Sport - Rugby School

Report
2009/10
Report
Report
The next two weeks were spent travelling south, stopping off on
Ilha Grande, an island just off the coast, which boasts one of the
top ten beaches in the world, and Florianopolis, a city situated
on an island connected to the mainland with great beaches and
some fantastic surfing.
My last week in South America was spent in Buenos Aires. I
had heard great things about this city and had been looking
forward to the nightlife. The people manage an incredibly laid
back and fashionable lifestyle: going out to eat late at night and
only reaching the clubs in the early hours of the morning. We
ate some of the finest steaks in the world here, where farmers
allegedly play their livestock classical music in order to relax
them, increasing the quality of the meat.
After an amazing week in Buenos Aires I flew across the Pacific
to Sydney for a quick two-day stop over. It rained for the two
days I was there so I didn’t get the proper Aussie experience on
Bondi Beach but I still managed to go over the harbour bridge
and to see the Opera House. I was lucky enough to be taken to
the Blue Mountains by some family friends, however when we
arrived we couldn’t see anything due to thick fog; it did clear for
a couple of minutes so I caught a glimpse of the iconic ‘Three
Sisters’, but it was only a glimpse.
Having had enough of the bad weather we flew up to Bangkok
where we met friends who had come out from university. Four
weeks were spent hopping from island to island, scuba diving
and relaxing on the beaches.
Diving off the ‘junk’ – Ha Long Bay
Yet another bus drove us across the border into Vietnam. This
country was by far my favourite in South East Asia. We travelled
up the coast from Ho Chi Min in the south to Hanoi in the
north. We drove for six hours on some incredible mountain
roads, scorched by the sun in the morning then hit by torrential
downpours in the afternoon, arriving in Da Lat soaked to the
bone and shivering.
After this extremely relaxing period we started to travel again,
back up to Bangkok and through Cambodia, stopping at Angkor
Watt and Phnom Penh. Angkor, like Machu Pichu, was stunning.
It was hard to imagine how people could have possibly built
such great structures. During the short amount of time we
had in Phnom Penh we visited the killing fields, learning of the
shocking crimes the Khmer Rouge committed.
Ha Long Bay was our next stop. We enjoyed stunning scenery
from aboard our ‘junk’. The first night was spent on the boat,
lost in this magnificent paradise. The second and third days
were spent on a tiny island right in the centre of the bay in a
thatched shack, open to the elements. This island also had a
small motorboat, so we were able to water-ski around Ha Long
Bay in the sunset.
Street vending in Hanoi, Vietnam
We finished our adventures in Hong Kong. I bought presents
and relaxed and had time to reflect on how the whole trip had
been a huge success with very few problems along the way. Our
time spent in Cuzco had been incredibly beneficial to others
and I will always remember the children we worked with. It was
a great and humbling experience for us.
I would like to thank the Dewar-Pilkington trustees for their
very generous scholarship which made the trip possible for
me, covered my rent whilst working in Cuzco, and bought the
supplies needed to provide the children of San Marcos with the
materials they needed to enter their school system.
Josh Oates (W 03-07)
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