Welcome to Viet Nam and Happy 26th Birthday!
Bryan had a “Reading Week” for school this past week. Reading week is intended to offer students additional study time to prepare for mid-term or final examinations and presentations. We decided to take our reading week on the road and go to Viet Nam for a celebration of our own! Needless to say, we didn’t get much studying done…okay, okay….we didn’t get any studying done. But every Grad student needs a break…right?!
We left on Valentine’s Day for Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam. First of all, I must say that Singapore Airlines has it ALL right with their service. Our flight was only about 1 hour and 45 minutes long. As soon as I saw the purple seats, I knew it would be a good flight—warm towels, a full meal, on demand television, free beer and wine, and we even checked a bag….for free. Can you believe it?
Well, as Bryan shared in a previous post, we arrived smack in the middle of all of the Chinese New Year and Tet 2010 celebrations and the city was bustling! We stayed at Hotel Continental right in the middle all of the excitement! Bryan learned about the hotel through a book written by Graham Greene named “The Quiet American”. He actually ended up finishing the book while we were on our trip and really enjoyed it! The hotel celebrated French Colonial architecture and definitely offered a unique experience. Our favorite part you ask? Definitely the Continental Patio where they served us our free breakfast every morning!
When we arrived we decided to meet up with one of my new friends in Singapore, Caroline, and two of her travel buddies for dinner and bowling. If you need to ask who won, you must not know Bryan very well…he took home the gold…and if you have to ask who lost….you must not know me very well….I didn’t exactly take home the bronze either…but I still have a husband who loves me…you can’t have it all! It was an awesome way to celebrate our Valentine’s Day and was a great introduction to the city!
After having visited Viet Nam, I really think they should change their national flag symbol from a star to a motorbike….these things are everywhere. And actually, they really don’t leave much room for anything or anyone else on the streets. Bryan got pretty good at directing traffic so that we could cross the street while we were there. It was a normal site to see a family of 4 squeezed onto a motorbike just casually riding along—dad would be driving, while mom held one of the babies, while the other little one played with a giant stuffed animal on the back—it was crazy! Bryan was a little too nervous to let me drive a motorbike in a foreign country, so we stuck to our good old fashion walking shoes for most of the time.
One afternoon we went to the War Remnants Museum—it captures the Vietnam War through the eyes of the Vietnamese—while it was a very one sided portrayal, it absolutely offered an incredible walk through a not so distant history. We learned that the museum was actually opened to the public just about 5 months after the fall of South Vietnam. The museum had exhibits related to the American phase of the Vietnam War. It was split up into several pretty powerful exhibits. An area where they displayed some very gruesome photos of the damage that napalm bombs and Agent Orange caused, “Requiem” was a room of a collection of pictures taken by war reporters who were killed during the Vietnam War, there was an area of “Imprisonment Systems” including a model of the Tiger Cages that they used to torture prisoners during the war. And one of the most beautiful pieces of the museum was an area of children’s paintings called “War and Peace”. In the museum yard there were exhibits of weapons used during the Vietnam War including tanks, planes, missiles, and helicopters.
I can’t believe Bryan celebrated his 26th birthday just a couple of days ago. We started dating shortly after his 18th birthday…so it’s pretty incredible to look back at the journey thus far and look forward to the future! On Bryan’s birthday, we visited the Cu Chi tunnels. This intricately designed cobweb of underground tunnels is located in the Cu Chi district of Viet Nam, and was used by the Viet Cong guerillas during the Vietnam War. During combat these tunnels served as hiding spots, and communication and supply routes. However, I didn’t realize that there was an entire Cu Chi community of people that relied on the tunnel system for safe transport throughout the city, and living quarters. The tunnels even housed hospitals, schools, food and weapons for the Viet Cong and many others during the war. Bryan and I got to walk through the tunnels (well sort of…I crouched and Bryan squeezed…they were very narrow-wouldn’t recommend it if you are claustrophobic) and it gave us a much deeper understanding and a greater appreciation for the kind of war that was fought just 50 years ago.
We were able to see and do so much on our trip; we saw pagodas, the Reunification Palace, ate a lot of Pho (Vietnamese soup), cruised down the Mekong Delta in a canoe, played with a boa constrictor and hung out at a honeybee farm, shopped in local markets, got inexpensive massages (only $12.00US for 1 hr.) and enjoyed traditional dragon dance shows on the streets to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This trip had significant historical relevance and overall it was a powerful exploration of a beautiful country!
Hope all is well!
Love,
Keela
