Good Morning Vietnam

We first arrived at the port of Ho Chi Minh City via the Saigon River, which very much resembled the river in the movie Apocalypse Now. We cruised through muddy water, surrounded on either side by jungle.  When we first got off the ship, I decided to go with my friends Donald, Gabi, Alex, and one other girl.  We traveled around Ho Chi Minh city, seeing the sites.  I love traveling with Gabi from Spain, she’s absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun.  We talk in Spanish and joke that someday we’re getting married.  We saw the War Remnants Museum, talking about the Vietnam War.  It was covered in old military vehicles outside and powerful images and exhibits of the effects of Agent Orange, a toxic dioxin chemical, on the inside.  Also at the museum, a younger man with stubs for arms tried to sell me Vietnam guidebooks and had me shake his arm.  I felt awful for him and offered him 5,000 dong later but he wouldn’t accept.  He only replied, “No, I only sell books.” We took motorcycle taxis around everywhere.  For $1, drivers would take us anywhere in the city.  Traffic is chaotic, really like schools of fish navigating around each other in a sea of pavement.  For $.70 we were able to release a bird from a cage.  We saw a huge collection of live turtles at the only Chinese pagoda in Ho Chi Minh.  It made me think of my old pet Everest because all of the turtles were red-eared sliders. That night, we went to a bar called Apocalypse Now.
        The next morning, I ran into my friend Haley and we ended up going to Vung Tau beach with Ashley, Anella, Erica, and Mariel.  We took a Rex Hotel shuttle for $22 per person to the beach around 3 hours south of the city.  We then tried to find a hotel.  Unbeknownst to us, it was a holiday and nearly every hotel was full.  We were left with the option to either pay around $35 per person to stay at the high-end Imperial, or $15 per person at the Chinese hotel.  We chose the latter and got what we paid for.  The hotel was not the cleanest or in best shape (mismatched comforters), but it did the trick for one night.  We went out to dinner at the Imperial restaurant across the street from the Imperial Hotel, probably the most high-end hotel in the area.  I can only assume that the wait staff thought we were staying at the Imperial, and gave us complimentary glasses of wine.  Or that could have been because Ashley in our group ordered lobster for around 250,000 Dong, around $12 US.  The waiter came out to show us the live lobster before cooking it.  No one else was at the restaurant and we got seats right by the beach.  I ordered spring rolls, then a large bowl of white rice for $1.  I’m cheap.  During the meal, I asked for chopsticks.  The waitress brought me ketchup.  I utilized my charades skills and made a chopstick motion with my knife and fork.  She laughed and understood.  We had a very difficult time paying for the bill.  We tried to ask for separate checks but none of the wait staff understood.  It took us about 45 minutes to finally decide to put the bill on Ashley’s credit card while we paid her cash dong.  There was definitely some tension in the group throughout the two days regarding decisions about transportation, which hotel to stay in, and being on other people’s schedules. Though we almost all ended up going straight to sleep that night, I half-joking suggested getting a drink at the beach bar.  Anella said she’d go with me, so we started walking there while the rest of the group went back to the hotel.  Anella and I laughed about the fact that we were the stitching holding the group together with our positive attitudes.  In front the high-end Imperial Hotel, we noticed some locals taking pictures in front the sculptured fountain outside.  We walked by, and then asked them to take our picture.  They joined in on our pictures and eventually we had one of the local girls taking pictures of us with all of our cameras.  We eventually asked them to come to the bars with us after doing drinking gestures to help them understand.  They told us we could take their tandem bike, so Anella and I got onto it and led them to the bar.  It was a little shaky riding the thing, but we got the hang of it.  At the bar, we ordered two beers and our new friends ordered drinks.  Anella was able to talk to the girl who spoke some English, but me talking to the guys in the group was limited to sharing pictures and saying cheers in Vietnamese (‘Yo’).  Eventually our friends left, Anella and I ordered a couple more beers, and the bartender came to give us the bill.  It was for 390,000 VND (Vietnamese Dong), which comes out to about $20 US.  Anella and my beers combined should have been less than $5, but the bartender explained that we had to pay for the other people that just left.  I immediately refused to pay; we had never agreed to pay for their drinks.  We argued back and forth with the bartender, with her saying that they were our friends and we saying back that we had only just met them.  An Australian man to the left of us intervened and explained to us that in Vietnamese custom, if you bring someone to a bar or restaurant, you pay the bill.  We told the bartender we were sorry, but that we were not familiar with this custom and would only pay for the beers we had ordered.  She told us that was fine.  Before we left the bar, I was feeling pretty bad about the situation and offered to pay for all of the drinks, but the bartender wouldn’t take it.  I guess that’s one way to learn about the culture and customs of a country.
