"Goooood Morning, Vietnam"

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Vietnam was definitely one of the best ports to sail into. It was awesome. Not beautiful in a beauty sense, but I don’t know. I can’t describe it. There were so many trees and then tall buildings, and then you could see the little town and people on their motorbikes. This was the first port where everything was done on time which is odd considering there was word we might have missed a day because of the engine problem with the boat. But, the pilot came on at 4AM, we arrived at about 7:30AM, and then did all the immigration/custom stuff along with our first diplomatic briefing where two representatives from the U.S. Embassy talked to us. One was actually a previous semester at sea participant and will be a senior at GW University, and he is working at the embassy in Vietnam for his internship. How cool is that?

Before I begin, let me just say I LOVE this place. If I had time, and a native to go with to Northern Vietnam, and Central Vietnam, I would totally do it. I would even skip the other ports and just stay here and finish. Well, maybe that’s a bit much, I want to see the other places, but that is how much I like it here. I definitely don’t know if another port could even compare to this one. Like, Singapore was awesome because it was SO beautiful and modernized and Americanized, but Vietnam is just…a whole different story. Jess asked me if I felt “connected” because of my family haha. And I had thought about that on the way here, and didn’t really think I would, but when I think about it now it’s really cool. Thinking about how I know people that have grown up here, and lived here and walked the streets here and how it would be so familiar to them, but it’s such a strange place to me, like a different world…it really is amazing. Not even just being here because of family, but the history and the places, and the food, and learning about the war from their prospective…I just can’t explain it. Ha.

So, once we got off the ship, we boarded onto shuttles for the City Orientation field program. First, we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral and the post office. The Notre Dame Cathedral was really beautiful. And the post office was, well, a post office.
After that we rode to the City Museum and walked around there for a bit. It was really interesting; however, the highlight of that was a bridal party getting their photos taken. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things, she had to be one of the prettiest brides I’ve ever seen. And I took some pictures to show everyone, haha. It is so crazy the population here, everywhere you go little kids will walk up to you trying to sell things, running after you, and you don’t know how to get rid of them! And those motorbikes…if you thought crossing the street in Manhattan was bad! You can’t even imagine, it’s ridiculous! But it’s all so amazing to take in, and I’m absolutely loving this place. After the City Museum, we went to Maxim’s Nam An Restaurant where I ate the best meal I’ve had since I left for the summer. It was so delicious I can’t even explain it! It was like a five-course meal included dessert and I wrote everything down so I could explain it all when I get back, it’s just so much to type, and it will take up so much room if I put in all the tiny details. I am trying to give you as much detail as I can though. After lunch, we went to the History Museum, and saw a water puppet performance. It was actually pretty cool, I thought it would be boring but it only lasted 15 minutes and wasn’t so bad. Then we stopped at a Pagoda (temple) and saw (and smelled) all the burning incense. That gave me a bit of a headache, but we didn’t stay too long. Everything was really interesting, but I’d definitely like to do stuff without a group because I feel like we have more time and such. I don’t think I’d actually go back to like the City Museum though.

We got back to the ship around 4ish, and then four of us took the free shuttle back into Ho Chi Minh City to find a tailor to have dresses made. After dodging the motorbikes, little kids, and shopkeepers yelling for us to buy things, we made it to the tailor and picked out fabrics and drew up styles to have our dresses made. It only cost us US$30! I just hope it all turns out the way I want, you know. After that, we walked into some of the stores and looked around. There are so many beautiful things here, and for cheap too. The only bad thing is that the owners of the markets just follow you and follow you and keep showing you things and naming prices and will absolutely not leave you alone. It’s pretty crazy and annoying. Then, we found a place that had pho and got dinner there. It cost us under 4 dollars and was delicious. It was beef noodle soup and spring rolls. Mmm. I know I’m going to love eating here. I feel like even though I worked out so much, I am gaining a lot of weight from all these freaking ports, and Vietnam will be the death of me, I want to eat out all the time!

Vietnam is honestly amazing. And I’m not just saying that because I’m technically ‘biased’, but not really…everyone has said that it is the best port so far.

So, on Thursday a little after 8AM, two buses rode a bunch of students out to the Mekong Delta for the day trip. The Mekong Delta is the 6th largest river in the world. It looks brown and dirty, but that is just from the soil underneath, it is actually clean (supposedly) and people bathe in it, wash in it, and fish in it. It took about two hours to get there from Ho Chi Minh City, and once we arrived, we boarded onto boats similar to the ones I was talking about in Malaysia. They could hold about 40 people and had a little top to provide shade because the sun is HOT. Our tour guide was really nice, and spoke very good English. So we started out, and it was really cool. There were so many other boats in the water: fishing boats, house boats, canoes, and it seems like the waterways are similar to the roadways in that there seems to be no structure or organization. I guess they figure it out, though. So we drove past the little islands on the river, which are each named after the four holy animals of Buddhism: turtle (longevity), unicorn (happiness), dragon (power), and phoenix (beauty). Later on, we would walk through the Unicorn island. The Mekong is full of mangrove trees and bamboo, and it’s a really pretty site, but at some parts gets really narrow to get where you need to go. So, the Vietnamese solve this problem by placing a little dock somewhere in the middle of the river so that you can just change boats. Yeah, in the middle of the river. Just hop off one and jump onto the other. It might not sound bad, but these boat….the next boat that we had to get into only held six people. It was about 5 feet wide and fairly long, maybe a little longer than a canoe. So we rode that through the smaller part of the river, and docked at this little coconut factory. Just right there in the middle of the trees. We walked through a bunch of fruit trees and dirt, and then we saw how they make coconut candy, and we got to taste some night and hot, and it is so good. I bought some so I could bring a little home. And by a little I mean two full packs. They’re really good. And I don’t even like coconut. Anyway, after that, we saw beehives that you could hold (I passed), and a little boy just walking around with a big snake. So I held that one, and took a picture to prove it. Then we sampled honey lemon tea and rice wine. The tea was delicious except that there were so many bees and they were real annoying. The rice wine was extremely strong and felt like burning liquor.

After we finished at that little island, we got back into our little six person boats, rode to that little dock and switched back to the big boats, and then we rode to Unicorn Island. We got out of the boats, and walked along a dirt trail to a farmers house where we had a feast of fresh fruit. It was delicious and refreshing: lychee, longons, dragonfruit, pineapple (the only one you probably recognize), and a sort-of grapefruit tasting one. They were really good. We listened to a couple of people perform traditional Vietnamese music, and then we walked along the trail to a set of little row boats. There were about 5 of them. Each row boat holds four people, plus the two rowers who just sit on the top of the canoe. This is hard to explain, but I have pictures. Needless to say, it was pretty rocky, and I was a little nervous to fall in, but it was an amazing experience to travel through the little parts and be so close to the trees and everything. I even rowed the boat for a little. Those little row boats took us back to our big boats, and our Mekong experience was over (it doesn’t seem like it took long, but it really took practically the whole day). After that, we got back onto our bus, and then we drove to a local seafood restaurant for lunch, which was another delicious meal. Plus, I even tried snail, and it was actually really good.

That Mekong trip was without a doubt the best one that I’ve done yet. It was an awesome experience.

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