Wednesday, December 31, 2008 @ 11:22 PM

Day 1
We touched down at vietnam airport in the afternoon. It was a sunny day, and the breeze was gentle. We felt a great sense of adventure, having just set foot on a foreign country.

Our first place of interest was the post office. We went there to look at the post office things in Vietnam. It was an enriching experience, and we had a lot to take home with us. We took many pictures to help us remember this exciting activity.

The next place of our visit was the Cu Chi tunnel, where we learnt about the Vietnam War. We also saw many devices created by the Vietnamese to kill the Americans. It was fascinating to see how those devices worked. As part of the main event in visiting the Cu Chi tunnels, we had a first hand experience in crawling through the tunnel. It was extremely small, and we had to walk through puddles of water inside the tunnel. There were also frogs. It was a meaningful trip, as we got to imagine how the soldiers in the Vietnam War travelled around the tunnels.

Our first day has been adventurous, and exciting! It was a priviledge to have been on this trip.

Day 2
We travelled from Saigon City to Dalat. During the exhausting trip, we made a feel stops to places of learning to enchance our learning experience here in Vietnam.

Due to unforseen circumstances, we had to trek through the mud to get to a tea factory. It was well worth the effort as we got to see for ourselves the way tea is made. It was truely a great learning point for us.

Later in the day, we reached Dalat, where we saw for ourselves the city of villas. We were stunned and amazed by the sheer beauty of the city. It was a great experience for us.

In conclusion, the first 2 days have been vital in teaching us new things, such as the way of life in Vietnam. The trip was enriching and fun at the same time.

PS.HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 @ 2:14 PM

day 4 and 5

Friday, December 5, 2008 @ 6:14 PM

Day 3, we visited the Bui Thi Xuan School and performed our item, the “Chicken Dance”. There was a mass dance together with all the students present in their hall. They told us more about their school, their history and curriculum while we told them a little about our school. They shared with us information about their city, DaLat, and I could sense how proud they were of their city. There was also a Q&A section where students from both schools asked questions and also answered them. This allowed us to know much more about their school and hopefully, so did they. After the assembly programme, we went to their classes for an hour of English lessons. All of us seated between Vietnamese students, their tables were long and 2 students had to share a table and a bench, their benches had no backing unlike Singapore’s. This taught me to cherish and be contented with what we have in school, our facilities and study environment. Unfortunately, the teacher’s PowerPoint had a problem and she was not able to conduct the lesson, so we had a talking session instead. There was a language barrier between me and my buddies and we had to use paper and pen to communicate. Despite this, it was still tough to communicate as they did not get what I say and often had to refer to the dictionary. 1 hour passed in a flash, we exchanged gifts and emails to keep in contact. We went back to the hotel to change out of our school uniform and headed for lunch. Because we extended our visit to the school, the visit to the Valley of Love was cancelled.




































































We went to a local store that sold preserved items, tea and alcochol/wine. We sat down and tried some of the items that were sold at the store and after trying them, we were given some time to look around and buy some of their stuff. They sold items ranging from usual food items like preserved plums and snacks to rarely-seen-in-Singapore items like deer meat and rat/snake/insect wines. We finished our marketing and proceeded on to our next stop.





















































After lunch at some local restaurant, we went to the strawberry farm. YUMMY, RED, STRAWBERRIES! It was drizzling a little (again) when we alighted from the bus, so we had to be extra careful about stepping on mud lest we had to scrub our shoes in the hotel again. We walked down a path and got pretty sights of the strawberry farm, till we reached the area that we could pluck the ripe strawberries. It was quite muddy though, but some of us risked our shoes and went further into the farm to pluck some strawberries for all of us for dinner.




































































Then, we went to Lat Village to do our OCIP work. When we alighted, there was a group of around 5 ladies and their daughters selling some tribal souvenirs to us. We were told not to buy from them that moment but some of us did. hehe.. We listened to the tribal leader explain about his village and why a barrier was needed to be built- it was actually to fend off the wild animals that will enter their village once in a while. Then, we went to one of their houses to sing some songs as it was raining (again). they can really sing well!
After so, we started making the fences. some of the guys used some sharp thing (i guess it's a knife) to sharpen the bottom of the wood while the others helped to tie the wood together using wires. even though it's a simple stretch of fences, i believe it serves a really good purpose to keep the villagers and the animals away from the nasty animals.

After carrying the wood, we went to the toilet to wash our hands but we could not get the tree sap away from our hands. the villagers were really kind- they were willing to share that small, thin bar of soap with us to wash our hands. Suddenly, a dog ran past the toilet. All of us in there started to scream as we were really afraid of the dog. We hugged on to each other and was so afraid that the dog would appear from another opening. Finally, we managed to go out of the toilet safely :)

It is really a memorable experience that none of us will forget, especially the dogs (but miss tan chye I told us that the dogs in vietnam are actually tame, not as scary as those stray dogs in singapore!)

We visited their local market and we shopped around for an hour. I tried some of the food that the people were selling by the road. They were delicious and different from whatever we ate in restaurants. Their market was huge and they sold many different items there. It was an eye opener as I saw how different their market was from the markets in Singapore. On the bus, leaving the market, we saw a girl and 2 guys from the local school; they recognized us and even waved to us. The people in Vietnam are very hospitable and friendly, they are warm and welcoming and it was nice to have a chance to interact with them.