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 6 Reflection — Grace, Guang Jun, Kimberly and Lincoln

Q1 ) How is the retail development in HCMC a reflection of the country’s development?

The retail development in HCMC gives tourists and locals the impression of Vietnam’s development, whether good or bad. This is due to the fact that if the country is developed, the retail development would be very advanced and would be similar to retail development in already developed countries, so it would reflect that the country is developed even if the tourists or locals are not sure if the country is truly developed.

Q2 ) How is media use in advertisements for traditional markets and modern markets?

Firstly, there is little or no media usage of advertisements for traditional markets. The organisation of the stalls are messy and packed closely together. Therefore, advertisement may not be the best way to display what the markets are selling since every single corner of the market cannot be spotted easily. Secondly, big posters are placed in front of the market, allowing consumers to see whether they need what they want in the market. Thirdly, media usage of advertisements are widely used and is very common in modern markets. They have huge LCD screens to play and show whatever the market itself offers the consumers. It allow anyone that can see the screen to know more and have a better introduction about the market through the displays. In terms of efficiency, the media usage in advertisement for modern market is much more better as compared to the media usage in advertisements for traditional market as it can target on a larger number of audience and it also bring the message across, visually.

Q3 ) How does the different managements in traditional markets and modern markets work?

In a traditional market, such as An Dong market, goods are pack in garbage bags and tight up using duct tape. Workers will transport the goods around the centre manually. The workers will leave or pick up the goods, depending whether they are for import or export. We assumed that the workers differentiate the different shops with the serial number on their sign board as the shops look roughly the same. The shops in a traditional markets often sell product with not fixed price. The shops are small and the alley are narrow. Often, it can be seen that owners of different store sitting around, eating their meals together.

On other hand, in a modern market, the shops are relatively big and spacious. The shopping mall wide passageway and spaces which allow exhibition and customers to rest. There is rarely any communication between each stores. There is also a reception that serves all the customers.

Q4 ) How does the range of products differ between the retail development in Singapore and Vietnam ?

In Singapore, there is a huge range of products sold, as compared to the retail in Vietnam, which has limited types of products, showing the great difference between the retail development found in Singapore and Vietnam. Example, in Vietnam, products sold were mostly targeted at people going overseas or on a trip, like beautiful shoes, sunglasses, and bags. This is due to the small range of products supplied into their retail stores, thus the kind of products found. In Singapore, however, tons and tons of products are being imported into Singapore from other countries, like China. In Singapore we can see a very very wide range of products, far from what the retail development in Vietnam would be able to show us.

Q5 ) What are the difference between the retail development in Singapore and Vietnam, the comparison between a developed country and a developing country ?

In Singapore, retail outlets are well presented, mostly air-conditioned and goods have fixed prices and are of better quality. In Vietnam’s road stalls, the stalls are usually not air-conditioned, the store is usually messy and some prices can be bargained for. This is usually because some goods were stolen or imitated and given high prices to be sold to tourists and locals. In addition, stalls in Vietnam are not professionally presented even compared to Bugis in Singapore.

Q6 ) What are the environment the Vietnamese trade in?

The Vietnamese trade in a overcrowded environment whereby everything is closely packed together. At the same time, there are people who trade in a comfortable environment whereby every shop itself is organised in a way which allow to use its space to the maximum. This are the traditional and modern environments. Traditional environments are like wet market, family run stores and bazaar stores while modern environment are supermarket, convenience chain stores and online stores. There are 60.6 million consumers and 27.9% of them are people who are from 20 to 29 years old. They spend more and save less.

Overall Learning:

From a day of comparing retail outlets and visiting different types of markets, our group has learnt more about the difference between luxurious retail areas for richer people like tourists and pockets of richer locals ( Lotte Mart ), and wholesale markets with cheaper prices for poorer locals ( An Dong Market ). This allows us to empathize with the poorer locals and realise that nearly all retail outlets in Singapore are like the pockets of luxurious retail areas in Vietnam, which shows how developed Singapore is and how fortunate Singaporeans are.

