Advertisement
Published: October 17th 2011
Every year the vols have to leave the country around the middle of October to apply for a brand new visa. It just so happened that this years visa run, fell during the same time as our break in between school semesters.
Usually everyone travels together to go to Loas because that is the fastest and cheapest way to go . This year everyone kind of decided to go in different directions. Barb and Meg went to Burma, Nat went to Malaysia, Anne met up with a buddy in Singapore and I peaced out to Vietnam.
I remember booking my ticket the Friday before I left and being super excited. I had kind of waited last minute to decide where to go. We had company over at the time our neigbores- some young burmese woman and we were just talking and laughing. Once I booked my ticket and confirmed it and paid they told me that a typhoon is about to hit Vietnam.
Of course I don't look at the weather conditions of the country. So I went from pure excitement to extreme panic. Obviously imagining all the worse possible situations.
So I insisted on Skyping the bf and like always
he made me feel better.
I kept up with the weather updates and soon realized that there was nothign to be worried about.
Thursday night Nat, Anne and I took a night bus to bangkok and awaited our different flights.
Can't enjoy the scenery outside, can't read because they turn the lights off, can't sleep because youre surexcité and are extremely comfortable. This was an extra long 8 hour bus ride.
Because I inherited the terrible navigation gene, I then had to stay at the airport until 350 - departure time.
So I bought a book and read.
BOOM VIETNAM!! I wish I could explain how incredibly MASSIVE the city of Ho Chi Minh is - otherwise known as Saigon city. There are over 10 million people there, and it is divided into 13 districts. I was in awe looking up from the plane. And realized almost right away that one week could never be enough in such a giant city- let alone country.
I arrived took a cab with some other random people and realized later that the cab driver could have retried with all the money we gave him from that one night lol.
checked into this
?
?hostel super nice, like 9 bucks a night, but I only stayed there 3 nights and then was like im too poor so I went to a sketchier- like really skechy place and said- umm can you change the sheets please..
Came back like 5 hours later and realized that all they had done was shake them out.
Luckily im really smart and brought my own sheet so i slept on that.
The next day I went next door to a nicer way cleaner place AND it was only 5 bones a night. Stayed there the rest of the trip.
So like i said there are 10 million plus living in Saigon, and over 3 million of these people drive scooters. IT WAS INSANE!!
My idea of a sidewalk is a place where a pedestrian can walk, run, eat, along side the road without being hit by a motorized vehicle... WRONG
there is no such thing as a sidewalk in Saigon- the sidewalks, as a matter of fact are a short cut for turning, going straight- picking mpeople up.. its really just another lane actually.
Vietnamese the common dialect is kind f similar to thai- it is a
tonal language and kind of nasaly just like thai. I didn't get very far on learning words though only hello and thank you ( sheen Chow and Gohw Mun)
These people are also incredibly friendly, not creepy, but very talkative- even if there is no common language. For example I took a bus to the china town market like 20 minutes away ( only 20 centsss!!!) but it was too massive for me to mentally udnerstand so i just walked around the china town area and explored, went to the park watched people fish in the public fountain and reminissed when I was a kid fishing off my dock.
well i sat down to eat some noodles on a curb and this woman like elderly 73 year old woman came over with her grandson ( im assuming ) She had zero teeth. Okay no she had to brown ones on the bottom probably from chewing a lot of tabacco and a lack of money for dentistry work. She knew absolutely NO English not even one word and i knew only two pretty useless words for starting a conversation. But for almost 2o minutes we just sat and «talked»
?
not sure lol and tried to understand each other. A lot of laughing, way too much drawing pictures that never help anything and a lot of smiles.
If any of you know me, you might know that I like watching people- no not stalking, just observing- like my dad. I like to see how people react to situations, what makes people smile or what makes people upset, how people are with those around them. So I spent the first 3 ish days walking around the city. The main sites but also trying to figure out where I am.
I went to the War remnants museum, reunification Palace, a couple other monuments that most of you won't know about or care about. BUt I also spent a lot of time in the parks, and on benches «reading books» or «writing» in my journal. This is more of what travelling is for me, not necessarily run around to the most places possible, but trying to get a better feel of the culture and the customs of the people there.
Ho Chi Minh has some beautiful, beautiful parks all through out the huge city. With trees that seem so tall youd think you
could jump into outerspace if you climbed to the very top. Men and woman are exercising, children are playing around. the parks in Saigon reminded me of Central Park in New York a bit.
Actually the parks is where I spent a lot of my time not just bc of the people but because they give really nice shade- Vietnam is hotter than Thailand and that is saying a lot. I developped a really bad heat rash like all over my body because it was so hot. My face broke out really really bad too, that could just be because of the more congested air.
I understand now why asian people are much smaller than north americans... they use chopsticks. Meaning you eat less food at a time, therefor slower and so you realize you are full more quickly.
Here are some particular things I noticed about Ho chi Minh:
-85 % of people wear face masks- like the ones you see people wearing on tv after a new flu has broken out and its breaking news.
- the buildings are super tall and super narrow. The have curly stairs that go up and up and
EEk
this fake man literally made me scream- its a wax remake of the prison sells they had for the political prisoners - tiger cells the called them up
- You can still here the roosters cock- a-doodle- dooing even though youre in the middle of the street.
