Today we started our day with a light breakfast (just in case!), and continued on to HSU for some workshops. I had missed the day before but was pretty much caught up to date by the time that we got there. Our first assignment was in relation to the PowerPoint slides that we had made about a mock business proposal that had failed, and a second business proposal with a chance for success. We had to play out a scenario with our group that depicted An discussing a loan with a lender. This scenario included questions that the lender would ask, how the borrower would convince the lender that their idea was a successful one, etc. This was a hard concept to grab at first for the students, as most were confused and thought that we had to make up an entire new business plan, but eventually they got it and we were able to put together a scenario.
Our next assignment was to put ourselves in the place of a lender, and we were each given different examples of borrowers. The borrowers information that was provided to us included how much money they were requesting, what they planned to do as their business, and why they needed the money. As a group, we had to map out the potential expenses for the borrower, and decide if the amount of money that they were asking for was too much or too little, and if we should approve their loan overall. We then had to present it in front of everyone. This went by smoothly, and we followed our activities with lunch. Ruby had heard about us all getting sick so she bought us pizza for lunch. They each had different toppings, and we all rushed in order to grab the pizza that wasn’t seafood. Thankfully, a lot of the Vietnamese students preferred that one! I scored at my table with the veggie one!
Once our visit to HSU was over, we went back to the hotel for a quick break before dinner. Travis and I decided to make a quick stop at the market and the post office so that we could ship some things home before going to Thailand. We both spent about $100 shipping things home, which was more than I expected! It probably would have been the same price to pay for an extra bag on our flight to and from Thailand, but at least this way we didn’t have to carry as much stuff!
Later on, we get ready and leave for our last dinner with the students. We are told by our tour guide and teachers that since there is a little extra money than we had anticipated, we can order meals off of the menu tonight instead of eating the pre-set course, which was traditional Vietnamese food which we didn’t want to risk eating on our last day! Being sick on the plane ride the next day would not have been fun! Especially for those taking the long 22 hour journey back home! I ordered a vegetarian dish and ate some white rice as a side. After dinner we say our goodbyes to most of the students, and some of them offer to come with us for one last trip to the night market. We get amazing deals that night thanks to them; I’m talking 20% of quoted prices!!! We finally say our final goodbyes and go back to the hotel to pack and get ready for our long day tomorrow of flying to Thailand for Travis and I, and flying home for the rest of the group. Tạm biệt Vietnam!!!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Sick Day!
I woke up this morning feeling a little queezy. After knocking on Rob and Travis’s door, Rob opens and looks like he’s been to hell and back. He tells us that hes been awake since six and spent half of his time in the bathroom. It didn’t help my queezyness when I saw him run to the bathroom and overheard him vomit his lungs out! I run to the elevator to avoid any more noise because the mere sound of someone vomiting makes me want to vomit. I tried to eat a full breakfast but couldn’t find myself managing to do so, so I only had a few pieces of fruit. This was the first indication that I was sick—I normally eat a full breakfast involving at least one plate’s worth of refills. We all go upstairs to get ready for our day and I feel heaviness in my throat. I run quickly to the bathroom and start vomiting. Two people down. After telling Dr. Eder that I was sick, I decide to stay at the hotel while the rest of the group went to HSU. Esther, my roommate, was also feeling sick so she stayed back as well. Since Rob and I were the only two thus far vomiting, I decided to go stay in his room in Travis’s bed because it was also nice and air-conditioned, whereas my room was like a tropical rain forest which wasn’t great for my sickness. Rob and I spent the entire day taking turns in the bathroom, sleeping, and repeating. I think I must have slept at least 15 hours, none of which helped my exhausted state. During the mid-afternoon Travis comes back to the room and surprise-surprise, he is vomiting as well! We decide to put the beds together so we could all fit and suffer as a team. Travis’s vomiting was projectile! I felt really bad because it sounded painful!
Being that I remember one of our assigned writings was about the comparisons of the poor in Vietnam and the poor in the U.S., I decided to reflect on this today since we didn’t have anything else to do. In the U.S. I feel like the poor have to rely on the government for help, which they don’t give much of. In Vietnam however, I feel like they can’t rely on their government for help and have to rely more so on providing for themselves through things such as farming their own crops for food. Another major difference is the amount of money that the poor make. In Vietnam poor means less than a dollar a day, while in the U.S. poor means minimum wage or unemployment. The living conditions that the poor live in are also quite different. I remember in the Mekong Delta that some people lived in open air houses without full walls, or on boats with rooms made out of sheets. In the U.S. the poor still need to keep warm though, so they have to stay in insulated buildings, and especially if it’s too cold to live on the street, there are usually shelters for them to stay at temporarily.
Later on in the day Amber starts feeling sick, as well as both Dr. Eder’s. We seemed to be dropping like flies. Looking back at what could have made us sick, we all agree on the pig ears from two nights ago, because eight out of ten of us ate them, and it was those exact eight who got sick. So much for being adventurous and trying new foods! We all go to bed tonight exhausted and hoping for a vomit-free day tomorrow!
Being that I remember one of our assigned writings was about the comparisons of the poor in Vietnam and the poor in the U.S., I decided to reflect on this today since we didn’t have anything else to do. In the U.S. I feel like the poor have to rely on the government for help, which they don’t give much of. In Vietnam however, I feel like they can’t rely on their government for help and have to rely more so on providing for themselves through things such as farming their own crops for food. Another major difference is the amount of money that the poor make. In Vietnam poor means less than a dollar a day, while in the U.S. poor means minimum wage or unemployment. The living conditions that the poor live in are also quite different. I remember in the Mekong Delta that some people lived in open air houses without full walls, or on boats with rooms made out of sheets. In the U.S. the poor still need to keep warm though, so they have to stay in insulated buildings, and especially if it’s too cold to live on the street, there are usually shelters for them to stay at temporarily.