Day 6 Reflections (May 28) — Si Yuan, Stacey, Davina & Niklaus

Level 1 of An Dong retail market

Multistory Lotte Mart

Vietnamese modern retail outlet, Sieu Thi Co-opmart

EQ 1: Observing the changes in the 2 different retail outlets; traditional and modernized

After visiting 3 of the many malls in Vietnam,  a common amenity that can be found is a game centre. All 3 old and new malls has a game centre. The older malls has a game centre at the top most level of the mall but the newer malls have a game centre at the basement of the mall. This was something I found most interesting because I didn't expect Vietnam malls to have game centres, because of the perception that Vietnam has not been developed to the point at which they can spend on recreational activities. Basically, some of the differences that can be observed easily is the width of the aisle, the number of people in the malls, and the smell of it. The newer ones are wider than the older ones because of area constraints. If the old malls are to be expanded, prices will definitely have to rise and that the consumers will decrease, and because of that, a chain reaction will take place. The weird smell in the older malls are caused by the lack of air-condition. The main issue now is the in-balance of consumers between the different shopping malls. Finally, the last difference between the older malls and the newer ones was that the prices are a bit more flexible in the older malls and that they are cheaper too. Hence, I can conclude that there are definitely a difference between the different classes of shopping centres. 

EQ 2: The transitions of the retail outlets in HCMC from the traditional to the modern retail outlets

The Vietnamese government is improving the quality of life in Vietnam by providing more jobs, living spaces, schools, hospitals, services. Included in services are retail and entertainment—where the retail market comes in. The government demolishes or moves traditional retail outlets to make way for more modernized ones. The shopping malls have to meet the demand of the people’s higher quality of living and thus more modern retail outlets selling higher quality items are slowly springing up in many areas of Ho Chi Minh City. Some reasons why consumers may not go to traditional retail outlets could be the difficulty of organization. The disorganized and overcrowding of shops pose many problems such as the smaller aisles that are usually filled with bags, thus making movability around the shops harder and with the combination of flexible prices, it could create a lot of problems for the shoppers. 

EQ 3: How is the retail development in HCMC a reflection of the country's development

Modern retail outlets, as compared to traditional outlets, provides comfortable, enjoyable, quality and simple shopping inside a single shopping center. The trade off is higher the command of price that is require for the purchase of products or services. As such Newer shops would be built to cater to the growing middle class locals and the tourist coming to the country. They include modern technology like lifts, touch screen navigation to shops, air-conditioned shopping environment and more contributes to make the experience more enjoyable at the retail centers. All these modern technology present in modern retail outlets are the effects of retail development. This comes at a time when Vietnam’s economy is currently growing at a very fast pace. It is one of the fastest growing country in Asia with Inflation growth per year at 8% in Vietnam, while average countries have an increase of 3% per year, Vietnam’s GDP also have a tremendous growth of 6.7% per year. At the rate at which Vietnam’s economy is developing, naturally the spending power of its citizens will increase due to the higher job opportunities available to the citizens. Higher spending power will result in higher demand of quality services and products in the country. Thus the retail development in HCMC is reflected in the country's development as higher spending power will cause citizens to want to shop in better developed retail outlets as there are  better experience and quality. 

EQ 4: The Comparison of singapore and vietnam modern retail outlet

During the visit of the various modern retail outlets in vietnam, we noticed many different characteristics between the modern retail outlets in both countries. The modern retail outlet can be categorized into two different category of spending power. There are higher end retail outlets that sells branded items like Channel and there are retail outlets that either have shops that sells items suited to the middle class or shops that sell items for the middle class and higher class.

Comparing the middle class retail outlets in both countries in general, the Vietnam retail outlet has up to 2 times wider aisle in department stalls as compared to singapore. Also the store space are bigger due to the cheaper per square foot rent. The reason of this could be down to the cheaper land prices which allows these modern retail markets to be built "horizontally" instead of "vertically". As building "horizontally" is considerably less expensive than building "vertically". With bigger surface area, similarities of both malls would be the concept of the interior design, which is elegant and designed to look sophisticated. There are also the mode of transport in the mall, which are escalators and lifts. These are just some of the similarities present. 

Reflection : Day 5 , GuangJun , Kimberly , Grace and Lincoln .

Photo 1, a model of the university.
Photo 2, the building of the university.
Photo 3, a model of VSIP 1.
Photo 4, a entrance to VSIP 1.

