URBAN DOMAIN 2024

TLC Temples – Day 12

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Today, we said goodbye to our Laos and our tour guide, Joy, and made our way to Cambodia. We took a very small plane from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap, with the TLC Temples filling most of the plane! We flew for a bit over an hour and then stopped in Pakse, a small city in Southern Laos, before continuing on to Siem Reap. From the plane, we could see many big hills and mountain, rich with jungles and lots of valleys dotted with farms and rice paddies. These seemed to have carved a quilt-like pattern on the landscape. 


When we arrived in Cambodia, the climate was noticeably different; both the temperature and humidity were a lot higher than that in Laos and Thailand.  

We were greeted at the airport by our tour guide, Yousa. He was extremely friendly and made us all laugh on our bus ride from the airport. When we arrived in our hotel, Somadevi Angkor Hotel, most people hopped into the large pool. It was extremely relaxing to swim in the pool as the weather was very hot. While most of us were in the pool it started to rain quite heavily, causing everyone to have to head back indoors. 

We then made our made to dinner later on in the night, in the pink party bus assigned to our group. We had dinner at The Soup Dragon, on the Infamous “Pub Street”; however, we weren’t actually given any soup. Our dinner tonight was quite different to the cuisines we experiences in the previous two countries. There was a variety of different westernised meat dishes with unique sides of pineapple and eggplant.

We finished off the night by attending the famous Siem Reap night market. We shopped around the night market with everyone on the lookout for shoes, wallets, etc as the style of product here was very different to what could be found at the market in Luang Prabang. Many people were very eager to sell us their goods. One store in particular, Project Y, offered us all free samples of frozen yoghurt. Project Y was run by students who were raising money for scholarships and education. Delicious dessert and donations combined!

Today has been a big day, with lots of traveling; however, we are excited for what is to come here in Siem Reap.

By Georgia and Tom.

Vietnam Red- Going offline tomorrow

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Dear families and friends of Vietnam Red,

We will be travelling on the Reunification train tomorrow night (with no wi-fi) so the blog for Day 14 will be posted on Day 15. We hope that you are enjoying the blogs. 

Vietnam Red- Day 13

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Lucky Day 13: a Poem

We woke up to a rather overcast day,

Yet the heat didn’t go away.

A stunning buffet breakfast on a particularly high floor,

We were all eager to finish and rush out the door.

On the bikes, slightly drenched and set to go,

Weaving through light traffic we established a good flow.
Our first stop was the emperor’s Citadel,

The indulgence in the history and the sights were quite swell.

Walls and ruins barely standing, but soaring high,

Peppered with bullet holes, the butterflies still flew by.
Moving on, we found ourselves in the middle of an ancient combat,

Between the elephant and a mighty tiger; the big cat.

But it was not the animals that were in the arena,

Instead us students, who ended up playing a muddy game of British Bulldogs.
Up the hill to the bunker, built by the French, attacked by the Americans,

A rather thrilling and chilling destination, lucky there were no detonations (trying to rhyme).

A beautiful view over the magnificent Perfume River,

Jaws were dropped and the height made us shiver.
A steady cycle to a unique pagoda,

Where we would be greeted with an unusual set of food

An overload of veggies, and luckily no soda (parents, you should be delighted)

Departing the monks to travel the sturdy route, they wished us only good.
The view from inside the chilly pool only motivated us to kick around a soccer ball

So we scurried off to the stadium, only to be kicked out, ignored once and for all.

We then found a different ground with a local boys team,

Who then slightly obliterated us Australians, they were surely not what they seemed.
As the teachers let us go to indulge in the local cuisine,

Many veered away from this offer, thinking it was pretty mean.

Western food was the choice and ticked off the checklist

But Vietnamese culture surrounded us, something that could not be missed.
Now, writing this rather exceedingly dramatically long poem for you,

We can’t wait to jump into bed and be tucked in, oh dear, it’s already 9:02.

So goodnight, good morning, tam biêt or xin ciao.

We had a wonderful day today, and these 24 hours are wrapping up now.

Dima & Ayda & Owen

Photos: stopping at the Citadel and Colosseum as part of our cycling adventures. 

Vietnam Red- Day 12

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We started off this very rainy day by leaving the wonderful town of Hoi An and travelling on a bus through the Hai Van Pass to Hue. After we arrived in Hue, we hopped on a dragon boat (originally just for the King and Queen) and sailed up the Perfume River to the Thien Mu pagoda. We learnt about the monks and the four main animals of Vietnamese belief – dragon, unicorn, turtle and the phoenix. The Thien Mu pagoda is the highest pagoda in Vietnam. We also learnt about the extraordinary monk who protested against the Southern discrimination of Buddhism by driving 600 kilometres to assign and calmly burning himself in the street. His name was Quang Duc. When he was burnt alive, his heart was totally undamaged.

After the visit to the pagoda, we went back to the hotel and got ready for our official imperial banquet dinner complete with live Vietnamese music, uniform and a King and queen and their loyal subjects. Queen Ayda and King Dima commanded their subjects throughout the night. As well as live Vietnamese performances, we had performances by Emerson, Jess and Lauren.

