'nam <3

Vietnam exceeded all expectations ten times over. I had such an incredible time. The Vietnamese are currently celebrating Tet, the lunar new year, which made this trip that much better. The whole city is red and yellow: the flowers that are covering the city, everyone’s outfits, and all of the decorations on the streets for the holiday. They really go all out! In good spirits for bringing good luck in 2016, everyone is super nice, smiling all the time and giving good vibes all around. It really made this visit special. Another bonus was the $35 worth of cash that I exchanged that lasted me 3 days, but bought me a ton!

One thing I loved was hearing people talk. Vietnamese is a tonal language, which means that, for example, “ma” in 8 different intonations means 8 completely separate, unrelated words. The word Dong, like the currency, can be said in 16 different ways because there’s the normal D as well as the D with a little slash through it that signifies more of a ’th’ sound (I think that’s it?). It sounds like everyone is sayin' some type of cool chant with a melody when they could really be cursing for all I know.

But anyway, day 1:

I spent the first afternoon in Ho Chi Minh City walking around with some friends. We went to a flower market, I guess you could call it, full of parade-float-type structures that were COVERED in beautiful flower arrangements and cool statues. Then we walked to an actual market for some sweet knock offs of everything- ray bans, north face hats and bags, jade- you name it, it was there and it was most certainly fake. But actually pretty convincing! We ate dinner on the ship and then headed out for a field program. The 35 minute flight took us to Nha Trang, a beach town!

Day 2:

Nha Trang is sort of like the Hamptons for New Yorkers…sort of. It’s touristy, but locals go there for some beach time as well. The water was a beautiful shade of aqua, and the sun was shining. We spent the morning boating to some uninhabited islands for snorkeling and swimming. Our tour guide told us that people consider the 24 degree C water temperature to be cold. I wonder what they’d say about the Atlantic by us…

On a hidden gem of an island, close to where we snorkeled, we ate lunch. We walked along the water on a narrow stone path, over some bamboo bridges and passed some beautiful sandy beaches to the restaurant. The view was quite the bore: the bright blue bay scattered with small fishing boats in front of the urban city of skyscrapers. Heaven does exist, people. It looks like that view, with a cold beer and endless seafood.

Speaking of food, we were assaulted. For only five of us, there were HUGE plates of shrimp. Fresh grouper. Asian cole slaw. Rice cakes. Sautéed vegetables. Grilled calamari. Marinated eggplant. Sticky rice. Tofu soup. And PHÓ. omg phó. so good. It’s broth in a large pot that you over a flame. This one had seafood in it, but after 2 minutes you add the huge platter of vegetables that comes with it. After another minute or so, you take some rice noodles off of another platter and add some soup. To DIE for. But pronounce it “foh” and you’ll get your food spit into. It’s “fuh”. And especially don’t say it like my mother, who asked if I tried the “poh” yet. I let it slide this time, though.

In the afternoon we went to an aquarium (not sure why) which was cool but made me so sad! All of the animals aren’t kept in nice facilities with fake habitats. These two seals especially- their tank was basically an empty bathtub with nothing but water. Afterwards, we went back to our fancy hotel, showered and went to a market. I bought so many elephant pants (google them- they’re SO comfy) for $3 each. I also got a silk robe which I love (although who knows if it’s actually real or not. thoughts anyone?). Then dinner, which was another feast of mostly similar food than lunch. After a post-dinner market, we met up with some friends who traveled to Nha Trang independently and we all went to a rooftop bar. I’m telling you-all it takes is a view and a beer and I am one, more than ever-so-happy camper.

Day 3 was another amazing day. We spent a few hours in the morning at an orphanage painting and playing with the kids. They were all so happy, all they wanted to do was play. I’m not sure they had ever seen a camera before because they were loving them. They were all young kids, because at age 14 most of them go to a buddhist monastery for forever, basically. They can opt out, but I don’t think many do. We all had a blast. I was painting with one little kid (featured in the Instagram for whoever has seen it) and when we ran out of paint, he put some on a ping pong paddle that he was playing with so that he could bring me more. Random, but it was so cute.

I was amazed at this one orphan, Hue Hue, who lacked both his right and left arms. My teacher was saying that in some countries, parents will give up their kids if they have deformities because they think they're bad luck. Isn’t that something? Anyway, in the beginning of the morning Hue Hue fell down and had nothing to stop himself with so he hit his head really hard on the ground. I got really sad for him- until I saw him painting with the roller-brush between his toes. It was amazing. And he had a constant smile on his face. I don’t even think I need to explain what that’ll teach you. It was really incredible to watch, and made me think a lot about how we live and what we take for granted. It turns out having elbows is a luxury.

So this morning was so much fun. After eating lunch we came back to Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh). We were supposed to see a famous Pagoda in Nha Trang but we unfortunately had to cut it out of our plans. We left Hong Kong a day late to wait out a monsoon which cost us a day in Vietnam. I still have tomorrow, though. I’m hoping to get to the war museum and another market to spend the rest of my $35!

I may have already used this but oh well:

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving” – Lao Tzu