History meets Dehydration

Our day started out with an early but short flight from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to our next location, Da Nang.

This kid cracked me up "Dad Pose" at the airport 

 After an hour long flight, we landed in Da Nang. This coastal city was a popular R&R location for soldiers and other military members during the war. The Americans nicknamed the beach “China Beach” and was also used as the basis for the tv show China Beach in the 1980s which focused on the experience of female nurses in the Vietnam War.

The first stop we made was to the Cham Museum which was full of statues from the ancient times of Vietnamese History. They were displayed much like museums in the states display these kinds of artifacts. I would qualify it as an art show, the various statues and relief pieces were installed on columns or the walls depending on the pieces. They were given a very basic label which just said what the piece was in both Vietnamese and English. While one could learn a lot by reading some of the introductory labels and other panels strategically placed around the museum, there were also handouts about the pieces which a visitor could utilize for greater interpretation of the pieces if they desired.

Melissa and I, it was so bright outside you can barely see the top of what we think is a monastery from the second floor of the museum. 

 After spending some time in the museum we headed to Hoi An for lunch, which included a pit stop at the beach and since we were in the Marble Mountain area we also stopped at a marble shop. On the way to the shop we learned that the marble industry is literally ruining the landscape of Vietnam. It is a very popular commodity and in the past 3 years 2 entire mountains have been destroyed.

Da Nang Beach, part of "China Beach" 

Best beach view ever! 

The gorgeous mountains with a partial shot of a marble lion statue 

 Hoi An is known as the cultural heritage town in Vietnam. The government has passed laws and statues to enforce historic preservation of the city, which caters specifically to tourists. After consuming a delicious multi-course lunch (as most of our meals are here) we headed on a 1 ½ hour walk about the city. It was blistering hot and I was not feeling well, but trekked through. We learned that Hoi An was a major port city in Vietnam, and that was apparent through the collision of cultures between Chinese and Japanese. This is very evident through the architectural styles and the town was lovely to stroll through. I just kept focusing on how pretty it was.

This is the Japanese covered bridge it separates the Japanese and Chinese sections of town

Entrance to the Japanese Bridge

 Probably the weirdest part of our day was at the so called "Oldest House in Hoi An." We thought it was going to be your basic tour, and then it turned into a QVC special. We moved from our starting point to a back room where you could purchase embroidered table cloths and napkins. Upstairs our tour continued and so did the selling pitch. We were invited to "tea" where a woman proceeded to try and sell us coasters, other odds and ends, and the best was the opium pipe. We all were a bit uncomfortable, and I gave a small donation so that I didn't seem like a total jerk. It was hilarious.

Interior of the oldest house in Hoi An 

A fisherman, when the tide comes up he lowers a giant net into the water and then back up in the hopes of catching some fish, it was fascinating to watch.

We then checked into our hotel which ended up being a lovely resort. What a surprise! Melissa and I could barely contain ourselves. After an exhausting and very hot day we were in a beautiful relaxing resort with a spa! We had free time so we decided to go get manicures. After a nap we headed into town for dinner which was entirely to delicious. I had lost a lot of electrolytes that day so I drank an entire coconut which fun fact has loads of natural electrolytes. A cautionary tale for anyone traveling to Vietnam during the summer months it is brutally hot and humid thus very very easy to become dehydrated so water is key to survival.

Manicure View 

The Coconut! Yay for electrolytes

Cruisin the Delta

This trip has been exhausting so clearly I got super behind on the blog updates, but I shall begin them again. We woke up early and began a long bus ride outside of Ho Chi Minh City into the Mekong Delta.

View at the beginning of our journey 

We floated through the river and saw a floating market. It's a wholesale market primarily of produce, the merchants buy the food from the farmer and then float up the river to sell to merchants on land. The sellers put what they are selling up on the top of a bamboo pole so customers know who they can go to. 

Floating Market 

 We then got off the boat and ventured into a little town. We stopped by a gorgeous Catholic Church built by the French in the early 1900s, visited a rice paper factory, coconut candy factory, and popped rice and noodle facility. We then had the opportunity to try some of these snacks and I of course bought some coconut candy how could I resist. While we were there we also caught a glimpse of a local specialty snake wine. It was some scary looking stuff. We didn't get to try it because our guide basically said no, but we did try banana wine, not great but not terrible. One of the best parts of this venture was when our guide, Phuong pulls out a python kept as a pet and begins to play with it. Our professor took the snake and pulled out a little Southern Religion move pretending to snake handle. Those of us who have taken that class all died. It was hilarious.

