Spring 2015 - Day 40: Vietnam
I called Quinn's room at 10 to find out that she had just woke up and to call her again in an hour. I was completely ready to go and so was bummed, I didn't really want to hang around and do nothing for an hour.
I went up to the purser's desk to hand in my passport and ran into Tory and another Jessi in Tymitz square. They were going out right then and said that I could join them. I ran to get all of my stuff and we headed off the ship.
They had a shuttle to take us to the city center and we got off right in time to catch the 10:30 one. It took us right to in front of a huge cathedral. The first thing we wanted to do was get food.
Jessi (remember, different Jessi) led us to a restaurant she had eaten at on the first day. She said it was some of the best food she had eaten the whole trip so we were totally fine with her taking the lead.
She turned out to be right, it was pretty delicious. I got freshly squeeze mango juice that was life changing. It was the best juice I have ever had. I had two glasses of it and I need to buy a juicer so that I can juice mangos all day every day.
We ordered these weird sandwich things. They brought a small loaf of french bread on a plate and then a little skillet with a piece of beef and an egg. You build the little sandwich yourself. It was so delicious. We have been eating so much rice and small piece of meat that eating a giant meat sandwich was amazing. I had been craving a burger for days and this was the perfect thing to fulfill that craving.
We also got Pho (pronounced fuh) and Bo Bun Hue, which was what was recommended in preport. It is basically noodle soup with a whole bunch of stuff in it. The waitress looked at us like we were nuts when we were ordered all that food and once we got it we understood why, it was a lot of food. But all of the dishes were only about 3 dollars a piece and we wanted to try everything.
I thought about the mango juice all day.
After we got food we went to the market. It was a lot like the market we were at in Cambodia but A LOT bigger and it was both a tourist market and a local market. So they had all the raw meat and veggies but also had souvenirs and clothes. We wandered and I bought a few things. I got a rice hat. They are a big thing here and pretty much everywhere in south east asia, everyone wears them. I love it.
I also bought sun glasses, and a tank top of the vietnamese flag. Everything is dirt cheap here. The hat was less than a dollar, the sunglasses about 6 dollars, and the shirt was 4 dollars. I got a magnet for a dollar in Cambodia. It is awesome, but still really easy to spend a lot of money and buy a lot of things.
Bargaining is also really easy. I am not much of a bargainer unless the price is ridiculously high. Things are already really cheap and I definitely have 4 dollars to spend on a shirt. Its' a nice quality shirt too. These people are trying to make a living, who am I to rob them of their income just because I know they will sell it to me for anything.
After the market we went to Starbucks and used the wifi. We sat in Starbucks for about an hour and then we went to another coffee shop near where we caught the shuttle. I have no idea why we did that. I guess Jessi decided she wanted coffee on the way to the bus. But in that coffee shop I saw my Jessi. I talked to her a little and we made plans to have dinner together. I mentioned deck 7 dinner and she said maybe, but she wanted to see what was for normal dinner first.
After the coffee shop we went to the post office so I could buy Vietnam postcards. Then we went to catch the shuttle. At the shuttle stop we found out that the shuttle didn't show up for the last time it was supposed to be there. There was still 20 minutes until its next departure time and who knows if it would even show up then. We didn't want to risk being late so we caught a taxi and it took us to the port for about 2 dollars.
Back on the ship Tory and I put bathing suits on and went to lay out. The sun was already really low in the sky but it was nice to just lay and read. It was while we were laying out that Kevin came on the loudspeaker and announced that tonight was BBQ night. BBQ night is the best night, I like it even more than taco night. We went early so that we wouldn't have to stand in line long. There were burgers and mac and cheese and ribs and corn and potato salad and grapes and cake balls. It was delicious. And was deck 7 food with out buying deck 7 food!
I started off eating with Tory and some of her friends but then everyone else came over to join so I kind of joined that group. They were all into their conversations and I kind of felt ignored and like no one really wanted me to be there. It was strange. I am probably reading too much into it but after a while I wasn't having fun just sitting there in silence so I went back to my room.
There I unpacked and organized and started blogging. I am actually sad to be leaving Vietnam. It is a big change from the first day when I was terrified to even get off the ship. Vietnam and Cambodia were the most culturally rich experiences I have had so far. It felt like we were in the countries forever but it also felt like it went by so quickly. I feel like there is so much more for me to see and learn.
I am excited to see what the next countries are going to be like, especially Burma. But before that we are going to Singapore for only two days. And we will be there in only two days!
