Vietnam

I know that I probably say this every time I come back from a trip, but my trip to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as, and still known as to the locals, Saigon) and Mu Nei in Vietnam over reading week (from April 16th - 21st) has been my favorite trip so far. This may have been because I did not have to worry about my two finance classes which ended each with a final on the Monday before we left.

On Thursday morning (extremely early - we left PGP at around 5:45 am to make it to our 8:30 flight) we left Singapore and flew to Ho Chi Minh City (we being Kerry, Katie, Heather and I - unfortunately the other Katie had to stay in Singapore because she just got an internship and needed to fill out paperwork, but she gets to go work in Australia so I guess it evens out) - we spent the day walking around the city and seeing the Reunification Palace (home of the South Vietnamese Government during the Vietnam war - still in tact) and the War Remnants Museum (from the Vietnam War - or American war as it is called in Vietnam). We also discovered two places we would often return to during our stay in Saigon (basically all the locals still call HCMC Saigon). First was the night market (also functions as a day market), which is like any market that I've been to in Southeast Asia (or Asia, because they are similar in Hong Kong), the second place we found was Fanny's, an ice cream parlor which serves delicious sundaes (for like 4 USD, a little bit pricey for food in Vietnam, but we splurged).

A man napping on his motor bike amid the chaos that is Saigon

The reunification palace

Our Tour guide took us into the bunker below the palace

Friday morning, the three of us had booked tickets for a bus to Mui Ne, which is a coastal town (there are a ton of resorts - tourism has got to be a main/probably one of few industries there) on the South China Sea in Southern Vietnam. We got a tip to go there from one of our exchange student friends at NUS (did I mention before that there are like 700 exchange students at NUS this semester, so whenever you travel somewhere it is basically guaranteed that someone else has already been and can give you advice) as Mui Ne for some reason boasts sand dunes (both red and white) that you can sled down on. We went from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon, it was nice to get away from the city in that time and bask in the hot sun, oh and Mui Ne was beautiful.

Our hostel - this is what 5 USD per night will get you (including an air conditioned room) - i think we could have stayed at the nicest resorts (which were probably really nice) for around 25$ per night

View of the South China Sea from the back of the jeep which took us to both the red and white sand dunes

Went to the white sand dunes first to go sledding - its really scary up on the top of the dunes because the wind blows really hard (we were SO sandy when we left) but we could not get the sleds to go very fast.

We went to the bathroom and found this - I included it because its like the Southeast Asian version of Aunt Kate and Uncle Barney's yard.

Red dunes for the sunset (couldn't see it because of clouds)

Night out where we found a bar with some other tourists (mostly far older than we are) -- Kerry won a limbo contest

A great thing about Southeast Asia is that in some places paying someone to drive you on the back of their scooter is the equivalent of taking a taxi.

A bad thing about Southeast Asia is that you can unknowingly purchase "hard seats" for a five hour long bus ride home - which are plastic lawn chairs that go in the aisle.

As the bus ride was about 5 hours long, we did not get back into Saigon until the evening, where we went back to our Hostel, My My Arthouse (which I would recommend for anyone traveling on a budget -- who doesn't mind that it is in an alley, a lot of buildings are in alleys in Saigon - the people here were so friendly, we got an air conditioned room for the 4 of us (later 6 of us) - and complementary breakfast!). Back at the hostel it was not long before Ben and Charles (also Americans- from UNC) arrived. Ben and Charles had left Singapore earlier than we had and had gone from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, then they came to HCMC to meet up with us and fly out of Vietnam. Obviously, a trip to Fanny's was in order to celebrate their arrival.

Monday, we went out to the Cu Chi Tunnels - which was about an hour away but still considered a part of Ho Chi Minh City - it is a huge complex of underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong (communists) during the Vietnam war. If I'm remembering correctly, I think he may have told us that 100,000 people lived down there during the Vietnam War. We actually went down through one of the tunnels (which have been widened for tourists) about 60 meters I think - We had to crouch and shuffle forward - I almost had a panic attack being down there but luckily I controlled myself. Also I'm slightly embarrassed/ashamed to say that we shot AK-47s at the tunnels.

A man demonstrating how to get into one of the hidden entrances of the tunnel

My turn, I was too scared to crouch down in here

Instead, we went in through a wider entrance, through a section of the tunnel which had been widened for tourists but was it was still a disturbingly tight fit.

This was terrifying

Monday also happened to be Katie's (UConn Katie who was in our Vietnam group) 21st birthday, so obviously we had to celebrate. Luckily, this gave us an occasion to drink the bottle of Bacardi that Kerry won in the limbo contest in Mui Ne, so we made cocktails in the hostel room in true TJ Donohue fashion. Then we went out to one of the restaurants that Anthony Bourdain raves about in either his book or his tv show - I'm not sure, this information was told to me - it is called Com Nieu Saigon. It is clearly one of the nicer restaurants in Vietnam (even though it was so nice, it still wasn't too expensive for us, or too expensive for us to pay for the birthday girl - a reason why I LOVE Southeast Asia). It is also famous for its claypot rice, which as it comes out of the kitchen, one server will break the claypot it is in and throw it to another server across the room who will do cool tricks with it - awesome.

We surprised her with a cake

Tuesday, we got up early for a day trip to the Mekong Delta (area in Southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches the sea). It was a little bit of a struggle for us to be awake, alert, and excited given the activities of the previous evening - but after an hour bus ride and a little of the first boat ride, we were able to enjoy the rest of our day (even though at this point I had a pretty bad head cold). The tour that we went on had a slightly disneyworld feel to it - as all the activities we did were pre planned - but it was still a really cool experience.

