Vietnam- Cao Dai Temple, Cu Chi Tunnels, and departure: 3/26/09

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I woke up, refreshed, and then realized that we were leaving Vietnam today. It kinda bummed me out cuz I loved this country. I had not expected the people to be so awesome, considering what we did to the country. Of course, we were in the southern part of Vietnam, but still.

So, today we had a full-day trip to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. I will tell you about them as we get there ;) We got ready, and packed some stuff (camera, camera batteries, camera lenses, camera tripod, what am I forgetting? Hmm…oh yea, everything besides my camera…hehe). Anyways, we got on the bus, and met our guide, Tien. And, let's just say he was the best guide ever. His introduction was "Hello family." That's right, he called us his family. He was hilarious, and the whole way to the Cao Dai temple, he told us stories. He talked to us about Vietnam, about his background, about his family, about the war, and lots more. He was truly an amazing person, and he had gone through A LOT to get here. Our first stop on the tour was the Cao Dai Temple. This temple was really, really cool. So, basically they had merged several religions together to come up with one. They mainly took Buddhism, Catholicism, and Islam and created a hybrid religion…and this was their temple. Pretty cool, huh? I personally think most religions preach the same thing, behind all the garbage that people have inserted into each religion, a cloud of garbage that clouds the true meaning. No religion preaches violence, no religion preaches that we shouldn't treat other human with respect. But people have taken every major religion, and they have twisted the true meaning, they have changed the interpretation, they have inserted new "rules" and new "policies." What have people NOT done "in the name of religion"? So, it was cool seeing this temple where the religions coexisted. Plus, we were just in time to see the Mass, and I was very excited.

We got off the bus and saw the temple, and it was very interesting, to say the least. We walked to the entrance, took of our shoes, and entered. We walked near the entrance to the great hall, where everyone was praying. I could describe it, but just check out the picture and you will see exactly what it was like. We climbed to the 2^nd floor, and took lots of pictures of the Mass. They also had an orchestra set up, and a gong that went off in some sort of pattern I couldn't figure out. I walked back down and saw the picture of the 3 Patron Saints…can you guess who one of them was? Victor Hugo, yes the same guy who wrote Les Miserables!!! It was hilarious, and sooo random. But he was one of the principal followers of the Cao Dai faith, so I guess it makes sense. But still…seeing a picture of Victor Hugo in a multi-religion temple in Vietnam was not something I expected to see. Anyways, the Mass was soon over, and it was time to leave and grab some lunch. We took more pictures outside the temple, and walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Lunch was delicious, the vegetarian food was very good, especially the tofu.

After lunch, we jumped back on the bus and headed to our 2^nd and final stop: the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were dug by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. They were used for guerilla warfare, and were clouded in mystery for quite a while. The Viet Cong would appear in an American area, kill as many people as possible, and then "vanish" before they could be found. They were using a secret network of VERY, VERY NARROW tunnels. The American GIs could not physically fit into these tunnels, that's how narrow they were. We arrived at the tunnel site, and first watched a North Vietnamese propaganda movie. Oh man, that was some HEAVY propaganda…they were talking about "killing Americans" the whole time, and how people would get rewards and awards for being an "American-killer." It was pretty crazy, but it WAS a war propaganda movie made by the Viet Cong, and was very interesting to watch. After being brainwashed by the movie, ;) we headed down to see some of the tunnels. Tien stopped randomly at a certain patch in the grass and pointed down. We could not see anything, but he pulled a small handle, and an opening could be seen in the ground…THE TUNNEL WAS SOO NARROW, it was ridiculous. A few students took turns stepping into it…most could barely fit.

