URBAN DOMAIN 2024

Vietnam Yellow – Most memorable moments 2.0 – Day 13

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​Today was our final day in Hoi An and everyone througly enjoyed the opportunity to recharge the batteries before flying out to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow morning. Tonight we reflect on the past 13 days and hear from another seven students about their most memeroable moments so far. 
Matt -My favourite part of the trip had to be the over night train ride, our little cabin consisted of 4 boys not intending to sleep. It was a bumpy but memorable ride with some of my greatest friends. It is a time I will never forget.
Elle – 100% my favourite moment of the trip was nailing in the final wall of the house and stepping back to see our work finally completed. Talking with the family and learning a bit of history was interesting. Although it was the favourite, it was also the saddest and most appreciated. 


Leah – My most memorable moment of the whole trip would be abseiling because it was such an exhilarating experience that I had never done before and I was challenged to do something that scared me, but I’m happy I did it and wish I could do it again. 
Lucy – Creating an extremely strong bond with our tour guide, Hoang, who we nicknamed Quamie. He is such a legend because he puts us first, has taught us so much about his beloved country and has a sense of humour that we all appreciate.  


Aussie – My favourite part of the trip so far has been the bike ride in Hue, where we went to the colosseum of fighting tigers and elephants and after that we visited an incense market stall where I bought multiple scents of incense. 
Liam – The best part of the trip has been visiting the temples and pagodas. I felt like I really understood the religion of the country and the importance it had and still has to the Vietnamese people. 


Cal – When all eight boys had a night out in Hue and we went to a family restaurant, along the main dining strip, where we were able to use a pool table and awesome speakers all for ourselves.  

China- Day 12

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Waking up on the overnight train from Xi’an to Shanghai proved to be a challenge as it was difficult to gain sleep with constant stops and bumps along the journey. However this lack of sleep did little to discourage us from exploring the wonders of China’s biggest city Shanghai. We disembarked the train at 8am and had to wait 30 minutes to catch a bus to our hotel. Once we arrived at our hotel we could all tell that it was placed in a wonderful location and on the biggest shopping streets in Shanghai. Once we arrived at our hotel we consumed both western and eastern foods for breakfast. Something our group found interesting was that dumplings were served for breakfast. We were then informed about our task for the day, the task assigned was a race around Shanghai. We were separated into three teams and given locations to travel to and money to use for transport. This seemed challenging as we had never used public transport in China, the main use of transport for the day was the Shanghai subway. The subway proved to be chaotic as there were a huge number of people using the underground train system. It was significantly more crowed than the Melbourne train system as Shanghai contains more than Australias’ population in one city. This meant that the subway had to be significantly more effective and efficient. 
One location we vistited was the Yu Yan gardens and this is one of the most popular tourist sites in the whole of Shanghai, the garden was full of rivers filled with the biggest type of goldfish you would ever see and was very interesting and intriguing to look at. The garden was very peaceful as well as spiritual as everyone was silent and taking in the experience. We then took a quick train to have lunch, lunch was a mix between western and eastern foods but almost everyone had the preference to eat the western fast foods of McDonald’s and KFC. However Ryan’s group made the choice to explore how Shanghai had adopted a large amount of western foods, therefor bakery’s and Starbucks where consistent throughout Shanghai. So Ryan’s group adventured to try a eastern company that had completely adopted western cuisine. The food was a good attempt and tasted really good. 
All the groups then met up at a place called Tienzefang and we were are allowed to explore the area for a hour and a half. We where pressured into purchasing from the 

American cafe chain Starbucks to learn that like in Australia; we didn’t like it very much . Besides Starbucks we enjoyed the experience and had fun exploring the markets. The markets for very crowded and products where much cheaper than Australian products.
Later in the evening we decided the investigate the worlds second tallest building, the Shanghai Tower. The Shanghai tower being over 600 meter high created excitement amongst us, as we were excited to get to the top of the tower to see the high rise over the city. The building proved to have great engineering as the elevator went at 18 meters per second and only took 52 seconds to reach the top. This makes the elevator of the Shanghai tower the fastest in the world. Unfortunately, the view was disappointing due to a heavy haze. Even so, it was a great experience reaching such a high altitude. 
All off to bed now after a huge day.
Ryan and Marcus  

