Feb 14th
In the morning we had to be up early in order to catch our bus to the beach town of Nha Trang. It was about a 2 hour bus ride out of the city, so for 12 of us we paid 20 dollars each for a roundtrip ride. Kim’s family (My roommate who has family in Vietnam that she met for the first time) booked us the bus which is pretty much a large van with a driver who travels with us. It was actually kind of weird because this guy who drove us was basically obligated to go everywhere with us and whenever we needed him he would come as fast as possible to drive us to our destination. It was weird in that sense because I have never had that kind of deal before. I actually didn’t like it, I felt bad for him, even though I am sure he is making a good amount of money it seems like a pretty crappy job.
But anyway, we all got into the van and took off around 7 am for the beach. Along the way we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast, which is not the same as we Americans are used to. It’s customary to invite the van driver to eat with you so he joined us Our breakfast consisted of noodles in beef broth and for dessert a shot glass of yogurt. Me and Bridget (My roommate who is also from the Northeast USA) were the only white Americans on the trip and we felt very obligated to make sure we didn’t offend the other 10 Vietnamese travelers (Our 2 friends and their family). Being that I am the kind of person that doesn’t usually eat breakfast, eating at 7am was pretty early and it was the same dish I had for dinner the night before. We tried it and it was very watered down and had a funny taste. But we ate it all and enjoyed our yummy yogurt afterword’s. Our friends and their families finished their breakfast much faster but they understood I am sure that not only was the food different for us, but we had to use chopsticks which is also hard for us. Overall it was a cheap meal and I was glad to have something In my stomach.
The bus ride was 2 hours so it was really cool because we were able to look out our window and look at the people (They were tinted so we wouldn’t look rude), which was really nice because we could look and observe people doing their daily activities. We saw a lot for strange things too. Such as families of 5 riding on a moped (motorcycle/scooter), a moped driven by a lady with a large stock of live chickens hanging off of the back (a little disturbing), little kids asleep on parents lap while going full speed down the road and rice patties! We also saw a lot of temples and small villages. The ride to the beach was almost one of the most interesting experiences in Vietnam because of this opportunity we had to see the outside of the city and see more of the urban life. We arrived at the beach around 11am and since we couldn’t check in we first went to a famous Jesus statue that is rested on top of a mountain. We underestimated how steep the stairs were and how many. It was a true hike up this mountain. It was really interesting though because on the way up there were many statues representing different parts of the bible.
By the time we got to the top at around 11:45 we weren’t able to actually go inside of the statue because it was their lunchtime. But we took some beautiful pictures and enjoyed the beautiful view of the town and the ocean from the mountain. On the way back down we stopped for an ice cream, which melted really fast since it was almost 100 degrees outside and sunny. We met back up with the bus driver and checked into our hotel. The hotel was pretty nice, it had a twin and queen bed. Me, Bridget and Cindy shared a bed and our friend Ronald got his own twin bed. We didn’t take long at the hotel and went quickly to lunch in the hotels restaurant. I got a chicken that was friend and had some siracha sauce on it. It was amazing and of course some white rice on the side. After we headed to the beach, which I will be honest was a letdown at first. We arrived at a bad time, it was high tide. On top of that people at the beach don’t care about their trash so all of their trash was collecting in one very small area which was very gross. We still decided to go swimming though, and we had a great time. This was the first time we all really got to relax and enjoy time together in an exciting environment. We were actually on a beach in Vietnam, half way around the world.
Once the tide became too high we headed back to the hotel. We all showered and got changed and then headed to dinner. We had a hot pot dinner. Which reminded me of a Vietnamese version of the metion pot. There was a pot of broth cooking in the middle of the table. Of course we were also given noodles and meat/seafood for the hot pot. It was pretty good and after we went back to the beach which had been cleaned and the tide was far back. It was much more beautiful at night. We spent almost 2 hours just walking around, enjoying the waves, looking at shooting stars and meeting people. We met some locals who gave us heart balloons for Valentines day, we also met a man from Australia who works in Ho Chi Min and gave us some life advice as a traveler. He was very friendly and rounded out a nice day with his kindness.
Before bed we all laid down and talked about our experiences on SAS so far and in what ways we feel different. I know I feel mentally so free. I have changed so much in how I see the world and how the world works. After we talked about foods we miss. Which is the hardest because after a month of being away from American food and trying new foods almost every day…no comfort food you really just want food you’ve had your whole life. But also no complaints because we get to do something people dream of doing their whole life… to see the world.
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