Laura Rouch

3-26-06

Good Morning Vietnam!

            The ship was cleared and we were finally able to get off by 10:00 am, one of the earliest times that we have been cleared so far this journey!  I can’t believe we are already down to only 2 ports left after this one!  The night before we got off, in our Pre-Port lecture, we were once again warned about a few things.  The main thing was crossing the street.  Well, when we finally got off the ship and headed for town, we got to experience right away what exactly they were talking about.  So, when you are crossing the street, you look both ways, see the traffic coming at you both ways, and then you walk in a steady straight motion across the street.  This was very nerve wracking the first time, and basically every time after that.  The majority of the traffic is motorcycles, so the motorcycles just wiz around you as you cross the street.  You can’t wait for a clearing, because there never is one.  They have a stop light which is only a suggestion, and people will go from every angle.  We were about to cross this major main road crossing (there were 4 lanes from all directions), and when the light turned, they went from every direction, everybody went.  So, the lights mean nothing.  Surprisingly, we didn’t witness a single accident.  A lot of the taxis were also motorcycles, I know quite a few people who took the motorcycles (I didn’t want to risk it), and there were a couple of accidents.  One poor girl fell off at a good speed (the driver lost control of the bike), and she now is going to need skin grafts and reconstructive surgery.  After I heard about that, it sealed the deal for me, it’s not worth the risk.  So, traffic was interesting to get down.  The first rule, so to look straight ahead, and just walk, be predictable, and the bikes will go right around you.  The one thing you don’t want to do is look at the traffic coming straight at you, because that makes you want to run, and that is not as predictable for the bikes to maneuver around.  It’s a rush. 

            So, we crossed a few streets, trying to find a travel agent to see if we could get a trip to go to the Cu Che Tunnels.  My number one priority for the day was to find a dress shop to get my bridesmaids dresses made.  So, were going back and forth between fabric shops and travel agents.  I was starting to get a little discouraged simply because I couldn’t find the fabric that I wanted the dresses to be made out of.  One travel agent made a recommendation for a tailor, and we decided to check it out, we had nothing to lose! When we got to the tailor, right away I spotted exactly what I wanted, and rush of relief flooded over me!  I talked to the lady who was helping me, and she reassured me that they could make these dresses.  I also had two dresses made for myself while I was there.  It’s lot more fun than I thought it would be to design my own clothes!  We all (Maria, Brandy, Sam, Jen and Meghan) had at least one dress made for each of us.  After we left the dress shop, we headed to another travel agent that we had been recommended.  As we walked we looked at the little shops and street venders, they sell everything on the street.  As we were walking, we would check out the other travel agents we passed.  After about 45 minutes of this, we finally found a travel agent that could organize a tour and a guide within the hour and get us to the Tunnels that same day.  We had one hour to eat lunch before our tour would leave.  We found a little street restaurant and had our Vietnamese meal of noodles, rice, pork and seafood.  I got some spring rolls which I really did not like, so I ordered a different meal (a meal seriously cost $1), the food was really good!  I’m glad that I am enjoying the Asian food! 

            Our tour started right on time with our little guide.  It is such a strange concept to me to ever feel tall, but this is the second time this has happened!  It was about ah hour and a half drive, and boiling hot (it is always between 90 to the 115 degrees everyday).  The roads got rougher and rougher as we got closer.  We finally made it to the tunnels and first had to watch a movie before we could tour the tunnels.  I still don’t know how I feel about these.  These are the same tunnels that the Vietnamese hid in and killed so many Americans in the Vietnam War.  We were in the war zone, and I really did not like being there.  It got to be way to much when they wanted to show us the human traps that they set up and caught Americans.  These traps were not meant to kill in American, at least not right away, they were made to make a person suffer and die slowly.  Very disgusting, I could not handle that at all.   The video was horrible, very one sided, and left so much out of what actually happened.  The video first showed school children going to school, and women weaving baskets, and men working in the fields.  It talked about how peaceful and perfect Vietnam was, and then they have these bombers flying over, bombing them for no reason at all.  They made it look like we were board and decided to just bomb them for no reason.  Now, I don’t know my history, and that is one reason I am on Semester at Sea, because I want answers about so many things around the world.  So, everything that happened this afternoon at the tunnels made me ask a lot of questions, and I finally got some answers later in the week.  I am a little disappointed the Semester at Sea failed to tell us some important facts about the Vietnam War as well.  First of all, I wanted to understand why we were ever in a war in Vietnam ( a very basic question that too many people had difficulty answering, it’s sad).  The only reason that Semester at Sea gave us was to prevent a domino effect.  Everything around Vietnam started going communions, so we went over there to stop Vietnam from becoming Communist.  The one MAJOR factor that they left out of their history lesson was the fact that South Vietnam asked us to be there.  South Vietnam wanted us there, and that is why we were there, not because we had nothing better to do, we were simply answering a call for help.  We were fighting with the Vietnamese against the Vietnamese. 

