Hue - Day 7 - Final Day

Saturday 19th April

After a very late night I was a bit reluctant to get up early, but Matt and I had promised we would go for a run at some point in Vietnam. We had left it until the last day... We left at 6:45 and ran for about 2.5km along the river in the humidity and heat before walking back and checking out what was going on along the river. A very large gathering was occurring, probably something for the Hue festival. A whole lot of boats were on the river but we couldn't really decide what was happening. We went back to the hotel for breakfast at about 7:30.

I had a decent amount of cash to spend before we left the country so Matt and I went for a walk around the streets to see if we could find anything else worth spending money on. Matt bought a couple of T-shirts but I couldn't decide on anything. Check out at the hotel was at 12 so I spent the rest of the morning packing and watching the football until Tom and I checked out at about 11:45.

The bus arrived at 12:30, a lot smaller than had been anticipated. Including the bags, we only just had enough seats for everyone, and I was sitting on the wheel, so I had no space for my legs, with a 3 hour drive ahead...

We drove back to Da Nang over the mountain (last time we went through the tunnel). The view was quite amazing over both sides of the mountain, unfortunately there was a large amount of smog over Da Nang and you could only just make out the city, photos couldn't quite capture the city. One last encounter with tourism occurred at the lookout on top of the mountain, as soon as we got off the bus, everyone from their stores came up to us trying to get us to buy something from their shop. They also tried very hard to rip-off those people that did buy something, taking Singapore dollars straight out of wallets and not wanting to give change.

The back of the mountain near Da Nang

We arrived at the airport at 3:30 pm with half an hour before check in opened. Most of us grabbed a small bite to eat to get rid of the Dong before we checked in and headed through customs into the departure lounge. Our flight to Singapore was delayed by about half an hour due to the plane arriving late. I sat on a window seat by myself near the back, for some strange reason our whole group was scattered all over the plane even though we were booked in groups of at least 5. I slept for about 2 hours of the 2.5 hour flight in the hope that it would be enough so that I could watch some movies on the big flight.

We arrived in Singapore at 10:15 pm and raced through the airport to board our next flight just after 11 pm. I still had $20 Singapore, I had a look for things to buy along the way but again couldn't decide on anything. On the plane to Adelaide I sat with Scott on the window seat again. I was able to fit in two movies before a 2 hour sleep, waking up just before we landed in Adelaide at 8:20 am.

Good morning Adelaide

After passing through customs I found Mum, Dad and Michelle waiting for me to take me home for an hour before heading to the footy again!

This trip has been a fabulous experience for both learning about and enjoying a different country and culture. I would suggest to anyone that may get an opportunity like this to take it up, it really is worth it. I got to know everyone on the trip much better than I had previously which is great for both my professional future as well as my personal future. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to travel on this trip with, they have all made it even more enjoyable, providing a great source of knowledge as well as (more importantly) being a great bunch of people to talk to and enjoy the entire trip with. (Hopefully my blog will help with everyone's assignments)

I hope you have all enjoyed reading my stories of Vietnam, I look forward to talking about my adventures in greater detail with all of my readers.

Until my next great adventure (hopefully not too far away),

- Nick

Hue - Day 6

Friday 18th April

We had a pretty late night but luckily not as late as others. We were asleep by 11pm and up again at 6. But for the first time we were not the first to breakfast,  some people had obviously wanted to get an early start to finish their presentations.

In our business attire for the final time we all caught taxies to the University at 7:30. Matthee Rofe has unfortunately been sick and has missed the last few days.  He also missed today's presentation.

At the University we all sat with our groups. Our group was the 5th and final group to present.  Everyone presented great ideas and great presentations. I spoke for our group in English and one of the Vietnamese students spoke in Vietnamese. 

At the end, all of the lectures voted for their favourite presentation,  we only found out about this and that there was a prize this morning. Our group (Tom, Carly and myself and three Vietnamese students) won first prize!!!! We won a plaque each (which we can hopefully get through customs).

The winning team

After all of this hard work we all got the afternoon off. We went back to the hotel for lunch at the Japanese place before meeting with our student friends who took us to a market to see if we could get some cheap trinkets. In the end I only bought one thing but it was a really enjoyable experience to go through a proper market, especially with locals. Molly and Scott joined our group for a look. We sat down for a drink with them all and they had bought us some fabulous little gifts.

