Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Vietnam - Random Stuff
scariest set of experiences on this voyage so far. Street lights don't
really exist in Vietnam. In fact, pedestrians having the right of way
when crossing doesn't exist either. Though there are few cars in
Vietnam, there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of motorized
bikes that I am not sure what to call since I just don't remember the
actual name. Basically, these cars/bikes drive super fast, take turns
widely, and don't stop for pedestrians. Since there are no stoplights,
there isn't a change to cross freely and we were literally told in
preport just to start walking. The most important thing, we were told,
was to keep a common pace and just keep going. A lot easier said than
done, right? Petrified, I noticed I was completely horrible at just
going and ended up just grabbing the person closest to me at any time
and closing my eyes while trusting them not to make me killed. My heart
raced still with each time I crossed, and I have never been more
thankful for Boston, or even New York City, traffic. At least I won't be
expected to just walk and hope that the cars decide to go around me
rather than into me. If anyone reading this is ever in Vietnam, just
cross the street as little as possible. I realize its inevitable not to
cross at all, but try your best, or at least find less crowded streets
to cross even if it requires a bit more walking. 20 people die crossing
the street every day in Vietnam. Holy shit.
*Dangerous. Vietnam was the most dangerous port that we went were
traveling to. During pre-port, we were of course told this, but since
we've been to "take care of ourselves and each other" in every pre-port
except for Singapore (where we were told to drink all the tap water we
get our hands on), so I think a lot of people neglected to believe the
severity they tried to instil. I'll admit that I didn't take it much
more seriously than any other port, but thankfully I tend to be more
cautious that a lot of other people just by nature. Anyway, long story
short, more people had run ins with guns, robbery and violence than in
all of the previous ports combined. More students than I can count got
locked in taxis until they gave up their possessions, a few others got
held up at gunpoint, more were drugged, and 2 others had very serious
accidents that for one ended, and for one greatly affected, their roles
with Semester at Sea. I won't tell any of these stories in detail since
they aren't my own, but this is the primary reason my friends and I
decided not to go out to any popular bars or clubs at night and even
stayed on the ship for the last night in port. It really wasn't worth
the risk.
*Gluten Free. And now, for a happy note on Vietnam. My tour guide had it
right when he told me Vietnam doesn't have wheat. This is the first port
where I didn't have to eat nothing but protein bars for days on end. I
got to eat almost all the same food as everyone else! I got to
experience the national dish, I didn't have to question ingredients or
cross-contamination anywhere. In fact, the only place that I even saw
wheat was at Subway. Everything is rice based and it was literally a
gluten free heaven. It felt so nice to not have to worry about hidden
gluten, like malt in my smoothies or cross-contamination. It felt even
nicer to be eating the same meals as all of my friends. Delicious is
quite an understatement. Vietnam may not even know what gluten is, but
as it doesn't even exist, that doesn't really make a difference. Though
Disney might be a gluten free heaven in America, I think Vietnam has it
beat as an international destination.
*Ho Chi Minh. His picture is literally everywhere. I expected to see
this in regards to Mao in China, but it was a bit more unusual (though
not entirely surprising) in Vietnam. When we went to the school for the
disabled, Ho's picture was plastered above the degrees of the teachers.
His face is on tees everywhere and his portrait is somewhere in ever
government entity. It is very strange how communism often sees to be
such a cult.
*Weddings. The United States doesn't recognize marriages performed in
Vietnam (or at least that's the MV community has been taught to know),
so therefore it should be no surprise that SAS students desired to make
a complete mockery of the Vietnamese institution of marriage and just
"marry" random people. There are quite a few couples now married in
Vietnam on this ship, and more than once we were invited to a "wedding."
Though I think it would have been fun, my negative attitudes towards it
definitely outweigh the fun value. Random people were getting married to
people they have known for 2 months, just because they think it would be
fun. For the Vietnamese, marriage ceremonies aren't just a joke, and it
made me pretty resentful to see students, who are supposed to be
learning about other people, having a wedding simply for satiric comedy
and entertainment. After we left Vietnam, I was proud to answer no when
people asked Dain and I if we were "one of the couples to be married in
Vietnam." This real couple has actually learned something from the SAS
experience.