Anyways, so the tunnels.  The tunnels have been widened so Americans can try and see what it was like going through the tunnels.  I can’t imagine them being any smaller than they already are.  We all went down into the tunnels, which I really did not want to do, since I get Closter phobic as it is, but I did it.  We also crawled through the tunnels, which I really did not like.  Maria and I had to get out at the first exit, but the others went to the next one.  It just felt wrong to me to even be there, and so much more to be crawling through the tunnels they used against us to kill us.  It was difficult.  Then they had a shooting range set up with all of the guns they used in the war and you could pay a fee to shoot the guns.  I defiantly did not do that.  It felt even more wrong to even consider shooting guys that were used to kill Americans (Some of the girls did shoot the guns, But Meghan and I were having a hard time with being there in general, and were like no way!)  The whole thing just felt wrong, but I tried to be a good sport until we got out of there. 

By the time we finally left, I had such a bad headache from the heat, not drinking enough water, and sweating all day.  The hot two hour car ride didn’t help matters, so by the time we finally got back to Saigon (or the politically correct name is Ho Chi Min City) I was so car sick, and my head hurt, I just wanted to go back to the ship.  Our guide took us back to his tour agent, since Sam, Meghan and Jen wanted to book an over night tour to Mekong Delta for the next day.  Maria and I walked around that area for a little while we waited on them.  I thought this would help me feel better, but it was still to hot and miserable outside (This is around 8:00 pm at night and it was still miserable).  Maria and Sam wanted to stay in the city for dinner, so, the rest of us headed back to the ship for the night.  We got back and headed to the snack bar to boost our blood sugar and cool down with a fruity smoothie.  I am so glad that the snack bar stays open on the ship, even in port!  We also saw the Chief Engineer of the ship while we were at the snack bar, and thanked him for putting air conditioning in the ship.  It never felt so good!  Jen, Meghan, Brandy and I played a little Phase 10 before we went our separate ways to prepare for the next day. 

3-27-06

Going to the MeKong

            So, first, let me explain how I got the opportunity to go to the Mekong Delta.  There are two senior passengers who had tickets to go to the Mekong Delta for three days, and two nights.  Well, the night before we arrived in Vietnam, Maggie and Barry, the senior passengers, called Maria and said that they had these two tickets, but they had decided to go to Hanoi instead, and would she want to go and take someone.  At first, she said no, since we (Maria, me, Jen, Sam, and Meghan (Brandy went to Cambodia)) had been planning to go to the MeKong Delta independently.  When she got off the phone and told me that she said no, I told her that it was really too good of an offer to turn down, and she should take the tickets.  I told her that the rest of us would still go independently, and that the others would understand.  She decided that yes, she should take this opportunity.  After she got off the phone again with Maggie, she asked if I would like to go, and I already knew this was a good offer.  So, Maria and I took the free tickets and went to the Mekong Delta for two days and three nights.  Maria and I haven’t traveled together in ports at all yet, so we thought that would be something fun to do. 

