Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Soooo I am back on the ship after 5 days in Vietnam. It’s pretty cool because now I can officially use the saying “Back in Nam…” I remember growing up Nick Parker used to love that saying. Well, if you ever get to read this I hope your just dieing of jealousy haha!

I slept on the ship the entire time and just did a lot of day trips. I was going to travel up the east coast for a couple days but I thought I had an FDP (mandatory field program for a class) in the middle of the week. Apparently I just made that up in my head because there was no such thing, how is your ADD Jaclyn?

Day 1

The first day Caitlin and I got off the ship to do a little shopping. I thought Thailand was hot, holy oven. If you told me I was sitting in an oven I honestly would have believed you. There’s really no point to makeup or showers.

We got dropped off at the Rex Hotel, which was really exciting for me because that’s the hotel Paul Brenner stays at in “Up Country,” love Nelson DeMille. I HAD to eat at the rooftop restaurant like he did in the book so I made reservations and then we hit the town.

We walked all up and down the streets and everything was pretty cheap. I got a couple of those hats that look like obtuse cones. That was a pretty serious description… there circle hats with a cone-like point, get it? I also got some gifts for my Mom, grandma and a couple others. There was an embroidery store; it was screaming, “buy your grandmother something here.”

My absolute favorite thing is eating outside, as long as its not windy otherwise I just end up eating my hair, so we stopped for a little roadside beer and relaxation. Asian people are inherently tiny people so going shopping in a clothing store is always fun. I asked the woman if she had a skirt in any size bigger than a 26 and she said that was the largest, awesome.

I really wanted to get a skirt made so we stopped at a bunch of tailors but most had really corny fabric. I was about to admit defeat when I walked into the last one; they had the most beautiful pattern. I picked it up and matched it with a dark green and designed a high-waist pencil skirt. They took my measurements, I thought they were going to have to take out 2 measuring tapes to get around my waist (because they are SO tiny) and then they told me to come back in a day for a fitting. A custom made skirt for $35, crazy! It was three women and one of them asked my age. After telling them I was 22 they said I was so young and that they were all around 28. They asked what I was doing there and when I explained the ship she asked, “You work on the ship?” and I said no I take class on it as a student. She then said, “You saved money from working to travel on it?” When I told her no, my dad paid for it, she giggled and her eyes went wide. I am guessing that doesn’t happen a lot there….

After a day of retail therapy we went back to the ship to change for dinner. We met up with about 10 other girls and went to the Rex Rooftop Restaurant. I opened the menu and almost died, salmon with mango sauce. If I were stranded on an island I would only ask that I get three meals of salmon with mango sauce, not too much to ask, right?

Dinner was really good and a little pricey but it was worth it, I planned on eating most of my meals on the ship to save money anyway. After dinner we went back to the ship again real quick to change for the night. Everyone was going to “Apocalypse Now,” this also got me really excited because Paul Brenner goes out their in the book also. One thing that I heard which made me a little mad was that if you were “white” you didn’t have to pay to go in, but if you were “local” you did, kind of messed up.

Caitlin and I took motorbike taxis to the bar and it was EVERY SAS kid ever. There were so many of us that the TV screen said, “Welcome to Apocalypse Now Semester at Sea!” They played really good music and I had so much fun. Our little taxi men were waiting for us when the night was over and we were craving some street food. They took us to a little vendor and we sat down for some delicious pho noodles. They were SO spicy and the next morning I woke up with swollen lips. If you know me well, you know my lips are very sensitive so it looked like I got botox lip injections. We ended up buying our drivers some noodles too and the man told me he was a catholic and gave me his rosary beads because he was so thankful. Back at the ship I gave him about $5 and he was giddy with excitement, great way to end the night.

Day 2

 I had a SAS day trip to the Mekong Delta today. I woke up, got my little Nam cone hat on and set out for the buses. It was about a 2-hour drive to the delta. On the way was stopped at a local market, oh my. There were pots everywhere filled with live fish swimming around and so many women sitting on the ground cutting the fish up, the smell was absolutely disgusting. I don’t know how they sat there all day, I practically ran through. Once we got to the delta we climbed onto a riverboat and drove out to an island.

