Like Del Boy I have always dreamt of becoming a millionaire, and last week my dreams came true..... I stepped off the plane in Hanoi with 5 million in my pocket. Unfortunately, it was only Vietnamese Dong but it still felt good to be a millionaire for a week!
This blog entry is slightly later than usual as I have been trying to think for the last number of days of how to summarize the time I spent in the wonderful country of Vietnam during my Easter holidays. Four years ago I had the amazing experience of travelling to India to work in a slum with a group from my school. I will have lasting memories of Delhi and some of the sights I witnessed in that country will stay with me forever. When I arrived in Vietnam it became clear to me that there are striking similarities been India and Vietnam. However, when you look deeper into the culture, the people and the beauty of the country, Vietnam really does stand out on its own. If you take the city of Hanoi at ‘face value’ it appears to be quite dirty, ‘backwards’, in some cases almost tacky, and most of all extremely busy. However, the country is developing extremely rapidly and the people of Vietnam are proud of their country and also friendly despite all the history with the West. Rachel, Michael, Simon and I spent a week in Hanoi, which is located in the North of Vietnam, and is the capital of Vietnam and the second largest city behind Ho Chi Minh City. The traffic was the first thing we remarked on as we left the airport and it is beyond anything you can imagine. For a city with a population of 6.5 million, there are around 4 million motorbikes and scooters – believe me when I say it is total chaos on the roads! When crossing the road on our first night in Hanoi we felt that our lives were at serious risk, but after a few days we realised that just walking calmly across the road meant that all the cars and scooters swerve to avoid you! (Simon even talked about walking across the road with his eyes closed but we knew that he was all chat!)
Top Gear is one of my favourite TV programmes and I always love to see the specials where Hammond, May and Clarkson travel to a far off land to carry out a daring and usually completely ridiculous task! One of my favourites was the Vietnam special where the three travelled from Ho Chi Minh City in the south to Halong Bay in the north on motorbikes. I remember Clarkson describing Halong Bay, their finishing point, as the most breathtaking and spectacular place he had visited and I had always held ambitions to visit it after seeing the unbelievable pictures on the programme. On our second day in Hanoi we travelled for around 3 hours to Ha Long Bay which was everything I had hoped and expected it to be. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is currently undergoing a voting process to become one of the official wonders of the world. It is a spectacular limestone maze with over 3000 islands standing tall in the water, each with its own caves and passageways.
We had the opportunity to visit a small floating village which is in the middle of the bay and we kayaked around the different coves and passages under the rocks. It is an extremely tranquil place but it seems hard to imagine living in such a place as that. The people who live on these floating villages are born there, they fish there and they spend all their time there, never going on dry land. People on small boats attempt to make a living selling fruit as the bigger tourist boats pass by and I was able to witness an entire family’s home, including their bed, possessions and family dog on a small 4m² barge.
We visited the ancient capital city of Vietnam, Tam Coc, which is located around 80km from the centre of Hanoi. It is famous for its two temples which are amazing in their own right, but it’s hard to look past the beauty of the surrounding countryside. It gives a view of the ‘real’ Vietnam, renowned for its scenery and the bike ride through the countryside was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. We then had a relaxing row down the Ngo Dong River which twists through the valley and into cracks in the karsts. It was meant to be a very relaxing trip but no-one told Simon and I that it was a 6km round trip, and that a 70 year old women (possibly 80) was going to be rowing for us! We felt that it wasn’t fair to just sit back and let her do all the rowing so we decided to lend a helping hand but after the first 3km I was ready for a much needed rest! Needless to say the woman had a good laugh as we abandoned the oars and lay down on the floor of the boat!!
I had decided before I went to Vietnam that I was going to buy myself a nice tailored suit and on the first day we arrived it was Michael, Simon and I splashing the cash instead of Rachel for a change! We were fitted for our suits on the first day we arrived and picked them up 4 days later. I decided to get myself a grey suit as I will get a lot of use out of it (or at least that is what I’ve been telling my mum!) They were about a quarter of the price you would pay back home, so I’m very pleased and maybe I’ll get myself another one if I ever visit Vietnam again!
I am really grateful to have had the opportunity to visit many places during my time away on international placement. It has been an amazing experience to learn about new cultures and the different way of life in these Asian countries. Vietnam also gave me a welcome reminder of the kinds of things I saw during my time in India – that it is not fair to judge a country on first impressions or by what you have heard. While Vietnam appears to be a ‘poor’ country, it is a country which has come through its difficult past with great dignity and the people do not continue to hold grudges but look to move on and build up their proud country. One of the tour guides we had, spoke of his love for ‘his’ country, and it was clear to see that he had a great sense of pride in what his country has achieved. I am extremely glad to have visited such a beautiful country and hopefully in the future I will get the chance to travel to other parts of Vietnam, as I know that there is plenty more that this great country has to offer.
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