Vietnam II

From Hoi An we travelled south to get to our second projects. The trip consisted of two consecutive overnight bus trips - not the most pleasant of experiences especially for a certain group member who lost their dinner from both ends during the journey (and the bus didn't pull over for another four hours). We had a day to"relax" beachside in Nha Trang between the two buses.

Our second project was in conjunction with a local organisation called Initiatives of Change. The group consists mainly of motivated university students who want to do something constructive in their society. The students who worked with us were absolutely fantastic. A bonus was that they all spoke English well - which meant that unlike at the first project the vegetarians didn't get served meat for the first few days. As a result I was a lot less hungry and therefore a lot less grumpy!!

Initiatives of Change work in conjunction with the local government to identify struggling families who are in need of assistance. Our team was divided and each group built a house for a local family. Tim and I were in seperate groups to help facilitate good group dynamics. The family that Renee's team worked with were currently living in a very makeshift home wtih tarpolines functioning as the roof. The father of the family who would receive the home functioned as the builder and the rest of the family got right into it assisting us with the work. They had a gorgeous 17 year old son whose name we later found out was being misprounced by us all - apparently we were calling him "breasts" all week by accident.

A local family gave up their home so that the team could live in their house for the duration of the building project. The house was simple but liveable. The bathroom proved interesting with bucket showers shared with at least eight different species of wildlife. We had a plain clothes Policeman staying with us ... part of the Vietnamese way - ensuring we werent spies or social reformists up to no good.




Renees Team in their almost completed house and in their pit. (shown here 1/2 way through digging!).



The whole group at the house Tim's team helped construct.... along with numerous official locals as part of the whole celebration/ceremony thing they love so much.



Tim's team built a house for another family that had been identified by the local government as being particularly poor. There were four families totalling 27 people (all part of the same extended family) living in reed huts. The grandma caused quite a stir by overseeing the building site with a machetti in her waving hand. The group lived in the house of a local family who provided lots of good food.

As a break from work, we rejoined groups for the day to visit the war site of the Cu Chi tunnels.
These were a vast network of underground tunnels (up to 3 layers down) that spanned over 200kms to help the Viet Cong move people, supplies and equipment around without the knowledge of the southern forces. The tunnels shown below were apparently enlarged so that us fat westerners could get through.... we were still pretty cramped!. 120m of these were enough for us... cant imagine spending half the day carrying supplies through these!





Also as part of the second project, our Ozquest group visited an AIDS clinic and orphanage in the Cu Chi area that was home to disabled orphans. Trying to bring a bit of cheer to those who usually have more than their share of worries. It also helped us grow a little more too, and reminded us of how fortunate we actually are.





Playing with some of the kids from the orphanage. (Giving them some balloons we brought for such occasions.)
Its a fantastic feeling to make some very unlucky kids smile and laugh. Even its its just for a short time.




After finishing up on the second project, we rejoined as one big group and went to the Australian artillery & SAS base in Long Tan. We saw the australian base and our memorial as well as learning learnt some amazing facts about the Vietnam war.
Australia is the only country of the South Vietnamese allies.... Southern Vietnamese Army, USA, South Korean, NZ, Thailand etc that is allowed to have a memorial in Vietnam.
This was due to a number of reasons, but basically because they recognised Aussies were there to help the people. They built roads, orphanages /schools etc in areas that supported them whilst still fighting!!! Plus they were renound for keeping prisoners of war under very good conditions. They also were respected as brilliant jungle fighters and trained the South Vietnamese Army. As opposed to the yanks that were loud, nasty, disrespectful etc.... and pretty much there for themselves. Apparently there are 1000,000 half cast american-vietnamese babies.... as opposed to zero (aparrently) Australians.
(This was all according to our tour giude Mr Hai, who was in the South Vietnamese Army as a translator to the Australian and American troops.)
Anyway... war is never a nice thing but it makes you proud to know we did the best in a difficult situation. (There is no way we should have followed the yanks into the war.... but the past is the past.. hopefully we learn from it.)




Ash (a fellow Ozquest group member), Tim and Renee living it up at the mud baths and hot springs at our suprise Eco-Resort stay, as we started our wind-down from an often physically exhausting trip.

Vung Tau was the last port of call before our final few days in Saigon. (Ho Chi Minh City)
Met an Aussie Vietnam Veteran who is now living in Vietnam and running an Aussie Vets Aid organisation to help the people of vietnam rebuild their lives and country. Very inspiring.
The last two days in HCMC saw a final spending frenzy on presents and cheap goods for those going home before our final celebration dinner and goodbyes. Renee and I are already missing them, but hoping to catch up with as many as possible when we finally return to Australia.

Over and out for now from the little town of Savanakhet in Laos, where a nice cool change from the South Vietnam heat is currently being enjoyed.

Vietnam I

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City after yet another long and eventful bus ride and were very proud of ourselves for finding the place to meet our OzQuest team without even using a map!!

The OzQuest team consists of17 Aussies (3 leaders and 14 participants). I was a bit worried that the leadership could frustrate me, but so far they have proved to be very capable. There are only 4 guys on the trip (one of which is the main leader) and 13 girls which makes things interesting when we are doing manual labour. The girls have definitely been pulling their weight so far. The people age between 18 and 29 with me being the oldest. I have been really impressed with the people constituting our team.

