On the Darker Side

In 1963, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk drove this car to the center of Ho Chi Minh City and set himself on fire to protest persecution by South Vietnamese Roman Catholics.

Obviously this trip I am on is amazing, but it wouldn't seem right if I didn't mention some of the darkness and harsh realities we are faced with. It has been challenging to see, read and hear about all the atrocities of our world. Every morning there is a class called Global Studies and the instructor is probably the best professor I have every heard. He goes into extreme detail about all of the countries we are visiting, and sadly most of it involves war, death and destruction. I feel blessed to see so much of the world, but also have to face a lot of things I have been blissfully ignorant about so far.

Mekong Delta on Speed

I took a day trip to the Mekong Delta with an organized group from Semester at Sea. We took a bus to My Tho, which is about an hour and a half from Ho Chi Minh City. Our tour managed to squeeze in the bus ride, 1 boat ride on a large motorized boat, 1 ride on a small motorized boat, 1 ride on a small paddled boat (as seen in the picture), a stop at a coconut farm where they make gifts out of coconuts, a stop at a coconut candy making sight, fruit tasting, a horse and carriage ride, a huge lunch, a bike ride and the bus ride home, all in 8 hours. It was actually pretty fun and interesting. With being in these countries for so few days (we had 4 nights/5days in Vietnam), you really have to think about what you want to do with your time. The only part I wanted more time for was the bike ride. We got to ride around on small gravel roads and really see how people in this part of the world lived. The top picture is of water coconuts and the bottom one is called Durian.

The Land of Lanterns

The old town area of Hoi An (where most of the character and restaurants were) was incredibly touristy. It had a lot of charm and was full of hanging lanterns and colors, but was filled with gift shops, all full of the same overpriced junk. The real delight for me was at night. There was a walkway on both sides of the river and at night the whole area was lit up with hanging lanterns. It was so beautiful and suddenly you couldn't tell how touristy it was, or I didn't seem to care as much anymore. On the second day we rented a motor bike to get out of the tourist areas. We came across some oxen, and as you can see, Brian wasn't being shy. I was scared they would charge me, so I stayed back. Brian obviously got a better picture though, where the ox is practically sniffing his lens. The photo of the lake was during our drive back to the airport. I even got a nod of approval for that picture from Brian, which is saying a lot since he doesn't seem to notice many of my pictures.

Good Morning Vietnam

We docked in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on March 25th. We spent the first day walking around the city and went to a very touristy/overpriced market. Brian had been here 6 years ago and was shocked by how much more expensive and developed the city was. The highlight was an hour and fifteen minute foot reflexology massage. The city was way less hectic than I thought it would be and the flow of traffic and people seemed to be pretty organized. We then flew North to a smaller town called Hoi An, to hopefully get a less modern feel of Vietnam.