Beautiful Vietnam

Xin chao (hello) from Vietnam! Jon and I are almost at the end of our travels - hasn't time flown! We have just spent two lovely weeks in our third country - Vietnam. As you can see on this map, it is right next to Cambodia, where we were before so there are lots of similarities between the two countries, but some differences as well.

Weather and scenery
Vietnam is even hotter than Cambodia; we didn't know that was possible! It is warmer because it is more humid (there is more water in the air). A lot of the places we have visited in Vietnam are basically jungle. Where nature has been allowed to take hold, trees and bushes cover the ground and mountains. Often it is so thick people cannot get through it, not like our spaced out trees in woods at home. When you walk near this jungle, you hear the sounds of millions of insects calling to each other. We were told that wildlife such as snakes and monkeys hide in the trees - but we didn't see any sadly.

This was from the Trang An Grottoes, in Ninh Binh, 

Of course all this jungle and wilderness made for some beautiful scenery. Movie producers obviously think so too because we went to two places where movies have been filmed. Ninh Binh has some beautiful mountains used in the recent King Kong (Skull Island) film. Halong Bay, where we had an overnight river cruise, has been in several movies including a James Bond and King Kong again!

This is one of the movie sets left over from King Kong. It's where the local tribe lived in the film. The actors who played the villagers now work there entertaining tourists.

This is one of the other boats in Halong Bay. It's called a junk. Aren't those amazing sails!

Hidden underneath some of these impressive mountains are vast caves. We went into a few; it was extraordinary how high the roofs were and how beautiful the rocks. One of the caves, called Paradise Cave, is the second longest dry cave in Asia. Even though it's huge, it was only discovered a few years ago (2005) by a local man as he went trekking through the jungle - proof of how hard it is to venture through the jungle!

Follow the lights into Paradise Cave!

Inside, the air immediately becomes cooler and drier. It's a bit like walking into a giant fridge!

History
Like Cambodia, Vietnam has an interesting history and unfortunately, like Cambodia some of it is very sad. In 1954, a war started between Vietnam and the United States and lasted over 20 years until 1975. During this time, Vietnam was spilt into two parts (north and south) who both wanted a different kind of government. America agreed with South Vietnam that their type of government was best. So the American military dropped bombs and poison on North Vietnam to try to force them to give in. Lots of people were killed. This included Vietnamese people but also American soldiers who came over to fight.

The Vietnamese people were very clever though. They used the jungle to hide themselves from the Americans, who didn't know the land as well as the local people did. The Vietnamese also dug huge systems of tunnels underground to hide themselves from the bombs and soldiers. We got to go down some of the tunnels that still exist. In the end, because of the hard work and ingenuity of the Vietnamese people, they won the war and the Americans left.

Down I go into the tunnel!

Cover me up!

Almost gone!

Vanished!

It's a tight squeeze in the tunnels!

This shows the space a family had to live in down in the underground village. One community lived down here for 6 years!

Food
Although we're missing our English favourites (fish and chips, steak, apple crumble...) it hasn't stopped us enjoying the local food! Vietnamese food is pretty similar to Cambodian. Lots of dishes are stir fries with noodles or rice but we have discovered a few new amazing foods.


This is Bun Cha. It's a soup which you add BBQ pork, noodles and lettuce to. Very yum! 

Local restaurants have the cutest tables and chairs.

Here we ate pig's feet, tofu, and shrimp paste. Delicious!

One day, Jon and I took a cooking course run by a Vietnamese husband and wife team. To start the day, she took us to the nearby food market to buy the food. It was a messy business as all the waste (bits of fat, fish guts etc) is thrown on the floor! After that she took us out on a boat to meet some fisherman and have a go with their nets; unfortunately we didn't catch anything. Our appetites were ready by the time we came to cooking and we weren't disappointed!


At the market.

Lots of these little guys were still squirming.



Having a go at throwing the fishing net.

Preparing some Vietnamese food.

Vietnam make amazing food sculptures - do you like my swan?

What a feast!

 

Conclusion
Like everywhere we've been, in Vietnam we have had an amazing time and learnt so much. Our next and final country is Indonesia but as you'll be on holiday yourself next week I'll have to tell you about that one when I get back. I'm really looking forward to seeing you all again so you can catch me up on everything you've been doing and learning!

Love to you all,

Ms Aspinall xxx

Doesn't it look like Mrs Norman is standing behind me!



Two weeks in Cambodia

Chhom reap suor (hello) everyone!

Jon and I are now about half way through our adventures and have now travelled through two countries, India and Cambodia. We have loved both of them but they are very different places. They are both very hot but Cambodia is more humid (there's more water in the air) which makes it feel hotter. While the places we went in India were dry and desert-like, Cambodia is very green with lots of jungle and creepy crawlies! Whilst we have been here, we have learnt a lot about Cambodian history, which unfortunately is very sad, but it is now a much happier place.

