Vietnam was not my number one place to visit on this trip, and I have to say it just about held up to my expectations with the exception of the backpacking district where I really honestly spent the bulk of my time.
Day one was really cool. My best friend Doug’s roommate (Justin) is on the ship, and the week we had in Vietnam lined up perfectly with their spring break, so their third roommate, Jeff, and their friend Jay met the ship in port! It was awesome to see some familiar faces, but also made me a little homesick to be honest. We got off the ship and went right to a tailor where I found online on the trip to Vietnam. I found an awesome suit for an even more awesome price. $57 for a two piece, $75 for a 3 piece. So I of course got a suit measured and cut, along with 4 shirts. I really wanted one thing though: a red suit jacket and my tailor couldn’t do it. I went to a few others and found a price right across the street who did an awesome job. I now own a red suit jacket! I’ve wanted one forever.
We finished up at the tailor and ran to a place Jeff and Jay had lunch at the day prior as they’d been in town a few days already. It was pretty straight up Vietnamese food. I’m not overly adventurous when it comes to food. I believe I had some Pho, some beef and chicken skewers and some rice, which I made the mistake of putting the hottest sauce on the table on top of. After lunch we headed to the spot where we were supposed to meet up with Justin, but we got a text saying that that he’d be an hour late. We decided we’d run into this mall and look around. Idk how this works but I have a way of finding the nicest malls in the weirdest countries. The entry floor on this mall is all designer stores. Versace, Louis Vuitton, Burberry stores line the hallways. If you go a few stories down however, there are coffee shops, restaurants, and all of that kind of stuff. We all grabbed assorted beverages and hung out for a little and talked.
We got another text saying that Justin would be another hour late and he’d meet up with everyone at the ship. We continued to hang out, then jumped in a cab and ran back to the ship. Me and Kael had to go get ready for the wedding. Yeah, I said wedding… and I was the minister. It was more of a spiritual marriage, nothing legal between two friends of mine who have met and kind of started dating on the ship. It was cool. I wrote a pretty fun sermon with everything I found online. I did however become an ordained minister online, and although I won’t share the entire sermon, my last line was “By the power invested in me by the website I found on Google, I now pronounce you man and wife”. And I literally mean this, from what I understand I am an ordained minister. We hung out the reception for a little and went to the club down the street, apocalypse now, which I must say is overrated, and super over ran by SASers. We all got a hotel room and I spent the night there.
The second day I took my buddy to my tailor to get fitted for some suits. We walked through the market, the same mall, got massages and just generally walked around bored until Kael was done with his FDP at 5:30. I did very little that is wasting mine and yours time by writing. We went back to the area around the tailor; Kael was leaving for Hanoi the next day and had his suit fitting that night at ten. The area where our tailor is is the backpackers’ district. There are people from everywhere. We met one girl who went to the same HS as Kael, which was crazy weird. We also met people from England, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Poland, South Africa, literally all over. Kael had his suit fitting, and then we found this awesome little hole in the wall place with live music. They had Vietnamese bands playing American covers. It was hilarious, but still a ton of fun and the bands were actually pretty good. We headed back to the ship and got to bed pretty late.
The next day I had an orphanage and school visit, through SAS. It was nice to give back a little. We had a bunch of school supplies and stuff from SAS to give them, as well a bunch of cash donations. It was pretty fun to play with all the kids from the school, but we weren’t at all prepared to visit the orphanage. It was an orphanage for kids with Down syndrome. Saying it was tough would be an understatement. Makes you appreciate everything we have in the states. Not to say by Vietnamese standards it wasn’t nice, but a place like that would never be somewhere in the states. We all left the orphanage a little sick to our stomachs, humbled and thankful. We got back to the ship around 4:30 and grabbed dinner on the ship. While there we all decided we were going to the backpacker district to hang out a little before my suit fitting at 7:30. It was me and two of my friends, then I talked to a girl I met a few weeks earlier, Jill to see if she’d want to come out as well. She and her friend had nothing going on and decided why not come with us?
We went and hung out at this little variety store with 50 cent beers, had a few and headed over to my tailor to get my suit fitted. Fit like a glove! Now all I have to do is never change my size as long as I live. After getting tailored, Jill saw a Pizza Hut. We definitely got a pizza, and it was sooo good. It tasted just like the pizza back home. And on top of that, I had a Coors Light and although I couldn’t make out much on the back, but it definitely had the words Golden, CO. We met some basketball players from the states who’re playing in Vietnam now for the Saigon Heat. Went back to that bar with local music, and made our back to the ship.
The next day I spent with Jill and her friend, we went to the market, bought some souvenirs, they found some fabric from a designer they both really like, and I looked for some shoes because I blew out my dress shoes at the wedding reception. However I’ve found something about people my size looking for shoes in Vietnam. They don’t exist. I wear a 13 and the biggest I found in the entire country was only a 10 :/. So now I don’t have any dress shoes on the ship and a brand new suit lol.
I found a painting that I fell in love with. But I didn’t buy it... so I went back and bought it on the last day. One of the best $20 I’ve ever spent. We went and met up with everyone on the ship and headed to a Mexican food restaurant, which was alright and really close to the backpackers district which I loved. Long story short, we got my buddies suit fitted, and hung out in the backpackers district like the nights before. Me and my friend Matt did Karaoke with a live band which was kind of fun. We got back to the ship pretty early and got to sleep.
I woke up and met up with my friend to run and pick up our suits and get that painting I wanted so badly. The suits looked awesome, I got an awesome painting, and I headed back to the ship for my FDP that afternoon.
My FDP was pretty cool; we went to a waistband manufacturing facility. It wasn’t huge, but it’s a part of QST industries which is a huge multinational corporation specializing in manufacturing garment components. Waistbands for pants, suit linings, pocket material. All the oddball stuff that goes into a piece of clothing. The manager from Chicago was there which was pretty cool; he was super insightful about everything and gave us great information about the operations of an MNC. I got back to the ship around 5, which concludes my Vietnam adventure.
To be honest, I don’t think I will be back to Vietnam. I wasn’t left with any overwhelmingly bad taste, but I haven’t had the rosy experiences I did in many other countries. China is next! And this is one of the countries I was most excited to visit! I have 2 days in Vietnam, 3 in Beijing, and 2 in Shanghai! We arrive tomorrow! 2 days post China is Japan, then we have about 2.5 weeks until we are back in San Diego. It’s crazy that we are winding down, I don’t want it to end, but I can definitely say I’ve become more homesick than I thought I would.
Can’t wait for China and Japan!!
Much Love,
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment