Vietnam!!!!!!!!!

Hello all!!! Well it is now the beginning of our fourth day in Vietnam. Vietnam may have one of the hardest cultures to pin point on opinions. I am having a good time so far, but I have to say it will not make one of my favorites list (with that said to each its own) and I still have two days for it to change my mind. Currently about half of the ship has left for Cambodia trips to Angora Wat as well as the official semester at sea parents trip is going on so there are tons of parents with them and coming on and off of the ship which is kind of strange. Well I will try to account day by day what has been occurred thus far.


November 5th, 2005
Today we had our brunch bar b que out on deck since we had to make our way through the river during the day. It was kind of cool getting to see all of the different villages and the food was excellent. The first thing that strikes you compared to any other port that we have visited is the overwhelming humidity.
We finally arrived in Ho Chi Min City around 12:30 or so but because the parents were here they wanted everyone to be on there best behavior and wanted everyone to clear out of the lobby for when the parents came on board. They continued to have the parents and other official SAS field trips to go off the ship one by one with a big delay inbetween each so that it took a good hour or so longer than usual for everyone to get off the ship. Because usually they just announce that the ship is cleared and that we can scan our cards and get off the ship.
The ship is docked basically downtown Ho Chi Min City (which is called Saigon unless you are outside of Saigon and then it is called Ho Chi Min City I know it is really confusing but that is just what they do). But anyways they have a bus service that drops us off right in the middle of Ho Chi Min City in front of the Hyatt hotel. Where there are tons of motorcycle taxis and regulars biycycle taxis and cars too to take you wherever you want to go. The first day we decided that we wanted to get a hotel room so that we didn’t have to deal with the whole going back and getting on and off the ship plus the rooms were supposed to be really cheap. So we did we found this nice little mini hotel in the middle of this street (I forget the name) that is the backpackers area. Which has tons of packpackers in it mostly European. The AC room was 8US a night was clean and had a community bathroom down the hall.
We spent the rest of this day exploring the area around us and talking to the different vendors about prices for suits. Which was funny because most of them wanted like 100 to 150 US for one. Which I know before I left the research that I did said that I could get some for like 50 US or less. Anyways with no luck until like 9pm we finally found a store that would do it for us.
That night we ended up at this itialian food restaurant on one of the side streets where we had just planned on stopping and having a few drinks but ended up staying there for several hours. They had really good garlic bread and well also ordered a half pepperoni and half cheese pizza ( I know I know what your thinking Italian food for my first meal in Vietnam) but I am soo sick of noodles and rice I need some of Mom home cooked meals like mashed potatoes and steak)!!!!!!!!!!! We ended up going back to the hotel changing and then making our way to this night club that was another one of those half inside half outside night clubs/bars. It was packed I think half of semester at sea was there. It was kind of funny because SAS took over the dance floor and the bar area and then the tables that surrounded had locals just sitting there with glazed eyes not truly understanding what was going on to have soo many young Americans at this local disco on a Saturday night.
Then it hit about the time I finish half my first drink, my stomach feels like it about to explode. So I tell AJ and friends that I am not feeling well and that I am going to make it back to the hotel. I end up spending the rest of the night from 11:30 pm until 5am every thrity minutes walking to the bathroom to throw up. It was bad because everytime I tried to drink water it would make me throw up even more. I didn’t sleep that night.

November 6th, 2005
I made my way back to the ship early this morning to make the in port ship doctor visit time of 7-7:30am something that I have never understood why they insist on having it so early. Anyways the nice nurse lady sees me and gives me some medicine to settle my stomach. I end up going back to my cabin and sleeping until AJ comes and wakes me up for lunch, then sleeping some more until he wakes me for dinner. Then I stay up and watch half of a movie and the sleep the rest of the night.

