Vietnam!!!

So Vietnam was awesome, but I say that after every country, right? But it was, and it, so far is probably one of my top three countries that we’ve visited. There are only two ports left: Hong Kong and Japan. By Saturday we’ll be in Hong Kong and by Sunday I’ll be in Beijing, doing the Great Wall thing and exploring the city.

But for now I have to get this blog written because I only have two days between these two ports and a lot to get done as far as homework goes.

So yeah, I already wrote about my first day and how I spent it hanging out in Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon. On day two I was up at 4 am and by 6:30 I was on a Vietnamese Airlines air headed to Hanoi. There ended up being only ten other students on my trip, plus three adults. It was great. Too often there are masses of students on the bigger trips so to have such a small group was really nice. Our trip leader was JP, also known as “the voice” because she makes the daily noon reports to our ship over the loudspeaker.
Although there were quite a few SASers on our flight from a variety of trips, I sat next to a Vietnamese man. We were served this soup that had noodles and pieces of hard boiled egg in it for breakfast and this fruit that I had had the night before and didn’t know was it was. After asking, the man beside me told me it’s called a “green dragon” which confuses me still because nothing on the fruit, not even the skin of it was green. Instead it was white with tiny black seeds throughout it. Anyway, he told me to put salt on the fruit because it’s better that way, and I did, and he was wrong. I was amused as I watched him dump his salt packet all over his fruit. Apparently the Vietnamese use salt on their strawberries as well…crazy.
Okay, so we got to Hanoi and loaded onto one of the huge tour buses, which was way too big for our group. A definite plus. Our drive out of the airport area was full of never-ending rice paddy fields dotted with huge billboards. Motorbikes filled the highway. It was not surprising to me when we were told that there are one and a half million motorbikes in Hanoi and only three million people. I mean, a supermarket we passed had a parking lot completely full of motorbikes and not a single car was in sight.
Everyone rode them. A family with two children aboard went past our bus. Vietnamese women in cute outfits and high heels sped by with masks covering their faces.
Traveling along, dozens of boys dressed in all black clothing gathered in a field for kung fu, they’re motorbikes around them. As we entered the more populated areas of the Hanoi suburbs tall narrow buildings were everywhere. It’s super expensive to own land in Vietnam and the price per square meter is out of control so everywhere you go you see these skinny buildings three or four stories high. Each floor is rented by someone else. Twan, our guide, gave us a layout for the trip and talked about how Vietnam is known as the “green country” but I, as well as everyone else, fell asleep soon after that.
Our bus headed towards the Mai Chau mountain village, located northwest of Hanoi. It took us five hours to get there but only because our bus driver drove painfully slow through the mountain pass. We made a stop along the way at a village market. I walked around for a while but ended up gathering around the other SASers to watched Twan smoke tobacco out of what was basically a bamboo bong. A young man sat beside him, carving designs into the still-green bamboo of the pipes for sale. I had to buy one…it was only a dollar! (which seemed to be my reasoning for buying a lot of stuff in Vietnam)
While at the market Rachel, a really big girl, got her first of many comments about her weight from the Vietnamese. Some Vietnamese women and girls gathered around her trying to put their arms around her waist and then giggling that they couldn’t. Everywhere we went, particularly in the mountain village where tourists are not as common, the Vietnamese pointed or made loud comments that none of us Americans could understand. Seriously, it happened so much. I can’t even imagine how hard it is to have people comment on your weight everywhere you go. The issue with people pointing out her weight while in Mai Chau was so obvious that none of the SASers could ignore it. She told us it used to bother her more (people point and laugh more than usual in most of the countries we have been to) but she started realizing that a lot of the time they are simply stating a fact, that she is rather large, and not necessarily saying that it is a horrible thing. Although in Vietnam that is the vibe I got from most of the onlookers. Either way though, people in these Asian countries we have visited are tiny. They don’t have people that are six feet or taller like in America and barely anyone weighs over like 160 lbs I would say. So our presence in these countries is a big one in more than one way.