Being paddled around in the Mekong Delta - we were one of the few people from the group that we bussed over with that put our hats on

This reminded me of Apocalypse Now

Coconut candy factory which was DELICIOUS

Wednesday was our last day - we shopped for the morning and then went off in search of "the lunch lady" which is a woman who makes food on the side of the road (quite common) but she only makes one meal per day and its supposed to be amazing. We found her, and it was delicious, only problem is that it may have given two of us food poisoning...

And then we flew back to Singapore on Wednesday night, just in time for ladies' night.

I had my first official final (third actual final) yesterday, so I only have one more left on next Monday. I will post before then about my exciting travel plans which are not finalized yet but are so close! I cannot believe that I am almost done here time has literally flown by, faster than any other point in my life.

I love and miss all of you.

Easter in Singapore

Hey all,

I haven't done any traveling since Hong Kong, but I thought I'd do a post to update you on what we have done in Singapore and let you know about my upcoming plans. Time is literally flying by, next week is the last week of class (we have a reading week after it devoted to studying for the locals and travelling for the exchange students, and then two weeks worth of finals), however I have two final tests next Monday (in both of my finance classes, dreadful) so I'll mostly be studying this week. Because we have limited class and crammed in studying and travelling I know that these 5 1/2 weeks are going to fly by -- some of my friends who are only taking upper level business classes that do not have finals during finals week are leaving to go home at the end of next week! I feel like I will be an emotional wreck at the end of this journey.

After HK, I tried to catch up on some work and enjoy life in SG. Kerry and I went to apply for our visas for Vietnam (a little bit of a process compared to the other countries we've been to) and Charles, Kerry, Ben, and I went to see the Asian Civilizations Museum -- one of Singapore's best museums. we get in free because we're at NUS (always more of an incentive to go) and we had a nice tour (much shorter than the one at the Peranekan Museum). The special exhibit was on the Mughal Empire and naturally, as inquisitive college students, we took full advantage of the special exhibit:

they are literally crouching as this is clearly made for children

my friends found out how bad my coloring skills are

The week was rather uneventful - although we did attend a business lecture where we got to meet the CEOs of Google and Oracle (Singapore/Southeast Asia) and another prominent local CEO who owns a bunch of night clubs. Also I helped my friend John interview a man from Hong Kong who does a lot of different technically related things (I know basically nothing about how computers work) and one of the projects he's working on is attempting to break down the great firewall of China. Pretty interesting to talk to him and the CEO of Google, Singapore in the span of a couple of days. Especially now that google.com.cn does not exist anymore (its redirected through HK).

For me, Easter weekend was filled with church -- I probably have been to church more in these past three days than I have in the past three years (that's kind of a joke). Oh and I should point out all none of them were Catholic -- it was a pretty cool learning experience.

so quick run down

• Good Friday - woke up and went to an Evangel Baptist Church - I did not realize that there are people who when referring to themselves as "Christians" they mean born-again Christians and not any type of Christians. It was pretty interesting I went with two people who were members of the church (one is my friend who interviews people for his blog and the other who took us is someone I have helped him interview twice who is an alum of NUS Bschool) and a British woman who is the widow of a former Dean of NUS who was visiting. I was told pre going that one of the beliefs is that anyone who is not born again is going to hell, so that's good news for probably everyone reading this blog. The ceremony wasn't too different from what I was used to (although it wasn't a traditional Good Friday Mass). We did have great Dim Sum afterwards.
• Saturday - Out of the blue our friend Saro invited us to the Armenian Church which is the oldest church in Singapore (built in 1835, not still in use today) where the Armenian community in Singapore met to celebrate Easter (approx 35 individuals -- most of them not related to each other, there were some very cute kids running around). We had delicious Armenian baked goods and played this game where you try to crack each others' hard boiled eggs (I guess a lot of countries have that tradition) - Sadly I don't have any pictures because we thought it was going to be more of a mass. Oh and we went into the old church and two women and my friend Saro sang some hymns which were really beautiful. Saro was absolutely amazing - we had no idea he could sing so well. It was a moment that would have made my mom cry for sure.
• Easter Sunday - Charles, Kerry, and I got up and went to St. Andrew's Cathedral - at this point I was done with keeping track of what type of religious ceremony was taking place. It was certainly interesting - there was a mass baptism at the end (we left before that) and two of the people getting baptized stood up and talked about how they found god -- to be honest it was nice but a tad bit on the crazy side (the man talked about run ins with the mafia and losing one million dollars...) -- and to add to it, during the middle of these talks pop music started blaring somewhere outside and would continue for the rest of the mass. During this period of time I was laughing so hard/uncontrollably (as silently as I could) into the hymn book that tears started rolling down my face.

Kerry artistically captures Charles and I in front of church.

After mass, we were going to a western brunch, but I had to come back to campus for a group meeting. The meeting was about a presentation I just gave about Korean Chaebols -- which I would have had no idea what they were had I not come to Asia.

So that brings me to today -- time to start studying for my two finals next Monday.

Things I'm looking forward to:

• MRT Pub Crawl on Wednesday night
• Getting my two finals out of the way
• Vietnam a week from Friday!
• Whatever is going to happen after final week and before I come home (plans keep getting jumbled) I know I get to spend at least one day lounging on a beach in Southern Thailand, so I'm happy about that
• The fact that Mary Grace and I fly home on the same date and arrive at JFK within an hour of each other!

Happy Day after Easter.

I love you all.

Emily