5 adventures in India not to be missed

COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Jasmine Horrocks, Newcastle University

India has been a unique and hectic but completely fascinating country to explore. From New Delhi’s bustling streets to the ancient pink buildings of Jaipur, India has something for everyone to enjoy. Here are five adventures/experiences you don't want to miss:

1. An auto-rickshaw ride

Auto-rickshaws seem to be the life blood of Delhi and are easily spotted in traffic by their distinctive yellow cab covers. These vehicles weave in and out of the congested streets with seeming ease, often driving on the bicycle paths along the sides of the road in order to avoid the chaotic traffic. We have taken many rides in these wonderful vehicles and even once squashed four people into one (normally autos take two to three people) which was hilariously fun!

2. Getting inked with henna

This is a top pick for everyone, especially girls. At the learning centre where we are volunteering, the older girls spent an afternoon drawing beautiful patterns, flowers and swirls on our hands in henna, which was so special.

3. Delving into foodie paradise

Dehli really is heaven for those that appreciate a variety of flavours. The range of spices, curries, breads and sweets is quite simply phenomenal! Our favourite dish so far has been chole bhature, which consists of puffed up fried bread and a spicy chick pea dipping sauce, eaten with your hands, of course.

4. A trip to Jaipur

Outside of Delhi there are two essential adventures in undertake. Firstly a trip to Jaipur is a must; its scenery, local ambience and spectacular Moghul architecture is dazzling. The highlights of this city include its famous pink buildings, elephants travelling along the streets, fantastic market shopping and of course the spectacular Amber fort sitting against a dramatic mountain backdrop.

5. The Taj Mahal

Secondly- but most importantly- an adventure to the Taj Mahal would be the top of any traveller’s itinerary in India. There’s no mistaking why. Seeing the Taj Mahal in reality is truly breathtaking and is made even better when seen while wearing saris too! If you only do one thing out of my 5 must do's- make it this one. (I'd recommend doing all five though!)

Griffith Business School prepare for Laos community development placement

COUNTRY: Laos
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Nursing
WRITTEN BY: Aisling Brennan, Griffith University Business Faculty

The Griffith Business School Leader team’s Laos Community Development adventure is right around the corner. Some of us have packed, some of us haven’t (mainly just me) and we couldn’t be more excited. Or nervous. Or hopeful. Or most likely all of the above!

This past semester has been a pretty big one for most of us so our feelings are kind of all over the place. One thing is for certain though, we can’t wait to arrive in Luang Prabang and see where this adventure will take us.

As a team, we’ve been working hard to get organised for our trip to Laos. We’ve been fundraising by supplying most of the student and staff population of Griffith University with chocolate, baking, and sausages, dancing to the early hours of the morning at a cocktail fundraising event, and even one of our fabulous team members, Bec Piper ran a half marathon! Along with getting all the necessary jabs, finding the perfect suit case and collecting a lot of physical donations like children’s books and clothes, we’ve had a busy lead up to our trip to Laos. And I think we’re ready.

While we are in the country we will be conducting a community needs assessment on how tourism can help alleviate poverty in the Seuang River Valley, in the Pak Xeng District Authority. The majority of the population do not have access to adequate health care, housing and sanitation. As a team, we will be conducting meetings with relevant community leaders, district officials, education and health professionals to discuss future development possibilities for local communities. As well as documenting these meetings, we will be working on the renovation of Pak Xeng High School. We will be renovating two classrooms.

There’s a lot to do and a lot to achieve while we are in country and once we return. So let the adventure begin!

How many women live here? Laotian village life for Griffith University students

COUNTRY: Laos
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Business School Community Internship
WRITTEN BY: Elise Stephenson, Griffith University

Bamboo student huts, Tana Highschool: Tana Highschool is the second of two high schools in the Pak Xeng region. The school opened in 1993 with three classrooms. Since then, four more have been built and there are currently 27 teachers working at the school. This year there were 622 students, 261 of which were female (41%). Because there are not enough classrooms, the students are split into two study periods – one the studies in the morning, and the second that studies in the afternoon.

Those who don’t fit into the bigger and better-equipped Sop Jak Highschool, come to Tana. At Tana, 175 students have built their own student accommodation on the hills – basic bamboo huts that are crammed and often at risk of burning down. Each week, 16-20kg of supplies have to be brought from home by students in order to have enough food and supplies to last the week with the average age of these students are 11-18 years. The benefits of Tana Highschool include that it has road access, is fairly central, and can do much more than other high schools in different regions. Their main need is one repeated by many schools – the need for more classrooms and teachers, as well as toilets and a better water supply.

Abandoned student housing on the Tana Highschool property: At this school, the principal claimed that after highschool, 60% continue to stay in their home village, helping their family. It depends on the family situation greatly as to what their future prospects are. Those who continue their education past highschool have the choice of college or university. A college course takes three years (such as attending a teachers college), whilst a university degree takes on average five years. According to the Director of Education, Tong Pan, eight people finished university and 80 finished college from this region, however I am unsure as to whether this is the total number or just the number in the last year.

Village Meeting, Pak Xeng District, Unknown Village – 25 June 2013: We passed this particular village on our way back from Tana Highschool to our homestay village, Na Pho. The village had recently been located to this “on road” location with the support of the government – it used to be located “off road”, over large mountains. It was interesting to compare this notion of being “on road” – in western countries the equivalent to being “on road” would be to be “online”, where you have greater communication opportunities and access to trade. Being “on road” is the next best thing here!