Later on in the day Amber starts feeling sick, as well as both Dr. Eder’s. We seemed to be dropping like flies. Looking back at what could have made us sick, we all agree on the pig ears from two nights ago, because eight out of ten of us ate them, and it was those exact eight who got sick. So much for being adventurous and trying new foods! We all go to bed tonight exhausted and hoping for a vomit-free day tomorrow!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Day 7
Today was a really great day, one that I had been looking forward to for a while now. We got to take a tour of the city, and ride on the cyclos as a group! Even though I had already been on a cyclo I was still exited because this time it was going to be for a longer period of time and we got to do it all as a big group! We began our tour by walking to the famous Notre Dame Cathedral and the post office. Its interesting how so many countries have a copy of the Notre Dame Cathedral! I cant even count the different number of Notre Dame Cathedrals I have been to! It was very impressive, as most big churches are, but what impressed me the most was the post office. I was stunned to hear that the guy who designed the Eiffel Tower was the same guy that designed the post office! I thought it had some French flare to it! The inside was huge—giant ceilings, old-fashioned telephone booths, and two separate souvenir shops! I knew I would be coming back here before Thailand to ship stuff home!
We then went on the cyclos, one American per!!! We took a nice long ride to a famous Pagoda. The ride on the cyclos was really relaxing and was really useful for enjoying the scenery along the way! The streets we rode on were shared with mopeds, cars, and bikes…complete chaos but in a fun way! When we arrived to the Pagoda our tour guide Van told us a little bit about it and showed us an area outside which looked like an empty pool basin and was filled with turtles. He explained to us that in the Buddhist religion it was good karma to “free turtles”. When I asked where the turtles came from, he said that people sold them on the street—how ironic! I guess the sellers weren’t Buddhist because I can only imagine making money off of that would be some bad karma! We went inside and looked around at the different sections, one of which represented “hell” for those who have “sinned.” We saw one statue where there was a donation box and some folded red papers nearby, and were told by our guide that it was the money god and the red papers brought good luck and money. With that information, of course we wanted some of the monetary luck (we are indebted college students after all!) so Cassie, Travis, and I watched the Vietnamese people and copied the “correct way” of taking these magical pieces of red paper. They would put a donation in the box, take the red papers, rub them on the hand of the statue, and they would also take a fan and cool him off a bit (it was incredibly hot in there!). We waited in line and took our turns at it… I was tempted to use the fan on myself as I was aware of my fully functioning sweat glands at the moment but I chose not to just in case it would offend anyone! When we finished our tour of the Pagoda, we went back to the hotel for an entire free afternoon and evening.
I went with a group to the War Remnants Museum while some others went shopping. One of the student’s friends, Tien, was nice enough to offer to take us there and be our unofficial tour guide. He warned us ahead of time that we shouldn’t feel guilty and that there was some pretty rough stuff in there. Boy, was he right! The entire first floor of the museum was pretty shocking! I had read a lot of reviews online before going here, saying that it was completely anti-American and made us look like the bad guys—which in my opinion we kind of were. The pictures showed a lot of gruesome stuff like the aftereffects of the “kill anything that moves” strategy, before and after pictures of destroyed forests, people who were affected by agent orange, etc. I now realized that all the people on the streets we would see day to day with deformities were somehow affected by the war. Most of the pictures had stories by them as told by the war reporters, and the ones that stuck out in my mind the most were of the pictures of people scared to death in front of the soldiers, because almost all of the reporters wrote that after the pictures were taken they were shot point blank. I wondered how badly this could emotionally damage the photographers and reporters who saw this every day during the war. I can’t envision that someone could live a normal life after seeing that. This also made me think about the U.S. soldiers who were following orders, and I now understand why so many veterans of the war were emotionally scarred for life.
When we left the museum we decided it was time for a pick-me up. We went to go eat at a food court, where we could all be pleased with our food selections. I told everyone about the jeans I had gotten the other day at a place called Saigon Square, which was similar to the Bến Thành Market, except indoors and air conditioned, so we uniformly decided to go there afterwards. After splitting up and spending about an hour there we realized that for some reason, bargaining was much harder to do here. The prices though, did start lower than they did at Bến Thành Market, so that was a plus. After being completely exhausted from shopping, we went back home to get ready to go out yet again.
We met up with a few of the HSU students to go to a karaoke bar. I was fully expecting an American-style bar where people take turns singing in front of the crowd but was surprised to find ourselves renting out a room. The way this place worked, and apparently all the karaoke bars in Vietnam worked, was that people would come in as a group and rent out a room so that they only had to “perform” in front of their friends and no strangers. I guess this was a good thing because I am not really the best singer! We took turns singing with the students…they sang mostly Vietnamese songs and we sang songs in English. We were the only ones to order beers except for Van Ang, who ordered a Corona! After spending about two hours there, we decided to move over to an acoustic bar. Travis and I noticed that Van Ang’s beer was still about 4/5th full… I guess she didn’t want to get too out-of-control! Most of the students went home but two of them came with us to the acoustic bar. The atmosphere was really laid-back and the music was really good as well! We stayed until close, and even got to see someone get kicked out! What a reminder of bars at home!!
After our long night, we took a taxi back to the hotel and I noticed that the driver had a towel over the meter. When we got back he quoted us some astronomically large price, to which we were in ready to battle in full barter mode— we handed him some money and told him that was all he was getting. A few wordy exchanges, the driver accepted our cash and left us alone to go up to our rooms and get our much awaited sleep.
We then went on the cyclos, one American per!!! We took a nice long ride to a famous Pagoda. The ride on the cyclos was really relaxing and was really useful for enjoying the scenery along the way! The streets we rode on were shared with mopeds, cars, and bikes…complete chaos but in a fun way! When we arrived to the Pagoda our tour guide Van told us a little bit about it and showed us an area outside which looked like an empty pool basin and was filled with turtles. He explained to us that in the Buddhist religion it was good karma to “free turtles”. When I asked where the turtles came from, he said that people sold them on the street—how ironic! I guess the sellers weren’t Buddhist because I can only imagine making money off of that would be some bad karma! We went inside and looked around at the different sections, one of which represented “hell” for those who have “sinned.” We saw one statue where there was a donation box and some folded red papers nearby, and were told by our guide that it was the money god and the red papers brought good luck and money. With that information, of course we wanted some of the monetary luck (we are indebted college students after all!) so Cassie, Travis, and I watched the Vietnamese people and copied the “correct way” of taking these magical pieces of red paper. They would put a donation in the box, take the red papers, rub them on the hand of the statue, and they would also take a fan and cool him off a bit (it was incredibly hot in there!). We waited in line and took our turns at it… I was tempted to use the fan on myself as I was aware of my fully functioning sweat glands at the moment but I chose not to just in case it would offend anyone! When we finished our tour of the Pagoda, we went back to the hotel for an entire free afternoon and evening.
I went with a group to the War Remnants Museum while some others went shopping. One of the student’s friends, Tien, was nice enough to offer to take us there and be our unofficial tour guide. He warned us ahead of time that we shouldn’t feel guilty and that there was some pretty rough stuff in there. Boy, was he right! The entire first floor of the museum was pretty shocking! I had read a lot of reviews online before going here, saying that it was completely anti-American and made us look like the bad guys—which in my opinion we kind of were. The pictures showed a lot of gruesome stuff like the aftereffects of the “kill anything that moves” strategy, before and after pictures of destroyed forests, people who were affected by agent orange, etc. I now realized that all the people on the streets we would see day to day with deformities were somehow affected by the war. Most of the pictures had stories by them as told by the war reporters, and the ones that stuck out in my mind the most were of the pictures of people scared to death in front of the soldiers, because almost all of the reporters wrote that after the pictures were taken they were shot point blank. I wondered how badly this could emotionally damage the photographers and reporters who saw this every day during the war. I can’t envision that someone could live a normal life after seeing that. This also made me think about the U.S. soldiers who were following orders, and I now understand why so many veterans of the war were emotionally scarred for life.
When we left the museum we decided it was time for a pick-me up. We went to go eat at a food court, where we could all be pleased with our food selections. I told everyone about the jeans I had gotten the other day at a place called Saigon Square, which was similar to the Bến Thành Market, except indoors and air conditioned, so we uniformly decided to go there afterwards. After splitting up and spending about an hour there we realized that for some reason, bargaining was much harder to do here. The prices though, did start lower than they did at Bến Thành Market, so that was a plus. After being completely exhausted from shopping, we went back home to get ready to go out yet again.
We met up with a few of the HSU students to go to a karaoke bar. I was fully expecting an American-style bar where people take turns singing in front of the crowd but was surprised to find ourselves renting out a room. The way this place worked, and apparently all the karaoke bars in Vietnam worked, was that people would come in as a group and rent out a room so that they only had to “perform” in front of their friends and no strangers. I guess this was a good thing because I am not really the best singer! We took turns singing with the students…they sang mostly Vietnamese songs and we sang songs in English. We were the only ones to order beers except for Van Ang, who ordered a Corona! After spending about two hours there, we decided to move over to an acoustic bar. Travis and I noticed that Van Ang’s beer was still about 4/5th full… I guess she didn’t want to get too out-of-control! Most of the students went home but two of them came with us to the acoustic bar. The atmosphere was really laid-back and the music was really good as well! We stayed until close, and even got to see someone get kicked out! What a reminder of bars at home!!
After our long night, we took a taxi back to the hotel and I noticed that the driver had a towel over the meter. When we got back he quoted us some astronomically large price, to which we were in ready to battle in full barter mode— we handed him some money and told him that was all he was getting. A few wordy exchanges, the driver accepted our cash and left us alone to go up to our rooms and get our much awaited sleep.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Day 6
Today we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, which I missed dearly. Then we took a ride over to HSU where we heard two speakers talk about two different organizations that they were a part of. The first speaker was a representative for ENDA which is a group which has been doing community development projects in Vietnam for some time now. He explained that their overall objective was to create financial self sustainability in communities where people don’t know how to save. They teach people how to save based on the money that they earn, and they don’t give out loans until they know that the borrowers completely understand the concept of savings. This made me feel really fortunate to grow up in a country where the concept of money and savings is taught so young. In the U.S., you almost feel like money is just something you know about naturally, but I realized that here, some people grow up not knowing how to manage their money at all.
The next speaker was one that we had met earlier when we went to the Binh Duong province. She was from the organization DRD, and she explained to us that their goal was to bring about awareness and equal opportunities for people with disabilities in Vietnam. When I heard that less than .1% of disabled people ever go to college, I just couldn’t believe it. In the U.S. I feel like there is so much support for disabled people, that if one of them wanted to attend college they would have so many opportunities through the many scholarships and government aid that is available to them. It was sad to see that even if someone was smart and disabled, they could still not get college degrees. The presentation though, left me with hope for the disabled persons of Vietnam.
