Saturday, April 05, 2008
We woke up semi-early this morning to make it to our ferry in time. The reason we’re going to Beijing VIA Shenzhen is because the flights from Shenzhen to Beijing are a lot less expensive compared to Hong Kong to Shenzhen. Shenzhen is actually a part of China, so the flight is domestic whereas from HK would be international. The ferry only cost like $20USD as well so it was definitely worth it.
The ferry was pretty much completely empty besides us so we could sit wherever we wanted, which was kind of nice. At first we all sat in the front but as soon as the ship started moving we realized that was a bad idea and moved to the back of the boat where it’s a lot smoother. They showed some movie during the ride but I fell asleep for the entire 1.5 hour ride, definitely a much needed nap.
We had to go through Chinese customs once we reached Shenzhen’s ferry port. They were very skeptical as to why 9 Americans are coming into their country after being to like 9 other countries in the past two months. I’m sure they just have heightened security because of the whole Tibet situation that’s going on, but we had to thoroughly explain our intentions in China, how long we were going to be there, why we visited each of the countries that we just came from, ect. All of these questions even though we already had a Chinese Visa to enter the country. Eventually, we were allowed through customs to where they check passenger’s baggage. I’ve never actually had my bags checked until this security check. All of the airports that I’ve been through on this trip, and the first actual bag search came in China off of a ferry.
Next we took a short, 5 minute, van ride to the Shenzhen airport. The airport was really nice. The first modern airport that I’ve been in since Johannesburg actually. Even the airport in Delhi, the capital of India, was poor and dated. The plane to Beijing was a little over 3 hours. They served us some food, which was nice since we were all starving and the airport café that we ate at in Shenzhen served possibly the worst food ever. Well, not as bad as the ship, but still pretty bad. Another first for me, I’ve never received an actual meal on an airplane. It was decent though.
Upon getting into Beijing we first headed to our hotel, the Beijing News Plaza to check into our room. We had originally wanted to try and check out the Olympic Village area in Beijing but anytime we would say ‘’Olympic Stadium’’ to anyone they would give us a very confused look. We joked that the Chinese government hadn’t told its people that they were hosting the Summer Olympics in a few months, but there were many signs around the city saying ‘Beijing 2008’ so I’m not sure how not one single person understood us.
Next stop on the list was to get some food. We saw some restaurants not far from our hotel so we headed that way, with no idea where we were really going. Just a quick side note, Beijing is a VERY spread out city. The streets are very wide, and anywhere on a map that looks close to where you’re at really isn’t close at all. We ended up finding a little restaurant a few blocks away from our hotel. The food was pretty good. We found out rather quickly though that Chinese food in China is actually a lot fattier and has more bones than Chinese food in America.
After dinner we headed back to our hotel and explored it a little bit. They actually had a pretty sweet pool in the basement of the building. It closed at a really early time though so we never got to going in there. We did get some massages in our hotel though. They weren’t as cheap as in Vietnam, but still not too bad. By this time it was pretty late and the massages put us all in a relaxed state so we just ended up hanging out in the room for a little bit before falling asleep. A lot of travel really wears you out and we planned on waking up early to meet with our interport lecturer early in the morning to go to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Day 71 – Hong Kong
Friday, April 4th, 2008
Upon leaving the ship this morning we again tried to find somewhere to stay for the night. We first went to this internet café that is literally a 5 minute walk from the ship. This didn’t help us out much though since we don’t really know the streets and wanted something close to the harbor since we planned on taking the ferry to Shenzhen airport tomorrow morning. One thing we were able to accomplish here was confirming that our flight from Beijing to Shanghai was moved a few hours, giving us time to see the Great Wall on the last day. Despite the pain of using elong.net (where we got the tickets from) they were willing to change our flight for free, which was nice.
After giving up there we decided to find a hostel and check that out. The hostel that we found was in a building that had literally 30 other hostels in it. This was a big building, but the only thing in it was hostels. Kinda weird, but we decided to check it out and took an elevator to the 15th floor then work our way down. None of us have ever actually stayed in a hostel, and we were looking for somewhere for 9 people to sleep. Our main concern was that we wanted to have a safe place to drop off our bags for the night. One thing we did know was that we didn’t want to carry our bags around all night until we went to bed. So after checking a few floors out in this building (each floor had 4-5 hostels in it) we decided to check out the YMCA because David had heard that they have cheap rooms, and it was located only a few blocks away from the harbor that we were leaving from in the morning. Our final ultimatum was that if the YMCA was a bust, then we would come back here and book a room in one of these hostels. The YMCA is actually a really big hotel in HK. They still have floors with exercise equipment and pools and such, but the hotel takes up a majority of the building. They did (luckily) have room in a ‘family suite’ for the night. By this time we were all sick of walking around wasting precious time in HK trying to find a place to stay for the night, so we were all relieved once this was done.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed back over to Hong Kong island. David’s roommate, Kevin, was looking on a map the day we got to HK and found an intersection of two streets – Bowen Drive and Bowen Road. His last name is Bowen, so he really wanted to check it out. (rightfully so, if I found an intersection of Chapman and Chapman in a foreign country, I would definitely want to check it out). We picked up a taxi driver on HK island and showed him on the map where we wanted to go. This guy spoke very little English, so communication was kind of a problem. He either couldn’t figure out how to get to Bowen/Bowen or just didn’t want to drive down a certain street for some reason. So we ended up getting out of the taxi and walking. It was easy to see that the area was very wealthy. Nice landscaping, big houses with big, fenced yards, ect. The walk to Bowen/Bowen ended up being scenic as well, since it was located on the side of a large hill overlooking the city. I was able to get some good pictures from up there, but he fog still hasn’t lifted from the first day so you can’t see very far and the tops of some of the taller buildings are still covered. We did end up making it to the intersection of Bowen Road and Bowen Drive. Kevin had a nice photo shoot, probably took 100 or more pictures before we could leave.Our next stop was ‘’The Peak’’ on HK island. Everyone there knows where the peak is, so we grabbed a taxi and just said ‘The Peak’ and he knew where to take us. It’s basically just the highest point on HK island overlooking the city. Which is great, except (like I told you before) it was still foggy so we didn’t have the best view. The peak is filled with tourists, but totally random and out of nowhere, I saw a guy wearing a Minnesota Twins jersey. Apparently he’s from Coon Rapids and is just visiting Hong Kong. That made me happy to see a Twins jersey on the complete opposite side of the world. Also made me a little sad that I missed the season opener. Oh well, I’ll just be sure to go next year, as long as I’m not in Hong Kong again ;)
After visiting The Peak we headed to try and find a good sushi place. Chris and Jim are pretty big Sushi fans. I’ve never actually had sushi, but I was willing to give it a try. This part of the world is suppose to have some of the best sushi in the world, so I figured this place is as good as any to try it. After trying to find a place that was recommended to us by some locals that we talked to at Bowen/Bowen we found it, and found out that they wanted like $10 per piece of sushi. It was a REALLY nice restaurant. No way we were going to eat there though so we left and found this little sushi bar across the street.At the start of this trip, I had never seriously used chop sticks. This gave me quite the challenge when arriving in Hong Kong. I’m getting a lot better though! I can actually function and eat comfortably with only chop sticks. Noodles and rice are a little tricky still, but I get by. Haha. I’m not sure what kind of tea this place was serving, but it was possibly the best tea that I’ve ever had. I really should have asked them what kind it was or if they sold it.
