URBAN DOMAIN 2024

TLC Pagodas – Day 8

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Waking up from a full night’s rest to a pesky knock on the door, the day started with a bang (literally). Enjoying a quick breakfast, we prepared ourselves for a transition. Today was the day we said goodbye to happy Thailand and embraced undiscovered Laos.
The excitement rose during a swift bus ride to the border where we sadly had to  say goodbye to not only colourful Thailand but also our lovely and enthusiastic tour guide Yawan. We will always remember his teachings about his land and are deeply grateful for the cultural understanding he has provided us with. When finally coming out of border cobtrol, there was a tangible feeling of overwhelming happiness to get to experience another new country.
After a short bus ride, we climbed aboard the vessel and journey everyone was waiting for – the Long Boat ride down the Mekong River. Aye aye Captain, and the boat sailed off. Into the depths of the Laos jungle, floating down the majestic Mekong, the group settled into the boat, getting comfortable for the journey to Pak Beng. The lazy cruise was filled with unbelievable views which exilerated the senses. The occasional whooshing of the water teased our keen ears. The gentle push of the wind tickled our skin. The different shades of green in the distance soothed our spirits and brought out our inner peacefulness. This led to a new more tranquil vibe that engulfed our normally vivacious group – a feeling of peacefulness had kicked in. Entering this fascinating country we all noticed a big difference in the environment. We had left behind the occasional hustle of Thailand and been welcomed by the serenity of Laos.
On the journey we also stopped in at a small village along the river. We were given the opportunity to briefly explore the village. It was noticeably poorer and less developed than the villages we visited in Thailand, however nonetheless the people we met in the village were warm and welcoming towards us.
Upon reaching our destination of the small town ship of Pak Beng, we arrived at our hotel. Overlooking a gorgeous view, many happy photos were snapped and lots of laughs were shared. This emotion sprang from being in a new place after completing a long and relaxing boat ride. After a quick refresher we came out again to the courtyard, enjoying one anothers’ company and playing games until dinner. New tastes, tantalising flavours and exotic smells were welcomed as we enjoyed a first Laotian meal together.
The day was one full of many new experiences and happy memories we will cherish forever. Tomorrow we continue our journey down the mighty Mekong River and expect to arrive in Luang Prabang in the afternoon.
Lakshmi Malhotra and Alex Phillips

Vietnam Yellow – Day 9

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By: Lexie and Sam

Today we hit the half way point of our trip, arriving in Hue via the reunification express train. This was particularly appropriate as Hue is the halfway point between the North and South of Vietnam. The train ride was comfortable and fun, but many of us awoke throughout the night to the rickety noise and movement of the train – sometimes feeling as though the train had come off its tracks – which accounted for many tired faces as the morning began.

We eventually entered the city of Hue – a new Vietnamese town for Vietnam Yellow to explore. Our first initial reaction to Hue was how calm and quiet it is compared to Hanoi. A lot of people noticed how many water features there were in the city which gave it a more relaxed feeling. The first thing we did was leave our bags at the hotel. They didn’t have our rooms ready so we went for a little walk to the Ancient Citadel. Hoang explained that the Citadel was built in the early 1800s during the Chinease rule over Vietnam and thus the walled city was constructed to mimic the design of the Forbidden City in Beijing. We learnt that much of the walled city was destroyed during the war, and we were amazed to find bullet holes in the bricks of the Citadel. We are all really keen to explore the walled city more on our bike ride tomorrow. We walked to a little local restaurant called Ushi for lunch. The menu had a mix of Western and Vietnamese food, however we were only given Vietnamese options which allowed us to further endorse ourselves in the tantalising tastes of this country.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed relaxation time. After we had checked into our rooms we were given the opportunity to go for a luxurious swim in the roof top pool. After indulging ourselves in the cool water, we were taken to a traditional dinner where we experienced how the royal family of Vietnam would dine at a formal banquet. This meant that we were all given robes to wear – Lexie and Sam (the bloggers of today) were given the role of King and Queen, while everyone else in the group were portrayed as “family members of a lower class” and were seated at lower tables than the special one occupied by the rulers. During the dinner, we were lucky enough to witness some traditional Vietnamese music played on interesting instruments ranging from tea-cups to an instrument called a ‘dan bau ’ – a single-stringed instrument with a beautiful, unique sound. They told us that the serenading was part of the authentic royal dinner experience, as the royal family found joy in the music and attention. At the “banquet” the food was very well decorated, with a range of creatures and architecture made from vegetables, ranging from boats to birds. The food came out in small platters, presenting a six course meal for the “royal” family to enjoy. Once we had finished our traditional dinner we travelled to the night market by foot to enjoy the lights and atmosphere near the lake.