At the first stop we tried some local fruit and tea then climbed onto smaller canal boats. We waded through the maze of canals, I felt like I was in Forrest Gump. It was really cool and seemed to be something really authentic to Vietnam. I got to see what the men and women who live on the island do on a daily basis.

The next stop was a local coconut candy factory; this is where it got weird. SAS always takes their trips one step too far. I wanted to see the delta and ride in the boats, that is all. We sat at this candy thing for a bit, then a random boy came out with a python around his neck and asked if someone wanted to hold it for a small price, what? No, get me home. After coconut candy and python boy we piled back in the little boats and finally got some lunch. It was at a really low-key family restaurant on the island. The food was decent; I was starving so it probably tasted better than it really was. That was the last stop on our Mekong journey, back to the bus than back to the ship.

I went out with my friend Shayna that night because we found a rotating sushi bar. YUUUMMMM It was so good; I really miss my sushi. Afterwards we went to a night market where I got some cheap t-shirts. We passed a really cool jazz club on the way back so we stopped in for a little bit.

I was so beat from being in the sun all day I passed out pretty early.

Day 3

Didn’t really have much planned for today. At around noon my friend Allison and I got on our motorbike taxis and went to the “War Remnants Museum.” In Vietnam they call the war “The American War,” and basically we went in there and messed them up pretty bad. The museum was filled with American artifacts and was a visual tour of the war from start to finish. I wasn’t really fazed by what I saw because war is war. I know we are still a little confused as to why we went over there in the first place but there isn’t much you can do now.

That was until I got to the chemical warfare section. The pictures were so graphic and it was unlike anything I could have imagined. Agent Orange was sprayed all over Vietnam and it caused birth defects, and is still causing them. They had fetuses preserved in tanks that showed deformations, it was gruesome.

After the museum we went to a local café to grab a nice iced coffee. All I could think about was that I was sitting there with not a care in the world and no real place to go. Everyone had business suits on and was on their lunch break, when we were just sitting there wasting time. My life is pretty sweet.

After a day of nothingness, we went back to the MVeX to get ready for the night. I went to dinner in the dining hall and then went to m room to put myself together.

We went to this place was on the second floor of a building with a pretty good view of the city. There were a lot of us and the staff was really overwhelmed. After that we all went to “Apocalypse Now” again. It was full of SASers again, and I may or may not have had a dance floor battle.

Oh! I got my skirt that was made and was wearing it that night, I was asked 1,000 times where I got it from and I got to say “I designed it and got it made,” how cool am I?

So, this is where my night goes down hill.

After a long night Allison and I got on motorbike taxis. We were on our way back to the MVeX and all of the sudden another motorbike pulls up next to me and he reaches over and grabs my bag out of my hand. I started screaming at them and told my guy to speed up. He was going so slow, I didn’t realize until later when I could collect my thoughts that my driver was totally a part of the whole scheme. I was getting so pissed that my driver wouldn’t go fast so I reached forward and squeezed the throttle. He was not having that so he pushed me back and I starting screaming “SPEED UP NOW!!!” I might have hit his back a few times but whatever he deserved every punch. I then screamed at him to take me back to the ship immediately. In my bag was my camera, blackberry, credit card, MVeX card and my shore pass. You need the shore pass to get into the port but I was not about to stop, I was on a rampage.

The customs man came out to check and I didn’t even glance his way, I just walked right through and onto the ship. The first person I called was my Dad, then Mom then Berto. I was a hot mess. It is the worst feeling ever to be stolen from and it was not settling well in my stomach. Thank god Allison let me use her phone, I think I might have thanked her a million times.

I got myself together and went to sleep. I had to put things in perspective, I have basically been around the world now and have seen the worst conditions, I realize that me not having a blackberry for a month is not life or death, but its still brutal. My mommy overnighted me a new one and I’ll have it in a week, how’s that for perspective? No but really, I just find comfort in being able to call my family if something happens, I am on the other side of the world!

