Today is our fourth day at Vietnam. The past few days were enjoyable, but today was the most tiring and at the same time the most fun!
After a light breakfast, we had a two hour long journey to Cu Chi historical site. On the way, we had a toilet break however, not everyone went down as we were asleep. Finally, having arrived at the Cu Chi tunnel, we were all excited and were looking forward to the tunnel trail. The moment we went in and saw the entrance to the tunnels, we all started taking pictures of us standing in front of it. It was really dark and creepy inside.
Our guide, Mr Hau, gave us a talk about the tunnels for about fifteen minutes and we spent the next fifteen minutes watching a video on how the people lived in the tunnels. After that, Mr Hau brought us around the area and showed us some of the booby traps and how they worked. All of them contained either barbed spikes or land mines. Just imagining the way the enemies were killed made some of us sick.
Hours of talking and walking in the scorching hot sun later, Mr Ho finally brought us to one of the entrances of the Cu Chi tunnel. However, not all of us entered the tunnel. We went into 2 tunnels. For the first one, we walked 100m in the tunnel. The tunnel was only about 1m high and the taller ones had to crawl, while the shorter ones only had to bend their knees and walk through the tunnel. It was hot and the tunnel was really dark. We experienced the lives of blind men in there. In the second tunnel, it was more challenging as we went into the second level of the tunnel. There were slopes every now and then and if we didn’t feel the ground carefully, we might just fall. We had to be extremely careful to avoid losing our foot.
We ended all our sufferings with a great lunch that consisted of free flow of rice and tea, dishes like pork, seafood, egg, vegetables and fruits.
We continued with a two hour long ride back to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). On the way back, we had a pit-stop at the rubber plantation and took some pictures and observed latex dripping from the trees into bowls.
We went back to the bus, to our hotel, Le Duy, to fetch Lynna and Emily who were sick and Mrs Choy, who was taking care of them. Following, we went to the Nghe Xuong Wood Craving Workshop and witness the workers making the products. The items they used included duck’s egg shell and Mother of Pearl to form the designs. They then dipped their product into lacquer solution a few times to polish it. The products being sold were quite costly.
After checking out the wood carving workshop, we headed down to XQ Hand Embroidery. There, all the products are hand embroidered. The artists were really amazing and we were fascinated by how they could produce a work of art that looked exactly like a picture. When we look at the embroidered art pieces from afar, they look life-like and we had to have a closer look for us to realise that they are were all hand embroidered.
After everything, we headed back to the hotel and were given about one and a half hour to freshen up. We met up with everyone at the lobby and took our tour bus to the harbour for a cruise dinner, which was a pleasant surprise as there was no mentioning of a cruise dinner at all. It was nine course dinner consisting of dishes like, spring rolls, meat, vegetables, soup, fruits and the usual free flow of rice and tea. Upon finishing our dinner, we had an approximately forty minute cruise ride around the Saigon River. It was a refreshing experience with soothing live music on our deck being played while we watched the night scenery. At the bottom deck, they were pop-rock music and fire eating performances.
It was a long night and we arrived back at the hotel at around 10. Practically everyone went out for supper at KFC and PEPPERONIS. Today was our most memorable with all the constantly appearing surprises and this being our last night in Vietnam.
Entry by
Lee Wei En Titus (3 Sincerity)
Tan Shao Xuan Geoffrey (3 Sincerity)
Yee Li Ting Lina (3 Sincerity)
Amanda Lee Wen Ting (3 Sincerity)
Sow ShiHui Natalie (3 Integrity)
Emily Loh Min Li (3 Integrity)
Leong Mei Ling Jasmine (3 Integrity)
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Wild Wild Wet
We thought that today was super fun. The first thing we did today was get out of bed thinking that today might be some boring old road trip to some old fish farm at the outskirts of ho chi minh. How wrong we were. At first the bus ride was kinda boring... 2hours of the endless bus ride. But our group didn’t really felt the time difference. Tania was sleeping most of the time. Xinyi and Genevieve the same. Nicholas was thinking of his new book he was about the publish (best seller) and Alex was taking pictures of us sleeping. Except Nicholas.
