At
the start of the Easter holidays a group of GCSE History students ventured on a dream trip to Vietnam. Here, they were to learn about the culture and
history of this fascinating country. With cases loaded with flip flops and sun cream they prepared for the long journey via
Abu Dhabi.
Saigon Sights
Landing
in Saigon and we were hit with a wave of heat.
The city is busy and bustling and certainly a bit of a culture
shock. Our first day was full of sight-seeing
led by our enigmatic tour guide, Yee. We
visited the Reunification Palace, which was grand and one of the few very
modern buildings in Saigon. We saw some
of the beautiful French colonial building, including the Notre Dame Cathedral
and the central post office which was designed Gustav Eiffel before he made the
Eiffel Tower.
We
visited many temples in the city one the most astonishing being the Emperor
Jade Pagoda. It was built by the
Cantonese community around the turn of the 20th century and is still buzzing
with worshippers, many lounging in the front gardens. It is one of the most attractive pagodas in
the city. Dedicated to various Chinese-Vietnamese divinities, in a mixture of
Taoist and Buddhist styles, the pagoda houses numerous statues and delicate
woodcarvings with intricate tiles on the roof.
We
visited Vietnam's first traditional medicine museum, the FITO Museum which
displays an amazing collection of 3,000 items relevant to the development of
traditional Vietnamese medicine. Implements used to prepare indigenous herbs,
objects commonly found in traditional pharmacies as well as ancient books and
documents on traditional Vietnamese medicine can be seen in the galleries. We all stocked up on special herbal teas here
that are meant to make us all look youthful and live forever… or so we hope anyway!
The War
One
of our main reasons for visiting Vietnam was to learn more about the impact of
the war between the Vietnamese Communists and the Americans, fought in the
1960s. The Americans did not want the
political system of communism to take over the whole of the country and sent
soldiers there to try and stop the Vietcong, who were the Vietnamese communists,
from taking over. This was a bloody and catastrophic
war for the country as the American forces dropped thousands of litres of
chemicals on Vietnam in an attempt to destroy the jungle there, in order to be able
to bomb it more effectively. We visited
the War Remnants Museum which contained horrific images and stories of the war,
and included a real guillotine, a simulated "tiger cage" prison and
jars of deformed foetuses blamed on the chemical Agent Orange
The
Vietcong were known for digging deep tunnels all across South Vietnam during
the war and we experienced these when we visited Cu Chi. Here tunnels have been preserved and you can
go down them and see what it was like for fighters in the Vietcong. There was barely any room at all, it was hot
and dark. We also could climb in some of
the holes that the Vietcong would have climbed through. Unfortunately for Mr Grogan his department
didn’t want to let him out of the hole!
We all felt very brave as we emerged from the tunnel unscathed and
feeling like we’d done some hard work!
Mr Broome and Mr Grogan particularly enjoyed themselves as they were
allowed to go and fire some real life guns on the shooting range.
We
had an afternoon at leisure when we visited Saigon Zoo where we saw a whole
range of animals from elephants to giraffes to lions. Many of us spent some time of the fairground
rides and let some steam off on the dodgems!
We followed this up with a trip to a water puppet show which had to be
seen to be believed. This was typical
example of Vietnamese culture and a real treat to see.
The Mekong Delta
After
spending time in Saigon city we transferred down to the south to explore the
more rural parts of the country. We took
a boat ride down the Mekong River, taking a glimpse at the Delta scenery,
houses built on stilts and local fish farms along the way. We cruised among the
islands named Dragon, Unicorn, Turtle and Phoenix Islands. We then stopped off
at a honey farm where we tasted freshly produced honey and peanut
crackling. Round the back of the farm we
were greeted with a surprise guest- a rather large carpet python who we were
given the chance to hold. Mr Broome was
straight in there for a hold, whilst some of us stayed well back! We then enjoyed a gentle bike ride on some
vintage Vietnamese bikes through a tropical orchard garden. Saskia took a trip of the back of a moped and
rode along next to us! We then ate fruit
and enjoyed some traditional Vietnamese music before our boat ride back.
Shopping
Our
tour guide Yee was a fun character who spent a lot of his time teaching us some
Vietnamese words and songs. By the end
of the first day we were all singing along to Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh! very loudly, particularly Minty! Yee also treated us to a song he wrote called
Honey I love you where he sang to us
about his girlfriend leaving him all alone.
No
RMS trip would be complete without a bit of shopping. We visited several large markets in the city
and soon got to grips with bartering for the produce we wanted to buy. We filled our bags with Vietnamese traditional
hats, t-shirts, magnets, baggy trousers and plenty of gifts to bring home.
Our
final night was spent in a luxury hotel in the centre of Saigon which gave us
the chance for some relaxation around the rooftop pool. This also meant that quite a few of us went
home with some very questionable tan lines and burnt bits! We rounded off our trip with a mocktail on
the roof of our hotel as we watched the sun go down. This was followed by a night of karaoke,
which we have promised we will never mention again…..
Food!
We
ate so many new foods in Vietnam. Every
night we dined at a different restaurant, leading up to our final day when we
dined in a restaurant that is in the top 100 restaurants in the entire world. One night we ate on a cruise liner as we
sailed down the Mekong River and experienced traditional Vietnamese
dancing. We did dare each other to eat
some strange and wonderful foods in our evening game of food roulette, but
no-one dared try the baby chick that had been boiled alive in its shell!
Experience of a lifetime
Our
trip to Vietnam was an unforgettable experience. We have learnt so much about the culture of
the country and taken ourselves out of our comfort zones. Every day was jam-packed with culture and it
was great to experience this with all of our friends. Our tans may have faded but our stories and
memories will last for many years to come- much longer in fact than Miss
Simmonite’s handbag from Ben Thanh market.
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