Day 63 (03-22-09)

Gooooood Mooorrrrrning, Vietnam! Outdated pop culture references are the best.

Our port in Vietnam is different from all of the other ones that we’ve seen. Typically, we pull up to the country, find the port, parallel park, give the keys to the valet and we’re set. Here, not so much. Saigon is several miles inland from the coast. In order to get to the dock, we have to navigate a shallow and narrow river, and this can only be done in the morning. So a group of us slept outside last night and wake up horrendously early to watch the event. It was pretty cool actually. As we navigated the river, we could see people going about their business on the coast. Harvesting rice. Fishing. Selling goods to passersby. Occasionally waving up at the silly tourists as they passed by in the background. Neat.

I had all day to walk around Ho Chi Minh City today before I have to leave the country again tomorrow. We took it easy for the most part. Went over to the Rex Hotel and saw the hangout spot for journalists during the War. Walked around town for a while and got some Pho (pronounced ‘fuh’). It’s a basic Vietnamese soup dish. And the restaurant was called Pho 2000, so we had to stop. Inside, there was a bunch of Applebee’s-style Americana on the walls. Old Coca-Cola ads. Vintage Ford trucks. Artistic renditions of brand logos for Burger King, White Castle, and In-N-Out Burger. It was bizarre. Western culture has had a large influence on all of the African and Asian nations we’ve visited, but I wasn’t sure what to expect here. I mean… it’s Vietnam. How welcoming of American culture are the people of this Communist nation going to be? We kind of came in and wrecked their country a little bit. More on that later. Check out Day 67 for my rant.

I found a really nice tailoring place and got myself fitted for a suit. It’s pretty much the thing to do here. Mine wasn’t nearly as cheap as some of my friends’, but I’m hoping I get what I pay for. Custom fitted. White with black pinstripes. You can’t beat it. Anyway, afterwards, we found the marketplace and a shop with a huge selection of pirated DVDs. It was beautiful. 10 seasons of Friends. 4 seasons of Lost. 4 seasons of Boston Legal. Less than $30. And they all work. Now I have something to do on the ship. I mean, aside from studying…

After a little siesta, we went back out for some more food (Frozen Yogurt?! In Vietnam?! Yes please). The place we went had free wi-fi, so we brought our laptops and got some quality home-calling done. Chatted with my parents for an hour or so. It was nice. Oh, and I just feel like I should say this, but Skype is awesome. I paid $10 for phone service and an hour-long call from my computer in Saigon to a landline in PA only cost a dollar. That’s pretty unbeatable.

Next up, we went to a jazz club around the corner from the Rex and saw our on-ship A.V. guy (Bob) play some guitar with local musicians. They were just jamming and battling back and forth. It was so seamless, it’s like they’ve been playing together for years, but they had just met. Crazy musicians. I ordered a drink from the bar. It was called Sand and Blood. And guess what it tasted like. Eek.

I leave tomorrow for Cambodia. Angkor Wat, here I come.

Day 64 (03-23-09)

Breakfast. Meeting. Bus. Wait. Plane. Landing. Cambodia. Here we are. Gosh, first Namibia, now Cambodia. I feel like Angelina Jolie. Except not really. How awkward would that be if I felt like Angelina Jolie? I don’t even know what she feels like. Oh now I’m just digging myself in deeper, let’s move on…

Lunch: Rice. Thom Yum Soup. Pho. Fried Vegetables. American food is so boring. I’m liking all of this Asian food. Let’s keep it up. Our tour didn’t waste any time. After lunch: Straight to Angkor Wat. Built originally as a Hindu temple in the 12th Century, it was later converted to a Buddhist place of worship. And it’s big. The complex it sits on it entirely surrounded by a moat. Which is cool in itself. And I still think we should’ve built a moat around our house at home. We had the trenches; I don’t see what the big deal was. Anyway. The main towers of the building are currently under construction for restoration purposes, so we couldn’t walk all the way to the top. But there was plenty to see. Intricate carvings everywhere, from elephants to Buddhas. 900 year-old stonework that’s been preserved after all this time. Incredible.

Hotel. Check-in. Dinner. Dance show. History Channel. Never Been Kissed. It’s 1am, why am I awake? We have a sunrise Angkor Watch tomorrow. Get it? Angkor Watch. Like, it’s Angkor Wat. And we’re Watching it. Angkor Watch? Shut up.

Day 65 (03-24-09)

You should know this by now. But I hate my life. It’s 4:30am and I’m awake. It’s 5am and I’m on a bus. It’s dark outside. Why does the Sun wake up so early? You’d think it could sleep in every once in awhile. Dang.