After the presentations we all split up into our groups to go out and do different activities. I had chosen transportation for my group, and was excited because I knew it would be a chance at riding on a scooter! I’ll never forget when An said to me that she felt so cool while we were on her scooter. I asked her if she brought a jacket, thinking that she was chilly, and she laughed and said that she felt cool because she had a foreigner on the back of her scooter and it was the first time she ever had one as a passenger! I laughed back and said that I was the one that felt cool because I was riding on her scooter with her! After parking we went to the bus station where we rode a bus for extremely cheap! This really weird Vietnamese guy sat next to poor Julie while we were on the bus since she had an open spot next to her, and he was sweating profusely and talking his mouth off to her. Its funny because even across countries, you can always tell when a guy is trying too hard and a girl is just not feeling it. We got off at the next stop (thankfully for Julie!) and walked a bit until we reached the ferry that went across the river to District 2. I was shocked at how many people actually used the ferry for day to day transportation. The people would just ride their scooters up onto it until it was packed and then it would make the two minute crossing to the other district. We began walking in district 2 and before we were there for even a minute there were people hassling us about buying rides on scooters to get to the other side. The area from what I saw of it was extremely poverty stricken. Part of me wanted to stay to explore a little more since it was so different from district 1, but we decided to just take the ferry back to the other side since we were on a limited budget and the whole point of the day was to experience different modes of transportation. We went to eat at a food court since the Vietnamese students were told that we wanted American food, but since I had no problem with the Vietnamese food, I decided to eat from the same restaurant they ordered from. An ordered a big bowl of soup which she saved for last and explained to me that in Vietnamese culture, they eat soup last, and usually the whole family eats from the same bowl. I thought this was cute, because in a way it was like they were bonding with each other because it would have been very easy to split up the soup into different bowls if they wanted to. After lunch we took a short cyclo ride. It was funny because I was told by my group members that the cyclos were meant for two people, yet when we hired them out, the driver made sure to split us up so that I was in one alone… I guess one of me equals two of them (if not three—haha!). There was one last mode of transport for me to experience after that—a taxi. We still had about an hour so we decided to make the best of our time and go to a shopping mall! I bought two pairs of fake True Religion jeans for around ten dollars each… amazing deal! Then Julie had noticed that I wore colored contacts and she asked me how much I paid for them. I told her they were a hundred dollars for the yearly’s, to which she was flabbergasted about. She told me that she wore colored contacts too and that if I wanted she could bring me to the place where she got them because they were only ten dollars a pair! At that point I didn’t care if they weren’t FDA approved, I said “yes!!! Take me!”. So we go to what looks like a local eye doctor shop, and she asks them for me to see the different colored contacts they have. I asked her if we needed a prescription, to which she seemed confused at the entire idea. I guess being that Vietnam is a developing country they haven’t yet exploited all the ways to make money through healthcare like the U.S. has! I picked out a pair of contacts, paid my ten dollars and left. I wish I could have stocked up on them but there are just so many goods here that are so much cheaper than in the U.S. that I could only afford to do a little bit of each!
The time came when we had to meet back up with everyone and we all shared stories of our day. Our next activity was to go to visit a local art shop where all the artists are disabled and the money on the paintings goes to the organization DRD who supported the artists. The paintings were nice, but in my opinion they were a little pricey. Travis and I joked with each other that we could try to barter for better prices, but decided to just sit back and be quiet instead. It was really amusing when Travis tried to buy a bottle of water at the stand next door because the lady quoted him a price, he bought it and received a warm bottle of water. When he asked her if she had any cold ones she said it would be double the price! Standing in the baking hot sun and being really parched he didn’t bother arguing with this one, especially since in retrospect, it was only the equivalent of a few cents difference. I guess there’s no getting around the fact that we are tourists and therefore they can charge us extra for anything.
After our day we went back to get ready for dinner. We walked to a restaurant pretty close by to the hotel and did a giant tour around the downstairs area of the restaurant. The cooking stations were bordering the restaurant and it was pretty cool to actually be able to see them cooking the meals. We went upstairs to our table and ordered our drinks, and the first course came out. Being that we were starved, Travis and I filled our little plates with what looked like a calamari type dish. Some people started digging in, and our guide Ruby then decides to tell us to be careful and not fill our plates too much because the dish we were eating was actually pigs ear. Some people grimaced in disgust and quickly put down their chopsticks, but I wanted to try something new so I had it anyway. The texture was horrible—very chewy and rubbery. To make matters worse, the taste was just as horrible. It had a sour flavor, and was just not well seasoned at all. We quickly put aside our plates in anticipation of the next course. The rest of the meal was edible fortunately, and we went back to the hotel on full and happy stomachs.
The next speaker was one that we had met earlier when we went to the Binh Duong province. She was from the organization DRD, and she explained to us that their goal was to bring about awareness and equal opportunities for people with disabilities in Vietnam. When I heard that less than .1% of disabled people ever go to college, I just couldn’t believe it. In the U.S. I feel like there is so much support for disabled people, that if one of them wanted to attend college they would have so many opportunities through the many scholarships and government aid that is available to them. It was sad to see that even if someone was smart and disabled, they could still not get college degrees. The presentation though, left me with hope for the disabled persons of Vietnam.
