When I started to searching about Vietnam and places to go, I find out there are lots of Chinese characters in some traditional buildings, like this one. Thus, I started to research more about the connections between Vietnam and China. The bilateral relations between Vietnam and China have been turbulent, despite their common socialist background. I'm not … [Read more...] about Connections
Reading through our itinerary I kept asking myself what are Nats and why do they have shrines. So here is what I found on the subject. Nats are the spirits worshiped uniquely by Burmese. They are the equivalent to catholic saints in that they were once human, but meant sudden deaths and are now consider guardians. The Nat tradition is thoroughly woven into Burmese daily … [Read more...] about Nat Shrines
Curious about the Royal Haskoning project in Yangon decided to read up and here is a summary of what I found. Royal Haskin appears to have two primary goals in Myanmar. The company was contracted by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to complete “a Feasibility Study on the improvements of the navigability of the Ayeyarwady River”. The Ayeyarwady River is centrally … [Read more...] about Royal Haskoning – Yangon
I've decided that I really want to know about each of the places we are going to go. So, I’ll start with Saigon and what there is to do in Saigon. I’m sure that Ms. Pham and a couple of the other students who have experience in Vietnam have a better idea of this, but I’ll just use the general knowledge available on the World Wide Web. Saigon is another name for Ho Chi Minh … [Read more...] about Ho Chi Minh City
It is crazy how busy I am at this point in the semester. I hardly have any spare time to prepare myself for the trip which is quickly approaching. I know I still need to do a lot of research, work on the projects, try different foods, figure out what else I need to buy, and figure out what all I am bringing with me. And I have a bunch of assignments in all of my classes. I … [Read more...] about Crazy Busy