Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City

Good morning, Vietnam!  The past two days on the ship leading up to this port have been extremely emotional.  Many staff have memories of Vietnam that induce extreme emotional responses, and many lectures included tears.  As students, we had no clue what to expect.  We were not alive during the Vietnam War and we do not have those same memories.  Worried about our reception in the country, we were ensured that American’s are pleasantly welcomed in Vietnam; in fact, they enjoy our presence and aspire to be like us in many ways.  Many of us students have fathers, grandfathers, or in my case uncles who had fought in the war, and knowing that many of those individuals have never been back we feel an obligation to see the country so many years later.  Semester at Sea was the first non-military US ship to go up the Saigon River, and was also the largest group of Americans to enter the country after the war.

 

When I woke up this morning we were traveling down the Saigon River, an extremely narrow river with rice barges and small boats on all sides of us.  A few years ago, in fact, we hit and sunk one of those barges (but no one was hurt).  Our port here is nice, a lot nicer that places like Morocco and India.  There is a coffee shop right outside the port, a luxury I will enjoy early tomorrow morning before my trip leaves.  Vietnam is clean and modern, not as clean and modern as Thailand, but somewhere in between India and Thailand (closer to Thailand).  There are motorcycles EVERYWHERE!  The most common tourist injury is injuries caused by getting hit by a motorbike!  When we got on the ship Colleen, Jill, Stephanie, Connor, Matt W., Ian and I got a taxi to the War Remnants Museum, formally called the Museum of American Atrocities.  Words cannot describe the emotions that we all had, as we tearfully went through the exhibits.  They did have an extremely different view of the war as we did, but they had a whole exhibit dedicated to protests against the war around the war, a half of which was about American’s protests, burning draft cards, suicides, ect.  We were satisfied to see they reflected some American sentiment in the museum.  In the end, we only spent about an hour there, not wanting to hang out such a depressing but necessary site.  We all find it so hard to develop a perspective towards the Vietnam War.  Not being around during that time, we can only go off of what we see and hear.  It is hard to know what to think, so we decided just to take it at face value, an atrocity to all involved.

 

After the museum we walked to a cathedral in the city.  It wasn’t that big, but it was beautiful.  Someone was taking their marriage pictures there, and the woman was extremely beautiful.  What a pretty place to take wedding pictures!  After seeing the cathedral and relaxing outside for a short time we decided to get lunch.  We found a restaurant called Broken Rice (that’s the English translation).  We got to eat upstairs in a room by ourselves, and we had to take off our shoes before going upstairs.  We went up to find short tables, and we sat on the floor!  It was hilarious because the guys in our group were too tall to stand up, the ceiling was too low!  We ordered our drinks, and I got a fresh coconut.  I drank the milk and then ate the flesh with a spoon, so delicious.  We then all got a main dish, all of which are served with a mound of “broken rice” which is like a mix between couscous and rice and is big in South Vietnam.  I got an egg omelet as my main meal, and it was delicious.  I also got a soda, and my meal cost $3 US.  Speaking about money, it is extremely hard to convert money here.  $1US is equal to 17.000 (seventeen thousand) dong!  There are so many different types of bills, it is insane. 

 

When we were done eating we walked to the market, which is also on the way back to the ship.  The market was huge and had everything from food to fake Coach.  Most of the stuff was junk, but I bought a few t-shirts and bowls.  T-shirts are only $2US after bargaining.  This is also one of the first ports that’s accepts US dollars and quotes their prices in US if you ask.  I also bought 12 DVDs and the first 4 seasons of LOST and The Office, all for $20 US.  I watch so many movies on the ship, and my roommate brought about 40 and bought 10 in Thailand, but I am still running out.  Pretty much a movie every night is my rate now.  Even though they are bootleg copies, they are good quality.  It is funny because I got 12 movies and 2 series for the cost of 1 movie back home!  You can’t beat it.

 

After shopping in the market some of the boys got fitted for suits, and then we headed back to the ship for dinner.  Instead of having cheddar cheese cubes they had swiss cheese cubes, and it totally made for a great dinner.  I decided to stay in for the evening because I am exhausted and want to catch up on some sleep so that I won’t be tired for my 2-night overnight trip that leaves tomorrow morning.