historical background of life in the cell. The prison was built by the French to hold Vietnamese political prisoners in the 1800s. Once Vietnam gained control over their country during the war, the prison was then used to hold American pilots that were shot down over Hanoi. Unlike the Vietnamese, the Americans were treated very well here and that’s where the nickname ‘Hanoi Hilton’ originated from.

 

After a very fascinating visit to the prison, we made our way back to the hotel to pack our bags and check out one final time. To finish our community service, we enjoyed a lunch at KOTO which is a non-profit restaurant founded on the idea of ‘Know one, Teach one.’ Essentially it trains disadvantaged teenagers living on the streets to work in the hospitality industry, giving them lifelong skills, which enables them to live out of poverty. It also teaches them how to manage a budget. We all enjoyed our last Vietnamese lunch together and celebrated our final moments in Vietnam.

From the restaurant we made our way to Hanoi Airport where we checked in and said goodbye to Hoang, our fabulous tour guide whom we will miss dearly! We are really sad to leave this wonderful country with its rich culture and delicious foods, but are looking forward to seeing our families once again.

By Courtney H. and Jolanda B.

Today was our last full day in Vietnam and we didn’t let any of it go to waste. We started off our day by visiting the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Seeing how busy it was and the amount of people there really showed how many people respected and cared for him as a role model. Ho Chi Minh was a down to earth person who wanted to live a simple lifestyle. His request to not to live in an extravagant palace but instead a basic house (which we saw) showed that he cared more about the people than fame and fortune. Next we visited a small one pillar pagoda where people pray to the lady Buddha and many Vietnamese couples go there to pray for a son.

We were lucky enough to walk the streets of Hanoi with a local himself (our tour guide Hoang) and see a different side of the city. We walked to a nearby lake where an American B52 that had been shot down was still visible in the lake.

We saw Hoang’s mother’s street-side restaurant and he kindly invited us to see his house. Even though it was a simply household he was very happy with his life and it reminded us of how lucky we actually are. Feeling very hungry we enjoyed lunch nearby and many people remarked on how good the hands on rice paper rolls were. We then set off to the Australian Embassy and enjoyed hearing other Australian voices after being in Vietnam for 16 days. We learnt about the many different ways Australia provides support to Vietnam. The statistics that were presented to us were very confronting. With Australia’s help poverty has decreased and since 2010 Vietnam is now considered a medium class country in terms of support needed. However, there are still 36 million people here living on less than two dollars per day. Australia has helped build a major bridge to connect the two major islands down in the Mekong Delta. This allows easy access to two major parts of South Vietnam and they are now discussing building another bridge due to commence in 2017.

After completing our embassy visit, we were given time to do some last minute shopping to spend the remainder of what we had left in our pockets and enjoy our last dinner in Vietnam. To finish the night we belted it out in a karaoke bar and sang some classics like dancing queen.

We award best singers to Patty and Nick for their incredible rendition of Katy Perry’s E.T. We also presented Hoang with a token of our love, a ukulele, and he touched our hearts with a heart-warming goodbye speech. Over all we really enjoyed our last day together but can’t wait to be greeted by our families in Melbourne.   

By  Nat S and Phoebe J

We were woken up by a knock on our cabins at 4:30am as we would shortly be arriving in Hanoi. After gathering our stuff we were off the train after a 15 hour journey. We were at our hotel in no time, where we were able to relax and catch up on lost sleep. The breakfast buffet at this hotel was filled with many wonderful foods and left us satisfied. We rested for a few hours before heading out to our first day in Hanoi. We enjoyed a tour of the busy city, seeing markets, historic bridges and many streets filled with shops. Our tour started with a walk over a bridge that was designed by Gustave Eiffel (who also designed a tower in Paris!)

We later climbed into electric cars for a tour through the old quarter of Hanoi, where each street specialises in a certain product e.g. shoes, toys

Today’s lunch was on the fourth floor of a traditional Vietnamese restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious meal.

After lunch, we had heaps of free time wandering around the city and finding our own way to the shops. A lot of us bought many gifts for our loved ones back home, and gained some skills bargaining for clothes and shoes. We then went to a lovely dinner in a restaurant called Little Hanoi where we once again were able to enjoy a traditional Vietnamese meal. We then had the privilege of watching a traditional Vietnamese theatre performance called Thang Longs Water Puppets.