November 7th, 2005
I end up waking up and having a decent sized breakfast still amazingly enough feeling a little tired but ok in general. We decide that we are going to take our overnight bags and make our way to the Mekong Delta to a town in particular called My Thou. It is about two hours away by car. Originally we decide that we were going to spend the night here but we only have a copy of our passport and they insist because of the police checks they need the actual passports plus apeantly we find out there is absolutely no nightlife that it would be a good decision to go back to Ho Chi Min City for the evening. Eventually there is a guide that finds us and talks us in to taking his boat and guide to explore the delta for the day. So he leads us to the waiting spot for the ferry that goes to one of the small islands across the way where his boats are tied up. Where we inevitably run into more SAS friends. Once over on the other island we get to walk through another little market where we get to smell the decaying fish smells and the other meats that are amazingly just sitting out in the sun, with no ice or anything at all to cool them. This is not just a Vietnam thing this has been very common in a lot of the countries that we have visited.
He takes us on his boat and we make our way through the muddy muddy waters of the Mekong Delta. It reminds me a lot of what I would picture the heart of the Amazon to look like. When eventually the captain turns our little boat down a small stream that brings the palm tree like plants all around encompassing us into the river. He asks us if we want lunch and by this time we say yes. So after about ten minutes or so we stop at this little cement dock that is high in the air because it is low tied and the water is really low right now. We walk down a little path which leads to what seems like a little tourist market and he take us over to some cadges. One of which had a Cobra that was standing at attention swinging around. And the other had a rather large snake of some kind that was not happy to see us. It kept jumping and hitting the edge of the cadge. Next he showed us a tank that had a large skinny fish in it that he called a elephant fish, that he said was exceptionally good to eat but all I could see the fish had was bones. And finally there was a clear water tank that was full of huge prawns, which the man stuck his hand into and pulled one out. They end up walking us across the bridge and over to another little hut that had tables, chairs, and hammocks right on the side of the river that we came in on. Where the team of waiter (4 or so of them) and gave us our one menu. Which caused us to all crack up. There was writing on it (of course being foreigners there were no prices on it) but what really made us crack up was the pictures of what they offered that were next to the writing. Such as Pigeon, Snake, Turtle, Squirrel, Prawn, Elephant Fish etc. After slowly getting our drink order we finally decide on what we wanted to eat. Lauren and I decide that we want the jumbo prawns and AJ and Crystal decide they want the Snake soup (of course price depending on how big the snake they order is).
Shortly there after ordering, the waiter comes back out with a two nice crystal glasses. One that is full of a clear liquid with two snake hearts in it, and the other full of the snakes red blood. All presented to us with four shot glasses, they soon insisted that we must drink some. After a long conversation that we weren’t going to drink any of the snakes blood we finally start in on getting either our guide or one of the waiters to drink some of it, but none of them would. Which makes me really glad no one at our table would drink any of it, if even the locals would not.
They ended up setting up the table next to us up nice with all of the proper Vietnamese dinner ware. And asked us to come and sit. Then when they brought out the huge plate of whole prawns of course they started to peel them and then wrap them in rice paper with rice noodles and tried to put lettuce, peeled cucumber, and some other fresh vegetables that neither Lauren nor I wanted so they left those out. The shrimp in my opinion were ruined by the tanted smell that the rice paper left on the shrimp, but you know I would have been perfectly satisfied with some ketchup. After about twenty minutes or so they start setting up the table next to us with different ingredients as well as a portable stove top (one of those that creates the gas flame I forget what they are called) and finally a pot. When they remove the lid they reveal a snake that has been cut up into a little bit larger than bit sized pieces sitting in a broth like juice. They proceed to put the rest of the ingredients in and let it simmer. They then serve it to Crystal and AJ eventually Lauren decides that she wants to partake. And I on the other hand wanted no part of any snake soup especially with my stomach in the condition it was in from the previous night.
There were mixed reviews on the snake some pieces at there best supposedly taste like chicken, other pieces on the end of the snake were mostly bones. (You should read the full review on AJs blog if you want more PG 13 + description of the snake soup that I am sure that he will inevitably post). Finally we end up walking back to our dingy passing by the cage with the mean snake in it, hoping that I would not see the mean snake in the cage.
After leaving the small stream we were in and going back into the main waters of the delta we stoped at another similar cement high dock that was the coconut candy factory. We made our way through the walk to a large open aired hut area where we were greated with warm brown candies that the factory had just made. And they were excellent some of the best candy I have ever had, and don’t picture artificially flavored coconut candy, picture right off the tree fresh coconut flavored candy. They walked us through the process of how they made it, from the big pot areas where it was simmered ( and even the heat that was created was from the shells of the coconut) and then from there done a lot like baking. Where they put it into a large lump then into strips then into individual pieces then sealed (And it reminded me of the o rings Heather). We made our way back to the ship after picking up some souvigniers and then they took us to this other island………..to be continued.