After the presentations we all split up into our groups to go out and do different activities. I had chosen transportation for my group, and was excited because I knew it would be a chance at riding on a scooter! I’ll never forget when An said to me that she felt so cool while we were on her scooter. I asked her if she brought a jacket, thinking that she was chilly, and she laughed and said that she felt cool because she had a foreigner on the back of her scooter and it was the first time she ever had one as a passenger! I laughed back and said that I was the one that felt cool because I was riding on her scooter with her! After parking we went to the bus station where we rode a bus for extremely cheap! This really weird Vietnamese guy sat next to poor Julie while we were on the bus since she had an open spot next to her, and he was sweating profusely and talking his mouth off to her. Its funny because even across countries, you can always tell when a guy is trying too hard and a girl is just not feeling it. We got off at the next stop (thankfully for Julie!) and walked a bit until we reached the ferry that went across the river to District 2. I was shocked at how many people actually used the ferry for day to day transportation. The people would just ride their scooters up onto it until it was packed and then it would make the two minute crossing to the other district. We began walking in district 2 and before we were there for even a minute there were people hassling us about buying rides on scooters to get to the other side. The area from what I saw of it was extremely poverty stricken. Part of me wanted to stay to explore a little more since it was so different from district 1, but we decided to just take the ferry back to the other side since we were on a limited budget and the whole point of the day was to experience different modes of transportation. We went to eat at a food court since the Vietnamese students were told that we wanted American food, but since I had no problem with the Vietnamese food, I decided to eat from the same restaurant they ordered from. An ordered a big bowl of soup which she saved for last and explained to me that in Vietnamese culture, they eat soup last, and usually the whole family eats from the same bowl. I thought this was cute, because in a way it was like they were bonding with each other because it would have been very easy to split up the soup into different bowls if they wanted to. After lunch we took a short cyclo ride. It was funny because I was told by my group members that the cyclos were meant for two people, yet when we hired them out, the driver made sure to split us up so that I was in one alone… I guess one of me equals two of them (if not three—haha!). There was one last mode of transport for me to experience after that—a taxi. We still had about an hour so we decided to make the best of our time and go to a shopping mall! I bought two pairs of fake True Religion jeans for around ten dollars each… amazing deal! Then Julie had noticed that I wore colored contacts and she asked me how much I paid for them. I told her they were a hundred dollars for the yearly’s, to which she was flabbergasted about. She told me that she wore colored contacts too and that if I wanted she could bring me to the place where she got them because they were only ten dollars a pair! At that point I didn’t care if they weren’t FDA approved, I said “yes!!! Take me!”. So we go to what looks like a local eye doctor shop, and she asks them for me to see the different colored contacts they have. I asked her if we needed a prescription, to which she seemed confused at the entire idea. I guess being that Vietnam is a developing country they haven’t yet exploited all the ways to make money through healthcare like the U.S. has! I picked out a pair of contacts, paid my ten dollars and left. I wish I could have stocked up on them but there are just so many goods here that are so much cheaper than in the U.S. that I could only afford to do a little bit of each!
The time came when we had to meet back up with everyone and we all shared stories of our day. Our next activity was to go to visit a local art shop where all the artists are disabled and the money on the paintings goes to the organization DRD who supported the artists. The paintings were nice, but in my opinion they were a little pricey. Travis and I joked with each other that we could try to barter for better prices, but decided to just sit back and be quiet instead. It was really amusing when Travis tried to buy a bottle of water at the stand next door because the lady quoted him a price, he bought it and received a warm bottle of water. When he asked her if she had any cold ones she said it would be double the price! Standing in the baking hot sun and being really parched he didn’t bother arguing with this one, especially since in retrospect, it was only the equivalent of a few cents difference. I guess there’s no getting around the fact that we are tourists and therefore they can charge us extra for anything.
After our day we went back to get ready for dinner. We walked to a restaurant pretty close by to the hotel and did a giant tour around the downstairs area of the restaurant. The cooking stations were bordering the restaurant and it was pretty cool to actually be able to see them cooking the meals. We went upstairs to our table and ordered our drinks, and the first course came out. Being that we were starved, Travis and I filled our little plates with what looked like a calamari type dish. Some people started digging in, and our guide Ruby then decides to tell us to be careful and not fill our plates too much because the dish we were eating was actually pigs ear. Some people grimaced in disgust and quickly put down their chopsticks, but I wanted to try something new so I had it anyway. The texture was horrible—very chewy and rubbery. To make matters worse, the taste was just as horrible. It had a sour flavor, and was just not well seasoned at all. We quickly put aside our plates in anticipation of the next course. The rest of the meal was edible fortunately, and we went back to the hotel on full and happy stomachs.
Friday, January 15, 2010
The Morning After
Last night was a bit of a rough night sleeping for everyone it seemed. Some people stayed up late playing truth or dare and other similar games which woke some of us up. It didn’t really bother me too much because I sleep through just about anything, and if I did wake up it was more because I have sleeping problems rather than from hearing everyone playing. Others didn’t feel quite the same... I guess it was more of a silent type of breakfast this morning since everyone was so tired. My back hurt slightly after sleeping on the cots, but I still think that the experience was worth it for a night because it was such a difference from HCMC in its surroundings and lifestyles of the people. An told me also that the people here are even friendlier towards foreigners than in HCMC because they get less tourists in their region, which I found to be true.
Next we went to see a local hospital where Dr. Eder (Scott) had brought some medical supplies to donate. The look on the nurse and doctor’s faces seemed pretty perplexed as they were given vials of medicine to prevent blood clots, provide local anesthesia, etc. It startled me how the condition of the hospital was, in American standards no hospital would be in this condition. I wondered how many people in critical emergencies actually made it out of there alive, and I became even more grateful of my good health in general, and while in the Mekong Delta region more specifically! Once getting back on the boat we made a quick stop at a brick making factory to see how they were made. They also produced pottery with the same material, and explained that pottery is their best seller and brings in the most money for them, but they can’t make too much because then they wouldn’t have enough clay for the bricks which are needed to build. I noticed that they had a stone casket right in the middle of their factory which was a little creepy. Apparently it was their boss who had passed away some short time ago…must have been an astonishing boss!!!
On the bus ride home we learned a little bit more about the history of Vietnam from our guide Van, and most of us tried to nap from the exhaustion we felt from our lack of sleep the night before!