            The night before we were to leave, we got everything packed for our 8:00am departure.  That morning, we eat a hurried breakfast and jumped on the bus with the other 21 passengers for our adventure.  We had a 3 hour bus ride to our first destination.  The bus ride was great because it gave a lot of people some time to catch up on some sleep, but also to see the country side.  I really prefer to take a train or a bus, rather than flying, just so I can see more of the country that we are visiting.  (I’m sure if it was an 8 or 12 hour drive, I might prefer that plane ride.)  We drove through a couple of cities, and a whole lot of country side, it was a pleasant ride (especially since the air conditioning was working!)  Our first stop was at the river, where we hopped on a boat and went to a place where they puff rice and make all sorts of local candies.  The puffed rice was to make giant bars that looked like rice crispy treats (They ended up tasting horrible), we also saw how they made candy from coconuts, ginger, bananas, nuts, sesame seeds and caramels.  Maria and I both really liked the sesame seed/peanut candy, and the coconut candy, so we each bought some to bring home to our families.  We also learned how they make rice paper, and the triangle hats that the people wear.  We loaded back into our boats and headed for our next stop.  This stop was a place for us to have lunch.  We sat under an awning and ate our box lunches from the ship.  The box lunches from the ship are always interesting.  The chef is trying to make sure we get adequate nutrition, but still has to pack things that will still be good, regardless of the weather conditions, so food that is ok even if it is left in the sun for too long.  It really is a tough job, but he does it every time!  So, for lunch, we all had a chicken drumstick, a bologna sandwich, a hard boiled egg, Oreos, a piece of cake, and an apple.  We ate our lunch and then had an extra hour to relax.  The place where we had lunch had lounge chairs and hammocks spread throughout the yard, so we all claimed our spot and tried not to move too much during the heat of the day.  Also, before we left the owners brought out this huge python and most people took turns holding it and taking pictures.  (I did not hold the snake; it just isn’t something I have any desire to do.)  We left our lunch spot on our boats and headed to our next stop, a garden.  We had to walk through a few venders to get to the gardens, and then we had an hour to spend at the gardens. 

            We have one guy on our trip who tries everything, even things we are not suppose to try.  But he decided to order the typical dish for the area, and we all watched him eat it.  It was a just a fish still intact.  The fish would have been fine, except that the way the scales and curled up all over the fish, it looked like it was coated in maggots.  Kind of disgusting.  We also saw where they got this fish from.  There are fish takes set up all over the garden with one fish in it each.  The tank was too small for the fish, it could barely even turn around, so it just swam in circles.  The water was so cloudy and gray, I’m not even sure if the fish had any colors on it, or if they were just gray fish, you could just see the outline of a fish in the murky tank.  The guy ate the fish and said it was great, and he didn’t get sick that night, so we figured it must have been ok.  They served us all fruit and if we wanted a beverage, we could buy one.  This time we got into little canoes that were paddled by locals.  They gave us all triangle sun hats and paddled us down the river to where our boats were anchored.  It was fun going down the river, all the local kids ran out to wave at us as we went by. 

            Our next stop was another garden/nursery, and they showed us all the trees and plants that they grew and sold.  They also served us fruit and beverages.  I was really excited when the fruit they brought out this time was Palmellos, which happens to be my favorite fruit!  We also got a little show here where a Vietnamese band played and some women sang for us.  It was a nice stop.  I think every ones favorite part of this stop might have been the baby puppies just inside one of the houses and that came to the door so everyone could pet them.  They were really cute! 

            Once we loaded back onto our boats, our guide gave us each a coconut and a straw and we drank from the coconut all the way to the house where we would be staying the night.  This first night we had a home stay.  It was right on the river, so once we were there, there was no place to go, so very isolated.  This actually made it even more fun.  Everyone played card games or relaxed in hammocks until dinner was served.  I taught a few more people how to play Euker, so we had a Euker tournament.  For dinner, they walked out with a big fish for each table, just like the one that the guy had eaten earlier that day, so we all had a chance to try the fish.  We also got rice paper and mint leaves to make spring rolls.  I really do not like the mint leaves that they put in two many foods, so I am always picking them out.  The fish and rice paper rolls were good though.  They also served a few vegetable dishes and pork dishes. 

            After dinner, the one guy who likes to do everything you are not suppose to do decided to go swimming.  (I really am surprised that this kid is not sick or dead.)  So, this water we were told not to go swimming in has bugs in it that will kill you if they get in your system.  This is a pretty good reason not to go swimming.  So there is a bug that will kill you and then there is another bug that if it gets in your body it will migrate to your brain and cause random seizures until it dies, which takes 7 years.  I feel like these are great reasons not to go swimming in the lake, but this guy still thought it would be fun.  Like I said, I can’t believe he isn’t sick yet. 