*Prices. Vietnam is SO cheap. DVDs were 50cents, shirts were like $3-5,
full meals were less than $2 and magnets were about 10cents. So I got to
eat and buy everything, and spend less than any port before it. Works
for me.
Overall, Vietnam was a lot more than I expected. Ho Chi Minh was a
modern city and the consumerist in me definitely had a field week. It
was a really nice experience, and the food was just amazing, though I
can't pretend it also wasn't the scariest. I was happy with my time in
Vietnam, but ready to head to China.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Vietnam - Day 5
again, going to the Cai Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. The temple
was about 2 hours away, and we got to walk around it and then watch a 1
hour ceremony. Basically, Cai Dai is a local religion founded in the
1930s that combines the ideas of three different religions and has 3
different saviors. One a french writer, one Sun Yet-sen of China, and
one I honestly can't remember. The decoration was clearly ornate and
what was totally crazy was that this wasn't just a temple but rather an
entire city surrounding it. We didn't have much time to explore, but I
could only see an exit in one direction while the rest just contained
building after building after building. Before entering the temple, we
had to remove our shoes and to watch the ceremony we had to travel to
the 2nd level balcony as we weren't allowed on the same floor as those
participating (I'm not exactly sure what they are called). At 12 on the
dot a bell rang and hundreds of people droned in robes came walking out
an an organized line and took their spots on the floor. Some of those in
the front had on colored robes, I'm assuming these were the high ranking
church officials, while the rest were in white. One man in yellow sat
clearly at the front. Most of the time they sat in complete silence, but
every now and then certain bells would ring and certain actions would be
performed. I assume they were silently praying, but I wish I knew for
sure what was happening in front of me.
We then drove to lunch at a place not too far away from the temple.
Again, I was able to eat SO much and it was incredible. I had soup, and
noodles, and spring rolls, and fries. Yummmmmmmmmmmm. We got into a bit
of trouble with the waitresses because we all walked up the street to
buy drinks since she was trying to charge us $3 for a small bottle and
it was .50cents up the street for a huge one, but thankfully one of the
RDs on our trip spoke Vietnamese and did the explaining/arguing/who
knows what for us. After using the restroom (which is noteworthy for two
reasons, 1) because the doors were see through from the outside, which
means everyone waiting could see us in the bathroom, and 2) because this
was the beginning of by far the worst bathroom-related experience of my
life), we headed out.
**Disclaimer: Toilet Talk ahead**
The tunnels were about an hour away, and as we continued I realized it
was a very poor idea to have drunk 2 1-L bottles at lunch. As I felt my
bladder continue to fill, I noticed the bumps in the road and the
traffic ahead. Screaming in pain, I literally dug my head into Dain to
cry, simply hoping that some liquid would leave my body. We kept asking
the guide how long and repetitively he said we were almost there. One
time, he even pulled into a parking lot, and as I got ready to sprint
out, he told us it was just an entrance to a shrine that wasn't open but
have fun taking a picture from the bus window (thanks, man). The tunnels
were still 20 minutes away! AHHHHHHH. I started huffing and puffing and
I know my face must have been beat red. Writing this entry, I literally
am starting to feel the pain I felt, which I can guarantee you was a
worse full, un-relieving, feeling than that one time I had to have my
entire bladder filled at a doctors office just to see what my body did
with it. Before this, I thought that was the greatest relief moment of
my life, but this was probably about to be even better, if I could make
it there. Honestly, this is the first time in my adult life I considered
the fact that I really may not be able to hold it. Half the bus was
looking at me in this raging, tearful pain, and when we finally pulled
into the tunnels I was at the exit to the bus before it even stopped
moving. When it opened, I ignored everything our guide was saying and
sprinted to the restroom (thankfully, Dain had gone on a trip here day 1
in Vietnam, and knew where they were), and I came out 2 minutes later
never having felt so relieved in my life. Lesson learned: do not drink
so much water in such a short time. So even though I used the restroom a
mere 90 minutes prior, it made no difference and I had to resort to
crying in hopes of relieving my bladder. I am so blessed to live in a
country where public restrooms are fairly frequent.