We said goodbye and then just went for a bit of a rest in the hotel before we left to pick up Tom and Scott's shirts and then meeting the rest of the group. Everyone went out for drinks before moving on to getting tea at a different restaurant. It is now evident that it is really difficult to get good service in a big group. Everyone eventually got what they ordered, it just took a ridiculously long time.

Following tea most of us headed to the DMZ bar to get drinks. People from the group gradually left to go to the Hue festival in the Citadel. The DMZ bar had pool and karaoke so about 8 of us remained there until about 11 pm when we decided to get to the festival. We walked along the bridge that had been lit up with flames in buckets for the festival and to the Citadel.

The bridge lit up

One would have thought that at 11pm the party would be thriving but it seemed the streets along the way were very quiet. At about halfway some people decided to head back to the hotel, the rest of us decided to go and see if anything was still on. It wasn't...

Not many people here

After a bit more of a wander we headed back to the DMZ bar for some more pool, eventually making it back to the hotel at about 1 am.

- Nick

 

Hue - Day 5

Thursday 18th April

Our second to last day of Uni work was spent at the University all day from 8am working on our presentations. As is the Vietnamese way we had a 3 hour break from 11-2 where everyone from Uni SA (in dribs and drabs) had lunch at the same place.

Studying hard

Our group progressed very well and we finished most of our presentation at about 4:30. Tom, Carly and I worked a bit more on it back at the hotel just to tie off some lose ends.

A group of 8 of us (after we kept running into people on the way to pick up some shirts that for the 2nd night in a row were still not ready) had tea at a restaurant none of us had been to. It was reasonable but very slow.

I stopped by the tailor on the way home again and my shirt was finished but Tom and Scott still have to wait until tomorrow.  Carly joined us back at the hotel for a final run through of the presentation before we all headed to bed, a bit later than we wanted to at 10:15.

Tomorrow is our last full day, after the morning presentation we are free to enjoy Hue!

- Nick

Hue - Day 4

Wednesday 16th April

We managed to get an extra hours sleep in this morning before we left on a bus at 7:50 am to pick up the students from the University.

We then headed to the first of two Imperial Tombs. It was quite an impressive site, built as the burial site for Emporer Kai Dinh on the Chau Chu mountain. He was the last Emporer of Vietnam only just under 100 years ago.

Kai Dings Tomb

The second Tomb we visited was a much larger area as it had served as a second Imperial city during the reign of the Emperor that is buried there. It was also much older and not in as good condition as the first tomb.

We spent about an hour at each place (which were about 15 minutes away from each other) before catching the bus back to the hotel for the standard mid-day break from 11-2. Tom, Scott and I were joined by Lachie for lunch at a place recommend by the hotel and others who had been there. I had 'Potato Wednesday' (an Edwards family tradition), which was not quite the same as home but still edible.

We picked up the students again and went on another bus tour, this time more planning focused than tourism focused. We saw where the city has planned a massive, massive expansion.  Evidently this development has failed so far probably because of the scale of the plan. They are expanding for more population than there already is in Hue!

Failed Development areas

Following this drive through we were lucky enough to visit a fishing village. The contrast of housing and conditions between the rich and the poor.

Fishing area

Since we were near the beach we visited an area by the sea that had been wiped out by a storm in 1999 and then rebuilt. We were able to go for a swim if we wanted. Most elected not to while some including myself decided to just dip our feet in.

At the beach

This was the last place to visit so we headed back to the hotel where we had a short debrief and about an hour to relax before a group of is went out for tea at 6:30.

Tomorrow is a whole day of studio work with the Hue Students.

- Nick

Hue - Day 3

Tuesday 15th April

The second of our early mornings and Tom and I were first to breakfast again. We had to be ready to get taxies to our study sites.

We met up with the students in our groups, our site was a street that is a potential site to be improved to promote tourism. A lot of discussion from the Vietnamese students was comparing this area to Hoi An and how it could potentially be like Hoi An...

Today's visits were really interesting as we got to talk to some of the local people and go into their homes.  We were able to interact better with all of these people and got a great insight into their thoughts thanks to the students and professors we were with.

One of the houses we visited

One local (who must have assumed do to the make up of our group that we were government people) came up to us to complain about the lack of community involvement in a particular project which ended up having to be redone anyway because the original plan did not work. This was an interesting topic as we had been told by the Da Nang University that all of the developments that are carried out are what the people want, and also community engagement is carried out. We were always skeptical of this comment, believing we may have been presented a bit of a front to what actually happens.

