Scotch College

‘Cows and roosters were our alarm clocks’

A trip to Vietnam for 17 Scotch boys was an eye-opening experience of a very different culture.

Words: TOM HVALA, YEAR 9.

Seventeen Scotch students and two teachers left the calm reality of Melbourne to arrive eight hours later in the frenetic city of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

Next day we visited some landmarks, such as the burial site of Ho Chi Minh, along with many temples, which all looked strangely similar to each other. After a day in Hanoi we left the scenery of motorbikes and hagglers to arrive at Mai Chau, where we saw scenery of a very different kind – vibrant, rolling hills and endless rice paddies in Vietnam’s northern countryside.

From there we began our 15km walk to Van village, where we stayed overnight in a house with bamboo floors on wooden stilts. There we experienced the Vietnamese farming way of life, where cows and roosters were our alarm clocks. We woke up early to walk through rainforest another 10km to Lac village to stay overnight.

Next we returned to Hanoi and then travelled by bus to Ha Long Bay, where we boarded a private boat for a seafood lunch. It was a definite highlight of the trip, with swimming and kayaking around the beautiful Ha Long Bay.

The group then travelled back to Hanoi, and voyaged south on a tedious overnight train to Hue. After two days at Hue, we journeyed up the Perfume River on a dragon boat, stopping at Heavenly Lay Pagoda, a Buddhist monastery.

We continued by bus to Hoi An, where it rained for three days straight caused by a nearby hurricane. After that experience of Vietnamese weather we boarded a train to travel further south to Ho Chi Minh City, where we visited the Cu Chi tunnels. This is a system of small underground tunnels built during the Vietnam war, which enabled the Viet Cong to secretly control Ho Chi Minh City. Each of the boys had the opportunity to fire any gun they wanted in a Vietnamese shooting range, at a cost of US$5 for 10 bullets. (Some opted for ice-creams instead.)

On our fifteenth day we boarded a boat to travel around the Mekong Delta, visiting the floating markets and stopping to have lunch, consisting of snails and elephant fish. It was an unexpected insight into the Vietnamese culinary culture, but not many of us took advantage of this rare culinary opportunity.

We spent our last day in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, spending the remains of our money on last-minute presents, buying whatever we could find, like watches, belts, clothes and snake wine.

We all arrived home safely, to our parents’ great relief, having had a fantastic time. We all came back with a unique experience of a very different culture. The boys would like to thank Mr Mark Zannoni and Mr Grant Watson. Without their efforts the trip wouldn’t have been possible. GS