Introduction of VSIP 1 and 2 :

The Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) is a world-class industrial park that was initiated by the Governments of Vietnam and Singapore. In March 1994, the VSIP project was first proposed by former Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet to his contemporary Singaporean counterpart Goh Chok Tong. Almost two years later, the project was officially launched on January 31, 1996 in Singapore. On 14 May 1996, the two Prime Ministers gathered again at the project site in Binh Duong to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the first part of the project, VSIP I, (500ha). For the past 14 years of development, VSIP I has become the leading industrial park in Vietnam, and has proven to be a very attractive investment destination, technology transfer and environment protection for many multinational companies for the domestic as well as export markets.

Essential Question :

Q1 ) Why is it important for Singapore and her citizen to venture out ?

Singapore is a small island, and has no resources. This means that if she is to develop and expand, we have to venture out of Singapore. At other countries, like how we buy water from her neighboring countries, example being Malaysia. To develop, we need materials to build, we need to improve the economy. That is why we need to venture out, and not just focus on Singapore alone, to actually be able to properly get the resources and help needed to improve Singapore. Also, due to the size of Singapore, the human population is not big enough, and the expertise needed may not be around. This will mean that she has to venture out and get help from the people of other countries, which might have the talents that Singapore needs to develop.


2) What did Singapore do to develop her local talents?

Ministry of Education opened up serval schools to cater to potential people of different fields. For example, MOE open up School of Science and Technology to developed more professionals to increase the percentage of quaternary industry, increase the number of suitable people in research work.

The increase of research will increase the amount of knowledge the Singaporeans has. Singapore exchange the information they obtain with other countries, improving the relationship between the countries. Better relationship will allow Singapore to participate in trade with other countries easier, obtaining natural resources from them which we do not have.

The school focus more on innovation and entrepreneurship so that the students can adapt to the work environment will they grow up. The school also focus on communication skills so that the students can communicative with the locals and people from other countries. Effective communication will allow better partnership with other countries.

3) How does this integrated industrial park spanning a land area of 500 hectares with full infrastructure facilities and conducive operating environment operates ?

The total area of 2,545ha in the south, since 2007, after 10 years of operation, VSIP has announced its expansion to the north with two projects: VSIP Bac Ninh Township and Industrial Park Complex of 700ha (200ha for Township and 500ha for IP); and VSIP Hai Phong Township and Industrial Park Complex of 1,600ha (1,100ha for Township and 500ha for IP). Talking about the expanding investment of VSIP into township, Ms. Low, a representative of VSIP, said, "After 10 years of success in developing infrastructure for industrial parks, we have realized the investors’ demand for township infrastructure. Therefore, VSIP has decided to develop these two infrastructure projects to create the best investment environment for investors."


4) What are the unique features, purpose and design of VSIP ?

In comparison to the VHIP, the design of the industries in the VSIP area is a reflection of the industries and factories in Singapore, whether it is the roads or the signs. The area is also well planned and the factories have enough space and are not packed closely together. The roads are wide and have enough space to let trucks and large machineries to go to and fro. The purpose of the partnership between Singapore and Vietnam is to make a foundation to develop a part of Vietnam so that Vietnam would have an idea to what she can do to become a developed country like Singapore. The partnership has a few phases and as time goes by Singapore realised that there is a need to set a more steady foundation besides the factories and made master-plans for Universities and layout for the factories, residential areas and study areas.


5) What are the difference between VSIP and SIP ?

In terms of availability of the land usage , VSIP which is located in Vietnam will be able to make good use of the huge span of land to develop and construct different infrastructures for the Industries purposes. This enable the Industries to carry out their production more efficiently. However, availability of land is very limited in Singapore. Therefore, factories and building were built vertically to maximise the usage of the land. In terms of population, VSIP has more workers since they have a larger size as compared to SIP. Therefore, the productive rate may be much more faster and efficient.

Advantages :

The advantages of VSIP 1 and 2 is the 500 hectares of land, it is a large amount of land spaces used to construct and develop infrastructure facilities. So, more factories and industries can be constructed in VSIP to allow a larger production line to reduce cost spent on various aspects. Also, it provides a full range of infrastructures which allow many industries and factories to make good use of.

Learning Objectives :

This trip to VSIP 1 and 2 is to allow us to learn about the need for Singapore to develop her human and other capital in order to ensure her survival in the future.

