MORE Vietnam!

DAY 3

This was a day full of missions. Surprisingly we managed to accomplish all of them and then some. Our first goal of the day was to find out when the water puppet show was. I needed something to write about for 5 pages for my world music class. We figured that the best bet was to ask the tourism information center. Needless to say, we were sorely mistaken. When we asked them about it, they didn’t know the times but they said that it was at the zoo. One woman told us to go to the bookstore that was down the street and ask. So we went and asked them there and either they didn’t know or they didn’t understand what we were asking. I decided to try and look in a tourism book. No luck. We went back to the tourism center to ask again or to see if we could use a phone to call the zoo and ask. This time she said to go to the theater, which after two attempts to try and find it, we finally found it… right next to the bookstore. Why she didn’t say theater first is beyond me. Even after all of that work, the theater looked a wee bit sketchy so we didn’t even bother asking. We went and shopped some more figuring we could just head over to the zoo after lunch and hopefully we would catch a show. We went back to the market in search of a few specific items. Unfortunately, we entered right in to the smelly food area. I just about lost my breakfast as made our way through it. It was lunchtime by the time we were done at the market. We wandered until we came across a good-looking restaurant (which doesn’t take long in this city). I satisfied my Wisconsinite craving for cheese with a pizza. It was the most westernized food I have had in an extremely long time. I think my stomach was relieved to get a break. Afterwards, we took a taxi to the zoo. We made it there and asked the gatekeeper where we were supposed to buy tickets for the water puppet show. Apparently, they are sold at the history museum. We looked at the map and saw that it was somewhere down the block or around the corner. Should have been easy to find right? Wrong. We had rounded the corner and walked a good several blocks and didn’t see it anywhere. We asked several locals for some guidance. The first time we asked, we were directed right. The second person we asked directed us left. Either we had missed it or they don’t know what they are talking about. After laughing a lot and walking around in some more circles, we found it. It ended up being pretty much next to the zoo entrance. Go figure. It was actually a building that Mary Alice had made a comment on at the beginning. We were just happy that we found it and just in time to catch a water puppet show. For those of you who don’t know, a water puppet show is where elaborate wooden animal puppets dance/move in a little pond. The pond is located in front/inside of a little building where the puppeteers are. The puppeteers are actually standing up to their waste in the water behind a mesh screen so that we can’t see them. It was pretty awesome. This history museum its self wasn’t that great. It had a lot of pots. The coolest thing was a woman mummy who died in 1890 and was discovered in the 90’s. After, we decided to go to the War Reminisce Museum too. We piled the two of us (along with all of our bags) in to a tiny little bike rickshaw. Hilarious. The poor guy had to pedal us all of the way there. It took us a while to get there but after many laughs, close calls, and stares we made it. The museum was incredibly moving. It basically consisted of a lot of graphic pictures of the war and its victims. It read just about every caption of every picture in the entire museum. There was one particular photo that I don’t think I can ever forget. It was a picture of a US soldier holding up the top half of a Vietnamese civilian, as if he (or it) were a prize. The only thing that made it recognizably human was the head and face, which was also badly beaten. The rest of the torso was just shreds. One could see the rest of the body in a shredded heap on the ground. There was also a comment book for visitors to write in which contained a lot of hostile/negative entries towards Americans, Bush, and Iraq. It was an eye-opening experience. The museum was the Debbie Downer portion of the day, but I am so glad that we decided to go. We went back to the ship, showered, and went back to Chi Chi for our dress fitting. 2 of mine were ready. The black one turned out great. I just had them adjust the length. The turquoise satin one turned out pretty good as well. Don’t worry mom, it’s not that bad. You’ll probably just say it looks like lingerie like you always do. I was very happy and couldn’t wait to see the last one the next day.

Next on the list was shoe shopping. I bought a pair to wear with my dress to the ambassador’s ball because I left all that type of stuff at home (silly me haha). As normal, I was given the shoes in a bag and handed a receipt. We had started to leave when I realized that I had never actually paid for the shoes. We turned back around, found the two girls helping me, and asked them where I would go to pay. They were SO confused. Eventually the two security guards came over to see what was going on. No one seemed to understand that I needed to pay. When they finally understood, or seemed to at least, the response was “come back tomorrow.” What? Come back tomorrow? Seriously? I had to pay for them now since I was going to be busy all day tomorrow. The girl then told us to follow her, and she took us to a bank. I already had money so I just handed her the money and the connection was finally made. I’m pretty sure that I could have left from the beginning with out paying. It was weird. After some DVD shopping, we were on our way to dinner when I looked in the shoe bag and saw a hat too. I started laughing and was like “where the hell did this hat come from?” Mary Alice cracked up and was just like “oh Vietnam, always an adventure.” So now I have a baseball hat and I have no idea where it came from. Everything we have done in Vietnam has turned in to some kind of story, hence why my entries are so long. Dinner was great. I had calamari and some beef thing that I couldn’t get myself to eat. We then went to an Internet café and had some coffee. We were getting ready to leave when the power on the entire street went out. I just turned, looked at Mary Alice and said, “it’s because we are here.” Again, we just laughed. When we left we saw that it was only our little shop that still didn’t have power. What a fitting ending to a crazy day.

