30 mars
Après un petit-déjeuner copieux à l’hôtel. Nous avons pris un bus très confortable pour un trajet de 3 heures en direction de la baie d’Halong. À mi-chemin nous nous sommes arrêtés dans un atelier où travaillaient des artistes handicapés qui sculptaient et dessinaient des superbes toiles. En descendant du bus nous avons eu le souffle coupé à la vue de la mer et du bateau dans lequel nous nous apprêtions à monter. Alors que le bateau quittait le quai, nous sommes montés sur le pont où nous avons pu contempler les montagnes karstiques et l’eau scintillante. Après un peu de repos nous avons visité une grotte découverte par une française et qui l’a baptisée « la grotte de la surprise ». Suivant M. John, notre guide, nous avons visité l’intérieur. Nous avons été surpris par la taille de la grotte ! Elle était immense ! Sur le bateau, après le dîner, M.Lay notre cher capitaine nous a proposé soit de faire un karaoké soit d’aller pêcher des calamars a l’arrière du bateau. De beaux souvenirs plein la tête, nous sommes ensuite allés nous coucher dans nos cabines respectives en pensant que demain ne pourra qu’être une plus belle journée.
Virginie et Carine
30th of March
After eating the most delicious breakfast ever, we took off by bus to Halong Bay. Some students listened to music, played games while the others were sleeping. After one and a half hour we took a break and stopped at a handicraft shop to buy some souvenirs and gifts. Once we arrive at the boat, Victory and ate lunch happily. Before we went to the cave we had freetime so everybody could have some rest. When we arrived at the « Surprise Cave », everyone was excited but we had to walk alot. Still, the scenary was still worth it, there were many beautiful and natural caused rocks. When we came back to the boat we rested a bit. In the evening, we ate seafood for dinner and we had a wonderful time fishing and singing karaoke. At the end of the day, everyone got tired and went to sleep.
Annesa and Sengdara
31 mars
Nous nous sommes réveillés à 7 heures, pour prendre le petit déjeuner. Tout le monde semble très excité par le programme qui nous attend : du kayak sur la baie ! Nous étions à deux par kayak. Nous nous sommes tous amusés à nous éclabousser : c’était pimaii en avance ! Nous avons aussi fait la course entre nous. C’était fatigant de pagayer ! (sauf pour Virginie et Manisone qui se sont laissées portées par leurs coéquipiers 🙂 Nous étions tous heureux d’avoir participé à cette merveilleuse aventure. Le paysage était fantastique ! L’après-midi, nous somme partis visiter un village flottant de pécheurs. Nous avons découvert leur vie quotidienne, qui est très différente de la notre… Ensuite, nous sommes allés à la plage. Nous avons joué au football, au volleyball et certains d’entre nous se sont baignés, l’eau était froide ! Enfin, pour terminer notre journée nous avons organisé une soirée dansante. Cela restera un très beau souvenir. Avant d’aller nous coucher nous avons pu observer des méduses phosphorescentes. Quelle journée inoubliable !
Ménie et Manisone
31st of March
Today after eating a breakfast of toast and bacon, we stopped at a closed-off lagoon with lots of caves and tunnels,and kayaked for 1 hour and a half. It seemed that the teachers were the ones having the most fun splashing everyone! We then went to a peaceful fishing village with a lovely view to see the way of life of the local people. We saw their school and houses. We came back to the ship for lunch and then went to the beach for games of soccer, volleyball, and of course, to swim. We stayed their for 2 hours and took some group photos before returning to our rooms, having a lovely dinner and dancing at the disco. During the disco we saw some amazing jellyfish that turned blue and green at the touch of fresh water. After returning to our rooms we went to sleep and got ready for the next day.
Hamish and Felix
1st of April
At 7 am, only one third of the students woke up to take a small breakfast and they practised Tai-Chi for about 20 minutes. Two hours later, the other students woke up and packed their luggage.
Of course some students forgot socks, shirts… At 10 am, we had one of the best brunches ever (it was a buffet with a lot of seafood, meat, rice and of course spring rolls). Only half an hour later we reached mainland. It was one of the saddest moments of this trip when we had to leave The Victory ship. It felt like we had to leave a friend behind.
At 4 pm, after an eternity sitting in the bus from Halong to Hanoi (nearly 4 hours with 20 min break in between), we reached once again the Crystal Hotel. We stayed in the rooms only for 5 minutes before we went to the biggest shopping mall in Hanoi. We’d like to thank Gabriel, one of the students, to tell us about this amazing shopping mall. We had one hour of pure shopping that sadly passed away too quickly. At 6 pm we had a dinner composed of chicken noodle soup, spring rolls, rice, vegetables and other vietnamese dishes. At 8 we went to the Water Puppet Theatre and observed with fascination this masterpiece of a show. The show was divided in 16 acts. These acts were about the legends of Vietnam. This show lasted for 55 minutes. Then we took 21 cyclos to go around the lake and back to the hotel. This is our last night in Hanoi, tomorrow we have to wake up early to catch our plane. It was a wonderful trip, everybody was happy and we’re sad that we couldn’t stay much longer.
Khounvilay and Jerry