URBAN DOMAIN 2024

Vietnam Grey – Day 4

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We visit the Mekong Delta and see our house-build site

Growing up in a privileged society, we are told numerous times about how lucky we are and how we should be more grateful as many others are living with the bare minimum. Being taken away from “the Brighton bubble” and into a remote area in Vietnam surrounded by poverty and pollution we are able to understand how fortunate we are. We started the day in Ho Chi Minh City, travelling by bus until arriving at the Mekong Delta. We then took a leisurely boat ride through the river and stopped at a small market. Here we were introduced to the process of producing foods such as; coconut candy and rice bubble treats. We then continued our journey to the village and were introduced to our beautiful home for the next four nights. After settling down into our assigned rooms we headed off to the site of the house build. In order to access this remote area we endured a sweaty bike-ride over various terrains and through local streets. After dodging past many motorbikes and struggling to balance on the rocky roads, we finally arrived at the house build area. Here we met the family of four, whom we would be building the home for. It was clear to see how grateful this family was and how we will be making their dream come true throughout the next three days.


Returning back to the home stay provided a bit of struggle for Vietnam Grey! Having some minor difficulties keeping everyone together throughout the ride, the night fell and we faced the challenge of riding back in the dark. This resulted in our group taking another safer, yet longer, route back with more lighting. Dripping in sweat we were welcomed home with a cold shower and a table full of delicious Vietnamese cuisine. It was a fun, and mostly laid back day and we are all eager to complete the house build and see the smiles on the family’s faces. Vietnam Grey is having a fabulous time in Vietnam and we are excited for what comes next.

~Brooke and Annabelle

Hey Halak family! Love and miss you xo-Brooke
I’m safe and having so much fun! I love and miss you mum, dad, Matt and Goldie! <3 – Annabelle

Vietnam Yellow – Day 5 – Mai Chau

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By Lael 

Waking up at 6.30 this morning getting ready for a big day ahead, we were excited to help build the floor for the house and help build the roof. Coming down at 7am for a yummy breakfast, we were delighted to know that we were going to have the amazing pancakes. 

  
After brekky, it was a quick change of the clothes and off we went to walk to the village in which we were building the house. I don’t think anyone would ever get sick of the amazing 20 minute walk that we have to take every morning, being pleasantly surprised with the ridiculously amazing scenery that completely describes Vietnam in a nutshell. 

Sooner rather than later we were at the village and once again getting smiles from the people in the village and “Xin Chao’s” from everyone, with warm greetings always. It’s always a pleasure doing the hard yards for these amazing people!
Right away we got into bringing massive leaves from one side of the road to the other, walking up the hill to the house, where great teamwork was shown. We had very good technique when it comes to teamwork. For example there where little groups half way down the long 300 meter walk where we would pass on the heavy leaves and so on. After all the leaves were taken up to the house we used an incredible method to get the leaves on the roof, and we were all gob-smacked by it. What happened was a leaf would be put on the sharp end of the piece of bamboo and with the help of your partner they help push the bamboo stick up to the top of the roof where the village workers would catch them and secure them down. It was crazy how the whole roof was done in only one and a half hours and it looked so good!!
   
    
    
    
 Lunch came not too long after, and we really needed it. We had a very yummy lunch, once again in our little lunch boxes and then had an hour for a siesta.

After our nap, everyone slowly made their way to getting back into it and we were ready to nail down on getting the floor completed. Bamboo upon bamboo is basically how I would explain the floor. With the help of yesterday’s work, we nailed down those pieces and before we knew it, the whole floor was completed as well. I never knew that bamboo could be that strong and to know that it’s the Vietnamese main form of flooring, it’s incredible. The last job for the day was to bring all the timber up to the house. With the great teamwork and techniques that we used, it was done in about 20 minutes. 
   
    
   
After we completed our work for the day we took a beautiful walk to another village in which we met the cow that we were going to buy for the family that we are building the house for. It is such a beautiful cow and it’s one year old. We were told that the family will need to wait another year and a half before the cow can have calves and go from there. We then walked back to our house where we are staying and had our showers. We are now enjoying a great dinner, being fed very nice food. 

   
 Missing everyone so much back at home and hope you are all doing well without your noisy teenagers in the house. 
Much love xxxx Lael

Vietnam Yellow – Favourite moments so far

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Carien – I have enjoyed playing volleyball with the locals, even though we were terrible.   

  
Simon – Our discovery of the greatest drink on the face of the earth, sting, was by far the most enjoyable moment.
  
Finn – Going on the bus to Mai Chau was the best part of the trip because it was our first look at the Vietnamese country side. 

