Youth Union

Our first meeting with the local youth was on our third day in Halong Bay. The day before we had all prepared some question about tourism, the economy, and the environment and had related i specifically to Halong Bay. We split up in to three groups, evenly mixed with local volunteers and international volunteers, and in each group a translator was provided. We posed the questions we’d prepared the day before to try and initiate a proper discussion, but this proved difficult as we found it difficult to communicate well. Nevertheless, we continued trying and moved on to talking about ourselves and our experiences with volunteering, as well as theirs. To finish the meeting off we sang songs as is customary in Vietnam. Both the Danish and the German group each sang a song, and the Vietnamese enthusiastically sang several. The purpose of these songs were also to get to know about each others culture, so clearly a cultural exchange took place. 

Fisher village elementary school

On the 29th we all got onboard the ecoboat and sailed off to the fisher village. First we visitted the local elementary school, which was established in the year 2001. This was, for most people, one of the best experiences of the workcamp. We started out with an introduction by one of the teachers about the school, which many of us founds interesting as it was our first encounter with a fisherviallge with a school literally floating on the water. After that our coordinator, Ms. Hang, made a short introduction about SJ Vietnam and Patrimonito. We then moved on to the drawing contest, which appeared to be both enjoyable for the children and for us. We all had some direct interaction with the children as we helped them with their drawings. Despite the language barrier we all had fun, and even managed to learn some Vietnamese words from the children. Both during and after the drawing contest we were teaching some of the children how to make keychains, and they were all given one each. Overall, it was both and educational experience for us and for the children as well as being fun and enjoyable. 

Fishermen

Later that day we went to meet with the fishermen. In groups we had prepared various questions for the fishermen about their lifestyle and their opinions on the environment and tourism in Halong Bay. Due to our large group and their lack of space in the houses, a selected group of people went to talk to them. Each group was provided with a translator to perform the interview. The fishermen were very open and prepared to talk about the every day life of a fisherman. We learnt a great deal about the completely different life that they lead, living isolated out at sea. The lifestyle is so far from anything we know so it was a strange experience for us, but also very interesting. 

Pupils at Middle and High School

On our second to last day at Halong Bay we visitted a middle school and a high school, both were private institutions. We followed the same overall program with an introduction about SJ and patrimonito, key chain making, drawing contest and games for the smaller children. Added to this there was of course several songs performed by us and the locals. 

In conclusion we managed to carry out our message about Patrimonito and the environment in Halong Bay. This was done in a way that enabled us to interact with the locals and learn a lot about their culture as well as being fun for all partied.

Eco Boat

On the first day, we were taken onto the bay by “eco-boat”, to see for ourselves what Ha Long Bay was really like and to learn about the environmental issues surrounding the Bay.  Our first impression of the bay was very positive, the limestone islands rising majestically out of the water and towering over us. Looking at the islands was like looking at clouds of different shapes, inspiring our imagination. The lush vegetation was taking over the islands and covering the jagged limestone with a carpet of green.  

Once we scratched the surface we saw rubbish from tourist boats in the water and huge oil tankers leaving oil slicks disturbing the peaceful picture. 

When we stopped at an island we got off to explore. On the island we realised that it was a frequently visited tourist spot. We noticed a sign telling tourists not to throw garbage onto the ground. However, there weren’t any garbage bins and so garbage was lying around everywhere.  

These first impressions were the basis for all our discussions afterwards and got us thinking...  

Discussion at Ha Long Bay Management 

After getting on the boat for the Trip, a member from the Ha Long Bay Management Department was talking about the Bay and divided us in groups for discussing about the problemes.

The problemes we saw were:

• that there is al lot of trash in the water
• that there is mass-tourism => they throw trash in the water without thinking about it, they need a lot of boats
• that because of the boats there is oil in the water
• that not enough people collect the garbage.

For fixing our solutions we had to write it down on some papers.

The solutions could be:

• to inform the tourists and the locals about the situation => to start a campaign, to create posters which inform about the situation in the Ha Long Bay,to create signs in vietnamese and english and put them at the beaches and at the harbor especially where the tourists are leaving, to give every tourist on a boat an information flyer
• to hire more people for picking up the trash and to motivate more people from the fisher village project to do the same on their own
• to limit the amount of boats which can drive around the bay and to limit the amount of tourists who can get on one boat
• to order generally more bins at the beaches, at the harbor where the people are waiting for the boats, on the boats and also in the Fisher Village places
• to fix some laws if it is possible so that the people have to listen => that you have to pay if somebody sees you throwing some trash in the water, that the owner of the boats have to pay if there are too much people on the boat or if he is not allowed to drive to the Bay.

The member from the Ha Long Bay Management Department was really interested in our suggestions. He was writing them down and got us informations what they have already done. 

We thought for example that there are no people picking up the trash from the water, but that is not true. Every day there are some guys, driving around in their boats for picking trash up.

Also some people of the Fisher Village Project do it on their own. Not a lot, but they do. 

Later we came to the Ha Long Bay Management Department and made a presentation  about topics we prepared like Patrimonito, World Heritage and solutions we found out for the Bay. 

We were drawing a Patrimonito on our own and explaining them the meaning of it. We told them the translation of it and also which different kinds exist, which kind of world heritage projects you find in Vietnam and so on. 

The people in the Department were giving us more information about it so  that we got an overview of the Bay, too. 

It was just sad that the translator was not as good and that we could not understand everything. 

But the member on the boat was speaking a relly good english. 

In the end we all enjoyed this day  and we got a lot of informations that we could use for our discussions with the pupils from the high school.

Visiting Ha Tu coal mine

We finished our workcamp with a visit to Ha Tu coal mine, which felt like it was a million miles away from the beautiful Ha Long Bay we saw on the first day. The mine was huge, dirty, like a scar on the landscape with no sign of life within it. From the highest point on the site we could see out over the Bay, but if we turned around we just saw a huge hole in the ground, the contrast between the two could not have been more apparent. When we talked to representatives from the company they told us about plans to try to restore the natural environment of the area. They have planted one species of tree on the upper levels of the site and grass on the lower levels. Right now it is hard to imagine the site ever returning to its original state.  

As well as our tour around the site we met the youth union of the company and introduced a little bit about ourselves and the work we had done so far.  

Conclusion

We have experienced Ha Long Bay from a very different perspective than most tourists do. We started with a similar point of view as most tourists, seeing the beautiful bay and the deserted islands. However, we ended up with a more critical perception of the area and have gained a greater understanding of the environmental problems around Ha Long Bay.