Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [49]
There are also opportunities for volunteer work. Try contacting the organizations listed below, or look on the websites of the NGO Resource Centre Vietnam (www.ngocentre.org.vn) and Volunteer Abroad (www.volunteerabroad.com).
Travel essentials | Working and studying in Vietnam |
Study, work and volunteer programmes
Australian Volunteers International Australia 03/9279 1788, www.australianvolunteers.com. Postings for up to two years, focusing on rural development, vocational education and capacity building.
British Council UK 0161/957 7755, www.britishcouncil.org. TEFL vacancies are posted at www.britishcouncil.org/teacherrecruitment, or call 020/7389 4931. Information on teacher exchange and development programmes abroad can be found at www.britishcouncil.org/learning-ie-teaching-exchange.htm.
Brockport Vietnam Project US 1-800/298-7869, www.brockportabroad.com. Opportunities for American undergraduates and graduates to study in Da Nang, and to participate in community service activities.
Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) US 1-800/40-STUDY, www.ciee.org. The non-profit parent organization of Council Travel, CIEE runs semester and academic-year programmes in Vietnam.
Earthwatch Institute UK 01865/318 838, US & Canada 1-800/776-0188, Australia 03/9682 6828; www.earthwatch.org. Long-established international charity with environmental and archeological research projects worldwide, including Vietnam. Participation mainly as a paying volunteer but fellowships for teachers and students are available.
Global Volunteer Network UK 0800/032 5035, US 1-800/963-1198, Australia 1800/203 012, New Zealand 04/569 9080; www.volunteer.org.nz. Non-governmental organization that supports the work of local communities through the placement of international volunteers.
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) UK 020/8780 7500, www.vso.org.uk. A British government-funded organization that places volunteers on various projects around the world.
Volunteers for Peace US 802/259-2759, www.vfp.org. Non-profit organization with links to a huge international network of “workcamps”, two- to four-week programmes that bring volunteers together from many countries to carry out needed community projects. Most workcamps are in summer, with registration by April/May.
Explore Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City and around
The Mekong Delta
The central highlands
The south–central coast
The central provinces
The central provinces - Part 2
Hanoi and around
Ha Long Bay and the northern seaboard
The far north
Ho Chi Minh City and around
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC for short), still known as Saigon to its seven million or so inhabitants, is Vietnam’s centre of commerce and the country’s biggest city by far, though not its administrative capital – an honour that rests with Hanoi. As a result of the sweeping economic changes wrought by doi moi in 1986, this effervescent city, perched on the west bank of the Saigon River, has changed its image from that of a war-torn city to one of a thriving metropolis, challenging Singapore, Bangkok and the other traditional Southeast Asian powerhouses.
All the accoutrements of economic success – fine restaurants, flash hotels, glitzy bars and clubs, and shops selling imported luxury goods – are here, adding a glossy veneer to the city’s hotch-potch landscape of French stones of empire, venerable pagodas and austere, Soviet-style housing blocks. Sadly, however, Ho Chi Minh City is still full of people for whom economic progress has not yet translated into food, housing and jobs. Street children range through tourist enclaves hawking books, postcards, lottery tickets and cigarette lighters; limbless mendicants haul themselves about on crude trolleys; and watchful pickpockets prowl crowded streets on the lookout for unguarded wallets. Though the number of beggars is gradually declining, tourists must quickly come to accept them as a hassle that goes with the territory. In addition, the arrival, en masse, of wealthy Westerners