COUNTRY: Vietnam
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Community Healthcare: Paramedic & Nursing Students
WRITTEN BY: Laura Bainger, Flinders University
We left you at the end of our second week, having just treated over 500 patients in 7 days! Safe to say we were all exhausted when we got back to Hanoi, and the western mattresses were welcomed with open arms. We got to have a couple of days back in Hanoi, which included a Vietnamese cooking class. Our chef took us off to some markets, and showed us around all of the exotic ingredients - so many different herb, spices, fruits, veggies and seafood being gutted literally on the street! There was a lot to see. We got to make THE BEST spring rolls I have ever had (our Mum's would have been very proud of us!), made a marinade to cook cat fish in the traditional Hanoi style with dill and cashew nuts, and finished up with a sweet potato pudding. It was a great experience. We are all pros with a pair of chopsticks now!
The rest of our time in Hanoi was fairly relaxing, we treated ourselves to manicures, pedicures and massages, picked op some tailor made dresses, and hunted through the mirid of art work shops...getting our cases packed after this will be a challenge!
The next day we set off for the one and only Ha Long Bay! This is one of the seven wonders of the world. Ha Long Bay is a 4 hour bus ride east of Hanoi. Imagine the ocean, with enormous jungle covered limestone cliffs jutting out of the water in every direction you can see. There were hundreds of 'junk boats' which all looked pretty rustic from the outside but were like a plush hotel on the inside, all for the tourists. It was absolutely stunning. We had two nights on one of these boats and were very well looked after by the crew. One of the best parts of Ha Long Bay was the kayaking we got to do. There were a couple of lagoons that could only be accessed in a kayak. In one of them we paddled through a kind of cave, and on the other side were encircled by huge cliffs. The second day we went paddling it absolutely poured, and there was lighting and thunder all around us...for those out in the kayaks, it was one of the best moments of the trip. Such a beautiful place.
The food on the boat was great, some of the best seafood we have ever had, the king prawns were to die for! For those who were not totally satisfied, there were hawkers in boats that paddled around selling Oreos, vodka, Pringles and all the mars bars you could need. The best part was we could literally open the cabin window and make the purchase! We had a couple of great afternoons jumping off the boat, and at night we spent a bit of time on the top deck looking at all of the other boats, the full moon and the continuous lightning display. It was a pretty magical few days.
Back in Hanoi we had a final night dinner with out translators and guides, which finished with a session at a karaoke bar! It was really sad to say goodbye to our guides and our translators. We all felt so lucky to have met such friendly and giving people on this journey, and they will all be missed. It has been an absolutely amazing journey, far exceeding the expectations that I had from when I first heard about this trip many months ago. We have had exposure to things that we never would have seen in Australia, and were forced to step up and improve our clinical assessment and decision making. We have made some amazing friends, seen some awesome sights, and have been embraced by a culture entirely different from our own.
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