Day 4

Today was my day trip to the Mekong delta. I was pretty excited even though it meant that I had to get up early. It was a pretty long bus ride there. That would mean precious time to nap or so we all thought. The tour guide ended up talking the entire time. He pointed out almost every single building and cemetery and tree that we passed. It wouldn’t have been so bad but the volume on the microphone was incredibly loud. Not even my ipod could block it. Needless to say, I did not get much sleeping done. We stopped at a little temple on our way there. I may almost be all templed out after this trip. I have seen so many. They are all very beautiful and unique though. After getting off the bus and making our way down this dirt road toward the temple, the locals tried to sell us post cards and rice paddy hats. We were warned in advance not to buy anything. Even after we were leaving and the bus began moving, they were still trying to sell us things through the sealed coach bus windows. They were very persistent people. We arrived at the Mekong Delta and boarded two boats. Mary Alice, John, Kim and myself all boarded one together. At the first village we visited, we were served a bunch of local snacks and tea. We also took shots of their local medicine wine. It was extremely potent… I don’t think that I could take it 4 times a day like they do. As I was taking it down, I couldn’t help but laugh a little because how many people can say that they are allowed, even encouraged, to take shots at school. Not many. We then boarded another boat and went to another little village were we ate local fruit. The pineapple was so delicious. I was the first at my table to try this fruit that we didn’t recognize. Apparently, the face that I made discouraged anyone else from trying it. It tasted like a nasty onion or something. Ick. I also had the tiniest little banana ever! It was so cute. I had no idea that we were just going to go around on a little food-tasting extravaganza. It was a welcomed surprise. J The four of us then got on these little wooden canoes, ya know, the kind that would tip over with even the slightest movement in either direction. I had my “baby” or camera with me so I was a little bit nervous. I would die if that got broken. Luckily, we all made it through the most beautiful maze of tall water plants with out getting wet. Mary Alice took an almost perfect picture of me behind her with out turning around. It was a great team effort as I directed her aiming. We were able to taste a local coconut candy after watching it being made. For not liking coconut, it wasn’t half bad. We boated some more before stopping at a restaurant for a late lunch. Whole fish, among other mystery foods, were served. Although I didn’t feel like I had eaten a whole lot, I was stuffed by the time we left to head back to the ship.

Later that night, Mary Alice and I went back to see our favorite ladies at the dress shop. My last dress fit almost perfectly. We went out to dinner while they finished the last minor adjustments. John and Kim had recommended a restaurant to us and although it was expensive, it was great. I had my first salad since leaving home and it was… umm… so good. You have no idea how much I miss food, esp. salad, pizza, and subs. After picking up the dresses and dropping them off at the ship, we took our first motor scooter rides to an internet café. The motor scooters are SO much fun. They drive like maniacs and it was awesome. I was sad that I waited so long to try them. I guess a large number of people on the ship had bad muffler burns and I know that my roommate got in to an accident (don’t worry, she is fine). I spent a good hour enjoying the free internet before heading back to the ship for the night. Over all, another fantastic day in Vietnam.

Day 5

Today was another early morning… as is usual in port. I had another SAS trip planned only this time to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels. I was very excited. Anna, Mary Alice and myself had signed up weeks ago and I had been looking forward to it ever since. The day started with another long bus ride. This time little sleeping due to frequent stops. The first stop was at a local market, were we basically walked around for 15 minutes. Our second stop was at the Cao Dai temple. The temple was enormous but incredibly beautiful. It was highly decorated and brightly colored. It was a long semi open aired building with huge carved pillars running down the length of the sides. Several stories above, the light blue painted ceiling with silver stars could be seen. Tourists were able to watch from the balcony. They pray 4 times a day and we were able to see the noon prayer. From above, I could see about 200 robed people kneeling on the checkered tile floor below. For those of you who don’t know, Caodiasm is the end result an attempt to create the ideal religion. It combines elements of many different religions from both the east and the west. These religions include Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, native Vietnamese spiritism, Christianity, and Islam. They believe in one God, souls, and communicating with the spiritual world. The eye is the God of Caodaism, and it was depicted in the center of every window in the temple. (see I do learn something, although strangely enough I didn’t learn it in my world religions class. go figure)

After the temple, we had a surprise stop a Vietnam War memorial/cemetery. After going to the War museum I could just imagine all of those soldiers rolling over in their graves as we walked around. At this point in the day, it was INCREDIBLY hot and humid. I don’t think that I have ever experienced such hot and stagnant air before. I had a hard time breathing even just walking around. I didn’t stay out long because at one point I bent down to take a picture and got extremely light headed and just about fell over on my way back up… needless to say I was probably a wee bit dehydrated.

Next was the Cu Chi tunnels! I saw a huge crater that was left in the earth after being bombed by the B52’s. HUGE. We saw the various booby traps used by the Vietnamese. One was called “the souvenir” because it left deep cuts in the legs of soldiers who stepped in to it. I couldn’t help but laugh at the humor of it. We saw and had the chance to try and squeeze in to the hidden tunnel entrance. And let me just say that they are very sneaky (and tiny!). We got down and dirty as we crawled around like little kids in both the original sized tunnel and the 30% enlarged tunnel for tourists. We took tons of pics, a few videos and had ourselves a good time. It was incredibly hot inside… I was breathing in the sweat as it dripped off my nose. Gross I know, but it gives you a good idea of how hot it was. I can’t imagine living in those little tunnels for 55 days at a time like the Vietnamese did. Incredible. Then I was able to shoot an AK47! I know, me, with a gun. It’s a scary thought. It was pretty awesome even though I was deaf in my left ear for about an hour afterward. The three of us then slammed a beer down before crawling in the tunnels again. Dirty and smelly, we all boarded the bus for the ride back to the ship. Once again, we grabbed our last in-port meal and used the internet before on ship time at 9pm.

Over all, I had a complete blast in Vietnam. I haven’t laughed that much or that hard in a long time. There were a lot of interesting adventures, many many stories, great food, good purchases, welcoming people and an amazing country. It defiantly ranks as one of my favorite ports.

Up next, Hong Kong!

Love, Lu