One beautiful early morning in Khmer (what people there call Cambodia).

History
About 40 years ago, when the first Star Wars films were coming out and Queen was a popular band, Cambodia had a civil war. This is a war that happens between people in the same country (the UK had a civil war in 1639). A group of Cambodians called the Khmer Rouge decided they wanted to take control of the country and everyone in it. They marched into the capital city (Phnom Penh) and told everyone there they had to leave. The people in the city scrambled together some belongings and left their homes, having to stay with friends (if they had them) in the countryside.

People having to leave their homes in Phnom Penh.

The Khmer Rouge then said the country had to grow more food than it had before - 3 times as much! This meant that everyone had to work as farmers. Out in the hot sun all day they worked, trying desperately to produce a lot of food, otherwise they would get in trouble with the Khmer Rouge. Most of the food they grew got taken from them so with the combination of working so hard and having little food, sadly a lot of people died.

This is the saddest part of the story. The Khmer Rouge were scared of the people in the country in case they tried to take control back. So they arrested people who had a good education or job - such as teachers, lawyers, doctors or anyone who could speak another language. They put these people in prison or, shockingly, they killed them.

The Khmer Rouge were in charge for four years, 1975 - 1979. During that time, about 3 million people died, either because they were killed, or because they were made to work so hard. 3 million people was 1/4 of all the people in the country.

We visited a place where lots of people were killed. Visitors have left friendship bracelets to remember them and show that peace is better than war.

The people nowadays
The people we met on our travels through Cambodia were all very happy, friendly people. We didn't meet anyone old enough to remember the Khmer Rouge, but lots of them had sad stories about people in their families who had died. What struck us though was that the people we met were all looking forward to the future and working hard to achieve their dreams.

This is Coco. He's from Battambang in the north of the country - his dream is to open a hotel.

Like in India, people in Cambodia take school very seriously. The children go to school six days a week and only have Sunday off. Because there are not enough teachers, children either go to their local school for the morning (7am - 12pm) or the afternoon (1pm - 6pm). However their parents usually pay for them to have extra lessons, such as lessons to learn English. So children are usually at school for about 8 hours a day - not including homework!

Many people in Cambodia are big fans of English football and have a club they support. It was funny to walk round villages and see all the children wearing English football shirts! Another big sport here is volleyball. Jon had a game and got very worn out - thankfully he was on a beach so could go jump in the sea to cool down.

Our activities
Ancient temples - Our first stop in Cambodia was a town called Siem Reap which is nearby to an ancient set of temples in the jungle. The biggest temple there is called Angkor Wat and is a very famous landmark across the world. We were told that the best time to visit was sunrise, so we got up at 4am and got a tuk tuk to the temple. Even that early in the morning it was so busy! People from all over the world gathered to see the sun coming up behind this beautiful building. It was quite a magical moment.

Me gazing at Angkor Wat as the sun came up.

Inside the temple there are lots of steep stairs and towers.

We then visited two more temples which were even more exciting because there weren't so many people around, and these temples had more mysterious routes to explore. If you've ever seen the Tomb Raider film you may recognise these temples - some of the movie was filmed here!

Look at how this tree has grown on top of the temple!

Bamboo train - Throughout Cambodia there is a railway line, but instead of a normal train, most people travel along it on a Bamboo train! This is basically a flat surface made of bamboo, with some cushions on it, and a motor on the back. You place it on the track and start the motor. It goes incredibly fast and is a bit of a bumpy ride - more exciting than a roller coaster! If someone comes along in the opposite direction, you just stop and take the train off the track to let them pass.

It was very windy riding the Bamboo Train.

Taking it off the track to let some people past.

Beaches - Cambodia has a long coast line with some beautiful beaches along it so we've managed to spend some wonderful days chilling and swimming. One day, we visited an island off the coast called Koh Tunsay (Rabbit Island). There were no rabbits on the island but there was a lot of other wildlife!

My view of the crab fisherman from my hammock.

We stayed for the night in a bungalow on the beach which was very pretty but had a few lizards, ants and even a scorpion in it! There's no electricity on the island so it's very dark at night but this meant we were able to wade out into the dark sea and see the glowing plankton. Sadly it doesn't show up well in photos but these little guys light up when you move in the water. So as we swum through them there was a glowing light all around - it was really magical.

 

Look how cute! These puppies belonged to the family we stayed with - they were very friendly and always falling asleep in our arms.

Food

People in Cambodia eat a lot of rice because they grow a lot of it in their fields. In fact, a way of saying hello to people is to say, "Have you eaten rice yet today?". They also make noodles out of the rice by pounding the rice to powder and squeezing it into noodle shape. Quite often they eat the rice or noodles in soup with meat and vegetables. Tap water isn't clean enough to drink unless you boil it so by boiling water into soup, you make it safe and make a healthy meal. 