After sushi we found ourselves a little crunched for time. We quickly headed back to the ship to meet up with Rachel, Rudy, and Todd who are coming to Beijing with us. We needed to tell them where we were staying for the night and tell them that they need to get ferry tickets to get to Shenzhen tomorrow. After a quick talk and quickly packing everything I needed, we headed to check into the hotel. Some of Rachel and Todd’s friends from Syracuse are studying abroad in Hong Kong so we met up with them before going out for the night. They showed us a nice strip of restaurants not too far away that we could sit down and get some food at and just chill.
Day 70 – Hong Kong
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
We arrived in Hong Kong this early this morning. For the first time since South Africa, we’re actually docked in a good location relative where everything is. Ever since SA we’ve been in the middle of these big shipyards. We’re docked right in Hong Kong harbor, we actually have to walk through a shopping mall to get outside of our ship area.
Once we cleared customs we took a ferry over to Hong Kong Island. It’s about a 5 minute ride and less than $2HKD, which is like 30 cents USD. Once on the island we walked around for a little bit to get a feel for the area. Unfortunately, it has been really cloudy the since we got into HK. We can’t even see the top of most of the buildings today. Kevin had a Lonely Planet book so we found a park in the area that had a zoo in it. Kind of random to be in the middle of HK, but it was cool. They had a lot of different/strange species of birds and a ton of monkeys, which have been in a majority of the countries that we’ve been in lately.
After the park/zoo we went to meet up with Jim and Chris, who we separated from earlier in the day so Jim could try to find a place to fix his computer. He spilled some water on it between Vietnam and HK and it wouldn’t turn on anymore. We met up with them at the Bank of China building, which has some really cool architecture. It’s not the tallest building in HK, but it probably has the coolest design. We tried going to the top but didn’t have much luck, they only allow visitors to go half way up. That’s probably alright though since it was so cloudy we could barely see anything half way up the building. We did find a little coffee shop on the ground floor of the building and changed our flight from Beijing to Shanghai to later, so we would have more time in Beijing. With our original schedule we were planning on waking up really early, like 4am on the day that we were going to leave to go and see the Great Wall. Now we won’t have to wake up and leave until around 8am.
Next we went to the actual Hong Kong Park, which is a fairly large area with beautiful surroundings. I’ve never been to Central Park in NY, but I would guess that it’s kind of like that. There was a bird garden in the middle of the park. Basically just a large enclosed area with a ton of different bird species in it. Then they have this walkway around in the canopy to walk around and see all of the different bird species. It was pretty cool to see, I’ve never been in anything like that before. Lots of colorful birds and the garden area inside the canopy was amazing. In the park they also had a memorial for the SARS outbreak that happened there in 2003. In the memorial they had a description of the epidemic and head statues of 8 of the doctors who died trying to fight it and find a cure.
Our next stop was this teahouse in the park. It looked like a nice place, but once we saw the menu we found out that they wanted like $5USD for a single glass of tea. There was no way I was about to pay that much, but a couple of the people we were with were willing to give it a try. I had a taste of one of theirs and it definitely wasn’t worth the amount that they paid. Not much flavor at all.
After the park we began our journey back to the ship. We had managed to get pretty far away from where we got off of the ferry. We grabbed some dinner at the ship and then headed back out for the night. First, we wanted to try to find a place to stay the night in HK for tomorrow night, since the ship was leaving for Shanghai at 11 tomorrow and we planned on staying the night in HK and going to Beijing in the morning. We didn’t have much luck at all finding a hotel. Everything was way too expensive for what we could afford. Better luck tomorrow I suppose.
Our next stop was a small night market not far from where our ship was docked. They had a lot of cool stuff, including some artwork that I really liked. I’m pretty sure I have enough artwork now to decorate an entire apartment. Good thing I’ll be looking for one once I get back :)
We’ve had so much practice bargaining in the previous countries that it’s getting really easy. I’ve got my bargaining techniques down now, it’s pretty cool.
So after the night market closed we were all pretty hungry and found this little restaurant that was still open. Needless to say, we stuck out pretty badly. It was good food though!
Couple of side notes about Hong Kong. There are a TON of big name stores on every block. They love their expensive name brands. Almost every block has at least two stores with ridiculously priced clothes. There are also a lot of really nice cars. Poverty isn’t exactly a problem in Hong Kong. BMW, Mercedes, Jaguars are all pretty common cars. You know how some busy crosswalks now have a countdown for how much time you have to walk across the street? Well every crosswalk in HK has this ticker sound signaling how much time you have until you can walk again, then how much time you have left to walk across the street. So there’s this constant ticking sound at every crosswalk. Interesting way to solve the issue.
We arrived in Hong Kong this early this morning. For the first time since South Africa, we’re actually docked in a good location relative where everything is. Ever since SA we’ve been in the middle of these big shipyards. We’re docked right in Hong Kong harbor, we actually have to walk through a shopping mall to get outside of our ship area.
Once we cleared customs we took a ferry over to Hong Kong Island. It’s about a 5 minute ride and less than $2HKD, which is like 30 cents USD. Once on the island we walked around for a little bit to get a feel for the area. Unfortunately, it has been really cloudy the since we got into HK. We can’t even see the top of most of the buildings today. Kevin had a Lonely Planet book so we found a park in the area that had a zoo in it. Kind of random to be in the middle of HK, but it was cool. They had a lot of different/strange species of birds and a ton of monkeys, which have been in a majority of the countries that we’ve been in lately.