Afterwards we walked to the side and saw a spike trap…it was set up as a rectangular cut in the ground, with a piece of wood in the middle, so that the piece of loose land on top would swing in circles if someone were to step on it…and they would fall into a pit with 10 inch spikes. Not very pleasant at all! We walked through a few more spike trap exhibits, and then entered the tourist tunnel area. Basically, they had taken one of the tunnels, and they had widened it a little so you could crawl through it if you wanted. So, we got down on our hands and knees and crawled through the tunnel. Some students who were claustrophobic started freaking out, and ran out of the exit when we got there…why u would crawl in a NARROW tunnel if you were claustrophobic, I do not know. But, at the exit, there was an entrance to the 2^nd part of the tunnel. This part had not been widened too much, and you literally had to crawl through it. It was optional to crawl through it, but what the heck, I had come all the way here, I might as well. So, I got down and started crawling with a few other students. Everyone else left at the first exit, and did not dare to go on. So..it was an INTENSE crawl, and even this tunnel had been widened a little. We crawled for about 5 minutes before we smelled fresh air and got out of the exit. I was completely drenched in sweat (it was 90 degrees outside, and probably well over a 100 in the tunnel). We pumped our fists in the air, and cheered. We crawled through a tunnel! It was actually a lot of fun and a great experience. But, it was so creepy cuz some Viet Cong person had been crawling through the same tunnel not too long ago during the war.

After the tunnel-crawling experience, we saw a few more exhibits, and then headed back to the buses. On the ride back, Tien gave us a brief history of Vietnam from his point of view. It was very, very interesting, and I recorded the whole thing on video. You HAVE to hear it once after I get back. It is pretty insane and intense and a unique point of view. We arrived at the ship, and said goodbye to the best guide we have had on the voyage. We climbed back on the ship, and waved goodbye to Vietnam. It was sad…I had an amazing experience. Thank you for the memories, Vietnam! I will be back again.

Cambodia- Temples of Angkor Day 3: 3/25/09

What? What time is it? What is that horrid noise? Is that an alarm? GAAAH…why??? Its still kinda dark outside. Ugh. Ok ok, fine, I'll get up. Soo early…jeez. ;)

So yea, once again, we were up early. I showered and turned the water on cold at the end to wake myself up. You know ur tired when u take a cold shower, hop out, and fall asleep standing up. Anyways, I got ready, packed everything, and we went to eat breakfast. They had a really delicious breakfast buffet and I ate a LOT. We checked out afterwards, and headed down to the bus. Our first stop of the day was a floating village. It sounded cool, no doubt, but what the heck is a floating village? In my head, I pictured a bunch of huge houses that were somehow staying afloat, but I really didn't know what to expect. Who would be living there? We would have to wait and see. It took about an hour to get to the boats. We stopped in a small village built right next to a river, and there were tons of tourists climbing into long boats. We climbed into one too and we were off up the river…or down the river…I dunno ;)

After about 20 minutes, we came across a lake, and in the distance I saw tons and tons of boats, and… they were not moving. Ohhh…a FLOATING village! :) We came closer, and saw before us a VAST village, that was floating! People lived in small house boats, and small children waved at our boat as we floated by. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. We eventually docked at a small shop, and walked around. Achal and I climbed up to the top, and got a great view over the whole village. Right outside the floating shop, there was a small area with some crocodiles and a pool filled with crazy fish, so we checked that out. Not before long, it was time to go. We got back on the boat, and returned to the bus. We left for our last stop in Cambodia, the Ta Prohm temple. On the way back, we saw huge, beautiful fields of lotus flowers on one side of the bus, and we asked the driver to stop for a sec so we could snap some pics. I ran down and took some pictures of the gorgeous lotus flowers. And we continued to Ta Prohm.

We arrived in about an hour at the Ta Prohm Temple, or as it was commonly called, the "jungle temple." If any of you have seen the movie Tomb Raider, it was filmed at Ta Prohm. Our guide told us he had met Angelina Jolie when they were filming…lol. Anyways, we entered the temple, and it was just awesome from the start. There was a long, wooden bridge we had to cross to get inside. We had about an hour inside, so we started wandering around. The temple was eery and there were lots of ruins. Most of it had not been restored (they were in the process of restoring many parts), so it was really cool in its original form. We walked into some narrow corridors, and some dark rooms, climbed some of the rocks, and even "accidentally" wandered off the path into a restricted zone…oops. There were trees EVERYWHERE growing off the rocks. It was almost like the forest was taking over and destroying the temple, slowly but steadily. It was really really cool. Our time was over quickly, and we took as many pictures as we could on our way out. We ran back to the bus cuz we were late. We had been told to meet at the temple gate, but as we exited the temple we realized the gate was a mile away! So, we ran the last mile, and were a few minutes late to the bus. But, there was still one person missing. Mimi was nowhere to be seen, and we waited for her…and waited…and waited. Scary thoughts started running through our minds…maybe she had gotten lost…or GASP! Maybe she had been taken by the evil spirits that guard the Ta Prohm temple…ok, I'm kidding. She came back soon…she had taken a wrong turn and gotten lost.

