Today marked the halfway mark through our Big E journey and we look back at all the great opportunities and memories we have already made. It is crazy to think that we have said goodbye to our families and the city of Melbourne nine days ago, and as much as we miss you all, we are having an amazing time.
The breakfast hall was filled with excitement and anticipation as we were heading north to the beautiful city of Hoi An. The flight consisted of no hassles as our guides helped maintain a smooth journey and we arrived in Hoi An, ready for a change of scenery. Straight from the airport our bus trip to the Marble Mountains highlighted the significant contrast in population, traffic and architecture in reference to our previous destinations.
As we reached the Marble Mountains it was clear that there was no shortage of marble as almost every store had a wide range of marble statues and ornaments. The trek up the mountain was steep and painful, although all was worth while when we experienced the breathtaking views of Hoi An and surrounding areas. The sights that were heavily photographed proved the diversity of the city from a commercial, agricultural and natural perspective. However, the most exciting part was soon to come. We were then introduced to a new activity which was abseiling down the side of a cliff face called “heavens gate”, and it was deadly! The group had mixed emotions including some of us that were trembling with fear, until the adrenaline rush kicked in and we carefully followed the calm guidance of the instructors, safely to the bottom. Looking back on it now, it’s easy to say that everyone felt like they had accomplished something great.
Arriving at the hotel created a “wow” factor amongst the group with beautiful rooms and a pool. However, the adventure had still not finished for the day and we soon headed out to the “Old Town” part of Hoi An. Our first stop was at the tailor where the boys had planned to buy fitted suits whilst the girls preferred lovely dresses. The night concluded with our group running into Vietnam Red, this was very exciting to see all of our friends having an equally amazing time as us. As we said goodbye we headed off to a dinner of our choice, which was pleasant to spend with our friends before walking back to the hotel.
We began this morning different to most others. We awoke to the bumping and jolting of the train, feeling as though we’d been on the train for days. Most of us waking up at about 7, we quickly realised that our time on the train would be coming to an end. Some were happy to leave the small enclosed space but other were disappointed that we wouldn’t be on the train longer. Hurriedly, we prepared our breakfasts and soon after our bags. The first thing I saw after getting off the cloistered train was a nice looking bus, and I thought to myself, yes!!!
We were off to our new hotel, we all had hope in our hearts, and then our tour guide Hoang delivered the big news… “There’s a pool!”. We were all jumping out of our skins. After lunch and one hour in the much needed pool, we set off to the river where we boarded a two headed dragon! Well it was a boat that was painted as a two headed dragon, but close enough.
We ventured down the river to see a Buddhist temple, built in the 1600’s by one of the kings. The King heard about the story of a lady that always stayed on the hill and waited, the King thought that she was waiting for him so he built his palace. It was destroyed and then rebuilt in in 1904 by the kings of that time. After the Buddhist temple we took the boat to the Imperial City. It was a short and interesting experience to hear about the layers of defence used to protect the Forbidden City.
After the Forbidden City, we took a walk through the streets of Hue in warm and humid conditions. We came back to the hotel ready for some refreshing showers and some much needed rest. We were now all excited to chose what we wanted for dinner. The boys went off and found their own restaurant where a pool table was present. The dinner was amazing and the boys played tournaments to see who was the greatest pool player – obviously Simon is the greatest of all time, meaning he won. After dinner we were all exhausted and have now returned to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
We are missing all of you but still not ready to come home just yet, hope you are all doing well and not missing us too much, from everyone in Vietnam Yellow.
By Matt Spaz and Simon
Today we woke up packed our bags and were ready for our last day in Hanoi and we were ready for a big one. We met in the lobby waiting for the bus. When the bus arrived we all got on and were ready to go. When we arrived at the lake we got into the golf carts and went on a tour through all the different types of streets in the old quarter. The shops of Hanoi are split into sections based on the products they sell, for example we saw a metal street, paper street and a bamboo street.
After the golf cart ride we were ready for lunch. We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in a shopping complex. On the menu there were Vietnamese baguettes which were recommended by our tour guide. These baguettes were a bit different to home and some included vegetables, bbq pork and a fried egg.
Once we finished lunch, we were on our way to the history of Hanoi museum. It displayed all of the important milestones that have happened over time such as: the American war, Ho Chi Minh’s speech in 1945, the numerous attacks that the Vietnamese people had to fight off to keep their land, and information about the different kings and emperors of Vietnam. After the museum, we were on our way to an early dinner.