After the park/zoo we went to meet up with Jim and Chris, who we separated from earlier in the day so Jim could try to find a place to fix his computer. He spilled some water on it between Vietnam and HK and it wouldn’t turn on anymore. We met up with them at the Bank of China building, which has some really cool architecture. It’s not the tallest building in HK, but it probably has the coolest design. We tried going to the top but didn’t have much luck, they only allow visitors to go half way up. That’s probably alright though since it was so cloudy we could barely see anything half way up the building. We did find a little coffee shop on the ground floor of the building and changed our flight from Beijing to Shanghai to later, so we would have more time in Beijing. With our original schedule we were planning on waking up really early, like 4am on the day that we were going to leave to go and see the Great Wall. Now we won’t have to wake up and leave until around 8am.
Next we went to the actual Hong Kong Park, which is a fairly large area with beautiful surroundings. I’ve never been to Central Park in NY, but I would guess that it’s kind of like that. There was a bird garden in the middle of the park. Basically just a large enclosed area with a ton of different bird species in it. Then they have this walkway around in the canopy to walk around and see all of the different bird species. It was pretty cool to see, I’ve never been in anything like that before. Lots of colorful birds and the garden area inside the canopy was amazing. In the park they also had a memorial for the SARS outbreak that happened there in 2003. In the memorial they had a description of the epidemic and head statues of 8 of the doctors who died trying to fight it and find a cure.
Our next stop was this teahouse in the park. It looked like a nice place, but once we saw the menu we found out that they wanted like $5USD for a single glass of tea. There was no way I was about to pay that much, but a couple of the people we were with were willing to give it a try. I had a taste of one of theirs and it definitely wasn’t worth the amount that they paid. Not much flavor at all.
After the park we began our journey back to the ship. We had managed to get pretty far away from where we got off of the ferry. We grabbed some dinner at the ship and then headed back out for the night. First, we wanted to try to find a place to stay the night in HK for tomorrow night, since the ship was leaving for Shanghai at 11 tomorrow and we planned on staying the night in HK and going to Beijing in the morning. We didn’t have much luck at all finding a hotel. Everything was way too expensive for what we could afford. Better luck tomorrow I suppose.
Our next stop was a small night market not far from where our ship was docked. They had a lot of cool stuff, including some artwork that I really liked. I’m pretty sure I have enough artwork now to decorate an entire apartment. Good thing I’ll be looking for one once I get back :)
We’ve had so much practice bargaining in the previous countries that it’s getting really easy. I’ve got my bargaining techniques down now, it’s pretty cool.
So after the night market closed we were all pretty hungry and found this little restaurant that was still open. Needless to say, we stuck out pretty badly. It was good food though!
Couple of side notes about Hong Kong. There are a TON of big name stores on every block. They love their expensive name brands. Almost every block has at least two stores with ridiculously priced clothes. There are also a lot of really nice cars. Poverty isn’t exactly a problem in Hong Kong. BMW, Mercedes, Jaguars are all pretty common cars. You know how some busy crosswalks now have a countdown for how much time you have to walk across the street? Well every crosswalk in HK has this ticker sound signaling how much time you have until you can walk again, then how much time you have left to walk across the street. So there’s this constant ticking sound at every crosswalk. Interesting way to solve the issue.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Day 68, 69 – Back on the ship
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
So we’re back on the ship for a short trip to Hong Kong. It’s so nice not having such a long distance between ports, this is definitely the best portion of our itinerary. The only down side to having such little time between ports is that we can’t get as prepared for the upcoming port. In these two days we only had Global Studies once, because the other day was filled with a test, and the regular two preports. So basically 3 sessions on China/Hong Kong then we’re there!
We did have enough time to find and book a hotel in Beijing, The Beijing News Plaza Hotel. It sounds like it’s a pretty nice hotel, located near Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which exactly where we want to be. Our two preport sessions were some of the two best sessions we’ve probably had so far. We had an excellent Chinese interport student who gave us a lot of great information about Hong Kong, Beijing, and traveling throughout the country. We also have a student on the voyage who lives in China, so he gave us some additional insight. Then to top it off, we have an interport lecturer until Hawaii that has visited China 2-3 times per year for a long time, so he gave us some great information on China from a traveler prospective. I would have to say that even though we only had two days between ports, they did a great job of preparing us and giving us as much information as possible about the country.
My professor for my philosophy class was in the Vietnam war, so he took some time out of class to talk about his experience and wanted to know about our experiences while in Vietnam. To my surprise, he didn’t think that the war remnants museum was that done sided, and he wasn’t surprised by anything that he saw there because he was actually there experiencing it. He also noted to us that the guns in the shooting range at the Cu Chi tunnels were very old and didn’t really shoot straight because the barrels were corroded. So there’s a high possibility that those were the same guns that were actually used to fight against American troops during the war. I had never thought of it that way, talk about a weird feeling!
So we’re back on the ship for a short trip to Hong Kong. It’s so nice not having such a long distance between ports, this is definitely the best portion of our itinerary. The only down side to having such little time between ports is that we can’t get as prepared for the upcoming port. In these two days we only had Global Studies once, because the other day was filled with a test, and the regular two preports. So basically 3 sessions on China/Hong Kong then we’re there!
We did have enough time to find and book a hotel in Beijing, The Beijing News Plaza Hotel. It sounds like it’s a pretty nice hotel, located near Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, which exactly where we want to be. Our two preport sessions were some of the two best sessions we’ve probably had so far. We had an excellent Chinese interport student who gave us a lot of great information about Hong Kong, Beijing, and traveling throughout the country. We also have a student on the voyage who lives in China, so he gave us some additional insight. Then to top it off, we have an interport lecturer until Hawaii that has visited China 2-3 times per year for a long time, so he gave us some great information on China from a traveler prospective. I would have to say that even though we only had two days between ports, they did a great job of preparing us and giving us as much information as possible about the country.
My professor for my philosophy class was in the Vietnam war, so he took some time out of class to talk about his experience and wanted to know about our experiences while in Vietnam. To my surprise, he didn’t think that the war remnants museum was that done sided, and he wasn’t surprised by anything that he saw there because he was actually there experiencing it. He also noted to us that the guns in the shooting range at the Cu Chi tunnels were very old and didn’t really shoot straight because the barrels were corroded. So there’s a high possibility that those were the same guns that were actually used to fight against American troops during the war. I had never thought of it that way, talk about a weird feeling!
