Day 7: On to Ho Chi Minh City

IT WAS BARELY DAWN, at 5am (1 hour earlier than usual), when everyone was awoken today, for a final clean up of our living quarters. We all gathered at the biggest room by 530, and had a role call for cleaning and packing duties. Some were called to clean the toilets once again (despite the toilets already being cleaned 3 times a day previously and once more just yesterday!), others were called to dismantle mosquito nets and mattress, and do a final sweep and mop of our rooms.

After such a tiring start to the day, we were all rewarded with an unexpected breakfast of freshly made Banh Mi!! Remember when we said the Banh Mi we ate on the first day was a hot favourite amongst all of us?! SOMEONE MUST HAVE GOTTEN THE MEMO! The delicious sandwich definitely charged us up for the day.

Last breakfast and last time gathering together in such a cosy kampung setting in Phong Thanh.

After breakfast, last minute packing had to be done, but of course, mandatory photos were taken in the commune!

Hulk too cool for you la.

Spiderman with the large web-net they spun just for the photo.

Captain America, why so serious?

ROOMIES PHOTO! 

After all the final hoo-ha at Phong Thanh, our home for the past 6 days, it was finally time to bid farewell to the place where we ate, shat, slept, built, painted and taught together. Lugging all our belongings, we boarded the buses for our 5h journey back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Pei Yu excited about visiting Ho Chi Minh City! But hold on tight, the journey hasnt even started yet.

In the middle of the ride, however, we had an unexpected toilet stop at a tourist souvenir shop! Everyone just went crazy, as we could finally spend our Dong (we were forbidden to buy random street food from the village, due to hygiene concerns)! Freshly made coconut candies, balacncing drangonflies and ice-cream flew off the shelves, and we were all as excited as a 10 year old on Christmas Day.

A second stop was made for lunch, back at the same restaurant where we had a fish steamboat on day 1, if you recall!

The moment we reached Ho Chi Minh City, or, affectionately known as Saigon, we checked into our hotel and got assigned rooms of 2s with our buddies, or rooms of 4s with another pair of buddies! All of us practically screamed when we collapsed onto the soft hotel beds after days of sleeping on the hard floors with mosquitoes. Oh, and did I mention that they had WIFI? The hotel was practically luxury.

Everyone heaving a sigh of relief at having reached the comforts of the hotel safely.

Unfortunately, we only had 10 minutes of trying to catch-up with unreplied messages before being called down to the lobby, for a trip down to Hoa Sen University.

Hoa Sen University's campus in Ho Chi Minh City

What are we doing at a university? Well, we were there to do a cultural and Deaf exchange with students of Hoa Sen University, as well as Deaf students in Ho Chi Minh, DCOH. Once at the school, we were ushered quickly into a small seminar room. Here, we had an informative talk session from various organisations. During the talks, we had Eelin as our translator for Signing Exact English (SEE, the sign language mainly used in Singapore) while for Vietnamese Sign Language, they had several teachers in charge of interpreting to the Deaf. As we all know, sign language is not universal, and it was interesting to see how the 2 different sign languages differ!

Wolverine posing for a quick one before the talks begin. Hurry, 1,2, and SMILE!!!

The first of the talks was by the EVG (Eco-Vietnam Group, if you remember!) team, who explained to us their mission and activities, followed by the DCOH teachers about their ongoing programmes to empower and provide higher education opportunities for the Deaf commnunity in Ho Chi Minh City. A group of Hoa Sen University student also talked about their project, Thanh Am Workshop, whereby Deaf participants were taught how to design their own stamps and make bags using their designs. Sounds like something I want to learn too! Last but not least is a talk about ourselves, COR, by none other than Pei Yu!

Harry giving his passionate speech about EVG.

Ms Nguyen Thi Hoa giving a speech on what she and her organisation has accomplished, and is planning on doing.

Learning about how the Thanh Am Workshop logo came about!

Guess whose speech this is!

Of course, with such a long talk session, our hosts kindly provided for us, a spread of cream puffs and sandwiches for a short tea break in between! This session, however, served as an opportunity for all of us to mingle with student or volunteers from the other organisations, exchange contacts and share stories amongst ourselves!

Sociable Wei Ling making new friends with the Vietnamese Deaf so quickly! (Note that the 2 new friends are both guys hehe)

Dave, Li Sha and Yin King interacting with another Deaf student from Vietnam! Did you know that they "friended" each other on Facebook right after this photo??

At the end of the interesting sharing session, we had a photo opportunity with everyone present, as well as gave out our LollyTalk sponsored hard candy as a gesture of goodwill and friendship, and gave us a common talking point to discuss.

No one leaves without bringing home a pack of yummylicious LollyTalk sweers!

One of the Vietnamese speakers requesting for a photo with the handsome Lucas and Bryan hehe (and maybe also the cute LollyTalk sweets la?)

Group photo with the Vietnamese Deaf students (in blue uniform)!! XIN CHAO!!!

It was already nightfall when the interaction session ended, and we all headed for dinner with rumbling stomachs, despite already eating the snacks from just now!

Pretending that the bus was a club 'cos of the fancy lights (but why is Bryan sleeping?!)

The dinner table was so long, it could fit all 50 odd of us! Talk about a large family!

CHEEEERS (with typical Vietnamese tea)

After our first proper meal in Saigon, what else can we do at night, if not SHOPPING! Singaporeans' favourite past-time of course! Our shopping retreat was done at Ho Chi Minh's famed night markets, and not even the light drizzle could kill our appetite for shopping around for good bargains. (Legend has it that Kai Leun has the best bargaining skills amongst us!) All of us went our separate ways with our groups, led by V team members who know the area well. They acted as our advisors, whispering to us when it was too expensive to buy, when to bargain, and when to stop bargaining HAHA. It was truly a fun and thrilling night, especially if we manage to score a cheap deal! All of us definitely had a good time ad bonded with the EVG girls over bargained goods.

Mai Anh, one of the V team members (the vice-captain, in fact!) leading her group down the night market streets.

However, due to wanting to have an early start tomorrow, we had to return to our hotel at 9:30pm.