The latest RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL TO COI VILLAGE

Hello everyone! It's Gabi, a new editor of the blog. I come from Poland and work as an International Coordinator for VEO this summer. Although I have been doing the internship in Hanoi for 2 weeks already, it's still a very exotic country for me.

Even before my arrival in Vietnam, just after I had found out what Volunteer for Education Organization aims for, I was eager to join its excursions to see how the life in the Vietnamese villages looks like. Little did I know about the variety of culture, ethnic groups and their traditions but I was sure that in the rural areas I would be able to observe it in its purest form. That's why I took the first opportunity to go to Coi Village.

Before the excursion, we had a meeting in the VEO office where we met all the participants and got to know our tasks. I was assigned to the English teaching team (there are also marketing, event and infrastructure teams).

We set off from Hanoi on Saturday at about 6.30 am. Although we had to wake up early and the weather was rainy, nobody really cared about it, we were all excited about the trip. Even the coach was different from the ones we have in Europe. It was equipped with extra foldable seats in the aisle so that more participants could join the trip, but still it was comfortable and air-conditioned. The distance from the capital to our destination Ban Coi in the Phu Tho province is only 130 km so I wondered why the estimated journey time was 4 hours! I got to know the answer quickly. The roads in Vietnam are full of motorbikes even outside the city, so it is quite hard for a coach to break through them. What is more, as we were moving avay from Hanoi, the roads were becoming more narrow and rugged. But the time seemed to be flying as we were entertained by our project coordinator Dung. We stopped midway in a rest area to uncurl and admire magnificent tea hills (đồi chè).

After the short break, we continued the journey. The bumpy road made us jump in the most unpredictable moments but even this didn't hold some people back from sleeping! When we arrived to Coi Village we had some time to practice our performance for Gala Night and take pictures of the beautiful views around us.

Then we took typical Vietnamese food for lunch. I especially liked salted pork with sesame and bamboo shoots..

After a midday nap, we went to the proper village to meet the children and teach them the vocabulary that we had previously planned. We were divided into 2 groups, The first group was sent to a culture house in Bản Cỏi and my group, led by Hien headed for another stilt house. Before we started the class, we handed them some lollipops. Our students didn't really know how to react. At first they were very shy but very curious to meet us. Then we entered the "classroom". To be honest, the conditions were very poor and when I say it I don't mean there were no computers or no projector, we didn't even have a blackboard. That was the moment when I realised how disadvantaged the community in that area was. It was also quite hard to teach the children. They couldn't concentrate on studying seeing so many new faces around them. First we reviewed the vocabulary they had learnt during the previous visit of VEO volunteers and then we went on to teach them some basic clothes. I must admit that although the task was not easy, the results were very rewarding. After studying, it was time to play!

On our way back to the homestay we could admire the amazing landscapes surrounding Coi Village again.

After we had eaten dinner, we went to put on the Gala Night. Our event team prepared a fireplace and a stage for us to perform but unfortunately, the weather upset our applecart and we couldn't set the bonfire. Despite the rain, we were trying to carry out the event outside but when the downpour grew stronger, the organizers decided to finish the performance indoors, in our homestay. Every team prepared some song, game and finally we were all dancing and having fun together, even though we can't speak Vietnamese, we could enjoy ourselves anyway.

Although we wanted to stay up late longer, we had to go to sleep early in order to get up at 5:30 am. All because on the following day we had a hiking trip to Xuan Son National Park. We left our homestay in the early morning after taking some instant soup for breakfast. However, with the fresh air so different from what we are used to in Hanoi, we didn't regret waking up so early at all. At first the trail was easy and flat but then the path became narrower and we had to make a bigger effort to climb it up. Nevertheless,, it was worth hiking, after we reached the top of the mountain we started going downhills again to some torrent valley. It felt like a stream in the middle of a jungle. We could refresh ourselves in its cool water and take a lot of amazing pictures. We could also admire a beautiful waterfall. Some of the volunteers decided even to have a bath! We spent some really nice moments there/ One thing that I disliked in the place was the amount of rubbish tourists had left there. I felt that we should keep educating people on how to treat our dear environment.

Later we headed for our homestay but we still had a cave to visit. Although it was about 100 steps more to carry, most of us decided to put up the fight. I must admit that I didn't expect the cave would be so big and full of various mineral formations that we always study about in Geography. They don't even charge you for entrance, you just need to bring your torch and you can admire all these natural sculptures. Pictures cannot show its real beauty!

When we finally reached our homestay, we were exhausted still very happy. We ate dinner with relish, packed our bags and started our bumpy journey back to Hanoi. On our way we stopped in a rest station where we could buy some fresh diary products. I really liked the taste of Caramen dessert!

After 4 hours we finally arrived. I am sure that I will never forget this trip, not only beacause it was my first time in the countryside here, but also because of all the activities we did there and the people we met. 

This is the view that I will keep in my mind.

I really encourage you to join this trip. 

The next responsible travel to Ban Coi is organized this week! 

You still have a chance to take part in it :) You just need to fill in the registration form: http://bit.ly/1RB2u59 and wait for our instructions.

Have a nice day and keep up with our upcoming trips by following our Facebook fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Volunteer-For-Education-Organization/499327216760853