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Published: November 17th 2012
Hello friends and family! You probably know by now that we made it to Vietnam! Hooray! Here's a brief recap of our 30 hours in transit...
On the morning of Wednesday, November 14, our friend Ed was kind enough to pick us up at 4:30 a.m. and drive us to the Charleston, SC, airport (Thanks Ed! You rock!). Once there, we were informed that our first flight to Newark, NJ was having luggage issues - in other words, if we took the flight our luggage may or may not make it to our final destination...not good. Thankfully, the woman helping us was nice enough to put us on a different flight that went through Houston instead. Relieved, we took the Houston flight, which, though slightly longer, went smoothly. However, when we got there, we realized that we were not seated next to one another on our next and longest flight (14 hours) to Tokyo. We talked to the woman at our gate, though, and she sneakily changed our seating arrangements, upgrading us for free to Economy Plus - 3 seats to ourselves with tons of leg room...nice! We encountered a similar predicament for our third and final flight from Tokyo
to Ho Chi Minh City, but, once in the air, the flight attendents helped us switch seats. In other words, everything turned out as well as it possibly could for what could have been an unbearably long and uncomfortable 30 hours of traveling. When we landed in Vietnam, the local time was a little after 10:00 p.m on Thursday the 15th (12 hours ahead of SC). We walked outside to search for our ride to our hotel, and a wave of nostalgia came over me in the form of heat and humidity. No, we weren't in SC anymore, but it sure felt like it! We soon spotted a very small man holding up a sign reading "Darell." 😊 He kindly helped us stuff our luggage into the trunk of his tiny Kia, and off we went. As we zoomed through the city, I took in the sights as best I could in between bursts of fear for my life as masses of scooters and mopeds surrounded us, weaving in and out of our lane and often cutting us off. I would later realize that this insanity was completely the norm and didn't phase our driver one bit. We finally made
it to our hotel, a modest little hole in the wall tucked away on a quiet sidestreet amidst the bustling night life. The woman who greeted us was extremely hospitable, presenting us with a "welcome drink" of neon yellow kumquat juice and escorting us up to our room. Once there, relieved to have made it but simultaneously exhausted, excited and, admittedly, a bit anxious, I had what I'll call an "Oh my God I'm in Vietnam thousands of miles from my home, my friends and my family for 4 months, what was I thinking?!" meltdown. But that's normal...right? In any case, my wonderful husband comforted me, and I fell asleep excited to explore the city in the morning.
The next day, we woke up around 8:00 a.m. and took our time getting ready and preparing a plan for the day. We then went downstairs, and, slightly embarrassed, quickly took our shoes off since going barefoot is customary/manditory at our hotel. We sat down to our complimentary breakfast consisting of freshly baked French inspired baguette-style bread with butter and guava jam, bananas, hot tea and kumquat juice. Everything was very fresh and delicious. After breakfast, we decided to take the
walking tour suggested in our Lonely Planet guide book and set out on our way. As we headed toward our first stop, the famous indoor market, we walked through a beautiful park lined with little gazebo type shelters where several teenage boys were practicing an interesting hip-hop-ish pop and lock (or whatever you call it) dance. Intrigued, we decided to stop and watch for a bit on a nearby bench. A few minutes after we sat down, two Vietnamese boys approached us and asked us in English if they could talk to us. They said they were in college studying tourism and needed to practice their English. Thrilled with the opportunity to interact with some locals so soon after our arrival, Scott and I happily agreed. They told us they were happy we were Americans because our accents are the easiest to understand. 😊 They then asked us if we were from Colorado - it seemed that this was the only state they were really familiar with. While we conversed, little groups of college students stopped every now and then to listen in (we later found out they were in the same classes as the two boys), and eventually the
boys' professor showed up. We were able to get a good bit of information about the city and what to see and do here while also learning a few things about Vietnamese culture.
Eventually, we parted ways and headed to the huge indoor market. Once inside, it was immediate sensory overload. There were people selling anything from fruit to jewelry and handbags to fabric with which they insisted they could fashion us a handmade suit in one day. Each little booth/shop was inches from the next, making for very small pathways on which to meander our way in any direction. There were even stations set up like miniature restaurants cooking up Vietnamese specialties. Both fascinated and quite overwhelmed, we weaved our way through the maze-like building trying to avoid the occasional over-zealous shop owner who would literally grab our arms in an attempt to drag us into their store.
Once we left the market, we continued our tour, taking in the city while looking for the historic buildings and monuments mentioned in our book. As we walked, it was impossible not to notice the everpresent juxtaposition of old and new; clean and dirty; rich and poor. We saw
huge, modernly designed skyscrapers next to centuries old historic buildings surrounded by dilapidated shacks that were literally falling apart. We saw business men and women in fancy suits walking among women dressed in traditional garb carrying bushels of fruit on their shoulders, not to mention homeless beggars on many of the street corners. The same streets that were lined with garbage and puddles of filth housed some of the most beautiful landscaping and intricate shrubbery I've ever seen. It seems like the locals take great pride in keeping their city beautiful when it comes to trees, flowers and landscaping, yet their streets are some of the dirtiest I've experienced. Nonetheless, the city amazed and intrigued me with its unique way of blending all its qualities together seamlessly - all people, all eras, all socio-economic statuses together as one glorious, beautiful entity.
One thing a tourist can't help but notice among all this beauty is the sheer volume of people in the city and how many of them drive mopeds and scooters. I was shocked to find that no one follows traffic laws (if there are any) - people basically drive on whichever side of the road they want, and when traffic is heavy, which seems to be most of the time, mopeds will even move onto the sidewalks. Crossing the street here is hands down the most terrifying thing I've ever done! Let's just say pedestrians definitely don't have the right of way - it's pretty much every man for himself. 😊 Also, in Ho Chi Minh City, honking produces much of the noise on the street - one honk just doesn't cut it; three or four, maybe. Unlike the U.S., people don't really honk out of anger, just as a way of saying "Like it or not, I'm coming, so you better watch out!" I must say that, after witnessing a Ho Chi Minh City rush hour, I will never complain about traffic again. (Well, don't hold me to that!)
Our final stop on the tour, after taking a lunch break to enjoy some amazing Vietnamese pho (one of their fantastic specialty soups), was to ride the elevator to the top of one of the city's skyscrapers to take in the view of the city from above at a trendy rooftop bar. I ordered a banana smoothie, which was quite possibly the best one I've ever had in my life. Ever. When we left the bar, exhausted and feet hurting from walking all day, we decided to make our way back to the hotel and rest before dinner (which turned out to be a second helping of pho from another local spot). I then fell asleep before 9:00 to an episode of mythbusters. Needless to say, our first day was wonderful and so far Vietnam is all that I hoped it would be and more...
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chodo721
C Hodo
Sounds like an awesome first day!