Day 4

I woke up today feeling pretty down, my chest was also peeling from sunburn so I thought the best thing to raise my spirits was to lie out on the top deck. I grabbed my book, The General’s Daughter and got some rays. I also could’t leave the ship until they got me a new customs shore pass so it wasn’t like I had any other choice. It was good downtime, I just wanted to lay by myself and sit in silence, I was subconsciously having a moment of silence for Sherry the Blackberry. Also, the bag that I had was my awesome blue clutch from my cousin Jennifer, I mean really dude; can I at least get the bag back? You know you don’t want that!

Tonight was the last night to go out. There was a cute outdoor restaurant right in port so a couple of use went their for some cocktails then we went out and essentially did the same things we did every other night. The only difference was tonight we through a little karaoke into the mix.

Asia LOVES karaoke, there are so many karaoke bars its insane. What they do is give each party a private room and for one hour you pay $7. I killed it with Mambo #5 and Spice Up Your Life. It was so funny; we need to get those in the U.S. We invited the cab drivers into the room but they didn’t want to sing! I bought my guy a little container of Pringles and he was ecstatic, I get the same feeling about sour cream and onion, don’t worry buddy.

Day 5

Today was the last day in Vietnam. A couple of us head an hour north to the Cu Chi tunnels. I burned a CD for the ride and it CLEARLY had at least on Britney Spears song on it.

The first thing you do at the tunnels is watch this Vietnamese propaganda video from the war. It was absolutely ridiculous. I know we were probably wrong for doing the things we did but this video made us laugh. I have never seen such a biased video in my life. There was a Canadian and Australian in our group and even they were like woah, that was a bit much.

Next we got to see some of the hidden tunnels. The entrance was literally about 1x.5 feet, if that even make sense, it was really small. I got to climb into it and close it off and you would have never known I was there. The tunnels were for the Vietcong to fight against the Americas, they stayed down there for days at a time with parasites and poisonous bugs. They said about 90% of the Vietcong had intestinal parasites. They had a lot of U.S. tanks that had been left and we took a couple pictures on one.

Next the guide showed us the bamboo spear traps that the Vietcong made to kill Americans. It reminded me of booby traps from Indian Jones. There were all different kinds of terrible contraptions and when he was showing us I said, “Oh my god that is terrible.” He looked at me square in the eyes and said, “not as bad as your bombs.” Woah there buddy, maybe you’re enjoying this a bit too much.

They brought us to a few more tunnels. We went into one that was about 40 meters long and we had to crawl through it. They installed lights into them and I could honestly not imagine being in there for more then the time it took to crawl directly through. It really was mind-blowing thinking that people lived in these for years. Makes my blackberry seem even less important.

At the end of the tour they take you to a shooting range where you can shoot an AK47, never. I absolutely hate guns and even the sound of them makes my heart speed up. The people I was with fired the guns and I sat in a chair near by having mini panic attacks. The noise was so loud I jumped every time.



Back at the MVeX they were having a BBQ for us starting at 6pm, I was there at 5:59pm with a plate in hand. I absolutely love their veggie burgers and when they are free its like Christmas.

Vietnam was awesome; I really liked everything about it. I didn’t go too far outside of Ho Chi Minh City and although I know the countryside is still very under developed, the city itself was more modern than I would have ever thought. I could see myself going back to Thailand and Vietnam, south east Asia is definitely a place I could see again.

Next stop China, good thing because I need a new camera and this is the camera capital of the world. I cannot believe I am already at China and it’s basically April, these were the fasted 2 ½ months ever.

Really excited for Hong Kong. The Rugby Sevens are going to be there when we get there and I hear that’s wild!

Glad I survived Vietnam, and Dad I know your probably crying on the inside from the stolen bag story. If I could do it again I probably would not abuse the driver, but I was enraged.

Only 4 more ports to go…

Talk to you all soon
Jac