Desperate for a taste of home, we all went for a bite at the Asian-Western restaurant: Koto. Even though our spaghetti and burgers were good, the history of the restaurant was better. Koto had been founded by a Vietnamese-Australian man, who wanted to give opportunities to the homeless youth of Hanoi. The restaurant trains and provides jobs and accommodation to the homeless children, and many of them succeed and work in restaurants and hotels across Vietnam. However, they still feel great loyalty to the place that trained them, and they find time to come back and teach another street kid. This is how the restaurant got its name “know one, teach one”.
From Koto we took our bus to the train station. After unloading our bags and a short wait, we all piled into our carriage. We have settled into our cabins, and are now moving. We have 7 cabins for our group which gives us our own carriage. For the first hour we have played music, card games and shared stories. Will be interesting to see how we all sleep tonight.
Hope you’re all doing well. We’re looking forward to seeing you all.
As we head down the Mekong river into Laos, the day overall has been uneventful, bar some pretty interesting games of Uno on the boat! We have decided to look at images that we have taken from our last week, and investigate what it reminds us of. Adrian – The Black TempleThe temple represented a different side of Thailand, with it showing a much darker side by displaying lots of things about death like bones, animal skins and and sculptures such as the above demon. It didn’t feel like a religious temple but more of a museum that displayed a man’s work over the years that he was alive.As we knew that Buddhism is the main religion in Thailand, we knew it wasn’t a proper temple as there were no Buddha statues or monks, to show it was a place of respect. I wonder why the Black Temple was made as a museum close to a city that isn’t very big such as Chiang Rai, and very well known as it doesn’t bring much attention to it. It is nice that it isn’t very well known so that it is more of a place to see a man’s work over his lifetime rather than being a museum in a major city centre. It is a place to be treasured and preserved as it is a place where many people come to visit and relax.` Sophie – Full Moon Lanterns
For our last night in Thailand we were able to release lanterns into the sky for the full moon festival. For the Thai people the full moon is a celebration – and also an apology to the river gods for taking and using so much water, and we were lucky enough to experience this phenomenal event. For the majority of us it was a great time for reflection as we made a wish and released the lanterns into the sky. It was a great way to say goodbye to Thailand.
Dante – Monk Cleaning Temple in Chiang Khong
Buddhism is the most common religion in Thailand. Many of it monks who practice this religion wear orange robes and walk the temples that we visited. The monks usually were either cleaning the courtyard or temple, or praying within the temple. This photo shows a monk that is cleaning the courtyard, as the temples are something of a treasure towards their religion and shows respect towards Buddha. Cleaning the temples shows the tourists and followers respect towards the condition of the temple, as being a monk is part of an ancient culture and highly respected within Thailand. James H – sleeping dogs and shoes
This dog is one of many that moved freely around the Chang Dao village. Similar to the some of the children, the dogs were shy at first but slowly become more friendly and open towards us guests. The shoes symbolise the wealth those in the village. The locals only possessed open toed footwear but we the Pagodas had closed toed footwear. It pleases me to say that most of us visitors left behind our closed toed shoes for those in the village and hope that they enjoy having them. Marcus – bricks from the house build
Doing the house build was incredibly taxing on my body, after the first day I was already extremely tired, but I knew that if I sat out it was an experience I would regret missing so on the second day I was carrying the bricks in this photo sometimes 7 at a time because I knew that after we were done and met the family who would be living in the house we built for the rest of their lives. It was worth the pain and the effort to make sure it was done for them. At the very end of the build the feeling was exactly as I imagined it and more. It was humbling, exciting and I could see the whole group was so proud of what we had done together in just 2 and a half short days. Living in the village and building the house has to be one of the most humbling experiences in my life and I will for ever be grateful to the wonderful people who made this possible – our trip leaders and guides Mr Wood, Mr Burke, Ms Southey, Hung and Chan. And of course my parents who funded my trip entirely to all of you thank you it has been the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. Claudia – hut from the top of our lodge
This hut on the top of the big hill in the village represents our experience in the village for the three days we were there.. It really pushed us outside of our comfort zone, the way we slept, ate and drank was so different to the way we were used to back home in Australia. This hut was at the top of a massive mountain that we had to climb at the end of a long working day and it was such a both hysical and mental challenge. Jamie – The spider in the village
This spider represents the teamwork and synergy that was demonstrated by our group during the house build. The web takes dynamic synergy with its natural elements to collaboratively create a home for itself like we did for the people in the village.
Cleo – The campfire and culture of the Palau peopleThe pagodas all came together to achieve something amazing for the lives of others. The house we built and five pigs we donated is a hope, giving opportunity to these people to have a better life. I feel as if the fire symbolises starting from fresh beginning. At this fire both Australian and Thai cultures were able to come together despite our language barriers. We interacted together through dance and games. This was our last moment together as a whole, we wish all the very best with the new chapter of their lives.
