Vietnam Pictures

Magic in Vietnam

Day 1

I spent the first day in Vietnam with Allie, Andrea, Katie and Mica. Our first stop was a cute coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City. We climbed up a spiral staircase, got a window seat and enjoyed some iced coffee. After that we searched for a place to get a massage, mani and pedi. A spa day is a must in Vietnam because it's incredibly cheap. We found a place that gave us a full body w/oil 1 hour massage, mani and pedi for $17. After getting pampered, we headed for some food and found this Vietnamese healthy restaurant and had some Phu (viatnemese soup), and some delicious freshly squeezed fruit juices. I can't get enough of that here in Asia so far. About 10 or so senior citizens from France came in the restaurant. We started singing "Freira jacqua (totally butchered the spelling)" and as if it were rehearsed they all started singing along with us within 2 seconds. And they sang their hearts out! It was so funny! After that we found a fro-yo place and then headed to find a tailor. The other thing to do in Vietnam is find a tailor and get a custom-made dress because they do it for crazy cheap. Andrea, Katie and I bought fabric for cheap in India and wanted to get a dress made out of that fabric here in Vietnam. We didn't have much luck for a lot of the day but found shops to browse in. We stumbled upon this gorgeous restaurant with tons of Christmas tree lights draped from trees outside. We were sold by the beautiful ambiance so we headed in. It was a bbq place where they served you your food raw and you cooked your food on the table you were eating at where there was a grill. I had a great time with the girls! The food was great, and the atmosphere was amazing. We headed back by 12 or so and stumbled upon a hopping club right near the ship on our way back. The walkway to the club had tons and tons of Christmas lights. Inside was insane. I've never been in such a cool club. It was like it was out of a movie. It was huge, the lights were insane, there were booths with tables, tons of workers, dancers on this huge stage in the middle, and insanely loud music. We left after a few minutes though because we had to get up at 3:30 to head to the airport.

Day 2

We started our day crazy early and spent a lot of the 2^nd day traveling. Katie, Andrea, Mica and I flew to Hanoi. Mica was on a flight that arrived later than ours, and while we were waiting we stumbled into Gabby and Kyle (girls from the ship that I knew, but not very well). They ended up traveling with us the rest of the time. Kyle wanted to travel by herself, but Gabby wanted the very opposite, so for both of them, it worked out great that they ran into us. We took a 50 minute taxi to the bus station and then took 2 different busses for a total of 4 hours. Then we took a ferry to Cat Ba Island (less touristy part of Ha Long Bay) and finally arrived by 4PM. We found a nice place to eat on the 2^nd floor on a balcony overlooking the shore. We enjoyed lunch and then talked to the workers of the tour company within the restaurant/hotel we were eating at. The main guy graduated from Cornell! Small world! We had to change our flight, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to spend the night on a junk boat. Thankfully it was easy to change the flight and we booked a junk boat for the next day and night. We found a hotel nearby for that night that only cost $4 for a night! A really nice room too! Everything is just so cheap in Vietnam. We met a really sweet couple from Australia who were on their honeymoon.  We talked to them for a while and bought real pearls off the street for really cheap. Then we went back to the hotel/restaurant where we ate and booked our stuff earlier and met a guy from California and one from Australia and chatted with them for a while. One of the guys we met from Germany took us to the roof of the building and we looked over the pretty lights of small Cat Ba, reflecting on the lake before heading back to our hotel for the night.

Day 3

We got on our junkboat early the next morning. When we were about to head out to it, the nice guy from Cornell said that they could build us a fire on a private beach as long as we gave them a good recommendation on trip advisor. The night before, Andrea was kind of jokingly saying "Can we have a fire on a beach." We were totally not expecting him to take it seriously, but to our great surprise, he did. That doesn't ever happen, and we also asked to go on a hike, and they found a place for us to hike on our journey, and to save us money they said we could sleep on the day boat instead of the night boat with rooms and beds. Sleeping in the day boat meant that we would sleep on the roof of the junkboat. We thought that sounded like a great adventure, so we happily agreed! The junkboat was beautiful. It was dark wood, the inside had about 6 tables and booths, and there were benches on the roof. The six of us shared the junkboat with about 8 others. We met 2 guys from Greece, Nikolas and Kostas. They both went to MIT for engineering and are now in San Francisco and New York, one of who is teaching. I had a nice time chatting with Nikolas. We exchanged info at the end of the trip, so now I have a place to stay in Greece when I visit someday.