**End Toilet Talk**
Anyway, the tunnels were neat after that. Unfortunately, because of all
the traffic it was near to closing time and we had to rather rush
through, but we still got the time to climb through a few of them and
see some the artifacts. For those who may not know, the Cu Chi Tunnels
were a series of very small underground passage ways that linked the
entire Vietnamese army during the war. The tunnels were literally so
small that they had to be enlarged so that tourists could fit through in
the aftermath. A large American would have stood no chance of fitting
inside, but even those who we consider normal sized struggle. If little
5 foot tall, 100 pound Alisa could barely fit my whole body inside, I
have no idea how Vietnamese men fit in even smaller passages. Seeing the
tunnels was the reason we went, so it wasn't that upsetting that some of
the other displays, like food preparation and range shooting, were closed.
After the tunnels we headed back to the ship and went to enjoy our last
night in Vietnam BBQ! It's a very special day when the ship serves
something different than questionable meat and potatoes, so BBQ day was
like heaven! A hot dog has never tasted so good. Dessert was chocolate
ice cream, also quite a rarity. I don't even want to try to think of how
much I ate that day, but every bite of that hot dog was like sunshine
and rainbows. At home, I don't even like chocolate ice cream, but that
day, man it was fantastic. It should be specialty food days everyday!
Next, we had just two days before we docked in Hong Kong, whoa.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Vietnam - Day 4
Mekong Delta. We left right after breakfast and it took us about an hour
to get to our first destination. Our first stop was at a market-type
place that was probably as far from tourism as you could possibly get.
Realistically, I think our tour guide only stopped here because we
needed to pick stuff up (as he left with 3 purchases) but I still
enjoyed being taken up and down the streets of vendors selling literally
everything. At this market you could buy anything from fruits and
veggies to porcelain cups to dog food to notebooks and pencils to an
animal that you can pick out and have it be killed right in front of you
(perfect for the girl who would give anything to not be allergic to
everything and therefore forced against her will to eat meat, right?). Whoa.
After the market we got back on the bus and traveled a bit further to
the delta. Once we got there we got into little boats to travel down the
stream before eventually stopping for lunch. Lunch was absolutely
FANTASTIC. I asked our tour guide about stuff containing wheat, and his
exact words were "we don't have wheat" and god was he right. It was a
meal served family style and there wasn't a single plate I couldn't
touch (though I choose not to touch the whole fish in front of us just
waiting to be cut up). I ended up eating spring rolls that we made
ourselves with rice paper, noodles, rice with steamed veggies, shrimp,
whatever noddle soup they gave us was, and a bunch more. I was so full
after but it was definitely the best meal I have had in port thus far.
YUM. It felt so wonderful to eat the same things as everyone around me.
After lunch we went on a bike ride and I, of course, was given the bike
with the flat tire. Naturally, with one flat tire, my bike didn't go too
fast and I ended up in the back and constantly scratching the ground.
Because the leader had no clear intention of making sure everyone was
following him, I ended up catching the group already on their way back.
When he noticed my bike, he starts cracking up laughing and starts
pointing to the other people asking what happened to me. Being the
stubborn, often bitchy-if-bitched-to self that I am, I took it upon
myself to ride my broken bike even slower and swerve in as many
directions as possible so our "guide" couldn't get in front of us for
the entire time. Alisa win.
After our ride we went back to the little boats and took another ride
through the river and to a coconut candy factory. The factory wasn't
really a "factory" but a bunch of people at a line with various,
rudimentary tools, melting, molding, mixing, stretching, packaging and
more. We got to taste the candy which I would imagine would have been
really good for anyone who didn't loathe the taste of coconut and a
bunch of people on my trip bought some. On the way out of the factory a
few people on the trip stopped and bought some typical Vietnamese hats
that we had seen around. Made of straw and looking fairly identical to
those in China, they are triangle shaped and kind of fantastic. Once the
first few got them, we all simply needed them. So, of course, we all got
one and now they currently sit in our cabins too awkward to fit
anywhere, but oh well, it was worth it at the time. Next, we got on some
horses and were taken to a place to meet our boats. We took the small
boats down the stream to even bigger boats that would be taking us back
to our bus.