   
Annabelle – The cloud covered mountains that surround the village are picturesque and you feel like you have just come out of a movie. 

Lael – Walking up to the village in which we were going to build a house for a poor family. The surrounding scenery around us was one of the most beautiful sites in the world, almost as if it was in a movie. 

  
Sophie – The best part of this trip so far was going into the village and seeing the difference in styles around the city. From going to the crowded city life to the calm quite nature environment was a major change. I loved the village so far the most because takes you away from our busy life and let’s us relax and just enjoy a simple life that we sometimes don’t get in Melbourne. 

Chloe – Arriving at the village and meeting the family for the first time, knowing that we are able to build them a house was such a moving moment. It was such a warm feeling knowing how much we have and can do for others. 

  
  

TLC Pagodas – day 3

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Today was an insight into the importance of culture and presence of religion in Thailand. We started off the day by taking an hour long bus ride to the north of Chiang Mai – the Hill Tribe region. As we drove, our tour guide Hung told us his journey of how he got to where he is today, which was really eye opening and explained how everybody has a different story and and how the choices you make can impact your future. He studied 8 years at university and his aim was to “break the cycle” of his family’s somewhat difficult way of life. He gave us a good insight of what it’s like in South East Asia, compared to Austraia as it is far more difficult to educate oneself in a country with such a large divide between socio-economic circumstances.
We then traveled an hour north of Chiang Mai and met with the Hill Tribes of Thailand and were greeted with smiles and happy faces. The hill tribes of Thailand have indigenous Thai people here as well as refugees from other neighbouring countries. Their way of life was intriguing and it was fascinating to see how open they are about every aspect of their life. This demonstrated the differences between Australia and Thailand as we do not often see people sharing their homes, workplaces and interactions with their families with total strangers. It became evident that they relied on tourists or “furrung” to earn an income. A number of us interviewed a lady from the Karen Hill Tribe – adorned with golden rings around her neck – and were fascinated to find out that her favourite part about living in that area was all the tourists that visited them and their homes. Each of the hill tribes had different clothing and patterns that defined what hill tribe they were involved in. They used different colours and patterns to represent their tribes various characteristics.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for lunch at a local Thai restaurant. We were served traditional green curry, noodles, steamed rice and a few other traditional dishes. After lunch we travelled to the Doi Su Thep Temple which was a spectacular experience. Our tour guide Chan explained how valuable the landmark was to both the locals and foreigners and said “you haven’t seen Chaing Mai if you haven’t visited the Doi Su Thep Temple”. It was a long walk uphill, but culminated in a spectacular view of a gold covered temple, surrounded by  Buddha statues and monks distributing blessings. This whole experience enabled us to understand the importance of Buddhism in Thailand.

We returned to the hotel to freshen up and get our bargain on at the night market – the same market as yesterday although we were better prepared for the challenge and the antics we would face this time. We ate dinner in a small Thai restaurant which was conveniently close to where we were going to shop and tried Tom Yum, which is a spectacular traditional Thai dish. We enjoyed bargaining and shopping for an hour and a half and then headed back to our hotel for a good nights sleep, before we head off to the village tomorrow to start working on the house-build with the local community there

Jesse P & Caitlin P




Vietnam Yellow – Day 4 – Mai Chau

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By Zeb, Finn K and Austin

We woke up today in a traditional Vietnamese stilt house. Breakfast was different to what we normally have and consisted of baguettes, omelettes and some banana. After that we walked into the village where the house was being built and met the family we were building it for. They seemed very happy to see us. The first step was to put the frame of the house onto the concrete stilts. The builders were shouting out commands that no one understood and although we seemed to be in the way, we did get the heavy hardwood fames onto the stilts by lifting, pushing and pulling them as a group. After that our tour leader showed us how to turn the long bamboo poles into floor boards. We had to make around 30 between us and it was exhausting and hard on the joints. The locals had some very interesting and sketchy building techniques – some safe, some less so.   
    
 Next thing we knew, it was lunch time and we were called into a house similar to the one we were building. We sat down and waited for our food to be delivered. When we got it, it was like a bento box (Vietnamese style), and before we knew it we were back at it cutting bamboo. After our day of building we set off to visit the previous Vietnam yellow house build. On the way we bumped into some joyful locals that we’re excited to play volleyball. We later met the family and learnt how their life had changed since they had moved into the house built by last year’s group. 

 

   
 Although it rained on the long walk back, the views were amazing. Everyone enjoyed a warm shower and unique Vietnamese dinner when we returned and then had some time to relax before bed. 

   
Having a great time here in Nam!

Finn, Zeb, Aussie