Day 68 – Vietnam Day 5
Monday, March 31st, 2008
This morning we woke up with a plan of everything that we wanted to do, so we headed out to the front gate of our port and negotiated a price with two of the motorbike guys to take us around for the whole day. We had a few errands to run, then we wanted to check out the Cu Chi Tunnels, then back to eat and pick up David’s suit before heading back to the ship. We were able to negotiate a ride for the entire day for $25USD, which I thought was pretty solid.
Our first stop was at our tailor so David could make sure the adjustments to his suit were good, then we actually ordered two tailor made dress shirts that he was could make us before the day was over to go with our suits. Then we went the the Citibank Tower to purchase our Japanese Rail Pass. The pass allows us to go on any train in Japan for a 7 day period, unlimited rides anywhere in Japan. This ends up being a great deal and saving tourists a lot of money (they only sell it to tourists). Since we are planning on doing a lot of traveling in Japan, and train is the primary form of transportation we decided it would definitely be worth it. I would guess that at least half of our ship also is getting a Rail Pass. We purchased ours through a place called ANA Airlines, I’m pretty sure that’s just a Japanese airline or something.
On a side note, I’ve seen a large Citibank building in every single port that we’ve been in. I didn’t realize that the company was so big worldwide! I don’t just see Citi on small signs in places, but the big towers. I’ve also seen more KFC’s than McDonalds since we left the states, which kind of surprised me. I would have never guessed that KFC was so popular across the world. It could also just be the countries that we’re visiting, but definitely more KFC’s than McDonalds. Quite a few Subway’s too. Mmmm. American food :)
Our next stop was at the Cu Chi Tunnels, located about an hour away on motorbike from Ho Chi Minh City. These tunnels are the ones that the Vietkong used against American forces in the Vietnam War. Vietnamese refer to this war as the American War. The tunnels form an elaborate underground system that they could move through without the acknowledgement of American forces. Since the Vietkong were so small, the tunnels could be made really small and could be hidden easily. At one point the US actually built a base on top of one of the tunnels without any idea that they were below. Of course they figured out quickly that this was a bad location for the base! They’ve actually expanded a lot of the tunnels by as much as 3x the original opening to allow for bigger tourists to go through them. They also had an exhibit showing all of the different kinds of traps that they used in the war. These were pretty gruesome to say the least! David and I started going through one of the tunnels, but then quickly realized as the we went away from the light that we forgot our flashlight, so we couldn’t go any further. The spaces are REALLY small though, so I’m kind of glad we only had to experience that little portion of the tunnels to avoid any risk of getting claustrophobic.
There’s a shooting range located in this “tourist” area of the Cu Chi tunnels with a bunch of different guns that were used in the Vietnam war. I’ve never actually shot a gun other than a BB gun or a paint ball gun. So I bought 10 rounds for an AK47 and shot them in the shooting range. AK47’s are LOUD. They didn’t really have any adequate ear protection either, just basically headphones like you would listen to music on. The gun had a lot of kick, but there was a guy there helping to make sure I dug it into my shoulder and was prepared for the kick. David bought an additional 10 rounds for an M60, which lasted all of 2 seconds. It’s amazing how fast 10 rounds goes! My 10 AK47 rounds lasted maybe 20 seconds because I was adjusting to hit the target.
Our next stop was the American War Remnants Museum located in Ho Chi Minh City. The museum was full of American Military equipment like tanks, choppers, planes, guns, bombs, ect. Inside the museum though they had hundreds of very powerful pictures from wars around the world, with probably ¾ of them focusing on the American-Vietnam War. I guess I should have expected this, but the entire museum was very one-sided, only showing the terrible things that the Americans did during the war. Pretty depressing to see all of these pictures with captions below them explaining what happened, or what was the cause of the photo. There was nothing in the museum condemning anything bad done by the Vietkong though. Melissa also said her friend saw something in there from Iowa, I wasn’t able to find anything unexpected from Iowa though. Anyone else know what’s in there from Iowa?
Once we were done with the War Remnants museum we headed back to our tailor for a final time to pick up our shits and David’s remaining suits, then headed back to the ship so we wouldn’t miss on-ship time.
This morning we woke up with a plan of everything that we wanted to do, so we headed out to the front gate of our port and negotiated a price with two of the motorbike guys to take us around for the whole day. We had a few errands to run, then we wanted to check out the Cu Chi Tunnels, then back to eat and pick up David’s suit before heading back to the ship. We were able to negotiate a ride for the entire day for $25USD, which I thought was pretty solid.
Our first stop was at our tailor so David could make sure the adjustments to his suit were good, then we actually ordered two tailor made dress shirts that he was could make us before the day was over to go with our suits. Then we went the the Citibank Tower to purchase our Japanese Rail Pass. The pass allows us to go on any train in Japan for a 7 day period, unlimited rides anywhere in Japan. This ends up being a great deal and saving tourists a lot of money (they only sell it to tourists). Since we are planning on doing a lot of traveling in Japan, and train is the primary form of transportation we decided it would definitely be worth it. I would guess that at least half of our ship also is getting a Rail Pass. We purchased ours through a place called ANA Airlines, I’m pretty sure that’s just a Japanese airline or something.
On a side note, I’ve seen a large Citibank building in every single port that we’ve been in. I didn’t realize that the company was so big worldwide! I don’t just see Citi on small signs in places, but the big towers. I’ve also seen more KFC’s than McDonalds since we left the states, which kind of surprised me. I would have never guessed that KFC was so popular across the world. It could also just be the countries that we’re visiting, but definitely more KFC’s than McDonalds. Quite a few Subway’s too. Mmmm. American food :)
Our next stop was at the Cu Chi Tunnels, located about an hour away on motorbike from Ho Chi Minh City. These tunnels are the ones that the Vietkong used against American forces in the Vietnam War. Vietnamese refer to this war as the American War. The tunnels form an elaborate underground system that they could move through without the acknowledgement of American forces. Since the Vietkong were so small, the tunnels could be made really small and could be hidden easily. At one point the US actually built a base on top of one of the tunnels without any idea that they were below. Of course they figured out quickly that this was a bad location for the base! They’ve actually expanded a lot of the tunnels by as much as 3x the original opening to allow for bigger tourists to go through them. They also had an exhibit showing all of the different kinds of traps that they used in the war. These were pretty gruesome to say the least! David and I started going through one of the tunnels, but then quickly realized as the we went away from the light that we forgot our flashlight, so we couldn’t go any further. The spaces are REALLY small though, so I’m kind of glad we only had to experience that little portion of the tunnels to avoid any risk of getting claustrophobic.