China- Day 11

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Day eleven began with a delicious breakfast comprising both Asian and Western delights. After having certain entertaining chats about what we expected the day to be like, we took off on the bus towards the iconic terracotta warriors, a famous tourist destination located in the surrounding countryside of Xi’an. As we passed striking scenery, we were enlightened by Mr. Toohey’s condensed version of how the warriors came to be so many years ago. 
After arriving at the museum, a gentle stroll to the excavation site’s centre offered us the beautiful array of autumn leaves through the misty and not at all polluted Xi’an air. Following a second unnecessary ticket check, we were amazed at the sheer vastness of the first viewing area. As we hastily toured the gallery, we were astounded at the unprecedented number of unique terracotta statues carefully aligned within their ancient boundaries. We were humoured to see our peers being hassled by the eager (and slightly corrupt) salespeople attempting to profit from their miniature replicas of the stone-cast warriors. 150, 100, 50, 24 yuan…sold!
The group was collectively amazed at the fact that these statues were so detailed and lifelike. The flamboyant red emblazoned upon the chest of the one remaining painted figure stood out amongst the crowd of nearly eight thousand others, as it was difficult to comprehend the fact that such a bright colour can endure thousands of years. After having moved through all three excavation pits, we were led to another exhibition section featuring the marvellous bronze horses and carriages from a long-passed time. 
The tour was concluded by a stop at the souvenir shops, where we were yelled at by shopkeepers to purchase the “bigger one” for a “very cheap price”. We then wound past the large car parks before arriving at our restaurant to enjoy a fully satisfying meal. The dishes just kept coming! Ryan, would you like any more fried and seasoned mushrooms? 
Another hour long bus ride took us to a Xi’an train station, where many purchases of admittedly unhealthy snacks were made. These included Au-li-au’s (Oreo packets), chips and drinks. We then boarded the Hogwarts Express straight to Shanghai in our first class cabins, which involve shoving four people into a room the size of a tic tack box. 
We are very excited for the next fifteen hours in the train and are ready for the coming days in Shanghai. We miss you at home!
Henry and Benjamin 

TLC Pagodas – day 11

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Today was our last full day in Laos. Thanks to a lowkey sleep in until 8:00am, we had a fresh start to the day. Breakfast had a vast variety of delicious food including mini pancakes (our first in a very long time!), delicious mangos, watermelons, toast and eggs. As we left the hotel after a briefing of our day, we headed off. After a 45 minute bus drive, we arrived at what everyone knew would be a highlight of the day; the elephant camp. Tha Thao, the owner of the elephant sanctuary, gave us a talk on the elephants that he helped rescue from various instances of captivity and cruelty. All the elephants were females as the males were too aggressive to handle at such close range. The ride took roughly 30 minutes as we toured the park. After the joyous ride, we were amused by the baby elephant who was known for taking strolls into the nearby village and LITerally scaring its inhabitants. Whilst the other half of the group took their turn in riding the elephants, we were allowed to feed the newborn elephant who especially liked sugarcane. As we found out, like our hungry teenage selves, our new animal companion eats for up to 20 hours a day – something we looked up to. Even though everyone was laughing and smiling, we could see how it relates back to the original Laotian culture that we have embraced over the past few days, especially as the original name of Laos was the land of a million elephants, which unfortunately has declined over the years.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a traditional Laotian village, that would be safe to say touched everyone’s hearts. The harsh reality of a third-world county hit us as four year old attempted to sell us the source of income for their family which was handmade fabric for only one American dollar. Yen, our tour guide, told us that a young female was expected to be married at the age of 16. He also informed us that the 18 year old in front of us had three children already. After this experience we left with having a broader worldview, but also heavier hearts. We then headed back to the hotel to prepare for the great race.  

Within the great race, we travelled around Luang Prebang by ourselves, allowing us to take in more of the cities wonders and many offerings. Even though there were lots of debatable smells the groups worked together and pursued the ultimate goal of understanding Laos  through the beautiful many sights of Luang Prabang. 

The dinner we ate was in a special room that permitted us to watch the dancing of the three tribes in Laos (highland, middle land and lowland tribes). We took part in a mini ceremony that was led by a fortune teller. We were given blessings in the form of white cotton wrist bands. Four of the males in our group including myself, were lucky enough to be included in a dance performed live while a delicious meal was served. 

Overall, today was the one of the best days of the Big experience for us. 💯

 – Nell B and Leon G  



Vietnam Grey – Day 12

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We began our day, by far the best buffet breakfast Hoi An could offer, for the last time as we were reluctantly leaving the beautiful hotel and city. Once we had all finished our rounds up and back to the different foods that were served in the buffet, we endured the hard task of cleaning the “bomb site” that we called hotel rooms. Our bags were soon rushed out of the door and packed onto yet another bus as we began our travel to Hue.