We looked back at our last temple and waved goodbye as we drove off toward the airport. Soon thereafter, we were checked in and on our flight home…er, rather back to Vietnam. It had been a wonderful, amazing trip and I am SO glad I got to visit Cambodia.

Cambodia- Temples of Angkor Day 2: 3/24/09

Today was going to be an intense, temple-filled day. We woke up very very early, I think around 5 AM. We showered and jumped on the bus and drove to Angkor Wat. There were a LOT of people there for the sunrise. I headed over to the reflecting pool and started shooting pictures. The sun slowly came up, and we headed to the entrance to catch a very cool phenomenon. Angkor Wat was built such that, on the 2 equinoxes, the sun rises directly behind the central spire of the temple. Yea…pretty amazing, right? Well, it was true. As we walked to the entrance, ready to leave to go back to the hotel, I turned around and saw a phenomenal sight of the temple glowing, as the sun rose directly behind it.

We returned to the hotel to get ready, shower, and eat breakfast. I was ultra tired, and needed a semi-cold shower to wake myself up. We all got into the bus and headed back to Angkor Wat for a guided tour of the temple complex. We learned a lot about the temple, which was built during the Hindu era in Cambodia, which directly preceded the Buddhist era. The temple was very old, and Hindu art was everywhere. I recognized a lot of scenes from the Gita and Mahabharata. It was exciting to see art that I knew about! Near the end of the tour, we were walking by some locals who were living in the temple area, and a few kids ran up to me and a couple of the other girls in the group. The little boy wanted me to hold him…he held up both his hands in the international symbol for "Carry me!" :) So, I picked him up, and he was fascinated with my goatee…lol. He was adorable and so was the little girl, who looked like his sister. We took several photos with them. Cambodian children have the most wonderful smiles…you get happy just by looking at them.

Next, we went to the Bayon Temple, and let me tell you, this one is so cool. I nicknamed it the "Faces Temple" Check out the pics on my site, and you will see why. We entered the temple through a large gate, on which there were 4 faces, one for each direction. The gate itself was pretty impressive, but then we saw the actual temple. There were tons of tall towers, and each one had 4 faces on it. Our guide explained that this was a Buddhist temple, and thus there were 4 faces guarding each direction. We explored the Bayon Temple, walking into narrow corridors, large courtyards, ruins, you name it. This temple had a bit of everything, and I loved it. The faces were so eerie but cool at the same time. After about an hour, we left and walked to the Elephant terrace and the terrace of the Leper King. The Elephant Terrace was basically a huge rampart-looking thing with elephants carved ALL over it. The terrace of the Leper King was a little more difficult to describe, but the pictures should do it more justice. It was a huge wall with carvings all over it…can't quite remember what they were of, but it was probably something important to those old Cambodians ;)

We eventually finished our tour of the temple and the terraces, and the buses took us back to the hotel for lunch and some free time. The lunch was delicious, and after lunch, we had a tour of 4 of the smaller temples in the Angkor complex. A lot of kids were "too tired" and didn't want to go, so they cut down the group, and our bus went with only 6 people and 2 faculty members. It was lame, we had paid soo much for this trip, and these temples were so amazing. Whatever, I went on the 2^nd round of temples. And it was so worth it.