Elliot – The finished house
I see a well built house with lots of potential to help and give a family a place to stay and live their lives. I wonder what the people’s views on the build itsself are, and if they are satisfied with the out come of it and our efforts. Given that almost all the group put a huge effort into it I feel as though the whole group should feel a sense of Self achievement and happiness. Overall the house build was a success and I hope the family that we built it for get a lot of use out of it.
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(Sorry, the flash would just not work here! Better photos coming up tomorrow I promise)
Although we arrived in the late evening at Pakbeng, everyone is in high spirits, and can’t wait for our trip further down the Mekong river tomorrow, arriving at Luang Pabang tomorrow evening. Expect more reflections, awesome photos, and a small update of what happened over the last two days
We started the day off with a wander through the small town of Pak Beng in order to purchase some snacks for the boat ride ahead. We then boarded the long boat and began the second leg of our voyage to Luang Prabang.
We made one stop on our journey at the Pak Ou caves, limestone caves on the banks of the Mekong river. The caves had two other names as well: Buddha caves and Thing caves. As we left our boat and stepped onto the floating bamboo path towards the temple, we were stunned by the amazing views around us. Our guide, Joy, explained to us about how the Mekong river flooded back in 2008 and we were shown the markings on the limestone high above the current water level where the flooding reached. We had a bit of a talk in front of the cave entrance, and then we climbed up the stairs into the cave. In the cave, there were numerous Buddha statues in various sizes stacked all around the cave, put there by the locals as prayers for good fortune or health. We spent about 15 minutes in the lower cave before commencing our ascent to the upper cave. The climb up to the upper cave was quite gruelling despite the stone stairs and certainly worked up a sweat for everybody. The upper cave was much larger and deeper into the mountain, so deep that we needed our torches to see the inside of the cave. The inside of the upper cave did not have as many Buddha statues as the lower cave but the views made the long climb to the top well worth it.
The boat ride itself was very relaxing listening to the sound of the water lapping against the side of the boat. At the back of the boat, there were mostly students playing cards, in the middle the quiet bunch sat and pondered the views that the Mekong had to offer, and the front of the boat was taken up by the teachers and the readers and sleepier students. But everyone seemed to have a really great day wherever they were sitting.
Once we arrived at the port of Luang Prabang and had to lug our suitcases up a very steep hill to the mini buses. Once we checked in to our hotel, we had some time to go through our luggage and finally sort through our clothes after the village and lots of single night stays. We were able to drop our washing and shoes at a local laundromat and we are looking forward to getting some more clean t-shirts back. We then travelled to a restaurant were the food was enjoyable.
After dinner and a quick pep talk from Billy our tour guide, we walked to the night market to buy presents for ourselves and for our families. Popular items were elephant slippers, genie pants, headbands and…salt. After the market, we returned to the hotel and gathered around to listen to Mr Daniel’s substitute, Zach, give the nightly debrief reminding us of the “non-negotiables” and to keep your fluids up. After the pep talk we were sent back to our rooms to get a good night’s sleep listening to the soothing sounds of the rain on the roof.
After waking up in the most luxurious hotel rooms we’ve been in during the entire trip, many took advantage of the extra sleep, whilst others enjoyed an early dip in the pool. The breakfast spread was both western and Vietnamese but none other, delicious (especially the cinnamon donuts). We then set off on our bikes on a scenic route to the beach. It felt like we explored many aspects of Vietnam’s environment in a single trip. We began by venturing through the bustling street network of Hoi An and continued on to exploring the countryside. An interesting sight was watching other tourists ride a water buffalo through a shallow lake.
We arrived at the beach which was set up with a gorgeous resort style seating area and were refreshed with a cool drink. The serenity of the beach was a perfect contrast to the chaotic streets of Ho Chi Minh City. Some enjoyed a casual stroll along the coast line, others sunk back into beach chairs and a mixed group played a game of soccer. We had a relaxing lunch before setting off on a shorter bike ride back to the hotel. As a group we raced to the pool in search of relief from the heat. We finished a brilliant day with tailor fittings and a dinner of our own choice in addition to bumping into another Vietnam group from St Leonard’s. The day was the most relaxing of the entire trip so far, yet was filled with many new experiences and memories as we explored the beauty of Hoi An.
Hi family, I’m missing you guys heaps but I’m making the most of the opportunities I’ve been given and so far I have done everything on this trip. I can’t wait to tell you all about Vietnam- Love Millie. Don’t worry I’m not really missing you, having lots of fun, the food is better than expected – Love Em
Emma & Millie
Photos: Riding through Hoi An; encountering a buffalo along the way; playing ball on the beach; the resort-style beach set up; running along the beach.
 
  
 
  
 
 