Since we had a free night, a group of us decided to go out for some Italian food followed by massages. The restaurant we went to had amazing food… it was nice to get a different flavor on my palate as opposed to the traditional Vietnamese food we had been eating every day. A few of us had been handed out these pamphlets on the street of a place that did massages and other salon-type services. We were happily surprised that the salon ended up being directly across the street from the restaurant we ate at. So we walked over only to find out that they were closing and couldn’t take any more customers. Disappointing, but I didn’t mind that much because I had already had one a few days before. As we were walking home, we noticed a massage place right next to our hotel and took a chance and walked in. They said they could take two of us, so Auntie Pand said for us to take it since she wasn’t going with us the next day and had all day to get a massage. The massage was overpriced but I decided to go for it anyway since my back hurt so bad from sleeping on the cots. To my surprise, I get led upstairs and find that the rooms are separated purely by curtains… I could literally see the people next to me. I thought that was weird, but I stayed anyway. Afterwards I walked the 30 second walk back to the hotel and passed out!
Next we went to see a local hospital where Dr. Eder (Scott) had brought some medical supplies to donate. The look on the nurse and doctor’s faces seemed pretty perplexed as they were given vials of medicine to prevent blood clots, provide local anesthesia, etc. It startled me how the condition of the hospital was, in American standards no hospital would be in this condition. I wondered how many people in critical emergencies actually made it out of there alive, and I became even more grateful of my good health in general, and while in the Mekong Delta region more specifically! Once getting back on the boat we made a quick stop at a brick making factory to see how they were made. They also produced pottery with the same material, and explained that pottery is their best seller and brings in the most money for them, but they can’t make too much because then they wouldn’t have enough clay for the bricks which are needed to build. I noticed that they had a stone casket right in the middle of their factory which was a little creepy. Apparently it was their boss who had passed away some short time ago…must have been an astonishing boss!!!
On the bus ride home we learned a little bit more about the history of Vietnam from our guide Van, and most of us tried to nap from the exhaustion we felt from our lack of sleep the night before!
Since we had a free night, a group of us decided to go out for some Italian food followed by massages. The restaurant we went to had amazing food… it was nice to get a different flavor on my palate as opposed to the traditional Vietnamese food we had been eating every day. A few of us had been handed out these pamphlets on the street of a place that did massages and other salon-type services. We were happily surprised that the salon ended up being directly across the street from the restaurant we ate at. So we walked over only to find out that they were closing and couldn’t take any more customers. Disappointing, but I didn’t mind that much because I had already had one a few days before. As we were walking home, we noticed a massage place right next to our hotel and took a chance and walked in. They said they could take two of us, so Auntie Pand said for us to take it since she wasn’t going with us the next day and had all day to get a massage. The massage was overpriced but I decided to go for it anyway since my back hurt so bad from sleeping on the cots. To my surprise, I get led upstairs and find that the rooms are separated purely by curtains… I could literally see the people next to me. I thought that was weird, but I stayed anyway. Afterwards I walked the 30 second walk back to the hotel and passed out!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Mekong Delta Region
Today was the start of our big trip to the Mekong Delta Region. The bus ride we took was around two and a half hours… thank goodness we had a really nice bus where the seats reclined. I sat in the front end in hopes of getting some sleep which didn’t end up happening. I wrote in my journal for a bit and then ended up just talking to people around me. Two of the Vietnamese students told me that from day one they had guessed I wasn’t American, and that I looked French! I was so surprised by this, because I had never been told before that I look French! I’m still not even sure what a French person looks like exactly… but apparently they have some French exchange students that go to HSU so maybe I looked similar to them. They told me how there were similarities between the two languages, and even spoke some words which were exactly the same in both!
Once we arrived we hopped on a boat and cruised along the Mekong Delta along with a tour guide that explained the everyday lives of the people living there. We bought watermelon from one of the boats which was absolutely delicious! I found the cruising along the river really relaxing, and the people living around there seemed really peaceful and were always waving or smiling. We stopped at a house/factory off of the river where they made snacks. One of the snacks were these rice krispie looking things, where we got to watch how they were made. They actually took raw rice, put it in a pan where it would puff up, then they would filter out the hot sand to reuse it, followed by filtering out the rice husks, and adding a caramel sauce to the puffed rice to give it a solid state, finishing it off by rolling and cutting it into squares. I found it amazing how these were made. I thought to myself that nothing in the U.S. is made like this. Nowadays it seems like nothing is natural anymore, and I would bet that less than .5% of commercial foods are handmade! Not to mention that we don’t even use real sugar anymore, we use highly processed corn syrup to sweeten our foods. I really envied Vietnam in the way that all of their foods were so natural and without additives, because in the U.S. not only is it hard to find, but it is really expensive when you do find it.
Lunchtime came and we went to eat at this old preserved home that had been around for hundreds of years. They even earned an award of merit for conserving it so well. We got to eat elephant ear fish which was the popular fish for that region. I will never forget the look on Auntie Pand’s face when she saw the fish get ripped out of the pong and beaten to death with a stick, and ten minutes later show up nice and golden fried on our table! She was mortified! On the other hand, I was excited because I knew it was the freshest fish possible! Rob and I had fun eating the inedible (by American standards) parts of the fish like the mouth and eyes. After our delicious lunch we headed off to the school where we would be donating some stuff to. It was really remarkable to see how thrilled the kids were to see us. We later found out that it was the first time that they had ever met foreigners so I understood why they were like that. When we split up into different classrooms to play games with the students it made me wish that I knew how to speak their language, because I really had no idea what was going on, and it was the Vietnamese students saving the day by leading everything! The gifts we brought really seemed to please the schoolchildren, they were jumping up and down and trying to see what was on the table. It felt really good to see how happy we could make them with a few simple donations from the U.S.