We got back to the ship around 4pm, took quick showers, and headed out
to pick up our dresses. We tried them on and when we realized they were
perfect, got to get them wrapped up and take them with us. LOVE.
Dresses in hand, we walked to Dain's place so he could pick up his suit.
He hadn't had a fitting yet, so they told him that if anything didn't
fit the way he wanted it they could fix it then and it would take an
hour or so. But, both fit wonderfully and it wasn't an issue at all. He
picked out a few ties and we were a go-go. Starving, we decided to find
somewhere to eat dinner and found another Pho themed chain (it's not
really hard to find in Ho Chi Minh City) and indulged. SO GOOD.
After feeding the pho-monster inside of me, we found a coffee shop to
scope up some wifi for a bit. An hour later, we headed to the DVD store
and bought stacks of DVDs for 50cents each. Wooooo. We came back to the
ship to drop our stuff off and go back out, but once we heard some
stories (entry coming later regarding this), we decided it was better to
stay in and just watched Despicable Me on the ship TVs.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Vietnam - Day 3
for disabled children. Though the green sheet said were supposed to
leave at 730, it was actually 8 so we ended up standing outside for a
while because the bus driver wouldn't let us on without our FDP tickets
(which aren't issued for government manifested trips like this one), so
by the time we were on our way we were already tired and sweaty from
sitting in the brutal sun, but still excited to go. When we were dropped
off by the bus we had to walk through a school playground and through a
random fence and then an ally to get to the school, but once we did get
there I was pretty impressed with how nice it was. The school opened in
the 90s so it was on the newer side, and one thing that impressed me was
that the school was free for all children. The founder and principal
didn't speak English, so our tour guide was translating for us, but from
what she told us (I always question translations and the validity of
them, but what can you do) the teacher to student ratio is 1 to 3 which
is amazing and the classes are divided up not by actual age but by
mental capacity. After our talk we were taken into a few classrooms and
definitely saw what the principal had meant by the divisions. The kids
in each class were off all different ages, but where as some classes
were only 4-5 kids with 3 teachers and coloring, others were 10 or so
kids with 1 or 2 teachers and were doing basic math. I was really
impressed with the organization (and founding) of this school. It was
clean, organized, and dedicated. I was also impressed because truthfully
I didn't expect Vietnam to be so kind-minded towards the disabled.
Knowing Vietnam has a 2 child policy I had expected to see that disabled
kids would just be forgotten about and left to die so that families
could have 2 "normal" children. This was one time when I was very glad
to be proven wrong.
After observing the classes for a while we went to the main auditorium
area and did gym class with the kids. We did stretches and songs and
then literally danced to really loud music for like 45 minutes. I was
exhausted by the end, but it was so much fun! After our dancing the
staff fed us some fruit and water and asked us to help set up for lunch.
After the kids ate lunch, they had nap time! They pulled out blankets
and changed into PJs and turned off all of the lights!
Every.persons.dream. We left the school after this and went back to ship
to get lunch.
After lunch we met up with Becca and we went to go get our dresses
fitted. It turned out they weren't quite ready yet and asked us to come
back in a few hours. So meanwhile we went to the market again to look
for some more stuff. I got a tee shirt for $5 and nothing else, so I was
pretty proud of myself for that. Becca got a big backpack and Dain also
got just one shirt.
After the market we walked by to try on our dresses and it was SO
awesome. I was so happy with them so far and honestly couldn't wait to
see the real product the next day. Next, we caught up with Lexi and
Kevin and all of us went, where else, shopping at the night market and
the mall. To be entirely honest, I am writing this after Japan, already
halfway to Hawaii, and I can't actually remember the rest of the day.
Actually, I think the remnants museum was day 3, and not day 2, but
somewhere I am missing something and I have no idea what. Oops. Blog fail.
