Secondary 3 WoW Trip to Vietnam

by Audrey Ho (S3S)

On Thursday, 8 March 2018, the Secondary 3 cohort flew to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for an eight day Humanities trip. We were split into two main groups of about 30 students each and visited many places around Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta.

This included the Cần Giờ Mangrove Forest, a biosphere reserve recognised by UNESCO. We walked around the area learning about its history and importance of the forest to local people. Although there was a clear path for us to tread upon, there were not many other people around. It was a nice place to walk despite the heat and it felt refreshing after all the bus ride and ferry journey.

One of the most interesting and more well-known places we visited was the Cu Chi Tunnels. We got to go inside the tunnels to experience what it was like to be a Viet Cong during the war. We also learnt about many of their tactics in regards to hiding and using traps in the natural environment as well as the history of the war at the time.

On one of the days, we visited a park to play with a group of children and brought smiles to their faces. We were prepared with activities and bags of useful gifts like stationery for the children, who were aged from four years old to fifteen years old. The children were delighted to be able to spend the day with us despite the fact that there were language barriers. We were also enlightened by the experience of interacting with them and it was difficult saying goodbye to them.

Another highly enjoyable experience was staying at Út Thủy Homestay, located near the Mekong River Delta. We travelled there partly by boat as it was far from the city. One of the highlights was mud fishing in a shallow stream, where we entered knee-deep mud to catch fish. We managed to catch some together as a group and the homestay staff cooked them for our lunch. This gave us a proud feeling of accomplishment. We also got to learn about the history of the family that owned the place, which in turn helped us to learn more about Vietnam.

Overall, I think that trying the food in Vietnam and visiting places of historical or religious importance was quite an enjoyable experience and it is great trip that I won’t forget so easily. We felt quite disappointed that the week had gone by so quickly and found ourselves flying back to Hong Kong the following Thursday, leaving behind the vibrant country of Vietnam.