Back to Vietnam. I only had one full day and a night to spend in Vietnam so this shouldn’t be too long.
The first day I was back in Vietnam I just hung around on the ship cause all my friends were on an fdp and the ones who weren’t woke up way earlier than me..and trust me I needed the sleep after Cambodia.
But that night I went out with a bunch of friends. We got a free shuttle that took us into town from the ship. It dropped us off at a super nice hotel called the Rex and we had a few drinks and dinner there-it was awesome. After that we hung around there for a while and eventually headed to a bar/club but we were the only white people in sight and the people there were kind of sketch so we went to another club/bar and hung out there the rest of the night.
I had an early wakeup call at around 7:30 because my friend Steph and I were headed to a bus station to meet with her parents nail person’s cousin (confusing). She’s from Vietnam and she wanted to show us around. So, she decided to take us to the CuChi tunnels. We had to take about a 2 hour bus ride there and coincidently there was an SAS professor and his son on the bus and our tour too.
Once we got there it was absolutely amazing-well I think that would be the word to describe it. If you don’t know, the CuChi tunnels are underground tunnels that the Vietnamese used during the Vietnam War to hide out from the American’s. They would also build traps, kind of like you would for an animal, that would trick and kill the American soldiers.
I got the same reaction from other SAS kids who were at the CuChi tunnels as I felt too. I felt as if our guide was almost making jokes and laughing as he was showing how the traps worked and kind of didn’t take the whole thing seriously. It doesn’t affect them as much as it affects Americans though. I think it’s about 70% of their people are under 25 years old. So they don’t really understand. Whereas for Americans its more prevalent because like my mom said she had friends who fought in the Vietnam war. Even though the use of the traps and tunnels is obviously not something I exactly agree with, they were doing what anyone would try to do it a, what was thought of as, unnecessary war-protect themselves.
That said, the sole use of the tunnels was actually VERY ingenious. The way everything was laid out was so sneaky and all the tunnels were so small that only the Vietnamese would fit inside. And trust me I saw the tunnels and no fat American could fit in those tunnels. Though they have some tunnels they widened for tourists that we all got to climb through. Ours was probably a 30 foot tunnel and being in there for about 5 minutes I was sweating more than ever. I can’t even imagine how they pretty much lived in those tunnels.
They also had an area where you could shoot guns off. All the SAS kids (mostly guys) thought shooting an AK47 was like the coolest thing ever. But to me it was sort of ironic. That was the gun in that same area of woods that killed our own people. So why would you want to pay these people to shoot that gun? I don’t know..wasn’t something I was about to do. Plus I hate guns anyway.
After the CuChi tunnels we headed back to Saigon. We had Steph’s friend take us on her motor bike one by one to a place to eat. In Vietnam the dish Pho is like a Cheeseburger and fries to an American. So we got to the restaurant and got some pho. Pho is basically noodles in a broth and meat of fish in it too. And you can also add in veggies of all sorts in which they bring out on a separate plate. We also had spring rolls and dipped it in the ever famous fish sauce. I wasn’t a fan cause it’s so strong but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever had.
After that she took us to a busy market where you could seriously buy anything. And yes mom, I got you a present that I think youll really like and I fully bargained for it while the lady was fanning me because I was sweating so much. (after India I can actually say I’m used to the humidity and I don’t mind it) ((so ha see I can live in the south and I fully would not mind the heat-the bugs are a different story though))
So we shopped a bunch and said bye to our new friend. We then continued to shop more and once we were done we headed back to the ship in order to make on ship time. And before we knew it we were leaving Vietnam for India.
As for right this second were sailing from India to Mauritius. Ill write my India blog later. Its gona be a long one and I don’t have time at the moment.
xx
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