vietnam- the first week

i would like to thank sally, minna, and sandi for such a great trip. honestly, there is no way the trip could have been any better in any way.

since i am covering such a large time frame this blog will consist of the bullet points from my journal. i uploaded my pictures to facebook with the thought that i could place a link to them on here, however ill have to email you the link directly if you are not on facebook. send me a message or comment on the blog with your email address and ill send you the links. thanks for checking in!

sunday february 1st
*woke up pretty early since i had to finish packing all my stuff to move out of lygon
*finished packing and moved all my extra stuff into hannah's room (thanks for keeping it safe while i was gone!)
*went to small block for breakfast. it was just as delish as usual
*pharmacy adventure, resulted in enough medical supplies for a small army
* sandi and i were on the same outgoing flight so al picked me up and gave me a ride to the airport
*the flight was pretty uneventful (which, in my opinion, is generally a good thing); however, i did meet a greek lady named joanna. she was sitting next to me, on her way to join an intrepid tour in saigon. she didn't have a place to stay so i told her to ride in our cab and we would be able to have my hotel help find her a place for the night
*we got off the plane to meet our driver, who was holding a sign reading 'sandi oexmann'.... apparently we got married
*there were motorbikes everywhere! it was amazing. some bikes had up to four people riding on them; most everyone wore helmets
*arrived at the blue river hotel and were given pineapple juice while thuy checked us into our room
*sally and minna had already arrived. they were in another room on the 3rd floor
*adventured out for some dinner. experienced our first of many meals consisting of tiger beers and noodle soups
*went back to the hotel and crashed

monday february 2nd
*woke up fairly early and had breakfast at the hotel
*while eating we took a gander at the lonely planet disease section. it was a bad idea, we got into a habit of self-diagnosing ourselves the rest of the trip
*wandered around ho chi minh for a few hours
*finally made our way to the war remnant's museum. it was pretty interesting to see the way the vietnamese viewed the vietnam war (or american war as they call it). most museums are pretty neutral and don't prescribe blame to specific groups, but it was quite obvious the vietnamese did/do not approve of the way the americans interfered
*the museum closed for a few hours during lunchtime so we went and found a street stall for lunch
*minna heard that if one drinks a coke after eating questionable food it would kill anything that would possibly make the person sick. needless to say a coke chaser, prompted by our disease paranoia, followed lunch
*we walked over to the reunification palace, which had been kept in the same condition since the north and south were reunified in the late 1970's
*booked a tour to the cu chi tunnels for $8
*walked around again
*saigon is a great city. there were so many people and motorbikes everywhere! could tell i was going to enjoy the trip

tuesday february 3rd
*woke up early to catch a tour bus at 8 am
*rode the bus for about two hours then stopped at a disabled handicraft factory. it was a sad place, most of the workers just seemed incredibly bored as they strategically placed crushed eggshells into decorative plates
*our tour guide was called slim jim and had a mild obsession with cockney slang. originally from the mekong delta, he worked as an english teacher for a few years before becoming a tour guide for TNK
*stopped into great holy see temple- the center of caodaism
*the temple was full of older people saying their daily 12 pm prayers
*i couldn't believe the colors of the walls, robes, wall decals, and dragon columns
*the women and men had separate entrances. it seemed that most of the participants weren't too keen to have the tourists view the ceremony
*drove the rest of the way to the cu chi tunnels
*saw the craters carved out by american bombs. the tunnels they built to hide themselves from the american bombers were tiny, the tunnel we walked through were expanded to twice the size of the original tunnels
*rode the bus two hours back to saigon

wednesday february 4th
*booked the afternoon train to head to nha trang. we decided to travel during the afternoon, even though it was a 7 hour ride, so that we could see the countryside in the daylight
*we arrived at the train station and were told to run to our carriage. once we got on the train sally had a hard time getting her backpack up on the ceiling racks. most of the carriage was staring at us, laughing at sandi and sally struggling with the bag. eventually a guy from the front helped the girls
*we had a moment of panic where we thought we were on the wrong train. sally showed the lady behind us our ticket and she said we were on the wrong train. we started rushing to get our bags when a train official came over and told us to sit down because we actually were on the correct train. the entire carriage thought this scene was hilarious
*it was amazing to watch the scenery pass by. there were all these tiny mountains that started popping out of no where
*read one flew over the cuckoo's nest and listened to my ipod
*while stopped at a station a lady in the row in front of minna and me started telling us how she lives in boston during the winter but was raised in vietnam
*we stopped in cam lam station and there was a huge commotion in the back of our carriage. we had no idea what was going on, but there was a lot of yelling and shoving. minna gets the giggles when she is in stressful situations. she was trying not to bust out in front of the rest of the train. turns out four guys tried to sneak onto the train through the bathroom window, the train official caught them so they shoved him to the floor and jumped back out the window
*arrived in nha trang and the entire cabin made sure we knew it was our stop
*caught a cab to the hotel we were hoping to stay in. someone on the sidewalk told the cabbie that the hotel was full, so he drove us to his friend's hotel... bad idea. it was a dodgy hotel with pillows that smelled like old people and were covered in hair
*went and got dinner at same same but different cafe