So, after every one was done eating, we all went to explore our rooms for the night.  They had two big rooms and a smaller one with about 10 cots in each room.  Each cot had a mosquito net, a blanket, a towel and a bar of soap.  The bathroom consisted of three sinks set up outside and then two toilet stalls and two shower stalls.  There were no lights, so you had to have a flashlight to use either one at night, and even then you were competing with lizards for space.  So, really, the bathrooms were not too bad, simply because there was a toilet instead of a whole in the ground. 

            After everyone was done exploring the rooms and claiming a bed, we all went back to the main deck where we ate dinner and started a new game.  I introduced everyone to Mafia (a few people had heard of it before, so I explained it to the rest).  We played Mafia for a good three hours before people started dropping out.  People really got into the game.  It really all turned out for the better that we couldn’t go anywhere, so we all had fun just playing games al night.

            Sleeping that night was a novelty that not many experienced.  First factor was that it was so hot that I just laid flat and didn’t want to move because I felt so sticky as it was.  There was no circulation in the room, it is very difficult to fall asleep in stagnant heat.  The next factor was that every time anyone moved on their cot it made loud popping and creaking noises, which woke up the whole room, so you couldn’t hardly move to get comfortable.  Just as anyone was about to finally fall asleep, someone would move, and the noise was so loud that everyone would jump, and the battle for sleep would start all over again.  The other factor was that since we were right on the river, these motor boats would keep going back and forth all night long.  These boats are the loudest motor boats I have ever heard of (no such thing as a muffler here), but then when you add them to the still of the night, it makes them even louder.  The other thing that just made me nervous lying there was that I had seen so many lizards all day everywhere we went, including the bed room, that I was scared as soon as I was falling asleep a lizard would come running up my body, or I would wake up with one curled up on top of me, or I don’t even know what, but I didn’t like the idea of it.  So, anyways, I don’t think I slept at all that night.  When the roosters started crowing at 4:00 am, I was ready to just get up; there was no point in trying to sleep anymore.  We never got a wake up call, but everyone was up and ready to go way before our 6:00 am breakfast call.

3-28-06

Mekong Delta to Can Tho

We were supposed to leave our home stay at 7:30 am to head over to the floating market.  It was like 7:25 am and our guide was still lying around in his hammock (that would have been a little bit more comfortable to sleep in) watching TV.  We told him that we were ready to go, and he told us that we needed to wait until his TV show was over.  This really made quite a few people upset.  We were paying him to show us around, not watch TV.  So, we all jut got our bags and sat in our boats and kept calling his name.  He didn’t come until almost 8:00 am, and was a little upset that he couldn’t finish his TV show, but we were all getting even more upset that he was wasting our time.  So, no one was really happy with the guide after that. 

We took our motor boats through the floating market and over to the other side of the river where our bus was waiting for us.  We loaded on the bus in the mists of venders and beggars and made our way over to another river that we needed to cross to get to Can Tho, where we would be staying that night.  To cross this river we all got out of the bus and swam (haha, gotcha!  We didn’t actually swim). Actually we took the ferry over to the Island where the city of Can Tho is located.  In order to load on the ferry, our guide told us we all had to get off of the bus and ride in the passenger section of the ferry.  We did this without protest.  Once we loaded on the ferry, and noticed how everyone else was still on their bus and crossing to the island without leaving the comforts of their air conditioned bus, we started questioning our guide, and then there were even more people who were even more despondent with him.  It was mid morning when we loaded on the ferry and the temperatures were already in the high 90’s.  Since we were inside the ferry, and from where we were sitting, there was not much of a breeze, even though the ferry was open on both ends.  The ferry also stunk pretty badly.  (The smell reminded me of the hatchery at the duck farm; that smell that you get from the broken eggs that have been stuck in the heat of the building fermenting for too long.)   So, since there were little windows by where we were sitting, I’m sure we all looked like dogs with our heads stuck out the window, just letting the rush of the wind run over us.  It was about a 30 minute ferry ride, just enough time to let us bake in this little makeshift over.  When we finally made it to the island, everyone made a mad dash to get off the ferry, anything to get away from the smell and intensified heat.  We had a good ten minute walk before we caught up with the bus again, and by this time everyone was just dripping with sweat, and the clean showers at the hotel were sounding better and better all the time. 

