URBAN DOMAIN 2024

TLC Pagodas – Day 13

November 19, 2017

“Ring Ring Ring!” Our feet sprang out of the soft crisp sheets and onto the cold tiles. Wisps of warm rays shon through the tiny crevasses of the transparent silk curtains. The warm hum of excitement wafted into the air as swarms of hungry students descended down the stairs to a welcoming buffet breakfast.

At 8:30 am we strolled onto the bus in a orderly fashion to claim our seats for the half hour bus drive to visit the temples at Angkor. An enticing prize of Coca Cola served at lunch was up for grabs as kindly donated by our guide for the three funniest faces pulled on our temple pass. It is safe to say that Tom Chapman, Luka Hamilton and Dean Maccora where the clear winners of the competition. Sweltering humidity engulfed our bodies as we took our first step out of the air conditioned bus. This slight discomfort was soon forgotten as our eyes were drawn towards one of Cambodia’s many captivating, ancient Buddhist temples, “Bayon”. We stepped onto the grounds of the magnificent temple where our Cambodian tour guide enlightened us with his information about this fantastic sight. We learnt that the temple was built in 1181. The kingdoms perimeter is twelve km in length with four even sides that each featured an entrance. When arriving at this terrific sight we were allowed fifty minutes to explore and observe this heritage listed complex. After the fifty minutes we boarded the bus to drive to our next destination, Tah Prom.

Tah Prom is a well known Cambodian temple. Many would be familiar with the grounds of this spectacular sight as it features in the movie Tomb Raider. One of the most intriguing and unique features of this Cambodian temple are the large fig trees that are entwined within the temples complex structure. This may challenge your preexhisting knowledge of where trees of such magnificent size commonly burgeon. Our local tour guide told us that the seeds of the trees were consumed by birds and dropped throughout the temple. After this extravagant temple visit our stomachs were getting hungry.

After a fulfilling lunch a short walk lead us to one of the seven greatest wonders of the world; Angkor Wat, Built from 1113-1150 AD, with over 500,000 people involved in its construction. As the day progressed so did the beauty and elegance of the temples. In our time at the Angkor Wat temple I (Alia) was lucky enough to have experienced a blessing from a young monk, as translated by our beautiful tour guide Voleak, he wished me health, comfort and safety on my returning flight home. It was so amazing and unique to have experienced such complex and intricate architecture in such a spiritually significant place,

On our returning air conditioned bus trip back to the hotel a peaceful and fulfilled silence was observed from our seats. Once we had all arrived at the hotel we were given the opportunity to submerge ourselves in the pool. The juxtaposition between our sweaty skin was soothed by the what seemed to be, the icy pool. At 7:15 we gathered in the hotel’ s antique lobby to head out for a enticing dinner experience down the main road. Our metaphorical bucket lists have now happily been ticked as today was one of the most amazing memories we have experienced.

By Anais Kozaris and Alia Van Der Straaten

Day 15 – Vietnam Red – Hello Hanoi!

November 19, 2017

By nburke

We awakened at the break of dawn to the loud intense wake-up call involving panicked, screaming Vietnam Red and Vietnamese radio pumping at the loudest possible volume, to wake up all of the train at 4:00am. Although it was a rough, tiring start, we were eager to arrive in the capital city, Hanoi. Juxtaposing Hue’s laidback culture from Hanoi’s bustling streets was an interesting contrast.

After a much needed big breakfast, we set off venturing the Old Quarter of the city and exploring its historic aspects. A peaceful, mindful reflection was done with the view of the city’s beautiful lake., sequentially followed by a spectacular lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant that we discovered that Obama has once eaten at.

We then travelled to the first university in Vietnam which looked very similar to a temple. This sacred place is home to 82 ceramic turtles which legend has it contained good luck in them. People who graduate and are about to go into exams go to these turtles and pray to them for good luck.