Rice fields in Hue

It took a while to get talking to the students but eventually we all sat down for a drink and got some ideas down as well as asking things about them. Tom, Carly and I have 3 Vietnamese students in our group. One can speak English very well, another is pretty good and the third doesn't say much and possibly doesn't know much English.

At 11am we parted ways for a 3 hour lunch break. Tom, Scott and I went to the Japanese restaurant around the corner from the hotel before having a bit of a rest and then heading to the University for more discussions in our groups at 2 pm.

This process of working in groups was a lot harder than I anticipated.  It is difficult to get the opinions of the Vietnamese students because of the language differences but also possibly because of what they have been taught compared to what we have been taught.  They seem to always want to move to a Western way of planning, but we have seen how that has evolved and some of the problems with it. We beleive that there are many ideas that we can take from them but it is so jard to get these ideas when they are set in their ways. It is probably a similar experience in reverse for them.

After Uni a group of is headed to a supermarket recommended by the students. We got some really cheap food and snacks before heading back to the hotel to relax. We went out for tea at 6:30 with a few others at a place that had been recommended to them. Following tea the girls all had to pick up some dresses from the tailors,  so us boys decided to get some more shirts.

The supermarket area

The people in the shop were pretty chatty so we ended up waiting around talking about Vietnam and Australia until the girls were all finished.

Tomorrow we have a day of field trips to various tourist sites with the uni.

- Nick

 

 
 

Hue - Day 2

Monday 14th April

Tom and I were the second people at breakfast this morning at 6:30 am. The variety is similar to that in the Da Nang hotel.

Everyone was ready to go in their business attire at 7:30 when we caught taxies to the Hue University of Science, a $1.50 fare away.

This week we are working with the students all week unlike in Da Nang where we only saw them for a day. This first day was still formal but was set out differently to Da Nang.

We sat through 5 lectures from 8:00 until 12:00 including some morning tea and meeting the students we will be working with. The language barriers and the translations for the lectures made the morning stretch on a bit but I think everyone got something out of it.

Tom, Scott and I grabbed a quick lunch before we had to be back at the hotel at 1:30 to leave for the afternoon tours with the Uni students.

Despite the numerous tempting offers to ride on the back of the students bikes, our insurance won't allow it so we caught taxies to a spot where we met the students before looking at some traditional Vietnamese Garden houses. The hot sun and humidity did detract from the experience but looking back it was interesting to get a hands on look at one of the topics discussed in this mornings lectures. 

Traditional Vietnamese house

Following the Garden Houses we headed to the Citadel. The citadel is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was home of the Emperor from the 18th century until about the Second World War. We looked around the massive site which was a different experience to big sites in Europe. There seemed to be little structure to where to go and to what to do. Luckily we were in a large group and being guided by the Hue University lecturers.

Me and Matt in the Citadel

It was a long day so I probably didn't take in as much as I could/should have. We left the Citadel at about 5 pm, some caught a taxi but Matt, Marty, Molly and I decided to walk back. We were joined my Matthew and Jon Kellett who led us around the outside wall to where there was some informal housing on top of the wall.

Informal housing along the wall. Note the piles of rubbish dumped out the back.

 

Back at the hotel we had a brief meeting at 6:30 before heading out to tea at a bar called DMZ Bar. They even gave us 10% off because they liked us (apparently but they probably do that for everyone).

We headed back to the hotel for an early night ahead of another big day of Uni work tomorrow.

- Nick

Hue - Day 1

Sunday 13th April

Today was our official day off to do whatever we please in Hue. Some people woke up at 6am to get on a tour to the De-Militarised Zone, others decided to wander around the streets. The majority of people decided to stay back for a sleep in and to complete our first written assignment that is due tomorrow morning.

I was one of these people to stay in the hotel for most of the day. Unfortunately our room is located right next to a large air conditioning unit, which someone decided to turn on at 5 am this morning. This interrupted my day off a bit but it didn't matter, as long as it doesn't turn on in the middle of the night when I don't have a day off.

My morning consisted of finding the best way to watch the crows game. Eventually I decided the only way to do so was to buy an online subscription for a week. None of my devices actually supported the thing that I payed for, but luckily Scott had an IPad that I could borrow that the stream did play on so he saved the day.

Tom, Scott and I went for an early lunch as we had all missed breakfast, but when we reached the restaurant the footy was about to start so I headed back and snacked on some Oreos I had bought the other day.

