Vietnam

Day 1:

One other thing I forgot to mention when I was talking about the first day in my previous blog was that a lot of parents are here on the parent trip. After the diplomatic briefing they made an announcement that all the parents were in the 6^th deck dining hall waiting to be picked up, so Megan and I went up there because we were super jealous of the kids who got to see their parents! It made us pretty sad so we didn’t stay too long. So after I posted my blog I got some lunch and headed to my FDP “Conditions for Business in Vietnam”. I was pretty disappointed that I had to stay on the ship while everyone else got off to explore Vietnam, but it wasn’t too bad because it only ended up lasting two hours instead of the four. It was basically a talk led by Sesto Vecchi who is an attorney in Vietnam. He first gave us some background on himself. He first came to Vietnam in 1965 with the US Navy and after he served in the Navy he came back and opened a law office. He worked there from 1966-1975 when the office closed and then came back to reopen it in 1989 and has been in Vietnam ever since. From here he just talked about business in Vietnam and their economy. One fact that I found very interesting is that 80% of the population is 40 years or younger. This is a result of the four million that were killed in the Vietnam War, or the American War as it is referred to here in Vietnam. At both the diplomatic briefing and Mr. Vecchi’s speech we were told that the Vietnamese do not think much about this war today as we do in the US and a big part of this is because most of the population is too young to remember it. In a few days I will be visiting the War Remnants Museum, so I think this will give me some more incite into this. Some other interesting facts were that when Vietnamese were asked if they loved and respected their parents over 99% said yes and the US was somewhere in the 70% range. Also in a measure of happiness Vietnam ranked the highest in Asia. After the talk was over I was worried that I wouldn’t have anyone to go explore with because everyone else was already off the ship so I went down to leave a note for Megan to call me when she got back. Before I even finished the note she came walking up with Lauren because Lauren had forgot her debit card so they were grabbing it real quick and then heading out. So they told me I had one minute to get ready and go back out with them so I ran to my room and grabbed a stack of one dollar bills and went back up to their room.

We got off the ship and got on the bus that would take us to town. We only had to wait about 10 minutes and then we were on our way. There were motorcycles everywhere! We got dropped off in the heart of the city and first headed to the ATM. This is when I got my first experience of crossing the street. There is a never ending flow of motorcycles so you just have to start walking and let them make their way around you. The key is to keep a steady pace because if you stop or speed up you throw them off. So we actually crossed about three different streets to get to the ATM and I was feeling pretty confident. After Lauren got her money we went back to the Ban Thanh Market where Lauren and Megan had already been and it has just about anything you could possibly want. They had already got some really cheap backpacks and I really wanted to get one too because I could really use a bigger one for my Bejing trip. So we walked around for a while and the Vietnamese people are really the nicest and happiest people I have met in any port so far. One lady called me over and had me sit down and started asking me questions and I felt like she was going to want money from me for something but she really just wanted to ask me things about the ship and old I was and how many people there were and all sorts of things. After this I got a ton of 2 dollar t-shirts for people back home and then really started searching for a backpack. I ended up getting a pretty blue 55 liter north face backpack for only 11 US dollars which I think would be over $100 back home, so I can’t wait to use it in China!

At this point we were ready for dinner! Earlier that day Lauren and Megan had ran into a couple from Arizona that was here in Vietnam because they had just adopted a baby girl and were going to bring her home. They told Lauren and Megan about some Texas BBQ place and Lauren really wanted to go there so we went all over trying to find it and asking people about and nobody knew what it was. Finally we found a book and looked it up and it had a different name than we thought and it wasn’t very close to where we were so we ended up talking to a guy from Australia and he said the restaurant we happened to be standing in front of was really good so we just went there because we were tired of searching. We ended up splitting a Mexican quesadilla and then I got chicken fajitas again which were really good, and a mango smoothie. I felt kind of bad for not getting Vietnamese food, but I plan to definitely get some in the next four days and I know my Mekong Delta trip will be taking us to a local restaurant. As in other countries we had a craving for something sweet after so we went to a little ice cream and coffee café across the street. They didn’t speak any English and the menu wasn’t in English but has somewhat of an English description so we were a little nervous about it. They brought out some tea for us right away and Megan and I ordered “Ice cream-chocolate” and Lauren got “Ice-cream-peppermint”. So Megan and I ended up with really good vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup which was actually exactly what I wanted but thought I would probably just get a scoop of regular chocolate, and Lauren’s was actually mint chocolate chip with chocolate syrup that was really good. When we were done the guy drew out 100,000 dong with his finger on the table and we paid and were on our way. The exchange rate is somewhere around 16000 dong to 1 dollar.

