McGlashan's 2024 Vietnam Trip

Our 2020 trip was cancelled due to “that which shall not be named.” We had planned the trip for a good year and a half before the 24 students, nine parents, and three teachers left Dunedin, bound for Hanoi via Auckland and Singapore, on Friday, 27 September.

Hanoi
One of the most memorable things about Hanoi is the smell. At times, it smells of delicious food cooking. At other times, it smells like rotting food and excrement. It is a beautiful and chaotic city; the Old Quarter is unique, with its narrow, towering buildings and remnants of French architecture. We had the privilege of seeing the great Vietnamese nationalist, Ho Chi Minh, lying in state in his glass coffin, flanked by soldiers in his mausoleum. The night market, in contrast, is capitalism in full swing, and we had to wonder what Ho Chi Minh would have made of that. Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton, is a confronting monument to the suffering of the Vietnamese at the hands of French colonists; it is also an interesting example of propaganda in its portrayal of how American prisoners were treated. Our day trip to Ninh Binh, including a peaceful boat ride through the grottos and a walk up to Mua Cave, was a welcome reprieve from the madness of Hanoi.

Sapa
In the Vietnamese highlands, Sapa is renowned for its tiered rice paddies and ethnic Vietnamese culture. McGlashan trips have not visited Sapa before, but we certainly will in the future. We were lucky enough to experience an ethnic Vietnamese community, the Hmong, and spend time at a local school. We participated in a bizarre club version of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” and our students reciprocated with the McGlashan haka, which both terrified and exhilarated the children in equal measure. They enjoyed it so much that our students had to perform it twice.

Hoi An
Located in central Vietnam, Hoi An is an old trading port with a mix of cultural influences. It’s often the place people remember most fondly because it is simply beautiful, with lanterns hanging from all the buildings and floating down the river, lighting up the night. During our stay in Hoi An, we spent time learning to cook famous Vietnamese dishes at the Red Bridge Cooking School, making lanterns, getting clothes tailored, and enjoying the best Banh Mi in Vietnam (certified by Anthony Bourdain). Hoi An also gave us the chance to take a day trip to My Lai, the site of a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers of Charlie Company in March 1968. This was a confronting experience, but also an important one—completely different from reading about it in a classroom.

Hue
Heralded as Vietnam’s “City of Romance” and “Imperial City,” the teachers would more accurately call Hue “Vietnam’s Bermuda Triangle” or the “Hamilton of Vietnam.” While the imperial buildings are spectacular, Hue is a place where the normal rules do not apply. Historically located near the DMZ (demilitarised zone between North and South Vietnam), some might say it still feels like a frontier city.

Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon)
Once known as Saigon and the capital of South Vietnam, the city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after North Vietnamese tanks smashed down the gates of the Presidential Palace in 1975, reunifying the country. It is a bustling and vibrant city, and certainly one of our favourite places to visit. The weather in the south was much hotter. We travelled an hour outside the city to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, part of the Viet Cong tunnel network used as a base to attack Saigon. We got a taste of being a “tunnel rat,” though the tunnels have been widened to accommodate well-fed tourists. We also visited the Reunification Palace (formerly the Presidential Palace) and saw the preserved tanks that remain on the grounds. The War Remnants Museum, located in Ho Chi Minh City, is dedicated to commemorating the Vietnam War—or the American War, depending on your perspective. The photos and recollections shared there are not censored as they might be in New Zealand. Two things that exemplify Ho Chi Minh City are the traffic and Ben Thanh Market—both are utterly insane by New Zealand standards but lots of fun too.

Back in New Zealand, we are already missing the heat, the atmosphere, and the Vietnamese iced coffees, salt coffees, egg coffees, and coconut coffees.