Ho Chi Minh City

A busy few days in Ho Chi Minh City as the group has travelled to different venues and meeting some interesting people.

War Remnants Museum and Cu Chi Tunnels

When visit Vietnam it is important to get a sense of the recent history which in part revolves around the war with America.  As well as learning about this from our guide Tiger students have also learnt more by visiting the War Remnants Museum.  A very confronting experience with photos of the devastation and destruction of war, it makes you wonder what it was like before they toned it down in the mid 1990s and changed the name from the American Crime Museum.  To add a different perspective the students were also taken to Cu Chi Tunnels where we saw the different forms of warfare and the students even had the opportunity to go into on of the tunnels.

Heart of Darkness

We have also visited the Heart of Darkness brewery and heard from owner and founder John Pemberton.  John is hugely passionate about beer (257 in two and a half years) and has been very successful and is about to open his third brewery, this time in Singapore.  Not bad for a guy who quit a high paying job to brew beer in the kitchen of his apartment.

It is interesting to see how he has linked the brand of the bear back the book ‘Apocalypse Now’ and how this has driven the names of all of the beers they offer.

Caravelle

Moving out of the Good Vibes Hotel and into the five star Caravelle has been well received by the students with the beds being highly rated, along with the pool, spa, sauna and breakfast buffet – go Cecil with two helpings.

We were lucky enough to be shown around the hotel by Rooms manager Morgan to learn more about the hotel and recent renovations.  We were then joined by Michael the General Manager to learn more about the hotel and working abroad .

Runam

It was great to see everyone dressed up for an amazing dinner at the Runam Bistro who welcomed us for the third year in a row.  It was also great to be joined by former UEH student Poly for dinner.  The Runam team looked after us with a coffee making demonstration and some amazing service.