Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Day 1

My initial impression of Vietnam is...AWESOME. Followed by lots of frustration...

 

This morning around 8 I was out on deck looking out on the banks of the Saigon River as the ship made its way to our port. It was like deja vu and all I could think about was going up the Amazon. But this was so much more interesting! I've never seen a river so busy! It was like a highway of boats and large container ships, each having somewhere to be. There were colorful boats and an ultra fast airplane looking ferry boat. A huge containership registered in Singapore was heading in the opposite direction we were coming from.

 

As I looked out to the banks of the river it was like I was in the middle of the jungle in Forrest Gump. The vegetation is so tropical and lush. I was surprised to see a vast number of skyscrapers being built a few miles from the riverbank. It was interesting because right on the river there were many broken down houses with small boats outside. There looked to be quite a bit of poverty in this area. And then in the background of these houses were these huge futuristic apartment buildings where I'm sure the middle and upper class is living.

 

We docked at 11AM and everyone was as excited as ever. But a few lucky students were probably the most excited they'll ever be to get off the ship. Semester at Sea does what is called Parent Trips where parents of students can fly to Vietnam and meet their children in Vietnam. They stay for the five days we are here in a hotel and go on many trips with their children. Everyone was saying they were a bit jealous of those getting to see their parents. As I descended the gangway from deck 5, I had a birds eye view of students being reunited with their parents with hugs, kisses, excitement and tears. It was really kind of an emotional sight....and I'm not going to lie, it made me homesick for a while there. There were students meeting with their boyfriend/girlfriend and meeting friends too. It was really cool to see. A large group of Vietnamese women dressed in traditional clothing and rice hats holding a "Welcome to VIetnam Semester at Sea" banner distracted me from the scene and the shouts of the trip leaders that the buses for trip HCM 04 to Cu Chi tunnels were boarding and leaving ASAP. So I quickly found the bus and hopped on. This trip happened to have parents on it which was kind of cool and exciting and sad all wrapped up into one....I MISS EVERYONE!!!!

 

Anyways....A 2 hour bus ride took us through the busy, motorcycle congested streets of Ho Chi Minh City. There are coffee shops, Karaoke bars, seamstress shops, billiard halls, and motorcycle shops every single block! We went down the main shopping street which had all the big stores again....Louis Vuitton, Polo Ralph Lauren, etcetera. The whole atmosphere of the city was really neat. I enjoy the oldness of it but it's also not dirty and smelly. 

 

Finally after an hour or so we got to the restaurant where we had lunch. There was so much white sticky rice....I was in heaven! We also had this pear looking fruit with chili salt on it. The combination of the sweet fruit, with the bit of salt plus the kick of the chili's was the most perfect combination I have ever tasted. Delicious! Seaweed and tofu soup was also served....I ate the broth. Some shrimp eggrolls were delicious followed by some sort of other chicken and fish dish with vegetables.

 

After lunch a 15 minute bus ride took us to the Cu Chi tunnels. It felt as though we were in the middle of the jungle there. The first thign we did was walk into the jungle. We were that we were currently on top of a network of underground tunnels and that an entrance was nearby. We had to find it! It literally looked like nothing ws there. But sure enough our tour guide James knew exactly where it was. He uncovered this wooden plank which was probably about 2 by 1.5 feet. He lifted it up to reveal a hole where the Vietnamese soldiers would go into the tunnels. The guide then jumped into the hole, lifted the wooden plank above his head so his arms were straight up, shrunk down and disappeared into the hole. He was magically gone! This was how the Vietnamese would launch attacks on the US and then look as though they magically disappeared. The US even once unknowingly built a base on top of a network of tunnels and suffered many casualties because of it, until they finally realized their mistake! Everyone was able to try going into this hole which led to the tunnels. It was a tight fit for some....one girl got stuck...and then I got to do it and it was SO COOL!

 

After that we walked through the jungle to different "exhibits." We saw many torture devices which looked very frightening. We also saw these fake termite mounds which the Vietnamese used as a way to disguise air holes for the tunnels. We went to many different bunkers. One was a kitchen with a fire and the chimney was piped a few kilometers away and went through multiple chambers. This makes it so that when the smoke does come out, it doesn't rise into the air but rather just keeps low to the ground.

 

Next we went to these tunnels which had been enlarged a little for tourists to go through. They were SO small and really cramped. It was about a 7 to 10 minute crawl through the tunnels which go many stories under the earth. At one point one girl was like "Remember those miners...?" and we all told her to shut up and keep moving!! It was really hot and a little scary but also a once in a lifetime opportunity!

 

By this time, we had to head back to the ship. When we got back I found my friends and we went out to find dinner. We found this restaurant right by the port...literally 100 steps away. We were so excited and saw some life long learners had followed us there. The menu we got didn't have any prices....yikes, never a good sign. The exchange rate here is 256,000 Dong to 1 USD so we figured it couldnt be too bad! We sat down and ordered drinks from our waitress that spoke some English. She then apparently wanted us to immediately order food because she stood at our table the entire time we were looking at the one menu we were given. We decided to get 4 dishes and share. I really wanted Pineapple Fried Rice but they didn't have it. And then they didnt have so many other things. It was frustrating. The next thing that happened was the Life Long Learners came up to us and said to be careful because they were being charged for things like using napkins. Ridiculous!

 

We ordered spinach, chicken, noodles, and some tofu dish. What came out was not spinach...they told us it was cabbage but it definitely wasn't that either. So then we were still hungry and wanted more noodles. But the dish that came out wasnt the same as the one we ordered. Of course trying to communicate to a bunch of waiters, cooks, and then the restaurant manager in English didnt work out so well. We left the noodle dish and finally they figured out what dish we wanted and brought it out to us. In the mean time, our chicken had arrived. It was placed onto the table and I was the first one to say "You guys go first" And then Kerry (who's vegan) said "Get that chicken away from me." We just laughed and then she was like "No really, get it away, there's a chicken head staring me in the face!!!!" I looked at the chicken and sure enough....the head was on the plate. GROSS!!!!

 

We got the bill which ended up to be about $6 a person. But they didnt give us all our change back....we really didnt care since it was so cheap. But it was the principle of the matter. And then we finally got it back, wuickly left, without leaving a tip because we received such awful service. Honestly it wasn't anyone's fault and was probably just the language barrier. But we were fed up! We got back on the ship to take a breather. I am exhausted!

 

That's it for now...I'll be walking around the city tomorrow and we'll see how that goes!