The Crows won, and the stream worked a treat for the majority of the match so I had a fantastic day!

Hue

I got a late lunch with Matt after the footy at a Japanese restaurant around the corner before heading back to do my assignment. Tom, Scott and I sat in our room for the afternoon slowly chipping away at the journal.

At 7 pm the whole uni group met up for a bit of a briefing for the week before a group of us got some tea at an Indian restaurant around the corner.

Tomorrow we start a run of early mornings where we will be spending most days at the Hue University.

- Nick

Da Nang - Day 6

Saturday 12th April

Today was our final day in Da Nang. We didn't have to check out of the hotel until 12 pm, by which time we needed to make our own way to Hue, 120km away.

Basically it was a free day as long as we were all at the hotel in Hue by 7 pm. So, Tom and I decided to try and play golf at one of the amazing golf courses around here. Finding a place to play had been a week long process made even more difficult by the language barrier.

Eventuality we found a course that was sort of on the way to Hue. We rang up and tried to see if we could play, and again with the language barrier we were pretty sure we made a booking,  but not exactly sure for what or when.

Scott tagged along with us and we left the hotel at about 11:30 am in a taxi that didn't exactly know where we wanted to go. We went a bit of a roundabout way but eventually ended up at the course.

Scenery on the drive

It was quite a fancy place. We headed inside and got all our gear including a caddy each! Scott didn't play but came out and drove the cart around. It was an expensive but amazing experience.  The caddies were good fun and the course was spectacular.

A bit of golf

After our game we got back in the taxi and made our way to Hue. Driving was a scary experience at some points when the driver would overtake cars into oncoming traffic with very little room for error. But, we made it right on 7 pm.

The city is very busy at the moment due to the Hue Festival. There were so many scooters around I am worried about how I will cross the road when I have to!

Our hotel is a little bit disappointing compared to the hotel in Da Nang. The Internet is slow and the beds are Iike lying on rocks. But at least it is somewhere to sleep.

I Skyped my family and the Wilsons for about 45 minutes. It wasn't a very good connection so it wasn't the easiest to hear them. The three of us then headed out for something to eat before heading to bed.

Tomorrow we have a day off in Hue.

- Nick

Da Nang - Day 5

Friday 11^th April

Today was a presentation day. In different groups we all had to pick a topic to present on that was related to planning in Da Nang, and comparisons to Adelaide. I partnered up with Lachie and we spent the whole morning preparing our presentation on mixed use development. I grabbed lunch with some others just before the presentation at 1 pm.

Following the presentations Tom and I went back up to the room to watch some of the footy, unfortunately it was on a half hour delay, but it was surprisingly on the TV. We had to go and pick up our suits at 5pm so we missed the start of the footy anyway.

Tom, Scott and I met up with Hannah, Molly and Carly back at the hotel where we all decided to go out for tea somewhere, which ended up being somewhere we had been before, and they had the footy on.

Da Nang

Back at the hotel we all just chilled out and watched some of the movies that were on before we make our way to Hue tomorrow.

- Nick

Da Nang - Day 4

Thursday 10th April

Another hotel breakfast at 8am this morning before we all got into the bus and headed down the coast to Hôi An.

Hôi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Immediately there was an obvious influence of tourism in the area.  Westerners were everywhere and the streets were packed with people taking photos and people trying to get you to buy things everywhere you went.

It is a bit sad that tourism has had such an influence on this place, made more obvious to me/us by where we are staying and what we have obseved in Da Nang.  My immediate impression was that it feels a bit like Disneyland or another theme park in terms of atmosphere (which is contrary to the description of this blog which states that I will not be visiting theme parks on this trip).

The first activity we had to do was to go of in pairs to take photos of streets assigned to us. This will be involved in research into the site and how it might change over each year (each year the study group will take photos of the same streets).

Tom and I paired up and were assigned the first street we came across.  We took the required photos and then wandered off through the streets.

Hôi An is a World Heritage Site due to its culture and this status seeks to preserve it. However the increase in tourism due to this basically ruins the culture and you have a million tourist influenced shops and services pop up.

Japanese Bridge in Hoi An

We met some others and decided to grab some lunch. Unfortunately here they are making use of the influx of tourists and the prices are somewhat higher than back in Da Nang. 

Following lunch Tom and I ran into Scott and Marty and decided to wander around with them. We headed to one of the museum type buildings that we had tickets for, it was interesting because I guess it sort of portrays some of the original culture, but overall it wasn’t a very exciting room. We went back outside for more of look around and eventually ended up at a café.

