Last Day

Friday was really bittersweet. We were excited to get back to the United States, but it probably more sad to be getting ready to leave. In the morning we had a soccer game and basketball game against UEF's teams. The soccer game was first and it was really fun. We were subbing really frequently so nobody died, but it was still enjoyable. I just had fun getting some sprinting out of my system. My squad was responsible for most of our productivity thanks to Jake the giant. As much as I'd like to take credit, all I can really claim on the game is an assist and some yelling. After what was probably the least hard-fought battle of the UEF team's career, we came out tied and exhausted. We had totally put all of our energy into that game, only to be reminded we had basketball coming up. Jake who held it down in soccer played basketball in high school, so we were ready to dominate.

There wasn't much domination. The rims and backboards were really hard to shoot on so there wasn't much happening, but the scoring was mostly neck-in-neck. About halfway through we really fell apart and got out-conditioned and pretty thoroughly destroyed. We had fun though. After that, we headed back to the hotel for our free afternoon.

After we grabbed lunch, a group of us decided to go to a Northface store we had heard about to pick up some deals. I got a tri-climate jacket for $45, so overall the entire trip to Vietnam was worth it. While we were there, we decided the best plan of action was a trip to the zoo, and I knew they had white tigers there so I started verging on an episode.

Here's a statue we really liked.

Giraffes

Iguanas

Deer

Baby deer

Lion

Crocodile

The man himself

It was cool seeing all the animals, but some parts of the zoo weren't fun. The elephants were all really neurotic. They were all kept in pens about as big as themselves and they were just making circles in the pen. Pretty sad, but I doubt there are many legal protections of the animals there. 

For dinner, we had a cruise on the Saigon as a farewell. The food was good, but the atmosphere was what made it cool. I spent a lot of time just hanging on the railing looking at the view. After dinner, we paid our debts and hung out for a while. We had to leave for the airport at 3 AM, and I only got an hour of sleep. It was worth it though; it made sleeping on the plane a lot easier. 

It was sad to leave Vietnam, and overall it was a great experience. The first thing that comes to mind when I reflect on the trip is the friends I made. I couldn't ask for a better group. Everybody got along so well. Mainly though, I'm so happy I got the experience to go abroad and experience Vietnam. Our hosts were great and it was nice how easy it was to get around and find things to do. If I ever have an opportunity to go there again, I wouldn't hesitate. 

War Remnants Museum

Thursday we had an exciting day planned. The morning was our usual culture class and language class, but the afternoon was the War Remnants Museum. The War Remnants Museum, prior to Vietnam's re-entry into the world market, was called the Museum of American War Crimes. The museum is entirely anti-American, as expected, and some parts almost seemed like propaganda. We had been briefed prior to the trip about this museum, and the difficulty Americans usually had walking through it. After the museum it was our last night on our own so we made plans to go to a fancy rooftop restaurant on top of the Rex Hotel. It was supposed to be our highlight dining experience so that was in the back of our heads all day. Earlier in the week, one of the students e-mailed the engineer who showed us around II-VI, and we made plans to go on a pub crawl in the city. There was no shortage of plans Thursday and we were excited.

These are the pictures I took at the museum. All of these are captured American weaponry after the fall of Saigon. Seeing things like this was weird to me because I've seen so many photos and videos from the war that seeing the actual weapons, planes, etc in person is eerie. 

The museum was a less extreme version of what I expected. The entire first floor was just photos and posters of protests against the war from different countries. That was nothing shocking to me; I knew people protested Vietnam. Other rooms were just photos of the war, which were not fun to look at but nothing I hadn't seen. The hardest room was the agent orange room. It really humanized the victims. It's easy to shrug the use of chemicals like that off as a necessity of war, but dealing with the consequences is harder. There were so many people affected by that, and there are still children being born with defects as a result. I'm not informed enough to take a strong political stance on the matter, but it would really be nice if something more could be done for the people affected by chemicals like that. 

I really enjoy learning about the war (and all American wars), but I'm going to have to take some time to digest what I learned and become more comfortable with it before I hear more of the American viewpoint.

These pictures are from dinner at the Rex Hotel. The first picture is of a building that was basically a light show the entire time, and the other is of an appetizer I got. The food there was amazing. The picture shows a fried crabmeat dish. It was one of the better things I've ever eaten. After that, I just went with a burger, which was no Black Cat, but was still of really high quality. It was so nice being able to eat at such high-end restaurants over this trip without having to worry about breaking the bank.

