Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Sapa - Quỳnh Duyên, Quỳnh Tiêng & Quang Sơn

 
Quỳnh Duyên:
Chào các bạn! Mình tên là Quỳnh Duyên. Mình là sinh viên năm thứ tư, học ngành tin học. Mình rất thích du lịch và khiêu vũ.
I have been to Thành phố Hồ Chí minh, Nha Trang, Mũi Né and Vũng Tàu. However, i would like to explore more parts of Vietnam in the future, especially the North and Central parts. When i was in Vietnam the last time, i found out that English was not widely spoken. As a result, my friends and I encountered many difficulties as we could not communicate with the locals. I hope that by learning Vietnamese, I will be better prepared for my next trip. Also, I love Vietnamese food, espcially Gỏi Cuốn, Bánh Canh Cua, Bún Bò Huế and Bún Chả Giò.

Quỳnh Tiêng:
Chào các bạn! Mình tên là Quỳnh Tiêng. Mình là sinh viên năm thứ tư, học ngành khoa học xã hội. Mình thích học tiếng Việt lắm vì giáo viên của lớp tiếng Việt thân thiện và tốt bụng.

I just went to Vietnam for nine days during the June holiday. My friend and I had joined the NUS Mountaineering club to climb Mount Fansipan which is located near Sapa. Other than that we also travelled to other regions of Vietnam such as Hanoi and Lao Cai. The scenery in Sapa and Halong Bay is magnificent. Also, I fall in love with their culture in Vietnam- Bamboo dance, traditional costume and the well-mannered behaviors of Vietnamese. It was my first time travelling to Vietnam and I had a very wonderful experience indeed. I definitely would want to go back Vietnam again and thus I hope learning Vietnamese can help me communicate better with the locals there.

Quang Sơn:
Chào các bạn! Mình là Quang Sơn, mình học sinh học và tin học. Mình là người Thụy Sĩ (Switzerland), nhưng mình sống ở Singapore năm năm rồi. Mình nói tiếng Pháp và tiếng Anh, và mình đang học nói tiếng Việt.

I have been to Vietnam several times now. First, I went to Ho Chi Minh City. While there, I took a day trip to the Mekong delta, which was quite beautiful. I also travelled to Tay Ninh, to visit an interesting temple of the Cao Dai religion (a blend of Taoism, Buddhism, Christianism, and a few others). I also went to the Cu Chi tunnels, remnant of the Vietnam war. That was a good opportunity to see the other side of the war, along with some museums in Ho Chi Minh City, and to realize that my usual Western point of view of the “good” Americans fighting the "evil" communists was way too simplistic...
I've also been to Phu Quoc, an island south of Vietnam. It is a very beautiful place, with nice beaches, and still fairly undeveloped, so you don't get overrun by crowds of tourists... It is famous for its pearls (there are many oyster farms around the island), and its nước mắm (fish sauce). It is a bit tricky to bring back fish sauce, as Vietnam Airlines doesn't allow you to take any on its planes, but you can actually buy some from a stall outside the domestic terminal of the airport in Ho Chi Minh City (and from there, other companies do not seem to mind carrying your nước mắm in your luggage back to Singapore).
I have also been several times to Đà Nẵng, which is often overlooked by tourists, who just know the city for its airport with its good local and international connections, and go straight to Hội An or Huế. It is a nice city, with the best infrastructure and urban planning I have seen so far in Vietnam: large roads, tall bridges, cosy neighbourhoods... From there, you can go to the marble mountains, climb (or take the cable car up) Bà Nà Mountains, a former retreat of French colonists, who wanted to get away from the heat at sea level. The touristy town of Hội An is only a hour away. Huế is also close, especially since the Hải Vân tunnel was opened, but I recommend taking the long way up the Hải Vân pass, as it is quite scenic. Huế is definitely worth a few days, with many tombs of formers emperors of Vietnam, and the main palace in Huế itself.
I still need to visit the North, including Ha Noi, Halong bay, and particularly Sapa after doing this presentation!

Why our group choose to do Sapa?
Our group choose to do Sapa because the scenery and landscape of the place is very beautiful, and also because Quỳnh Tiêng has been there, so that we could get some first hand information on the place. The area is very mountainous, with vast areas of paddy field covering it. Sapa is also full of tradition and culture. It is interesting to see the people dressed in their ethnic costume and leading a very different life compared to the city. We hope that by presenting on Sapa, we will be able to share the beauty of Sapa with our classmates and encourage them to go there one day too.
It was also a good opportunity to work on our Vietnamese, and practise our speaking and pronunciation. When preparing the script, we learnt to work around the relatively limited vocabulary available to us to say what we wanted to say, which is an essential skill when learning a foreign language, and hopefully will be useful when we go back to Vietnam.
Finally, we had quite a lot of fun preparing the script, as we decided to present our project as a skit, so that we could improve on our acting skills ;-)

Locals in Sapa, Quỳnh Duyên being one of them in our skit

Hilly area around Sapa

Khách san nghìn sao!

Quỳnh Tiêng on top of Fan Si Pan mountain

Market in Sapa

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