thursday february 5th
*realized nha trang wasn't the place for us
*adventured out and got breakfast at a small cafe
*found our way to a tour office and booked a night train for that night. took off for the beach
*we spent the rest of the day sitting on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and drinking betty boops
*indulged in massages on the beach
*headed back to the hotel to get our bags so we could catch the taxi to the train station
*sandi and minna went to get sandwiches for the ride, but were ripped off by the people at the street stall. the son was telling the girls to watch out for scammers, while at the same time the mother charged them double for their sandwiches
*we bought a bottle of dalat wine that, unfortunately, tasted like rotting eggs
* slept on and off that night. woke up around 12:45 and didn't sleep for most of the rest of the ride
*arrived in da nang at 6 am

friday february 6th
*caught a cab to hoi an with a belgian guy
*it was pretty foggy, but beautiful
*arrived at our hotel and rather than letting the cab driver tell us it was full we made sure to go in ourselves
*turns out it was actually full. the receptionist helped us try to find another hotel. after eating a full breakfast we walked down the street to the huy hoang I hotel
*we booked in for a few nights. minna and sally fell asleep after we checked in so sandi and i decided to go wandering. we were surprised by all the touters asking us to go into their shops to have clothes made. we visited a tailor, who also happened to be the sister of the receptionist
*we got coffee at a small cafe a few blocks from out hotel, then headed back to wake minna and sally
*minna's friends from sydney suggested a tailor, we went to price with her as well
*measured for clothes. ordered a coat, dress, shirt and cords
*walked 5 km to the beach. had dinner at a small table set up at the back of the beach. the ladies were cooking the meals right there on the sand. ate cao lau- the hoi an specialty
*caught a taxi back to the hotel and got cleaned up
*walked around the city some more. tried to find a vegetarian restaurant called green moss. turned out the green moss was at the other end of the street, so a nice guy from a street stall called the restaurant and walked us all the way down so we wouldn't get lost again

saturday february 7th
*sandi and i were kept up all night by rats running and squeaking between the walls. we were literally going crazy by the morning
*the other girls were up and ready to go before us. sandi and i were going to take a shower while they went to get coffees. i went in the bathroom to brush my teeth, there was rat poop ALL OVER my toothbrush. it was so disgusting
*we found the girls and let them know we were going to find another place for the next two nights. we decided to book into the hotel that was attached to the cafe sandi and i had coffee at the first day in hoi an
*moved hotel and headed down to old town. we saw lantern shops, the japanese bridge and toured an ancient vietnamese home
*sally was feeling ill so she went back to the hotel
*around 3 pm we went to pick up our tailored clothes. they were wonderful. i was really happy with what i had ordered... so i ordered another dress and skirt
*sandi bought a wonderful electric blue blazer, i can't wait for her to wear it out
*bought a few beers and went back to the hotel to write postcards
*sandi, minna and i wandered down the river walk to find cafe 96. it was one of the best restaurants in vietnam

sunday february 8th
*went to the tailor first thing in the morning, picked up our new clothes and headed back to the hotel
*wanted to rent bikes, but sally seemed to have forgotten how to ride... it was hilarious
*walked down the river and crossed the bridge to cam nam island. it was pretty empty on that side, mainly new buildings
*took sally to cafe 96 since she missed it the night before
*after lunch she was feeling sick again so we put her in a cab back to the hotel and went to find the hoi an museum
*went back to the hotel for a bit then went back down by the river to have dinner at cafe des amis. the place has no set menu, the meal consists of five courses of whatever mr kim wants to cook. there were vegetarian, meat and seafood options. this was probably the absolute best meal in vietnam. the restaurant was full of old french couples, amazing
*the full moon festival was going on (completely by chance). the walkway along the river was flooded, so people were walking through the water with their pants hiked up
*we bought lotus candle holders and released them down the river for luck
*next we decided to rent a boat to float down the river, this way we were able to see the giant water statues up close
*this was probably my favorite night of the entire trip. we were some of the only tourists, the place felt spiritual (not to sound hippy dippy)
*we stopped for a coffee on the way back to the hotel

ill try to get week two up later tonight.