We then had a well-deserved sleep to rest from our sleep provided by the bumpy train ride this morning. After being abruptly awoken again for the second time today, we experienced the shopping culture in Hanoi. There are 36 streets, each street focusing on a certain item rather then it being dispersed throughout the city. Our group then all ate at a hip looking restaurant and it was delicious, northern Vietnamese food. Still trying to stay awake, we were woken up by watching an interesting, and culturally significant water puppet show which was quite enjoyable although we rushed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep.

Emily B, Saxon B

Vietnam Yellow – Day 14

November 19, 2017

By lbinge

By: Spencer and Jack

We started the day to a 5:30AM wake up call from reception and hastily packed our suitcases before heading to the top floor for breakfast. We had excellent freshly cooked omelettes and a side of fruits and pastries. Slowly everyone made it to the lobby where we boarded busses to take us to the airport for our hour and a half flight to Ho Chi Minh City. We were all excited to head to the amazing city, finally reaching the south of Vietnam and our final destination. On the final ride around Hoi An, everybody was taking in their final sights of the beautiful city, knowing that we wouldn’t be back for a long time. Once we arrived at the airport, the standard procedure of checking in baggage and going through security was completed rather fast, giving everyone time to momentarily relax and stock up on snacks for the flight. The short flight consisted mainly of playing card games and eating snacks and seemed to take almost no time at all before we were already preparing for landing. After exiting the plane and collecting our baggage we hopped on a bus to our hotel. We finally arrived at our hotel, momentarily resting until suddenly leaving to the ‘War Remnants Museum’, learning about the side effects that the war had on both the military personnel and civilians. Throughout the museum, we learnt about how the war began, and how it grew to such a large scale, causing millions of fatalities. Finally after the learning about the shocking events that occurred in Vietnam, we visited a post office built by the French, though meaning to build a train station. This idea was quickly shut down due to the fact that the noise would distract the people next door at the church. This resulted in the building appearing more as a train station rather than a post office.

We also learnt all about ‘Agent Orange’ – a dangerous defoliant chemical used to reveal and capture Vietnamese soldiers hiding in the forests. The chemical would eliminate the plantation surrounding the gas, used to find tunnels and soldiers that lay in the forest. Devastatingly, the chemical had many side effects, including carcinogenic and DNA damaging properties, completely altering the children of people exposed to the gas in future generations. We saw lots of photo evidence from Agent Orange victims at the museum which was incredibly confronting. Throughout the war period many people were exposed to the gas not knowing of it’s effects on their future family, and that it would cause birth defects in many children. Many people had no idea that they were affected by the Agent, only fully knowing by having a diagnosis performed. Several other variations of the gas we produced also, including agents purple, yellow, blue and several more, all with varying but lethal effects. After learning about this chemical weapon and its effects and seeing photos of children that have been affected by it, we were very shocked that even in war times that people would go to such measures to win, even if it mean sacrificing the livelihood of millions of people for generations to come.

After our visit to the museum the mood of the group was pensive and subdued, with everyone feeling sad about the devastation of the Vietnam war. We returned to the hotel for some time before being swept back onto our feet to go to dinner. Everyone was intrigued about how the food would taste in Ho Chi Minh and if it would taste much different to the food eating in the north of Vietnam. We had a delicious meal of spring rolls, fried rice and beef fried noodles, which were all eaten in about the amount of time it took to serve the food. Overall today was a very busy, tiring and emotional day, starting early in the morning and ending with us writing in the blog. We are missing everyone back home and can’t wait to be back in 3 days.

We are off to the Mekong Delta tomorrow so the blog may be delayed by a day. Stay tuned for a double blog coming your way soon!!

Day 14 – Goodbye to Hue and the Train to Hanoi

November 19, 2017

By nburke

This morning, we ate our last breakfast in Hue, ready for our last day of exploring the city. After breakfast, we travelled by dragon boat to the ancient and famous pagoda to familiarise ourselves with the culture and religion of the Vietnamese. The pagoda was in 7 layers, depicting the 7 layers of heaven. We also learnt about the monk who immolated himself to protest Christian government rule at the time, which eventually was one of the factors sparked American interest in the Vietnam War. The Monk and the car that he rode to the town of Hue in was stored in mint condition in this Pagoda.