Coconut candy production 

mushroom wine, snake wine, banana wine

Phuong and the snake 

Dr. B and the snake

After that venture we climbed back into our boat and once again floated down the river. Next thing we know Phoung announces it is time to row. We all didn't believe him, and even Dr. B said thought Phoung was joking once we saw the row boats pull up beside our boat we knew he was serious. I got in a boat with Melissa E. and Andrew K. and thus began one of the best journeys of the trip. We paddled down a canal and got to see how people in the Delta lived on the canal. In addition we just got to be in the quiet of Vietnam and just take it all in. In addition we got to wear some pretty cool hats. 

After our venture we got back on our big boat and headed to lunch. We went to this little place called a homestay and ate really awesome food. After our meal we got to hear some local performers sing and play traditional Vietnamese songs. A welcome song, two love songs, and then a goodbye song.

Delicious Fried Fish that became part of Spring Rolls at lunch 

After lunch we returned once again to our boat where there was a whole coconut waiting for us. Coconut water straight from the source and man that stuff is so good.

Coconut water from the source

After we got back to Ho Chi Minh some people wanted to go to the market. That is not our thing we were on the hunt for some traditional Vietnamese Coffee. I don't know if we ever be able to return to the way I drink coffee in America. They drink super strong coffee with some sweetened condensed milk, mix it, and then pour over ice. So good.

Vietnamese Coffee!! Hybrid between french press and  pour over. 

Iced Coffee

We finished our night with a motorbike tour around Ho Chi Minh City. Motorbikes are the way to get around the city. In a city of about 10 million people there are 6 million motorbikes. They are the only way to get around the city. 

On the Vespa 

Me and Phoung my motorbike driver 

Tunnels, Palaces, and Museums...Oh My!!

Today has been an amazing first full day in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).
Melissa and I started out by heading to the one and only Starbucks at 6:15am. We had to wait outside for about 15 mins for them to open, but spent our time taking pictures. I was able to try the Indulgence Asian Dolce Latte, and it was so delicious. I also got a BBQ Pork Wrap which was one of the most delicious food items I've ever gotten from Starbucks. I also fulfilled my mission of getting a Vietnam Mug and we admired the inside of the store before heading back to our hotel to meet up with our group who was at breakfast.

We then began our 1 1/2 hour journey through Ho Chi Minh, a Rubber Plantation, and the countryside to the Cu Chi Tunnels. They have turned the infamous system heavily utilized throughout the French and American Wars into a tourist site. We got to crawl all around the tunnels which had been widened for tourists.

The view coming out of a tunnel 

Dylan descending into one of the tunnels. 

Photo-op with the mannequin

Cassava with a salt, sugar, and peanut blend

Northern Vietnamese performing surgery in a tunnel.

From there we headed to a firing range that was part of the tunnels. I got to shoot 5 rounds in an M-16 rifle. 

Cody (who is blind) giving me aiming tips, hilarious and helpful

We headed back into town for lunch which had oh so many courses that were incredibly delicious.
For the afternoon portion of our day, we headed to the Reunification Palace (Independence Palace) where our guide Phoung took us around and showed us the highlights.

Reunification Palace

 After the palace, we headed to the War Remnants Museum. This museum is clearly telling the story of the French and American War through a communist lens by using photographs and some artifacts. They strange part about most of these cultural locations is that they are very open air. Which as a museum professional kind of freaked me out, but the galleries were climate controlled to some degree. The objects are also essentially used to the crazy humidity here. The three levels contained different exhibitions that were topical to the war. I chose to go to the Effect of Agent Orange gallery which looked at how the ten year period from 1961-1971 that the United States dropped NaPalm on Vietnam has had a lasting and horrific affect on the Vietnamese people. It was incredibly sad. We then journeyed to the Historical Truths gallery which definitely used sensationalized language to tell about the events that led up to the United States entering Vietnam for war. The final exhibition that I liked was about the various protests that happened around the world against U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Not only did anti-war protests happen at home but in just about every major city and country you could name. That was eye opening to me, to see how many people around the world were rooting for Vietnam to just be left alone and free.