We saw a total of 4 small temples, and they were all unique. The first one was a small jungle temple that was half ruins, half temple with trees growing everywhere. It was SO COOL! The 2^nd temple was a reflecting pool temple. In the center was a dome in a reflecting pool (there was no water), and it was surrounded by 4 small pools with 4 faces. We didn't spend too much time here, and were soon off to the 3^rd temple, which was nice. There was a steep staircase that took us to the top of the temple, where the main temple dome was located. We took lots of pics, since we had a pretty nice view and got back in the bus for the 4^th temple, which I loved. As soon as we entered, we saw another unique phenomenon…the sun was setting behind the middle spire of the temple, so this one was probably also built for the equinoxes. There was a very steep staircase that took us to the top, and the view from the top was awesome. There were 3 temple towers, and we could see the complex from the top. We took lots of silly pictures, including some classic jumping ones. Don't worry, I'll share those fun times with you later using only pictures. ;)

After the intense temple-visiting the 8 of us, 9 including the guide were pretty tired but I'm SO happy I went to see the 2^nd round of temples. I feel sad for everyone who ditched, not just cuz it was expensive, but these temples were truly amazing and should not have been missed. Anyways, we returned to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before we headed out to dinner. We ate at a fancy French/Cambodian restaurant, but… the food was Cambodian…lol. It was good, and we sat at a table with several other faculty members. I swear, sometimes it is more fun sitting with the faculty than with other students. These faculty members were AWESOME and we had a great dinner conversation. All but 1 were vegetarian as well, so we enjoyed our vegetarian meal together. :) After dinner, we decided to head to the night market, so we jumped into a rickshaw with a few other SASers, and headed to the market. As soon as we got out, the first shop I saw…WAIT, I can't really describe this in the blog, it's supposed to be a surprise for my parents. I bought something from this store eventually, but I won't tell you what. Sorry…if ur REALLY dying to know, send me an email, and maybe I will relate the full story to you ;) hehe. Anyways, from that shop we walked to the entrance of the night market, and it clearly stated "Night market" …lol. So, you probably shouldn't get lost…until you get inside that is. You see, inside was a maze of shops and stalls, selling everything from incense to silk scarves to …. WAIT. Almost did it again. Can't give it away ;) So, I had FUN bargaining as usual, and as usual, I kicked butt and got some great deals. One of the shopkeepers refused to give me some t-shirts for cheap, so I had to resort to some dirty bargaining tactics (hehehe) that involved me complimenting her on how beautiful she looked in her oversized shirt, and ripped jeans. It was fun, and she gave me the t-shirts for a dollar each eventually…I win. :) hehehe. Anyways, at the end we returned to "the first shop" and I bargained for about an hour before I finally got what I wanted at a VERY VERY good price. Oh man, wait till you see what I bought..it's pretty amazing if I may say so myself. ;)

So, that was the end of spending money at the market, and I headed to a local internet café for an hour to make some calls, check email, catch up on life (aka update my Fbook status haha) and the universe. Afterwards, we rickshawed (is that even a verb? Oh well, it is now! If we can say we "cabbed it" in Boston then this works by the same logic) it back to the hotel. By this point, I think it was around 11 PM, I was about to die since we had been up since 5 AM, and had traveled pretty much the whole day. So, I changed and hit the bed. I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow, that's right…if someone had removed this pillow from under my head as I was "falling" asleep I would have landed on the mattress and fallen asleep anyways. ZZZZ…ZZZZ…What a day!

Cambodia- Temples of Angkor Day 1: 3/23/09

I woke up very EARLY again…story of the trip…lol. I finished packing, ate breakfast and checked my email. I wrote a few quick responses and headed to the Union. Our trip got together, and we waited for 15 mins for everyone to check-in. Then, we headed to the buses and left for the airport. The airport wasn't too far and eventually we were standing in line for the airplane, boarding passes in hand, security check complete. We had to take a shuttle bus to the airplane, and there was no fancy gate to get on the plane. You see, our plane was TINY. It was a turboprop plane, and we used a small staircase to get on the plane. I couldn't stand upright in the plane, cuz the ceiling was too low, but I found my seat and sat down. Pretty soon, the engines were running, and we took off. We were going to CAMBODIA!!!!