There’s a shooting range located in this “tourist” area of the Cu Chi tunnels with a bunch of different guns that were used in the Vietnam war. I’ve never actually shot a gun other than a BB gun or a paint ball gun. So I bought 10 rounds for an AK47 and shot them in the shooting range. AK47’s are LOUD. They didn’t really have any adequate ear protection either, just basically headphones like you would listen to music on. The gun had a lot of kick, but there was a guy there helping to make sure I dug it into my shoulder and was prepared for the kick. David bought an additional 10 rounds for an M60, which lasted all of 2 seconds. It’s amazing how fast 10 rounds goes! My 10 AK47 rounds lasted maybe 20 seconds because I was adjusting to hit the target.
Our next stop was the American War Remnants Museum located in Ho Chi Minh City. The museum was full of American Military equipment like tanks, choppers, planes, guns, bombs, ect. Inside the museum though they had hundreds of very powerful pictures from wars around the world, with probably ¾ of them focusing on the American-Vietnam War. I guess I should have expected this, but the entire museum was very one-sided, only showing the terrible things that the Americans did during the war. Pretty depressing to see all of these pictures with captions below them explaining what happened, or what was the cause of the photo. There was nothing in the museum condemning anything bad done by the Vietkong though. Melissa also said her friend saw something in there from Iowa, I wasn’t able to find anything unexpected from Iowa though. Anyone else know what’s in there from Iowa?
Once we were done with the War Remnants museum we headed back to our tailor for a final time to pick up our shits and David’s remaining suits, then headed back to the ship so we wouldn’t miss on-ship time.
Day 67 – Vietnam Day 4
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
So Semester at Sea gave us all of these warning about NOT taking rides from guys on motorbikes during both of our preports. However, it didn’t take long for people to realize how fun it is to ride them, and not to mention they are a LOT quicker than taking the shuttle bus or a taxi. Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City is pretty terrible at almost all times of the day. At night it’s not bad though. It seemed like almost everyone rode a motorbike, then taxi’s and buses with a few other cars would mix in with them. Motorbikes have the ability to swerve between cars and traffic in places that a car is too big. Bikers also have their own lanes that are always filled up on the street.
So today we decided to take a motorbike to the Ben Than market area and just kind of browse the area. Nothing too exciting, pretty much the same stuff we had been doing the first three days. I did get some internet during lunch and started my download of LOST’s last episode before their break, but I wasn’t able to finish it. Now that I’ve seen the first few I HAVE to see the rest of them.
I found this glossy painting in an arts store that I really liked, so I got it. It’s hard to explain but it’s one big picture split into 4 sections, kind of giving it a modern-type of feel. It has the Gods of Fortune, Wisdom and Happiness on there. In the same store I found 3 square plate type things that you hang on your wall that say life long happiness in Mandarin, which I thought was pretty cool.
I bought these two relatively heavy things early in the afternoon, which was probably a bad idea. They gave me a nice case with a handle to carry everything, but I ended up having to haul this thing around town for the next 4 hours. Needless to say, it got heavy! But I knew there was a chance that we wouldn’t go back there (which we didn’t), so I’m glad that I got it when I did. I don’t want that ‘ol buyer’s regret.
We stopped over at our tailor around 5pm to try on our suits and make sure they fit right. Mine fit great, so I didn’t need any adjustments, but David had a few adjustments for him to make. This is part of the reason why we asked for him to have the suits done a day before we left, so he would be able to make adjustments. Good thing we did!
Now that I had my suit I needed to find some nice dress shoes so I could wear my suit out before I get home and to the Ambassador’s Ball in a few weeks on the ship. I have shoes at home that I really like, but of course I didn’t bring them, so I wasn’t looking to spend too much money on a pair of shoes. Finding shoes in size US11 is HARD in Vietnam! Everyone there is smaller and therefore has smaller, skinnier feet. Most stores didn’t have anything larger than a US 9 (in men’s) but I somehow was able to find a store that had some nice shoes that I liked in a size 10.5 for a good price. Of course I bargained the price with him before buying. Always bargain before you buy anything in Vietnam. Unless the store says it has a fixed price, then you’re SOL.
Bootlegged DVD’s are everywhere in Vietnam. About any movie you can think of, both old and new is available for less than $2USD, and complete seasons of shows are about the same price. The people that I was with stocked up with a ton of movies, so that took a good hour for them to pick out all of the movies that they wanted. However, I didn’t get any. I don’t like that bootlegged stuff. I’m REALLY anxious to get an XBOX 360 though. They have them here, but for about the same price in the US, so I’m just going to have to wait until I have a real job and some money before I buy one.
We took a taxi back to the ship to drop off the stuff that we bought, then planned on meeting up with some other people to go out that night. Once we met up with them we decided that a $10USD massage lasting 75 minutes sounded AMAZING after walking around carrying stuff all day. Vietnam is full of massage parlors/shops/whatever you’re suppose to call them and we had a few handouts from people giving them to us in the street earlier in the day so we headed to one of those places. By the time we actually got to the massage place it was past 11pm, and they close at midnight so I asked the lady before we paid if we would still get the full 75 minutes, and she said yes so we went ahead and got the massage. Unfortunately, the lady that told us that we would get the full 75 minutes left and our masseuses stopped a little before midnight. Although we didn’t get a full 75 minutes, we still only paid $10 and the massage was definitely worth it while it lasted! That was my first actual massage that I’ve had to pay for. Definitely worth it.
After the massage I was spent, but David and Chris insisted on going to the casino before heading back to the ship so we headed there for an hour or so. I decided to give the video black jack a shot, throwing in $10 (which actually lasts a long time since minimum bets are less than $1USD. I didn’t have much luck with that though, I was out within half an hour. (Stupid machines) hah. David actually won a good amount of money on the automated black jack table though. So at least someone won.
When we were done we grabbed a taxi right outside of this casino, which was also a hotel, and asked the taxi if he knew where to take us to get to our ship. Of course he said yes, without really knowing where it was. Luckily, we negotiated a price before getting into the cab because he had no idea where to go. He went around for the longest time asking people on the streets for directions, but he couldn’t figure it out. Finally, I told him to go to the Ben Than market area because all of the taxi’s and motorbike people there know exactly where the ship is since they’ve given us rides to and from the ship and seen our bus stop there. So get lucky and find a motorbike guy that speaks some English (very little) and somehow communicated to him to tell our taxi driver how to get back to the ship. So about an hour later (it’s no more than a 10 minute drive usually) we finally get back to our ship. Talk about an adventure!
