exciting country, but seeing the history and experience the perspective
of the Vietnamese people was really cool.
Day 1: On day one we left the ship early to explore downtown Ho Chi Minh
City (Saigon). The first thing we needed to do was stop at an ATM to get
some currency, we soon realized that the exchange rate was so
different. In order to take out just fifty dollars we needed to type in
one million dong. Downtown Saigon has a bunch of different markets and a
huge palace. Another thing we learned quickly was that crossing the
street is no easy task. They have limited stop lights in Vietnam and A
LOT of traffic. We were told in pre port to just close our eyes and walk
steady kind of like the grandma in Mulan. I wouldn't exactly recommend
that advice but walking steady and making strategic moves in the middle
of the street is definitely necessary. It's crazy how the traffic
literally parts around you. I needed to get back to the ship around
eleven to leave for the Cu Chi Tunnels. We took motorcycle taxis back
which are so much fun and very cheap. The Cu Chi Tunnels are the tunnels
that the North Vietnamese soldiers used in the Vietnam war to sneak up
on the American soldiers. As soon as we got on the bus to travel, our
guide started telling us about the tunnels. It was pretty clear from the
beginning that he was very biased against the American side. He kept
saying how the tunnels were a great way for the soldiers to sneak up on
the Americans and "bang bang without them knowing where it came from"
followed by him laughing for an awkward amount of time. Once we got to
the tunnels we watched a movie about how the tunnels went on for miles
and people would actually live down there for months. They had kitchens
and separate rooms and everything. They also had an escape passage into
the Saigon River if the tunnels were ever invaded. After the movie we
were able to go into one of the tunnels where the guerrillas would pop
up and attack. Then the tour brought us to the entrance of the tunnels
and also a display of all the weapons they used against the South
Vietnamese and allies. They had pictures behind the traps of like
cartoon American soldiers dying in the traps, it was pretty harsh. It
was very interesting to be seeing the other side of the war. We saw
American tanks and were actually able to shoot an M60 on the shooting
range which was really cool. Apparently the guns they had were actual
weapons from American soldiers or so we were told. Very eerie. We saw
all the trenches that are still there in the jungle where the soldiers
hid from one another and finally we were able to crawl through a portion
of the tunnels. It was insanely small and claustrophobic down there and
so dark. It was almost impossible to turn around, I can't imagine the
soldiers being down there with all their gear and everything on it must
have been miserable.
Day 2: The next day we had to meet at 6 am to catch our flight to Ha Noi
in Northern Vietnam. The airport was incredibly lax and the flight only
took about an hour and a half. A group of us were using Global Citizens
as a travel guide so we met the tour guide at the airport. We got
shuttled to our hotel which was right in downtown Hanoi. The rest of the
day was dedicated to wandering around Hanoi and getting lost, then
finding our way, then getting lost again. We were trying to find markets
but that never happened. We attempted to go to the Ho Chi Minh Museum
but it was closed. At one point our taxi driver got pulled over and
arrested, no idea what for, so we quietly escaped out of the back. The
language barrier was really difficult. The traffic in Ha Noi was even
worse than in Ho Chi Minh, the statistics say that something like ten
people a day die in Ha Noi alone from traffic accidents. One of my
friends actually saw a motorcycle get demolished by a coach bus, he said
that the person was just laying in the street not moving. Really
scary..All in all we were able to see pretty much all of the city
including the famous lake and pagoda in the center so it was really
cool. The people in Ha Noi were not fans of Americans, that was clear.
We ate lunch at this really authentic whole in the wall place that was
actually really good. I am a pro with chopsticks now after just a week
in Vietnam. That night we walked around a bit more and decided we were
hungry for some American food. We found a restaurant called Pepperoni's
and feasted on some pizza and french fries and local beer...so cultural.
Day 3: The next morning we woke up early and got on the bus and headed
for Ha Long Bay, a four hour drive from Ha Noi. The ride was beautiful
because we drove past huge rice patties the whole time with people
working throughout the fields and cattle pulling trailers of the
equipment and stuff they had collected. When we finally reached Ha Long
Bay we were loaded onto this little wooden boat that ferried us to our
junk boat. The junk boat was awesome! There were two of us to a room and
a dining room and a top deck that had chairs and stuff for sitting out.