Ha Long Bay is gorgeous. We were cruising in between hundreds of these tall, steep islands. It's nothing but us and nature. At first we passed fishing villages along the water. It was so mysterious and beautiful. It was cloudy and a little misty the whole time, but it made it magical and mysterious. They dropped us off at Cat Ba National Park, where we hiked to a village. The village was really tiny and had one tiny little "store" and otherwise just houses. No cars passed along through as we hiked through. Residents were sitting on the floors of their houses eating lunch. There were puppies all around! Apparently its common to eat dogs in Vietnam..I was hoping those puppies were not for dinner! On the hike back Andrea and I caught a ride on a motorbike with 2 Vietnamese ladies, so there were four of us on one motorbike. It was a blast! The 2 ladies then went back and gave our friends a ride. We then hopped back onto the junkboat and traveled a little further into beautiful Cat Ba and continued to be blown away by the beautiful, enchanting islands. Then came one of my favorite moments. They threw the anchor down in the middle of the a dreamlike scene, and we climbed into kayaks. Gabby and I then took off and explored what seemed like heaven. Its so hard to explain this experience, other than to say it was magical. We explored edges of the islands and went under arches. That was just..MAGICAL. It really was. We were just exploring, with nothing around besides other kayakers. We would get up close to the steep, rocky islands, and would go underneath what was something like caves.  When we were exploring up close we found some sand, and some light that came down on the sand. It appeared that there was a little area of land underneath an arch/hole that was only big enough to crawl under. I said, lets see whats on the other side! So we got out of our canoes and hunched over to get under the arch and on the other side was this small little area of sand and shells that was surrounded by the rocky island and trees and nature. It was an unbelievable, ecstatic feeling to discover this beautiful little place that was so untouched. We felt like we discovered it. I collected a bunch of sea shells from this special place, and we headed back into our canoe to explore some more. We went to a beautiful, private tiny beach that we discovered before it was time to go back to the junk boat. I could've spent hours kayaking and exploring. It was so amazing!! It was incredible to be in nature with nothing else around and no distractions. It was just nature and me and there was so much beauty to explore!

The junkboat headed back to drop off everyone on the junkboat besides Andrea, Katie, Kyle, Mica, Gabby and I, because everyone else was doing a dayboat tour, but we were spending the night on it. We talked one of the workers from Germany, Daniel, into coming back to our junkboat for the night and hanging out with us and Lee, the other worker. We headed back into the middle of paradise, surrounded by the majestic islands and threw an anchor down while dinner was made for us. The dinner was so delicious! I ate squid for the first time! I've become more daring when it comes to food than I ever thought I would be. One of the workers on our junkboat, Chung, who he told us to call him Cocoa, was the tallest Vietnamese guy I've ever seen. He was about 6'6 or so and spoke decent English. He was sooo funny. He made us laugh a whole lot, just being himself. After dinner, the workers on the boat made our "beds" upstairs on the roof. They put a tarp over the beds, and put down pads and flowery bedspreads that looked like they bought for us just that day! We were so appreciative, and felt so grateful and they were just so kind and adorable that we wanted to thank them in some way. They did not speak English, so we had to get creative. Someone got the idea to sing the song L.O.V.E. "L is for the way you look at me…" and spell out the letters with our arms. So we very enthusiastically sang and performed for them. They loved it!

Then came one of the most amazing, magical experiences for me. Cheng brought us over to the edge of the boat and took an oar and splashed it around in the water. The water lit up and glowed! There was phytoplankton in the water which causes particles in the water to glow when hit. We were AMAZED by this! It was like there were fire flies in the water. It was really bright lights. Apparently it was rare to see them this clear too. We got lucky because it was a dark night. I couldn't stop splashing the water and watching the magic! It really felt like magic. I'd never heard of this or seen anything like it! It was like Tinker Bell swimming around in the water, spreading her pixy dust wherever you touched the water.

