Week 8 in Ho Chi Minh City
We have blown right through our second month — it’s time to wave goodbye to Vietnam and pack our bags for Thailand!
In our final week, we were on the move. We fled the city heat for the cool spring temperatures in the central highlands town of Da Lat. A motorbike tour through the countryside and leisurely strolls through town was just the escape we needed! As we prepare for our next destination, we are consuming as much Pho, Banh Mi, and Vietnamese coffee as possible.
Take a look at all of the sightseeing and adventures we’ve been on over the last two weeks — it’s been a whirlwind!
Edumadic Profile: Meet Victoria!
Victoria is a 20 year old university student with roots in Germany and Denmark, and spent a large part of her childhood living around the world!
As the daughter of Danish and German expats, Victoria grew up as a global citizen, most notably in Vietnam during her earliest baby and toddler years and vacationed in Indonesia and Thailand at a young age. She has been dreaming of returning to each of these countries ever since to make connections to her past and create new memories.The Edumadic itinerary for the Belatrusa program coincidentally aligned with that dream, and she knew it was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.
This is a big step traveling outside the comfort zone of her family, and many of Victoria’s friends who have traveled long term confided that they often found it to be isolating without a routine and sense of purpose. By taking her university courses to an online platform, she created a schedule that would provide structure to her travels as she also explored her personal history with each location.
Her current studies at Freie University in Berlin are in Comparative World Literature and Political Science, and she has been incorporating her passion for human rights into her Edumadic experience.
“…these specific courses all have a large emphasis on international topics, which would be useful to study whilst travelling and observing them in person…human rights is always a relevant topic — no matter where in the world you currently are. I believe that every person has some sort of opinion on various topics involving human rights, and I would love to share and discuss with fellow Edumadic friends during study and travel time!”
Throughout her travels with the group thus far, Victoria is still learning where she wants to focus her attention when she returns to Berlin and allow these experiences to shape her career aspirations, even if that means rethinking things completely. The world around her has impacted what she truly values in life and will continue to do so long after this program comes to a close.
“I take pride in coping with moving around often and having to make new friends during my adolescence — it has been a hard and long journey…and I often would’ve wished to have had an ordinary life, but I now see how positively it has shaped my view of the world.”
You can follow Victoria on Instagram at @veivei97
Weekly Highlights:
Motorbike Tour
We spent a weekend in Da Lat, part of the central highlands of Vietnam, enjoying the French Alpine town, known for colonialarchitecture and a cooler climate. It served as a great escape from the Saigon heat!
There is an abundance of outdoor adventures in the surrounding countryside. We hopped on motorbikes for a full day of touring the coffee, flower, strawberry, and silk farms!
Pagoda Pitstop
Tucked in the countryside among waterfalls and coffee farms is the Linh An Pagoda. We stopped by this relatively new Buddhist temple to add to our growing list of temple visits!
It’s always fascinating to watch the resident monks carry out their daily routines.
Hanoi
There is always room for spontaneity on an Edumadic trip, and a few from our crew took advantage of a short flight to Hanoi to experience what northern Vietnam has to offer!
They waited for the daily train that infamously comes rumbling through an active neighborhood and stood close to the walls as it squeezed past!
A Day in the Life:
This week we followed Zach for a day! This is what he got up to:
7am — 7:45am Notification Blitz.
Because of the big time difference with both the US and Europe, I usually wake up under a mountain of notifications both Edumadic related and personal. I’ll reply to comments and quick messages from bed, and if something needs a more thoughtful response I’ll mark it for later in the day.
7:45am — 8:30am Yoga with Adrienne.
I’m embarrassingly unflexible. I’ve decided it’s about time I changed that. I bought a yoga mat in Bali, thinking that parting with some cash might guilt-trip me into starting a semi-regular yoga practice. I actually didn’t touch this mat for the first month but now that I don’t have surfing to distract me, I’ve finally managed to start working on my Grasshopper. I started a free online class by a Yogi called Adrienne on Youtube which I’m enjoying!
8:30am — 10am Breakfast with my roomies.
After a quick shower I head up to our shared living area. If I’m first up, I’ll start preparing breakfast, or wait with baited breath to be treated by Guillermo, Sabrina or when there’s a solar eclipse, Rachel. We’ve settled into a nice little routine of having breakfast together in our house.
10am — 1pm Writing.
I’ve been working on a book idea for a while now. Now that we’ve really settled into the flow of this program, I’m spending less time on the day to day running of things and have more time to devote to this. You’ll hear more about the book in the very near future, I promise!
1:30pm — 5:30pm Lunch, coffee, productivity.
Once my creative juices have run dry I need a change of scenery, and some sustenance. We usually head out as a group into the centre of town, first to grab some street food, and then to find a coffee shop to work from. There’s a huge variety of both in Saigon. By this time we’ve figured out our favourites!
5:30pm — Dinner, cards, Dexter.
After a long day of getting shit done, it’s time to wind down. We’ll usually head back to our neighbourhood and have some street food amongst the locals. After that, it’s a couple rounds of cards, or netflix, or both. We’ve developed a dangerous addiction to Dexter (a tv series) since we arrived in Saigon, although I have to admit it’s a nice way to end the day as a group.
