BIS Hanoi Year 12 Residential Trip in Mai Chau 2023-2024

BIS Hanoi Year 12

Written by Tran Linh Chi and Xinyue Wang (Y12) Designed by Do Gia Linh (Y12)

Xinyue Wang - year 12 Crinkling sounds of wraps being torn away, a wave of pastel purple stormed through the common room. That made me excited for the BISCAS trip to Maichau.

Buses departed in sleeping silence, with ragdoll-like heads swinging left and right in silence, occasionally broken up by a “thump” on the bus window. After about a few hours, everyone arrived at their destination with creaking backs and dismantled necks.

Right after we arrived, we were welcomed by some amazing lunch and grouped up to head off for our first of many activities.

I had bamboo rafting, and we stood by nine freshly cut bamboo wood with our pliers in hand, ready to hack away at the intense construction we had. Not long after, we were the first ones to finish. The raft was decent, but since I did not want wet shoes and soggy socks for the next few days, I made the best decision to step barefoot onto the raft, almost toppling down. Luckily, apart from one guy who nosedived into the unknown waters, no one tipped over in our group.

The homestay looked pretty, there were four off-ground cabins on either side of the breakout area. On the girl’s side, one was spacious with modern flooring and walls, while the other was comfortable and convenient. However, the showers were not great.

We had to share five shower rooms across half of the year group, with one of them not having lights installed. Not to mention the difference between a boiling broth and new glacier temperatures was between a single turn of the handle. After hours of talking before bed, we dozed off for the next day, where the difficulty ramped up exponentially.

The buses carried us to a huge rice farm an hour away from our homestay, and we were handed boots to work in the muddy waters, with pretty ducks that hid from us behind other rice plants. The boots didn’t look too promising, as it was like Russian roulette about which ones leaked and gave wet socks to whoever lost.

We were given a chunk of rice seedlings to plant into the mushy textured water, and it felt like stepping into a pit of slime under the blazing hot sun.

The mud was our only source of coolness and honestly, I would have never thought that stepping into mud would be this comfortable.

After washing off the mud on our boots, we were sent to villagers’ houses to cook our own lunch. The old lady handed us a huge pot of marinated and oiled pork and demonstrated how to slide them onto the sticks and into skewers. The meat skewer was cooked in an open fire on a pile of burnt wood, and the result tasted amazing.

The tender and juicy meat was well seasoned, with an added kick of smoked pork, hinted with a tangy undertone tickling our tastebuds. It was truly a breathtaking experience and the best meal I have had in ages. I learned a lot from that session and have now obtained their “granny-certified” secret recipe.

After lunch, we walked into the woods to see a half-completed rock road that we were supposed to work on. The group was divided into two jobs, rock carrying and cement mixing. I took on the job of rock carrying and realized that it was an arm day workout all along. And all this trouble continued to the next day, where we stood under the hot sun and passed rocks to each other like squirrels passing nuts in a line.

Just as we thought we barely survived the intense arm muscle pain inflicted by the rocks; our hearts were thrown into the gutters after hearing the need to climb up two thousand steps up a steep mountain.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally reached the top of the stairs, almost collapsing into the floor face first. My lungs were aching badly, and I was gasping for air with an awful metallic taste in my mouth, but the realization of what I just accomplished made me proud of myself, and I am glad I didn’t give up. Looking at the view from atop the mountain to below, all the events we have experienced in the past few days flashed before my eyes, and I felt like I have developed a connection with the stunning environment here, and I felt tremendously grateful for the teachings of perseverance Maichau taught me. That marked the end of the BISCAS trip of 2023, though tiring, the trip was very eventful, and I loved everyone that shared this colorful memory with me.

Tran Linh Chi - year 12 Usually walking into the common room you would witness students everywhere fast asleep on all couches and chairs, this scene is especially common towards periods 5 and 6. However marching towards the common room, an army in purple: year 12, elated, on that day, one could compare it to seeing the Antarctic where the Amazon once stood - it was a bizarre sight.

Fair to say even I had a grin on my face as I hopped on the bus, which you would rarely see usually hidden under the stress of IB workload.

On the BISCAS trip, we indulge in a unique intermixing of Viet and Thai culture, participating in a host of activities such as a dancing class, planting on mud fields, and throwing a reversetrick-or-treating celebration across the village, donating candy to families. It was a comical sight as we wiggled and wobbled attempting the choreography, showcasing some talents that should be hidden.

The bamboo raft-building, talent show and summit to Chieu Cave were all fantastic activities that I mostly had a great time attempting, but it doesn't come without the costs of dirt and sweat-soaked bodies afterwards.

On the second and third day, we worked on the project - building a bridge and the road. How crazy is that! Imagine one day you are suddenly tasked with something you do not know about, likewise, we were all perplexed at first. Despite that, our year group together managed to learn on the job. In the end, it was an accomplishing and proud moment, of course, it was tiring too, however, in the end, it was beyond amazement and rewarding.

Overall, the general opinion on the experience is divided either into super tiring or entertaining, but we can all agree that it was a memorable highlight of year 12.