Day 6 Reflections - Pei Shan

Today we went shopping!

A apple retailer @ Vincom Centre

First we went to Vincom centre. It is a very modern shopping centre, similar to shopping centres in orchard road. Most of the goods there are branded and they are very expensive. They have shops like Converse, apple retailers and many more. It is a shopping mall more for the rich. The structure of the shopping mall is rectangular shaped with the one escalator on one end and the other one on the other end.

Picture of the person transporting the goods by rolling it down the stairs.

@ An Dong Market

Secondly, we went to An Dong market, which is a traditional market. It is similar to our wet markets, just that it does not only sell food, but clothes too! The shops there are very close to each other and its very stuffy. You have to squeeze through the aisle because firstly, it is very narrow, secondly, the stall owners are sitting around on small stools. They also have an interesting method to transport goods from a higher level to a lower level. As the main entrance of the an dong market has many steps, they would roll down the package to get it to the bottom level. The goods are most probably clothes as if they were food, it would be badly damaged.

Thirdly, we went to Lotte Mart. After that, we went to CO.OP mart. The goods in Lotte Mart are more expensive than those in CO.OP mart. They do not sell any fake goods. They had long travelators for customers to move from one level to the other. They used travelators instead of escalators so that customers can bring their trolley along with them. Lotte Mart is a korean mart. We also have one in Singapore. It is similar to our giant megastore.

CO.OP mart is a local mart. The prices of goods here is cheaper than in Lotte Mart and there are also fake goods. Both the supermarkets had this system of locking bags in lockers. This is most probably for security reasons.

Retail marketing in Vietnam and Singapore has a huge difference.
Retail marketing in Singapore is more mordernized than in Vietnam. The most common place to shop for food is supermarkets like NTUC, Giant and Sheng Siong. The most common place to shop for other stuff are shopping malls. The malls are air-conditioned, goods are of better quality, the goods there are of fixed prices and there are no bargaining. In vietnam's markets, most of the things are not of fixed prices and they can be bargained. It is not air-conditioned and they sell a lot of fake goods. Even in local supermarkets, there are fake ones.

The retail marketing in Singapore is well developed. Our most common places to shop at are our shopping malls, which is like those expensive and luxurious shopping malls in vietnam. Whereas in vietnam, the retail marketing is not as well developed.

DAY 04 - Casandra, Carisa, Jaime, PeiShan

Visit to Mr Long's Place

Ferry Ride- Home of a Family

Ferry Ride - Local boat, which was home to some

Can Gio Biosphere- Plants living the desert-environment

Can Gio Biosphere- Before Planting of the Seedlings

What we have learnt about Can Gio Biosphere?
The forest occupies up to 1/3 of Ho Chi Minh, 34 000Ha, and is located at the south. The forests experiences two seasons, the dry season from December to April, and the rainy season form May to October every year. The area has an average temperature of 27 degrees celsius, highest temperature of 33 degree celsius and lowest temperature of 22 degree celsius.

The mangrove forest was used as a military base during the Vietnam war. During the war, the Americans polluted the river along the forest with more than 4 million litres of herbicides to get rid of the Vietnam soldiers there. The forest was destroyed by the war.

After the Vietnam war, the government decided to recover the destroyed forest and to conserve it. In order to recover the forest, the local people had to buy mangrove trees from other provinces. Many of the local people participated and contributed in the recovery of the forest. It took them more than 10 days to transport the mangrove that they bought from the other provinces by boat. Even though they were able to get mangrove from other provinces, they lost half of the mangrove forests that they bought, due to the pests which infested those trees. When the trees grew, the people removed the small and weak trees to prevent overcrowding, for the benefit of the bigger and stronger ones.

After 1997, the government banned trespassers from damaging the forest. People were not allowed to affect the natural growth of the forest. The government then decided to split the forest into 24 parts for easy maintenance. Some parts of the forest were out of bounds, some were used for scientific research and residential purposes. Many household and agencies volunteered to take care of a plot of land of the forest. Local authorities subsidize a sum of money for the household to maintain a certain plot of land of the forest. Household who are maintaining the forest are suppose to protect the forest. They cannot allow trespassers to damage the forest by chopping down the trees. The household will be fined if they were to allow trespassers to chop the trees. If the household allow that to happen more than 2 times, the local authorities will consider to dismiss them.

What are the living conditions and lifestyle of Mr Long, who maintains a plot of the mangrove forest?
The household who maintain the forest live a simple lifestyle. Mr Long built a simple house for his family 10 years ago, out of wood. He uses wood to make the simple furniture in the house. In addition, Mr Long has the television as an entertainment and window to the outside world. We have observed that most of the furniture in his home is old and some are not in proper working order. In order to have clothes or have items of cloth material, Mr Long has a manual-sewing machine for them to make daily necessities such as clothes. In order to save money on water, we observed that the women in the house wash their dishes in a basin of water. This method enables them to reuse the water.

We also observed that some parts of Mr Long’s was an added to the house after the house was actually built. We infer that these add-ons are to improve the house, in terms of strengthening its structure, ensure security and beautifying the place. These improvements are such as the approximately two feet tall gate at the entrance of the house to keep their children inside the house for their safety. These add-ons are mostly recycled from another product.

