Ten day Vietnam adventure for Isle of Wight students

Students from Carisbrooke College, Medina College and the Island VI Form, all part of the IW Education Federation (IWEF), spent ten days travelling from North Vietnam to the South via key locations in the central regions.

Some of the highlights included visiting the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, exploring the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the 17th Parallel, journeying up the Mekong river while avoiding snakes and giant spiders and spending the night with a local family deep in the rainforest.

Joe Briscoe, trip leader and Mandarin teacher, said: “To visit these places by yourself is one thing, but to undertake such an adventure with 30 eager and attentive young people behind you who are all willing to push themselves outside of their comfort zone and run towards new experiences brings a whole different level of satisfaction as a teacher.

Rory Ainsworth, 16, making friends at Ha Long Bay (Image: IWEF)

Amelia Strickland, 15, on the banks of the Mekong River and Lewis Chambers, 14, meeting some local school children in the Mekong Delta (Image: IWEF)

“We certainly encountered both the weird and the wonderful out there and I'm certain that as a result every student will have grown in countless ways.” 

Carisbrooke College student Lewis Chambers, 14, said: “Going to Vietnam taught me so many things, but the most important thing that it taught me was to try something new, no matter how nervous you may be.”

Amelia Strickland, 15, said: “This trip has made me a lot more adventurous in many different ways.

“For example, I tried food I wouldn’t have been able to try here, and I now have the courage to go to other places like this.

“I have learned so much about how the Vietnamese honour their dead. They use incense as they believe that when the smoke reaches the sky it connects them to those in heaven.”