 Lee and Daniel, the German workers rode out to our junkboat on a little motorboat at about midnight. We took this little boat, driven by a Vietnamese guy they apparently just found to drive them, to a private beach! Once again..so magical. The moon was shining down on us at this private beach in the middle of beautiful Cat Ba. You can see the beautiful islands outlined, even though it was dark out. I ran to the water and splashed the water with my feet, kicking the water and throwing rocks in the water. I did this for a long time..I was so mesmerized by the magical water!! I couldn't get enough of it! Cheng made the fire for us and we all gathered around it and chatted and hung out. It was beautiful. A moment I'll never forget. After a while we headed back to our junkboat. You could still see the outline and shadows of the beautiful islands. I watched them in awe for a while in our "beds" on the roof of the junkboat, before falling asleep. 

Day 4

I don't think I've woken up in a more beautiful place in my life. Wow. I wish I could describe the feeling. It's like you think you must be dreaming still. Matt, Daniel and Cheng came up and chatted with us on the roof about last night as we headed back. Daniel said "It was definitely the top 5 best days of my life!" When we got back, we got breakfast, and then decided to rent motorbikes for the day! None of us had driven a motorbike before! Mica opted to find someone to drive her around because she didn't trust herself. Gabby was pretty scared, but tried it. I was a little apprehensive, but felt daring. It cost like a couple dollars to rent them for the day. Gabby had a rough time with it. When completely stopped and trying to put her foot down, the motorbike fell on her..twice. A lot of the time there was no one in sight, just me, on a motorbike, in the middle of Vietnam..driving through crowded streets, driving by school kids, passing by busses, driving through beautiful nature, up mountains with amazing views of luscious greenery. This was definitely risky. There are like no laws…I mean they just handed us motorbikes, with no instruction really. They didn't ask to see a license or anything. We'd never driven one before and they just let us ride around their community. There is like no organization when it comes to vehicles. There aren't like dotted lines to pass..you just beep your horn when you want to pass and then do it. We rode around the beautiful countryside for two hours. It was so much fun! On our way back, Gabby and I took the wrong turn and lost the others who were no where in sight. Luckily we figured out the way back. It's crazy..not having a phone..almost no one speaking English. God was with us that day!

 When we got back it was time to catch a bus to begin our journey to the airport and back to Ho Chi Minh. Kyle and I are out of money but every ATM was broken! Luckily the Greek guys we met the day before were on the same bus and lent us money. The bus was so crowded the left the door open and had 2 guys standing in the doorway. Beeps are heard constantly in Vietnam. There's not really order, so everyone just beeps. When we got to the bus stop we ate at a hole in the wall type place again where we ate on our way to Cat Ba. We felt really grateful for the lady putting up with us and being difficult, not speaking English. To show our gratitude we sang and performed L.O.V.E. for her.

 We smushed 6 of us into a little cab to the airport, after bargaining for ever with many cab drivers trying to get our business. When we got to Ho Chi Minh we needed a cab to the ship. We performed yet again L.O.V.E., this time in hopes of reducing a cab fare! When we got back, we went out to the fancy, huge club we stumbled upon the first night in Ho Chi Minh. A lot of SAS kids were there. I danced a while and then headed back to the ship for the night.

Day 5

The final Day, Katie, Kyle and I went to get the dresses we had tailor made. They came out pretty well. Mine is bright pink, with gold embroidery, and goes to the floor with a plunging front and back. It was cool to design a dress and see it come out pretty well! For the rest of the day we shopped around, and ate a restaurant and had delicious rice inside of a pineapple.

Some observations I made in Vietnam

-No police. I didn't see police anywhere. There aren't really laws that are enforced I guess. I mean they just let a bunch of American girls who don't know what they're doing ride motorbikes. A realization we had in Vietnam was that America is so socially loose (women's rights, homosexuality) but we're so politically strict (laws such as driving and drinking). The opposite was the case for almost every country I went to

-Everyone rides motorbikes. Everyone! Babies are on them, whole families are on them, four people on at once. The highways are packed with them.

Vietnam was amazing. I've had that "I can't believe this real," overwhelmingly happy, blessed and joyful feeling in most ports, and that for me was the MAGICAL day and night in gorgeous Cat Ba. With traveling comes obstacles though, and there were some on our great journey. Through traveling I've learned that the smaller the group THE BETTER. 6 was a lot, and it means a lot less quiet time. I've realized how important it is to really absorb and take in what you're seeing and experiencing, and you can't do that while talking to another, about some random topic that doesn't apply to the moment you're in and the place you're in and most likely will never be in again. I learned a lot from traveling with this group. There was some venting and complaining about one of the girls. At one point people kept agreeing and kept complaining and complaining and saying basically the same thing over and over again but in different ways. When I observed this, it made me realize how this was actually pretty unnecessary and that there was all this negative energy and thoughts going on in the middle of this BEAUTIFUL place, that was just not worth it! I've learned so much about being positive, and how valuable it is. Yes, venting is necessary time and can be healthy. But when it turns into gossiping, and cattiness…it is just not good!

