Reflections of a Student Guide

By Ho Thi Uyen Thu

This story is about my reflections as a student guide for the Monash Malaysia study trip while on the Mekong Delta trip.

Me at the Cao Dai Temple, one of the places I visited as a student guide.

My day began at 5.00 am, starting out from the hotel my Monash friends are staying at. I took a bus from my home to the hotel, a journey which takes me one hour daily. Not that I mind really, because I look forward to meeting my friends. I hoped that this day too, like the others, would be a great day so I could do everything, enjoying the trip.

After the last session concluded, it was time we for our two- day trip to the Mekong Delta. It was wonderful  to escape the congestion, air and noise of Ho Chi Minh City. We took a bus from near Mai Vi Hotel in the morning. We were gently lulled to sleep on the bus. We arrived in the Vinh Long province mid- afternoon. We really had a fun  trip. The trip provided us with a look at a wide variety of the life and scenery of the Vietnam River from the peaceful Delta. On the way we saw daily activitives of local people along the river. We visited a  honey bee keeping farm, tasted some honey wine, rice wine and kept moving. Walking to a village lodged next to the Delta and taking a rowing boat with nature by our side were among our other activities.  We also visited a rice husking mill and a rice noodle making shop. Special mention to the Cai Rang floating market we saw, the biggest floating market in Vietnam. It was wonderful!

Row, row, row your boat down the Mekong stream.

Being on this trip brought to me alot of amazing things. I’ve never had such a fascinating experience before.  Not only was this is the first time I saw amazingly the peaceful canals of Mekong Delta; being on the tour broadened my knowledge and I was able to explore a lot of different places in my own country. Apart from that, I was able to practice English a little bit each day and learn from you, my friends, various things about your culture, know more the lifestyle of young people in Malaysia, and what you think of  your current education. From that I also realized both of us (Vietnamese and Malaysian students) mirror each other in terms of good attitudes to the  society, even though we have different lifestyles. Moreover, I see that you are much more active than Vietnamese students through the way you organize the trip, the way you discuss about various topics, and your attitudes. This trip also gave me a better chance to make new friends like you and know more about you, and lets me love you even more. Thanks to you, I feel so friendly, dynamic, and active. Thank you to Abeer for helping me alot, making me more confident about myself. Mumbi whom I love so much for being so humorous so kind a girl like no other before- I want to say that it was nice being your roommate, dear Mumbi.  Wui Jia, Lo, Nadia, Joanna, John, Sabrina, Christina, Farah- you are all so friendly, funny and warm. Thank you all for giving me a chance to be friends with you. I hope I will have chance to meet you again in Malaysia. Sincerely, thank you for visiting my country.

Fun, fun, fun (at Cai Rang floating market)