It was very cloudy the entire time we were there but we definitely made
the best of it. The only issue was that we didn't know it was going to
be so cold out, the temperature was literally like forty degrees cooler
than what it was in South Vietnam. We were served lunch as soon as we
boarded the boat and it was really delicious, the weird part of the meal
was that the workers on the boat turned on the Victoria's Secret Fashion
show on this big tv, turned the music up so loud we couldn't hear each
other talk, and put on strobe lights and kept giving us the thumbs up.
We were pretty confused since it was the middle of the day and none of
us were drinking or giving any impression that we were interested in a
junk boat party at the moment. Eventually they sort of got the hint and
turned the music down but the fashion show continued to repeat like
seven times throughout the day... After lunch we sailed over to one of
the awesome islets and got off. We were able to go into this huge cave
that pretty much was the entire islet, it's like the thing was hollow.
The caves were huge and lit up it was so fun exploring. Apparently there
are something like 800 of the islets within Ha Long Bay it was so
beautiful there. The fact that it was cloudy and foggy made it sort of
creepy looking out but that made it even cooler I think. After we went
caving for a while we were able to rent kayaks and paddle around the
bay, we paddled into a few caves in some of the random islands. The
people we rented the kayaks from where majorly sketchy however, the
business was set up on a stack of wooden boards you had to balance on to
get across to get paddles and get in the kayaks and everything. The
kayaks were also a little worse for the wear, our ended up having a hole
in it so we got a little wet but it was all good and totally worth it.
After kayaking we were all pretty tired so we got back on our boat and
showered and ate dinner. They had retired the Victoria's Secret Fashion
show and replaced it with this like European dance party tape that was
fairly scandalous. That night we all just chilled and talked in a room
for a while and drank some wine, it was really fun and relaxing.
Day 4: The following day we woke up and had breakfast on the junk boat
as it pulled back into dock. We got back on the bus and started towards
Ha Noi once again. Along the way we stopped at a pearl store since Ha
Long Bay pearls are supposed to be extremely cheap. Turns out this was
not the case because one necklace was about a $1,000 US. We headed out
of there pretty fast and made our way back to Ha Noi. We stopped in the
city for a few hours and at dinner at a really nice but cheap restaurant
that overlooked Ha Noi. After dinner we made our way to the airport and
flew back to Ho Chi Minh. It was basically just a day of traveling but
even just seeing the country as we drove through was pretty interesting.
Day 5: On the last day I wanted to make the most out of the time I had
left in Vietnam so I went with a few other people to the War Remnants
Museum. I'm so glad we ended up going. The things we saw were shocking
but it was actually really cool to see a different perspective of the
war. The museum was clearly biased and made the United States out to be
way worse than what actually took place. Of course war is terrible and
the U.S. invasion of Viet Nam is extremely controversial, but the U.S.
was also allied with South Vietnam so anything the U.S. did in the war
was at the very least loosely linked to South Vietnam. The museum made
no mention of that and showed countless stories of American soldiers
raiding villages and killing the innocent "mainly women and children."
The stories failed to acknowledge that the soldiers were forced to kill
children because Northern Vietnam used children as tools to harm
soldiers because at first the soldiers would not think to harm kids.
They had so many pictures of soliders carrying half corpses blown to
pieces and really just some brutal displays. A section of the museum
that was really interesting was the Agent Orange Effect section. Agent
Orange is a chemical the United States manufactured and used in Viet Nam
to poison the population but the effect turned out to be long lasting.
There are many people still suffering the effect who were born with
deformities because their parents ingested the chemical. We were able
to sit down and talk to a museum employee. We asked her how the
Vietnamese view Americans today and it turns out that most of our
generation do not hold anything against the U.S. citizens and that they
understand our involvement in the war was a decision our government made
that was not supported by the majority. She said the only issue the
Vietnamese people have against the U.S. still today is the lack of
financial support in dealing with the Agent Orange effects. It was very
interesting to hear her perspective and gain some insight from a local.
That afternoon we went to a huge outdoor market where Sahana and I
bought some snake blood wine since we heard that is one of those "you
have to do it if you're there" sort of things. The bottle actually had a
small cobra in it fermenting, we only got a small bottle and so before
we had to board the ship to leave Viet Nam we tried it. It weirdly
tasted like reptile and was actually one of the most disgusting things I
have ever tried, but at least we did it right?!
Overall Viet Nam was awesome. I has a great time and learned a lot about
the war and the culture. The food was delicious and the people were so
friendly. I really wish I could have made it to Hamburger Hill but there
just wasn't time....there's my excuse to go back someday though!
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