In Vietnam I learned a lot about by myself by being around others. I learned what I value, and why I value it. I was always big on positivity, but here I started seeing HOW important it was. How negative talk and thoughts just are not worth it. I realized how important it was to soak up this beautiful blessing that was giving to me as much as possible, and to do that you have to be quiet sometimes and let your senses take over. I feel so blessed to have experienced all of the magic in Cat Ba! I couldn't believe how everything worked out-how God blessed so, and kept us safe and together on the motorbikes, Gabby and Kyle would've been alone and things would've been bad if it was just the 2 of them but Mica had to take a different flight so we were waiting for her and ran into Kyle and Gabby, and everything worked out with the flight back, and the magical day in Cat Ba. God was everywhere! This was our first experience traveling far independently. With it came challenges-we changed our flight-and everything worked out. If we hadn't, I wouldn't have had the magical day I did. I feel so blessed to experience that magic, and to learn all I did, through people, and to be able to see the positive in any negatives. One of the biggest ways I saw God in Vietnam was that He had a plan, a perfect plan. It was so evident that everything happened for a reason!

Literally the Longest Year of my life :)

So this is the longest year of my life! Why? Because on the ship there
are 2 April 20ths! We're 15 hours ahead from the east coast now and
its currently April 20th. Tomorrow we go ahead another hour, but have
a second April 20th. So tomorrow we'll be behind the east coast
instead of ahead. Anyways this is also a leap year so I'm living the
longest year I'll probably ever live. :)

I've been on the ship for 6 days since Japan. Hard to believe-it
really has flown by! Its been super busy here on the ship. We didn't
have classes for 3 weeks straight just about(while we were traveling
in Vietnam, China and Japan), so now we're drowning in work and
responsibilities, and finals are within a week. On top of the school
work, I've had to deal with registering with classes, finding places
to intern this summer, and I just finished up sending out e-mails to 7
event planning companies. Fingers crossed!

Anyways, with all these big girl responsibilities, I'm left with no
time for blogging about the past MONTH! Oh so much has happened.
Luckily I've jotted some things down in journal along the way to jog
my memory when I can finally blog! Hopefully I can bang out Vietnam in
the next couple days despite all the school work (and hopefully sunny
days) coming my way.

Speaking of sunny days, today it was sunny and warm and beautiful and
boy was I a happy girl. Up until about mid-Vietnam or China there were
only a couple cloudy days that we experienced this whole semester.
East Asia was very NY-springtime-ish, and therefore there was a lot of
rain and lack of sun. Since we got on the ship in Japan it has been
cloudy every day! It was a different lifestyle completely! Every other
day on the ship prior to the past 5 days I'd spend at least a few
hours outside, but the past 5 days consisted of me taking at least an
hour nap every day and spending a lot more time in my little cabin. I
was really itching for the sun, and today there was not a cloud in the
sky! We enjoyed it by hitting a volleyball around in the pool for
about an hour! So much fun!

So I've got a couple days to write some essays and finish up work and
then I'm in Hilo, Hawaii for a day! (April 25th) Then I'm headed home!
I'll be in San Diego in 12 days. Can't believe it! I'll give my
thoughts about coming home and leaving this dream after I write about
Asia.

Oh so much to write about, so little time!

Japan Tomorrow

I'm still alive! Traveling like crazy with very little time in between
ports, leaving no time for me to blog! Especially with papers due
today. I had a wonderful time in China! I'll write all about Vietnam,
China and Japan when I get back from Japan in 5 days. I spent the day
before Easter in Shanghai! Here's an Easter greeting from the Radisson
Hotel in Shanghai: I found some bunnies and chicks! Off to Japan
tomorrow! I have a Japanese Tea Ceremony tomorrow in Kyoto. I'll stay
in Kyoto for 2 days and then am heading to Tokyo for the remainder of
the time! Last country..can't believe it!