        The next morning, we all got up and after waiting for a long time for Mariel, who lost her ATM card, and the other group of girls, who just took a while to get ready, we made it to the beach.  We were definitely out of place.  It was a crowded Sunday and the locals looked at us like we had just beamed down from Mars.  We sat our stuff down after being told that we needed to pay for a cabana if we wanted to use one.  We sunscreened up, and eventually went in the water.  Beforehand, Anella and I went to the market across the street to pick up some Tiger Beer, a Capri Sonne, and a few other drinks.  I decided to buy a ball to kick around on the beach.  It was $1.  Me and Anella started playing at first, then we got three little girls to play with us.  They were really enjoying it.  Before we left, I gave the ball to the girls.  We also met two Japanese guys on the beach that happened to be vacationing.  Throughout the entire trip there was some tension between the group members.  Me, Haley, Mariel, and Erica took a taxi to get back to Ho Chi Minh. Haley and I were sitting uncomfortably in the back, hot from the poor air-conditioning, and exhausted from the beach.  As we sat there trying to be comfortable, Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ came on the radio, in Vietnamese.  We both started dying of laughter.  That night we went back to Apocalypse Now.  We took motorbike taxis to the bar.  I met a Vietnamese girl named Tam and danced with her. At the end of the night, I gave her my email address, and she promised to write.  I figured I would never see her again.
        The next day, I started the day with Peyton, Danny, Olivia, and others.  We first stopped to buy some cheap DVDs.  Then we made our way to the Ben Tham market to get measured for suits.  I ordered a black suit for myself and a dark gray for John.  Together they were $170.  Then Danny and I split off the walk around the city.  I bought a bag of leechy fruits: red, spiky balls with sweet white fruit in the middle.  We got a one-hour massage for $8.  It was amazing. We were eventually talked into taking a one-hour tour on motorbike taxis for $5 a person.  He took us all around the city and we got to sit on a tank, in gunner seats, and in a truck that had a bullet hole in the front window where an American had been shot.  That night, all of us started the evening walking around the town, eventually making our way to the Wild Buffalo club.  It was a fun dance club; we partied for a while there then headed to Apocalypse Now.  After the bar closed at 2:30, we headed to another bar called the GO2 club.  We walked in and I saw Tam, the Vietnamese girl from the previous night. I danced with Tam until around 4 AM then decided it was time to go.  We said our goodbyes and she promised to come visit me one day.  I guess you could say I have a girlfriend in Vietnam.
        The next day, me, Danny, Peyton, Olivia, and Brooke took a taxi to the Cu Chi tunnels.  The guide first asked if we wanted to see a very one-sided 15 minute video about the war.  He explained the purpose of the tunnels afterward and then led us down a path through the dry jungle.  The entrance to the tunnels was unnoticeable from the surface; it’s just a wooden square cover with leaves on top.  I could see how Americans would never notice it during the war.  We all went down.  I was the only one with a flashlight, and fortunate enough to see a scorpion and bat on the inside of the tunnels.  At one point, we crawled for a grueling 30 meters from one chamber to another and were dripping sweat when we got out.  After going through the tunnels, I got to shoot an M16 for five shots.  I hit the deer target.  That night I picked up my suits and got back on the ship.