Exploring Thien Canh Son Caves

After a great night’s sleep at sea, we got energized for the day ahead with a group Tai Chi lesson on the top deck of the Victory cruise ship. We enjoyed coffee and tea and a light breakfast while we made our way to Thien Canh Son cave, which means mountain landscape in the heavens.

The cave is located on Bai Tu Long Bay and set below a stone cliff. It was created by techtonic movement, volcanic eruption, sea regression and erosion from rain and sea water. It was beautiful on the inside, with a sparkling ceiling and stalactites.

After exploring the caves, we enjoyed an assorted buffet brunch, another delicious meal on the boat while we headed back to shore. We disembarked at 11:30 and started our four-hour bus ride back to Hanoi.

During the first half of our bus ride we had a Sponsor Spotlight from classmates, Kevin and Rebecca. They taught us more about Robinson Organization and Consulting Group, who taught us Gridworks during our first seminar. They help organizations and companies work together to implement change and help instill a common base of values.

After the Sponsor Spotlight, we participated in two facilitated discussions during which we shared with the class the most interesting/random thing we've seen on our study tour so far and things we've observed that are both the same and different as Canada. We talked a lot about the different food we have seen and random items being carried on scooters, as well as our shared values and surprising similarities and differences in agriculture between Vietnam and Canada, like our grocery shopping habits. Most Vietnamese pick up the food they are going to use fresh every day from a local market.

We stopped at Legend Pearl Farm to learn about the process of pearl farming and had a chance to browse the showroom and purchase authentic pearl jewellery made from the farm. There are three types of pearls, Akoya (classic) South Sea (white) and Tahiti (dark). Naturally, they take about ten years to form; however, on the farm they can speed up the process to five years.

We met Dr. Dao Xuan Cuong at our hotel to learn about the Syngenta corporation and Syngenta foundation in Vietnam which does extensive work to help farmers in Vietnam with sustainability, pesticide safety, and profitability.

We ended the night, and our time in Hanoi, with a buffet dinner at a local restaurant where we could interact with the locals.

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