From here we decided to head back to the bus shop to get back to the ship. When we got to the bus we found out it wasn’t leaving for 25 more minutes and a couple of people noticed there was a chocolate shop right across from where the bus picked us up and of course I decided I needed to go check it out too. So I just went by myself because Megan and Lauren were going to stay on the bus and this meant I had to cross the street all by myself! Just as I was crossing another guy walked up next to me and was like I’m going with you I’m going with you! I felt pretty good knowing someone else trusted me to lead them across the street! Haha. So I went in and the chocolate was really fancy and expensive so I just bought a few little wrapped chocolates that were suppose to be milk chocolate but they were actually dark, which was fine because it was still really good. I crossed the street back to the bus totally by myself this time with Megan and Lauren cheering me on “Go Kristin it’s real life frogger!”. The bus left about 10 minutes later and we all shared stories on the bus of what our first day was like and semester at sea in general. One professor had already gone on the War Remnants Museum trip that I will be going on and had a lot of good things to say about that so I am pretty excited. Then we all got back on the ship and I decided to get a head start and write the first day of my blog now!

Day 2:

I slept in a little bit and got lunch on the ship and then went back into town with Andi and Amy. Our goal was to find a place to get our dresses made and do some shopping. It actually took us over an hour to get to the city because traffic was bad. When we finally got there we stopped in one dress shop but they said they couldn’t have them done in time so we kept walking. The next place was able to it but they had pretty high prices so we wanted to walk around some more and come back if we couldn’t find anywhere else. We ended up going to the Ben Thanh market again. I ended up buying a little north face backpack that I could use for day trips that I really love for only $4. We found some coffee place across from the market and got “coffee shakes” which were similar to frappaccinos but not quite as good. After walking around in the market for a while we decided to head back to the dress shop because even though it was expensive we thought they would be good quality and they were going to be 100% silk. The lady we had originally talked with had left for the day so we got fitted by another lady who gave us an even higher price, but mine was only $5 more so I didn’t bother arguing with her. When we were done we got back on the bus to go to the ship. We ended up getting back in time for dinner which was good and I just stayed on the ship after because my trip the next day left at 7.

Day 3:

I woke up at 6am to get ready for my Cu Chi tunnel trip and went to breakfast with Megan and Robyn who were also on the trip. We smuggled some boxed cereal into our backpacks and headed down to the buses. The tunnels were two hours away so I got comfortable with turned on my ipod and fell asleep. Before we got to the tunnels we stopped at a war memorial. There were 10,000 graves there but less than 25% of them actually had remains in them. Our guide explained that a lot of times they weren’t able to locate the actual bodies and this was meant as a way to remember their name. In the center there was a statue of a woman crying holding a dead soldier and behind was a tall monument with incense that were burning. There was also a place to burn incense in front of each of the grave stones.

From there we continued to the Cu Chi tunnels. This was the hottest and most humid day on the trip so far I think. We walked along a path and our guide uncovered a little whole in the ground covered by leafs and then had another demonstrate going into the tiny hole in the ground. We continued along the path along the path and stopped at different points for our guide to explain to us different things about the tunnels. The whole network of tunnels stretches 200 kilometers. We saw a lot of the traps that the Vietnamese used before they had access to guns which were very simple but also very effective. We then came to a gun range were we had the opportunity to shoot many of the different guns used in the war. Megan and I bought ten rounds for the AK47 and split them. You only got the ear covering when you were actually shooting so I had ringing in my ears for about the next hour.

As we walked out we got to see a woman making rice paper and then another guy that was making sandals out of tires that we could actually buy but I didn’t end up getting any.

Next we headed over to actually go into the tunnels! I honestly wasn’t feeling too excited about this because I’m a little claustrophobic but I knew I had to do it. So we climbed down these stairs first and then some more stairs before we were actually in the tunnel. We piled in one after another and it was small, dark and dirty. The next exit was only 200 feet away but once I was in there it was definitely the scariest moment for me on this whole trip. There was someone right in front of me and someone right behind me and the line stopped moving because people in front wanted to take there time and take pictures in the tunnel. Then a girl behind me was freaking out and crying because she was clearly also claustrophobic and this did not make me feel any better. So we eventually got out, probably after a minute or two but it felt like a lifetime. I can’t imagine living down there and the tunnels we were in were actually made 40% bigger than what they were during the war. I think they said you actually had to weigh less than 120 lbs to be able to fight from the tunnels. After this we got to go back to the hole in the ground that we saw when we first walked in and some of us got in to take pictures. After seeing other people get in and out successfully I did it too. Next we went and watched a video about the tunnels that was made during the war, which was pretty interesting and was very anti-American.