The original plan for the day was to check into our hotel and have the morning to ourselves to do whatever, and then after lunch (so during the heat of the day), we were going to go tour the town, pagodas and museums.  We all voted pretty quickly that we would rather walk around and visit the local attractions now, before it got to hot.  So, we changed our itinerary.  We checked into our hotel and then met right back up again and headed out. 

Our first stop was a 15 minute walk away, with plenty of busy streets to gracefully cross in a smooth and predictable motion.  We all safely arrived at the agricultural museum of Can Tho without to much of a hassle.  There we learned about the 12 different types of rice and the climates and soil conditions needed to grow rice (I know more about rice than I ever thought I would!) we learned about tools used over the years to plant and harvest the rice (basically the tools were your hands and occasionally people used an ox to pull a plow through), and we learned about the different things they use rice for, and the different grades of rice and the different markets you can sell rice in… all very interesting!  (I thought of Jamey, my oldest brother, the whole time.  He absolutely hates rice.)  The museum did talk a little bit about the wars, the political prisoners, the dynasties and the people of Vietnam, specifically for that area.  The museum was very educational on the history of that area.  We also had a few Vietnamese kids who followed our tour, giggling the whole time. 

After this tour we crossed a few more busy streets and went to a pagoda.  I think most people are getting pretty pagodaed out.  We went up these really steep steps, everyone peaks in takes a picture and then turns around to leave.  Our guide couldn’t really tell us anything about the actual pagoda (he really was not a very good guide), so he instead told us about young boys joining the monk hood, and the different bows for different levels of respect.  When a boy is in the monk hood, the parents bow to the child, since he is working for Buddha, but if he leaves the monk hood, then he again returns to the inferior status of his parents and elders. 

We next walked over to a temple.  This temple was as loaded as any temple could be with incense.  There were spirals of incense hanging from the ceiling, sticks of it burning from the floor and every shelf.  The people believe that as long as you are burning incense Buddha will look upon you favorably and you will have good luck.  The people of CanTho take this very seriously as there was incense burning in almost every shop we went to.  After this temple, we were able to spend the rest of the day how we wanted.  We had close to five hours for shopping and exploring the area.  The majority of our group decided to get massages at this point (I was so hot and sticky from sweating non stop that I really did not want anyone touching me).  Maria, Kristina, Jamie and I decided to just walk all around the city.  Can Tho really had horrible shopping.  We thought we were going to get some jade souvenirs of bracelets or something home, and then they told us how expensive it was.  We defiantly changed our minds on that one!  So, we won’t be bringing any real jade home with us.  At the end of our attempt at shopping, we found a little internet café, so we spent some time catching up on emails from home. 

We walked back to our hotel, retracing our footsteps to make sure we ended back up in the right side of town.  We made it back to our hotel without turning around to many times.   I think everyone’s priority at this point was to get a shower and take a nap before dinner that night. 

For diner that night, we had the same meal that we have had for the last three meals in a row; fish, rice, pork and green beans.  At dinner we heard all sorts of horror stories about people’s massages from earlier that afternoon.  I was glad that I decided not to get a massage and it pretty much made up my mind that I didn’t want one after all.  That night our whole group went out to explore the night life of Can Tho.  We learned real quickly that if we wanted night life, we would have to start and end our own night life.   We rode around the town in rickshaws, looking for anything that looked open. The rickshaw rides were by far one of the most fun things we did on the whole trip.  We ended the trip by playing a couple of rounds of Mafia, and then headed to bed for the night.

3-29-06

Can Tho to Saigon

            We got up again with the sun and the heat and started our day early.  The first stop was to the pier for a boat ride over to the floating market.  As we waited for our boat to arrive, some Vietnamese guys came over and were playing this juggling game.  They were able to sell one of the guys in our group their new toy, and then we all learned how to play.  One Vietnamese man was very interested in why we were there and was asking me where we came from and why did we pick Vietnam.  When ever we interact with Vietnamese, they all immediately think we are from Australia.  (I think this means that not many Americans come to Vietnam, but Australians must!) 