From here we decided to give another museum a go, this one was a little better as it explained some of the origins of Hoi An, but it wasn’t presented in the same way it may have been in a museum in Australia.

Eventually we decided to get on a boat and cruise along the river to pass some time. This was actually a pretty reasonable idea as it gave us a good look at the surrounding areas of Hoi An, and some of the different living conditions outside of a town or city.

Studying

Marty left us after the ride to sit somewhere and do some reading while the three of us went to see what deals we could get on some things. I ended up buying some tailor made shoes to go with my new suit. This became problematic when the time the bus was coming changed to 30 minutes before I was supposed to pick the shoes up, and it was only by chance we again ran into Marty who informed us of this in time for me to go back and plead with the shoe ladies to get them ready earlier. In the end it all worked out fine and we made it to the bus when it left at 6:30.

Food market in Hoi An

Back in Da Nang, Tom, Scott, Matt, Phil and I headed out to get some Western food from a place a reasonable walk away. It was pretty weak that we were in need of some familiar food only a few days in, and it was more expensive than the usual Vietnamese food, but it was very decent food.

I realize that I may have been a bit cynical of Hoi An, but I have realized that so far not being a complete tourist has been a fabulous experience. It was even difficult to get involved in the touristy things today and to be seen as a tourist. So far we have been able to try our best to get involved in the culture which is basically what you need to do in Da Nang. They do not rely on tourism (yet) in Da Nang and so you are not pressured into buying things or bothered on the street. You are obviously different but there is a different atmosphere. It has been a bit of an eye opener today as to some of the implications of the tourism industry, and especially what it can do to a culture that is supposed to be preserved. There are certainly many more things to be learnt in our remaining time here.

-Nick

Da Nang - Day 3

Wednesday 9th April

 

We were lucky enough to get the morning off today after a busy two and a bit days overseas.

I got up for breakfast at 9 am before heading back to the tailors with Phil to get measurements done for our suits. It seems like the humidity is getting more and more intense every day.

 

We headed back to the hotel via a different route and found a few interesting food places and little shops we hadn't seen before.

 

Back at the hotel I decided it was time to get a haircut so I wandered off by myself to a place I had seen around the corner.

 

For about $7 I got a good cut, I was a bit nervous when everyone was looking and laughing at me after things were said in Vietnamese.

 

A big group of us headed out to lunch at the same place as yesterday. We all met up the hotel at 1pm to walk to a different area of Da Nang to go out into the streets and observe the built form and function of this area.

 

The development and forms of living is very different from Adelaide.  Everyone on the street was friendly and inviting despite this area not being a tourist area. In hindsight we were probably a novelty to the locals.

 

Differing types of development

Matt, Rosie, Emily and I were in a group wandering through some of what is possibly proper Da Nang. We headed back to the hotel with enough time to relax out of the heat before a debrief session with the whole group.

 

On Friday we have group presentations so the majority of discussions were related to forming questions that we can present on.

 

Following the debrief a large group of us went for further discussions about the topics over some $1 beers (and cans of coke for some of us).

 

Tomorrow we are headed to Hoi An for the day.

 

-Nick

Da Nang - Day 2

Tuesday 8th of April

Breakfast was at 8 am this morning which was so that we would be ready to walk to the Planning Institute of Da Hang at 9:15. We all had to wear our business attire again as this meeting was a bit of a first impression, and was with some of the top planners of Da Nang.

The office building was about 15 minutes walk away, which in our long shirts and pants was not exactly comfortable in the humidity, even at 9:30 in the morning.

The meeting was another presentation given to us but again in a meeting environment around a central table. The planners did not know much English and so we listened to the presentation via a translator, similarly to yesterday except yesterday involved more English. The experience of using a translator is challenging but also very interesting.

We learnt about the strategic plan for Da Nang which has a number of similarities to that of South Australia's strategic plan, but also a wide range of differences. This meeting was probably more beneficial or more interesting than the University meeting because it felt less formal and more inviting to ask questions about the planning system.

Following the meeting we were all left to our own devices for about 2 hours. A group of us wandered slowly back to the hotel to get changed before heading out to get some lunch at a restaurant nearby that had been suggested by some others in our group yesterday.

