Good Morning Vietnam

Sorry this blog has taken so long. I know that it has been over a month, but better late than never. I have finished all my school work and now only have to worry about finals after Hawaii. We will be in Hawaii on Friday, and I am going to work on China and Japan's blogs over the next couple of days. Can't wait to see you all and hope all is well:

On the morning of November 3rd I greeted the sun as we sailed up the Saigon River. The beauty of the sunrise hitting the junk boats was the signal that told me this week was going to be a great week. We ate breakfast, picked up our passports, and set foot off the ship. On this day I ran around with 2 other girls, it was a relief to not be in such a huge group and wonder around without any plans. We made our way to the market and quickly became fascinated. We were able to get so many items for so very cheap. The Vietnamese actually preferred American dollars. We made our way to lunch and had the famous Vietnamese dish called Pho. It is a broth-based dish with rice noodles. You place sauces and lime in the dish and it was delicious. I ate it several times while in Vietnam. We came back to the ship and took showers and got ready for the night. We had planned to go to a water puppet show, but were unable to make it there on time. So instead, we wondered the streets and found a little local bar. We stopped in because they had a great happy hour special, but it ended up being so much more! As we were listening to the band, the supervisor came up and started to talk to us. She was a petite woman with very good English. Her name was Ly and she was the supervisor of the restaurant. As we were talking she told us how she loved to get to know visitors to her beloved land. She asked us what we were doing the next day and we stated that we had a flight to catch the next afternoon, but our morning was free. She said she would take us out for massages and pedicures. We could not be more excited to spend time with a local but even better while being pampered. After happy hour we made our way to the night market and did a little more shopping before heading home for the night.
        We woke up early the next morning to meet Ly. She had made appointments for us at the salon. While I knew this pampering would be cheap, I didn’t realize how inexpensive it would be. Ly was able to take out of the tourist-y areas and into “real” Vietnam. Often as SAS students we get trapped in the areas of town that are created for tourist because we are afraid to venture to far out of our comfort zones, but here we were standing in a Vietnamese salon in the middle of the housing projects. At one point Karli looks at me and says “Where the hell are we.” While we had our doubts, what could go wrong with a massage? Massages around the world are a communal event. When walking in the doors we were told to all get naked and head into the sauna. We were in a room with many other women and while I felt uncomfortable at 1st, the anxiety slowly wore off. After we finished in the sauna we headed upstairs for our massages. Now this massage was not a one-on-one, it was four women to a room, where they talked the entire time. I could not understand a word they said, but we could tell they were laughing at us. We received an amazing hour and half massage. I felt like a new women. We got the bill and busted out in hysteria. The sauna—2 bucks, the massage—2 bucks. We received 2 hours of pampering for 5 bucks—including tip. Can’t beat that. Soon afterwards, we headed back to the ship to gather our stuff for our flight to Hanoi.
        With our bags packed the 1st group of 9 people headed to the airport. I had planned a trip for 16 of my friends to stay on a junk boat for the night. We were to fly to Hanoi and stay the night in a hostel before heading to Ha Long Bay. Once we got to the airport, we learned that our flight had been delayed. Oh well, we hung out in the airport and tried some crazy food and did a little shopping. After a minor delay and a beer later, we were off. It was a smooth 2-hour flight to Hanoi, where we were greeted by the hostel. It was so nice that they had arranged transportation for us, one less thing for me to worry about. The 45-minute van ride to the hostel was rather cranky. Everyone was hungry and about to hit a breaking point. It was rather funny, the group all of a sudden decided we needed burgers and we needed them fast. So after dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we motioned to the receptionist for burgers and he sent us around the corner. The signs lit up Al Fresco’s: Pizza, Pasta, Ribs, and Steak. You could see the joy on my friends face as we walked in. They had everything, even ranch dressing. We ate a ton of food and celebrated the start of an amazing trip. After that we headed back to the hostel. Let me tell you about the best deal of the trip. Central Backpackers Hostel: $5 for the night, included free beer at night, free breakfast, and free internet. It does not get any better than this. We waited for the others to arrive on their later flight and then hit the streets of Hanoi. Being that it was a Sunday night, there was not much going on, so we wondered and wondered and ended up finding a small hole-in-the-wall bar. We had a great time chatting and listening to music. Before we knew it, the sun was about to rise and we needed to get back to the hostel. With little sleep, we woke up early to meet the tour company. I was greeted by a man named Hero, our tour director, and we I knew we were in for a treat. As we drove out of Hanoi, Hero gave us a great history lesson about Vietnam and also taught us about their language. All over Asia, the languages use tones. Vietnam has 6, so the word  “ma” can have six different meanings depending on what accent is placed on the “a”.