Overall, everyone had an eventful, yet chilled-out day in Hue. We have all enjoyed what we have seen of this beautiful city so far and are all excited to see more of the wonders it holds tomorrow.

China Day 9 – Guiyang to Xi’an

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Today was pretty much one of travel – from the Baibi Village in Guizhou Provence, to Guiyang airport by bus, then a flight from there to Xi’an, followed by an interesting bus ride into the centre of town. Let’s just say the bus driver knew how to manoeuvre his vehicle in heavy traffic!

There’s just a few pics from today…tonight we ventured out after dinner to explore the Muslim Quarter and its associated street market. We plan to return tomorrow night.2CCF78F5-61F2-4128-9925-BD28641A1D3EE6B876FD-9EF3-42C1-95FD-3445862CB5F9

 

Australia – Day 9: Njanjma Rangers

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Today was another early start for us at 8AM.

While we waited for our tour guide Ryan, Mark told us that we were going to the Border Store to get our lunches and then we were heading over to the Njanjma Rangers headquarters in Gunbalunya. When we got to the headquarters, the rangers were introduced and we were split into two groups. The girls were going to map and see some weeds that were invading the land, while the boys were off to plant some trees. There was talk of the girls heading off to weave things with pandanas (a native bush plant used by many of the peoples here to weave baskets, jewellery etc) however, it was decided that we would do this tomorrow.

The girls went on to see the nearby billabong and had a discussion about Injalak Hill. Then as we (the girls) returned, we were met with new plans of going to check out some traps and weeds. We got to go to these places with the girls from the school nearby. We assisted in setting up a trap and checked out some problematic weeds around the area. Then we (the girls) went to have lunch with the girls from the school, made a swift return to the HQ, and was reunited with the rest of the group. The boys gave us a rundown of what they did without us which included digging holes, mapping and planted Anbinik trees. They also learnt some words from the language spoken in the region.

After, we went to a very important site where we had the rangers show us some sweet potato plants and then a burial site in the large rocks. One of the rangers then began to talk to the spirits of their ancestors and asked the spirits to welcome us because we were new visitors. After that, we went to “Sabana” which was the highlight of our trip by far! We were so lucky to have the rangers accompany us and show us how they hunt magpie goose, and how they fish. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity as it meant that the rangers really trusted us and felt comfortable enough to show us how they lived with the land. We felt like one big family.

Tomorrow is one more day with the rangers and we are so excited.

Love,

Gaut and Amira on behalf of the Australia group 🇦🇺🌿

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TLC Temples – Day 8

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We woke to our last sunrise in Thailand, the beautiful country that we had all come to love. The thought of leaving such a surreal environment left us all stunned. Thailand was a place where we were pulled out of our comfort zones and forced to develop new friendships and try new foods, activities, and explore new cultures. Being able to experience all of of these new opportunities allowed us to become greater people as we were able to see exactly how much we take for granted. Things such as fresh clothing, air condoning, security, housing, and even the bare necessities are thought of as rights but we now know they are privileges. Muay Thai boxing, rafting, and the house build were among the favourite activities. We think that it is fair to say that we all struggled with trying new foods, sleeping in new environments and communicating with the locals as many of them could not speak English. 