On our way to the home we were going to stay, we stopped at a plant nursery where they fed us some fruit and REALLY strong whiskey! That day I discovered my favorite fruit; jackfruit. I’ve really never had anything so good, I want to describe the taste but since it’s so different from anything I can’t really think of anything to compare it with! The students were so funny with the whiskey though, they took the tiniest sip, and then put it back down! It’s crazy how much of a difference there is between them and us and the general culture of alcohol. I learned that drinking is not accepted at all by the Vietnamese and only on very special occasions is it acceptable, but not in too big of amounts. Julie warned me when I drank my full glass (which was the size of a mini-mini shot glass) not to drink too much or I could get dizzy! It was so cute how they thought that as college students, we had no idea of the effects of alcohol!
When we arrived at the home we were told to pick our bedrooms. There were three different rooms and I chose the biggest of them all and laid my stuff down. The room was just as we were told it would be; cots with mosquito nets hanging from above. When Dr. Eder (Scott) came back from using the bathroom he smiled and warned me that the bathrooms were very “simple.” I was expecting to walk into a bathroom where there are the two foot stands and a hole in the ground, but was happily surprised to find working toilets! I have definitely been through worse bathrooms than this! After my much needed shower we had dinner and Dr. Eder (Lauren) asked me to present the family of whom we were staying with their gifts from Rider University. I thought to myself, the one time I am having dinner in my pajamas, great time for a picture opportunity! (kidding J ) After the presenting of the gifts, we sat for dinner and were brought out these really interestingly hand-crafted dishes. Each course had some sort of little accessory on the plate made out of all food! One was a fisherman, some Vietnamese women, etc. I thought that it was pretty ironic how the best presented food we had was at the home stay! Following dinner were some music players, which was a relaxing end to a long day. I laid in the hammock for a little bit until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and I went to bed early, around 9pm or so.
Once we arrived we hopped on a boat and cruised along the Mekong Delta along with a tour guide that explained the everyday lives of the people living there. We bought watermelon from one of the boats which was absolutely delicious! I found the cruising along the river really relaxing, and the people living around there seemed really peaceful and were always waving or smiling. We stopped at a house/factory off of the river where they made snacks. One of the snacks were these rice krispie looking things, where we got to watch how they were made. They actually took raw rice, put it in a pan where it would puff up, then they would filter out the hot sand to reuse it, followed by filtering out the rice husks, and adding a caramel sauce to the puffed rice to give it a solid state, finishing it off by rolling and cutting it into squares. I found it amazing how these were made. I thought to myself that nothing in the U.S. is made like this. Nowadays it seems like nothing is natural anymore, and I would bet that less than .5% of commercial foods are handmade! Not to mention that we don’t even use real sugar anymore, we use highly processed corn syrup to sweeten our foods. I really envied Vietnam in the way that all of their foods were so natural and without additives, because in the U.S. not only is it hard to find, but it is really expensive when you do find it.
Lunchtime came and we went to eat at this old preserved home that had been around for hundreds of years. They even earned an award of merit for conserving it so well. We got to eat elephant ear fish which was the popular fish for that region. I will never forget the look on Auntie Pand’s face when she saw the fish get ripped out of the pong and beaten to death with a stick, and ten minutes later show up nice and golden fried on our table! She was mortified! On the other hand, I was excited because I knew it was the freshest fish possible! Rob and I had fun eating the inedible (by American standards) parts of the fish like the mouth and eyes. After our delicious lunch we headed off to the school where we would be donating some stuff to. It was really remarkable to see how thrilled the kids were to see us. We later found out that it was the first time that they had ever met foreigners so I understood why they were like that. When we split up into different classrooms to play games with the students it made me wish that I knew how to speak their language, because I really had no idea what was going on, and it was the Vietnamese students saving the day by leading everything! The gifts we brought really seemed to please the schoolchildren, they were jumping up and down and trying to see what was on the table. It felt really good to see how happy we could make them with a few simple donations from the U.S.
On our way to the home we were going to stay, we stopped at a plant nursery where they fed us some fruit and REALLY strong whiskey! That day I discovered my favorite fruit; jackfruit. I’ve really never had anything so good, I want to describe the taste but since it’s so different from anything I can’t really think of anything to compare it with! The students were so funny with the whiskey though, they took the tiniest sip, and then put it back down! It’s crazy how much of a difference there is between them and us and the general culture of alcohol. I learned that drinking is not accepted at all by the Vietnamese and only on very special occasions is it acceptable, but not in too big of amounts. Julie warned me when I drank my full glass (which was the size of a mini-mini shot glass) not to drink too much or I could get dizzy! It was so cute how they thought that as college students, we had no idea of the effects of alcohol!