- there are squirrels
- people of all ages go fishing in the city fountains
- people of asia can sleep any where, any time in any position - including nearly upside down on a motorbike .
-motor biking is only dangerous in North America because people think they are really cool driving so they go faster and crash and die and kill other people.
Motorbikes here are like cars and trucks in north america. people attach everything from massive dead pigs to 4 members of their families
Monday was a complete write off day becasue I had to go to the Thai Embassy to apply for a new visa. I walked there- forgot my plane ticket so walked home ( 45 minutes mind you ) went back in the afternoon when it opened again and realized i brought the wrong plane ticket so I walked around for like a half hour trying to find a computer store wehre I could search my info on the internet. Then I realized I only had dong
woman
workplace/ life on the move and baht so I couldn't pay the 40 dollar fee that must
absolutely must be paid in US dollars- lame. So I walked around to a couple different banks until someone finally told me that you no banks in Viet nam will buy Dong from you ( to exchange currency) they only give dong. They told me that you have to go to the black market.. that didn't happen lol. I chased down some americans who directed me to a hotel where they would exchange.
Got rejected and ended up going to a mysterious building with a blue plastic flappy sheet as a sign.
Worked, but like I said took an entire day for me to get myself together.
Tuesday I went to the tunnels that were used during the War of Viet nam. I always want to use words like AWESOME, COOL, SO AMAZING to describe places like this - but they are only there because of a part of time that was DARK, TERRIBLE and DESTRUCTIVE.
The tunnels were overwhelming you could say.
educational- i learned how about a community came together to fight against the viet cong and american army.
i was moved by their
motorbikes
2 million 9 hundred 99 thousand 9 hundred 99 more passion and their hardwork
i learned that the viet cong and american army dropped millions of tons of explosives in the area; destroying lives, families and the futures of many people - leaving me devastated and somehow surprised at how a person can treat another person.
I was exhillerating going throught the pitch black tunnels with only a small light- until my heart turned as black as the tunnels thinking that this is how people lived. In constant exchange of emotions -
fear.
hatred.
devastation.
In the end I realized how incredible people are- building anunderground network that had hospital zones, school zones, resting areas -a community reaching up to 50 feet deep.
...i also realized how absolutely frightening people can become- ripping through villages, raping and killing the people, torching the entire area- reasons sometimes unneccessary, appoligies sometimes are not enough, histories are often repeated because they can never be forgotten.
my favourite part of Vietnam was visiting the Mekong Delta. This is the southern most part if Vietnam but like a giant where water from the country joins into some serious water stream systems that everntually connect to the ocean. the mekong Dekta makes Vietnam the
2nd biggest exported of rice in the world. And the biggest produced of rice in Vietnam.
I spent the day on boats taking us to floating markets where the community members sell in bulk off their boats; we went to a honey tea farm, saw rice paper makers and tried a lot of different foods,
i even got to put a boa constrictor around my neck.
I met some really cool people from around the world here- one guy named Oz from Jersulem that really challenged me to think in different ways. we were in the same hostel and went out for breakfast and dinner. hes actually in Thailand now..i don;t know where.
I really need to start working out lol.
Here are a couple less serious things:
-a lot of men in Ho Chi Minh were wearing cthe sketchers get fit shoes- you know the ones that have like intense heels with a ball on the bottom
-On the monday I felt like having a class of wine and reading my book. I wasn't too keen about going out by myself in a big city and having a drink- so I decided to go
woman
fishing in the local fountain by a bottle of wine from a convenience store around the corner. that way i would be able to have a glass of wine later in the week if I wanted one.
Got lost. took me like 2 hours to find my way back to the hotel after i bought the wine. not worth it and then Friday rolls around and I end up at the airport realizing I hadn't drank like any of my wine except one glass and had to leave it ALL at security- that was embaressing.
Hmm so on the airplane on the way home we got to fly away from a lightning store that was on its way to Ho Chi Minh- it was the most incredible and terrifying experience I have ever seen.
Now Im back in Mae Sot.
I washed all my laundry like ervything- because I still have lice... and I therefore decided to dye my hair- I died it dark brown lol. It doesn't look very different, but that was the whole point. If they don't go away in 7 days. Im shaving it all off- its been way to long and I don't know what else
dragon
in the local china town fountain to do.
for those of you that don' t know I got lice from one of my students right after my birthday ( sept 22nd) and they are still here. I have tried the following things:
salt in shampoo,
lice cream that stay in your hair for 8 hours while seran wrapping my head
lice shampoo- 3 different kinds.
vaseline in my hair for like 7 days
the girls trying tp pick the nits out
and now dying my hair.
I don't know what else to do- suggestions please cause I really don't want to shave my head.
sincerely
lice free wanna bee
Advertisement
Tot: 0.223s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.055s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Rich Haslam
non-member comment
Did you notice the smell?
The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Saigon was the smell. Don\'t know where it came from but it permeated everything I wore. I did get used to it after a couple of weeks. When I was there I also took a bunch of pics and posted them to my blog, http://www.TheVietnamTraveler.com.