Oh The Places We Will Go

31/05/2026

What a powerful and emotional day.
Today we headed to the supermarket to spend the money we’ve raised over the last 6 months buying supplies and toys for local orphanages. Seeing everyone come together for this cause was unreal.
Our first stop was a Catholic orphanage for children with disabilities. We handed over the supplies and spent time with the kids. I brought 10 Hot Wheels cars for each orphanage, and they disappeared almost instantly. One boy grabbed the cars and immediately started playing with me that was pretty cool!
We visited a baby room with children living with severe deformities, makes me grateful for the opportunity’s and up brining I’ve had.
One child randomly ran up and hugged me, Many of the children were in wheelchairs or living with conditions I can’t even begin to imagine. Some only have a life expectancy of around 7 years, but the carers see it as their purpose to give those children the happiest and most loving life possible during that time.
After lunch, we headed to the second orphanage. As soon as we arrived, all the little kids came running out to help unload the bus. They sang for us, and we spent hours playing together — Hot Wheels, catch, soccer, volleyball — just having fun despite not speaking the same language.
One comment today really stayed with me:
“I just watched you walk into a room of 100 orphans you’ve never met, who don’t speak the same language, and within 5 minutes you had 30 boys laughing and playing catch with you. That was beautiful to watch.”
That meant a lot.
The kids tried to get Tameem and I to box , but we settled for arm wrestling instead. While we were arm wrestling, one of the boys came up behind me and gave me the biggest hug.
We finished the day watching the sunset at the beach, drinking traditional Vietnamese coffee (absolutely unreal), then headed out for dinner before jumping in the pool back at the hotel.
Perspective is everything.
A day I’ll never forget.

25/05/2026

Up early again around 5:30am and headed downstairs for the hotel’s all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast. WAY bigger selection than our last hotel, but the coffee was nowhere near as good ☕😂
After breakfast we met up with one of the Vietnam Veterans and headed out to Long Tan. We’d been given special access to the memorial for the day, approved by the local police because we were travelling with a Veteran. We held our own small service, reading the oath in both Vietnamese and English before a prayer and laying roses and incense at the memorial. Such a special experience ❤️
We also met a veteran named Jeff who now lives in Vietnam helping disadvantaged school kids and looking after the Long Tan memorial. Absolute legend 🙌
Later we headed to some lesser-known war tunnels around Long Phuoc. These definitely weren’t touristy — there was only one other group there with us. We did two tunnel walks, one around 500m and the other honestly felt over 800m long and took forever 😭 One of the teachers stacked it, but the funniest part was when one of my mates got smacked in the face by a bat 😂 There were bats EVERYWHERE flying around underground.
We then cruised through Nui Dat to check out the old airstrip and surrounding area before heading to a beachside Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. To play it safe after yesterday’s fish and chips disaster, I ordered salt and pepper squid again 😂 Honestly though, this place was awesome and definitely not built for tourists.
After the 1-hour bus ride back to the hotel we stopped to exchange cash, where my maths skills finally became useful 💸 I’m now casually carrying around 3.4 MILLION d**g in my wallet 😂
A few of us went for a swim back at the hotel and even got a sou out of the principal which was elite 🌊😂 Dinner tonight was super fancy — they even placed bibs on our laps for us. Funniest moment of the night was watching someone peel a prawn and the poo bag explode everywhere.
Today was such an amazing day learning even more about the history over here. It’s just really sad to see how little remains now

21/05/2026

Started the day at 5:30am with another unreal all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast before heading back upstairs to finish packing and meet the group in the lobby at 8am. We met up with our tour guide and headed to the airport, but things got a bit scary during check-in when one of our group members fainted in the line. Airport staff were amazing and had them attended to and transferred to hospital within 15 minutes. Later we found out they were completely okay and would be catching a later flight to meet us that evening 🙌

While waiting for the flight I grabbed Burger King for lunch — the burgers over here are HUGE and honestly so good 😂 On the flight I met a Scottish woman who was great to chat with, but apart from that it called for a solid one-hour nap before a very turbulent descent into Ho Chi Minh City.

After arriving we met up with the principal, jumped on a bus and went out for lunch… where I had the worst fish and chips ever 🤢 It genuinely tasted like dirt. We then started the 2.5-hour bus ride to Vung Tau. Of course I fell asleep for half the drive, even though I actually wanted to stay awake and see the countryside this time 😭

Dinner tonight was at a very non-touristy local restaurant. I got fried squid with caramelised onion sauce and it was actually YUM 😍 The only issue… no forks, only chopsticks. The locals were absolutely staring and laughing while I attempted to use them 😂

Then to finish the night, the supermarket tried to overcharge me AGAIN, water was “buy 2 get 1 free” but they charged me for all 3. I tried explaining, they tried Google Translate, I held up the line for ages… and eventually accepted defeat over about 30 cents 😭