When we arrived at the side of the road to go down to see the padi fields, we were wondering why we stopped there thinking it was a toilet break. But to our surprise we crossed the road to go check out the padi fields. Next we arrived at our next destination, the Mekong River Delta. We met our tour guide. He was pretty tanned, he spoke pretty fluent English (better than some of us) except Nicholas and Alexander Ivan Lim Wei Sheng (A.I.L.W.S) we had a windy bumpy (and fun) ride on the way to one of the four islands on the side of Mekong delta.
We eventually got to the island. Sweaty backs and sticky shirts we went off the boats with high spirits. Expecting a hero’s welcome like the one we got at the destination stop the day before. We weren’t let down. The locals living near the Mekong river welcomed us with opened arms with things to sell. Friendly and warm, we felt like we’re at home. The guide introduced us to a place to sit down and enjoy a cup of honey tea =D. Our guide then told us that we can hold a beehive and we did! We then sat back down to talk and drink our tea. He then brought out a python for us to carry. Alex carried the beehive which we thought was pretty cool. Surprising how none of the bees came and stung ( Vietnamese bees are friendly too ). Next we walked to the hut next to it. At first we were shocked to see a Vietnamese lady ( maybe in her 40s) with a huge and tanned masculine figure beside a floor filled with coconuts. We observed a spear installed onto the ground. We watched as she broke the rock solid coconut into perfect halves and a floor filled with coconuts. She then showed us the technique of making coconut candies (Nicholas ate most of it... without paying) we took a short stroll along the riverside entering our miniature boats (aka sampan) into the smalls canals and reached our boat and yeah.(Alex showed us his huge bulky muscles.) his boat was the fastest I think.(Nicholas’s boat sank)
We took another long gruelling trip back to the city and shopped at the all time famous Ben Thanh market. The ladies immediately went finding for accessories to themselves. Xinyi bought a Jason-Mraz styled cap (which was pretty expensive). Alex and Nicholas bought some lanterns. Although Emily was not in our group she was there with us for our shopping. The girls bought some cute little handmade dolls. Quite a lot of items considering the 90 minutes time limit. We were kind of late considering the bargaining we did in between. We were fined 50cents each (6k dong ) Xinyi paid 60k.
We made a final roadtrip back to the city. We had a quick shower before heading to the water puppet show. We were surprised at first when our tour guide, Mr Hou mentioned water puppets. We didn’t take him seriously at first, was kind of shocked when we entered the cinema with a staged filled with water. Although we did not understand a word the puppeteers were saying we enjoyed the show tremendously.
After the show, we went off for dinner. We ate a lot of really good food... like spring rolls, and a free flow of white rice!! But anyways, we all had a lot of fun and we were glad that we ate there because the food was really good and it was worth it waiting till 8:30(Vietnam time) to eat.
After that, we went back home to the hotel to shower, relax and sleep! So now we are blogging with all of our group members and we are all tired...and WE ALL CAN’T WAIT TO BATHE!!!!!!
This is our group signing off,
Alexander Ivan Lim Wei Sheng (3 Integrity)
Nicholas Kang of the Jay Hung (3 Integrity)
Lee Xin Yi (3 Integrity)
Esther Ng Shi Hui (3 Integrity)
Genevieve Ng HuiHui (3 Integrity)
Tania Tan Ruiying (3 Integrity)
When we arrived at the side of the road to go down to see the padi fields, we were wondering why we stopped there thinking it was a toilet break. But to our surprise we crossed the road to go check out the padi fields. Next we arrived at our next destination, the Mekong River Delta. We met our tour guide. He was pretty tanned, he spoke pretty fluent English (better than some of us) except Nicholas and Alexander Ivan Lim Wei Sheng (A.I.L.W.S) we had a windy bumpy (and fun) ride on the way to one of the four islands on the side of Mekong delta.