I fell asleep for most of the 1 hour flight, and when I woke up, we were landing in Siem Reap. We touched down, and I got very excited. We got off the plane, and I stepped off the plane into my 9^th country. It was VERY hot (probably in the low 90s F) and EXTREMELY humid (~80-90%). The airport was pretty cool, and we all filed into the room to fill out the customs form. The line was long, but eventually we all got our Cambodia visas. My passport was looking cooler and cooler every country. :) We left the airport and headed to our buses. Our tour guide was a very nice, short Cambodian dude. First, we headed to lunch. I'm not a huge fan of Cambodian food…it was pretty good but it taste a little bland, especially after spicy Vietnamese food. Next, we headed to Angkor Wat to check out the sunset.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world…and it is a Hindu temple so I was pretty excited.

We arrived at the temple, and it was HUGE and magnificent. The pictures do not do it justice. We were all in awe, but we only had 30 minutes before we had to leave for the hotel, so we ran inside quickly to take as many pictures off the temple and see as much as possible. The temple was truly amazing, and there was a long walk in the center just to get to the main complex. To the left, there was a huge reflecting pool, and the water was completely still, so there was a perfect reflection of the temple. It was beautiful. We ran around the inside of the complex, seeing as much as we could before our time ran out. Of course, we were coming back the next day, but being a photography geek, I knew I couldn't get better lighting than the sunset lighting, so I took LOTS of pictures. Eventually, we were getting late so we ran back to the bus and made it just in time. We headed to our hotel, the Borei Angkor Resort. It was, simply put, a very nice hotel. Not as nice as the Sofitel in Bangkok, but still REALLY nice. But the fun doesn't end here. Oh no, cuz when I went to the balcony afterwards, there was a lightning storm in the distance! OMG LIGHTNING! WHERE? WHAT?! HOW? Heheh. Soo, I kinda shot pictures of that for a little while (ok ok, it was an hour, you got me). We wandered around our room before returning to the bus to go to dinner.

The dinner was in a HUGE buffet hall, with lines and lines of tables. It was full of people, tourists, locals, guides, you name it. We went and grabbed a plate, and looked for vegetarian food. Actually, one of the stations had vegetarian spring rolls, so I grabbed about 20 of those ;) and there was a noodle station where you could make ur own noodle soup, so I made some vegetarian noodle soup with LOTS of spice in it…hehe. We all sat down to eat, and the show began. There was a large stage in the middle and there were several acts of traditional Cambodian dance. I took lots of pics and videos don't worry. I put some of the pics up on the site, so check them out.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Near the hotel was an internet café, so I went for a little while to read emails and chat with friends. After that, I went to the hotel room and passed out. We had to wake up VERY early the next morning, cuz there was an optional sunrise tour of Angkor Wat, and there was NO way I was missing this one, especially cuz it was the spring equinox...more on that later. I'm tired and sleeping now ;)

Vietnam Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City- 3/22/09

Today was a VERY early day. Ho Chi Minh City is not located along the coast, and to get to the port we had to sail up the Mekong River. I woke up at 5 AM to see the river. I grabbed my camera and headed up to the top deck. I was treated to an absolutely gorgeous view. The river was fairly narrow, and there were jungles on both sides. Dawn was approaching and the sky was very colorful. All the colors were reflected on the water in the river, and it was so beautiful. After about 30 minutes, we started seeing some fog. The jungles near us were shrouded in fog as the sun finally came up. It was a priceless view, probably one of the best sunrises I have ever seen in my life. There were hundreds of SAS kids on the top deck in awe of the sunrise…one of the faculty members was very impressed with the fact that about 200 students had woken up before the sunrise. But it was worth it. Several small boats sailed by, and we waved to all of them.

 

I went back down to my room and packed for our first day. Achal and I had done a lot of Lonely Planet reading, and we had found a very cool walking tour of the city. We were going to follow the tour, which hit up most of the famous sites in the city. We docked in the city a few hours later, and the port was right near downtown. We had a diplomatic briefing first by some US diplomats from the embassy. They told us the usual be-careful-travel-in-groups spiel. We grabbed our landing cards and got off the ship as quickly as we could and headed into the city. As soon as we left the port we were mobbed by a bunch of taxi drivers. After a few minutes of bargaining, we agreed to go to Backpacker's street with 2 of the motorcycle taxis. It was a lot of fun riding on the back of a motorcycle, and 10 minutes later we were there, map in hand.