After dinner, we met David, the engineer, in the lobby of the hotel. We went straight from there on foot to the first bar. It was a little sports bar, and the staff was really attentive so we had fun. After hanging out for a little, I went for a game of pool. This was potentially a mistake. I could make excuses for days, but the one I'm going to stand by was that the stick I used was super sticky from the humidity. The other guy's hand was covered in chalk. Every time I had a decent shot I would miscue. He started on the 8 ball when I still had all of my balls on the table. David's son told me that in HCMC, when someone loses with all of their balls on the table, they have to take a lap around the bar with their pants around their ankles. Soon, one of the students on the trip heard of this, so everyone was around the table shouting for me to throw the game. There's a time and place I would throw that game, but I decided a bar full of older people wasn't gonna be the place. By some act of God, one of my balls ended up in front of a pocket and I bumped it in. Nobody was too happy with me, but it was one I could stomach. After that, we went to a bunch of other bars, and it was pretty cool seeing most of District 1 (the most urban area) on foot. 

Friday was our last day, and we had plans for a soccer and basketball game in the morning, and then a farewell dinner on the Saigon River. It was feeling pretty bittersweet at this point. 

Company Visits and the Gang Goes to Zest

Wednesday all we had was company visits, which was a nice break from class. I was getting pretty filled up on the Vietnamese language. The company we visited in the morning was Saigon Newport Corporation. This company was the first state-owned enterprise (SOE) we had seen. It was a shipping company mainly focused on water transport. Everyone showing us around was wearing a Navy uniform, so I assumed they were all sailors turned businesspersons, but I was incorrect. One of the students asked that question, and the people working there were assigned naval ranks based on their position in the company. Very different from the US that they were able to jump ranks based on their business merits. The company was definitely interesting though, and they seemed to have a well-run business despite SOEs' reputation of being wasteful and noncompetitive. Seeing an SOE was definitely helpful to understand business in a communist country. Here are a couple pictures of the port.

After this visit we grabbed lunch at the hotel and had some free time. I don't think I've commented on our hotel's buffet yet. It's really different what Vietnamese people eat for breakfast. There are no noticeable differences (to me) from the other meals. There are noodles, pho, and all sorts of meats. This is no trouble to me, as I've always eaten whatever was in front of me for breakfast, but I think some students were having difficulties at the beginning. The lunch buffet was twice the size with interesting things like spring rolls and shellfish, so eating lunch there was always kind of exciting. The food at the buffet was of good quality too, which is unexpected from a hotel, but definitely something I can get excited about.

After lunch, we went to visit a different real estate company, similar but different from Phu My Hung. They were just making apartment buildings rather than practically building a new city. The apartments were really nice though. They took us through a sample they use for sales and it was gorgeous. The layout practically describes what I'd look for in an apartment. What was really cool was talking around the roof of a 20-some story building. The view was awesome, with the HCMC skyline in the distance. This was our last company visit, and it was a fun one to finish on because it just felt like we were shopping for a place to live.

Again my picture taking was slowed down and I have no idea why. I guess I was just too concerned hanging out with people to take pictures. 

Dinner was a ton of fun that night. I think 5 or 6 of us went to a place we found online called Zest. It had had 100's of reviews that were all 5 stars so obviously it was going to be amazing. When we got there at peak dinner hour we were the only people in the place and they started taking pictures of us for their facebook and making friends with us. Also, being the only people in there we could get a little loud. I don't think anything that funny was said but it was one of those meals where everyone was practically in tears laughing the whole time. And the food wasn't bad either. It was an interesting take on certain American foods. I had a pulled pork sandwich served like a club sandwich, with pulled pork on bottom and cole slaw on top. Normally I hate anything cabbage, but there was so much going on that I could ignore the texture and the flavor was great. After dinner they entered us into some competition and there was a line on the form we signed up on that asked for "occasion," so we combined a couple of jokes and wrote "the gang goes to Zest." We thought it was funny, but it probably wasn't that funny. 

When we were finished there we realized we were right on the river, so we hung out and watched boats for a couple minutes. That meal was one of my favorite times in Vietnam.

The next day was the War Remnants Museum, which we had been warned about and is supposed to be very difficult for Americans to walk through. 