            Our boat came and we headed to the floating market.  The part of the floating market that we saw was the produce section.  We stopped at one boat and our guide showed us how to cut a pineapple to make pineapple popsicles (tasty!).  We had an additional guide for this tour, so as soon as we pulled up to the pineapple boat, our guide jumped off and climbed into the hammock on the other boat.  When we were all ready to leave, he was still in the hammock, reading the newspaper.  So, once again, we were waiting on him to get the tour started again.  At the floating market, every boat has a bamboo pole that can be seen above everything else.  What ever product that particular boat is selling will tie the product on the bamboo pole to let everyone know what they are selling for that day.  Some of the people simply life in their boats since they are out on the water from 4:00 am to 5:00 pm each day.  Every boat has at least one hammock hanging in the shade of the boat, and an under part that we could not see.  It is interesting to see how they live, with their laundry hanging outside, and the little kids running around on the boat.  We finally got our guide to get out of the hammock and join our boat again, and then we returned to the pier. 

            Our next thing on the agenda was to go visit a club for homeless children.  On our way to the clubhouse, we stopped by the store to buy a few things for the kids.  We bought a lot of pens, pencils, stickers, candy, toothbrushes and toothpaste.  So, we helped out their economy and the kids all at the same time. 

            At the club, we first heard about how the club came to be and what kinds of kids are there, and how they got there.  Then we had time to just play with the kids and give them our gifts.  They were very excited and wanted to show us everything!  They showed us their toys, where they had class, where they slept, where they ate, where they kept their belongings and what they did everyday.  We played games with them, (like the new juggling game one of the guys had bought earlier that day), and we used the chalk board to teach them some English, and they taught us Vietnamese.  It was sad when we had to leave; the kids just clung to our hands and around our waists, trying to make us stay.  We said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel. 

            We packed everything up and loaded on the bus again for our three hour drive back to Saigon.  On the bus, someone was able to talk the bus driver into stopping somewhere so we could all get ice cream.  At our ice cream stop, a few people jumped out and bought ice cream for everyone else.  (One ice cream snack cost less than 10 cents.)  Back on the bus, we played a 10 question game.  In this game a person picks a person, any person either alive or dead, and everyone has a total of ten questions to figure out who this person is.  This game entertained us for 2 of the 3 hour drive until we arrived back in Saigon (that other hour, we all just slept).

            Once we made it back to Saigon, we dropped off our bags and decided to go check out Saigon, since we really haven’t had time for that.  We called everyone to see if anyone else wanted to go with us.  Meghan was the only one home, but she didn’t feel like going out since she had just gotten home as well.  Maria and I caught up with the shuttle bus before it left with our priority mission in site.  Our first precedence was to go pick up our dress that we had made.  We were welcomed with two great surprises at the dress shop.  First of all, Sam and Jen were already there, and secondly, all of the dresses looked great!  (I had my bridesmaids dresses made here, and they look great, I’m so excited!)  We weren’t able to pick up Meghan’s dress for her since we didn’t have the receipt, but the rest of us were excited about our dresses. 

After the dress shop, Sam and Jen really wanted to head to the internet café so they could figure out flights and reservations for China.  Maria and I decided to try and catch the tail end of the Market.  The market is huge and only open until 6:00 pm, so we only had 20 minutes to get anything done.  We really had not had very good shopping at all in Vietnam yet, so we were ready for some power shopping. 

Shopping here is a blast!  First of all, it is cheap, really cheap.  It is funny how my mind set on what is cheap has really changed.  For example, anyone that knows me well knows that I love polos.  I wear them basically every day, I live in them.  Well, walking down the street, every other vender is selling knock off Polos, in every shade.  I went to the first vender, and he was like $4 each.  I told him no, that was too expensive and was able to barter him down to $2 each before I would buy them.  I was thinking about it, at home, I buy polos for $10.50 each, and I have no problem with that, I think that is a great price at home.  But then I get here, and I don’t even want to pay $4 each.  It is just funny how things change.  I am going to have a horrible time with reverse culture shock when I go home.  I am going to walk into the Gap, and try and barter with them, or refuse to buy anything that cost more than $1… I’m sure it will be entertaining for those around me.  Well, at least I won’t need to buy any polos for a while, I expanded my collection quite a bit in Vietnam!  Polos weren’t the only thing that was cheap.  Everything here was cheap (except the Jade).  So, shopping was a good time. 

Maria and I conquered the polo, purse and teapot section in our 20 minutes (this is a big accomplishment, if only you could see how big this market is).  So, now we had these heavy bags to walk around with (we got our exercise in as well) until we met up with Sam, Jen and Lei Lei for dinner.  Lei Lei is from China, and helping us get prepared for China.  I met her online before I got on the ship, so we knew each other a little before the journey began. 