After our short 20-minute stay at the market we reboarded our bus and began our journey through the mountain pass. The mountains in Vietnam are amazingly beautiful and different. They didn’t even look like mountains in many cases. They were more like huge towering rocks with jagged edges on the top that stuck straight out of the ground, with barely any gradual incline. Some of these limestone rocks or mountains were by themselves in a field. The mountains surrounding the village we stayed at were a little more familiar looking but still, the peaks of them were rounded and close together, and sort of looked like waves in water. Actually, there weren’t really peaks, because there were so many of these round-tops to the mountains that instead it was like there were a million little hills on each mountain.
We stopped to eat for lunch at this cute little restaurant along the highway and ate our meal sitting crossed legged on cushions. Nearly every dish we were served had seafood in it. Ech, even the word “seafood” upsets my stomach. Needless to say, I didn’t eat much, but the rice, oh yeah, that white rice was amazing. The trend in Vietnam ended up being seafood at every meal and in turn, Vietnam was one of my least favorite countries as far as cuisine goes. I know I should be adventurous and just try the prawns and all the other random sea creatures, but to me, the idea of eating a prawn, with its little black beady eyes visible, is equivalent to eating a bug. JP and Woody, two of the adults on the trip, aren’t huge fans of seafood either and they too were picky with what they ate, so I didn’t feel quite as bad about not eating everything I was served. By the last day I had learned to say I was a vegetarian when they did a head count at the beginning of my Mekong Delta trip. So while everyone else was looking at still intact fish being ripped apart and placed on their plate, I had an awesome meal of noodles and vegetables. I just wish I would have played the vegetarian card earlier.
I fell asleep again as soon as I was back on the bus and an hour later woke up to such a beautiful view. We were above the mountain town we were heading too, and looking down on the valley scattered with rice paddy fields and homes. Forty-five minutes later we were at the Mai Chau village, driving down bumpy narrow roads with our huge bus.
The village we stayed in was full of long houses made out of wood and bamboo, with bamboo flooring. The homes were two stories high with the first story being open and used for storage and selling fabric and other things. Our home for the night was owned by a family that slept on the first floor and the second floor, which was one large room, was where we stayed. A skinny chicken with only a few feathers ran around the house during our stay there. Upon arriving we had a few of hours to kill before dinner and nothing was scheduled so I roamed off on my own, down the dirt road through the neighborhood. Nearly every home was selling fabric and fabric wall hangings. Since the road to the village was built a year ago, more and more tourists have made their way to the area. We saw several Europeans in the village while we were there. So yeah, in turn, there was quite a bit to buy, although it was all the same stuff.
I hadn’t walked far when I saw a parade of people, mainly kids, coming down the street towards me. An elephant trudged along in the middle of all of it. The elephant and crowd of kids cheering as they followed on bikes passed me. I never found out why an elephant was in the village, but based upon the excitement of the residents it was a big deal for them.
Dinner was another seafood meal, but I managed. That night, after dinner, some local teenage girls and guys performed for us. The “cultural performance” was pretty cool, but as most of the shows that people put on for us in the countries we visit are, it was a little too long. They sang and danced for us and eventually pulled us up from our seat on the bamboo floor to join them in jumping over these wooden sticks that were being moved back and forth in a rhythm. The jumping over sticks went on for a while and after sitting down I was pulled right up again to join everyone else in walking around in a circle and singing. The performers sang in Vietnamese so we didn’t sing along but at one point in the song they sang, “Vietnam! Ho Chi Minh!” over and over. The tune is still in my head. For the rest of that SAS trip I hummed and sang the tune whenever we visited a Vietnamese historical site, just to annoy Aparna and Aileen who hated having the song in their heads.
After the show we went outside while our beds were set up in the long house. We slept on cushioned mats and were given one small blanket each, which was all we needed since it was hot and humid in the long house despite the open windows and fans up above. Mosquito nets were draped over each of our beds and they worked pretty well as I didn’t get bitten once all night.