Joint Stock Bank and Italian Food

So, Tuesday was a pretty average day. Culture class, and then some more language class in the morning. Lunch at the same spot after that. At this point, we were getting real sick of the lunch place, but looking back it really wasn't bad. They had these shrimp fried in corn dog batter that were just unbelievable.

After lunch, we went on a company visit to a joint stock bank. I don't know much about banks or most business topics, so I had some trouble staying totally engaged, but it was still interesting to learn about.

Looking back on this day, the only pictures I have are of myself and Tin, which is weird, but I'll post them anyway to keep the photos flowing.

After the company visit we decided we wanted Italian food. They really have everything in HCMC. We went to a place we found online, but it was being renovated so we found a different place. This place was on the fancier side, so it was really nice. All of the food was really well prepared, and I got pumpkin ravioli. Pumpkin food has been on a bunch of the menus I saw over there, which I find really interesting. Random which things are popular. After dinner, we went back to the one nightclub Lush. 

Tuesday was probably the most average of all the days. Nothing very out of the ordinary happened, but dinner was good!

Chinatown

The plan for Monday was language class, a city tour and then a trip to a market in Chinatown, followed by dinner there. Language class was the usual, we about got caught up on everything we needed to bargain at the market. The first stop on our tour was the reunification palace, which used to be the presidential palace of South Vietnam. It was actually really cool. They kept it laid out the same way as it was before the country was unified.

This is the palace. To my back is a gate, that in a famous photograph a tank smashed through. The event was symbolic to North Vietnam as the end of the war. 

These are some of the old meeting rooms. There were plenty of them. Definitely would be no scheduling conflicts if two groups wanted to have meetings at the same time. 

This tree was pretty cool looking. 'Twas enormous. 

Here's a view from the top of the palace. You can see the gate I spoke of. Between this and the consulate, being at the same places that the war took place was pretty spooky. 

After this, we stopped at the post office, which was near the Notre Dame Cathedral, so it was quite a great place to take photos. Naturally, I didn't take any. The sun had been beating badly on me all day at the palace, so all I wanted to do was nap. The post office was cool though, even though the souvenirs were pretty much the same as Ben Thanh, just more expensive. 

After the post office, we got lunch at the hotel and went to Chinatown. 

Before we went to the market there, we stopped at a Buddhist pagoda. The round things in the picture are incense. 

The market was an overwhelming experience. It was hot, busy, crowded, and not very geared to tourists. The only things being sold were day-to-day items, like clothes and food (which didn't look like it would meet FDA approval). After a rather short time, my group decided to duck out of the market and walk around Chinatown, but we didn't find anything we liked at the stores there. These remarks were my first impression. After reflecting a bit, my thoughts changed a little. It was interesting to see life in a much more raw form. Many of the people we saw were deformed or missing limbs, likely from Agent Orange. As Americans, that was especially important to see. I could never imagine the life those people lived, but they seemed perfectly content. Without the Agent Orange part, it seemed like a life people had been living for many generations. American culture doesn't have anything that is like looking into a time machine, so this was interesting.

My first reaction was pretty similar to that of the group, so the response prompted the market trip to be ended early. This also led to dinner being cancelled. We ended up at another French restaurant and I thought this one was way better. Ti Ti I think it was called. I had a beef steak and loved it. Almost ordered a second. 

Market day was a pretty important realization in that I think I'll always be a tourist in my travels. Perhaps I could ease my way into it, but such a dramatic culture shock isn't something I'm totally interested in. There are some places I'll never be able to live the lives of the locals.

Vung Tau

Sunday was definitely a fun day. Woke up a little later than normal to catch a hydrofoil to Vung Tau, which is the beach. The hydrofoil is a boat, which as the name suggests, is lifted off the water. Pretty clever, reduces drag. I wish I had gotten a picture of the boat, because it was pretty cool, but we will have to make do with what we are given. Here are some pictures from the boat ride. I'm not sure which river we were on, but it was scenic.

The beach was cool and stuff, but what was really on my mind was how this guy got to that spot.

I got some food at a KFC before we went hiking, and if there are any KFC executives reading this, bring Pokkits to America. They're delicious.

Before we went to the beach, we went hiking up to some statues around Vung Tau. The first place was a little easier, just some stairs with religious statues and a church. This picture is Amy cheesing in front of a statue. That was as high as we climbed at this place. 