So Semester at Sea gave us all of these warning about NOT taking rides from guys on motorbikes during both of our preports. However, it didn’t take long for people to realize how fun it is to ride them, and not to mention they are a LOT quicker than taking the shuttle bus or a taxi. Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City is pretty terrible at almost all times of the day. At night it’s not bad though. It seemed like almost everyone rode a motorbike, then taxi’s and buses with a few other cars would mix in with them. Motorbikes have the ability to swerve between cars and traffic in places that a car is too big. Bikers also have their own lanes that are always filled up on the street.
So today we decided to take a motorbike to the Ben Than market area and just kind of browse the area. Nothing too exciting, pretty much the same stuff we had been doing the first three days. I did get some internet during lunch and started my download of LOST’s last episode before their break, but I wasn’t able to finish it. Now that I’ve seen the first few I HAVE to see the rest of them.
I found this glossy painting in an arts store that I really liked, so I got it. It’s hard to explain but it’s one big picture split into 4 sections, kind of giving it a modern-type of feel. It has the Gods of Fortune, Wisdom and Happiness on there. In the same store I found 3 square plate type things that you hang on your wall that say life long happiness in Mandarin, which I thought was pretty cool.
I bought these two relatively heavy things early in the afternoon, which was probably a bad idea. They gave me a nice case with a handle to carry everything, but I ended up having to haul this thing around town for the next 4 hours. Needless to say, it got heavy! But I knew there was a chance that we wouldn’t go back there (which we didn’t), so I’m glad that I got it when I did. I don’t want that ‘ol buyer’s regret.
We stopped over at our tailor around 5pm to try on our suits and make sure they fit right. Mine fit great, so I didn’t need any adjustments, but David had a few adjustments for him to make. This is part of the reason why we asked for him to have the suits done a day before we left, so he would be able to make adjustments. Good thing we did!
Now that I had my suit I needed to find some nice dress shoes so I could wear my suit out before I get home and to the Ambassador’s Ball in a few weeks on the ship. I have shoes at home that I really like, but of course I didn’t bring them, so I wasn’t looking to spend too much money on a pair of shoes. Finding shoes in size US11 is HARD in Vietnam! Everyone there is smaller and therefore has smaller, skinnier feet. Most stores didn’t have anything larger than a US 9 (in men’s) but I somehow was able to find a store that had some nice shoes that I liked in a size 10.5 for a good price. Of course I bargained the price with him before buying. Always bargain before you buy anything in Vietnam. Unless the store says it has a fixed price, then you’re SOL.
Bootlegged DVD’s are everywhere in Vietnam. About any movie you can think of, both old and new is available for less than $2USD, and complete seasons of shows are about the same price. The people that I was with stocked up with a ton of movies, so that took a good hour for them to pick out all of the movies that they wanted. However, I didn’t get any. I don’t like that bootlegged stuff. I’m REALLY anxious to get an XBOX 360 though. They have them here, but for about the same price in the US, so I’m just going to have to wait until I have a real job and some money before I buy one.
We took a taxi back to the ship to drop off the stuff that we bought, then planned on meeting up with some other people to go out that night. Once we met up with them we decided that a $10USD massage lasting 75 minutes sounded AMAZING after walking around carrying stuff all day. Vietnam is full of massage parlors/shops/whatever you’re suppose to call them and we had a few handouts from people giving them to us in the street earlier in the day so we headed to one of those places. By the time we actually got to the massage place it was past 11pm, and they close at midnight so I asked the lady before we paid if we would still get the full 75 minutes, and she said yes so we went ahead and got the massage. Unfortunately, the lady that told us that we would get the full 75 minutes left and our masseuses stopped a little before midnight. Although we didn’t get a full 75 minutes, we still only paid $10 and the massage was definitely worth it while it lasted! That was my first actual massage that I’ve had to pay for. Definitely worth it.
After the massage I was spent, but David and Chris insisted on going to the casino before heading back to the ship so we headed there for an hour or so. I decided to give the video black jack a shot, throwing in $10 (which actually lasts a long time since minimum bets are less than $1USD. I didn’t have much luck with that though, I was out within half an hour. (Stupid machines) hah. David actually won a good amount of money on the automated black jack table though. So at least someone won.
When we were done we grabbed a taxi right outside of this casino, which was also a hotel, and asked the taxi if he knew where to take us to get to our ship. Of course he said yes, without really knowing where it was. Luckily, we negotiated a price before getting into the cab because he had no idea where to go. He went around for the longest time asking people on the streets for directions, but he couldn’t figure it out. Finally, I told him to go to the Ben Than market area because all of the taxi’s and motorbike people there know exactly where the ship is since they’ve given us rides to and from the ship and seen our bus stop there. So get lucky and find a motorbike guy that speaks some English (very little) and somehow communicated to him to tell our taxi driver how to get back to the ship. So about an hour later (it’s no more than a 10 minute drive usually) we finally get back to our ship. Talk about an adventure!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Day 66 – Vietnam Day 3
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
We slept in this morning for the first time in over a week. We didn’t sleep too late though because we don’t want to waste any of our time in Vietnam (or in any port for that matter). We decided to check out the markets again but this time bargain and actually buy stuff. Fast wireless internet is pretty extensive throughout Ho Chi Minh City as well, so we were able to get a little while eating lunch. Enough to download my emails at least. I’ve got this whole plan worked out where I don’t have to use any of my internet minutes on the ship until we leave Japan. Then once we leave Japan I’ve got it worked out to how many minutes I can use every day so I don’t go over my 250 minutes originally allotted to me. I can get by doing pretty much everything that I want besides download my email, upload my pictures, and IM. I think this is quite an accomplishment. Me, Mr. computer guy who spends pretty much his whole day on the internet while at work, being able to limit my internet usage to sites that I can get for free plus 250 “anything” minutes. I don’t know anyone else on the ship who hasn’t already bought at least one more internet package (for like $.40/minute) besides David, because I’ve showed him all of my tricks that get me by without having to actually login.
Anyway, back to shopping in Vietnam. I just bought a few shirts that said things like Saigon, Good Morning Vietnam, Tiger Beer (popular in Asia like Budweiser or Miller in the states), and others. I was able to get each of them for like $2.50USD each. How can you go wrong with shirts that cheap?!?!