*Disclaimer: Unlike a lot of the people on this voyage, the reason I
don't remember what happened has NOTHING to do with alcohol-abuse,
actually, it has nothing to do with alcohol at all. K, moving on.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Vietnam - Day 2
the War Remembrance Museum. This is a museum dedicated to the Vietnam
War. We only had a couple of hours because we were all on a trip
starting at 1, but we tried to make the best of it. The museum was
actually incredibly fascinating. Understandably, it was an ode to "I
hate America" but it was so, so different to see the conflict from the
opposite side. Knowing a lot of the facts, I could tell some of it was
quite exaggerated, but I also understood that the version of history I
have been taught is the American-sided one. This being the Vietnam-sided
story, it was really cool to see the comparisons and start to try to
figure out what is truth and what is fact, looking beyond the lens of
America I've been taught about for so many years. Initially, our plan
was to visit the museum and the re-unification palace before our trip,
but it turns out we didn't even have time to see the museum in its
entirety, so we just went back to the ship for our trip instead. Our
trip was to a Vietnam School for the Deaf. We would be visiting the
school briefly and then taking the kids to the zoo.
At the school, one little girl seemed immediately drawn to me and
grabbed my hand and took me over to her spot. We sat down and started to
color. It took a few minutes, but we got into the swing of things and
started drawing a story about, what else, a princess and a castle. This
girl, Tho, was so adorable and she kept running around to show all of
our pictures to her friends. Everytime another kid tried to come color
with us, she basically shut them out to keep coloring with me. Awwww.
After about half an hour we were taken downstairs and shown a few things
that the kids made the school tries to sell to raise money. The school
would like to operate without charging its students, but it does
currently charge a small (less than full tuition at a private school in
Vietnam) fee to enroll. Immediately, Dain and I spotted wooden Mickey
carvings, and that's pretty much all the motivation we needed. Two
wooden Mickey's heavier, we headed for the zoo. When we got there, we
sat down and ate a meal that the ship had packed for all of us and the
kids (and by we ate a meal I mean everyone else ate a meal and I drank a
caprisun). We then had only 40 minutes to walk around the zoo before we
had to leave, but it turned out to be long enough. The zoo was nothing
special and was really run down and dirty, but obviously this trip
wasn't about the zoo and it was nice to be able to just take a child's
hand a walk around a zoo without constant SAS-supervision.
After the zoo it ended up taking us an hour and a half to get back
because of all of the traffic, but eventually we made it and we sat down
for dinner on the ship quickly and then headed out with Lexi and Jacob.
We had two goals for that night: Dain's suit and Lexi's tattoo. Dain
ended up really regretting not ordering a suit the day before, and we
read on the white board in Tymitz Square about a place with really good
prices so we decided to check it out. It was a bit of a walk from the
ship, but after about an hour we found the suit place. The place was
definitely less-impressive than the place the rest of us had ordered
stuff from, but not too unimpressive that we would turn around. Dain
ended up getting 2 suits for only $195 which was pretty much what the
boys and Phan whatevertherestofthenameiscalled paid for one. I wouldn't
have felt comfortable at Dain's place, but he didn't care too much.
After what seemed like forever deciding colors and fabrics, he picked
out two fabrics and got fitted. Then we went on a hunt for Lexi's
tattoo. She had wanted to get it done in Singapore, but ran out of time,
so she had looked up some legit places in Vietnam and we were trying to
find them. The one place we had intended on, Saigon Ink, was closed, but
we ended up getting lost in the backpacking district and found another
place. I know absolutely nothing about tattoos, but Lexi seemed
confident in this place after asking her series of questions. So the
rest of us sat and watched while she got it done.
I don't have any tattoos, and I never intend on doing so, and I'm
assuming this was the only experience I'll ever have in watching someone
else get one, so I tried to keep watching despite my cringing.
Thankfully, there was no blood because I probably would have puked, and
it was actually a lot quicker than I thought. Still, I have no desire to
ever get one of my own.
After getting her tattoo, we all went to this rooftop bar that we found
in the district. To get up there, we literally had walk up 7 flights of
narrow and kind-of sketchy stairs, but it was pretty cool once we made
it up. It was rather empty, but we prefer that rather than going to the
same place as all of the other SAS kids would be at.
When we decided to go back to ship, we started to have a bit of a
problem since English is pretty much nonexistant and even when we showed
cab drivers our green sheet with the name of the dock they seemed to
have no idea what we were talking about. But, lucky for us, after about
half an hour walking in who knows what direction, we ran into some
Americans who just happened to speak Vietnamese! Thankfully, these
people helped us get a cab and give them the right directions and we
made it back safe and sound. Another good thing about this is that the
cab driver wasn't familiar with SAS and therefore wasn't charging us an
outrageous price like the drivers at the dock were.