Tom, Scott, and I arrived there first before being joined by Matt Rofe and Lachlan, and finally Phil and Matt Fielke came along. This really was a fantastic place and will test my belief of not repeating a restaurant! My meal, including a big glass bottle of coke worked out to be about $3.50.

After that fantastic saving, we decided to revisit a shoe shop nearby. I ended up spending about $20 on a very reasonable pair of shoes. There may be some more visits to that shop in the coming days if I keep saving on meals!

We all had to reconvene at the hotel at 1:30 pm to get on a bus for a tour around the development sites in Da Nang. We had a new translator for this trip, and one of the members from the Planning Institute was our guide. We visited sites that had been mentioned in the meeting which really gave us a good visual representation of what we are learning about.

Most of the plans for the future are anticipating a doubling of population growth and are trying to improve the living conditions of the area. The community are apparently consulted in the developments but probably not in the same way or to the same degree that they might be in similar projects in Adelaide.

It was really interesting to be able to get out of central Da Nang and into the outskirts. The way buildings are built, and where they are built are fascinating. In the middle of nowhere there are often two or three storey houses, with a frontage of about 3 metres.

We travelled along the coast and down to Marble Mountain where we stopped down a street FULL of marble sculptures. This was probably a poor decision because as soon as the bus stopped a whole lot of shop owners came running down the street to get us into their shops.

Vacant lot at Marble Mountain

A storm began to roll in during the next leg where we were able to see some areas of flood plains that had been filled in to facilitate the expansion of urban areas. It was becoming increasingly obvious that there is a very large emphasis on 'Build it and they shall come'. All of the roads and street lights are in place, and clearly some have been for quite some time, but there is no development apart from the odd house in the middle of the field.

We almost got to the next destination before it started to pour with rain. To the point where we couldn't see the truck two meters in front of us. This was particularly scary when our driver decided to overtake the truck in front by passing over into the lane of oncoming traffic. We all survived though.

Pouring with rain.

We made it to the planned area for the High-Tech park, again a huge area with soil covering 1,100 ha of land. Nothing was on it, it was just an area waiting for investors to build things on. This would never happen in Adelaide.

The situation at the High Tech Park

We headed back to the hotel where we had our own time for the rest of the night. Matt, Tom, Scott, Phil and I all headed to the tailor to get some suits made up. Back at the hotel I Skyped the family at home before heading off with the majority of the group to get dinner near the river.

A lot of people will be happy to know that I got my directions wrong, despite my confidence, and I should have listened to Hannah who knew the correct way home when me, Matt, Carly and Hannah decided to head back.

-Nick

Da Nang - Day 1

This morning I woke up about 15 minutes before our wake up call at 7am and headed down to the breakfast at the hotel. It was not a usual Australian breakfast, I started with the Phò, a noodle and beef soup. There were also baguettes amongst the wide range of interesting foods due to the French influence.

 

Following breakfast, the group headed off for a walk around the streets noticing how different everything is. The biggest shocks include the amount of times you can't keep walking on the footpath because of lack of space, and the mess that is the powerlines overhead.

 

We stopped in at a silk making shop which was fascinating. They made fantastic pictures out of silk that obviously required serious skill.

 

We arrived at a 'Wet Market' where we had some time to look around. I bought some very good Ray Ban intimitations. The market was an interesting experience but at least the animals were not slaughteref there, only hung up for display.

 

Outside the market we had a look at the Hahn river and the development along the banks. There was a fantastic dragon bridge which apparently sometimes even breaths fire.

 

Dragon Bridge in Da Nang

We then headed to a cafe to just watch a busy intetsection and try to determine how we would navigate across it. I have determined that you should never expect to actually be able to order what is on the menu. 2/2 times so far this has happened. After about half an hour we cautiously but at the same time wrecklessly (because you have to) made our way across the intersection.

 

From here we headed back to the hotel wherr everyone split up into smaller groups to find some lunch, look at shops and/or chill out in the hotel.



Tom, Scott and I walked up the street for a bit before heading back to our rooms as it was only 11:30 and too early for lunch. We headed back out at 12:15 to a nice looking place we had seen just up the street from the hotel.

 

Unfortunately they didn't have an English menu but we orded the beef anyway just to see what happened.

 

For the first time what I actually ordered came on a plate to me! It was also really good. I am learning to use chopsticks pretty quickly, although I will probably forget again by the next meal.

 

Reasonably priced beef

The only weird part about this dining experience was that the waiter decoded to wait around for too long and actually watch us eat (also laughing at my failed chopsticks attempts). At about $8 each (and probably overcharged) I shouldn't really complain.