Sanee and Chai were the tour guides that practically became our best friends, they knew exactly what we would ask for at the dinner table, and they were always there for a good laugh. Saying goodbye to them was almost as hard as saying goodbye to our family as that was what they had become. As we said goodbye whilst travelling through customs we still had a smile on our face because we were beginning the next chapter of our TLC – 2017 Temples adventure. We soon boarded a bus that took us over the boarder (the Mekong River) and allowed us to see one side with Thailand and one side with Laos. We were greeted by our new tour guide, Joy, who is a local. We hopped onto songthews that took us to our new home for the next 7 hours. 5 minutes into the boat trip and practically everyone was playing some form of card game whether it was spit, uno, go fish, cheat, or spoons. The scenery was stunning as every direction had something different whether it was wildlife, plants, mountains, locals, or village huts. The sight of muddy brown water never got old as it provided all of us with the realisation that we were in such a wonderful place. With so much history, culture and colour. The Mekong river was filled with various types of things such as locals swimming, water buffalo, other tourist boats and even local food transportation. We were greeted by Joy on the boat with some interesting facts that would broaden our knowledge of the country that we were in. These included…

The population of Laos is just over 6 million.

There are 3 ethnic groups and 49 tribes.

The most common export is beer, coffee and handicrafts. 

Vientiane is the capital of Laos and has a population of half a million

They import a lot of rice

They receive roughly 200,000 tourists each year with most of them being from China and South Korea.

Education is free all the way up to 18.
We then arrived in Pak Beng where we saw our hotel the Phetsoksay. Once settled in we then traveled down the one and only street where we saw a variety of food and clothing stores. We were taken to a market where they had bagged live frogs that were croaking! We then retuned to the hotel for a nice dinner filled with rice, chicken and sweet and sour pork. We are all looking forward to a nice sleep and continuing our boat trip to Luang Prabang tomorrow.
Lily Scott and Angelique Fry

TLC Pagodas – Day 7

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This morning we woke in the Wangcome Hotel in the city of Chiang Rai, feeling refreshed after a long night sleep. At approximately 10am we journeyed by bus to Chiang Khong with multiple stops along the way. The first of our stops was a Buddhist temple near the golden triangle region. Part of the group went inside the temple and received blessings of holy water and a holy bracelet from a monk. Whilst there we observed the Buddhist holy tree that had great significance to the local buddhists, next to the temple was a clay pagoda that had a large gong outside which we each attempted to ring via rubbing it with our hands. Our guide told us that the louder the sound made the more good merit you had.
Returning to the bus in the heat of the sunny Thailand weather we ventured forward to the infamous golden triangle and the Opium Museum. We entered the museum and explore the variety of exhibits on display. From videos that explained the history of opium back to the ancient civilisations and how the opium wars corrupted local people near the golden triangle region and made them enslaved to the drug they had been using for medicine for centuries. There was also displays about how the effects of opium abuse changed human life and wellbeing and observed opium pipes displayed in the museum. We also learnt about the origins of the opium wars and how it began in China as Britain wanted free opium trade and how the emperor Lin Zexu declared war on opium as 15 million out of 400 million of China’s population were addicted. 
After the informative and confronting tour of the Opium Museum there was a room for reflection. This was used as a time to take in the lessons that we saw and learnt through our tour. Getting back upon the bus we all couldn’t wait for our promised buffet lunch, a five minute bus trip was needed before we could eat. After finishing lunch we journeyed up to a rather long and steep set of stairs that led to two beautiful lookouts to the Mekong river and an ancient temple. It was a great opportunity to take lots of photos with the view and the location we were in. We then went back on the bus for a delayed arrival in the peaceful township Chiang Khong. The bus was a great time for rest and emotional stories were told by the tour guides of their early lives and childhoods. It was a great experience that brought the group closer to the guides we are spending a long amount of time with and really bridged the gap between being a guide and student as they had they had the courage to share their past experiences.
Once arrived in Chiang Khong the group was suprised as it was the first real sign of heavy mosquito population we had encountered on the trip. After a heavy application of insect repellent the group travelled by foot to a local restaurant which had a buzzing atmosphere and great food. While waiting for the food to be prepared the group enjoyed some cultural change as we controlled the songs being played through the speakers and games of pool amongst each other to pass the time. All the food was delicious and some people chose to continue with their consumption of the Thai cuisine however others chose to feast upon western meals and refresh their taste buds to remind them of home. With full bellies, we returned back to our hotel for a short briefing about tomorrow’s activities. It was our last full day in Thailand and tomorrow we cross into Laos.
 Carl Clements and Jacob Beames