Arriving In Vietnam

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Location: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

March 19th--- DAY 1:

I woke up around 8 am this morning because our ship was pulling into the Mekong Delta. It was pretty cool because all these other ships were floating around us. After I took in the view for a couple of minutes I decided to go back to sleep. Sadly, they woke everyone up on the ship by saying “Good morning Vietnam” very loudly on the speakers shortly after. I didn’t know that this saying was from this 80’s movie with Robin Williams, so I was really confused at the time. They love this saying here and it is on all their t-shirts…I was just pissed because we weren’t docking until 11 and I wanted to get some more sleep.

Anyway, Vietnam is the parent’s port. Every voyage they pick a port that parents can meet up with their kids. This means they get a tour of the ship and SAS sets up sponsored family trips for them. Personally, I think its bitter sweet. I mean I would love to see my parents and spend a week with them in Vietnam, but at the same time, I really like having my independence while traveling. I think it’s just hard when you pull up to the port and see all of the parents who did come waving to our ship.

So I got off the ship to be welcomed by some vendors (like always). This time they were in nice tents and actually weren’t pestering us that much. The first thing I noticed was how cheap things were. For example, they had real northface back packs for $3-$5 US dollars! We realized that just like every port, they would probably be there for our entire stay, so my friends and I decided to get into a shuttle bus that takes you down town instead of shopping. It dropped us off at the Rex Hotel which is located on a street that looks like Rodeo Drive. This is where things get expensive. They had Marc Jacobs, Coach, Burberry and many other stores like that. We decided to just walk around and see if we could find somewhere to eat and shop (mostly a cheap marketplace).

We eventually found this restaurant on one of the side roads that ended up being pretty descent, but we found out at the end that it wasn’t really real Vietnamese food…bummer! The problem is that there are so many mixes of cultures here, so you really have to look around to find which type of food you are looking for. Something they do in almost all of the restaurants I have been in other countries, is hoard over you while you decide what to order, while you eat and when you pay at the end of your meal. Even if it takes you ten or fifteen minutes to decide what you want, they will just stand at the table and wait. Also, they will watch you eat the food and if you don’t finish a plate they will ask you what is wrong with the food. I really think that this is considered the nice and respectable thing to do in most countries…it’s just really awkward and made me miss my American bubble of privacy. Seriously though…it’s called personal space! Anyway, we ate lunch and headed to an indoor marketplace. This place was HUGE! It looked like canal street (Manhattan) on steroids. The layout was aisles and aisles of vendors, going in every way possible. It was like a giant maze! Basically, it was insane and had so many fake bags, jewelry, name brand clothes and movies. Some of the stands sold jewelry that had so many shiny rhinestones; I couldn’t even look at the stand without squinting my eyes. The gross part of the marketplace was the area where they sold fish. They had left the fish out to dry and it smelled so bad. I almost gagged walking by it. Also, there is a rule in the marketplace; you don’t really stop walking unless you are going to buy something. People just push you out of the way. The words “excuse me” don’t really exist….if you are in someone’s way, they will just move you themselves. I felt really overwhelmed after an hour of shopping!

I ended up buying a lot of stuff. Like I said before, Vietnam is REALLY cheap! I mean for $1 US, you can get a northface backpack or jacket, longchamp purse or even nice jewelry. They accepted US and Dong everywhere. I was surprised as to how much US dollars I was able to use. I ended up buying some movies and TV shows for only $15 total. The best part is that they are amazing quality….I didn’t think so when buying them, but they look really real. I got some pocketbooks, sunglasses, jewelry and much more. I plan on going back before I leave!

So after we shopped for a while, we went to a tiny bakery and each had a smoothie. The fruit here is really good, and they have some I’m not used to seeing, like Dragon fruit (the flavor used in Vitamin Water). On the inside, dragon fruit is white, and has little black seeds all throughout it. On the outside, it is hot pink with these green pointy things coming out of it. It is really weird to look at, but it tasted pretty good! There is also this “stinky fruit” which actually tastes really good (I think it’s called Durian, but I forget).

While I was sitting in the café I checked Facebook on my phone. My friend asked me how I was able to get onto Facebook and I told her that I wasn’t connected to the wifi, only a cell tower. I found out this was weird, because the government banned the use of Facebook and other social networking sites in Vietnam (and a lot of other places in Asia). The government is even allowed to access what you are doing on a website and track you.

We then just walked around some more until we stumbled upon a spa place that gave hour long massages for only $6 US. Crazy! So we all ended up getting one. It was really good, because my back really needed it after carrying around my back pack all the time. The ladies gave us really hard massages though and do this thing where they stand on you back and massage with their feet. It was definitely a unique experience, but I’m really sore now.

After the massage we walked around the city to find dinner. We ended up going down this road that didn’t look so promising because well to be honest, it looked creepy. But, we ended up finding this amazing restaurant that was really fancy just a block down (we even saw SAS adults there). So we got a few dishes to split and only had to pay about $10 each. They even had musical performers while we ate!

We decided to get a taxi and head back to the ship after dinner. After showering and getting ready, we headed out to the end of the port to get a ride to this night club/bar. Of course….like always, the taxi drivers were complete assholes to us. They scream at you and grab at you. The worst part was when we walked to a taxi down the street. He rolled down his window and we told him the address of the club we wanted to go to. Of course he spoke NO English, so we did what we always do, charades and Pictionary! Just as we were figuring things out a man from the front of the port walked over and started talking to the driver. All of a sudden the driver changed his price. We got really mad and started yelling at this man to get the hell away from our taxi and to stop messing with us and our driver. We were in the taxi at this point and the man starting yelling at us to pay him money. We got out and said we refuse to pay him extra money just because we are Americans. We tried to get a new taxi nearby but were swarmed with about 5 other taxis and drivers who had followed us down the road. It gets really frustrating and you have to be soooo mean to these people in order to not get ripped off. Luckily, this group of girls (around my age) got out of a taxi about a block away and helped us get a reliable taxi to take us to the club. They were really nice and we thanked them for being honest people. Seriously though, the taxi drivers have been terrible in pretty much EVERY port! Also, we found out from a guy at the bar that there is even a fake taxi company here so you have to be really careful.

About ten minutes later, we arrived at the club. It started off really bad and I wanted to leave (really boring), but then we discovered the outside part of the bar and the night ended up being really fun. We ended up meeting and hanging out with these people who were here for a wedding who were really nice. We also met the bar owner and staff. One of the girls that works there gave us a lot of good restaurant and shopping suggestions. We also met an SAS alum…how small world! So overall, it ended up being a really fun night.

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