VIETNAM!!!

VIETNAM!

 

So we arrived in Vietnam and we had to go down a river to get there! It was a really cool view but we also were awake at about 5AM to see it so it wasn’t that cool haha.  When we arrived in port we stayed on the boat  because Kayla had a service project that I was going to try to get on. Well I didn’t get on it, so she headed off to her trip and I was stuck alone. Soooo I went by myself into town because They told us it was a safe place that you could travel on your own.  I got on the bus that took us to the city center and started to walk towards the market. When I was walking a lady gave me a piece of paper that I almost didn’t even look at. But I took a glance and couldn’t believe my eyes.  A manicure for $1 dollar … A facial for $3 Dollars..  I was told that I HAD to get a massage in Vietnam that they were amazing and cheap. Well cheap didn’t explain my day! I turned back around and the lady said Come in Come in. Well it was kind of sketchy at first and when I say kind of I mean it was I walked down a long hall then up 6 floors down a hallway. As she opened the door I was slightly scared because the rest of the building was pretty old, I took a step into the salon and it was beautiful! I couldn’t believe my eyes they sat me down and gave me a glass of water. They showed me the packages that were $ 25, $30, and $40 dollars. Now you think that was for like a manicure and a pedicure or just a message. You’re wrong!  I picked the 30 dollar package and made a deal with them because I couldn’t decide.  I was looking at the first package because I wanted a manicure and pedicure but I also wanted an hour foot massage. She said no problem.  So my package included  1 hour full body massage, 1 hour facial, 1 hour foot massage , manicure and pedicure all for $30 dollars !! I know my chin dropped to! And let me tell you this was the best message I have ever got in my life. The girl was walking on me and jumping and all sorts of crazy things but I’ll tell you it was defiantly a deep tissue amazing message. My facial was AMAZING ..Foot Massage was OUT OF THIS WORLD!  Haha  needless to say  My walk to the market turned in to a girls day for me for a total of $40 dollars  because I tipped them. After I finished that I walked around a bit very proud of myself because usually I am a huge scardy cat about walking around alone but I have gained a lot of confidence on this voyage ( now I’m not stupid I wouldn’t walk around alone unless it was safe!)  I headed back to the ship to meet Kayla. We hung out on the boat and ate dinner and then decided to go to a trip with SAS for 8 dollars to a night club that had an open mic. It was pretty cool to hear the people sing they had such beautiful voices. Everyone ordered drinks and I saw on the menu  “Shirley Temple” I was game for that. I ordered it and enjoyed every second of it!  After we left the show we headed back to the ship for the night to head to bed. We had a long day of shopping ahead of us the next day!

            They next morning we slept in a bit because we were in no rush. They said its not good to go to the markets really early because they try to start their prices high so then the rest of the day their prices are high. We took the bus to the center and walked down the street to the market.  WHAT A PACKED PLACE! This market was crazy and had everything you could imagine  from food to suits to purses to lingerie they had just about everything. I had one goal that day and it was to get myself a Northface and Nike shox!  So we walked around the market bargaining our little hearts away getting some CRAZY deals on things.  We shopped all day long. We went in a bicycle rickshaw which was a lot of fun except they guy ripped us off.  Then we found this DVD place that had SEASONS OF EVERYTHING FOR SOOOO CHEAP!  I didn’t get many because I forgot what everyone liked ( sorry) and because I was spending money left and right ! Finally we found a store that had north faces and nike’s. Well needless to say we spend about 2 hours in that store trying to decide what we wanted. Finally we came to a conclusion but we knew we had to come back the next day!  After shopping all day we headed back to the ship because A professor had asked us to watch her kids for the night so they could go out and enjoy a dinner. Kayla and I defiantly didn’t mind watching 2 year old twins that are the CUTEST things in the world.  We headed to their room around six and the fun began. We taught  them how to paint and we had so much fun. After we painted we headed downstairs to clean them up and settle down and watch a movie. We watched Finding Nemo until they went to bed. After putting them to bed we hung out in Kate and Shawn’s room until they came back we watched Boston Med and hung out.  After they came back we headed to bed.

