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Published: January 12th 2009
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Lettuce???
That's what the sign says it is! by ZACK
We are now in Vietnam. We flew here from Guanzhou, China and we got to Guanzhou by train from Hong Kong. I really liked Hong Kong, but I found there wasn’t too much to do there besides go to the local Disneyland. China is already generally crowded, so I couldn’t even imagine the lines to get on some rides. A bunch of Chinese guys dancing around in giant talking mouse costumes didn’t really tickle our fancy anyway.
The train ride from Hong Kong was really nice, and we passed a lot of rice patties. It was interesting to see a different side of China, not the side they westernize for American tourists. A funny thing about China is that you can go to a tourist district and get a bowl of spaghetti and a drink for about 15 dollars, and then you can go to a non-tourist district and get 4 bowls of spaghetti, spring rolls, a bowl of soup, and 4 drinks for about 4 dollars. Taxi rides are also incredibly cheap. You can be riding around for about an hour in a taxi, and it would cost 5 dollars. It’s going to be crazy going back Mom and I at the Chen Temple
Check out the detail on the roof to America and adjusting to the high prices again.
Although the taxis are cheap, they are also scarier than a roller coaster. CRAZY. When we got to Guanzhou I figured that I would not want to walk around due to the fact that the taxi driver almost hit at least 50 people; 10 on bikes. Here is something to give you a feel about how crowded the roads are: if I reached my hand out of the window I would have slapped about 5 people.
Next to our hotel in Guanzhou there was a big street market. It reminded me of the Ocean Beach farmer’s market. Not far from our hotel there was a jade market. It was brilliant! There were thousands of jade dragons, idols, and necklaces. You buy them in a simple manner. You point to the item you are interested in, the seller puts the number on a calculator, and you make a counter offer. This continues going on until you reach an agreement. We bought a really cool jade dragon for 250 RMB, or 30 American dollars.
The thing I liked most about Guanzhou is that it is not touristy at all. I didn't see more
Dragon?
I kind of look like him. than 5 westerners. My favorite place there was the Chen Temple. The stone carvings on the wall were really elaborate and amazing. The temple had a holder for an ancient shrine that was the most elaborate thing I have ever seen. It looked like it was made of wood painted with golden paint. We went to a shop in the temple and got our names in Cantonese on a stamp. They spelled my name “Zac,” but it was correct in Cantonese. Next to the Temple there is a park where a woman had set up a karaoke machine and was belting out songs like an injured narwhal.
Our last day in China we went to a vegetarian restaurant. We had this really good Chinese soup. An interesting aspect of the soup is that they put tree bark in it to give it flavor. It sounds pretty gross, but it was actually one of the best soups I’ve ever had. The bark gave it a really good coconut flavor. Afterwards I saw the single greatest street show ever. It was a guy in a beat up suit with three monkeys. They were all jumping around and slapping their master. It was
You don't get this close at the SD Zoo
This picture is right before he came all the way down to my hand really uplifting.
Vietnam has been very different from China. First of all the currency exchange rate is crazy. One US dollar is about 17,000 Vietnamese dollars. We figured that 100,000 Vietnamese dollars is roughly 6 American dollars which helps us calculate, but it's still pretty tough when prices are in the millions. It's good for your math skills though.
Yesterday was a great day. We took a taxi to the Saigon Zoo. It was one of the strangest zoos I’ve ever been to. For one, you can go right next to some of the animals. I even got to pet a giraffe! We saw some really cool animals, including sea otters, monkeys, deer, lions, hippos, and a bunch of crazy Vietnamese guys in animal costumes. There was a really cute petting zoo with baby deer, sheep, and rams. It was really fun. After that we went to a museum called “The Museum of the American War.” A funny thing about it is that here they don’t call it the Vietnam War; they call it the American War.This place was pretty depressing. They had a bunch of tanks and aircraft that America had left in Vietnam. A really depressing part of the visit was when a guy who had his arms blown off in the war gave me his stump to shake. I didn't want to offend him, so I shook it, but it was pretty weird.
Last night we had dinner in an Indian restaurant called Alibaba. It was the best Indian food I have ever eaten and the check was about an eighth of what it would cost in the states. Some more foreign low prices. I like it!
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Sam
non-member comment
hey
that sounds soooo cool i just asked if we could do wat u were doing but my mom said i would miss my friends. u got to pet a giraffe!! that is sooooo cool. well t alk to u later. Lots of love Sam xoxoxo