A lot of dishes are stir fries, which are then served with rice. Our favourites were Beef Loc Lac - which is a bit like beef stew served with pickle and a fried egg, and Amok which is a curry served in a folded banana leaf. We really enjoyed our Cambodian food - maybe more than the Indian food. Its a shame there aren't many Cambodian take-aways in England!

This isn't actually my photo - I always forget to take pictures of food because I want to eat it too much! This is Amok and rice.  

Conclusion
We've learnt a lot from Cambodia. It's been really interesting to see how the country is recovering after their sad history. There are lots of very positive things going on - art, music, sport as well as lots of people learning and working hard for their families. We did feel though that as a country they are trying to figure out who they are - like the children following English football teams rather than having football teams of their own.

Next we go to Vietnam, a country just next door to Cambodia so it will be interesting to see how similar or different they are. I hope everyone at Holly Spring is having a lovely term and learning lots - I'm looking forward to seeing you in just a few weeks now!

Lots of love,
Ms Aspinall xxx

Ms. Aspinall's trip to India

Hello from India!

Jon and I have now spent two weeks touring around a state called Rajasthan in India. It’s been amazing! To tell you about what we’ve seen, experienced and thought about I’ve divided this blog into sections with as many pictures as I can cram in.

The people

India is a very large country, with a huge population. Just the capital city, New Dehli, has 24 million people living in it (this is the same number of people who live in the whole of Australia). The biggest thing that strikes you when you travel through India is that a lot of people are very poor.




This is the view of Bundi - can you see the houses are painted blue (again to scare off insects)?

 

Most people have a house but lots of them are very small. Some don’t have electricity or even a bathroom. However, there is lots of building work going on everywhere – better houses are being built. Also the government has promised to pay for a toilet to be put in every house. So we got a sense that things are improving for a lot of people.



This is a traditional house made out of clay and cow poo (to scare off insects).

Education is also obviously very important here. The schools are the nicest buildings around and there are lots of adverts for schools. People have told us that the children are incredibly well behaved because they all want to learn. Their parents know how important it is to learn as well so if the children are naughty at school – they are in big trouble at home!

Most of the people we’ve met in India have been wonderful. When we’ve got lost or wanted to ask questions, people have been so helpful. The children in particular are all so smiley and happy, waving to us or showing us things. This has been so lovely to find in a strange, very hot country where we don’t speak the language!

Some welcoming locals.

 

Our activities

We’ve done so many different things in our two weeks it would be a very long blog if I wrote them all here, so I’ll just pick out my favourites.
The Taj Mahal is a very famous landmark around the world. We visited it when in a town called Agra, near New Dehli. It’s a towering building made out of white marble with a beautiful dome at the top. It was built by an emperor long ago.
The story goes that his wife became very ill while giving birth to their 14^th child and was going to die. On her deathbed, she made the emperor promise three things. Firstly, that he would look after her parents. Secondly, that he would love all their children equally. Finally, that he would do something after she died that would make the whole world remember their love forever. So he built the Taj Mahal and put her body in a tomb inside. And indeed, this story of a man’s love for his dying wife is known around the world because of the beautiful monument he built.

When we visited the Taj Mahal it was late afternoon so we watched monkeys playing on the lawn in front of the majestic building as the sun went down – it was quite magical.

The Taj Mahal

 

Another of our favourite experiences was going to watch a Bollywood movie. Bollywood is an Indian style of film which usually tell a romantic love story between a man and a woman. We saw "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" (Badrinath finds a wife). It was in the local language of Hindi but it was amazing how we were able to follow the story anyway. Thrown into the film are lots of extra songs and dance scenes which creates a wonderful, jolly experience for those watching it. We’ll definitely be watching more Bollywood movies when we get back (though maybe with English subtitles next time).

The movie theatre was very glamorous.

 

My favourite experience however has got to be a stroll through a small village in the countryside. As we walked, children came rushing out of their houses to say hello and wave at us. They were even friendlier than the children at Holly Spring! Some of them tried out some of the English they’ve been learning at school such as “What’s your name?” but they all knew one phrase – “One photo?” They wanted us to take pictures of them on our cameras because a camera is something very exciting for them.

 

These children don’t have much – no televisions, phones or ipads, no electronic toys or big houses, but they were incredibly happy. We were lucky to have met such wonderful people as they passed their joy on to us. From them I bought some simple home-made bangles which I’ve worn every day since to remind me of them – I can’t think of any jewellery I’d rather wear.

This man makes bangles out of the sap from trees. He heats it up and rolls it into a bangle.