Sunrise over Angkor Wat. We were here yesterday afternoon. Now the sky is a different color. Maybe I’ll appreciate this more when I’m not groggy.

Breakfast back at the hotel. More touring. First up: Bayon temple at Angkor Thom. Lots of Buddha heads everywhere. They all look like Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple. I found myself talking in his voice all day (…you may be headed into the SHRIIINE of the Silver Monkeyyy). Yeah. Some people took elephant rides around the complex, but I thought that was, like, SO Thailand. We’re in Cambodia now people, duh.

Next: Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King. More intricate carvings on stone temples that have been around for centuries. After this tour, we broke for lunch and then stopped at the hotel. Here, most of the group broke off from the tour. Fun fact: it was 40 degrees today. Celsius. Don’t have a conversion chart? Let me do the math for you. 104 Fahrenheit. Not including the kind of humidity that only a Southeast Asian jungle can bring. It’s been horrendous. But I was one of the 10 people (5 faculty, 5 students) that stuck it out and decided to do the afternoon tour of 4 more temples. Why wouldn’t I? It’s what I paid for. And what else would I do, nap at the hotel, lounge in the pool, or take a taxi to a market? I’ll sleep when I’m dead. We have pools in the States. And I’m getting tired of shopping. Let’s see some temples.

I’d butcher their names if I tried to list them here (sorry I don’t speak Khmer), but the 4 temples we saw this afternoon were great. One was starting to become overgrown with trees. One had a tree growing out of the main stone Buddha’s head. Another had a giant staircase on the front like an Aztec pyramid. The fourth was labyrinthine, and had columns and stone ruins everywhere. It was neat. Plus, afterwards, we got back to the hotel at 4pm with 3 hours to spat before dinner. Everyone else missed out.

Speaking of missing out, guess who slept through dinner? Whoops. After the sunrise and all the walking outside today, I decided on a nap before dinner. But my alarm didn’t go off at 6:30pm. So I woke up at 7:40pm, and everyone was gone. So I wandered around the streets for a little while and found some dive of a local restaurant. I got some pork fried rice and a bottle of water for $1.90. Can’t beat it. Then, as I walked in the door of the hotel, the buses got back and we were all in the same place again. Lovely. Went in the water for a little while tonight and had a poolside midnight snack. Compared to last night, we get to sleep in tonight, so I’m in no rush for bed. But I’ll head there anyway. Jungle Temple and boat ride tomorrow.

Day 66 (03-25-09)

7am. Breakfast. Bus. Boat. Boat? Boat. We took a small boat out on a river and cruised towards a lake. In this lake: other boats. On these boats: people. It was a floating community. People live on their boats on this lake, and come to shore for sustenance. Cambodia has a killer wet season, and these people became sick of rebuilding their flooded homes every year. So they stuck some bamboo underneath them and let the tides carry them as they please. On the lake, there are houses, schools, shops, daycares, everything. It’s nuts.

After the boat ride, we went back to the bus en route to the last of our temples: Ta Prohm. The Jungle Temple. Ever seen the movie Tomb Raider? The first one, not the second. Well, Lara Croft has to go to Cambodia, find a flower at a temple, go into the secret underground place of worship, put the clock in the eye and grab half of a triangle out of a freshly-materialized vat of liquid metallic goo, while swinging on a giant horizontal stone obelisk and hanging from tree roots. It makes sense, really. Anyway, the outdoor Cambodian scenes from that movie were filmed on location at Ta Prohm. The Jungle really just took over the temple 300 years ago. Now, trees and stonework come together as one. Roots intertwine with sidewalk and ancient carvings are masked by bark and leaves. It’s really neat.

Bus. Airport. Flight. Bus. Ship. Sleep. Ho Chi Minh again tomorrow.

Day 67 (03-26-09)

Fun fact: My passport looks cooler than yours right now. And it’s only going to get better.

