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On Tuesday, October 12, we arrived in Vietnam. We were about 6 hours late getting there because there was too much wind to make it up the Saigon River. The picture on the left is from our diplomatic briefing. This is in the student union where we have our core class every day. It is packed with people all over the floor and spilling into satellite classrooms. As we moved up the Saigon River on Tuesday we passed several small boats, some came up to our ship to try to sell us things out the portholes. |
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After spending the entire voyage in the ocean, this was our first time in a river. The landscape was so much different than any other port so far. We sailed past small huts and boats. It looked like some people lived off of their small boats because we saw clothes hanging out to dry. This was also the first port that we saw palm trees. |
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Kelly figured out that when we were in Ho Chi Minh City we were exactly halfway around the world from his girlfriend Jen Altman in Venezuela. We each took a turn waving to her through the bottom of the ship. (Put the mouse arrow over the left picture to see another picture). We were greeted by several Vietnamese people, the girls dressed in traditional dress, waving to us. |
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Although Ho Chi Minh City had many skyscrapers, it was much different than any place I've ever seen. This is a very poor country, and there were always many people constantly surrounding us trying to sell us postcards, cyclo rides, coconut milk, etc. |
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The traffic situation in Ho Chi Minh City is CRAZY!! There is never a break in traffic, so we were told to just take the first step and keep on walking at the same pace and the traffic moves around you. Most people ride bicycles or motorcycles, there are very few cars. Most of the time I rode around on a cyclo which is the vehicle on the right in the left picture. I had many great experiences riding around on the cyclos. |
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Experiencing the markets and talking to the vendors on the streets was a wonderful cultural experience. There were many flower and T-shirt vendors. It's also a great place to do people watching. |
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I took along some American Flag souvenirs which everyone absolutely loved. These little boys who I met hanging out on the streets were very happy to get an American Flag eraser. There is no compulsory education, so unless families can afford to send their children to school, children are out working on the streets. |
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I went on a day trip to the Mekong Delta which was good opportunity to see the countryside and sample some typical Vietnamese food. We saw several caged or chained up monkeys. The picture on the right is a rice field. Wet rice agriculture is abundant all over Vietnam. |
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Seeing the little huts which these people live in and the little boats which some people live on really made me grateful for everything I have. |
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We took a ferry ride out to Unicorn Island of the Mekong Delta. They gave us coconuts to drink, a typical Vietnamese drink. The ferry took us past several little huts on the side of the river. The Unicorn is one of the 4 sacred animals, it stands for talent. |
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Throughout our entire Mekong Delta trip we were given interesting food. The first stop was a banquet of 5 different fruits, pineapple, dragon fruit, and more. At lunch they plopped a big fish right in front of us and we just picked off the meat with our chopsticks. Yum Yum! |
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I also got to hold a snake at the Mekong Delta. I gave it back when it started exploring a little too much! There was another stop where many people tasted snake wine, I heard that it didn't taste very good, and a few musicians played some Vietnamese music for us. |
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On our way back to the ship we stopped by the side of the road to take pictures and four little boys ran out of their house to pose in pictures for us. During the two hour bus ride we had to listen to the constant beeping of the horn in our bus as we weaved throughout the mass of bicycles. |
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Kelly, Julie, and I went on a short dinner cruise on Sunday night, our last night in Ho Chi Minh City. We went right past the S.S. Universe Explorer, our ship, so I got to take a great picture of our ship at night. The other dinner cruise that went out was in this boat decorated like a fish. |
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So far a common theme in all my updates is a feature of traditional dress. Yes, I have bought a dress in every country so far. I had this Vietnamese dress/pants custom made for me in a little dress shop. They say that it takes someone over a week to embroider the material. On Tuesday we anchored just outside of Singapore to gas up. The Malaccan Straights are very congested, so there were many ships anchored around us. |
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