The next day, after breakfast, we went on what Twan called a “hike” through the main village area. It was a hot day and like every other day in Vietnam, Burma, and India, I could feel beads of sweat rolling down my back. We walked down the sides of the streets, dodging the occasional motor bike. Person after person pointed at Rachel, exclaiming in shock at her weight. We walked through a food market that was essentially a series of tarps covering wooden tables that had items of food for sail. Live frogs sat in a bowl, they’re legs tied together. Many of the tables had animal parts, intestines, kidneys, feet, legs, every part of the animal just lying out. I put a picture of it on my last blog. The stench of the meat trapped in the heat underneath the tarps got to me and I felt my gag reflex kick in as I walked behind the other SASers, wishing they would speed up because I couldn’t get around them. I walked past more disgusting sites such as hundreds of tiny crabs crawling around in a bowl and fish that looked past their expiration date packed in rows inside open boxes. It would have been hell for Allison.
Back outside in the mountain air, we walked through fields, our path surrounded by rice paddy being farmed. Mountains surrounded the already beautiful scenery. The walk was just incredibly beautiful, that’s the best way I can put it. We came upon some homes, and some locals came out to watch us. Three adorable puppies wrestled in the dirt. Oh and before I forget, Vietnam had the most adorable dogs and puppies I have ever scene. First off, they were everywhere, and secondly, they didn’t look mangy and rabies infested like many of the dogs did in India and Burma. These dogs were animals that Americans pay hundreds of dollars for. I know it’s a random thing to take away from Vietnam, but particularly in Mai Chau, it was out-of-hand. Everywhere I went I saw these tiny puppies and healthy, strong dogs. If SAS would let me, I would have smuggled one home for you mom.
We drove back through the mountain pass and to Hanoi after lunch. On the way the air conditioning on the bus broke and we could have easily just opened our windows and continued on our way, but instead the bus driver pulled over and spent a half hour fixing it as some students remained asleep on the bus and others bought packaged snacks from a dirty-looking food-stand right outside of our vehicle.
Getting to Hanoi was exciting because we were staying at a hotel which meant that we would be able to shower. Upon arriving at our hotel, everyone cleaned up and within an hour we regathered and headed to dinner at a nice restuarant. Dinner was seafood city again, but I managed. After dinner we went to a water puppet show at a nearby opera house. The whole concept being water puppetry is crazy to me. There were all these different acts to the show that didn’t really have anything to do with each other and basically a puppet, attached to a pole at the bottom would move around in foot deep water, the pole hidden underneath the water. These poles the puppets were attached to allowed the puppets to move in awesome ways though, and yeah, it was really cool. Next to the brightly colored stage and green water was a band that played music on all these culturally unique instruments for each act, and two women dressed in traditional clothing that sang and made random noises into their microphones. It was all in Vietnamese and really I had no idea what was going on, on top of the Twan handed us the Vietnamese programs rather than the available English programs, so I was really confused. But it was very visually entertaining all the same.
After the show we had the option of taking the bus back to the hotel or walking back ourselves and since it was only 9 pm and the city seemed pretty alive, I opted to explore the city, as did Jordan, so the two of us headed in a random direction. We walked down the busy streets, past stands of clothing that were found on literally every street we walked down. Jordan wanted to get lost in the city so we continuously walked in any direction that we thought looked interesting. However, because I refused to hop on a motorbike it limited us a bit. We did manage to find out way back to the hotel and beforehand stopped for a beer at a nearby bar. Back at the hotel, Angie, my roomie for the night, was still awake, reading one of the many books she reads within a month.


