(I will add pictures to all of these later, I just thought it would be better to just put it up)
So I can sum up the reason why I love this country in three phrases:
1 Outstanding Vietnamese coffee
2 Amazing beaches
3 Everything is really cheap! (Except postcards!)
Ok so that’s all for now, talk to you all in Thailand! JK!
Let me just start out by saying that my whole experience started out when I woke up in my room and knelt up on my head and peeked my head out the window…. And we were not in the ocean anymore, but we were in a river and it really did not look that big and I was totally surprised that our ship made it to where we were. There were lots of little colorful fishing boats around and tons of floating greens (I think someone told me they were water hy-ya-s-thins!) and the water was a really disgusting brown, o and it was not raining for a change! So I got my shorts and sweater and my slippers on and went outside. From the instant I walked outside I smelt all of the smells I smell when I go to Guatemala! So it already made me smile!
I was so happily surprised with Vietnam in so many ways! Vietnam was the one place that I was not really excited about going to but I had a blast there and I really wan to go back and take my family and friends!
It all started out with the realization that I was in Vietnam and in Vietnam they will have Vietnamese coffee! And let me tell you that I drank that stuff like it was going out of style! For those of you who don’t know what it is let me fill you in; for one you are totally missing out on some amazing coffee, but what it is, is two shots of espresso mixed with sweetened condensed milk poured over ice. A-MAY-ZING!
After the ship got cleared that morning Kristen, Leila and I all went into town to go figure out what to do because none of us were really excited about Vietnam so none of us really had any plans. We went to a travel agency and looked through some stuff and we totally booked ourselves the best couple of days ever. But I will talk more about that later! Leila had to go back to the ship so Kristen and I walked around the city and asked some people where a good coffee shop was and they recommended for us to go across the street and up to the top floor, so we did…and guess what…. It was a mall! So we slowly made our way up to the top floor were we enjoyed some good coffee. On the way back down I ended up buying a whole bunch of stuff because it was all so cheap for what it was!
The next day Kristen and I had an SAS trip to go to the Mekong delta and explorer along the river. We started off on our two hour bus ride towards the river and along the way we stopped at a Buddhist shrine were we were able to get out and take some pictures. They had some amazing Lotus paddies there that I took lots of pictures of!
When we arrived to the river we all piled off the bus and the first thing I noticed was it smells like (for those of you from Colorado) when you are driving east down I-70 where you get to about I-70 and Vasquez where it starts to smell like…….. the dog food place! It smelled exactally like the dog food factory it was crazy, we have no idea why and I am not really sure I want to know what it was that made it smell like that either!
We got into this boat and started driving around and it was just crazy to see what we were seeing. People had “houses” made out of metal siding floating along the brown dog food infested water! It was crazy! While we were cruising along the water they gave us coconuts with straws so we could drink the coco water! After a while they dropped us off at a river bank where we were able to walk around a fruit orchard for a while and then they lets us eat some. They gave us little bananas, dragon fruit, pineapple, a grapefruit thing and I think they were called longgen berries (which I loved).
Then we got back on the boat and they drove us to a place along the river where they make coconut candy which is really good! After the candy demonstration we walked in the neighboring village for a bit and came to the place where we were going to have lunch. At this place they had a giant python…. and guess who jumped up when they said we could hold it…me! It was soooo cool, but it weighed sooo much! But I held a giant Python all by myself!!! We all decided that the snake had just eaten because its stomach was huge and a few people after I held it the snake decided it wanted to release some….feces and when the handler went to go take the snake off he swung the tail around and accidentally made the snakes feces spray all over a lot of people and all over the restaurant! It was nasty and I smelt even nastier, so never the less we went somewhere else for lunch since the snake kinda ruined that place. After lunch we got back on the boat and headed back towards the bus and then head back to the ship.
After the crazy process of getting back to the ship we met Leila and grabbed our backpacks that were already packed and headed back into town to start are crazy travel adventure.