It was a very enjoyable performance that gave us insight into the Vietnamese culture and way of life. It was very colourful, and there was even a small display of fireworks during one performance! It was a great experience overall and we learned a lot about Vietnamese traditional puppetry.

 By Paddy S and Zoe H

This morning we departed on our bike ride to the countryside of Hue. We stopped at an incense shop where we took turns in constructing our own incense stick.

After a quick break we headed off to where the fourth Emperor Tu Duc went to admire the view of the Perfume River with his wife. The views were spectacular. Emperor Tu Duc was king of Vietnam from 1847 to 1883. On the way we saw a bunker used to protect the area from the Americans during the Vietnam War.

Another short bike ride and we ended up at King Tu Duc’s tomb where we saw the burial site of him and his Queen. Although he had only one queen, the Emperor had 136 wives! The king ordered the construction of his tomb and surrounds, an area of 12 hectares, in preparation for his death and it was constructed from 1864 to 1867. We all had some free time to walk around and take in the history and beautiful sites. We were all starting to feel hungry and luckily a vegetarian lunch at a local Buddhist pagoda had been arranged. Most people were a bit ‘iffy’ about the food at first but ended up thoroughly enjoying it. After a fifteen minute ride back to the hotel, we had some free time to get snacks for the train ride to Hanoi. 

 

   We hopped on the bus for a short journey to the train station. Our 15 hour train trip left at 3.30pm.

When we got on the train, I think we all agreed that the rooms were a lot smaller than we expected for them to be. After an hour on the train, we passed the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which was the border between North and South Vietnam during the war. We were split into rooms of four people and we spent some time mingling and went to bed at 8:30 ready for the 4:30 am wake up.

Sophie B and Darcy N

We woke to the pouring rain and gathered our ponchos ready to face the long day ahead. We took a 40 minute boat ride to the famous Thien Mu Pagoda, where we dove into the rich history of this vibrant country. We learnt about the traditional ways of the monks and the Buddhist culture. After looking around we were told a fascinating story of a monk who set himself on fire in protest against the government who were unfairly treating the Buddhist community.

 

After another short boat trip we visited the moated ruins of the Imperial Citadel. Here we had a look at what was left of the old royal grounds after most of it was destroyed by bombing in the Vietnam War. This heritage site was filled with constant information which we found very interesting such as the kings being able to have more than 100 wives. One particular king refused to use plates more than once so the plates were smashed and used in the architecture of the murals in the grounds.

After a well deserved lunch and a quick nap, we headed off to the Dong Ba market. We split into groups to explore the vast array of shops. After returning to the hotel we freshened up before our royal dinner. At dinner we were greeted with traditional costumes and goofy hats. We were sure to get many photo opportunities. We were dressed as royals with a king and queen (Darcy and Jolanda) and many princesses and princes.

We dined in luxury, accompanied by a live Vietnamese band. The band played brilliantly with instruments we had never heard before, including some tea cups. For some the experience wasn’t as enjoyable for they had burning mouths from eating a red, hot chilli pepper. When we got back to the hotel we were briefed with the exciting days ahead.

By Nat S and Jolanda B   

After a well earned sleep in, we checked out of the hotel and loaded our luggage onto the bus. A short bus trip landed us at the foot of the great Marble Mountain, where we would spend the majority of our day. Looking up the great limestone steps was quite daunting, but eager we pressed on to journey to the top. 

Here we were met by a short lunch break and an introduction into what it was we were doing today – abseiling. Following another fifty or so flights of stairs we were split into two groups. One of the groups went and abseiled the 25 metre sheer cliff face, while the other group did the 14 metre drop into a small cave. This was slightly terrifying for most people, whilst others were almost professionals and flew freely down the jagged cliff face. This was truly an exciting experience for most people.

Once we had completed our abseiling, it was off onto the bus for a three hour drive to Hue. The bus ride was filled with spectacular views of soaring mountains which ran down into the ocean. About half way we stopped at an old run down gate perched high in the hills for a quick break. This gate marked the dividing point between North and South Vietnam in the seventeen hundreds, and nearby bunkers were part of the Vietnam War.

After continuing our bus ride we arrived at our hotel in Hue, and settled in for a well-earned night’s rest.

By Dan W and Cam N