After the video we got back on the bus to go back to the ship and I ate my cereal from the morning and fell asleep for most of the ride again. We got back on the ship and had lunch and then decided to go back into town and try and buy our Japan Rail Passes. Robyn had bought hers the day before and showed us where to go, but when we got there it was already closed because they closed early on Saturdays. They wouldn’t be open again until Monday so we would have to find time to come back then. From here we had to go back to Ben Thanh Market to pick up some pants for Megan’s roommate Lauren because she in Cambodia. They were supposed to be ready the day before but when we got there we were told to walk around for five minutes and they would get them from the tailor. So we walked around and I ended up buying more stuff because it is just so cheap! We got back and she said 5 more minutes and after sitting there for 30 they were finally ready. The day before Megan had been to this coffee place called Highlands Coffee where she said they had the best mango smoothies ever so we decided to go there. They also have free internet if you buy something, but there was only one computer at the one we went to. There was a couple using the computer so we ordered our smoothies and waited for them to get off. The mango smoothie really was amazing, I could have ordered another one! Also I forgot to mention earlier we had bought a lonely planet book on Japan so we checked that out while we drank our smoothies to try and figure out what we would do with our rail passes. We couldn’t find anything out about Disneyland in Tokyo in the book so once the computer was finally available we looked it up. All the hotels around the park are really expensive, but ticket prices were actually cheaper than the US which was good. So we haven’t decided on that yet, I think we will just have to see what happens when we are actually there. We also checked our emails and stuff like that and then we had to go because we told Robyn we would meet her at 5:30 for dinner at this place called Pho 24 that everyone had been saying had amazing food. So we walked over to the restaurant which was behind the market and sat down and Robyn walked in a few minutes later and her friend Brittany also joined us. There was a little confusion when we were ordering because we wanted four combos which came with beef pho, spring rolls and a soda. They brought out Megan and my pho first and then they brought spring rolls for Brittany and Robyn. We thought they would bring the rest later but they just brought the bill so I was disappointed I didn’t get to try the spring rolls but the pho was really good and it filled me up anyway since I already had the smoothie. Pho is like a soup with noodles and beef and I’m going to try to attach the picture from the restaurant if the internet is fast enough.

After dinner we went to a grocery store and I bought 3 boxes of cereal, granola bars and some other stuff. After this everyone wanted to get ice cream and of course that sounded good to me so we went to this place Kom Bach Dang Ice Cream that we had passed each time we left the shuttle bus stop that was always full of people. I got vanilla with chocolate sauce again and it was really good! After this we were ready to get back to the ship so we walked to the bus stop and headed home. Once I got back to my room I watched some Prison Break which is my new favorite show then worked out and went to bed.

Day 4:

I got up early again because I had a trip to the Mekong Delta that left at 8 so I got breakfast with Megan at 7:15 because she was on the trip too. We got on one of three buses because there were over 80 students on the trip. It was two hours to the Mekong but we would be making a rest stop before we got there. Like always I put on my Ipod and caught up on sleep while I could and when I woke up we were at the rest stop. The place was actually really nice, they sold snacks and had a gift shop and a little lake in the back with places to sit and relax. We were there for about 15 minutes and then we hit the road again. We had one more stop before the Mekong which was a Pagoda. Out front there was a huge statue of Buddha that we looked at first and then we made our way inside. The entrance was on the right side and as you walk in to the right was tables that had food ready on them and the place where the people worshipped was on the left. In the middle the roof was open and there was a rock statue sort of thing. At the time we walked in there was actually a service going on and we were still able to go inside. We took off our shoes at the entrance and we could hear the Buddhist chanting. I walked around the corner and there were about 5 men in orange robes, one was kneeling and singing the chant and the other were standing to the side playing different instruments. The rest of the people were wearing white robes and also kneeling on the ground and singing along with the chant. They were all facing a golden statue of Buddha while doing this. I walked out and put my shoes on because we would be leaving soon and just as I did the chanting stopped and some men in orange robes came out hit these drums that were outside the entrance and everyone walked out and headed to the tables for food. I stayed out of the way and just watched to see what they would do. The men in orange robes all sat at the table in the middle and everyone else went to the other tables. By now I really had to get back to the bus so I left.