So, since we still had an hour before we were all suppose to meet up again, we sat out by this huge fountain in the middle of all the business, and watched the people go by.  At least, we thought we were people watching, but I think we were being watched a fair amount as well.  These parents kept coming up to us, shoving their kids at us, and then asking to take a picture, so we posed for a couple of pictures with these Vietnamese kids;  It as quite entertaining, so we took a few pictures of our own. 

We were really hungry and thirsty at this point, so we went to the meeting place a few minutes early, hoping they would be there.  They weren’t there.  As we got hungrier and hungrier and the minutes kept ticking by, we decided they needed a really good excuse by the time they finally got back.  So, about 30 minutes after we were suppose to meet, they finally show up.  They had been trying to get tickets to fly from Hong Kong to Beijing, China.  Apparently the airline sites that they had been trying would not accept their credit cards and they were getting a little panicked that they wouldn’t be able to see the great wall.  Lei Lei had even tried to use her Chinese credit card and that wasn’t even working.  So, they had a translator and a local credit card, and nothing was working.  They were a little flustered.  We decided to eat dinner and try again through an actual travel agent the next day. 

We all ordered something different so we could try a little of everything (Jen was the adventurous one here with a cheeseburger).  Sam, Maria and I all got different noodle type dishes, Lei Lei got a glazed chicken breast.  Everything with the meal was going fine, until in one bite I got a bad surprise.  I don’t really know what my face looked like, but everyone else at the table thought I just bit into a bug or something, and they thought I was going to throw it all up.  It was actually a piece of celery, a big piece of celery.  I hate celery more than any other food, and as far as I am concerned, it might as well have been a bug.  It was horrible.  When I was finally able to talk again, I told them that it was celery, they about fell off of their chairs laughing; they couldn’t believe that I actually hated celery that much.  So, the rest of the meal I was on my guard for celery in my noodles, but I had pretty much lost my appetite after that episode. 

We all ordered desserts (except Maria, she just wanted to eat ours).  I ordered a caramel custard, hoping beyond all else that it would be a Crème Brule (I love Crème Brule and haven’t had one since I left home), but it ended being a flan, which was still good, but slightly disappointing since I was setting myself up for a Crème Brule.  Sam got a strawberry Normandy, which is like a crepe with apples rolled up inside with strawberry sauce, so good!  Lei Lei and Jen got different ice cream combinations with gummies on top.  It was a fun way to end our day. 

We headed back to the ship.  The next day was our last day in port, and Maria and I still hadn’t been able to really buy everything on our lists, so we made plans for the next day.

3-30-06

One Last look at Saigon

            I woke up an hour before my alarm went off and decided to just get up and have a good breakfast, and if I still had enough time left, I could get my internet stuff done.  (I can’t use the internet café’s to update my website because the computer labs in town do not let you hook anything up to the computer, like my thumb drive that has all of my information saved on it.)  I was suppose to be going to a water puppet show at 9:00 am, so once again I was in a race against the clock to get everything done this morning.  I ended up having a good hour and a half before I loaded on the bus to get on the internet.  It is amazing how much faster the internet was without anyone else on it!  So, I was finally able to update my Myanmar/Burma page. 

            I made it to the bus for the show with plenty of time to spare.  Water Puppet shows originated in Vietnam, and is mainly done only in Vietnam.  This is one of their claims to fame.  So, Jen and I were on the same trip, and we were all excited about the performance.  I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but not what I got.  I was honestly bored to tears the whole time.  There was no story or plot, just some wooden figures dancing to music in the water.  A little disappointing, but here are some pictures anyways.

            After the water puppet show we were suppose to stick around the theater and chat with the puppeteers and learn about their work.  We finished this portion of the trip about 1 ½ hours earlier than expected, so Jen and decided to stop by some shops on the way back to the ship.  The first shop was for CD’s and DVD’s.  The DVD’s were $1 each and the CD’s were 60 cents each.  They even put each DVD into a player so we could see that it worked before we bought them.  I was excited that they had quite a few movies that I wanted!  I got a bunch of CD’s too, and they all work!  I figured for 60 cents, I can’t really go wrong. 