Mr Long’s income is not very high. Fortunately, as his income is only sufficient to support his family and only have some savings, they do not have to pay taxes. Mr Long makes a living out of his shrimp farm and by taking care of a plot of mangrove forest. He will collect his harvest of shrimps and sell them to the markets in the city. On the other hand, the local authorities pay him for taking care of the plot of land and subsidies the family with electricity by providing solar panels. The local authorities also promise to build them a better home in future. Mr Long has the telephone and mobile phone, but cannot afford to use them on a regular basis due to his low income. He only uses them in emergencies to communicate the city.

On a daily basis, Mr Long has to sent his children to the city to attend school and for business. He stays far away from the city and hence, have to spent 1,000 dong on petrol to travel from home to the city.

What have we learnt?
From our visit to Can Gio Biosphere, we are glad that Vietnam is contributing to keeping the Earth green and clean by putting in effort, time and money to recover and conserve the mangrove forest which they lost during the Vietnam war. This trip taught us that recovering a forest is difficult. It was not easy to plant the seedling of the mangrove trees.
We have also learnt that we have to appreciate the fortunate blessings that we receive in our lives, because there are children like us out there who are not as fortunate as we are.

Day 5 reflections - Pei Shan

Eastern International University

A Picture of the trees at VSIP I

VSIP 1 and VSIP 2

VSIP stands for Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park.

At VSIP 1,
The trees, flowers, and roads really reminds me of Singapore's Changi Airport.
The roads had many many bumps, which is exactly like in Singapore.
I find it pretty good as the traffic in Vietnam is pretty dangerous so the bumps would slow the vehicles down. There were different lanes like in Singapore too. However, many of the citizens there do not really care about those lines so they would drive anyway they want. They also had a kennel.

There were many companies there. Like Yakult (only for the Vietnamese), Huggies, etc.

Why do companies set up their factories there?
-Cheap Labour
-Cheap Land

VSIP I covered a total area of 500 ha

VSIP II Covered a total area of 1000 ha. It is currently expanding as it has many empty spaces.
There is a university in the Binh Duong Province which is called the Eastern International University.

It is a new university, covering 26 hectares. It has only 3 schools so far. Nursing, Business, and engineering. It would have more schools in the future when there are more students.

DAY 03-Group C: Casandra, Carisa, Jaime, PeiShan

Cu Chi Tunnel
Cao Dai Tunnel

Cao Dai Temple:

Caodaism:
Taoism
Confucianism
Buddhism
Catholic
Islam

When did Caodaism start?
It started at 1926.

How did it come around?
The people wanted peace between different religions in Vietnam. Therefore combined the religions. The Cao Dai temple in the Tay Minh is a combination of Western and Eastern designs. The Cao Dai temple has two symmetrical towels, influenced by the Notre-Dame Basilica. Even so, the temple is decorated with designs influenced by Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, such as dragons and the colours, red, blue and yellow.

Practices of Caodaism
Follower have to pray 4 times a day.
At prayers, followers have to wear a white outfit, with long sleeves.
During the prayers. the followers seat in the same posture as the Islam followers.
There is hiearchy within the temple. Within

Cu Chi Tunnel:

The vietnamese made booby traps and stole the americans’s bombs and reused them.
The tunnel is 200 km long.
The tunnel has been re-sized to fit the tourists
The tunnel has 3 levels; first level is 2 to 3 metres deep, second level is 5 to 6 metres and the third level is 9 to 10 metres deep.

What were the resource that were used during the war for survival?
They used simple tools such as a bamboo basket and spade to dig the the system of tunnels. They also used simple materials for the traps that they set, such as bamboo, dried leaves and spikes. As for their footwear, they recycle tires to make slippers out of them. They use the rubber from the tires as they are durable and can be removed from the spikes of the traps easily and when the belts of the slipper breaks, they can be replaced.

Why did they built the Cu Chi tunnel?
The people in Cu Chi needed shelter from their enemies, the Americans. Unable to stay above ground, they built the system of tunnels underground to hide from the enemies. They hide underground in the day or go into battle with the enemies and come out at night to set the traps to prepare for battle on the next day.

What have we learnt from the features of the Cu Chi Tunnel?
The Cu Chi Tunnel is a well, planned, complicated system of tunnels.
strong structure
The Cu Chi tunnel was a smart tactic for war

Day 2 reflections

What I have learnt



1. I learnt that the French influenced Vietnam a lot (because Vietnam was once controlled by the french). Their buildings had french designs too like in the picture above. The above pattern has criss-crosses, spirals and archs which is similar to the french's design.

2. I learnt that the citizens of vietnam live in rocket houses or noodle houses which is short in width but long in depth. This is so because they are charged by the width, so in order to pay less for the houses, they build houses small in width but long in depth. They also build multiple stories for more space. The houses are also tightly packed to maximise land space.






3. I learnt that vietnam is trying to increase the number of modernized buildings by creating new modern buildings in district 7 and such. It is very important to have modern buildings as it would attract other business men and immigrants etc. This is important to vietnam as it would help them earn more money. There would be more and more modern buildings in the future which would give more jobs to the people.