What we have learnt :

From this trip to the VSIP we have learnt that even though we are two different countries, we can help each other to develop and the partnership improves the relationship between Singapore and Vietnam and this also widens Singapore's network. During the short drive through the VSIP, we observed that this small area is nearly a split image of Singapore, whether it is the roads or the arrangement of factories. Even the trees at the side of the road can be found at the side of most roads in Singapore.

We also found out that Singapore is helping to set the layout for a developed country and Vietnam would improve their country based on these small changes made by Singapore. From this we learnt that even though Singapore is a small country, we are developed and is able to help other countries as they have helped us. We learnt that to become a self sustainable city, it have to be well planned. The factories will provide jobs for the citizens. However, the workers will not want to travel a long way to his or her workplace. There will be a need to have housing provided for them. When they have a job and a house, they will need some entertainment in their daily life. Thus, the government will need to include greenery and facilities for entertainment purpose. If the workers are to move to the city with their family, health facilities and school will need to be included in the design of the city. The government will have to planned the location of each facilities so that it will be convenient for all.

Lastly, the VSIP project is a very huge project, and it is the collaboration between Singapore and Vietnam, to provide jobs for people in Ho Chi Minh City. That is due to the lack of jobs that can pay sufficient money to the citizens, thus the need for factory jobs like the ones in the VSIPs, which can help to increase their pay. The university built in the new city for the rich is going to accept 1000 students in the first phase of the construction, which has 3 phases. This university is built so that the graduates from the university would be able to find a job easily in the VSIPs.

Source : http://www.vsip.com.vn/default.aspx?pid=0002&mid=0002&mdl=1&lang=end

Day 4 Reflections (May 25) — Si Yuan, Stacey, Davina & Niklaus

The Amazing things we learnt and observed today

Forest Trails in the Can Gio Biosphere

The boat that we sat to go to a villager who participated in this project

 Ms Charm interviewing the villager 

A picture of our group after planting seedlings in the fields

EQ 1: I want to know the living conditions of the villagers living in the biosphere and what made the villagers attracted to stay within the biosphere

The living conditions of the villagers in the biosphere is not up to par with todays's urban city. They might have television, but it is still a CRT from what we observed in Mr Long's house. The construction of the house is built using wooden planks as pillars and roof and their boats are built with similar materials. Although authorities are subsidizing the cost of building a new home close to his current location, the cost is still pretty high (est. 185 million dong) and is made worst by the small income that the people at biosphere earns. They simplify do not have enough money to live a very comfortable life. Living in the biosphere also post many additional problems like the lack of electricity that is only confined to the electricity gathered from solar panels. The water supply has to be brought through boats carrying water tanks and the villagers living there have to pay a high price of 60000 dong for each cubic meter of water. Also the villagers have to make long journeys daily just to send their children to schools daily. All of these are some of the problems that causes poorer living conditions in Can Gio biosphere as compared to living in an urbanized city.

EQ 2: I would like to see how UNESCO presented and proposed their ideas the villagers and convincing them to participate in the project

At first, there were not many people who wanted to participate into this project. But after the local authorities increased the pay they would receive when they participate in this project, many people jumped on this opportunity. This was how UNESCO managed to convince people to participate in the project. 

However, I think they could get more locals to willingly participate if they improved their living conditions. They currently have to built their own houses and it is troublesome for them to go to the city. 

EQ 3:  I wish to know if any of the villagers have any ideas to improve the biosphere or to improve their living conditions

They hope that the government can subsides the water prices or the government can release the rights to filtration of water. As well as increase the pay for each hector of land as the price of petrol is very expensive as well as the fee for schooling. The reasons i think why the government is not subsiding the villagers' water prices or increasing wages is because vietnam itself does not have enough water so villagers will be more frugal with the use of water. What the government should be subsiding is the children's school fees as it takes up much of the wages the villagers receive.

EQ 4:  I would like to know how villages get their daily necessity from such rural areas

The people might be staying in rural places but what they earn is barely enough to spend. I found out that they lear how to use their time very wisely when they are in the city sending their kids off to school. They then use that period of time to visit the market to buy their daily necessity. They earn around 3-4 million dongs per month and almost 70% of it is spent on the daily necessity and the kids education. They have to pay for their water supplies every single day and that will cost them 3 USD per cubic metre.