We eventually got to the island. Sweaty backs and sticky shirts we went off the boats with high spirits. Expecting a hero’s welcome like the one we got at the destination stop the day before. We weren’t let down. The locals living near the Mekong river welcomed us with opened arms with things to sell. Friendly and warm, we felt like we’re at home. The guide introduced us to a place to sit down and enjoy a cup of honey tea =D. Our guide then told us that we can hold a beehive and we did! We then sat back down to talk and drink our tea. He then brought out a python for us to carry. Alex carried the beehive which we thought was pretty cool. Surprising how none of the bees came and stung ( Vietnamese bees are friendly too ). Next we walked to the hut next to it. At first we were shocked to see a Vietnamese lady ( maybe in her 40s) with a huge and tanned masculine figure beside a floor filled with coconuts. We observed a spear installed onto the ground. We watched as she broke the rock solid coconut into perfect halves and a floor filled with coconuts. She then showed us the technique of making coconut candies (Nicholas ate most of it... without paying) we took a short stroll along the riverside entering our miniature boats (aka sampan) into the smalls canals and reached our boat and yeah.(Alex showed us his huge bulky muscles.) his boat was the fastest I think.(Nicholas’s boat sank)
We took another long gruelling trip back to the city and shopped at the all time famous Ben Thanh market. The ladies immediately went finding for accessories to themselves. Xinyi bought a Jason-Mraz styled cap (which was pretty expensive). Alex and Nicholas bought some lanterns. Although Emily was not in our group she was there with us for our shopping. The girls bought some cute little handmade dolls. Quite a lot of items considering the 90 minutes time limit. We were kind of late considering the bargaining we did in between. We were fined 50cents each (6k dong ) Xinyi paid 60k.
We made a final roadtrip back to the city. We had a quick shower before heading to the water puppet show. We were surprised at first when our tour guide, Mr Hou mentioned water puppets. We didn’t take him seriously at first, was kind of shocked when we entered the cinema with a staged filled with water. Although we did not understand a word the puppeteers were saying we enjoyed the show tremendously.
After the show, we went off for dinner. We ate a lot of really good food... like spring rolls, and a free flow of white rice!! But anyways, we all had a lot of fun and we were glad that we ate there because the food was really good and it was worth it waiting till 8:30(Vietnam time) to eat.
After that, we went back home to the hotel to shower, relax and sleep! So now we are blogging with all of our group members and we are all tired...and WE ALL CAN’T WAIT TO BATHE!!!!!!
This is our group signing off,
Alexander Ivan Lim Wei Sheng (3 Integrity)
Nicholas Kang of the Jay Hung (3 Integrity)
Lee Xin Yi (3 Integrity)
Esther Ng Shi Hui (3 Integrity)
Genevieve Ng HuiHui (3 Integrity)
Tania Tan Ruiying (3 Integrity)
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Labour Day! (A.K.A. Day 2)
We woke up at 6 this morning(Vietnam time).
Headed to the coffeehouse and had our buffet breakfast. Then, we ran up to the bus, cause we were excited about the next activity, sand painting.
When we reached the sand painting place,they demonstrated how the sand painting was created and our first impression was, "aiya easy la. no kick". Though we chose not to participate in the activity, by the expressions of the participants face, it was really difficult. We could see that it requires a lot of patience.
While those participants was creating their own art piece, the others was roaming around in the showroom.
A "disfigured" sand painting was poured out by the owner of the shop. It shows that, it might be easy to create but easier to destroy.
After the sand painting, we went to for a buffet lunch at Golden Palace Hotel. The food was yummy. Mr Eugene Tan demonstrated his acquired taste for exotic food by eating a hard boiled half hatched duck egg. It contain an embryo of a duck.
When the egg was cracked open, we could clearly see an egg yolk with an embryo attached to it and there were some fine feathers on the embryo. Many of us found it digusting, gross and icky! But we guess its only a matter of perception.
The tour guide added that the protein level of two of those egg were equivalent to 500g of beef!
After that we had an exciting experience by crossing a busy road in Vietnam for the 1st time ever since we reached Vietnam. Previously when we were on the bus we noticed that the motor-cyclists here were very "Gan-Chiong" but careful. When crossing the road we felt a bit insecured as we feared that the motor-cyclists might accidentally knocked into us. But surprisingly, We survived the exciting short journey.