In this village there are 111 families, approximately 700 people in total, with 320 women. I loved how when visiting villages or high schools or anyone we were always told how many women they had, like this. According to the tour manager Graham, this was because developmental organisations like the UN and the Asian Development Bank require them to consider gender equality and the empowerment of women in their village activities. The main job in this village is as farmers and they follow an animist spirituality. Many of the farmers have retained their farmland, 4-5 hours away across mountains and rivers – imagine traveling that every day, often by foot! However the villagers stated they were very, very happy to be living where they were, and a kind of unity and good-feeling was evident among the villagers.

They were also very keen to hear about our lives. It was this reciprocation that I loved most, and they were evidently very interested to hear about us too. When they heard that we sometimes woke up between 9-11am, you should have seen them laugh! The looks of disbelief were great and I could tell we all felt a little guilty telling them this, particularly when most of them woke up at 3-5am each morning! In the end, our tour manager Graham summed it up nicely, for both them and us:

We, like them, work hard.
We, like them, work to improve our lives.
We, like them, care and love for our family.
We, like them, want to meet someone we love.
We, like them, want to start families.
And we, like them, want to be happy and want the best for our families.

I think all this resonated, as we all shared a moment of quietness and reflection. Are we really that different? Probably not. Our differences can be great sometimes, but in the end, we’re fallible and fantastical and we’re all the same.

Griffith University Business School: Part 1 from Laos

COUNTRY: Laos
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Business School Community Internship
WRITTEN BY: Elise Stephenson, Griffith University

Griffith Business School Community Internship in Laos in June 2013. Part 1.

Ministry of Tourism – Meeting in Pak Xeng District Office, 25 June 2013
There are approximately 52 villages between the Xeng and Seuang Rivers. Pak Xeng is in the Luang Prabang Province and due to the mountainous terrain visits from tourists are restricted. There is a priority placed on protecting the rivers and local waterfall areas in order to attract tourists – nature and culture are Pak Xeng’s primary attraction. Almost 100% of tourists come from Buffalo Tours (the company we were traveling with) and almost all are Australian. The Ministry of Tourism office in Pak Xeng currently has no internet or website, which restricts knowledge and the marketing of the region, as well as making it difficult to attract tourists who want highspeed wifi and internet connection. From questioning the Tourism officials we gathered that a development plan for tourism has recently been enacted to encourage more families in villages to host a guesthouse for tourists.

Another line of questioning was regarding rubbish collection. Currently, the situation is very basic where rubbish is brought to separate locations/offices and eventually put in the ground or burnt. There is no good recycling system and in many of the more regional villages, rubbish collection is virtually non-existent. As tourists care about rubbish and the cleanliness of the environment, this must be made a priority in order to attract more visitors.As a coincidence, there is not a strong ecotourism system.


Some other challenges include that because tourism in the region is still so young and not enough tourists have passed through yet, there is no defined structure for dealing with and fully accomodating and promoting tourism. There is also no specific sites or cultural traditions to stand out to tourists. Added to this, guest houses don’t know how to market and reach tourists due to a lack of internet and the activities of the region’s Tourism Ministry is restricted by its meagre staff of 4-5 people.

Ministry of Education – Meeting in Pak Xeng District Office, 25 June 2013

We conducted this meeting with the Director of Education for the Pak Xeng region, Tong Pan. Currently there are 248 members/officials of education (100 of which are female) in the Pak Xeng District. Primary education is currently compulsory and Tong Pan claimed that 96% of primary-aged children attend primary school ( a figure found to be suspicious by our tour manager, Graham). From this September, the first three years of primary education will be fully subsidised by the government. After this, many students drop out to return to helping their family farm or because simply can’t afford to continue an education. Major challenges include that students have to travel great distances (some of more than 3 hours each way) to get to school, often through mountainous terrain and fluctuating weather. Alongside this, there is often not enough family funds and so attendance rates drop. Currently secondary education costs around 60 000-70 000 kip per year (approx. USD$25, with average family income USD$30-100 per month). The cost of textbooks and pens add to this economic burden and in primary school one textbook generally services 3-4 people, with secondary and highschool textbooks available for rent at 2000 kip per year (approx USD$0.25).

Abandoned classroom at Sop Jak Highschool

Ministry of Education Office
Other challenges include a lack of resources, primarily teachers and classrooms. Ceilings in particular are a priority as the current construction of classrooms means that they are very noisy and hot, making it difficult for students to study effectively. These other challenges – physical, involving property and buildings – present a unique problem for sustainable tourism and volunteering projects like ours. As our tour manager Graham noted, each year a school or university group comes and does a fantastic job working with the villagers to build new classrooms or dormitories or facilities. Yet when a new group comes back the next year, the buildings have been poorly maintained – with lighting systems broken, classrooms left in a filthy and unkempt state, and trash lying everywhere outside the doors of buildings in a great mess.

Tong Pan, Director of Education, Pak Xeng Region
Is this the fundamental problem of these villages? Or is it the fundamental problem of these volunteering programs? Originally we were to go over and help build an artesian water well in Sop Jak village. However, the government would not approve our involvement for the reasons that they have seen what has happened in Cambodia – it has become overrun and riddled with NGOs and international aid organisations. Instead of able-bodied and willing villagers working to improve their village, their families, their lives, these foreign groups of people come in and do it for them. Is it any wonder there is no sense of ownership and responsibility? I agree that it is difficult to simply hand over the money to these projects and hope that the money will go where it is needed, yet maybe that is really the best option. I believe that interfering, even in a ‘friendly’ way like volunteering, is not the sole answer. Help, yes, but don’t do things for people who can do them for themselves, and to better effect. It actually reminds me very much of a musing by Henry David Thoreau: “No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.”

Likewise – we may do things for Lao and these villages, but it is not therefore desirable that we should do so to the exclusion of them doing things for themselves. The best possible interaction we could have had in these villages, was the impact we had. We went in, we observed and interacted, and we offered our support for a project which they need, which they can do, and which they will do, with our support from the sidelines.