After we left our guide asked if anyone wanted to take 15 minutes to walk through a market before we went to the river but nobody did so we just drove by. About 10 minutes later we were at the Mekong Delta. We got off the bus and loaded on a boat big enough for all of us to fir on and took a 20 minutes ride across the river. From there we could see this bridge being built across the river that looked really cool. We got off the big boat and onto smaller ones that only fit about 9 people. I got a seat in the front which was really nice and I got some good pictures. The ride was short and we got off and walked down a path where we had to cross this bridge made of two logs and a little hand rail that was a little scary. This brought us to a coconut candy “factory” which was really just a little room where they made it. They had some candy that was just made for us to try and it was really good so I ended up buy a bunch for everyone back home, so hopefully they will still be good when I get back. After this went back to some tables where we drank some honey tea that was really good. After this we got back on the 9 person boats for another short ride. We got off and got into these carts that were pulled by horses. This took us to a little place where we sat down and were served some really good fruit. We had mango, pineapple, grapefruit, dragon fruit, and I think the last one is called jack fruit and is actually the largest fruit in the world…or at least that’s what someone at my table said. While we ate delicious fruit two women sang some songs for us. We left there and got onto these tiny row boats that only four people could sit in. There was a guy in the back and a little boy in the front rowing and we definitely had the best guys because we passed about four boats! This brought us back to the big boat that our whole bus fit on, which then took us all to lunch.

I had talked to someone who went on this trip already and she recommended asking for the vegetarian meal because the normal meal was a big fish that they brought out and everyone ate from. As I saw the fish being brought out I knew I had made the right choice! Our meal had awesome spring rolls, bread, soup, crunchy noodles, rice and some other things I’m sure I’m forgetting but it was really good. I did get a picture of the elephant ear fish that everyone else ate though. We got back on the big boat after we ate and it took us back to the bus. We had a nice 2 hour drive home and had time to shower and relax before dinner. After dinner Megan and I decided to go back to highlands coffee and bring her laptop. Luckily the bus ride to town only took about 20 minutes and everything stayed open late even though it was a Sunday. So we got our wonderful mango smoothies and also some green tea and mango ice cream which were both really good. We took turn on Megan’s computer and found out that the class schedule was up for the fall which I was pretty excited about because I’ve been worried about trying to get the classes I need at times that allow me to work too. We also pulled up the train schedules for Japan and saved them, and luckily the trains come pretty much ever 5 minutes. Then we just took time to check things like email and facebook which is always nice. After this we went and looked at some stores at the mall and Megan bought a really nice north face jacket, I probably would have got one too but I didn’t bring much money with me. It would come in handy in China and Japan where it’s actually going to be cold! Then I wanted to go back to the grocery store to try and find cream cheese because they always have bagels on the ship and no cream cheese, which for me totally defeats the purpose of a bagel… but unfortunately I couldn’t find any. After this we got back on the bus back to the ship and I watched some more prison break and went to bed.

Day 5:
I woke up early and got some breakfast and headed into town by myself to get my rail pass and pick up the dress that I had made before I had my trip to the war remnants museum at 1. I got off the bus and walked to the building that had the rail passes and went up to the 16^th floor where they sold them. A bunch of other students had the same idea as me and when we walked in a lady asked us to come back because they were really busy in the mornings. I explained to here that I could not come back and luckily she sold me one. It cost $281 to get a pass that will take you anywhere in Japan for 7 days and I’m hoping it will be worth it. Japan is suppose to be the most expensive place we go to so I’m a little worried about finding hotels and everything but I’m sure it will work out. After I got my pass I walked back to the Highlands café that had a computer in it and luckily no one was on it so I sat down and someone came over and took my order. This time I got an ice blended coffee which was equally as awesome as the smoothies we had gotten. It was really nice to be out on my own and have time to write emails and look stuff up without feeling rushed. In most of the ports they scare you away from doing anything on your own but I felt pretty confident after the first four days there. I still had time before I had to pick up my dress at 10 to I decided to walk to the market and see if there was anything else I wanted to buy. On my way there I was just walking down the street looking at the different people and I see this woman sitting up against the wall and I look at her face and her eyes are open but she is not blinking or moving and I am pretty sure she was dead, I can’t really describe the look on her face but I think it will stay with me forever. I didn’t know what to do and I looked around to see if anyone else was noticing this and they weren’t so I just continued down the street and tried to think of other possibilities than her being dead. I crossed the street and heard a siren of an ambulance coming and I thought maybe it was for her, but it just kept going down the street. I got to the market and tried to forget about it and walked through the rows and rows of stuff. I bought a few more things and then went to the dress shop. They told me my dress would not be ready until 3, which did not make me very happy because I was on a trip until 5:30, but I decided I could probably not go back to the ship from the museum and just walk to the dress shop and get it.

