Upon reaching Vietnam, it seemed surreal that we were finally here after months of preparation. When we went to Hanoi University, we were excited to get started conducting our interviews with the students and collect as much data as possible. However, it did not take us much time to realize that the collection of data was not as easy as we perceived it to be.

While the students had a modest grasp of English, the interviewing process was not as smooth as I had envisioned. For a start, I tended to bombard them with long interview questions and it confused them. Throughout the trip, I realized I had to modify the way I asked questions and slowly learnt to break down the questions into shorter segments. Furthermore, I had to learn to strike the balance between giving the interviewees room to share freely while learning to direct them back to the topic when necessary. Hence, after the first day, I felt extremely overwhelmed as the interviewing process was not as straightforward as I hoped for it to be. Data collection was also difficult as the responses varied and we had to relook and sieve through the information and we had to refine our interview questions to make them more specific so that we could gather more relevant data needed.

Although I was initially excited to present our information in the form of a photo-journal, the enormity of the task weighed upon our group as we realized that there were so many things to consider such as: What should we focus on? How should we allocate the 30 photographs? What is a good angle to take it at? Is the lighting good enough? Does the photo capture what we wish to talk about?

After an exhausting first day, we gradually improved over the next few days. We allocated specific tasks to each individual, and being one of the main interviewers, I learnt and developed skills on how to ask interview questions tactfully and effectively. As such, the interviewing process was slightly easier and data collection was less of a hassle and we were able to relook the responses with greater ease and noticed that some data began to triangulate.

The trip was an extremely eye-opening and refreshing experience. While I have met certain expectations such as having a better understanding about the type of team player I am through the different leadership activities for us, I personally do not feel that my pre-trip expectations are adequate benchmarks to rate the trip.

Firstly, my pre-trip expectations regarding fieldwork were idealistic. I not only naively believed that interviewing the locals would be a simple task, I also had unrealistic expectations that the responses would not vary greatly and that the data would converge. As mentioned above, after this trip, I have not only realized the difficulty in conducting fieldwork in a foreign land, I have also learnt how to better conduct interviews and collect data.

Next, I feel that it is impossible to be able to set pre-trip expectations in all areas and hence throughout the trip, I was pleasantly surprised in many ways. While I did set off to improve my communication skills with foreigners and was able to meet that expectation, it was done with the mindset of wanting to be able to gather sufficient data for our paper. I was initially results-oriented and would try to direct interviews back to our topic on globalization on food. Yet, I gradually learnt to appreciate the opportunity to connect with them and decided to be more open and learn about Vietnamese culture as a whole, rather than in the specific area about food. As such, during the amazing race, I held conversation with our Vietnamese buddy with the intention of knowing her better and making her feel more at ease with us. However, I was pretty surprised that our conversation was able to provide insights for our project as well. For one, we touched on Vietnam’s history – I previously took history in JC and was interested to learn more about Vietnam’s past. She explained that Hanoi was considerably more resistant to globalization as compared to Ho Chi Minh City as they were able to fend off colonisation while Ho Chi Minh City was colonized and showed how the national pride in different parts of Vietnam has a role to play in terms of the extent of the effect of globalization on food culture. As such, I learnt to change my mindset towards the entire trip  – which was not something I had set out to do in the first place.

Lastly, my expectations were also greatly surpassed. While I already had high expectations for the trip to Sapa and the trek, with the knowledge that the trek would be an unorthodox and exciting one, I was completely blown away by the experience itself. It was very invigorating to have an unadulterated experience of nature – the breathtaking sight of the terraced rice fields coupled with walking past animals like buffaloes, pigs, ducks and seeing them roaming around carefree. Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed the home-stay. It was wonderful to see the young children in the village playing with each other, instead of being hooked to electronic devices as we often see in Singapore. Personally, I also found it amazing how the villagers knew that they were much less well-off as compared to the different visitors that came to their homes to stay, and yet were not resentful about this huge income gap. They were still very eager to share with us about their lives and culture and are still contented to live their lives simply. Hence, the trip not only met my expectations but greatly surpassed it.

While the more memorable part of my trip would be in Sapa, it is rather difficult to describe all the impactful events that happened in Vietnam as there were so many and they were all special in their own way. But one thing is for sure, the trip was amazing!