War Remnants Museum 

 We left the museum and headed back to the hotel to freshen up before a delicious dinner. After consuming a lot of food, several of us decided to head out and explore a night market, Saigon Square, and other aspects of night life here in Ho Chi Minh. We ended up at a lovely establishment entitled the Drunken Duck which we all thought was hilariously named. After consuming a drink we split off with part of the group going back to the hotel and four of us decided to go look at a couple really cool architectural buildings. I was able to get a really nice Filipino man to take a group shot of us and then we headed back to the hotel.

It has been a crazy full day and I cannot wait to see what kind of shenanigans happen tomorrow. Vietnam is pretty awesome.

Epic Flight!

Well we have completed our epic 24+ hour journey half way around the world in order to arrive in this beautiful, muggy, rainy, hot country.

We started out by leaving Flagler College at 3am. About 15 minutes after we left, our professor received a phone call from another bus driver wondering where we were. Apparently our group had accidentally been double booked with bus companies. The hilarity continued as we realized that we not only had one coach size bus for 10 people, but two. Crazy things happen.

The craziness continued on our flight from Orlando to Los Angeles. We had a winning moment when a group of us realized we were sitting in the two emergency rows in the middle of the plain. Hello glorious leg room! About 10 minutes into the flight at the tail end of take off an older woman behind me threw up and then appeared to be having a stroke. They called for any doctors or nurses on the plain, and about half the plain seemed to be so including an ER nurse, anesthesiologist, and some other kind of doctor. Well the woman wasn’t having a stroke, but through out the flight continued to receive medical attention, and about 2/3rds of the way through they gave her an IV. That has never happened on a flight before!

Melissa E. and I on the Plane 

We landed at LAX, paramedics took the older woman off the plane and we proceeded to our next gate, we had 20 minutes before the plane began to board for Tokyo. This was our longest flight about 16 hours. I watched parts of 3 movies, Gangster Squad, Guilt Trip, and Quartet. I also attempted to sleep and took SleepWorks by Advocare, it definitely knocked me out, but because it was a plane I wasn’t able to sleep in a super long stretch of time.  I ended up missing a snack and a meal, but they give you a lot of food that is not particularly great so no harm done. I sat in front of my friend Melissa E. and had a window seat. We tried to sit together, but the women on the aisle seats of our row didn’t seem to keen on the idea, so we dropped it.

View from the plane in Tokyo going to Vietnam 

We arrived in Tokyo, went through security again, and connected to our next flight to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. From here we switched from flying American Airlines, to one of their affiliates, Japan Airlines. Flying international airlines is awesome, because the food is so much better. For our dinner we had the choice between Chicken and Fried Rice or Pickled Plum and Seaweed flavored rice with grilled Spanish Mackerel. I got the latter dish and it was surprisingly delicious. The dinner also came with two side type boxes of food. One contained a potato salad type concoction with salami, shrimp, and another fish piece that may have been squid. The second component was noodles, tofu, spinach, and perhaps crispy tofu. The dinner ended with Haagan Daz ice cream and coffee or tea. Yum. Also they were the first airline to provide us with actual metal utensils and even a hard plastic cup for tea as opposed to the paper or foam cups of other airlines.

Japanese Airlines Food 

While we left at 9am from Orlando on May 21^st, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh on May 22^nd at 10pm. With the time changes and the amount of time it took to travel, we have essentially lost an entire day, and my brain is very confused. Tomorrow our journey of Ho Chi Minh begins.

First Post!!

I took this post off of my xanga site but I thought that this should be my starting post for my new blog...
I no longer am a high schooler but a high school graduate and a college student. It's crazy!! It was so exciting tonight and I really had a lot of fun. My aunt and cousin came in from out of town and both my sets of grandparents came as well as my dad's brother and his wife it was a lot of fun. I heard that two people got arrested which is pretty funny. Sad but funny since i do go to a christian school. Anyway so It was good I didn't fall. We had a great speaker who was totally entertaining. Loved it. YAY!!!

PS Here is a picture of me at my graduation!!