Author: nburke

 

After a good 11^th floor buffet, and 7 too many crepes, we set off on a bike riding journey through Hue. Unlike your casual bike ride down beach road after nan’s Sunday arvo roast, in Vietnam you have to dodge speeding motorcycle maniacs, courageous cows and the way too fast and furious Mrs Tattersall. Every intersection was hectic, but the highlight of the bike ride was reaching a famous bridge. Our tour guide, the super smart Sunny explained the history of this bridge and how it was built by a Japanese woman in the 18^th century to connect two villages. Riding a bike in Vietnam is very humbling to experience, nobody acknowledges your existence but can dodge you at the last moment, which makes the experience feel safe and kept us strangely reassured. The ever capable Mrs. Tattersall expertly dodged through the streets of Hue with a Vin Diesel-like passion. The only casualty in this whole venture was a pair of pants that was ripped and repaired quicker than the tailors in Hoi An can fix them. We stopped at local authentic markets and observed the life style there as well.

In our down time after the ride we all seemed to watch the same shows at the same time in our separate rooms: Vietnamese dramas, intense 8 ball mania on fox sports 6 and Days of Thunder that every hotel in Vietnam plays 3 times a day. We then elevated to the 11^th floor and swam in a rooftop pool that has a view over a soccer pitch fit for a Cahill.

After a lovely trip to the pool, we were given time in the room to prepare for the trip to Hanoi tomorrow. For dinner tonight we were allowed to roam the streets of Hue looking for a good feed for dinner. Unfortunately some of us were met with a carbonara disaster, with very overcooked pasta: it was genuinely bad (Pro Vietnam Red Hot Tip; never order western food in Vietnam, rookie mistake). We finished the day basking in the beauty of ice cream from Baskin Robin ice cream.

P.S. from Will, sorry I went over budget but tell Sarah her gift is awesome, like really cool, so worth it, no regret at all.

P.S.S. from Lauren, I’ve almost gone over budget too, I bought a suit and now I can’t afford to eat, just kidding, also I got you guys some alright gifts. ciao

 

We woke up to a buffet breakfast. After, a delicious meal, we said goodbye to Hoi An, and went on a long bus ride to the Marble Mountains, a beautiful landscape covered with trees, ancient temples and lots of fog. The time at the mountains was spent exploring caves. However due to the torrential downpour, the abseiling session was cancelled due to health hazards. We learnt about the Buddhist monuments surrounding the cave system, the history and culture of the temples and admiring the natural beauty of the caves. The caves were also used as hideouts during the Vietnam war, and as a refuge for injured people. After soaking in an awesome view of the local town from the top of the mountain, we then had a lunch under a improvised shelter, eating the traditional Banh Mi of Vietnam.

After the wet and tiring cave explorations, we sat a 3 hour trip bus trip to Hue (Way), through some alarming, opaque fog. The day at Hue began with a terrifying and awkward (the sitting conditions were cramped) cyclo ride. We saw more of the insane traffic in Vietnam, where people drove through red lights, cut close to each other and pushed food carts through heavy traffic without much care in the world.

The ride ended at the Forbidden City, home of the Vietnamese royal family during the 16-20^th century. We visited the throne room, filled with intricately carved wood coloured red and gold. We learnt of a the history of the Imperial Family and a battle that had taken place during the Vietnamese War, which had destroyed and sacred the Forbidden City. We learnt that this area was the starting point and staging ground for the Vietnam War.

The day ended with a “Royal Dinner”, where everyone was dressed up in traditional, fancy garbs, a King and Queen were crowned for the evening (by being randomly selected out of a hat) and everyone was served a meal of beautifully decorated meals, whilst the rest of the group was forced to serve the “royals” drinks. We were also entertained by local professional musicians playing traditional Vietnamese instruments. We are looking forward to a more thorough exploration of Hue tomorrow by bicycle!

Daniel I and John Z

 

Like previous days in Hoi An, we woke up to the sound of an alarm, got ready for the day and went down to the breakfast buffet. As Hoi An is a world heritage listed site many of its historical land marks are still present. Sunny, our tour guide, started off our day with a tour of the history of the town. It began with the Japanese bridge in town which was made in the 17^th century. She then moved on to the Tan Ky House which was a traditional Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese styled house that has been passed down for 7 generations of families. In comparison to Melbourne much of Hoi An has been kept near identical to it’s original state and comparatively Melbourne has been majorly changed and urbanised over a much shorter period of time.