On the way to Hue we stopped off at a historical site called the Hai Van pass which was on top of a mountain covered in dense and tropical bushland and shrubbery. The road that takes us to the site was almost as exciting and thrilling as a roller coaster as it bends and turns. “Woooo’s” and “ahhhh’s” were gushing out of almost everyone’s mouths as we would almost skim the sides of the railing on the side of the road. The trip up was also filled with disgust and confusion as we passed a small truck, no bigger than our bus, filled to the brim with live pigs. Many people in the group were shocked to see this however, we all now see the realty of the foods that we consume as well as the other side of Vietnamese culture and cuisine.  While visiting the Hai Van pass we learnt about some of the history including how it was developed originally in the14th century; however, the station that we visited was built during the French ruling in Vietnam. The purpose of the station was to check people’s tickets when visiting the two halves of the country as the station was used as a border between North and South of Vietnam.

After a refreshing venture around the old and run-down station, we piled back onto the cool bus. For lunch we stopped at a small restaurant and enjoyed cuisine such as fried rice, noodles and dumplings. After the lunch stop our final destination was Hue, to a four star hotel called Asia Hotel. After getting settled into our rooms we set off for a walk around Hue to learn about some of the history and culture of the city. On the walk we stopped at a river called the Houng (Perfume) River. We saw small boats that were decorated like dragons as well as tourist boats. People would often use the river as a form of transportation as well as a tourist activity, to see the Citadel. We also learnt that Hue was the original capital city of Vienam before Hanoi came to be the current capital.

Tonight was the night for the dinner of all dinners, the Emperor’s dinner. After a quick swim in the hotel pool or down-time for others, we all headed off on foot to a traditional, historical style restaurant. Upon arrival we were all handed robes and caps that were, as you can imagine, extremely flattering. All but two were given these robes as the other two lucky members were chosen to be the Emperor and Empress for the night, these two being Nic and Gemma. Nic was dressed in a lovely gold robe with an extravagant hat to match the equally extravagant robe as well as Gemma’s eye-catching red number with a wild gold and red hat. As the night commenced we entered in two lines as if we were part of the upper-class, Vietnamese society in ancient times. The Royals sat at the front of the room on a separate table, looking down on the “peasants” as they would have during ancient times. The meal started off with a tasteful sweet potato soup with a side of entertainment that was very common in ancient Vietnam including many of the traditional instruments. As the night went on the food kept rolling in as well as the wonderful songs and entertainment that was performed.

After the lovely meal the group reluctantly slipped out of their colourful robes and arrived back at the hotel for a good night’s rest.

-Rose and Nilab

Hope all is well back in Australia!

     

  
    
  
  
    
  
   
  

Vietnam Yellow – Day 12 – Hoi An

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By Marie and Carien
Today started off with a great roof top breakfast buffet full of pancakes, various bread and fruits. This was a good way to kick off the first full day in Hoi An. After breakfast some headed off to see about some jewellery for loved ones and themselves. We soon discovered on arrival to the jeweller that they can literally make any design you want. We placed our orders and then headed off to explore Hoi An on some vintage bikes. The bike ride might have been long and exhausting but it was all worth it when we saw the beautiful beach got fresh juices. We were even lucky enough to run into another Australian who we could all enjoy an easy conversation with in English. We embraced the view of the sea for about an hour before making our way back to the hotel.


Once back at the hotel we were keen to jump in the pool as we were feeling hot and sweaty. But, this couldn’t happen until our journal pages were up to date. Once completed the smiles on people’s faces as they headed towards the pool to jump in was extraordinary. After some time in the hotel to relax, we walked to explore the heritage listed city of Hoi An. In groups of three we made our way up and down through the streets of the UNESCO Heritage listed town of Hoi An practising our bargaining skills. There were still some rookie bargainers in the group (some paying significantly more for the same item than others…). Let’s just say we are learning to bargain hard as some have not budgeted as well as others. A few of us also had to pop back into the tailor shop to get fitted again and suggest any alterations to be made to our orders. 


Meeting at 5:30pm at the Japanese bridge, created 300 years ago, we took off to go to a stunning restaurant where we learnt from the best about how to cook Vietnamese dishes that we were able to enjoy afterwards (parents do not expect anything spectacular when we get home). We cooked two dishes, spring rolls and skewers with marinated chicken. Our cooking instructor also showed us how to make a quick and fresh green papaya salad, even providing a utensil to peel the papaya with as a gift to each of us. Everyone did an amazing job and it was a well deserved dinner. Bellies full, we headed back to the hotel to go for a night swim before getting into bed.


Sending our love to everyone back at home and missing you all very much xx

Marie & Carien