Vietnam

Well I started this before Japan but I am just now finishing it and sending it out. We have been so busy with traveling, but now are over halfway through our ten-day stretch to Hawaii. I have only two things left on my ‘to-do’ list, which is an absolute miracle, and I am so excited to see my dad and Jon in Honolulu!

The ship is rocking, the sun is shining, and the air is brisk. This is the part of the voyage where I realize things are coming to an end and school gets pushed to the back burner as traveling, relationships, and sleep takes priority. Everyone is busy trying to make plans for Japan in addition to finishing up endless amounts of papers and projects. Before I get too behind though, I wanted to send out a re-cap on Vietnam which was a very full five days of traveling (luckily, I have bullet points for every day in my journal so I don’t forget because it all starts to blend together). Although many other students enjoyed three-day trips to Cambodia and Hanoi/Ha Long Bay, I enjoyed staying mostly in Ho Chi Minh City doing lots of exploring, sightseeing, and shopping.

Our time in Vietnam (November 3-8) was full of emotion---beginning with lots of joy as parents arrived on the first day, and ending with tears due to the passing of a fellow student. It is a country packed with culture, history, people, and mopeds (yes, even more mopeds than Morocco and India). I had my first experience riding on the back of one. It’s a great way to get around for just one US dollar. They’ll take you anywhere and would overwhelm us as we walked out of the Saigon port gate. The best was when there was a group of nine of us and we all hopped on mopeds for rides to a nearby restaurant. Good times and even better pictures. I saw a water puppet show with my theatre class, which is a traditional form of Vietnamese entertainment and consists of puppets being wielded on long poles in a pool of water from behind a pagoda-like set. The entire show was narrated in Vietnamese so I missed whatever story was being conveyed but we were very pleasantly entertained.

Another day Ana, Brittany, and I took a taxi to the Mekong Delta River. It took us about an hour to find a taxi driver who would take us for a decent price and understood where we wanted to go (thanks to a wonderful woman named Miss Vi who overheard us attempting to communicate and came over to help translate). She is just one of many very nice people that we were able to meet. I still have the paper where she wrote down her name and phone number in case we had any other problems. The Mekong Delta was a neat experience. We rode on a large boat across the river with our tour guide and new friend, Sang, who showed us all around. We watched the process of how to make coconut candy, ate honey off of a hive covered with bees, tried some exotic fruits (my favorite was bright pink dragon fruit), and rode in a canoe down a small canal, wearing rice hats of course. Later that day when we were back in Ho Chi Minh City, it started raining and I couldn’t believe how close the water level of the river was to the houses along it. Lack of infrastructure and flooding are a huge problem in Vietnam. And rain doesn’t decrease the moped use either – they just throw on ponchos! Our new friend Ruby (also the tailor we used to get dresses made), couldn’t make it into the shop that day due to the flooding so we had to reschedule our appointment for the next day. Even though our dresses didn’t turn out quite the way we wanted, I am thankful to have gotten to know Ruby and hear a lot about her life. She was eager to exchange email addresses and said she will come to the US someday and visit Tennessee. We also visited a school for the disabled and were able to spend a couple hours interacting with mostly deaf and mentally challenged children between the ages of six and eighteen. Even though though they couldn't really speak, some of the older ones had excellent written English, and we had conversations using the chalkboard. These kids loved the stickers we gave them and were all smiles as we watched them run around outside, jump rope and play on their swingset and sliding board.

We were able to experience a lot of history while we were there too at the Cu Chi Tunnels and American War Museum (which is what they call the Vietnam War). I thought the tunnels were pretty cool, but was shocked at how small they were when we crawled through them for 100m, especially after hearing that they had been made larger for tourists. There were several replicas of weapons and booby traps used by both the Vietnamese and US armies. There was also a shooting area complete with AK47s and M16s, and I had been looking forward to shooting those guns ever since my brother did a few years ago when he was there. I shot both and released a bit of my inner Rambo while wearing noise reducing headphones and a chain of bullets. On a more somber note, the last day we went to the War Museum. It was full very vivid and graphic pictures portraying the horrors and detrimental effects of the war. Already physically and emotionally drained after the shock of Andre’s death, this experience was overwhelming; it’s hard to describe all the thoughts and feelings that went through my mind. The pictures were heartbreaking and what astounded me most were the deformities inflicted on those impaired by Agent Orange, both directly, and in the children of those with the chemical in their system. It provoked a lot of thought and reflection on what those affected by the war went through for almost two decades.

This entry would not be complete without mentioning the shopping in Vietnam, massages, and food! The Ben Sangh Market received a lot of business from Semester at Sea. It was a large square with endless shops on the outside and too many aisles on the inside. Shop after shop of basically anything you could ever want. I got several bags and purses (designer knock-offs mostly), t-shirts, chopsticks, placemats, artwork, dishes, sunglasses, DVDs, etc., all for great prices (especially since I’m becoming an expert bargainer). I actually got two massages (I couldn’t pass up 90min for only $20), and they felt great after long days of shopping…oh wait, I mean sightseeing. The first one was a true cultural experience but that’s another story. We ate lots of Pho, a traditional Vietnamese dish with noodles and chicken (or beef) in a bowl of broth, spring rolls, rice, stir fried noodles and vegetables.

I really enjoyed my time in Vietnam. This is just an overview of some of my experiences but hopefully it gives you a little insight into Vietnamese culture. Sorry it’s taken so long for me to send this out. It may not be timely, but you will get updates about China and Japan! Happy Thanksgiving, and I look forward to hearing from some of you! We are now only seven hours behind central time (I think; I tend to lose track) after crossing the International Date Line and repeating November 27th! Yes, I basically have conquered time-travel and have had two November 27ths. How cool is that!

Finally bound for the USA,
Heather