Saigon
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
2
18
Trip End
Jul 02, 2008
Ho Chi Minh,
Vietnam
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Anyway, we had to be up and ready for the bus to pick us up in front of the hotel at 8. So we ate at the buffet in the hotel. They have a pretty sweet spread. After that the bus came and we were off to the Cu Chi tunnels. The bus ride began and I was amazed. Everyone over here rides on scooters. The streets are CRAZY in Saigon. I don't even know why there are traffic lights, nobody follows the rules or anything. It's not even worth explaining becase words can't do it any justice. Pics will be up when i get home.
So the bus ride was an hour and a half - 2 hours. We arrived and everyone got all bug sprayed up then we went into the national park. All of the info and exhibits inside were very interesting. Seeing how they developed the structures and lived previous to and during the Vietnam war. At the Cu Chi tunnels we were able to fire a variety of guns if we wanted to. I decided to fire the AK47. It was about $10 US dollars. Kind of a cool experience to say that I've fired an AK in Nam.
Next we had lunch at a local place on the way back to the hotel. Really good food. After we got back to the hotel we just hung out and took a quick nap before the bus picked us up for our official dinner with the Red Cross of Vietnam. The bus ride to the dinner was rediculous. Rush hour in Saigon, I wouldn't advise it. We ended up having to walk about 5-6 blocks because it would be quicker than having the bus go around and get to the place.
Once at the dinner we had a few speakers, thanking us for comming and everything. Our last speaker decided that at the end of his time with the mic to sing us his favorite song without any music. I'm Your Lady. It was the funniest thing i've ever seen, worth the $6,500 right there with that one song. Still laughing thinking about it right now. He was the head of the Vietnameese Red Cross. Dinner was interesting to say the least. We ate pigeon, and the fish came out w/ everything still in tact. I'm a trooper and tried everything. Most of it was pretty good. Towards the end of dinner all of the locals came around to every table and wanted to Cheers with us. So we had to say 1,2,3 Cheers in vietnameese. Heinaken is the drink of choice over here. The wait staff at the place was very good. Everytime your bottle of beer was emptied into your glass, a new beer was brought to replace it, even when you still had a full mug of beer. CRAZY.
So while all of the rasing of glasses and toasting was going on, Karoke began, and man do the asians LOVE their Karoke. One of the first ladies to sing was the head of the department of health for vietnam, kinda cool. Songs were being sang in both english and vietnameese. We had a few ppl that sang, the vietnameese were handing the mic to ppl and not taking no for an answer to get people up and singing. There were a few songs where everyone from palmer joined in, Sweet Caroline and Hotel California. They were rated pretty high for a score. At the end of the night, one of the officials decided it was a good idea to carry around a bottle of Congac and give EVERYONE shots of it. I was not expecting that type of party at all with the national health officials and the red cross of vietnam. CRAZY.
After getting back to the hotel, everyone in the group was a lil' sauced and we were going to find a place to grab a few more beers. Everyone decided that there was a club not too far away so we left in waves for the club. In my group, 4 of us got the wrong directions, turn left instead of right and we could not find the club so we stopped in at a restarunt that had a patio and had a few more beers. Turns out that i had a better time than i would have at the club, Techno music and packed. Two things that i don't like, especially in this HUMIDITY. We came back to the hotel around 12 30 and crashed. We have a flight today for Quinone and clinic starts tomorrow. Can't wait. I'll have more next time.