To the families:

We are currently missing home but still enjoying a wonderful experience here in Vietnam and we would like to thank our families for being able to fund this amazing experience, we can’t wait to tell you the adventures we have had in Vietnam.

Chloe, Lucas G and Lochie

Photos: Vietnam Red standing outside the Thien Mu Pagoda; photos from the Imperial Banquet dinner (featuring costumes and King Dima & Queen Ayda). 

TLC Pagodas – Day 10 – Luang Prabang – Laos

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We woke up in a comfortable bed this morning, still tired from the night before. We knew it was going to be a great day with plenty of activities. We firstly went to the Laos Royal Palace. We learned that Luang Prabang got its name from a statue of a Buddha, and that this Buddha was moved from Sri Lanka to Lao around four hundred years ago. Luang Prabang was the capital city of Lao from 1902 to 1962. The Royal Palace had a museum where we learnt about the royal family and his collection of cool old cars. We saw many different statues of Buddha; people used different materials to build those statues such as gold, crystal, wood and bronze.

We further extended our knowledge of Luang Prabang by a popular mode of transport in Laos: cycling. By actually experiencing the conditions of the streets for ourselves, which were extremely bumpy, we felt the stressful conditions. It felt intimidating, particularly at the roundabouts, with motorcycles and cars and bikes all sharing the same length of road of our bikes. The road rules in Laos are completely different to Australia’s. They drive on the right side of road and cut offs are expected and common. We stopped at a local paper production company which uses sustainable practices to make its paper from tree pulp, and then headed off onto the roads again. Under the scorching heat we saw beautiful sights capturing the beauty of the city including the sun glistening on the Mekong River, the shades of gold of the temples and a view of the highly dense vegetation on the mountains.

After a quick lunch we tried a cuisine other than our own, such as eggs wrapped in pig intestine. We then went to the spectacular Kuang Si waterfall which has got to be one of the most beautiful parts of nature we have ever seen. The cooling water had many shades of pastel blue, colliding with the harsh pressure of white water splashing from 150 meters above. The weather treated us, with rays of sun finding their way through the green tree cover. The sounds of thumping water left me feeling relaxed and calmed by the scenic views and beauty Laos had to offer.

After the relaxing waterfalls we went to the vibrant night life of Laos with buzzing local stores of handmade Laotian materials, consisting of Laos hill tribe fabrics to recycled bomb materials from the Vietnam war. We engaged with locals with friendly bartering and further developed our bargaining skills. At first the conversion between Australia and Laos currencies was confusing and to be honest, we still don’t get it! After a social and successful night we came home to many purchases.

We are excited for what tomorrow brings with elephant rides and a Great Race!

Cleo D and Michael A


Vietnam Grey – Day 11

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Xin Chao from Hoi An, the land of the never ending tailors, lanterns and rain.

CRUNCH went the bacon, SIZZLE went the omelettes and SPLASH went the fresh pineapple juice. A delicious buffet breakfast greeted us once again with a friendly smile and a waving hand.

Today we got the rain but we won’t complain because it caused no pain and was kind of refreshing. After a dip in the pool, we all felt quite cool so we were ready to start the Hoi An historical tour. It was interesting, intriguing and lit and that’s just brushing the surface. We all discovered plenty about Vietnam’s monsoon and flood season and the process the locals follow during flooding including pulleys for lifting their furniture to the second floor. Traditional architecture was beautiful and elegant. It encompassed Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese building styles in a very distinctly Asian home (as you’d expect) much different to what we see in Australia We also saw the Japanese covered bridge on this same tour. This majestic bridge can also be seen on the 20,000 dong note. Unfortunately, the rain wanted to learn about Vietnamese history as well so it rolled up and made us all damp but it sure didn’t dampen the mood!

    

   

     
    
After everybody had a flex in their tailor-made suits and dresses, we had a bit of a shop and we headed back to the resort for anther dip in the pool.

  
 
Finally, what everybody was waiting for, the Vietnamese cooking class. Miss Lulu, the “best chef in Hoi An”, taught us some basic facts about commonly used Vietnamese herbs, spices and vegetables. This includes ingredients such as lemongrass, fish sauce and five spice. Our end result was a delicious meal consisting of barbecued chicken skewers, deep fried spring rolls and green papaya salad. It tasted sensational.

   
    
    
    
    
   
This was our last day in Hoi An but, today, we earned some memories and items that we would keep for the rest of our lives. The finished tailored products, the skills we learnt from the cooking class, and the magical sights of lanterns lighting up the night sky. 

   
Finally, we finished off the night with Frazer getting stuck in the hotel elevator for half an hour. It was humorous for those outside of the elevator but not for Fraz inside! After many, many, many, many attempts to ply the door open, we finally got him out in one piece.
Well that’s it for us, but don’t worry parents, only one more week until you can see us once again. 🙂
I think we will all be taking the stairs in the future!

– Fraz and Gavin