 

We began our tour by walking along the street to a plaza. We arrived at the Ben Thanh Market soon thereafter. It was a huge indoor market, and as we walked through the entrance we were transported to a bustling, crowded market that sold everything from fruits to seafood to fake purses and t-shirts. We started shopping…I started with some T-shirts. I found some cool ones of Vietnam and I bargained them down to $1.50 a shirt. Then I bought some Vietnamese silk scarves, and some cool souvenirs. We walked around and found a few shops of fake purses, from Coach to Louis Vitton. I had a request for one so I started bargaining. In the first shop, I was able to bargain one from $55 down to $20, but it was still too expensive. After browsing several more shops, I finally got one shopkeeper down to $15, and it looked legitimate…hehe. Bargaining is fun. The shopkeeper looked rather upset with my bargaining, I don't think she expected me to be so stubborn. I stuck to my price of $15 and she finally reluctantly gave it to me. We were pretty hungry by now, so we crossed the street to eat at a local restaurant called Pho 2000. When we walked in, we saw a picture of Bill Clinton in the corner…he had eaten at this restaurant.

 

We ordered vegetarian noodle soup, and it came quickly. Good thing, too, cuz I was so hungry I was about to eat the next thing I saw. ;) It was a HUGE bowl of soup, and it was SPICY! There was some spicy chili paste and I added a little too much. Whatever, it was amazing soup and it cost 30,000 dong (~$1.75). Happy from our meal and very full, we left the market and headed to our next stop…ice cream! We walked around the plaza, and started to cross the street. It was very difficult…there was traffic coming from all directions and Achal started the video. A few seconds later, a motorcycle drove by really close to us, and Achal yelled, "Hey, he tried to grab the camera!" The guy had reached out his hand and grabbed the video camera. Luckily, Achal held on to it. Phew! That would have sucked a lot! We finally crossed the street and walked to the ice cream place. But it wasn't there! We walked around in circles for several minutes but could not find it. Then, we walked to the next street and found the sop there…it had moved and had changed its name since the publishing of the Lonely Planet book…hehe. Anyways, the ice cream was DELICIOUS! And it felt so good to eat ice cream in the 100 degree weather. Feeling much better, we headed out into the stifling heat again and walked to the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, passing a few cool buildings along the way, including the new theater building.

 

The museum was kinda boring, not too interesting, so we only spent a half an hour there. We did take some comical pictures since we were a little bored, but there was no point of hanging out much longer cuz there was no A/C inside the museum :) So, we headed out and walked to the Reunification Palace. It was an important part of Vietnamese history as there was a tank that crashed through the palace when the North and South were united. It was a pretty cool building...it was HUGE, and there were a lot of interesting rooms (e.g. meeting rooms for international visitors, a huge cinema room, a lecture hall, etc…) and a huge statue of Ho Chi Minh. From the top, we had a pretty nice view of the area, and we had lots more to do, so we went down and left quickly after that.

 

The next stop on our walking tour was INTENSE…we visited the War Remnants museum. This museum showcased the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective. You have to see the pictures to understand what we saw. It was pretty horrible and tragic. The pictures of innocent people who were killed in the war, the absolutely horrible effects of chemical warfare (Dioxin), the prison cells used to detain POWs, etc… I don't want to type too much in the blog cuz I don't know if everyone wants to read about it. I have pictures, and if u want to see, I can show u the pictures when I come back. Needless to say, it was from the Vietnam perspective, so America was not cast in a positive light at all. Some things were propaganda, for sure, but the pictures were all real and some of the quotes that were taken from soldiers in the war were downright disturbing to say the least. It was just something u have to see, even if u don't believe all of it. War is a horrible thing.

