About the Tour

This Vietnam Community Service School Trip begins in Vietnam’s vibrant and colourful capital city of Hanoi where the students will be delighted with the lively Old Quarter and chaotic traffic. A city tour will immerse the students in the culture of the north before they journey to Ha Long Bay for an unforgettable cruise. After spending a night on board the Ha Long Bay cruise boat a short flight will take them to the central coastal town of Da Nang, on the central coast of Vietnam. Students will travel to the mountains to the west of Da Nang, home of the Co Tu ethnic group, where they will volunteer on building projects in the village. In the village they will also learn about the ancient weaving techniques of the Co Tu people and assist with meal preparations. After 3 days at the village the students will travel to the town of Hoi An located near the beach on the Thu Bon River. Here they will enjoy exploring the peaceful little streets of this charming little town, which are lined with colourful shops, restaurants, tailors and galleries. The tour continues down south with a flight to Saigon where the students will be immersed in war history with a visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum. The tour is completed with a  Mekong Delta full day tour down the fascinating waterways of this vast river to marvel at the colourful life upon the water and enjoy a range of mouth watering tropical fruit and local foods.

About KOTO Foundation and Social Enterprise

In 1996 Jimmy Pham, an Australian of Korean-Vietnamese origin, decided to help the street children of Hanoi build a future for themselves and he started a small sandwich shop which employed the children to service tour groups who needed a picnic dinner to take on the overnight train to Hue. Over the years the shop expanded and by 2008 KOTO had become a training restaurant and a top tourist destination. KOTO stands for “Know one, Teach One” based on the concept that learning should be passed on and knowledge is meant to be shared. KOTO has trained over 600 students in two training centres in Hanoi and Saigon, with 200 concurrently enrolled. To learn more about KOTO you can visit their website http://www.koto.com.au/

Volunteer with the Co Tu

The village of Co Tu is located 80km west of Hoi An, central Vietnam and is home to the Co Tu ethnic group. The Co Tu ethnic group is amongst the smallest of Vietnam’s ethnic minority groups with a total population of just 60,000. Their history remains shrouded in mystery, but they are believed to have descended from the Chinese Dong Son minority group from the Yunnan valley approximately 3,000 years ago. Their culture is rather primitive as they practice spirit worship, slash and burn agriculture, crossbow hunting with poison arrows, ancient weaving techniques and were known to practice head hunting until as recently as 1950. These people are generally small and extremely hardy and were regarded as keen allies of North Vietnamese forces during the French and American wars. Their knowledge of mountain survival techniques and sheer tenacity in battle is well respected. Today the villagers are impoverished and make money by chopping down trees to sell on the black market, which is illegal but they have no choice. Whilst some homes are clean and have tiled floors, most are incredibly basic and none have proper toilet facilities, merely a hole in the floor. The school has damaged walls, holes in the floors, broken windows and no toilets. This community is very much in need of support and assistance. There is a community house in the centre of Paia Village with two toilets and one shower. The students will be housed in the pristine, but basic homes surrounding the community house. The initial projects would be to build toilets for these homes, followed by repairing the school and then building more homes.