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