Let me just start off by saying that Vietnam was truly amazing..
I had an amazing time and it is my new favorite port.
Yesterday and today I have class and also went to the field office and decided to sign up for two SAS trips
One is in Singapore(our next port), it’s to the only night zoo in the world which hosts nocturnal animals
The second is to the Golden Rock in Burma a huge Buddhist pilgrimage sight there and a major landmark, this is an overnight and I am soooo excited I was able to get in on the trip because it’s going to be beautiful
Feb 12th
It was an early start of the day as we started floating down the Saigon river. The port captain was on the ship at 8am and we started our slow, windy way down a river that is not made for the size ship we were riding on. It was not a very big river for a ship holding almost 1,000 people. It took the ship 4 hours to float on the river and make it to our port. Since all 4 of my good friends on the ship had field labs on this day so I hung out with some other friends that I am not as close to, but they are all still pretty awesome. Chelsea, Beatrix, Eedan, and Pat. We all went into the city on the shuttle from the ship. Right after getting off the ship is became so obvious how hot and humid Vietnam is. It is technically winter for them, but it was so hot still. Around 90 degrees and probably 100 percent humidity. Instantly we started to sweat and we knew we would have to find water. Although our original plan was to find a beach, two factors prevented us from being able to go, 1) it is Tet (Vietnamese new year, same time as the Chinese new year) and 2) the beach was 2 hours away so we needed to take a bus or Taxi. Since we were not allowed off the ship until almost 1pm, we decided to explore Ho Chi Minh. We got dropped off right in the middle of the city’s flower festival which was about a half a mile long full of decorations, fountains and more. It was so beautiful. Everywhere there were families taking pictures, women In traditional Vietnamese dresses and we were right in the middle of all of this. It was such a great “welcome” into the city.
We walked the while festival and then after we wanted to find a tailor to get some cloths tailored. Vietnam is known for their handmade clothing and quick service in doing so. Chelsea and Pat wanted a tailored suit, while I decided I would rather have a traditional Vietnamese dress. So we went and got our measurements taken and because we had plans for the next few days, decided to come back for our stuff on the second to last day in Vietnam. The ladies were all friendly and quick with how they got us in and out. so before we knew it we were off to our next (unknown) destination. We decided to split into two groups because Beatrix and Eedan only had one day in the city and we wanted to take our time and just wander around as opposed to seeing the major things in one day. So we headed in a direction and walked for about a mile before we came across a huge catholic cathedral. We went inside to check it out, it was beautiful and apparently is called “Notre Dame”. We then headed into a building nearby to do some shopping. After shopping we all started to get hungry and the place we found closest was Domino’s pizza, but we didn’t want our first meal to be Pizza, so we decided we would just get one pizza and then in an hour go and get an actual Vietnamese dinner. We arrived at Domino’s and ordered one small pizza to share (6 slices between 3 people) but when our order came out they gave us two pizzas, so we ended up having a lot of food and it quickly became our dinner.
Although feeling guilty that we ordered American food in Vietnam we were still pretty happy to have full tummy’s. We walked toward the flower festival again so I could catch a bus back to the ship because I wanted to meet up with my friends after their field lab so we could figure out our plans better. On the way we ran into some amazing parties going on for the new year, music, dancing and more. Beautiful lights and people everywhere. It was so amazing to look everywhere and be under beautiful decorations for the new year. I arrived just in time for the shuttle back to the ship and met up with my friends right at the entrance. We went to my room and decided to change our plans because of emails from my friends Vietnamese families and moved our plans around. So here our new plans which stayed:
Day 1: HCMC
Day 2: Meet our friends Families who live in Vietnam and stay overnight
Day3: take a bus to the beach
Day 4: Beach and back to HCMC
Day 5: HCMC
Day 6: Spa Day
For those of you who don’t know Ho Chi Minh was originally called Saigon before the Vietnamese war in case you’re like “I have never heard of HCMC before”
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