Today we delved deeper into the culture of the Vietnamese. Learn more about religious customs, the history of the country and a bit of musical action!Xin Cháo from Thanh Hoa! To get to know our Vietnamese friends better, we started our second day with a cultural speed dating session. Each of us looked for a Vietnamese partner to talk about their travel behavior. The results were then presented and discussed. To our surprise, the most significant difference was that most Vietnamese students had never traveled abroad before. They also spend much less money per day on travel than we do. After a short coffee and cake break, we continued with lectures on the cultural characteristics of Vietnam and Germany. Finally, we were given a short Vietnamese crash course.
Buddhas, artifacts, vodka & co
After some refreshments, we continued on to the historic Dong Son Village. Our latest accessory, the Vietnamese conical hat, was of course a must on this excursion. Our tour of the village began at a pond from which artifacts were excavated by the French many years ago. You're probably wondering what exactly these artifacts are. Well, we couldn't really make it out from the somewhat bumpy translation of the Vietnamese explanation. But we assume that they are probably Buddha statues and vases or something like that. After a shoe and hat striptease, we went on to the temple next door. There were several altars with various statues and pictures of Buddha, Hoh Chi Min and other VIPs of the country. Did you know that the Vietnamese commemorate their deceased relatives by sending offerings such as vodka, beer, coke and sweets to the afterlife using incense sticks? We were certainly surprised by this. Our tour ended in the oldest house in the village. It is around 200 years old and is still owned by the same family, now in its 18th generation.