Then we went to the nearby local shopping mall to buy some necessities for ourself and for the orphans at the Dieu Giac Orphanage. The expenses of all the 3 Peace representatives amounted to 444,000VND!!!
(To add on, Richi and Stanley bought 30 cans of COKE!!!)
Finally after the shopping spree, when we arrived at DIEU GIAC Orphanage, the Chief Nun addressed us and eleborated on the operations of the orphanagen. We were given a tour around the Orphanage and observed their daily lifestyle and living conditions. We noticed that they are a lot less fortunate and under priviledged compared to us.
We also helped them to prepare the walls for painting by scrubbing the pillars and walls around the Orphanage. We played mini-games like soccer, basketball and zero-point with them. We then attempted to perform for the children but it was a failure as we were ill-prepared and lack the courage to do so.
All good things eventually must come to an end and we had to leave with heavy hearts as we set off for our next destination.
We went to the Central Post Office which was just beside Notre Dame Cathedral. It had a very unique post office as it was one of a kind which was built by French. The Notre Dame Cathedral had a beautiful architecture and even though we couldn't go in as there was a mass going on inside but we could still appreciate the beautiful structural design.
After gazing upon the beauty of the church, We left Mr Eugene Tan, Alexander, Bernard, Bryan and Mr How(our tour guide) at the post office and the bus driver had to made a U-Turn to pick them up. HAHA!
After that blunder, we headed back to the hotel and took power naps(quick nap) and showers. We went to the Batalis Restaurant where food and art meet to have our dinner while on our way up to the restaurant, we heard squealing and squeaking and it took Ryan Spencer some time to figure out that it was actually bats instead of parrots. LOLS!
While walking to our dining table, we saw a Vietnamese musician playing on a one-string instrument AKA Monoscore. It was amazing how a single string could play so many notes. The food was awesome and we were glad that there were no exotic food that required an acquired taste.
After our wonderful dinner, we headed back to Le Duy~ Hotel to write our daily journal writing and nightly debrief.
All this typing leads up to the present.
We do hope we enjoy the upcoming days like we did today.
Click on link to view photos
Entry by:
Eric Lin WeiJie (3PEACE)
Ang Yi Hao (3PEACE)
Ryan Spencer Anthony (3PEACE)
Yang Ru Yuan (3PEACE)
Chua Jing Sui (3PEACE)
Pang Yu Ting Lynna (3LOVE)
Headed to the coffeehouse and had our buffet breakfast. Then, we ran up to the bus, cause we were excited about the next activity, sand painting.
When we reached the sand painting place,they demonstrated how the sand painting was created and our first impression was, "aiya easy la. no kick". Though we chose not to participate in the activity, by the expressions of the participants face, it was really difficult. We could see that it requires a lot of patience.
While those participants was creating their own art piece, the others was roaming around in the showroom.
A "disfigured" sand painting was poured out by the owner of the shop. It shows that, it might be easy to create but easier to destroy.
After the sand painting, we went to for a buffet lunch at Golden Palace Hotel. The food was yummy. Mr Eugene Tan demonstrated his acquired taste for exotic food by eating a hard boiled half hatched duck egg. It contain an embryo of a duck.
When the egg was cracked open, we could clearly see an egg yolk with an embryo attached to it and there were some fine feathers on the embryo. Many of us found it digusting, gross and icky! But we guess its only a matter of perception.
The tour guide added that the protein level of two of those egg were equivalent to 500g of beef!
After that we had an exciting experience by crossing a busy road in Vietnam for the 1st time ever since we reached Vietnam. Previously when we were on the bus we noticed that the motor-cyclists here were very "Gan-Chiong" but careful. When crossing the road we felt a bit insecured as we feared that the motor-cyclists might accidentally knocked into us. But surprisingly, We survived the exciting short journey.
Then we went to the nearby local shopping mall to buy some necessities for ourself and for the orphans at the Dieu Giac Orphanage. The expenses of all the 3 Peace representatives amounted to 444,000VND!!!
