BBC - Vietnam Update # 1

The first update from the BBC boys
Family and Friends,
Vietnam is amazing. Everybody is having lots of fun, and apart from a few minor colds and rashes, are all in good health :). The food here is spectacular and all are enjoying it very much.

Since leaving the airport we had a good flight and arrived in Singapore airport with a few hours to burn on the free computers and games. When we landed in Hanoi airport we were greeted with thousands of taxi drivers begging for us to use them. We have since enjoyed a few fun days cruising the streets and museums and sights of Hanoi, and meeting lots of locals who loved to have their photos taken with us. Everything is so much cheaper than in Aus, even the quality food.
Early on tuesday morning we left the busy streets of Hanoi on a scenic 4 hour bus trip to ther Mai Chau Valley region for the begininng of our three day trek into the project. Each night we stayed in a village homestay, two of which were stilt houses of the Thai people. While staying in one village we watched a football game with the locals and decided thart they were crazy for football. The village in which we were doing the project (PIENG PHUNG) was bustling with young children and friendly people. The project was hard but rewarding, seeing us complete the difficult jobs of leveling the ground insisde and outside of the new Kindegarden. By the end of our work the roof was on, the doors fittined, billions on rocks pilled to the side. Locals were very happy to help us, and yopu will be pleased to know that we had to wear helmets. The villages thanked us by holding a cultrural exchange ceremony in which we, the first Westerners to stay in that village, witnessed some of there cultural dances and in return, we shared some of ours (National anthem, Bob the builder, Old MacDonald, and the macarena). A very friendly and enthusiastic drunken local decided to try and help us do the macerenia, which almost turned out to be a full scale rave. We also participated in the traditiopnal dance were we had to dance around without letting ourselfes be battered by bamboo poles.
Since we have traveled on an overnight train from Hanoi down the coast to Dong Hai, and today did a tour of the DMZ, including the tunnels, the 17th poarrallel and the American air base. By the time we arrived in Hue, it had been 24 hours since we werent on the bus or train for more than an hour at a time.
From the Antips Boys