So we get in this mini van and begin our four hour car ride north to a place called Phan Tiet. Our driver spoke no English so we hoped that we got in the right van and he knew where to take us and we hoped we were actually going to go there. We started driving at 6pm so it was already getting dark so we really could not see much so we napped almost the whole way. When we finally got there we pulled into the Sailing Club Resort and Spa! That’s right J all in the name of school! We get our key for the Private bungalow we had already pre booked and walked in and it was like something from a movie or one of those crazy travel books! It was a picture perfect room with huge bed and big draping mosquito nets that fell around the bed like silk. Then the bathroom… we decided to call it “the sexy bathroom” because it really was! It had a huge bathtub and if you felt like showering, one of those rain shower heads, a floating bowl for the sink and incase you did not want to shower in the tub there was another shower outside (because it was a half open air bathroom) in a little mini Zen garden where you could look up at the palm trees and the birds! Ahhh it was amazing! We went left our room to go check the rest of the hotel and it kept getting better and better. The pool was one of those never ending pools so when you were in it you can’t tell where the pool ends or the ocean ends! The beach was pretty nice and there were a few lounge chairs out with extra comfy cushions! We got in around 10:30 so we all decided to go to the bar at the hotel and order a drink to celebrate our outstanding selection. The bartender made the absolute best Mojito I have ever had. (On a different day I had a caparihna and that was amazing. It is vodka, lemon juice and brown sugar!) While we were sitting there with our drinks we could not get over the fact that we did all of this planning all by ourselves and our parents had no helping hand in what we did and it was completely on our own and it was funny that we all just realized that. So at that travel agent we booked the private car to drive four hours there, two nights in our private bungalow, breakfast every morning (which was a really good breakfast by the way), and our 4 hour car ride back all for 120 bucks! Crazy hunh!!!
The next day my friend Leila and I got a 90 minute Thai massage for $20! Our massages were vary different than anything I have ever had and it was completely crazy and kind of awkward all at the same time. I had no idea that I could be that flexible. For the rest of the day we went for a nice long walk on the beach, did some homework on the beach and went swimming in the pool then Leila and Kristen got a 90min manicure and pedicure for $7! Crazy J That night we went for a walk in the city down from our hotel. It was a nice little city, like a nice ocean side town.
The next day we spent most of our time swimming in the partial dog food smelling South China Sea and just hung out and did our homework and enjoyed life. One of the really nice things about this place is we were the only Americans and everyone else was from Australia. The people that own the hotel are a young couple from Australia so I think it is popular with the Australians. But we did not see a single semester at sea kid or any other Americans so we really felt like we got away!
Our driver came and picked us up that evening and brought us back to Ho Chi Minh City. Then we had that night back on the ship.
The next day Jeff and I got up and went into town and got so coffee and then walked around town for a bit because Jeff wanted to get a suit made while we were there. A lot of SAS people had suits and dresses made here because they are really cheap. I know this one kid who got two tailor made suits with jacket, vest and pants out of black cashmere for $120 usd and they look really sharp. So next time I come to Vietnam I totally can do that.
I had a very nice time in Vietnam and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it is to. The people here were a lot friendlier than the people in China and life from what I saw looked pretty good, the crops looked good, there were lots to sell, and streets were busy… I was also glad that I got to seem both ends of the spectrum of the nice resort town to the very poor and labor heavy lifestyle of the Mekong River.
I forgot to mention one thing: when you want to cross the street in Vietnam you don’t ever stop and wait for traffic you just walk out and go, it is so crazy. The streets are full of scooters (because the government put a large tax on owning cars, so everyone has scooters) and you just walk out in to a big oncoming pile of scooters and just weave your way through them and they will try and go around you!
I had a really good time but I kind of regret spending most of my time at a resort in a third world country. when I could have been out exploring and taking some good observations for all of the homework I have to do! I did not really get to see the poverty there like I have been seeing in different countries, but I did see a little bit of it though!
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