Days 2,3, 4, and 5 in Vietnam

Day two in Vietnam, I had an FDP for my Geohazards & Natural Disasters class. We took a boat down the Mekong Delta, looking specifically at human interaction with the river and the impact of floods on the relationship between the Vietnamese people and the landscape.

My professor has a six-year-old daughter named Stella (she looks exactly like Tatum O’Neil in the film Paper Moon) who comes along on all our field trips and talks with the most prim and adorable British accent you’ve ever heard in your life (when you ask this six-year-old girl how she’s doing she says “I’m well, thank you. And how are you?”). We “shared secrets” on the boat ride back.

That evening was the whole rigmarole (to use an Allie-word) involving Emily and our change of plans, so I got to live it up in the hotel room solo, and I made it back to the boat early the next morning to catch Allie and Christina before they began day three in Ho Chi Minh.

We called home from little wooden phone booth stalls in the post office, and then explored the bowels of the enormous Ben Thanh Market for hours.

The first day in Ho Chi Minh City, Christina met a mother and daughter (Elsie and Chloe) who are originally from the Philippines, but who have immigrated to Vietnam for a cheaper cost of living and better jobs. They graciously invited us over for dinner.

So that night we ended up enjoying a home cooked meal in Vietnam. Chloe and her mom were so incredibly hospitable, and we stayed for their little prayer and fellowship gathering, which was random and so fun. I will always remember that night.

The following day, we had a leisure morning. We sipped iced coffee slowly (Vietnam has some of the highest grade coffee in the world—it was amazing) at a café, and wandered through the streets (it’s amazing what delights you can stumble upon when you walk). I also dragged Allie high and low to find a fair trade shop I had read about (quite the fiasco) only to arrive down the ally where it was supposed to be tucked away, and find they had moved elsewhere.

We settled for frozen yogurt instead (did I mention it was incredibly hot and humid in Vietnam? It was HOT and HUMID).

We went back to the boat briefly to drop our things off and devise a plan for the evening, and ran into our lovely friend Brittany. We decided to grab dinner and see a movie (my first trip to the movie theater this whole trip). We enjoyed pho (pretty much the best thing on the planet) and spring rolls for dinner, and were entirely humored to find that the only movie we could get tickets for was “This Is It” (ironic that we came all the way to Vietnam to watch a film about Michael Jackson). But we were there, so we bought tickets anyway (you get to select a seat like you would getting a boarding pass on an airplane…my seat number was G10). And we actually ended up enjoying the movie, and were exceptionally glad to have seen it.

Which brings me to our last day in Vietnam. I woke up early to go visit the War Remnants Museum by myself (the girls had gone the day that I was on my Mekong Delta FDP). I wanted to go and to see it.

I forced myself to stare at the photographs for a long time. To look at the faces—full of trauma and fear and death. It weighs so heavily on your heart, but there was something in me that felt like it was important to do.

After, I walked to meet Christina and Brittany and Allie at the shop where they were getting dresses tailor-made. They had their fitting, and we ooo’d and ahhh’d, and then went on our merry way to the markets to do some last minute bargaining.

I was still set on finding the fair trade shop we had devoted a ridiculous amount of time and energy trying to track down the day prior, so Allie and I slipped away, and to my great delight, we actually found it! The girl who was working there was our age and we ended up sitting and chatting for a while. She attempted to teach us some Vietnamese (quite unsuccessfully, mind you), and after lunch, we decided to go get our toes painted (when your feet have walked you around seven countries, they get pretty battered, I’m not gonna lie).

We made time for one last iced coffee before heading back to the boat, and bidding Ho Chi Minh City farewell.

Happy Sunday, friends. May the start of your week be a wonderful one.

Love. Anna