We finally arrived in Ha Long Bay, what I had been longing for. After making a pit stop to purchase the ole’ so famous Vietnam hats, we hopped on a tandem boat to take us to where we would be staying for the night. Upon arrival I was amazed at where we would be staying that evening, it was gorgeous. A beautiful boat with 8 luxurious cabins, an amazing dining hall that would turn into a dance floor later that evening, and an awesome tanning deck. We were greeted by a 12 course meal. The amazing thing was that they brought out these small plates for 4 people to share and the food was so fresh. We ate whole crabs and the freshest squid ever as we sailed along the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. I now realize why it is a new natural wonder of the world. We sailed for several hours and arrived at a floating fishing village.  These people live in such poverty as they attempt to make a living by rowing their boats up to commercial boats and selling goods such as snacks and beer. I could not say no to these children, and we bought many things from them to just give them some money. We then were able to get out and go visit this cave. This cave put the Mammoth Cave to shame. It was so large and had so many stalagmites and stalactites. I was amazed at the formations of the rocks. After this we hopped in kayaks and spent several hours hanging out on the bay.  It was pure bliss. The pictures from this are some of my favorites. We splashed, we tumped, and most importantly laughed. As we wrapped up, the sun was setting and we headed back to the boat for a night time swim. We were able to jump off the top deck, about 35 feet high. There was nothing like that rush of hitting the water, we could not get enough.
After all the fun we headed back in and shower while waiting for dinner to be served. We had another fantastic meal but it did have some questionable dishes. We are pretty sure we ate dog at one point. They told us it was catfish, but it was way to rubbery to be catfish. Soon after dinner, we pushed back the tables and started to karaoke.  This was a sight in its self. We sang for quite sometime until the crew turned the dance floor into a techno club. It was so much fun being just the 16 of us. We did not have to worry about being to loud or bothering anyone. We carried on to late into the morning singing every song you could ever imagine.
The next morning was an early wake up call as the beautiful sun peaked through our window. We got up for another large breakfast. Soon after, four of us had jumped in and were floating in the water with life jackets on as diapers.  We floated for quite sometime and I can tell you, that I was on cloud nine!! We later boarded the boat and headed to the top deck for a nap in the sun. As we sailed back, I could not believe my time on the Bay was over. I was not ready to head back and I vowed that I will be back.
We boarded the bus and headed back to Hanoi. We had a little extra time to kill, so we decided to head back to the hostel and see if they would be willing to take us to the airport so we would have a couple more hours to explore the city. Of course our friends at Central Backpackers came through and were going to take us back. So we split up into smaller groups and went exploring for a little while. We ate dinner and did a little more shopping. Soon we arrived back at the airport and hung out while we waited for our delayed flight. While waiting on our plane, we received some tough news. We had lost a member of our shipboard community that day. When arriving back to the ship, it was not the same happy place I had always known it as. It was a rather difficult night, but the ship did everything in their power to make the transition as smooth as possible.
        The next morning Karli and I got up headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels, remnants of the Vietnam War. We were able to get a real grasp on the tactics that were used to defeat the Americans. I have a much better understanding what it was like to fight during this time and the role America played in the development of Vietnam. I left there feeling amazed, stunned, and a sense of guilt. I was shocked how friendly the people of Vietnam after all that we have put them through. They have been so forgiving, and I believe that they are able to put aside their feelings towards America when meeting Americans. After getting back we were hungry and could not decide where to go, and then I had just the idea, we went back and visited Ly. She was so happy to see us. We took pictures with her and exchanged contact information. I was so happy that we were able to say bye to her. Afterwards, we jumped on the back of motorcycles and headed back to the ship. As I waved bye to Vietnam, I said see you later, because I know I will be back!