Now back at the hotel resting up for another big day tomorrow

20/05/2026

Definitely a more chill day compared to the chaos of the last 2 😂
Up at 6am for the hotel’s all-you-can-eat brekkie buffet before jumping on the bus at 8:30 for the 1 hour trip to Ba Na Hills.
Farrrr out… this place was INSANE. We jumped on one of the longest gondolas in the world — a 17 minute ride climbing 1480m over rainforest-covered mountains. It felt like Queenstown NZ gondola and luge… but 20x bigger with castles everywhere 😳
Spent the day exploring gardens, castles, hidden areas and riding another gondola across the mountain. Unfortunately, the view was blocked by pollution fog, and the place was absolutely packed, which tested my patience a little 😂
Ended up having another all-you-can-eat buffet. There was heaps of cool food to try like duck, but my stomach was not feeling it today, so I stuck with rice noodles and chips.

Then came the roller coaster saga…
1 ride was 100k, 2 rides was 180k. We all wanted 1 ride, but the tour guide kept pushing us to buy 2 saying that was the only way to get priority access with our VIP passes. After checking with staff myself, I realised she was just trying to upsell us for extra commission.
Safe to say I wasn’t too impressed about getting lied to and had and got into an argument with her 😂
Anyway… roller coaster was actually unreal, flying through the rainforest.

On the way home I stopped at a supermarket:
3L water + 2 Pepsis = $2 aud, cheap as chips.
Actual chips $8 = somehow the most expensive item in Vietnam 😭but they charged my less looking tourist friend $3 aud for 3 packets 🤔. So I told her I don’t want chips, put them back, at that price🤣.

Then later at the buggy station there was a lady charging 5k to use the toilet. I tried giving her 1k because I saw everyone else doing it, she said “NO 5K.” I said “ok me not go toilet” and I walked off while the teachers laughed at me 🤣.

Finished the night with dinner at the hotel, a swim with the group.

Despite all the chaos… honestly loving every minute of this trip!

19/05/2026

Basket boats

19/05/2026

Another massive day from start to finish.

Started with a 6:30am hotel buffet — noodles, bacon, coffee, fruit… they had everything.

First stop was a marble shop where some of the carvings were honestly really impressive.

Next up was Marble Mountain, a sacred mountain filled with temples, caves, and insane views. Definitely one of the coolest spots so far.

Then we stopped by the beach for a quick look. The sand looked unreal, but the haze hanging over the ocean was pretty wild to see.

After that we explored Hội An Ancient Town and honestly I loved it. 400-year-old buildings, lanterns everywhere, tiny shops packed into every street, and people everywhere. I also tried deep fried banana for the first time… surprisingly good 🍌

Later in the day we headed out on basket boats through the river channels. We got spun around in circles, threw fishing nets, caught fish, and cruised through huge sections packed with hundreds of other boats. Such a fun experience.

We also met a different tour guide who took us through the local markets and showed us heaps of different fruits. I probably brushed him off a bit at first because of my experiences earlier in the day… which I definitely regretted later.

The best part of the day was easily the cooking class afterwards. He invited us into his home where we made spring rolls, Vietnamese pancakes, salad, and fish over open flames — and even got to try the fire cooking tricks ourselves.
Hey and his wife were genuinely some of the kindest people I’ve met so far. You could tell they were just passionate about making sure we had an amazing experience.

Now finishing the night eating the mango he sent me home with because I told him I loved it 🥭

Vietnam just keeps getting better.

18/05/2026

During the April school holidays, Koen and a small group of students and teachers spent part of their break in Vietnam on a study tour.

This is Koen’s story ✈️

Big day for anyone unlucky not to sleep on the plane… they’ve now been awake for 23 hours straight. Couldn’t be me though 😴

After waking up at 2:15am on 40 minutes sleep, we headed to ADL airport meet the rest of the crew for our flight to Melbourne. I slept the entire flight, obviously.

At the international terminal, I was once again pulled aside for a pat down. At least this time they asked for guardian permission first 😭

Then came the 8.5-hour flight from Melbourne to Ho Chi Minh City. I slept through most of it besides waking up for two meals, which made the flight go pretty quickly.

Customs in Ho Chi Minh was chaotic — one officer yelled at us for not standing in a perfect single-file line.

Our final flight was a short hop to Da Nang, followed by a bus ride to Hội An. We checked into the hotel, showered, and crashed ready for a big day tomorrow.

10/01/2025

for.....

Koen to try to go skydiving. He tried in Franz Joseph and again in Queenstown now, Taupo.

We woke up with perfect weather, and Koen got to jump from 15,000ft, he experienced 60 seconds of freefall, reaching speeds of 200kph

From above, he could see Lake Taupo, Mount Ruapehu, the coast-to-coast of the Central North Island – all the way from Mount Maunganui to Taranaki and best of all his favourite he could see Taupō Motorsport park 😀.

10/01/2025