(To add on, Richi and Stanley bought 30 cans of COKE!!!)
Finally after the shopping spree, when we arrived at DIEU GIAC Orphanage, the Chief Nun addressed us and eleborated on the operations of the orphanagen. We were given a tour around the Orphanage and observed their daily lifestyle and living conditions. We noticed that they are a lot less fortunate and under priviledged compared to us.
We also helped them to prepare the walls for painting by scrubbing the pillars and walls around the Orphanage. We played mini-games like soccer, basketball and zero-point with them. We then attempted to perform for the children but it was a failure as we were ill-prepared and lack the courage to do so.
All good things eventually must come to an end and we had to leave with heavy hearts as we set off for our next destination.
We went to the Central Post Office which was just beside Notre Dame Cathedral. It had a very unique post office as it was one of a kind which was built by French. The Notre Dame Cathedral had a beautiful architecture and even though we couldn't go in as there was a mass going on inside but we could still appreciate the beautiful structural design.
After gazing upon the beauty of the church, We left Mr Eugene Tan, Alexander, Bernard, Bryan and Mr How(our tour guide) at the post office and the bus driver had to made a U-Turn to pick them up. HAHA!
After that blunder, we headed back to the hotel and took power naps(quick nap) and showers. We went to the Batalis Restaurant where food and art meet to have our dinner while on our way up to the restaurant, we heard squealing and squeaking and it took Ryan Spencer some time to figure out that it was actually bats instead of parrots. LOLS!
While walking to our dining table, we saw a Vietnamese musician playing on a one-string instrument AKA Monoscore. It was amazing how a single string could play so many notes. The food was awesome and we were glad that there were no exotic food that required an acquired taste.
After our wonderful dinner, we headed back to Le Duy~ Hotel to write our daily journal writing and nightly debrief.
All this typing leads up to the present.
We do hope we enjoy the upcoming days like we did today.
Click on link to view photos
 |
| HICA Take a walk 2 |
Entry by:
Eric Lin WeiJie (3PEACE)
Ang Yi Hao (3PEACE)
Ryan Spencer Anthony (3PEACE)
Yang Ru Yuan (3PEACE)
Chua Jing Sui (3PEACE)
Pang Yu Ting Lynna (3LOVE)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Take Off!
7.30am gathered at the airport. Took a group photo and said our last goodbye to our parents.
Check-in and boarded the plane at 9.20 am.
Pamela:i was scared and excited.it was my first time taking the plane. I sat next to the window so I can take a very nice view of the clouds and the view of Vietnam.
Jiamin:i feel very happy because i can sit next to my best friend.
At 10.50 am we landed at Vietnam HoChinMinh City. After that we took a bus to PHO24 where we when to eat our lunch.
Comments about the food at PHO24:
Pamela: The chicken noodle was very nice that until i needed another drink.
Jiamin: The beef noodle was very delicious.
Yihui: The chicken noodle is very nice.
Xin hui: The beef noodle was very nice. It is so delicious i hope to eat it next time.
At 9.20am we bored the plane to Vietnam.
The feeling was amazing for people that has felt the the plane for the first time.we experience some turbulence on the way. But it was enjoyable
At 10.50am we landed at vietams airport. We then took a bus to PHO24 to eat our lunch which was named ‘fur’ which was ether chicken noodles or beef noodles.
We took a bus to the tour guide explain that vietnam’s population a total of 84 million people. Every year 1 ½ million of babies were born.
We reached the workshop.....
We walked in the workshop and saw alot of beautiful designs made by some other people on the side display when we walked in. We then walk into the cinema room then watched a video about Vietnamese criramic culture. They said that whatever a artist sees he/her paints the beautiful paintings on the vase. When we walked out of the cinema we saw huge statues of fishes and flamingos... there were 99 fishes & 99 flamingos .
We went to a show room it showcase tea cups and plates and so many more
Then we went in the workshop to do our work for about 40 mins . after we submitted our work piece we then when out to the front entrance to take another group photo.
We went back to the bus, drive to the hotel to check-in to our rooms.