After our tour, we were allowed 4 hours to ourselves to pick up any clothes we had got made at the tailor, eat lunch and roam around the town to either shop or explore. Two of the students were chosen to represent St Leonard’s at Children’s Home In Action (CHIA). CHIA is an organisation designed to help children with disabilities – most commonly Cerebral Palsy –  who are at an unfortunate position in which the school system is subtly denying their education. Many of the children suffered of Cerebral Palsy which is a physical disability. Because of their disability they cannot spend the full day at school, CHIA provides a space for the children to go to in the middle of the day so that they can have a break in the middle of the day so as to continue their education. While this was happening across town, the majority of Vietnam Red were allowed to spend some time by the pool. Afterwards, there was a small fashion show to happen after everyone had gotten out of the pool, which was a way of displaying any items people had tailored. Surprisingly the turnover from three days to today went by way too fast.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant where we were taught how to cook our own Vietnamese meals. This was definitely the highlight of the day for some, and having a person instruct how to make the food allowed us to learn new skills and techniques that we could possibly take home. Overall, the cooking class was an enjoyable experience, taking on the Vietnamese way of making food. Tomorrow we venture out to Hue to do absailing on the marble mountains down 20m cliffs, it may be a challenge for some but an adventure for all.

Harry Q and Ashley D

 

 

We started off by waking up to another day in the beautiful town of Hoi  An. With a nice buffet breakfast, we were all ready to start off our day venturing around Hoi An on bicycles – which we found is how many people travel in Hoi An. Although leaving the city was no easy feat, we soon entered the rural area’s of Hoi An. As we were riding our bikes down to the beach we observed all the different landscapes that we wouldn’t see back in Melbourne. We all noticed the wet pavements and affected areas remaining from the flooding that occurred last week due to the typhoon. We also saw the rice paddy fields which were home to many cows that made our bike paths quite difficult with those massive moving obstacles in the way! Our tour guide also informed us how the fresh produce in Hoi An is important because of the chemical free produce that is being grown. On our way to the beach we saw many developing sites and the true and ‘un-touristy’ Hoi An. We passed through villages with no English tourist signs and homelike temples. This way we knew we were in the truly authentic side of the city.

Once we arrived to the beach we sat down and enjoyed our ice cream whilst looking at the sights. We found that the beach water was similar to Bali’s water; strong, murky and with very heavy surf. The beach was unsupervised which showed how different the two countries of Vietnam and Australia view beach safety rules. After the bike ride, our day finally started to slow down. We had spare time to go shopping and have lunch. We all split up into different groups and wandered back into the main streets of Hoi An – this time seeing it during a week day. We all did some shopping before we went to the tailors. As soon as we got to the tailors we tried on our clothes for a second fitting and as a pleasant surprise for most of us, they fit perfectly! Our group was amazed at how fast the tailors made our new clothes in the space of 24 hours.

We all then went off to lunch and most of us ended up eating back to our western food because we have had so much Vietnamese food, and decided to try some Pizza’s to have a better appreciation of the Vietnamese food here. After a well deserved lunch we proceeded to finish our final shopping of straw bags, imitation shirts and banana hats (You’ll know them when we bring them back!). When we got back to meet at the hotel, all of us ran back up to the rooms for a cooling dip in the pool. The water was definitely what we needed after a hot, sunny day. After we all had nice warm showers we headed out to a custom silver jewellery shop were many people got custom jewellery ranging from rings, bracelets and necklaces. After that we headed out for a nice dinner at the Banana Leaf Restaurant which included a wonderful view of the riverside and the traditional Hoi An Longboats. Another great day in the city of Hoi An!

Cam C-A and Romane R

 

Ps Happy Birthday Rachel! Lots of Love. – Eva and Romane

We were awoken at 7:00AM and were given time to pack our belongings and have breakfast. We arrived at Ho Chi Minh airport and checked our luggage. Our plane was delayed by almost two hours, so we had a long and boring wait before we boarded. Eventually we  boarded and arrived in Hoi An at 3:00pm. The difference between Ho Chi Minh and Hoi An is interesting. Hoi An is a smaller city that is more contained, and historically heavily influenced by the French, whereas Ho Chi Minh is the largest city in Vietnam that is more developed and urbanised. Hoi An’s city centre is quite small, and although it is a portion of the size of Ho Chi Minh, has its own unique array of colours and culture.

After checking into our hotel we handed in our dirty clothes that were in need of a wash after working in the village. Then, we ventured out into Hoi An for the first time and explored the shopping district. The streets were busy and filled with vibrant glowing lanterns. The unique spread of shops and restaurants created a chilled vibe.

Our tour guide, Sunny, took us to a tailor and most of us got some clothes tailored for ourselves. Hoi An has a long history behind it, including having a number of various industries and cultures shaping it; namely tailoring. Having the tailoring done was a very unique experience. The measuring and the design of the item being designed was very thorough. All of us can’t wait for the results tomorrow.  Finally, we then were able to go and get some dinner. We all went to different restaurants, the food was good for the most part, however some of us were not pleased with our meals, as we may have realised that like some Vietnamese food can be bad in western countries, western food can be not so great here. After dinner we all headed back to our hotel and got ready for our bike rides tomorrow.

Jack B, Lucia W and Hayley C

P.S I bought a $150 Bob the builder shirt and it doesn’t fit. (Jokes) Mum, I got you one chopstick. – Jack B

P.P.S I’m shopping way too much, Paris, you’re gonna love what I got ya.. also mummy I wanted to buy a brick so badly – Lucia W

P.P.P.S The Converse are officially not coming home – Hayley C