We stayed in Ho Chi Minh City Tan Son Nhat International hotel near the airport. We did a lot of sight-seeing when we were in Ho Chi Minh City. It has tree-lined streets and many fine buildings built by the French in the late 1800's. Notre Dame Cathedral was built out of red brick, and was constructed with two bell towers and a statue of the Virgin Mary at the front. We had many photos taken of us and bought many traditional handicrafts in Bat Trang pottery village- one of the famous professional handicraft villages. We also reached lakes,gardens and many interesting places. The next day, we want to Hanoi by domestic airline. Hanoi has been the capital of Vietnam for 800 years. It lies on the banks of the Red River. This city is surrounded by many tiny streets that form the old quarter. In this area it is possible to buy and barter for goods. We noticed that each street specialises in a certain product. In Hang Gai Street , you go to have silk clothes made, go to Trang Tien for books, and Hang Dao near the lake for sunglasses. Hanoi still retains many buildings that show the French influence. Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum which houses his embalmed body is in the centre of the city. We bought rare books in Trang Tien and silk clothes in Hang Gai street . They weren't too expensive and we were happy to buy them. We had our dinner in traditional restaurant. It was very clean and the taste was very nice. We continued our trip to Ha Long Bay when we finished our dinner! It is near Hanoi , so we went there with minibus again. Ha Long Bay is in the Gulf of Tonkin and is made up of over 3000 islands. We went around islands by boat .Sight-seeing around it and we had our lunch on boat with fresh fishes and crabs which we got from the sea. While the boys were fishing the girls were serving the dinner! The taste of fishes were nice and smells great and sweat but little salty. Then we went to Cu Chi tunnels to finish our trip to vietnam . The Cu Chi tunnels were originally used as a military headquarters by the Viet Cong. It consisted of hundreds of underground tunnels with dead ends and punji pits, a form of booby trap to fool and kill intruders.It was an amazing tunnel and we got excited when we cross the tunnel. We paid thank-you speech to Ngo Quang Minh Hai, a language teacher of Vietnam for taking us to some interesting places in Vietnam. Then we left for Laos on March 19th.

Ms. Khin Aye Cho (LL 9)
Language Teacher and Grade 10 students,
No.2, Basic Education High School, Dagon Township,
Yangon, Union of Myanmar.

hs2dgn@gmail.com
khinayecho@gmail.com