 

Following lunch we all had to meet up in our formal/business attire and catch a bus to our first University visit at Da Nang University. 

 

The meeting/lecture was in a conference room where we all sat on one side with the Vietnamese students and professors on the other side and around the room. We learnt a fair bit about the history of Da Nang and how it has influenced the built form of the city.

 

Da Hang University

The students were all architecture students and so were not as interested in the planning side of things as we were. It was a very formal and sometimes uncomfortable situation, but immediately following the meeting all of the students came to be friendly, many asking some of our group to be Facebook friends and in some cases even asking for their phone number.

 

This was all lovely up until we realised that one of the guys had followed the bus back to our hotel...

At the hotel we had a short time to refresh before a debreif meeting with the group. It was good to be able to get everyone's perspectives on the first day in Vietnam.

 

The meeting finished at about 8pm which we decided was too early to just be sitting in our rooms so Tom, Scott and I went on a walk. We ran into some others along the way and ended up at a restaurant next to the hotel.

 

-Nick

Singapore Day 1

Sunday 6^th of April 2014

We have made it to Singapore.

After a 7 hour flight from Adelaide we landed in Singapore at 11:30pm local time. We headed to the Transit Hotel within the airport where we spent a short 6.5 hours at most trying to get some sleep. I am staying in a room with Tom.

The flight was pretty rough, there was turbulence most of the way here, but Singapore airlines is a fantastic airline, great food, great movies and a pretty good flight.

On Sunday morning, Tom and I had organised a wakeup call so that we would be ready to check out at 7am. It was a short sleep but well worth the night stopover.

We had breakfast in a food court within the airport before heading out through immigration and onto the Metro into the city of Singapore. We were headed to the Marina Bay Sands development, it took us a few trains and a walk to get there but eventually, and by probably the most direct route, we made it to the waterfront development.

We listened to a short spiel about the area, a brief history of the site and a few interesting facts (Matthew Rofe, our course coordinator for this trip has lived in Singapore in the past, so he was of course very knowledgeable).

Singapore

Unfortunately we did not have much time as we had to get back to the airport for our flight to Vietnam and so we did not get to have a proper detailed look at the area. We headed back on the metro, on a slightly different route to before. At the airport we had to pay an extra 10c (we originally payed $4.70 for a return ticket, the exchange rate is almost 1:1) to actually leave the airport station, which we were all rather confused about…

At the airport we had about an hour and a half of time to grab some food and relax before our flight. I went with a majority of the group to a food court, then with a smaller group following that just to pass some time wandering around.

Our flight was to Da Nang via Siem Reap in Cambodia. It was a little strange to fly for 2 hours, land, get off, and then get back on the same plane 30 minutes later in Siem Reap, but I am counting it as another place I have been, especially since upon exiting the plane you have to walk along the tarmac (right next to some other planes pulling in alongside, which didn’t seem safe) so I have walked on Cambodian soil.

Siem Reap Airport

Back on the plane, in the same seats (I was with a couple of people from our group at the very back of the plane) we were finally headed for Da Nang.

We arrived, went through immigration (with one of our group being pulled aside to see what he had written in the notebook at the bottom of his bag) and onto the airport transfer busses.

I have heard and seen a little bit about the traffic in Vietnam, but you have to be in it to really believe it. It is nuts. Traffic lights don’t usually count for much, zebra crossings count for absolutely nothing, and vehicles pretty much do whatever they like without hitting people.

We arrived at our amazing hotel and headed up to our rooms for a quick refresh before heading out for dinner. I was able to quickly Skype with my family but not for very long.

We walked a short way to dinner at a place with the best name (something like ‘Boss Vietnam Food’) a short distance away. Crossing the street anywhere is rather stressful and I doubt I will ever get used to it.

The dining experience was interesting. There was certainly a language barrier and a lot of the things on the menu, they had apparently ‘run out of’. So everyone ordered something, some people got what they ordered, others just got rice and were told that they had run out of whatever they ordered. I got rice…

Beers and Vietnamese

The bill was eventually probably 75% made up of the <$1 on the menu, which worked out to be about $5 each overall, fantastic!

We headed back to the hotel at about 9:30pm and I am sure most people are certainly ready for bed, I know I am.

Tomorrow we are up at 7 for breakfast and a wonder around the city before meeting with the Da Nang University.

-Nick