Across South East Asia there have been 15 days of celebration culminating yesterday in the final day of Chinese New Year an annual festival of food, fireworks and togetherness to welcome in the new year in style. Celebrated all over Asia inlcuding in Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam, Chinese New Year is a pleasurable assualt on the senses… bright reds everywhere (the colour of luck), firecrackers and drums, Lion Dances, Dragon Dances and food… so much food. Just imagine Christmas Day…. but it lasts for a fortnight!

The most important time in the Chinese calendar, it’s the time to be with loved ones and forget personal grudges. The symbolism that occurs during this time is fascinating from what to wear, what to eat, and who to give gifts to. Almost each of the 15 days of celebration is a traditionally important day, therefore almost each day families and friends get together (with food being the most important guest). The chinese calendar rotates around 12 years symbolised by 12 animals (or 11 animals and one mythical creature to be exact). This year we have just entered the year of the Dragon, the last being in the year 2000. The dragon is seen as being the most auspicious of the 12 animals and a child born in the year of the dragon is thought to be particularly blessed (and as a Dragon myself, I can vouch for that). The others are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and finally Pig, each animal with it’s own particular characteristics for those born in that year, much in the same way those in the west may judge character on a montly basis through astronomy. So, which animal are you? Go find out…

So if you are thinking of coming over to Asia with us, why not think about doing it during Chinese New Year, it’s a fascinating time of the year and makes our own festive celebrations look tame in comparison. It’s loud, colourful, tasty… there’s dancing, singing, eating and drinking… new friends will be made and old ones will welcome you like you’ve never been away. Give it  try!

Earlier this year we hosted two groups from Renaissance International School Saigon (RISS).  This is great little school, nestled away in the back roads of Saigon, surrounded by ramshackle buildings and shops, it is very modern and well equipped.  In addition they obviously see the benefit for the students of undertaking one of our short trips, which is usually a good sign of a well rounded education (even though I say it myself!).

The school actually took away two year groups, with the Year 9′s heading over to Cambodia and the Year 12′s hitting Borneo.  Since the school is in Saigon they elected for the Year 9′s to take a coach to our camp in Beng Mealea, stopping for a night in Phnom Penh en route.  The Year 12′s flew via Brunei, spending a night there with a local tour operator, before being met by our team at Kota Kinabalu airport.  Here are links to their follow up reflections on their experience……

Year 9′s in Cambodia……..Year 12′s in Borneo.

As you can see from some of their comments it was certainly a challenge, just the day to day living conditions, compared to what they are used to at home.  And despite our best efforts it appears an IPad or two some how slipped into the camps!

Thank you to the team for their hard work and energy and we look forward to welcoming back RISS again next year.

It struck me in a taxi on the way to the airport this morning – how does this city keep moving with such chaos occurring on the streets all around me.  I have just spent two days dashing around Saigon, or Ho Chi Min City to give its more modern name.  The purpose of my visit was to speak with some of the schools in the city – 3 of them have just completed short trips with us over the past 6 months and 3 of the schools had expressed an interest in starting up service orientated experiences.  It is always a bit stressful dashing from meeting to meeting, in the intense heat, always in a taxi with a driver who assures you in very broken English he knows exactly where the next appointment is, and blatantly doesn’t.

Anyway, during this dashing around, and mainly on the dash to the airport this morning, it hit me square between the eyes – how does this city continue to keep moving amongst the chaos.  2 wheels are the preferred method of transport amongst the populace – well perhaps that is inaccurate, a nice air conditioned car might be the preferred option but is unachievable on the average Vietnamese income.  And so its onto 2 wheels and perhaps they really do prefer it because 2 wheels seem to have priority over 4 (2 wheels good, 4 wheels bad to twist a quote from a group of 1980’s pigs!).  Nowadays most 2 wheels are powered by an engine and not legs, although there are still plenty of bicycles amongst the throng.

But back to the chaos theory – everyone is moving on their own set route, dodging and weaving, thousands upon thousands of random journeys (not random to the person doing it, hopefully that’s planned or in some way thought out loosely), criss cross the city and the other plethora of journeys.  And when I say criss cross, I mean criss cross – inches away from each other in varying directions, at varying speeds, filtering across each other, horns blaring continuously……and yet no-one seems to collide, the city keeps moving, and you don’t see any of the rage and anger you might expect in other parts of the world.  And when I checked with my taxi driver about what time to leave for the airport and would we hit any rush hour traffic he said no, which surprised me since we were heading into the maelstrom at 8 in the morning.  But now I get it….the randomness, the chaos actually makes the city work.  In other big Asian cities (Bangkok and every visiting businessman’s nightmare, Jakarta) there is a semblance of order and hideous hideous jams.  But actually this order is superficial – it looks ordered with its lanes, signs, tolls and rules.  But scratch below the surface and people are actually ignoring the regimentation – they are pushing in, (constantly), and abusing each other – horns are less frequent but they are usually accompanied by some kind of gesture and look.  There is a serious lack of respect for others – they are simply an impediment for you to get on with your busy day.  And actually this is extremely common in the west where I grew up, no matter how big or small the town or city.

Now heading back into the apparent carnage of Saigon’s rammed streets.  So yes it does appear completely chaotic, random, messy and liable for disaster at any second.  However scratch below this chaos and you will find something……order!  There are unwritten rules and courtesies, people understand you have no choice but to drive your moped across 3 lanes of oncoming traffic to turn down a side street, and it works.  Cars stay in the centre of the road with the bikes on the right near the curb, cars slow to let bikes pass, the horns are gentle reminders to move a little to the left or right.  There is no anger or rage.  I suppose it’s a look of resignation or gentle acceptance that you need to push across in front of oncoming traffic – its just the way it is and there is no need to get all worked up about it.  Although you need to have nerves of steel or be a born and bred “Saigonese” to venture on the city streets.

And so based on this crazy randomness, Saigon works. Chaos is actually working very nicely thank you very much.  And so where does this leave us….what can we learn?  Well even though I see chaos working there is a time and a place.  My job is to plan, execute and manage safe and challenging expeditions and trips for young people.  And in doing this I don’t like chaos – I want everything planned, thought through and and “what if’d”!  So that is our challenge at Camps International – providing such a trip amongst the chaos – but the trip wouldn’t be such an experience if the teams did not see and experience the chaos first hand – so its all about providing the chaos but in a controlled environment.  Having said I like everything to be planned, I also recognise that randomness is an essential element of all trips – and it usually occurs in strange places, strange events when you least expect it, which sometimes are a nuisance but looking back that was what made the trip more interesting, away from the norm and the mundane.

We have a lot to learn from the streets of Saigon – patience, respect, acceptance are just some of them.  And so next time you’re stuck in a jam or perhaps wishing people would get out of your way or quit pushing in and breaking the rules, wherever you may be, just consider the chaos theory for life.