 

There have been many other exciting things we’ve done, for example staying in a Marharaja’s House (he’s a local king), riding camels through the desert and of course the day Jon was sick out of a bus window – I’ll just have to save those stories for when we get back!

Food
We’d been warned that most of the food in India would be spicy. Someone told me they even put chillies in Coke! I was a bit worried about this because I’m not very good with spicy food but it turns out I didn’t need to worry. Some food has a little ‘kick’ to it – but actually I’ve had spicier food in England!

Most people have curry for every meal (even breakfast!). We tried to eat like the Indians do but after about a week we gave in and had toast and jam for breakfast instead. We didn’t mind curry for lunch and dinner though because it was delicious.

Our new favourite foods are biryani (rice with vegetables in it), pakora (fried balls full of all sorts, veg or meat) and kachori (slightly spicy pastry-type things, quite like mini Cornish pasties). On one afternoon, a lady took us to her house to show us how to cook some of these yummy things so hopefully we’ll be able to make them when we get back.

This is our home-cooked meal of Paneer curry with rice, dahl and chapatti.

 Transport

We’ve been lucky enough to try almost every type of transport in the last two weeks. We have been on:

-         Planes (where we watched Moana and loved it!)

-         Metro trains

-         Taxis

-         Buses

-         Tuk tuks (funny little car/bike type things, see photo below)

-         Boats

-         Trains

-         Mini-buses

-         Jeeps

-         Canters (huge jeeps which seat 20 people and drive around safari)

-         Camels (which was great fun as these are much bigger than you’d imagine so you’re very far from the ground)

The view from our canter to another, while we were watching for tigers in Ranthambhore National Park.

 

Jon enjoying a tuk-tuk ride.

A quiet Indian street, with car, motorbike and tuk-tuk.

Don't I look relaxed riding a camel!

The camels having a break by rolling in the sand.

 

The only one we’ve not tried in elephant riding. There are elephants around and it’s been fun seeing them walking along the roads with the other traffic. However, the people who own the elephants don’t treat them very nicely so we didn’t pay to go on one.

The roads in India are crazy! Firstly because there are so many types of vehicle on them. As well as the cars, buses, tuk tuks and motorbikes, there are also random cows standing around and blocking traffic everywhere. Cows are seen as sacred so they are allowed to wander around but they can get grumpy so you have to keep an eye on them in case they want to give you a nudge.

Cows like to sit in the middle of the road blocking the traffic.

 

The second reason is that there aren’t the same traffic rules as in England. Instead of following one after another, vehicles are constantly beeping and pushing in front of each other; even driving on the wrong side of the road where they think they can. Alongside the roads, there are no pavements so people mix in with the traffic, trying to avoid the cow poo!

 

Finally instead of pedestrian crossings, people just have to cross even when there are things coming towards you – and just hope they stop! They always do though because drivers are very used to this. It may all look like crazy chaos but we’ve not seen anyone get hurt – it must be more organised than it looks!

Religion

Most of the people we’ve met in India are Hindus, but in India there are also lots of Muslims, Sikhs and also Christians. In Hinduism there are millions of gods so you can always find one that really suits you to worship. Hindu temples send out ‘calls to prayer’ twice a day, at sunrise and sunset. These are beautiful songs that play out around the local area to tell the people to come to the temple and pray.

A colourful Hindu temple in New Dehli.

 

Hindu weddings are really interesting. They go on for days but on the most important day, thousands of people are invited to attend. Jon and I thought we have having quite a big wedding with only 130 people! On the wedding day, the guests arrive in the evening and have a party together whilst waiting for the bride and groom. But, by tradition, the bride and groom take a long time to get ready so when they arrive, it’s very late at night. The ceremony itself is actually about 3am, so almost all of the guests, apart from close family have gone home to bed and don’t see them actually get married at all!

We went to a Sikh temple (called a Gurudwara) in the capital city, New Dehli, and saw its huge kitchen. Every Gurudwara has a kitchen so it can provide a meal to everyone who visits. It doesn’t matter who you are - what religion, age or how rich or poor you are – you can all have a healthy, free meal here.

Ladies making chapatti in the Gurudwara.

The kitchen uses huge pots to feed so many people.

The kitchens are run by volunteers, people who aren’t paid but come and help out in their free time. Also, we were told true stories of Sikh people gather together in their thousands to go to a different city and clean it. They pick up litter, wash roads, paint walls etc. So you can see that sikh people are very generous people.

Conclusion

All in all we have had an incredible time in India and we’re sorry to leave it! Next we’re moving to the country of Cambodia so I’ll send another blog post from there in a few weeks.

I hope everyone at Holly Spring has a wonderful start to the term – particularly 4Amazing! Missing you all and looking forward to sharing all our stories in person when I get back.

Lots of love,

Ms Aspinall xx