I was in Vietnam last September for three weeks. At this time, my brother was living there and my mother, cousin and I went there to visit him. In total, he lived in Vietnam for one year. We did a tour through Vietnam and we had many great experiences. Sometimes we were with a guide who showed us the most interesting, most beautiful places to see and he gave us some really interesting explanations. In some cases, my brother was our guide. For example in Ho Chi Minh City he took us around many places of interest and because he used to live there, he knew many locals. He can even speak the Vietnamese language fluently, so we had the chance to get to know many things and people, which other tourists couldn’t see by travelling around.

What I liked the most about Vietnam was the incredibly fascinating nature, the friendly people and its culture, the hot weather and much more. Even though the weather was extremely hot and rheumy, I still liked it because I love hot weather in general. Fortunately the rainy period was already over so we didn’t have a lot of rain. Most of all I was impressed of population’s attitude towards life. The Vietnam war hadn’t been over for a long time and you still see many disabled people who lost their leg because of the terrible war. But still, after all what happened they are friendly, kind and relatively open-minded to strangers and tourists. They try not to look back but to look forward to what will come in their lives. And maybe they are even more content than other people who have more physical possessions, because they really appreciate the simple and important things in life, like not being in a war anymore or having a family and something to eat.

First of all we visited Hanoi, then we went to Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) where my brother lived and later our tour continued with the Ha Long Bay, which is incredibly nice and definitely worth to see. We were at this bay for three days on a comfortable little ship. It’s a World Heritage Site (see picture below).

Definitely worth mentioning is also our trip to the region called Sapa, which is located in the high mountains far away from the cities like Hanoi and Saigon. It took us a whole night to travel there in a charming train in which we could sleep. It’s much colder up there than it is in the crowded cities. The people also speak another dialect of Vietnamese, because there are lots of different tribes who live in Sapa. Their lifestyle is really simple and many people of Vietnam’s population might be poor, but still they try to make the best out of the situation and seem to be content. We had the possibility to go into a few self-made huts where huge families are living. Most of them were so open and showed us everything, how they colored and made their own clothes and things like that. They live that simple like we did maybe 100 years ago, but it works. They are self-supporters and know how to take care of each other. It was such a good experience and so interesting to see. Children were out and playing with each other in peace without any cars and dangers. They just seemed happy and content with what they have and that always reminds me to be satisfied with my life. Now I even eat rice differently, because I saw how hard it is, to pluck rice corns on the fields. They have no machines and pluck every single corn by their own. This matter of fact impressed me the most, because on the other hand I see how cheap we can buy rice everywhere. The work isn’t appreciated and paid enough.

… a typical rice field in Sapa with steps like a stair

….people from Sapa are using buffaloes as a way of transportation and as a help for plucking rice corns.

In conclusion I really can say that touring through Vietnam will stay an unforgettable experience for me, it was amazing and I really would like to go there another time again some day. I’m sure there are still lots of different things to see and to discover. Hopefully I could give you a good impression of Vietnam and its people and maybe some of you are inspired now to go there as well. Who knows… :=)

Eva-Maria

EC Language School San Diego

According to this whole debate about displacing the seals from the children’s pool, I went to La Jolla Cove to check out the situation for myself. I interviewed people who were there this sunny afternoon. I asked them what they thought about moving the seals away from the beach. I was wondering how they would respond and feel about this controversy.

In conclusion I found out, that most people I interviewed that day, think the same way as I do. Mainly, they don’t want to banish the seals from the children’s pool. This showplace is  a special tourist attraction, which makes La Jolla special. In addition, this place of interest is a nice experience for young and old to have the opportunity to be so close to the seals and watch them in their natural environment.

I really hope the seals can stay there and the wealthy people who want to banish them don’t reach their goal.

Eva-Maria

EC Language School San Diego