The streets in HoChiMinh are crazy as is to be expected in a South East Asian Capital city. On the first day one of our team members who was crossing the road right next to me was run over by a motor bike being ridden by a lovely man and his wife. It was a terrible thing to observe with an equally horrible noise associated with it. The poor little old man was in shock, which probably wasn't helped by his wife repetitively beating him with her bag and yelling at him after the accident. Fortunately Gab's injuries ended up being minor. Only a few days later another of our team members was hit by a motorbike while crossing the road. This time the bike had a mother and her two children on it (of course all were without helmets).

Together we spent 5 days cycling around the Mekong Delta in the southern part of Vietnam. Unlike many others, I selected my bicylce based upon the degree of comfort the seat offered. Those that didn't were soon to regret not doing so. Multiple blisters were to be found on multiple backsides at the end of the first day. Our cycle tour was organised through a company called SinhBalo. They were absolutley fantastic in looking after us all. For example, they had people stationed along the route with icy face cloths to cool us down. The intention was to ride about 80-100km a day, but in reality we ended up doing a bit less than what was planned, partly because it takes a long time to get 17 people going and partly because we didn't like riding super fast in the heat and humidity. Tim did absolutely brilliantly and managed to keep up with everyone else and only needing a couple of extra rests.






Monkey Bridge


The scenery was magnificent - lots of lush rice fields, small fishing villages, mountains, rivers etc. At times it took so much concentration to stay on the road and not get knocked off the bike by the insane traffic that the opportunities were somewhat limited. One really lovely part was the constant warm greetings from the villagers who would come outside to wave to us. Our guide from Sinhbalo explained later that their often quizzicle looks were because they thought we were all made riding in the heat of the day. We tended to agree with them!! The local women were also very concerned about us riding in T-shirts and shorts. They value pale skin so much that they are always completely covered, even wearing masks over their face to preserve their complexions.



We stayed on an island one night and commenced our cycling around it's perimeter in the morning. The whole island was riddled with very narrow arched foot bridges without rails. Even though the roads were scary, negotiating these while battling oncoming motorcycle traffic in the rain raised my heart rate significantly. Only after we had finished this hair raising tour did Hua (our guide) tell us that he's lost several previous group memebers over the side of the bridges into the rivers.





Bustling floating markets in the Mekong Delta Region



We then had another sleepless overnight bus trip to the MyLai area (a place just south of Hue) where our first project was located. We worked alongside a local group called Hands for Hope to build a Kindergarten. Our groups expedition costs funded the equipment, materials and builders wages required for the construction. We got up at 5am everyday and had to walk an hour to the construction site. The local kids are gorgeous and keep us company all day. They're so fascinated by us and our white skin and hairy arms. As we walk to and from the building site we are greeted with hundreds of "hellos" in both English and Vietnamese. They all rush outside (adults and kids) and look at us. Stare at us is probably a more accurate description!! They don't mind laughing at us directly in our faces either. You definitely wouldn't want to have low self esteem here!! The communication barrier is really quite difficult as hardly anyone can speak English . Even our translator struggles. It took three days for them to figure out that half our group was vegetarian even with the help of our translator. This meant we had an appetising diet of white bread and white rice with soy sauce during this period.

All day while we work congregations of locals sit in the shade and intently watch us. It can be a bit frustrating while we work our butts off - they could get inand help us out!! They find it very amusing to see all these Westener girls doing construction work. When we get tired and frustrated with their lack of participation I just try to remember that our purpose here is not about the kindergarten at all but rather the restoration of good relations between us and the Vietnamese. This town is 500m from the site of the MyLai massacre. This was the greatest slaughter of innocent, unarmed Vietnamese civilians by the American troops during theVietnam war. If you don't already know, they came into the town and killed / raped everyone in the village (over 500 people in four hours) including women and children. The only injury to the Americans was one bullet wound to the foot which was self inflicted by the soldierwho's foot it was as he didn't want to participate in the slaughter. Given this history, it's amazing that they allow us to even be here. There are no other Westerners around. We haven't seen any for days!! The fascination everyone has with us implies that they don't see people like us very often at all!! In this regard it is a great privelige (and responsibility) to leave a better impression than the Americans did when they were here 30 years ago. On our last day we went to the MyLai Memorial Museaum. It brought on many tears considering that we had now formed friendships with many of the people who were affected by this horrific event.


Renee & the Builders wife staightening metal rods for the steel reinforcing in the concrete slab.




OzQuest Expedition Members shovelling 9th truck load of sand for the day
Efficiency is definitely lacking in the constuction processes with loads of sand having more than quadrupel handling!!


Tim painting some seats our team purchased for the kindergarten


We have had two rest days (on in Hoi An and the other in Nah Trang) before driving to Cu Chi to our second project. Everyone on the team had a great time getting new clothes tailored and very cheap prices. Tim got two tailord suits and some tailored shoes (great considering the problems brought about through wearing different sized shoes due to the splint) and Renee got a tailored coat, top and leather knee high boots all for under $140 USD.

Next update will be after our second Project. The group is splitting into two for the next project and we are planning on being on different teams to allow for better group integration.

Missing everyone
Love Tim & Renee
xoxo xxx