When I was initially invited to take part in a Global Wales partnership project trip funded by the British Council with collaborators in Vietnam two thoughts crossed my mind…
1. What an incredible opportunity (one that I might not get again).
2. Oh dear, I have a real fear of flying (and I mean really bad).
As we began to plan the trip and I heard more about it, I was even more convinced of the brilliant opportunity that it would bring. Travelling for work can be a rewarding yet challenging experience and this trip would take me literally half way around the world with Cardiff University’s delegation.
Here is how I got on.
Day 1: Heathrow to Hanoi
We started our journey with a minibus trip to Heathrow. It was a couple of hours from Cardiff to Heathrow, but given I hadn’t met anyone else travelling on the trip before, the conversation was flowing. Bill from Global Wales had been brilliant in answering our pre-trip queries and he even brought croissants. We were in London before we knew it and we had plenty of time, so we ambled around the airport before boarding our flight.
As someone who hates flying, even I was impressed by the double decker flight that was taking us to Dubai. Admittedly the man sat next to me was man spreading so hard that it wasn’t a particularly comfortable journey. But, I took a deep breath, put on some cheesy Christmas films followed by some relaxing music from the entertainment system and these helped me through. There was even in flight Wi-Fi which made me feel happier as I could keep in touch with friends and family.
About 7 hours later we landed safely in Dubai and we had a few hours to transit through the airport and spot the golden palm tree, before boarding our next flight to Hanoi.
Six hours later we landed in Vietnam in the beautiful city of Hanoi (yay, I’d made it and was super proud of myself). We grabbed a taxi to our hotel and we were all pretty knackered so we decided to have a few hours rest before agreeing to meet up again for dinner. If you are travelling in a group for work the group dynamic can make or break it and this bunch were absolutely great, which I was very grateful for. We even agreed to knock on each others doors if anyone overslept past our agreed meeting time because eating and getting over jetlag is important.
On our first evening we had a lovely dinner in a beautifully lit restaurant on the edge of a lake in Hanoi. Admittedly I used the pictures in the menu to try and work out what I wanted to order, as although I had learnt a few words in Vietnamese, my language skills were pretty rubbish. Once we’d enjoyed our dinner, we had a walk around the city, taking in the joys of the city at night, a food festival and working out how to cross roads (the key is maintaining consistent speed so that you don’t get run over!), before visiting train street. Although it was dark, train street offered an interesting sight seeing spot where trains pass really close by to restaurants and cafes, it was pretty cool. I knew that we had to get up very early the day after for our next flight to Hue, so I called it an early night and prepared for day 2 of our adventure.
Days 2 & 3. Hanoi to Hue
I was glad I’d called it an early night the evening before as we had a 6am taxi to take us to the airport for our internal flight to Hue. I wasn’t sure what to expect from internal flights, but regardless, I knew that our flight was only an hour, I could do that! I found the in flight safety video really interesting, it was a mix of safety briefing and K-Pop video and almost as soon as we’d reached altitude we were preparing to land again, hoorah.
Now, Vietnamese hospitality is incredible and our hosts from Hue University had very kindly arranged an airport transfer for us to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel and had a few hours to relax before our hosts had arranged lunch for us. Vietnamese culture is so kind and hospitable, and as we met our hosts at a local restaurant we were provided with food, a lot of food. Everyone found the fact that I use chopsticks with my left hand a brilliant conversation starter and we played a fun game of Google translate some of the menu items while discussing tomorrows formalities. Our hosts then took us on a tour of Hue. The weather was pretty rainy and reminded us of home, this made everyone chuckle! We took in the sites of tombs, pagodas and incense stands, before being treated to a “snack” on the way home at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. We then had about an hour before we were due at dinner with the rest of the delegation.
Our delicious dinner was hosted by our collaborators at Hue University. Again we were treated to a huge amount of food and drink with many of our hosts and collaborators, I was full to bursting. I called it a relatively early night as I had my talk to prepare for the morning after.
Our session with Hue University began at 8am. Our hosts met us at our hotel to walk us over to the University. The sessions from both Swansea University and Cardiff University were focused on gender equality and my work on inclusive education went down well. I was pleased to know that my “mini discos” went down well in many different cultures and got plenty of smiles and laughs from the audience, as did mentions of my cats, Peter and Peggy.
Once we’d finished our sessions with Hue University, we had a minibus ride to Danang via the Hai Van Pass, as made famous by Top Gear. A great opportunity to discuss important topics with colleagues and the views were simply incredible…
Day 4. Danang
We arrived in Danang, which clearly had more of a traditional city vibe than the ancient city of Hue. We had a couple of hours to enjoy the view from our rooms before heading out into the city.
Day 5. Danang to Ho Chi Minh
The final day of the visit began at Danang University where we learnt about the work going on in science and technology before I delivered my invited keynote. We had a fantastic tour of the facilities and the University campus before venturing into a lecture room to see some teaching in action.
And then, it was sadly time to leave and make our way to Ho Chi Minh City for our final flight home.
It was a whistle stop tour through Vietnam and an utter privilege to be able to visit and given keynote talks for our Vietnamese partners Danang University of Science and Technology and Hue University. Vietnamese hospitality is something that I have been thinking about ever since. I know that this is culturally dependent and I have been thinking of the lessons that we can learn from our international partners in terms of hosting as well as building collaborations and sharing knowledge. A huge thank you to everyone I met and I look forward to working with you in the future on some exciting projects. The trip was incredibly organised by Bill and Sophie from Global Wales and funded through the British Council, as part of our Gender Equality project, diolch yn fawr to you all.
For me personally, the trip was a real learning experience. It turns out, I can survive 5 flights in 5 days. I genuinely had a wonderful time, I learnt loads and got to know new colleagues (although it is interesting to reflect on why it should take an international trip to get to know colleagues who work in the same University as you) as well as our international collaborators.
I am feeling very grateful, what an utter privilege, now I just have to manage the jetlag (if you have any tips I would love to hear them please :)…
Dr Emma Yhnell 