  

In conclusion, there definitely can be an difference in solving sustainability issues as there have been contracts made with the villagers to prevent deforestations in the area that the villager is taking care of. Flouting these contracts can result in a huge fine to suspension from living around that environment. All of these ensures that the trees will not be cut down. Also the villagers living around that area grow many crops that can contribute to the food supply in the whole of vietnam. For example a total of 1.7 to 1.8 tons of shrimp can be harvested per year and this is only per household. Multiply that by the 152 household present in the Biosphere, huge amounts of crops can be harvested. They also use environmentally friendly solar panels to have electricity. Although it solves sustainability issues, but ultimately the villagers living there may have to suffer to achieve such outcome. 

What we learnt from the forest trails in Can Gio Biosphere

  The Can Gio Biosphere is covers 1/3 of the land area of Ho Chi Min City. There are a total of 5 districts in Can Gio Biosphere and has is 71 thousand hectare. Of those 70 thousands are inhabitant. Within the year, there are 2 seasons, the rainy season and the dry season which occurs from May to October and November to April respectively. Temperature around that area range from 22 to 33 degrees Celsius. with an average of 27 degrees Celsius. 

  During the 1964 Vietnam and USA war, the effects of 4 million litres of poisonous herbicides being poured on the forest of Can Gio Biosphere causes the whole area to be destroyed with all the mangroves being killed and rendering the whole forest into a wasteland, but help was on its way. The barren land was recovered by local dedicated local people by importing mangrove seedlings from other far away provinces to Can Gio Biosphere. The whole journey took a total of 10 days and it wasn't a completely problem free journey. Insects destroyed the trees up to 50% of the trees during the 10 day journey to the Can Gio Biosphere, but they cut the weaker trees and used stronger trees to plant the mangroves. So over a span of 30 years, Can Gio Biosphere regained its mangrove surroundings again 

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 3 Reflections (May 24) — Hao Yang, Benz, Hao En & Jurvis

Photo 1:
Air holes for breathing underground.

Photo 2:
Booby trap made out of bamboo.

Photo 3:
Temple sides has arches similar to the ones at the Islamic Mosque.

Photo 4:
The Cao Dai Temple, the architecture has a symmetry.

What have we learnt:

1 The fusion of the Eastern and Western cultures and religion in Cao Dai Temple can be seen through the arrangement of structures and the decorative. Examples of the arrangement of structures adapted from the West are the symmetrical arrangement of the 28 pillars, the balconies, the front structures and the tall figure (much like Notre Dame Cathedral), and the arches (Islamic Mosque). Examples of the decorative adapted from the West includes the ceiling painted with clouds and stars. Those adapted from the East includes the supernatural animals, as well as the colours used (yellow, blue, red). They believe that the Left Eye is closer to the heart which signifies the Yang, seeing everything that people do.

2 The complexity of the Cu Chi tunnels, booby traps and how the Liberation Army (Viet Cong) used guerrilla warfare to defeat the Americans. The traps were carved by bamboo sticks for spikes, they had air holes coming out of the ground to breathe and smoke vents. There was also an underground well where the Vietnamese soldiers could get clean water, as Americans polluted the water. The tunnels are unusually small; only the size of a Vietnamese back then could get through. The entrances, landmines and bunks are very well-covered with twigs and dead leaves, leaving the Americans extremely susceptible to the Vietnamese and have no knowledge in Guerrilla Warfare. This shows that the Vietnamese were very intelligent and had great team spirit and morale to get America's remnants of bomb shells and create their own weapons.

3 The Cao Dai Temple, although seems well-planned and intricate, has no master plans made before the building was constructed. It was constructed without architects or professionals, but rather local farmers. Hence it took 5 years to construct. After the building was done up, the government requested for its master planning, which then the people started to take measurements of the building and put it back into "planning stage". Our group observed that there were a lot of sand and the prayers wore a white costume.

Day 2 Reflections (May 23) — Hao Yang, Benz, Hao En & Jurvis

What we have learnt:


The government is only reducing the number of traffic jams via developing roads and infrastructure planning and registrations of vehicles (motorcycles).

Some of the buildings are influenced by the French, and they are called colonial buildings.

This can be seen through the symmetrical design, large open porch, arches and decorative features in the architecture. In addition, the France-lookalike traffic lights around the area also supports this.

District 2 is still in development. Its aim is to replace District 1 as an urbanized living area. The infrastructure and layout of District 2 is also more well-planned than District 1.