            Jen decided to stop at the internet café to try and get her Beijing trip tickets again, so I just looked at the other local shops there.  I found a great silk shop along with a couple of other great gift ideas.  Jen and I met up again and headed back to the ship. 

            The four of us (Brandy was still in Cambodia, and Jen had a class project she had to attend to while in port) decided to go shopping that afternoon, since it was our last chance before we took off that night.  Sam had a lecture that she had to go to on Business Law in Vietnam, but as soon as she got out, we were heading out to the markets. 

            Once we all finally made it to the shuttle, caught up on the latest gossip of mishaps in Vietnam, we headed first went to pick up Meghan’s dress.  I think Meghan was the one that debated the longest on whether she should even get one.  Meghan’s dress is the one that looks the best out of all of ours.  That dress fits her so perfectly, and the color is perfect, we all just loved it!  It was so funny because she came out of the dressing room with the dress on, but didn’t want to take off her shoes and pants, so she came out with her pants around the ankles, so we could see how the dress fit.  It was very entertaining

Our next stop was the local mall.  The local mall is great for finding anything that you would find in a normal mall, except here, it is acceptable to bargain before you buy most things.  Some of the girls wanted CD’s and DVD’s, or knock of designer purses and wallets, or silk robes and pajamas.  We had quite a few things to find and conquer.  Another priority was to find and buy M&M’s.  They are very expensive to buy on the ship, and great study food (everyone is cramming for finals right now, we really only have about 6 class days until final exams).

            After the mall, we stopped at the market for a little bit, and then Maria and Sam decided to go to the War Remnants Museum, so Meghan and I went through the markets a little bit more and then went to discover the street venders merchandise.  They have tons of Puma shoes, and some Nike, but the prices were not that much cheaper than the states, so no new shoes for me here.  I did get a North Face Backpack however.  Meghan and I had over an hour before we were suppose to meet back up with Maria and Sam, and I had found and purchased my one thing more that I needed to buy (hammocks).  We decided that sitting in an air conditioned restaurant, drinking milkshakes sounded like an excellent priority to adopt.  We actually ended up at the same restaurant that we had eaten at the night before.  Meghan and I enjoyed our milkshakes and then decided that french-fries and cheeseburger would also go very nicely with a milkshake.  So, we just split a meal, and killed time until Maria and Sam finished at the museum.  While we were sitting there enjoying our classic American food, one of the girls that I had met on another trip walked in.  She was by herself and just wanted food, so we asked her to sit with us.  After she sat down, she started telling us all about her crazy time in Vietnam.  One of the rumors that we heard on the bus on the way into the city actually happened to her friend and she saw the whole thing, so she told us what actually happened.  A group of their friends had decided to take the motorcycles to get to where ever they were going, and something happened and the driver lost control.  Long story short, the girl now needs skin grafts and reconstructive surgery when she gets home.  I feel really bad for her!  (The ship did warn us not to take the motorcycle taxis because students in the past have been hurt, but most people took them anyways.  It really wasn’t worth the risk to me.)

            So, we are sitting there, listening to her stories, and in walks Maria and Sam.  They had finished early at the museum and had found us.  The other girl was getting ready to leave anyways, so we all decided to head out.  Now that it was evening, the markets and shops had closed, so we decided it would be nice to end our Vietnam experience with manicures, pedicures and massages.  Now, I wasn’t too sure I really wanted a massage after some of the stories I had heard, but we talked to some other students who told us where they got great massages from, and went there.  It was fun for us all to go sit in the salon and talk about all of our adventures while we were getting our nails done.  Sam and I also got massages (I liked mine, Sam did not), and Meghan got her hair cut (Probably the best haircut of her life!)  It really was a nice day to end our time here. 

            We headed back to the ship to prepare for the next leg of the journey.  We were on the ship by 10:00 pm (On ship time was 11:00 pm, so we planned ahead).  It really is a good thing we planned ahead, because that night, starting at 10:30 pm, the line got really long, really fast, and too many students were drunk, and things got real ugly, real fast.  I really wish there was a way to sensor the kids out whose only priority in port is to get drunk.  Sometimes they just give us all a bad name, which is really not what Semester at Sea is all about.  I guess there are always a few people in every bunch that ruin it for everyone.