Goodbye Vietnam

The days tend to run together so I'm not going to go into too much detail about Ho Chi Minh. All you really need to know is that there are a ton of motorcycles and if you want to cross the street you just have to step out in front of thousands of oncoming motorcycles and keep moving while pretending as though you're Moses parting the red sea and praying to God you make it to the other side. I'm alive though, so that's good!

 

There is a ton of touristy shopping to do in Vietnam. There are also a lot of tailors that can custom make dresses so my friends bought some for the ball at the end of the voyage. North Face is EVERYWHERE! But it's all mostly fake and bad quality, however if you're lucky you can find the real stuff!

 

The second day Hannah and I were on our own so we explored and walked all over the city! We went to Highlands Coffee for lunch which is the Vietnamese version of Starbucks and can be found on every corner. We shopped, walked to the Notre Dame Cathedral, Post Office, Diamond Plaza (a mall with a bowling alley and bar at the top!) and everywhere in between! The post office is a beautiful building with amazing paintings on the ceilings, touristy shops, old phone booths and everything you could ever want in a post office! It was quite the outing! That night we met back up with everyone and went out to dinner.

 

The next day we went to the Vietnam War Memorial Museum which was an amazing experience. It was interesting to see the views of the Vietnamese. The first floor had a ton of pictures of protests all over the world which showed how controversial the war really was. It basically felt like....England hates the US, Cuba hates the US, Germany hates the US, Vietnam hates the US, the US hates the US. It was kind of weird. Outside there were many US fighter jets and tanks. Upstairs there was an Agent Orange exhibit talking about the side effects of this chemical that the US sprayed all over the fields of Vietnam. It affects the development of babies and can lead to disfigurement and many mental and physical disabilities.

 

Yesterday, I hopped on to a service trip with my friends. We went to a school for deaf children which was one of the first schools in Ho Chi Minh to cater towards the education of deaf children. The kids were about 6 years old and did a little performance for us. Then we got into small groups to interact with them and color. Many of them were super excited to get on our bus and go to the zoo. They would draw pictures of a bus with people in it and then point to each person in our group. It was a really neat experience! We took them to the zoo which was much different from an American zoo. The animals seemed overfed...they were all pretty fat! The elephants were in an outdoor enclosure where you could get close enough to reach out and feed them. Of course the kids were trying to feed them everything from crackers, to Capri Sun containers to m&m's. It was a great time but the kids definitely tired me out!

That night we went to the Japanese restaurnat close to our ship to get some Japanese food in since we won't be going there. It was very yummy but the service was terrible. (Seems like a common trend in Vietnam!).

 

Today we went to a coffee shop for the majority of the day to get some internet time in. It was fabulous! I wasn't quite sure what to do when I had the internet right at my fingertips. Maybe this means I won't be on my computer as much when I get home!

 

There was barbeque dinner tonight with ribs, corn, potato salad and amazing desserts. It's for the parents who are having a reception on the ship. Its been neat seeing parents around with their kids but it makes me miss home that much more!

 

I'm super excited for my trip in China. It's going to be awesome!

As for now, I need to get some work done during these next two days on the ship! Projects, projects, projects!!!

 

Later 'Nam!