Day 3

Photos are slightly out of order...but what a day. I still feel like I'm dreaming, everything is so spectacular and I can't express how happy I feel. Today we trekked out to Tian Tan Buddha this morning which is all the way towards to airport (about an hour away using public transit). We got there at around 9:30am and the first cable car started at 10:00am, but time went pretty quickly and next thing we knew we where on a cable car high over the shore and up in the air, the view was indescribable. I feel as though these photos don't do justice to how beautiful this place is. You could also hike to the village/buddha however I'm glad we didn't because it was quite far and steep. We went fairly early in the morning to beat the crowd and also because we have discovered that it is less smoggy in the morning, in the afternoon it is harder to see.

This is what's called the Wisdom Path. 

There were gorgeous monasteries!










And Voila!!!!.... the Tian Tan Buddha. It is one of five large Buddha statues in China (height of 34 metres). 






































Had my first encounter with a "squatter".



Every night at 8pm there is a light show at Victoria Harbour. The island lights up and puts on a lazor show to the sound of music.




After the light show Jim and I crossed the river to the island and participated in a pub crawl. It is an organized meet up every Thursday night where they give you a meeting spot and about 60-90 people show up. The organizers take you to 4 bars and one club. It became an incredible way to meet people, since most people who come are our age and travellers as well. We met one guy from Calgary who is travelling Asia on his own, just graduated Uni and he will be in Hanoi next month for a few nights so I added him on Facebook and told him to message me when he is in town and we could meet up. Another girl who is from England told us some tips and suggestions from her experience in Vietnam. She is heading back home this weekend and coming back in a few months to teach English around Asia. She was really enthusiastic and funny. Overall it was a cool experience and I'm glad we did it. Now we are back at our hostel, it is really late here and we are very tired. We are checking out tomorrow morning and heading over to the island where our second hostel is located.


On a side note, we finally got an email from IVHQ explaining what kind of work we will be doing. Jim and I will be working at a youth centre which is one of the projects that SJ Vietnam is working on. http://www.sjvietnam.org Apparently our main tasks are:

- Working with a local team to look for and researching about NGOs in Hanoi.

- With support from our local team, we will interview them to have general description of NGO work. It means us and our team will find out what kind of work volunteers can do at NGOs in general..

- Writing report about specific requirement from each NGOs to volunteers and write description about those NGOs. 

These details are still a little broad, but I'm sure they will clear up when we arrive Sunday. 

Anyway....I should get some sleep. Not 100% sure what the plan for tomorrow is but I'm sure it will be another amazing day. I will update you all next chance I get! Good Night!