I wasn’t ready to head back to the ship just yet because it was still early so I walked over to a mall and just wondered around for a while without buying anything. I walked back to the bus stop and the bus had just got there so it wouldn’t be leaving for at least another 30 minutes because the bus can’t leave until the next one gets there. There is this burger place right by the bus stop called Lotteria…I think… so I went in there and got a chicken burger meal which was pretty good. After I was done eating the bus still didn’t leave for another 30 minutes but I had time so it didn’t worry me. I got back to the ship and relaxed and got my stuff ready for my trip which left in about 30 minutes. I walked down to the bus when the time came and this trip only had about 20 of us which was really nice. The tour guide informed us that we would first be going to the UPI photographer’s house which was 45 minutes away. I knew this trip was the war remnants museum and UPI photographer but I didn’t realize we were actually going to his house so I was pretty excited about this. We got to his house and he introduced himself to all of us. His name is Hoang Van Cuong and he served as a photographer throughout the whole Vietnam War. He showed us a memorial he had made in his yard for the 200 journalist that were killed during the war.

After this he lead us into a room in his home where he had some photos displayed and we all sat on the floor in a circle and were able to ask him questions. He also explained some of the pictures on the wall and passed other ones around the circle for us too look at. His English wasn’t that good so he had our tour guide do a lot of translating. I was amazed at how happy he was and he called us family as we sat and talked. The professor that was our trip leader was actually a Vietnam veteran so he had a lot of questions. After about an hour we left his house and headed to the War Remnants Museum. The first two rooms I walked through weren’t as bad as I was expecting and then outside they had a lot of the planes and takes to look at. Next I went into the main building and they had a lot of pictures of injured people and the effects of Agent Orange. A lot of the pictures were of children and they even had deformed babies in glass jars and it was all really overwhelming. I can’t really explain the feeling that I got looking at all the pictures but it was a mixture of sadness and a sick to my stomach feeling and so much more. I didn’t really take out my camera at all and some people would stand in front of the different things in the museum and smile and take pictures and it just seemed weird to me. They also had a video playing that I watched a little bit of and then went to the next couple of buildings. When it was 4:30 and it was time to meet and go back to the bus I was definitely ready to get out of there. I didn’t really feel like doing anything else but I knew I had to get my dress and luckily the bus dropped a lot of us off at the shuttle bus stop so that we could walk around some more before on ship time.

I walked straight to the dress shop and found Andi and Amy were there too waiting for their dresses. Mine was done and they brought it down and they made it too small so the lady said she could fix it in 15 minutes. I already knew that I didn’t like it though, it wasn’t the right color and it didn’t look like it did in the picture I gave them, but I waited anyways hoping maybe it still wouldn’t fit and I could use this as an excuse not to get it or maybe it would look ok once it actually fit. A little later they brought down Amy’s dress and we had asked for the exact same color and hers was actually the right one and mine was not. After close to an hour they finally brought mine back down and it fit but I just didn’t like it and I explained to them about the color and they tried to tell me I was wrong and I didn’t feel like arguing because I was still feeling sick to my stomach so I said just keep the deposit I don’t want it and left. I went back to the bus stop and got on the bus and it was so full that a bunch of people had to stand on the way back. I watched the guy next to me pour some alcohol into a plastic bag and hide it in his stuff, I never saw if he got caught though. It took about 15 minutes to get on the ship because everyone brought back so much stuff back and it all had to be searched. I got on about 5 minutes before dinner was going to stop being served so I ran up and they actually had plain pasta with the sauce on the side which made me extremely happy, but I still went up and got a smoothie and I finally started to feel a little bit better about the day. I tried to get to bed early because it was back to school the next day. This whole traveling and then going to school thing is not easy. We had a global studies test in two days so I did a little studying for that too.

After Vietnam:

So I actually had to go and buy more internet minutes because I used them all up! I also bought a phone card and got to call home for the first time which was really nice but you only get 13 minutes for $20 which is not nearly enough. Then today was the global studies test which didn’t seem too hard so hopefully I stayed in the 90 percent range! I also got my dreaded finance test back and I got an 86 which I was pretty happy with. We had our preport meeting for China, and I really can’t believe we are going to be there already tomorrow. I have the first day to explore Hong Kong and then my trip leaves at 8am the second day for Beijing! I’m hoping to just bring my laptop with me and write my blog as I go because it gets harder to write this all out the more time that passes and it feels like it takes forever. Maybe our hotel will even have free wifi! I think that is all I have for now, so 6 days in China 2 days at sea and then 4 days in Japan!