This morning, I woke up and went to pick up my suit from the tailor. It fits like a dream. I’m very satisfied. Afterwards, I met up with a friend and we got lunch and coffee. Then we went to the War Remnants Museum. Not the ‘Vietnam War’ Remnants Museum. The ‘American War’ Remnants Museum. I’ve been excited about this ever since someone told me it was in Saigon. Also, I use both to avoid repetition, but Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City are the same place, in case it sounds like I’m bouncing between cities. But this museum gave me what I was looking for. It showed me what I had never seen. It shed light on a new perspective. The other perspective. I suppose I wasn’t surprised at what I saw. But I was surprised by how much I loathed it. From what I remember in school, the Vietnam War happened. It was probably a bad decision on our part to enter. There were protests. We left the country, unsatisfied. It’s a blemish on our past. We rationalized it. We moved on. As soon as the topic of the Vietnam War comes up, teachers, in general, let their voices trail off as they make excuses. We don’t have enough data to look at. It’s too soon to assess what really happened. It’s really not part of the lesson plan, so we won’t focus on it in detail. There’s not enough time. You’ll learn about it later. Now, maybe I’m exaggerating. Maybe my 8th and 11th grade history classes, the only 2 in recent memory that would’ve covered the topic, are so far removed from my memory that I simply don’t remember what I was told. But I remember other things. Other wars. Not Vietnam. That’s okay, though. It’s only a little blemish to be overlooked.

I’d like to say that, after this visit, I know enough about the War. But I still basically know nothing. There was too much information to wrap my head around. I couldn’t do it. And the images. The photographs. Things I’d prefer never to see again. But I had to see them. Everyone has to see them. Yet, we don’t. We don’t see the images. We don’t ask the questions. We don’t know the truth. Does anyone? Will anyone ever know what happened? Maybe. Once that generation is dead. Once everyone that can be held accountable is out of the picture. But then we’ll just blame them. We’ll say it wasn’t OUR fault. Those people made the decisions. Then, we can sweep it under the rug once more. Throw the last few toys on the top shelf and shut the closet door. So no one can see the mess that’s inside. Well that door is bulging. And sooner or later… someone will open it. Honestly, I just don’t know how I’ve never learned anything about Agent Orange. Dioxin. One of the deadliest chemicals in the world. And we sprayed it over Vietnam like we were crop-dusting. The Viet Cong, American Soldiers, civilians, they all felt the effects. There are orphanages here in Saigon, and all over Vietnam, still filled with children that are born with missing limbs. Feet where their hands should be. Depressions the size of baseballs in their skulls.  Harelips. Joints that bend the wrong direction. All birth defects because their parents and grandparents were exposed. Two generations later, the consequences are still lingering.

Of course, war is ugly, I know. Maybe I’d be more desensitized to this if I had been made aware earlier. The Revolutionary and Civil Wars were brutal. Some grim photographs and accounts of battle have been published and publicized regarding these wars, but I can’t say that I feel much emotion about them. I’ve always known the history of those events. It’s taught in grade school every year. Because it’s important to know America’s history. It’s important to understand what we went through so that we can move forward. I certainly don’t have any comprehension on the subject of Vietnam. Do you? Does anyone? Have we moved forward? We certainly haven’t confronted the issue. And now, to continue my leftist agenda (please feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph, I probably shouldn’t have even written it anyway), I draw a parallel to the Middle East: Should we be there? Is Iraq another Vietnam? It certainly doesn’t have the media exposure. What are our troops doing there? What’s their mission? Establishing democracy and protecting it? That’s not a war strategy. Do you know why we’re Over There? 9/11… Taliban… Osama… those aren’t answers. I certainly don’t know. I’m sure there’s a purpose in there somewhere. I personally feel like the only reason America still has so many troops in the Middle East is because we’ve been such an unnecessary and unwanted force over there for so long that if we leave, certain factions might regroup and try to bring an unwanted presence of their own onto U.S. soil. But that’s just me.

With that tirade up there, many of you think I sound like a jackass, I’m sure. My fault. Also, I haven’t been in the U.S. since mid-January, so I’m not totally up-to-date on what’s happening. Oh and when I left, Bush was still in office. Maybe Obama has cured cancer and solved the world’s crises by now. He is our savior after all. On the ship, we haven’t been kept in the loop about what’s going on at home. Our global studies professor used to give us headlines every morning before class, but he stopped after a week or two. He found that the news was too depressing, and he wanted to let us enjoy our trip around the world without worrying about America’s domestic problems. Hmm. A teacher deciding to let us figure it out on our own if we really want to. Choosing to omit the truth to shield us from what’s really happening. Guarding the closet door.

Sound familiar?


After the museum, we were sufficiently depressed, so we walked around town for a little while longer before heading back to the ship. Shower. Siesta. 6pm: Barbeque. Burgers and hotdogs and corn via cob and ribs and deliciousness. The only meals we look forward to when we’re on the ship are our barbeques. And this the 3rd one we’ve ever had. Oh, and taco day. I love taco day. But that’s only ever happened once. So I’m not holding my breath or anything. Good bye all. Goodnight Saigon.