Eva continues her cave narrative: Day two consisted of walking all the way through Hangover Cave. While we were only covering 4.5 kilometers we took countless detours to explore the rock formations that took thousands of years to form. One of the strangest things we found were cave pearls. These baseball-sized, perfectly spherical stones take even longer to form than stalagmites. In addition, everything glittered as our lights illuminated the caverns. The stalagmites reminded me of Christmas … [Read more...]
Educational Student Tour of Vietnam – Update #4
Eva shares her account of the first day of our trek. On the 17th, we embarked on a three day trek into the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park where we would climb through three of the biggest caves in the world. Our lead guide went by Captain, the English translation of his Vietnamese name. He led us through seemingly impenetrable jungle as if he were going for a casual stroll. Meanwhile the rest of us struggled to stay upright as we slipped along the muddy trail. The guide at the rear of our … [Read more...]
Educational Student Tour of Vietnam – Update #3
Henry reports about our experiences in Halong Bay: The day finally came. It was time to leave our apartment and get on the bus on our way east to Halong Bay. On the bus, we met our guide Trung, or as he liked to introduce himself, Jackie Trung. When we arrived at the boat terminal we were greeted with a miniature wooden ferry boat that was ready to taxi us out to our cruise boat. We climbed aboard, in disbelief that an Explorations trip might include so much luxury. We were given our keys, told … [Read more...]
Educational Student Tour of Vietnam – Update #2
Max shares his experiences of our first full day in Vietnam: As we woke up yesterday bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7:00 a.m. on our first morning in Vietnam we were all very excited for the day ahead of us. Most of us (especially my roommates and I) had food on our minds because A: adolescent males and B: Vietnamese Food. After we were all ready we headed out to eat breakfast. One group went to get coffee and pastries and one group (including myself) went to get phố . Now, a savory bowl of … [Read more...]
Educational Student Tour of Vietnam – Update #1
One of the most wonderful parts of travelling with teenagers is that one gets to experience the joy of seeing a new country with fresh eyes once again. Here are Martha's descriptions of arriving in Vietnam: My first impression of Vietnam was of a flat, lusciously green world, vibrant in contrast to the grey sky. Palm trees of all shapes and sizes covering vast stretches of land as we made our way from the airport further into the city. Many strangely familiar plants lined the sides of streets … [Read more...]
