The same vacation can mean something different to every person on it, and École Desrochers’ five students who recently travelled to Vietnam over spring break, discovered just that. 

The students, Sabrina Charlebois, Ashley Hayes, Kayla Paltzat, Maggie Villeneuve and Madolan McKenzie, were accompanied by principal Jocelyn Nadeau and teacher Suzanne Villeneuve. The trip covered the length of the country over 18 days during spring break. 

Each student had a unique experience over the course of the trip, and they shared their experiences with the Fitzhugh upon their return. 

It was Charlebois’s first time out of North America, having only travelled within Canada and the U.S.

“It was a really, really amazing experience,” she said. 

Of the many experiences they had, Charlebois said she enjoyed visiting a school for orphaned children and kids on the street on the last day of the trip. There they spoke with the nuns who run the school and had their lives in Jasper put into perspective. 

“It kind of made me think how lucky we are,” Charlebois said, adding that the children seemed so happy with so little. 

The students were lucky to have French-speaking guides tour them through the country, and had thought they would only use their language between the group.

“We thought going into this that we wouldn’t be able to speak French very much,” Charlebois said. 

They discovered many people that spoke French, especially vendors who see many tourists from France. Charlebois said the vendors even had their own accents influenced by the French tourists. 

Hayes said her favourite part of the trip was Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ha Long Bay is a series of thousands of limestone pillars and islets in the Gulf of Tonkin. There, the students slept on a boat. 

Hayes commented on the language use saying the experience was “really amazing,” and that she enjoyed learning some Vietnamese phrases. 

Paltzat enjoyed meeting people and the countryside, especially the Mai Chau region. The students travelled two hours from Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi to reach Mai Chau. There they were surrounded by rice fields, watched traditional dances and stayed with homestays. The region has a risk of malaria, so the girls all had to sleep underneath mosquito nets.

“They were a really nice group of people,” Paltzat said. 

Maggie Villeneuve had a harder time deciding what was her favourite part, but discussed the different kind of cities they experienced, compared to Canada. 

“In such a little space there’s so many people living,” she said. 

Villeneuve said the houses were built tall rather than wide like in North America, and there were “five million” motorcycles. 

“My favourite part of the trip was trying to cross the street,” Villeneuve said excitedly, going on to explain how the Vietnamese don’t have much organization at their crosswalks. The students were told by their guides to just close their eyes and walk steadily across the street while cars maneuvered around them. The cities had thick exhaust and very little pollution control. Many people wore masks to protect themselves. 

Villeneuve also enjoyed the food, especially nem, a kind of deep fried spring roll. 

Vietnam is experiencing its spring right now, so the country was overcast and cold. Villeneuve said it was humid and the temperature rose over 30 C in the southern region of the country, but they only experienced about three days of sunshine. 

As the girls stepped off the plane, they were swarmed by people asking them to purchase things. It was something they struggled to get used to throughout the trip.

“They’re always on you,” Villeneuve said. The people also wanted to take pictures with the girls.

McKenzie also struggled to pick just one part of the trip she thought of as her favourite, but remembers a moment in Ha Long Bay watching the lights of the fishing boats bob along the water at night, casting shadows on the nearby mountains.

McKenzie did experience a shock when she noticed dead dogs for human consumption. 

“To us, dogs are the cute little pet that you keep,” she said. Dogs are not consumed in all parts of Vietnam, and McKenzie learned that the country can be vastly different from one part to the next. “Even within the country there were huge cultural differences.” 

In the cities, motorcycles are an important mode of transportation. McKenzie noticed animals tied onto the bikes, such as goats and poultry. 

McKenzie and Villeneuve have red and purple hair, which is not something Vietnamese people see every day. The two girls found themselves the centre of attention. 

One of the major cultural differences the girls spotted was the country’s health care. The girls noticed ads in newspapers where people asked for someone to help out with their health care bills. Wealthy people would respond to the ads and help out, and a thank you ad would be posted. The girls enjoyed how the communities took care of those less fortunate, and commented on the wealthy people paying their fortunes forward. The people also shared their food, and were proud to have everyone, rich or poor, provided for. 

The girls said that each time they ate, they were served huge amounts of food, and felt obligated to eat it all. While they tried, a lot of it ended up in front of Nadeau, who did his best to eat as much as he could to be polite. They later learned the Vietnamese take it as a compliment if food is left over, because it means the person has eaten until they are full. If food was left over, it was always used in some other way; either the staff at restaurants took it home, or it was fed to animals. 

“Nothing gets wasted, that’s something I really liked about Vietnam,” Charlebois said. 

Now that the girls are back in Canada, it seems their first big international vacation will not be their last. Hayes said she enjoyed getting out of Jasper and seeing a different culture. 

“We got to live something different from what we know,” she said. 

Charlebois said this certainly has started a life of travel for her. 

“I think I’ve definitely caught the travel bug,” she said. 

McKenzie said all five of the first-time travellers have had a life-changing experience in Vietnam. 

“I think we all grew a bit during this trip,” she said.