At 6.55pm we drove out to eat our dinner at a restaurant. The food there was very delicious and the atmostfer in the restaurant is very amazing and offenttic... The decoration in the restaurant is very well designed.
Comments about the dinner...
Pamela: The first dish got pork, I don’t know how to eat pork.
Xin hui: So many vegetable for today’s dinner I hope that tomorrow will not have so many vegetable, but the food was quite nice.
JiaMin: The first dish inside got a vegetable, it taste like it was plucked out from the bush.
YiHui: The watermelon was very nice.
Entry by
Lim Wen Lin Desiree (3 Hope)
Sarah Jean Boudville (3 Hope)
Toh Jia Min (3 Hope)
Yeo Yu Xin Pamela (3 Hope)
Chua Yi Hui (3 Hope)
Loh Xin Hui (3 Hope)
Photos For Day 1 can be found here
Check-in and boarded the plane at 9.20 am.
Pamela:i was scared and excited.it was my first time taking the plane. I sat next to the window so I can take a very nice view of the clouds and the view of Vietnam.
Jiamin:i feel very happy because i can sit next to my best friend.
At 10.50 am we landed at Vietnam HoChinMinh City. After that we took a bus to PHO24 where we when to eat our lunch.
Comments about the food at PHO24:
Pamela: The chicken noodle was very nice that until i needed another drink.
Jiamin: The beef noodle was very delicious.
Yihui: The chicken noodle is very nice.
Xin hui: The beef noodle was very nice. It is so delicious i hope to eat it next time.
At 9.20am we bored the plane to Vietnam.
The feeling was amazing for people that has felt the the plane for the first time.we experience some turbulence on the way. But it was enjoyable
At 10.50am we landed at vietams airport. We then took a bus to PHO24 to eat our lunch which was named ‘fur’ which was ether chicken noodles or beef noodles.
We took a bus to the tour guide explain that vietnam’s population a total of 84 million people. Every year 1 ½ million of babies were born.
We reached the workshop.....
We walked in the workshop and saw alot of beautiful designs made by some other people on the side display when we walked in. We then walk into the cinema room then watched a video about Vietnamese criramic culture. They said that whatever a artist sees he/her paints the beautiful paintings on the vase. When we walked out of the cinema we saw huge statues of fishes and flamingos... there were 99 fishes & 99 flamingos .
We went to a show room it showcase tea cups and plates and so many more
Then we went in the workshop to do our work for about 40 mins . after we submitted our work piece we then when out to the front entrance to take another group photo.
We went back to the bus, drive to the hotel to check-in to our rooms.
At 6.55pm we drove out to eat our dinner at a restaurant. The food there was very delicious and the atmostfer in the restaurant is very amazing and offenttic... The decoration in the restaurant is very well designed.
Comments about the dinner...
Pamela: The first dish got pork, I don’t know how to eat pork.
Xin hui: So many vegetable for today’s dinner I hope that tomorrow will not have so many vegetable, but the food was quite nice.
JiaMin: The first dish inside got a vegetable, it taste like it was plucked out from the bush.
YiHui: The watermelon was very nice.
Entry by
Lim Wen Lin Desiree (3 Hope)
Sarah Jean Boudville (3 Hope)
Toh Jia Min (3 Hope)
Yeo Yu Xin Pamela (3 Hope)
Chua Yi Hui (3 Hope)
Loh Xin Hui (3 Hope)
Photos For Day 1 can be found here
 |
| HICA Take a Walk |
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Before the trip
We are very excited for this, as it gives us many opportunities to learn new things. We are looking forward to the activities planned for us. We will be learning to cook, making pottery etc. We will also be able to make new friends through these activities, which is making us really excited. We are expecting fun during the trip and are looking forward to the departure date.
Entry by
Chia Hui Shi (3 Si)
Leong Mei Ling Jasmine (3 In)
Amanda Lee Wen Ting (3 Si)
Tan Rui Ying Tania (3 In)
Ng Hui Hui Genevieve (3 In)
Emily Loh Min Li (3 In)
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