The next day we were out of the hotel by 8 am and headed for a day of sight-seeing. We visited the Temple of Literature, Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, and a pagoda, all of which was interesting but soon lost on me. I’ve seen so many temples and pagodas and historical sights in general on SAS that I’m beginning to shut down in the sense that I find each site less and less interesting. Visiting the first college in Vietnam is cool and all, but when other tourists are all over the place and then heat is ungodly, it just loses its appeal.
Luckily, we were given two hours to roam and get lunch on our own before we left the city. Aparna, Aileen, and I shopped for a bit before realizing that we didn’t need to look at the same stuff anymore, or buy anymore either, and instead we searched for an air conditioned restaurant. We didn’t walk far before we found “Papa Joe’s Coffee,” a cheap American-looking diner that served familiar food. We walked upstairs to the second floor and sat in the empty room, the only customers in the restaurant. The place soon filled up and to make a long story short, everyone got their food before us and actually, we never got our food because the waitress couldn’t understand what we were saying so she just didn’t write down Aileen’s or my order. It was all very confusing. And then we found out that it was the restaurants first day…and we were the first customers! The owner told us that we would get our food for free and as they were packaging up the sandwiches in front of us, Aparna said outloud, “Ooo, that chocolate cake looks good.” So the owner threw in three pieces of chocolate cake too…all very cool. We were late for our bus by the time we got out of the restaurant and the three of us ran through the streets of Hanoi laughing hysterically at the whole situation. A street cleaning machine went by as we were running and we ran right through the disgusting mist it left behind, making us laugh even harder.
Back on the bus, our group visited the Museum of Ethnology before heading to the airport and flying back to Ho Chi Minh City. Aparna, several other girls, and I met up outside the ship soon after we got back and headed to a tailor shop and Internet café in one. The girls all hopped on the backs of motorbikes, but once again, I refused. Luckily, the one boy who was traveling with us was also terrified of them and we took a cab together. I just could not bring myself to ride one of the many motorbikes in the city. These bikes just darted out in front of traffic and looked so unsafe. I won’t even ride a motorcycle in the states, so the idea of riding on the back of a random motorbike without a helmet terrified me and although it may have been part of the Vietnam experience, I couldn’t bring myself to ride on one. I was on the Internet for a while but the girls I was with were taking forever and I really had no reason to wait for them so I made the gamble and took a cab to the night market on my own. It was closing by the time I arrived so I walked around briskly, and bought several fake Ralph Lauren polos before taking a cab back to the ship. Outside of the ship, I bought a huge rip-off North Face hiking bag for twenty dollars. I need another back to get my stuff home in at the end of the voyage and the bag has all the features of a 400 bag, it’ll probably just fall apart much sooner, so it was totally worth the money.

On my last day in Vietnam I did the Mekong Delta trip through SAS. We rode two hours south of the city to the river where we hopped on wooden motor boats and rode around on the muddy water. We stopped at one of the nearby islands and tried some tropical fruits while a traditional Vietnamese group performed for us. Another stop we made was at a coconut candy making factory. I bought way too much coconut candy, which now I don’t even like that much. There was a huge snake that a woman carried around and let tourists where over their necks and of course, I had to do it as well. I was not scared at all, but the second I felt the snake skin against the back of my neck I felt tears come to my eyes. I wasn’t going to cry or anything, but I did start breathing heavy and I quickly told the woman she could have the snake back. I’m such a wimp.
My favorite part of the trip is when our group was split up into groups of four and we were loaded into these tiny boats. At the front of our boat a Vietnamese woman sat on her haunches, rowing us down a narrow tributary of the river. Other boats passed us, and we often collided with them as there was little space to make it down the water way. The ride lasted about ten minutes and was really peaceful. Anna and her folks were on the same trip as me that day, but in a different group. But I did get to meet them which was exciting.
Our bus was back at the ship by 5 and at 6 Carrie and I headed out for dinner. We went to this pizza place that I read about at the field office. Two other Americans, a woman in her fifties and a guy a bit older than us, were already inside when we arrived. We talked to them during most of our meal. They are both in the country doing NGO work, and the older woman is from Illinois and knew of Galena. It was really nice to talk to them and they were quite interested in the whole SAS thing since they had never heard of it and didn’t even realize that an usually high number of American students had been in the city during the last five days.
I made it onto the ship by 8, and once again, got no dock time. I have yet to.

So yeah back on the ship again! Everyone’s wearing either knock-off polos or silk robes. And as is after every port, kids are decked out in T-shirts from Vietnam. The Cambodia trips were supposedly awesome, but I’m over the fact that I didn’t get to go because I didn’t win the lottery for the trip. I really had a great time in Vietnam.

I’ve been having trouble catching up with emails so if I haven’t gotten back to anyone yet, know that. K, I now have to spend a lot of money and use many internet minutes as I register for my spring semester at Columbia College. I’m crossing my fingers that the classes I need are still open. Hope all is well!!