            The next morning we headed out to do some more shopping. Big surprise! Who needs the high class stores when you have Vietnam!  When we were heading to the store we ran into some of the dependent children and their parents on the ship. They were going to see a water puppet show and the kids asked us to come with them. We walked for what felt like forever to this water puppet show. The kids were so cute holding our hands and stuff but crossing these streets are super scary because you actually don’t wait you just walk and pray! It was crazy!   With kids on both sides it made the situation way more stressful because it’s not just you crossing that you have to worry about.  Crossing the street here is like playing frogger with 1 million cars, bikes, and motorcycles! It was fun but pretty dangerous.  The kids were so excited that we were with them.  We were with Rachael, Riley, Lyla, Ellis, and  Myles who are all soo cute!  Their moms Don and Lucile were amazing and paid for our museum and water puppet show for helping them out and getting the kids out of their hair for a bit. It was so sweet of them we thanked those about 50 times!  The water puppet show was pretty interesting and funny because you could see the metal poles through the water but the kids had a good time. After that we left the kids so we could go finish our shopping. We took a taxi that cost  us  crazy 1 dollar  which was pretty funny.  It started to rain while we were in the taxi  and by the time we got to the store it was DOWN Pouring   and when I said down pouring  I mean like monsoon we were SOAKED!  I was not a very happy camper since my shoes got soaked and everything was just soaked!  It was crazy but so funny.  We headed back to the bus and went back to the boat for the night because traveling around in the rain was useless and wet.

            The fourth day was an eventful one. We got up early and decided that we were going to pick Edward up at the airport instead of letting him find his own way to the boat! We were so excited to have him back!  We slept in and then went and went shopping again ( big surprise) after a while of showing it started raining harder than it did the day before which I didn’t think that was physically possible.  We got absolutely soaked.  We headed back to the boat to shower and stuff before we went to dinner. When we got back to the boat we were in our room and  over the loud speaker  the captain came one and said “ATTENTION CODE BLUE CODE BLUE CABIN 4120” His voice was extremely serious. A couple minutes later I found out code blue was a medical emergency.  I walked up to the  fourth floor to check out what was going on  and people were running around like crazy. The captain and staff captain were SPRINTING DOWN THE HALL!  We heard tons of rumors but we didn’t know what to believe. We went up to Deck 5 were we found everyone standing around in silence and some people crying. People said someone is about to die, Someone died , and a million other things.  Finally they told us they would let us know what had happened when they knew.  We went back to our room and a little while later found out that we had lost a shipmate. A student named Andre had passed away and a student had found him. That student happens to be a good friend of mine.  Not really knowing what to do because we couldn’t’ really do much We headed out for dinner to the Hard Rock Café.  Which ended up being kind of an expensive meal but it was worth it. After dinner we went to the airport to pick up Ed. When he arrived at the airport he was very happy to see us.  We headed back to the ship so he could re-embark on the ship. The taxi driver didn’t know where to go so good thing I did. I lead the taxi driver back to the ship like I lived in Vietnam or something. Good thing I have a good sense of direction.  When we arrived back at the boat it was like a Ghost down. Everyone was crying and trying to cope with this tragic situation. But the worst part was is some people didn’t know because they didn’t return until the following day.  We ended up staying in for the night and trying our best to comfort our peers.

            The next morning we had to be up early for our Chu Chi Tunnels trip. We took a 2 hour bus ride to the Tunnels. They showed us the little holes that the people fit in to get into the tunnels.  We got to jump down into the holes that were very tiny but I FIT!  They showed us the traps that they used to use against the Americans during the war. We watched a movie on their point of view on the “American War” aka the Vietnam War. It was really interesting to see how this whole system worked.  We saw an American Tanker and go to climb on it which was really cool.  After doing that we got to a shooting range. You could pay 14 dollars for 10 bullets and you would have the capability to shoot a gun. Ed and I decided to shoot an AK 47 which was actually the coolest thing ever. After we shot the guns we headed to the tunnels to crawl through. We headed down in the tunnels and I couldn’t believe that people lived in these tunnels. We were on our hands and knees crawling through. It was so cool but so dirty.  After crawling through the tunnels we headed back to the bus and headed to the ship. Ed hadn’t gone shopping yet so we took him shopping so he could get everything he needed. We went to a place for lunch  where not a soul spoke English. We ordered Spring Rolls and some soup. I liked the Spring Rolls till I saw the inside then just kind of lost my appetite.  We finished up shopping and guess what it started to do. YOUR RIGHT .. IT starting DOWN POORING again. Worse than the day before which was again crazy. I didn’t even bother trying to stay dry I just trudged through the rain and got absolutely soaked. We headed back to the boat for the BBQ that the ship was having for dinner and said good- bye to Vietnam. 

Vietnam was an awesome place that I would go back to in a second. I would love to go to Cambodia and a bunch of other places I didn’t get to go to and to SHOP MY LIFE AWAY because the shopping here is so cheap and amazing. DVD serious for 5 dollars  100 dollar sneakers for 30 dollars . Heavy winter North faces for 30 dollars. It was just crazy. The people were more than welcoming and friendly. I just loved them.  Cheap messages what more could you ask for.

The night that we all got back on the boat we had a meeting about the Tragedy that had occurred on board. They made it clear to us that Andre was gone and it was extremely unfortunate. They stated that we would have a service the following day at 2 pm.