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After an amazing weekend in Vietnam, I think it is safe to say that Vietnam is one of my favorite places in Asia. I wish I had more time there to be sure, but 3 days was enough to see that I could say it was well-worth visiting and I would go back anytime.
The weekend began leaving straight from my internship with my backpack to the airport where I met up with Michelle, Gabe and Brian. We flew United (which is strange but I loved hearing an American pilot's voice again) and landed in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) around 11:30. We headed out to the backpacker area of the city and found hostels and settled in. From there we sat outside at a local outdoor bar and drank the local Saigon beer and watched as millions of mopeds drove by. The traffic is unbelievable, traffic lights are not taken very seriously and mopeds are just flying around every corner and sidewalk. To cross the street, locals will tell you to just go, because the traffic will never break. You step out and keep walking and NEVER take a step backwards because everyone will drive around you. It was
scary but true, everyone manages to dodge everyone crossing the street. When we got to the city we met up with two other friends from Syracuse that had been in Cambodia all week, Alex and Jesse.
After having a drink we went to one of the hundreds of 24-hour travel booking agencies and arranged a tour of the Cu Chi Vietnam war tunnels. The next day we woke up at 7 to start the tour. Overall the tunnels were turned into a slight tourist trap, but it was still really amazing to see the other perspective of the war. We got to actually crawl through the tunnels...which was very claustrophobic and scary because the tunnel was just big enough for me to squat completely down and inch forwards (and my head was pretty much touching the top). I'm glad I did it though because it was unbelievable. After the tunnels, we took a 2-hour boat ride back to Ho Chi Minh along a slow and empty river. It was great and we made friends with Australians who took a whole year off to travel the entire world.
When we got back, we headed to the famous downtown market
and bought some souvenirs and then went to an amazing dinner at a restaurant called Lemon Grass. Vietnamese food is delicious...so light and natural but has amazing flavoring. Everything is made with ginger, lemon grass and chili. We ate like kings for about 10 dollars. In Vietnam and Cambodia most places will accept the US dollar because it goes farther for them and I received a dollar bill as change in a restaurant and it made me feel so funny to have it and see it again.
That night we arranged a private car to take us to the Mui Ne beach area (you can pretty much hire anyone to do anything for you at any time of day or night). It cost about 80USD combined to take us 5 hours through the night to the beach. We got there, settled into beach bungalows with mosquito nets and slept for a few hours. The next morning we woke up and crossed the street to an agency and rented 4 mopeds to take a tour of the beach area. The four boys drove the bikes and Michelle and I hopped on back. The tour guide led us to an amazing
river/spring through red sand and clay dunes that led to a waterfall. It felt like a scene from a war movie, without the war of course.
After that, we drove along the coast for about 30 minutes. It was so beautiful, reminded me of the pacific coast drive but with huge red clay dunes, no houses to be found, palm trees and old Vietnamese fishing boats in the water. Next we stopped at the famous white sand dunes. It is a random couple of square miles of beautiful white dunes that looks like the desert right on the water. So cool. Everywhere we went there were tiny kids running around offering us tours and sheets of plastic to slide down the dunes on...hoping that we would give them 1000dong, which is less than 10c.
Then we saw the red sand dunes, which was cool too, but crowded with tourists. After that we drove back along the coast and all the sudden a huge thunder storm appeared. The tour guide had us pull into a random locals garage where the family brought us chairs to sit on and chatted, it was really cool, we got the real local experience.
When it cleared up we got back on the bikes and headed back to our bungalows. We had some drinks, hopped in the pool then headed to dinner on the beach. We must have ordered 20 entrees for 6 of us and shared everything...and each entree was only about 1 dollar. We ate so much food...walked along the beach and then at 10pm got back in a van to head back to the city through the night. When we got back we went back to Madam Cuc's hostel and slept for a few hours.
The next morning we woke up at 7 to head out for the Mekong River Delta tour. It started out a little sour because it was pouring rain and we were on a tiny boat in the river. They brought us to a coconut candy factory and a rice pop factory where I learned where rice crispy treats are based off of! haha. Then we traveled through little rivers and creeks to a local house, where they served us a nice lunch. Then we got a free hour to rent bikes and bike around this little village. That was probably my favorite part of the
day. It was just tiny huts built into the jungle. Every time we passed a house a little kid would come running out to say hello. After that, we got into little Vietnamese canoes, where a tiny little old lady rowed us through the river and back to the big boat. We wore the traditional rice hats and passed little jungle riverside homes.
From there we headed back to the city...checked into the Marriott, which was amazing to sleep in a nice room because we were so beat. We grabbed a delicious dinner in a local spot and then headed to bed because our car to the airport was at 445am the next day! We got back to Hong Kong and headed straight back to our internships...where I am now and I am struggling to stay awake!
It was a fabulous weekend and worth every penny to get there. I would go back in a heart beat.
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