We ate out for dinner again at some random restaurant that we found. The food that we had for lunch and dinner were both excellent. Food is cheap here as well. So basically, everything is cheap in Vietnam, just like we were told :)
At night we all got together and basically just wandered around the city center area. A few of us wanted to find a casino to hopefully play some cards so we asked around until we finally found one inside of a hotel. They didn’t have any cards though, everything was on a machine. They had blackjack (which is what we all wanted to play)in a similar table-like environment, but it was still all just a video screen. There was a big screen in front of you with the dealer as she dealt the cards, then you could see on the big screen the total of each player (but not their actual cards) then everyone had their own video touch screen that they made their choices with. Needless to say, I hate video gambling games. The odds are set against you. This was better than playing slots, but I would feel more comfortable playing with actual cards, so I didn’t play.
Something I didn’t really mention before, the bus drops us off right in front of the opera house, which is sold out for the next 5 years or something like that. The taxi’s and motorbike drivers all know that our bus drops us off there, so they sit there and try to give us rides to different places. The whole area is kind of a tourist/shopping area as well, so they have plenty of business there. But there are about 5 or 6 little girls that hang around in the area at night, still in their school uniforms trying to sell people single roses. They’re some of the most hyper and outgoing little girls that I’ve ever seen. Extremely friendly though, and interested in where we’re all from and how long we’re around, ect. But you would never see a pack of little girls trying to sell flowers in a city in the states. I guess that just goes to show how safe Ho Chi Minh City is at night, or at least the area that we were in.
Day 65 – Vietnam Day 2 - Mekong Delta
Friday, March 28th, 2008
We woke up early this morning to go on Mekong Delta trip through Semester at Sea. I refuse to go on any big SAS trips because they are so expensive and being put onto a set schedule when you want to see something just isn’t fun. However, I’ve done a couple small day trips and so far most of them have been good. Our trip to the Mekong Delta was perhaps the best one I’ve been on thus far though. I heard this same comment from many other people.
So the bus left the ship around 8am, our first stop was at this big Buddhist temple that was on the way. I’m not sure if they ever really told us the name of it, but it was a pretty big temple with a huge statue of Buddha in front of it giving the Buddhist peace sign. There were two men inside who were saying a prayer or doing some sort of song/ritual when we went inside. It was a beautiful temple, I’ll be sure to upload those pictures as soon as I can.
Our next stop was in the middle of nowhere to see people working in a rice field. I’m not really sure why we stopped there. They parked the buses right on the side of the street and we had to cross the street, then we just saw what a rice field looks like and how they harvest the fields. This is the kind of thing that just screams tourist to me and is kind of embarrassing to be a part of. I don’t like sticking out like a tourist in a big group.
Our next stop was pretty pointless as well. After our guide described how a market works in Vietnam, she dropped us off at one. Understand that almost all shops in Vietnam are in a marketplace type environment where you bargain for your final price. Never pay their initial asking price, always bargain. Anyway, we looked around for a little bit and then left to finally get to the Mekong Delta area.
First, the group of about 25 of us hopped on this Vietnamese boat (wood built, not designed like a regular boat you would see in America) and crossed the river, which is a huge area. We also were able to see a big bridge that was being built to cross the river. Our guide didn’t say when it began being built, but said that it is suppose to be done in September. To me, it looked like they had quite a ways to go, it looks pretty cool though. The river was full of a lot of boats, the banks are also lined with docks, boats, and houses.
Once on the other side of the river we stopped at this coconut candy making factory. I shouldn’t really call it a factory, because it isn’t like a traditional factory that you would think of. It was just a sheltered area with a couple machines to strip the coconuts and make them into powder, then the fudge needed to mold it into candy. The process is kind of hard to explain… Hopefully my pictures will clear that up a bit. Anyway, they gave us some free samples of the candy that was freshly made that morning and hadn’t yet been put into packaging. There were a bunch of different kinds, but every kind I tried was absolutely AWESOME. Soooo good. We watched them cut the candy strips then roll them in rice paper and package them. Then a few feet away from that they sold them. I bought 7 packages (between 10-20 pieces per package) of all different flavors that I’ve vowed not to eat until I get home and can share it with all of you. It’s going to be hard not to eat it, but it’ll be all that much better once I can with you :)
Once everyone was done trying and buying candy we hopped on a cart hooked up to these little mini-horses that almost looked like donkeys. To be honest, I thought they were donkeys at first… More like mini-horses (Rob&Big plug) I guess. These poor horses took like 5 of us up this road (with a hill) for about a mile, then we got into these smaller boats that held 4 passengers, then a rower in the front and back. This was about a 15 minute ride that took us through a small canal area leading back to the big river. It was beautiful to see. They also row boats different than we traditionally do, which is kind of weird, but it seems to work for them.
Our next stop was for a traditional Vietnamese lunch. Now this was interesting! First we were served this whole fried fish that was standing upright. A waitress came and chopped it up and put it into little spring rolls right in front of us. I have no idea what kind of fish it was, but it was delicious! The sight of it was a little different than anything that I’ve ever ate though! Along with the meal we got some fresh shrimp, spring rolls, and a few other things that I’m not really sure what it was. It was all good though and definitely filled us up! I would go back to eat there any day.
Our last stop before heading back was to eat some fresh fruit grown locally in Vietnam. I forget the name of all of them besides pineapple and papaya. It was a group of 5 different dishes though, I enjoyed them all even though I had no idea what they were.
So, like I said before, overall it was a really good SAS trip. The heat and humidity in Vietnam is terrible and we were sweating pretty much the entire time, but the food was delicious and the scenery was amazing.
Day 64 – Vietnam Day 1
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
They talked about this great sunrise at preport that we were going to be able to see while going up the Saigon River to Ho Chi Minh City. So I woke up at like 6am to go out to the back of deck 7 and see it. However, it was cloudy/rainy so there was no sunrise. It was cool to see the ship going up the river though, this is the first river that we’ve went up to get to our destination. I had enough after less than 5 minutes and headed back to bed until our diplomatic briefing at 9am that morning before we could debark the ship.
Once again, our ship is located in a terrible location relative to the city. We haven’t docked in a good location where we could go somewhere without having to take a taxi/bus/rickshaw/tender to get to our destination since South Africa, which was located in an awesome spot right next to a big mall and lots of tour places for things to do in and around Cape Town. We’re basically just located in a big ship yard, much like India and Mauritius. Thankfully, there’s a free shuttle that runs from the ship to the city center area. However, the shuttle only runs every 40 minutes or so and going there on a bus takes a lot longer than a taxi or motorbike would. As long as we weren’t in a hurry we would take it though, because it is free – and free is good.
