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Published: October 16th 2008
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Katy and I sharing a cycle
cyclo = little seat attached to a bicycle It was so amazing to meet up with Katy!! I had a fantastic time catching up and meeting her friends and seeing where she lived and worked in Ho Chi Minh. It makes such a difference from a traveling perspective and experience to meet up with someone who lives and knows an area.
Katy lived in a nice suburb about 20 minutes outside of central, within walking distance of South Saigon International School, the school where Katy student taught a bunch of energetic and inspiring 3rd graders.
Katy, Audrey, a friend of her also from Luther and student teaching a SSIS, and myself took a 2 day tour of the Mekong Delta meeting a fair number of very friendly Vietamese tourists and a very outgoing and funny Chinese man.
We saw floating markets, friendly children who waved energetically, running along the bank to continue waving a few hundred meters down the inlet, and demonstrations of how to make rice paper, rice krispies, rice krispie bars, sticky sweets whose name I've forgotten, and how transform rice from fields into edible rice used for cooking, amongst other things.
We also saw the craziest market I've seen yet with not
chaotic streets of Ho Chi Minh
Vietamese joke that it's a country of motorbikes only flowers, crafts, and dead chickens but also live chickens, frogs, pigs, and I saw a woman clean a fish for the first time! I liked that they had pens of pigs right there, so you could just point to one, and say "I like that one", and there's dinner!
I loved seeing the Delta but I loved more meeting all the wonderful people: it was great to meet Vietnamese. We had a few hours to kill on bus rides and I gained a better glimpse into a local culture than I had had in ages.
The next few days Katy and I went to the famous Rex Hotel (meeting place for journalists during the Vietnam War), the War Remnant Museum, and Fuji Yan, her local area.
Taking a day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels turned out to be the most intense day I've spent on a tour. The tunnel begins with a video filmed in 1967 of the Cu Chi area and tunnels, a beautiful propaganda video for the Communists. Then ... the tunnels. I had heard of people becoming claustrophobic in them but I brushed it off: I don't get claustrophobic. We saw our
guide brush some seemingly random leaves aside to reveal a little square cut into the earth, and as I discovered, slightly larger than my chest. I was instructed to go in feet first, turn right, then left. The path we were to take was only 7 meters; there are over 200 kilometers included in the Cu Chi tunnel system. One girl went before me and immediately shot off so that when I called for her, she didn't respond ... ugh. I lowered myself in the hole, dropping a bit so my feet touched ground, sitting, and shuffling forward on my bum with my hands at my sides I found myself breathing in stale air and in total darkness, I could not see my hands if I waved them in front of my face. I reach up and to find the roof about 10" above my head, and I was lying back a bit while shuffling along. I immediately felt a sense of panic. I felt my way right and began to scuff along, nervously calling for the girl in front of me, nothing. oh god. suddenly I hear a sound behind me, another guy has dropped down. oh my god,
thank god. Needless to say, this guy turned out to be a godsend. He brought his camera and every now and then would take a photo, lighting up the place, not that it did much but it was reassuring not to be alone and under the worst possible scenario, there was some sort of light. After a slight detour, the tunnel had gone left but it turned out to be a dead end, I saw light. I crawled out shaking and thanking heavens I was not born into the Viet Cong.
After a slightly breathless recovery we saw various booby-traps laid out by the Viet Cong wish would make you want to turn monkey and whisk through the trees, only after Agent Orange, there were no trees, so you're stuck.
After the tunnels we were dropped at the War Remnants Museum where I finished the bits I had missed the previous day with Katy. I took many photos but will not post them, simply to spare you the sight. I'd only do it if you asked. It was an incredibly intense day. I will however say that it added a new meaning to when we saw beggars on
Company specifically for Agent Orange victims
They make crafts, furniture, and artwork .... this photo was very awkward to take the streets with deformed or missing body parts.
On lighter notes, Katy surprised me by asking me to visit her class! They were studying maps and Katy had described me to her class as "the traveler" 😊 It was so fun to see her immaculate school and I was so very impressed by Katy and how she directed the class. It was humorous to see 3rd graders, squirming, chatting, with 0.2 second attention spans - I had forgotten how much we simply MOVE when we're younger, these kids could barely sit still! They asked wonderful questions and were particularly curious about when I mentioned sailing from Singapore to Borneo. Katy put pins on the world map of where I had gone and measured the distance I had gone - I was pretty impressed, it was really far! I was really touched by the kids and so thankful to Katy to have such a great experience.
Unfortunately, Katy's purse was stolen the day before I left and we had to deal with the police and Katy lost a fair amount of things that could not be replaced. As always she remained optimistic and she dealt with things efficiently and
quickly. She dealt with it really well.
I had a great time in Saigon and it left me on a high as I headed for Hong Kong to see Sonia!
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