Day 2 in Vietnam was pretty full, but not full enough. I wanted more pho.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Vietnam- Day 1
ungodly amount of goods and ate pretty much everything in sight. That
said, I did do some things that didn't involve flaunting my Americanism,
and overall had a much better time than I had anticipated.
In the midst of India and Singapore visits and planning for China and
Japan, I was kind of over Vietnam before it even started. I was excited
for China and more-or-less envisioned a whole bunch of rice fields and
stray animals. As it turns out, I was pretty wrong.
I woke up at 4am on day 1 because that's when we were going to be
entering the Saigon River, which I've heard is an absolutely beautiful
site. When I got up to deck 7 I was one of just three people there, and
it was pitch, pitch black. I mean, I probably should have expected that
but I guess I figured when they said "get up and see it" at pre-port,
they meant there would actually be some way of seeing it (silly, silly
girl, I know). So I went back to bed for two hours and came back up
around 6 when it was bright and sunny out. I stood outside for about 2
hours while we navigated our way down the windy river. It was a pretty
beautiful sight, but I think I enjoyed it more after the extra two hours
of sleep.
After breakfast Michael, Becca, Alex, Sam and I went on a dress & suit
mission. A pretty popular SAS thing to do in Vietnam is to get stuff
custom made because apparently it's really good quality and pretty
awesomely priced. At the beginning of the voyage, I really wasn't
planning on a custom dress but by Vietnam I was so excited and had
completely changed my mind. Becca had read up on where to go since there
are tailor shops just everywhere and had decided on one place to buy
fabric and another to get it tailored. So our first stop was a place
called Chi-Chi's. Chi-Chi's is a tailor, but also a huge fabric supplier
and when we walked in there was fabrics just everywhere. There were also
books of dress designs and stuff, but I had already gotten some options
and printed them out that I was still debating on, so I didn't really
need to add more options to the table. Anyway, after looking around at
all the fabrics we put some of our ideals in our minds and walked down
the street to our tailors. The place was really classy and we were
already happy with our decision to go here just because of the
respectable appearance of it, especially in comparison to the rest of
the shops we had seen. We looked through their fabrics and Michael, Sam
and Becca actually ended up choosing to use theirs. Their selection was
pretty limited, so I walked back over to Chi Chi's and picked the two
that I had fallen in love with over there. Then I walked back to our
place and used one of their fabrics for the third. We all went over our
preferences and prices with the tailors and set a date to come back for
a fitting. All in all, my three dresses and fabrics totaled $220, which
sounded just great to me. Suits were more expensive, about $150-200
each, but still way cheaper than in the U.S. And even though that only
took me a paragraph to write, the whole debating amongst fabrics and
getting measured and going over styles actually took us 4 hours and it
was already 1:00pm when we finished.
So after the tailors we went to get some Pho. Pho (pronounced Pha) is
the staple of Vietnamese cuisine. Literally, there are pho-shirts
littered in the windows of every store and sold on the side of the roads
and there is more than one chain restaurant named after the dish. It's
like Dunkin Donuts in Saugus, but multiplied by 3. Best of all about Pho
is that it is gluten free! The noodles are rice noodles!! I could not
wait to eat a traditional meal in port!
We ended up at a place called Pho 24/7, and their menu was literally Pho
and spring rolls...thats it. But the pho came in lots of different
flavors and I ended up ordering chicken. SHIT WAS SO GOOD I CAN'T EVEN
TRY TO WRITE IT IN LOWER CASE LETTERS. I WANT MORE. RIGHT NOW.
NOMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Not only was I eating the SAME THING as everyone at my
table, but oh my gosh was I happy I had just gotten fitted for a dress
because lord knows I was about to gain 10 pounds solely in Pho on this
trip. I NEED TO STOP TALKING ABOUT PHO NOW...CRAVINGSSSSSSSSSSS.
After lunch we went across the street to a little cafe to scope some
wifi and ended up ordering some gelato. The gelato was actually really
cool and came in awesome designs like snowman or crown or castle, but
since they all involved gluten of some sort, I went the boring route. It
was hard enough to have them not put a little sugar-gluten Italian stick
on it, though, that I'm glad I didn't try to test the language barrier
to say no cone.