We don’t really have a whole lot of plans for Vietnam, so the first day we just went around to a bunch of different shops. Just browsing though on the first day, I really try to hold back from buying anything the first day. The first day you can get a feel for what’s available in a lot of places (if it’s abundant you’ll have more bargaining power) and what’s more rare. One thing that we wanted to take care of the first say for sure was get some tailor made suits made. We walked around, looked up some tailors on the internet (there’s a lot of different tailors in Vietnam), and went into a few stores for some quotes before we finally picked one that we liked. It was probably the 5th or 6th tailor place that we checked out before we agreed with the prices and thought that the stuff he had in the shop showed quality tailoring. Once we picked the tailor came the hard part, picking out the style and kind of fabric that we wanted in our suit. I would have done a lot more research beforehand if I could have, but I really don’t know what to look for in a suit. 
He had a book full of all different styles and helped us pick out what would look good for each of us though. He was very helpful to say the least. He didn’t speak the best English, but we were able to understand each other one way or another. So I ordered 4 tailor made suits for $100 each, a heck of a deal if you ask me! The suits are: solid black, solid navy, black with pinstripes, and grey with light pinstripes. After measuring us we had to pay half up front and scheduled a time to come back in a few days when it was done. We purposely made an appointment a day before the ship left in case adjustments were going to be needed when we tried them on. Taking care of all of that was a huge relief. It was stressful trying to find the right tailor then the right suits! But I’m happy with what I chose for suits and we were all confident in the tailor. The name of the shop (and I believe the tailor too) is Nhut Van. It’s just a small little shop right off of the street, but not too small
After taking care of the suits we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the ship. SAS always gives us a “Green Sheet” (I think I’ve talked about this before) in every port that has important country information such as emergency numbers, hospital locations, how to contact the ship, ect. It also has the location of where our ship is docked so we can get back to the ship. Well the location that they gave us for Vietnam was very vague so when we show a taxi driver the name of the place that we’re docked in, they have very little idea of where that actually is. Of course they’ll always take you, but we learned on our first cab ride that they had no idea where to go. We ended up giving him more directions on how to get back to our ship than he knew, and we had only been on this route once so our directions weren’t very good. Anyway, we got back to the ship without getting too lost. I heard some horror stories about other people taking taxi’s and them just getting lost and driving around for a long time. Luckily that didn’t happen to us!
We ate back on the ship, then took the free shuttle back to the main part of the city to check out the night market that was located outside of the Ben Than Marketplace. Ben Than is the main marketplace in Ho Chi Minh City. You can tell any taxi driver that you want to go there and they’ll definitely know where to go.
So we’re driving on the right side of the road again. Vietnam is the first country since Brazil to drive on the right side of the road. It’s actually really weird to see. I’m just use to driving on the left side now so when we’re driving I always thing the guy is going into the wrong lane at first. Hopefully I don’t find myself going down the wrong side of the street when I get home! Hahaha. I’m sure that won’t happen… I hope :)
Day 61, 62, 63 – Back on the ship
Monday, March 24th, 2008
I was able to find some free internet really close to the ship to download my email and check the latest tournament scores before getting back to the ship for the last time. We weren’t able to leave at our initial departure time of 11pm because the tide was too low in the area that we were anchored. It was kind of interesting because there was a heavy current in the area as well, so even though we were anchored and on the ship, the ship still moved with the free rope from the anchor. They’ve told us that even though we won’t be able to leave until the early morning, we’ll still reach Vietnam in time, we’ll just go a little faster. David had a good point while we were in Langkawi on the last day of Malaysia. The difference between a tourist and a traveler is that a tourist does everything through a tour agency and a traveler figures it out for themselves. I never want to be considered a tourist. It’s WAY cheaper to do it on your own. A tour agency is going to take a commission, they’re not going to search for the cheapest prices, and you’re going to be stuck to a schedule. Traveling independently is much more fun as well.
Malaysia was awesome; I definitely want to come back to the area and visit KL (again), Singapore, Bangkok, and some of the other surrounding cities. I would have to say it’s probably my 2nd favorite stop so far, after South Africa. A lot of people were worried that they were going to get sick on this trip from eating some bad food somewhere. Fortunately, I haven’t run into any problems yet (knock on wood). Most everything I’ve ate has been nothing short of delicious.
I was able to mail out half of my postcards before leaving Malaysia. I ran out of stamps so I wasn’t able to mail all of them. I’ll be sure to try and get as many as I can out while we’re in Vietnam.
Photos up to India have been uploaded so far. I did upload some from India but was reluctant because I haven’t put captions on them yet, so I’ll go back and put captions on them at a later time. Enjoy the pictures! Most of them are in order, but there were some problems so you’ll probably notice a few out of order. Sorry about that.
I overheard a faculty member saying that they’ve never actually had a case of Malaria on SAS. This surprised me at first, but when I thought about it they do give us constant reminders to take our Malaria medicine and wear our sunscreen with DEET whenever we go to a place that could have malaria.
We’ve been passing a lot of islands and ships on our way to Singapore today. You can also feel the ship turn at times to maneuver between the islands. I guess I never really thought about it, but Malaysia is scattered with a ton of different islands.
We spent about 12 hours bunkered in Singapore to “take advantage of some lower fuel prices.” We just anchored again in an area that had a lot of other ships anchored. We weren’t able to get off the ship though and still had to attend classes, which kind of stinks since we’re not moving anywhere, but oh well. I didn’t actually see this but apparently some planes from the Singapore Air Force were flying over this morning and saw a bunch of people laying out on the back decks so they started doing some tricks for them and basically just showing off, which was pretty cool. I wish I saw it. At one point they put their smoke on and 3 planes made a heart with an arrow through it, pretty hilarious.
So since this is the most travel intense part of our trip we only have 3 days between ports. This means that we have pre-port the day after we return, which is awesome. We also have an interport lecturer and student to give us tips/pointers for Vietnam which have been really helpful. We’ve had these people come on the ship before but they’re not always that helpful, these were probably some of the best at giving us the important information.
I have no idea how this works since we’re still going East, but we set our clocks forward one hour before reaching Vietnam. They actually say our cocks need to be “retarded” one hour. (WHAT?!) I’ve never heard that term used for setting your clocks forward, but they used the term multiple times and it shows that on our TV as well. Weird.
The night before we docked in Vietnam 10 of us guys got together to have a fantasy baseball draft, which went pretty well if you ask me. I feel confident with my current team, although I may need to pick up or trade for one or two better relievers.
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