Here's Greg inside a church on the way up this hike. A service was actually about to begin so we kept our tourism to a minimum there.

The second hike was a lot more serious. We had to climb a ridiculous amount of stairs. In the heat. I can't honestly say I thought it was terrible though. Manageable, but we were a little soaked once we got to the top. This hike was mostly more statues, but there were some cool views.

This is looking down from the top of our hike. One thing we couldn't wrap our heads around was the Vietnamese people's aversion to suntans. In the Vietnamese culture, light skin is considered beautiful. As hot as it got, our Vietnamese friends were always covered from head to toe. You can see in this picture front and almost center, he's wearing long sleeves and a mask, where  Jake has a basketball jersey around his neck. It was brutally hot. 

I took this on the way down of one of the views. Pretty gorgeous. There was a nice view of the beach from the top, but it wasn't coming out nicely in photos because of the trees in the way. 

After this hike we finally cruised over to the beach. It was gorgeous, but of course I forgot to take pictures. Jumped into the water as soon as I got there, so I didn't bring my phone. The water was practically bath water. Being in the water didn't actually cool us down, we had to get out for that to happen. Overall it was an average beach day, just swam and hung out. On our way out, I learned that I missed my face with the suntan lotion. That was a mistake but it never turned terrible so it probably won't be mentioned in the blog again. 

This is a picture of a thunder storm rolling in as we were about to get on the boat. It really didn't rain as much as I expected. It was the rainy season, but it didn't even rain every day. And when it did, it would pour for 30 minutes tops and stop. 

Once we were back in HCMC, we went to a Japanese restaurant. I got some sushi, and it was exactly the same as at home. A delicious eel roll. Some of the better sushi I've had. 

After dinner it was an early night. We had been busy practically all the time so a night off was nice. Monday we still had another day off to look forward to with market day.

Cu Chi Tunnels

Saturday, the plan was to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cu Chi Tunnels was a tunnel system used by the North Vietnamese during the war. It spans something like 100 km and is completely ridiculous. The tunnels were actually expanded for tourism, but they were tiny during the war. They were lined with traps and filled with different holes to pop out of and had a complete ventilation system. I cannot imagine living in extremely tight darkness like that, but these people did. This first picture is some Vietnamese countryside on the way there.

These other pictures are from the area surrounding the tunnels. One of the things I noticed from the area is that all of the bomb craters looked exactly like jasper pits, which are all over the woods near my house, so it felt just like normal to me. It was a war history site, so there were all sorts of military paraphernalia around the site.

Here are some rocket launchers and machine guns on display. They also had M16s and AK-47s, as well as some other assorted weaponry. 

Inside the tunnels was crazy. We had to crouch to varying heights, but I never had to go hands and knees. One of the tunnels was 70 m and my thighs were on FIRE. There were also bats which was freaking people out. These tunnels are a brilliant military strategy though. A person can pop their head out, go back under, and pop back up again 10 feet away.

All of traps and the entire north's strategy was well put together. Their goal was to break morale, by slowing people down and traumatizing them. And traumatize they did. All of the traps were non-lethal or at least not immediately lethal. There was one that was a circle of downward pointed spikes. That one made me shiver.

After the tunnels we went to a war memorial-temple type thing on the grounds. It was really cool but strange to realize how devastating the war was for Vietnam. On the walls of the temple was the names of all of their dead, and it was massive. It lined the entire way around and went all the way to the ceiling. 

Here's the temple from the outside.

Here's Greg with a giant bust of Ho Chi Minh, and you can see a tiny fraction of the names in the background.

A random picture of Greg with a bell.

We had lunch on the river which was really cool. It was more traditional Vietnamese food but it wasn't bad. Here we all started to get sick of Vietnamese food. Besides a few meals, it was all we had been eating, and all of the meals were practically the same.

The sun reallllllly beat us up, and between that and being out late at  Lush, everybody totally crashed on the bus. It was a pretty mellow ride. After that, I'm pretty sure everybody took a much needed nap.

After getting a little sleep we went out to a French restaurant to change things up a bit. I was pretty disappointed with my food but everybody else really enjoyed it. I got some pasta with salmon and a white sauce. I might add I have no idea what French food is. But the dish was just totally mediocre. Really bummed me out, but after dinner we just had a mellow night and caught up on sleep.

Sunday was the beach, and no one could not be looking forward to that.