When we arrived at the home we were told to pick our bedrooms. There were three different rooms and I chose the biggest of them all and laid my stuff down. The room was just as we were told it would be; cots with mosquito nets hanging from above. When Dr. Eder (Scott) came back from using the bathroom he smiled and warned me that the bathrooms were very “simple.” I was expecting to walk into a bathroom where there are the two foot stands and a hole in the ground, but was happily surprised to find working toilets! I have definitely been through worse bathrooms than this! After my much needed shower we had dinner and Dr. Eder (Lauren) asked me to present the family of whom we were staying with their gifts from Rider University. I thought to myself, the one time I am having dinner in my pajamas, great time for a picture opportunity! (kidding J ) After the presenting of the gifts, we sat for dinner and were brought out these really interestingly hand-crafted dishes. Each course had some sort of little accessory on the plate made out of all food! One was a fisherman, some Vietnamese women, etc. I thought that it was pretty ironic how the best presented food we had was at the home stay! Following dinner were some music players, which was a relaxing end to a long day. I laid in the hammock for a little bit until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and I went to bed early, around 9pm or so.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Day 3 in Vietnam
Today was a whole different experience from that of yesterday. We started our day by going to visit the U.S. Embassy office. The security was really tight, and they even took our phones and cameras before entering the building. I was expecting to run into some sort of super-secretive technologically-advanced office building, but nope, it looked just like an ordinary U.S. office building inside. We were greeted by a really energetic and happy lady named Jennifer Letters. She was really interesting to speak with, and two of her co-workers came in and joined on our conversation as well. She explained to us how she got her job, as well as the requirements and standards to be accepted into foreign service. They also gave us a brief history of Vietnam and their relations with the U.S. Some of the statistics were pretty amazing; in 92’ poverty was at 58%, and in 02’ it was at less than 30%. They also spoke about the difficulties that Vietnamese have with getting visas to go to the U.S. They explained that 400 people apply for visas a day, and they only have a very small time frame to decide whether or not they are granted the visa. As our time ran up, we said our goodbyes and moved onto our next destination.
We stopped at a company called IDG which had the first American technology venture capital fund in Vietnam. A guy named Pho spoke with us about their company and I was surprised at how good his English was! Then I found out why; he had done both his undergraduate and graduate degree in the U.S. He explained that Vietnam had an economy that was currently emerging at full speed, and that only happens once per country. So he took the first opportunity he could after finishing college to start getting to work in Vietnam.
One of the main differences I noted between yesterday and todays visits was that in comparing IDG with Becamex, it seemed like IDG was in a much more profitable business. That may have been though because they were not government run like Becamex was. I also thought that Pho was much more exited and lively in his presentations than the presenter at Becamex was, she seemed more monotone and unenthused. Then again, both companies are in completely different fields. I think that IDG is taking more risks but has greater potential for great reward, while Becamex is taking a safer route.
Our next stop was at an orphanage located next to a Buddhist Temple. The nuns from that Temple actually ran the orphanage, and we were able to walk around to visit before we ate lunch. There were quite a few children with physical abnormalities, which we learned was frowned upon, so instead of keeping the children, the parents would just drop them off at the Temple. In fact so many people dropped off their kids at the Temple that they had to build the orphanage right next door! Our lunch was a vegetarian one since their religion doesn’t allow them to eat meat. It was probably one of my favorite meals thus far! I was a vegetarian for a year so the idea of things looking like meat but not actually being meat wasn’t new to me. Some of the others seemed to be a little freaked out by it, but that meant more food for me! J After making our donations and speaking with the nun we learned that these children aren’t even adoptable. Apparently the government only allows for two orphan homes where the kids are adoptable in the entire country! It was sad to see all the young kids and know that they would be there until they turned 18 with no chance of adoption.
Once we got back to the hotel we had a short break, where Rob and I finally got our massages—which were amazing! After that it was time to get ready for the water puppet show and dinner! I thought it was odd that the water puppet shows are known to be for tourists yet the story they told while playing was in Vietnamese instead of English…. I guess to make it seem even more traditional? The show was a lot better than I had anticipated. It was really neat to see all the different water puppets and how much they could move and stay in rhythm with one another. For a nice change in food, we went to a French restaurant which served traditional French food like baguette (which was SO good! I didn’t realize how much I missed bread until then!). After dinner, we went back to the hotel to pack our bags up for the Mekong Delta home stay the next day.
We stopped at a company called IDG which had the first American technology venture capital fund in Vietnam. A guy named Pho spoke with us about their company and I was surprised at how good his English was! Then I found out why; he had done both his undergraduate and graduate degree in the U.S. He explained that Vietnam had an economy that was currently emerging at full speed, and that only happens once per country. So he took the first opportunity he could after finishing college to start getting to work in Vietnam.
One of the main differences I noted between yesterday and todays visits was that in comparing IDG with Becamex, it seemed like IDG was in a much more profitable business. That may have been though because they were not government run like Becamex was. I also thought that Pho was much more exited and lively in his presentations than the presenter at Becamex was, she seemed more monotone and unenthused. Then again, both companies are in completely different fields. I think that IDG is taking more risks but has greater potential for great reward, while Becamex is taking a safer route.
Our next stop was at an orphanage located next to a Buddhist Temple. The nuns from that Temple actually ran the orphanage, and we were able to walk around to visit before we ate lunch. There were quite a few children with physical abnormalities, which we learned was frowned upon, so instead of keeping the children, the parents would just drop them off at the Temple. In fact so many people dropped off their kids at the Temple that they had to build the orphanage right next door! Our lunch was a vegetarian one since their religion doesn’t allow them to eat meat. It was probably one of my favorite meals thus far! I was a vegetarian for a year so the idea of things looking like meat but not actually being meat wasn’t new to me. Some of the others seemed to be a little freaked out by it, but that meant more food for me! J After making our donations and speaking with the nun we learned that these children aren’t even adoptable. Apparently the government only allows for two orphan homes where the kids are adoptable in the entire country! It was sad to see all the young kids and know that they would be there until they turned 18 with no chance of adoption.
Once we got back to the hotel we had a short break, where Rob and I finally got our massages—which were amazing! After that it was time to get ready for the water puppet show and dinner! I thought it was odd that the water puppet shows are known to be for tourists yet the story they told while playing was in Vietnamese instead of English…. I guess to make it seem even more traditional? The show was a lot better than I had anticipated. It was really neat to see all the different water puppets and how much they could move and stay in rhythm with one another. For a nice change in food, we went to a French restaurant which served traditional French food like baguette (which was SO good! I didn’t realize how much I missed bread until then!). After dinner, we went back to the hotel to pack our bags up for the Mekong Delta home stay the next day.
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