Happy New Year! Now that it is the end of 2016, it is timely to reflect upon the TOPS trip to Vietnam and consolidate my thoughts and feelings about the trip. Before the trip, I set out some expectations in my pre-trip reflection. I hoped that the trip would help me learn more about Vietnam and that I would take the opportunity to delve into the culture of Northern Vietnam and understand the issues that the people there face. I also hoped that the trip would be a fun one and would serve as a short holiday in between a really hectic semester and a projected even more hectic semester two. Now, after the trip is over, I felt that it was an extremely enjoyable and enriching experience that turned out to be better than I had expected.
First off, I found out that in a different cultural and social setting, I am a bit more adventurous and spontaneous. During the trip, I was more willing to make small talk with the locals and more daring to approach them to conduct interviews than I expected myself to be. It turns out that approaching strangers from the position of a foreigner wanting to learn more about the local’s perception of their culture is actually not as scary as I thought. The people that I approached for interviews were all really willing to share about their experiences which made me realize, so long as you are receptive and willing to listen, there is much to learn from the people around you.
The first few people I approached were students from Hanoi University on Day 1. Through interacting with students from Hanoi University, I found out that they were displeased about the hectic state of the traffic in Hanoi due to frequent traffic accidents. I also learnt that students in Hanoi find it expensive to travel to other countries during the holidays and instead, take road trips around Vietnam instead. These tidbits of information are valuable for me in understanding how it is like to be a student in Hanoi and I am pleased that I took the initiative to share more about their lives there. Through the interactions, I learnt more about issues that the students face even though it was unrelated to my group’s topic on gender roles.
Speaking to students from Hanoi University made me learn many new, interesting tidbits of information!
After a short day at Hanoi University, we travelled to Sapa and had fun cafe hopping and interacting with the locals.
We then prepared ourselves to trek up the hills to the homestay location along with May, our guide for the trek. The trek was one of the most impactful and humbling experiences I had of the trip.
May, our trekking guide
It was humbling because all I had was a one day experience (and it was an inaccurate depiction) of how it feels like to be someone living in the more rural village areas of Sapa. It is undeniable that regular people in Sapa don’t return to 5 star hotels to rest and enjoy buffet meals after one night of trekking and homestay in the mountains nor do they enjoy herbal baths and a dinner feast every night as well. What they experience is a daily trekking of 15 kilometres to and fro to the town on treacherous paths, with worries of earning money, of crop failure, and education for their children filling their minds. I learnt from May that money is a real worry for parents living in rural Sapa as they aspire to send their children for education, which they believe is absolutely imperative in improving the lives and future of their children. The homestay experience made me acutely aware of how privileged I am in my position as a student living in Singapore.
Now, moving on to the fun side of things of the trip, I garnered many interesting new experiences. I am happy that I mustered up the courage to take a motorbike ride in Sapa and a trishaw ride in Hanoi despite the hectic traffic there.
I would never have been allowed to ride a motorbike if my parents were present. They hate doing anything risky.
They were thrilling experiences that I do not regret.
In the final part of the trip, USP went back to Hanoi and my group spent some time having fun as tourists shopping and trying out the different foods in Hanoi. In my Pre-trip reflection, I mentioned that I hoped I would have fun with my group members for this module. I did.
Crazje People
Through the trip, we also got to know each other personalities in greater depth which I feel will be important for future group work. For example, after the amazing race, we shared what we learnt more about each other. Most of us agreed that the people in our group were all very opinionated and strong headed but despite that, we could still work well with each other (we came out TOPS in the amazing race!) because we were willing to adapt to each other during the game. The amazing race got me thinking that to be leader does not mean that you have to be an alpha; assertive and firm and unswerving. I now believe that a strong leader needs to assess the situation astutely and adapt such that a best possible result can occur. A leader should be able to recognize that someone else can take the position of the “alpha” other than you, and it is necessary to become a follower at times, in order to avoid conflict which may have deleterious effects in certain situations. Of course, learning more about working styles and leadership is great but the best thing about the amazing race is the amazing $200 Capitaland vouchers that we won! The trip was lovely and I hope it was a preamble to an amazing, tremendous new year.
Photo Credits: Seah Cheng. My fantastic CRAZJE group leader. Thanks for all the photographs!
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