On the return, we visited a locally famous local market of Hue where we experienced a rather persistent side of the Vietnamese marketers, who don’t usually get westerner (known as “Dai’s”) visitors. We also bought dinner and snacks from the supermarket, in preparation for our 12 hour train ride to Hanoi. We checked out of our hotel and had a final chance to parade through Hue for lunch before departing.

We mentally and physically prepared ourselves for the boarding of the train, as we had been warned that we had a seriously small, limited window of time to get all 26 people and their luggage on the train before it left the station. We got to choose the 3 other people we would bunk with and once we had set ourselves up in our cabin, we had a lot of fun sitting in our bunk beds and socialising in such a confined space. We have an early arrival in the morning, by early we mean 4:00am, so we are going to bed soon.

P.S – Jane I spilt coke all over my white pants. I think it’s karma, considering 1) I wasn’t supposed to buy soft drink and 2) you don’t let me drink coke. Izzy S

P.P.S – Hi mother, please have a maccas meal at pick up on Tuesday. Ash C

P.P.P.S – Mum, if you’re actually reading this, please have a soul press bowl ready for me at south road gates. Eva R

China Day 14 – Beijing

November 18, 2017

By ascott

[ Vicki ] After being awoken in the warm hotel rooms which had heating turned higher than ever, we were knocked by the contrasting cold, sharp, chilled air outside. As the sun had risen, we could see the sky which was surprisingly blue and clear, showing how pollution levels differ in China as in Chengdu, we had “peasoup fog” that blurred out the tops of buildings. In Beijing, the sunny sky gave the illusion of warm weather but the cold air froze us to our bones. Thankfully, we very obedient children agreed to the “four layers” suggestion (rule).
Walking on the grounds of Tiananmen Square, there were mixed emotions. There were many people, mostly tour groups, proudly taking group photos. Some patriotic people stood tall and respectfully as they looked up at the picture of Mao Zedong. They were happy as they were proud of the history and monumental changes that this place made on China, while others were less joyous as Tiananmen Square is a place of protest. It was amazing to visit this famous area that we had all seen countless times only in photos and through screens where we could not feel the broad grounds and rare emotions in the environment.
At the Beijing National Capital Museum, we had an amazing opportunity to see the 120,000 sacred cultural relics including Chinese bronze, ceramics, paintings and calligraphy. Some of us were fully intrigued and fascinated at the rare proofs of history, reading the meaningful descriptions while taking mindful notes and being emotionally invested in every detail. However, others simply found it as a time to twiddle their thumbs and frolic in the fields!

[ Ewan ] After our (very short) visit to the museum, our group immediately turned its sights to another major and obvious structure visible straight across from Tiananmen Square: the Forbidden City. With the cold air surrounding us, but our many layers keeping us warm (to an extent), we entered the Forbidden City through the huge archways. The next several hours were spent walking through the many courtyards, taking countless pictures and listening to our tour guide’s explanations of the city’s layout, construction and purpose. We stopped afterwards to briefly have lunch, before climbing a nearby hill to get a higher view of both the Forbidden City and Beijing in general. After a short rest in our hotel rooms, we set out once again. This time, we went to watch a famous Chinese acrobat show. The show wasn’t exactly very long, but it was INCREDIBLE. The extreme talent of all of the performers, men and women, blew us all away. The crowd favourite was, by far, the ‘wheel of death’, referring to a huge, spherical cage with a man driving a motorcycle inside, around in loops. This was already impressive, but then they added a second motorbike, then a third, and then a fourth. Imagine our shock once the fifth showed up! The entire show, and that final act, will surely remain in our memories for a very long time. We ate dinner after the show, and were then given 20 minutes to go shopping at a small shopping street. While some people were up and down the street, going from store to store, trying to find good deals, some of us were more than content spending the whole 20 minutes at the local McDonalds. Truly two types of people. As it was getting late by this point, we elected to ride the subway back to the hotel. Once there, we had about 20 minutes to prepare for bed, and then we slept, in anticipation of our trip to the Great Wall the next day.

Very, very cold in Beijing, but look at the blue sky!!!