Following our gelato we ventured to the mega market about 10 minutes
from the ship to do some exploring. Inside there were vendors just
everywhere and the walkways between rows was so small I doubt some
people on SAS actually fit. Our missions were to find backpacks, DVDs
and North Faces. NorthFaces were actually pretty hard to find which
surprised me but we did find a ton of backpacks and DVDs. I ended up
with a NorthFace backpack (probably fake) for $10 and a couple DVDs that
were 50cents each. On the way back we stopped a little shop and bought
Dre Beats headphones (probably still fake) for $10 each, and he let us
test them before we bought them to see the quality, which was really
good. I also got the entire series of Lost for only $20! I already had
it, but Dain didn't!
The first night in Vietnam we had dinner on the ship and then Dain and
Kevin joined the group and we all went out. First we went to the tailors
again because Michael was having his fitting that night and Kevin wanted
to order his suit. After that we headed to the night market. Basically,
the market that was inside during the day closed and the streets outside
became filled with booths. I had expected pretty similar products that
were sold but it was actually different. Here was NorthFace heaven.
Booth after booth of jackets (probably all fake, but whatever) and we
managed to find some pretty quickly. I got a blue waterproof jacket for
$35, and Dain got a similar one in yellow for $40. Kevin found a
ridiculously huge hiking backpack for $18 and Becca got a small one for
$12. It was a very successful day, and I am really happy about the
amount of stuff that was purchased for such a small price. Best of all,
I got to eat gluten free food AND the DVDs worked!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Singapore
it scares me. Technology that we haven't even begun thinking of in the
United States is already the norm and some modes of transportation
include not only cars, but monorails and skyway cable cars! The
buildings are tall, uniquely shaped, glossy, clean and architecturally
gorgeous. Also, there is Mickey stuff everywhere. Now, where's space
mountain? I'm ready to travel outside the globe.
We only had one day in Singapore. It was kind of upsetting but I
understand entirely why they would do it. Singapore has A LOT of laws.
And by A LOT I mean, more rules than Disney has cast member rules.
Chewing gum will run you a $1000 fine, eating in a public place will
cost you $500, littering $2500, spitting will get you some sort of fine
I can't remember, drunk driving gets you caining (beaten repetitively
with a bamboo cane, this happens for a lot of punishments) and drug
traffic gets you the death sentence. There are more heavy-duty fines,
but I think the point comes across. Needless to say, the city (Singapore
is the name for both the city and the country) is extremely clean and
extremely safe, but the rules are so strict that I can understand
entirely why SAS wouldn't want to deal with staying overnight as the
immaturity level of some of these students would surely get them into
serious trouble.
So we only had one day in Singapore and unfortunate for me I also had an
FDP. An FDP is a trip required for a class, and lucky for me, my History
of Modern China class offered exactly 2 FDPs (2 are required for each
class, so thanks for the wide variety of flexibility and selection,
professors). One was a walking tour of Cape Town (see that blog for how
ridiculous that was) and this was the second. Needless to say, I was
pretty upset that I had a Chinese history FDP in a country that isn't
China, and the last FDP for this class (Cape Town) had absolutely
nothing to do with any of the Eastern World. However, this FDP turned
out to be pretty enjoyable. Immigration took ao. Part of this was
because of the strict system of security we all had to go through before
w lot longer than we anticipated, and we didn't leave for an hour after
we had been scheduled te could leave the dock though too. When we left
we went to the center of town and spent about an hour just walking
around looking at some of the old buildings. One thing I noticed was
that there was just construction EVERYWHERE, and the new Supreme Court
building literally looked a UFO. It was crazy! After about an hour we
ended up at the Raffles Hotel, a beautiful 6-star historic resort. We
were given half an hour to roam around and while a lot of people went to
the bar to buy $30 Singapore Slings (why do SAS kids always need to be
drinking?), I actually saw the place. It was completely gorgeous, and
the bathroom was a joyous experience as it was the first toilet off of
the ship that I had seen in months that didn't have bugs AND had
electric hand dryers! Whoa, I almost forgot what that feels like! The
hotel costs $700 a night, and there was a lot of areas blocked off to us
non-guests, but it was still nice to see and I liked that we had some
freedom on our trip.
