Saturday, March 15, 2008
Left for Hanoi on the 7th of March immediately after Dr Hjorth's lesson. We took a charted bus to the airport from school. On the bus, Bro Mike called Louisa's phone. He spoke to me and told me to make sure that the Catholic's of the group went for Mass on Sunday. Told what Bro Mike said to Mr Bennett and everything was to be arranged in Hanoi. Got to the airport after a rather short bus ride and checked-in. Apparently, and unfortunately, I happened to get a seat rather far away from the rest of the group and slightly closer to Mr and Mrs Bennett. Lousy check-in person. I was rather annoyed that this happened. Anyway, being open-minded, i sort of appreciated the quiet time I would get alone and in partial solitude. So, got on-board the plane and was sitting in between 2 strangers. Found out how kind the person next to me was when I noticed I didnt have a pen with me to fill up the immigration form and she lent one to me. Other than that, the plane trip consisted with me reading my book, sleeping and in deep contemplation( AKA partial sleeping). Once in Hanoi, regrouped with the rest and boarded a bus which brought us the the airport terminal. At the immigration counter, i was rather afraid of the immigration officer cause he never smiled and never spoke a word. He was like this stern looking teacher sort of guy. Rather high security at the airport and I was so scared that they may turn hostile for unknown reasons. Anyway, once immigrations was cleared, we boarded another bus which brought us to eat dinner at PHO 24. Which has excellent beef noodles. After that wonderful dinner, we headed for our hotel, which turned out to be some kind of motel. Anyway, it was super scary and everyone couldnt sleep. The only good thing was that there was aircon and hot water. My room mates were QQ and Reuben. Reuben for once was acting sane. Surprisingly, i feel asleep quickly.
Woke up early the next morning and took a shower before heading down for breakfast. After breakfast, we did a tour of Hanoi from Ho Chin Min's grave like thingy i cant spell to the government house like thingy. Will add pictures of them in a later post when i have consollidated all my photos and others. After the tour, we went to a war museum where we saw some rather interesting exhibits and watched a boring show. After that, we went for lunch at some very weird place and after that, we went shopping. We also watched a water puppet show which was in Vietnamese and therefore, very boring. After that, we had dinner and went to the night market, which is a super scary place. Me and QQ had to bodyguard Louisa and Antonia. After that, went back to the hotel/motel/guest house.
Woke up a little later but still considered early. Was the first down for breakfast and then, headed to the Blue Dragon Foundation to get a small briefing before we went to a Blue Dragon runned hostel like place to meet the people. After that, we went to a lake where we had to use swan-like boats. Me and QQ were in one boat and we were extremely tired after paddling. After going to the lake, we headed to church. We attended mass at St Joseph's Cathedral. Mass was in Vietnamese so i could not understand a single thing but at least i had my 366 days with the Lord to refer to during the Gospel. After the Mass, we went around the cathedral taking pictures and talking to a seminarian who told us more about the church. After that, we went for dinner before retiring to our hotel.
Woke up at the same time. Wasnt first down. Went to the Blue Dragon Foundation first thing in the morning. Me, QQ, Alister, Reuben, Minh, Ko Ann and Mr Bennett went to do the first shift of painting at a house for the first shift. We were making good progress. we managed to paint a wall in about 15min and to think that we still have so much time to rest and relax in between. We would sometimes walk out, have a biscuit and drink some water before returning to work and we finished everything in good time and in good quality. After that, we walked back to the Foundation for lunch then it was our turn to entertain the children at the Foundation. We thought them how to play recorders and other games. It was really noisy. After that, we headed back to the hotel where we had to interview future Vietnamese scholars in the school. We interviewed a total of 3 students per group with 2 groups. After the interviews, we went downstairs for dinner before heading up to our rooms.
Woke up same time. 7am Hanoi time. 8am Singapore time. Breakfast was the same old thing. Bread and butter. Went to the Foundation again. Did painting again. Extremely inefficent this time. The space was too narrow to paint. Went back to Blue Dragon. Played chinese chess with a few children and got owned most of the time. Got out-witted by Jackie in connect four. Cooked pasta for the kids. Went to the Temple of Literature AKA Tempearature. There was a saying that if you touch the turtles' heads in the temple, you would be lucky in exams. Upon hearing this, QQ and JJ, who will be having IGCSE this year, ran around touching all the turtles' heads until they heard that there were 300 in total in the temple. After going to the temple, we ate good ice cream with the blue dragon kids before heading for dinner and subsequently, rest in the hotel.
Woke, up, had breakfast and went off to a village near the outskirts of Hanoi. We visited many sculpting shops and a temple. Weirdest lunch i ever had then back to Hanoi for shopping and interviews again, which i was not involved in. After that, we headed for dinner at a Thai restruant. Good food. Headed back to the hotel to sleep for the long flight the next day. Before sleeping, we had a reflection together as a group.
Woke at 4am Hanoi, 5pm Singapore. Packed my bags and went for breakfast. Headed for the airport immediately. Checked-in. Got better seats. This time with friends. Good plane ride and was happy to be back in Singapore but sad to leave Hanoi. I feel that i learnt alot during this trip and i recongise that this was the last meeting for the old council of 2007. So,
LONG LIVE THE OLD COUNCIL OF 2007!!
Saturday, March 15
~Ivor~