 

Feeling not-so-happy, we left the museum, and walked through a small park to get to our next stop, the Notre Dame Cathedral of Ho Chi Minh City…no, we did not magically teleport to Europe. It was rather small, but the architecture was still beautiful. We bought some coconuts since we were thirsty and they were cheaper than water (we bargained for them ;) ). We wanted to go inside the cathedral to check it out, but Mass had just finished, and there was a large group of people coming out. So, we kinda walked inside a little just to get a glimpse of the inside. It was very nice, but it was pretty dark inside and we couldn't see too much. Across the street from the cathedral was the French colonial post office (it was built during the French colonial period), and I had LOTS, and I mean LOTS of postcards to mail. Hmmm…let's see, I was sending 6 home, a couple to everyone at BU, and 6 to Rel. So yea…LOTS! :) The inside of the post office was beautiful, it was probably the coolest post office I have ever been inside. We figured out the postage situation, and I figured out it would be a lot cheaper to send one envelope to each location rather than mail them all individually. I sent out the postcards, and we left to go to our next stop: the Jade Emperor Pagoda.

 

We hired 2 scooter rickshaws, which pretty much means we rode on the back of 2 motorcycles. Yea…probably not too safe, but we wore helmets, and you should check out the pictures and videos. Anyways, we tried to tell them where we were going, but their English wasn't too hot, and we ended up going to many places, all wrong. Eventually, we got to a temple, and it didn't really look like the Jade Emperor Pagoda. So, we rode to a new place and asked someone else for directions. Apparently, we had JUST been at the right place…OOPS! So, we went back, and paid the 2 drivers a little extra since they drove us around for about 25 mins to go 2 or 3 miles.

 

The pagoda was very very peaceful. I really needed it after a pretty hectic day. There was a pond outside with lots of cool fish, and the inside was really dark and smelled of incense. I sat down in front of the Buddha statue for a few minutes, just unwinded a little. It was very quiet and peaceful. There is something about the Buddha's statue that is comforting and soothing. Maybe it's the look on his face, or his "mudra," I don't know. But, feeling at peace, we left to head to our next stop: the Ho Chi Minh City Sheraton.

 

The hotel was very nice. I don't want to know how much the rooms cost per night, but hey, we weren't staying there. We just rode the elevator to the top floor to see the city view. We had to sit down at a restaurant and order something to see the view, which is LAME…hehe. The menu was sooo overpriced and I ended up ordering a small plate of French Fries for $8. Ugh. But the VIEW! It was amazing…we could look out over most of the city and see all the lights. It was pretty sweet, and it was going to get a lot sweeter. ;) After we ate and sat around, admiring the view, I saw a light in the corner of my eye. I looked into the distance, with some hope in my mind that it was lightning. (side note, for all of you that don't know me well, I am OBSESSED WITH LIGHTNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I waited about a minute, and then I saw… a bolt…of lightning. And I was thrilled! I instantly started taking lots of pictures, trying to get one with a bolt. And I got pretty lucky… I got a few of pics of Ho Chi Minh City at night with lightning. Now that is an AWESOME picture. A pretty rare opportunity, considering our time frame in Vietnam was so short. So, really happy, we descended back to Earth, and left for the night market.

 

We walked to the night market, but not without seeing several motorcycle gangs ride by. There were SOO SOO SOO MANY motorcycles on the street, it was wrong. I will show you videos later of the endless line of motorcycles. We tried to cross the street at one point, and we had to wait about 5 minutes for a break in the swell of motorcycles. We finally got to the night market and we were starving. So, we ate at one of the street stalls…SOOOO GOOD! I ordered fried rice with vegetables and tofu, and asked the waiter to make it SPICY. And boy, did he make it spicy ;). It was delicious, and definitely worth $5 ;)

 

Full from our meal, we started wandering the shops. I bargained very hard and bought a few gifts and t-shirts and assorted other things. Eventually, I found a shop with soccer jerseys. They cost a small fortune in the US, so I decided to try my luck with bargaining. The lady operating the shop was very young, and her starting price was $50 for 1 jersey. I laughed and joked with her, and brought her down…and down…and down. And yes, I eventually bought 2 jerseys for, wait for it… keep waiting… $22 total! Take that for bargaining! :) The lady could not believe I was such a stubborn bargainer and call me "Master bargainer Yash" In exchange for the good price I got her email address and promised to send her a picture of us…lol.

 

And that was the end of a long and pretty exhausting day. We had covered several of the major attractions of Ho Chi Minh City in 1 day, and the next day we were flying to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see the temples of Angkor Wat. I was VERY excited, but SO tired. I passed out quickly after packing for the trip.