After Raffles we went to the subway and took it to Chinatown. The subway
system is so clean and prompt, and so much more impressive than at home.
The station and the lines are spotless, modern and gorgeous, and the
schedule of trains was perfect. We had to transfer trains to get on the
right line, but even so it barely took any time. They even had certain
loading areas for those getting off and those getting on! When we got
off in Chinatown it was a really strange feeling because we were only a
week away from actual China at that point! Chinatown was beautiful, and
looked very authentic, but the whole time I was consumed with this
notion of how comparable is this to the real thing? And I became anxious
for my upcoming visit. Another thing that I noticed was all the
Mickey/Disney stuff. I've learned on this voyage that I literally can
spot Mickey from a mile away, and he was literally everywhere here! So
exciting!!!! But before I could buy everything in sight, we went to have
lunch at a Chinese dim-sum restaurant. I got a confirmation that I
probably won't be eating in China, but oh well. So I scarfed a protein
bar and was good to go. After lunch we had half an hour to go shopping
before we were to head back to the ship. Everything in Chinatown was way
cheaper than the rest of Singapore, so I ended up buying a good amount
of stuff. However, with 3 for $10 tee-shirts I really can't complain
since everything in the port and in the areas we had passed were 5-6x
the price.
By the end of the tour, everyone had signed out of the trip except for 6
of us. Well, the tour company had arranged for us to have a double
decker bus, so 8 of us (6 students + 2 professors) got the whole top to
ourselves! So cool!
I was set to arrive back at the port at 2:45. Lexi had an FDP that
morning too, so we were going meet at the port and Michael and Dain were
going to come back from their AM adventure to the Marina Bay Sands hotel
so we could all go out. Lexi was there when I got back, but the boys
weren't. After about 15 minutes, we started to get worried and we
started walking around the mall (our port was attached to not one, but
two malls!), towards the subway, trying to find them. We also turned on
our phones and tried to call them but we just couldn't get in touch with
them. Around 3:30, we were just getting directions to Orchard Street to
go ourselves from the information desk when Dain came up sprinting.
Michael had something come up so he didn't make it, but Dain had come
back himself and gotten lost on the subway. Thank god this was Singapore
and you will be cained for crime, because if this was any other port I
would've probably been petrified of the fact that he had traveled alone,
but it was so nice of him to come back for us and it really meant a lot
to both of us as we were so worried about them.
So Dain, Lexi and I went back to the subway and went over to Orchard
Street. By the time that we got off it was DOWNPOURING out, but I didn't
care. This was actually the first downpour we have seen on land in this
voyage yet, and it felt refreshing. The rain really turned out to be a
sign of the day was going to continue going - from not being able to get
off the ship, to missing dain and michael, to getting lost on the train,
to walking the wrong way, to a place we were planning on going not being
open, to trying to meet up with others and have it not work - but hey,
when life gives you rain, dance it in. And that's literally what Lexi
and I did. We jumped and ran around and played in the rain, and the two
of us and Dain just trudged up and down the streets of nowhere and got
absolutely nothing accomplished and had the most amazing time in the world.
We had to be back on the ship by 9, so we came back to the mall area
around 5 and decided to do some shopping. As it turns out, this became
our rainbow! As we finally found stamps, a flag and Chinese skittles! We
even got to go on the dock and take our nighttime skyline pictures with
Universal Studios Singapore in the background! By the time that we made
it back on, dinner was over, so we went to get food on Deck 7 and watch
us sail away. I wish we could have stayed overnight, but honestly, after
seeing all the laws in Singapore I understand completely why we can't.
Had we had a second day, however, Universal Studios Singapore would have
been happening. But I feel content with my one day here and had a great
time. Singapore is the first port so far though that I really want to go
back to.
But for now, we sail forward towards Vietnam, very slowly since we are
so close and actually have to class in between, but still sailing!
Gluten free: Not sure since I only spent 1 meal here and it was at a
Chinese place.
Safety: Probably the safest country in the world, since any sort of
crime will lead to the government beating you and your wallet.