Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Wednesday October 30th
Finally in Nam and it is so much fun! Ho Chi Minh City is located on a river so we had to take a river from the ocean for a few hours to get here. And we didn't get here until noon because the river is tidal and we needed to wait for high tide. The trip up the river was a lot of jungle, small little boats similar to in the Amazon, and a lot of houses on stilts. We finally got and Lacey, Ari, Steph and Erica, Mitch, Sam and I all went out to find a tailor. They have a shuttle service for us that takes us about a mile into town. It is convenient but doesn't save that much time. Mitch Sam and I broke off from the girls because they were just slowing us down. There was a ton of Vietnamese guys waiting for us where the shuttle dropped us off and we couldn't lose this one guy who was just following us around and wanted to take us around. He was different from the rest because he didn't have a motor cycle that he wanted us to get on but still...it was really hard to lose him but we finally did. It is hard not to be a jerk to people because Americans have such a bad image in some countries. Vietnam, Malaysia and India all love America, despite our past here in Nam which is surprising. But anyway we don't want to make America look worse by being jerks so there is a fine line. Mitch Sam and I went to Pho 24 for lunch, it is basically a small cafe...kind of like Panera Bread for us. It was a quick meal and we got Pho, which is a noodle soup with meat in it. It was really good and very cheap! After lunch we went to a huge indoor market called the Ben Thanh market and walked around a little bit. We bought some polo's but found out prices were cheaper outside the market so instead of paying $2 for a Ralph Lauren shirt we paid $4. Every dollar counts haha. We get pulled into different stands and the ladies won't let us go and keep telling us how handsome we are and how good we would look in the shirts they were selling. It is kind of funny to be walking in a group and then somebody gets sucked into a stand and can't get out. We found a tailor outside the market on some side street and right after we got there another group of SAS kids got there. When we are in port we HATE being around other SAS kids so we tried to go off the beaten path and it didn't work. We paid about $100 for a custom suit and $50 for a sport coat. We thought that suits were going to be dirt cheap, and technically they are compared to the US because they would be at least $500 to be tailored there. Some other guys got some made for $60 each, but I guess they bought material first...I don't know it was kind of screwy but the ambassador's at our diplomatic briefing before getting off the ship told us we would get what we pay for in Nam so hopefully our suits will be a lot better...lets hope so. We shopped around a little bit more and went to a couple little shops that had tons of north face back packs and coats. Didn't see any fleece's yet, and none of the back packs I saw were one's that I want to buy so the search is still on. Mitch, Sam and I went back to the ship to meet the girls at 6 for dinner but they weren't there so we went and found a nice Vietnamese restaurant. I had sweet and sour pork which I think is more Chinese than Vietnamese, but Asian none-the-less. We actually had to go back to the tailor's at 9 to try on our coats to make sure that they fit right. We had a little bit of time to kill so for a few bucks we got a foot massage. They massaged our hands too and they didn't offer any extra services at the end like people warned us before we got to Nam so we were thankful for that haha. The suits at the tailors are very custom made, meaning they fit perfectly to your body and show off your curves, so my butt is going to look great! Walking around the markets you see a lot of fresh fish, fruit and veggies. And when I say fresh fish, I mean 12 fish barely breathing in a bucket of water, a ton of crabs, mesh bags of live frogs etc. It is kind of sad to see but its their culture and it is better if the person has to kill it themselves. We didn't buy anything after dinner because we were going to go out after that so we just looked around before heading to a bar that a lot of friends were going to. OH WAIT. When we were at the tailors again, the three of us were approached by 2 Vietnamese supermodels and they asked us if they could take pictures of us like at a legit shoot. They were young kids our age, a guy and a girl, so the last day we have a scheduled photo shoot. So my beautiful mug is going to be all over Vietnamese magazines haha. I know it sounds like a scam but they were legitimate and we think it is going to be a lot of fun. We heard it is very easy for young white guys that are semi-good looking to get into modeling over here, so I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but I am going to be a model. So that was exciting.
That was my first day in Nam. The staff on the ship said traffic was going to be crazier than India, but from what we have seen so far its not as bad as India. India is ruthless. There are a lot of motor cycles here and you have to just start walking across the street and they funnel around you. If you try and wait for traffic to stop you will be there for hours. Other than that, Nam so far is all the hustle and bustle people said it would be and I can't wait for the next few days!
- comments