Nam Nam Nam Nam Nam

11/4/08

HELLO! Wow, Vietnam has already come and gone. Time is sure accelerating as we scud across the sea back home. Ho Chi Minh city was positively dreamy. The streets were streaming with motorbikes and women in triangle hats and smartly dressed young professionals, there were scrumptious whiffs of noodles and Vietnamese coffee and tropical fruits off every street corner, and everything was so very inexpensive (although confusing, with a dollar at 16,000 Vietnamese Dong). The first day, I woke up early and got in my neon running shorts and slung my camera around my neck and sat on a deck chair and watched as we sluggishly moved up the Saigon river. The water was the color of celadon glaze—a light olive green that reflected the clouds so beautifully! It is very humid there, but not the same knee-buckling heavy heat of India. Thanks to the most wonderful JOEY BUI (who I hope reads this to see how appreciative I am), I had been in correspondence with Chau Tran, a friend of his from the city who he had known from when he lived there before coming to Villanova (wow, it is so strange to even think of Villanova…so little time has passed since I graduated but such monumental change has occurred!) and I met her the first day. She took Vin and I around, getting Vin an ear-piercing suit (a jacket, vest, bow tie, and pants…all plaid) tailored and ordering lotus root salad and juice made from a magical fruit (not beans) that I forget the name of and being an all-around champion! After that, I went back to the ship and met up with Chris and Kristin and we went to Chris’mom’s hotel and I was exposed to American television for the first time in 2 months and I do not miss it AT ALL. I didn’t think I was going to miss it and now I am even more firmly convinced that I don’t ever need to watch it again. 
Then it was off to Apocalypse Now, an over-loud bar where I abandoned the dance floor after 3 minutes of toe-tapping to go and shimmy with a moustachioed octogenarian over by the pool tables while everyone else bumped and ground. The next day I woke up early and set out for a day on my own in Saigon. I visited the modern art museum, bought presents for people, found 12 dollar diesel jeans (which I am wearing now after 3 laundry-less weeks), and chomped on enormous purple grapes I bought from a crouching old woman on the street corner (with no intestinal repercussions!). That night was Halloween, so I donned my Uma Thurman garb and was picked up with my friend Justin by Chau’s friend in his BMW and taken to an ultra-sophisticated lounge, Xu for mojitos and scintillating cultural conversation. I felt like a celebrity or something, the place was definitely cooler than me…its bathroom was cooler than me! It had these trendy little chains hanging in the doorway and saucy music spritzing out of the speakers and mirrors everywhere! It looked like all the expatriate’s teenage children were regulars there, because music I actually knew was playing and someone was in the sweetest Rubik’s cube costume I’ve ever seen! We went to a bar, appropriately called Lush, where Chau was lovely enough to order me not one, but TWO plates of Vietnamese fruits…which I am pretty sure I ate all of, including the garnishes and napkins. It was so good. I got home around 3 or 4 and went right to bed. I met up with Chris and Kristin the next morning to go to the Cu Chi tunnels about an hour and a half away from the city center. Chris’s mom came with us (a big group of parents came to Vietnam on SAS Parents Trips or independently to meet up halfway with their kids…I kept hoping I would see my mom and dad on the docks when we pulled in!) and we crawled around in the tunnels (a bat almost flew in my mouth, it was really great!) and scurried through the hot, green forest and were absolutely exhausted after about an hour. Those holes are SMALL. Maybe I just need to steer clear of the breakfast buffet, but I commend the Vietnamese people for their compactness! The next day I went around the city on my own again, and visited the War Remnants museum. There were the most horrendous photos of war victims and tiger cages, next to awful testimony from journalists and Vietnamese townspeople, and being alone made me feel it even more strongly. Seeing the war from the other side, without an American textbook filter, was very profound. I felt sick to my stomach after leaving, knowing that people can inflict such horrible suffering on other people for so long, regardless of whatever seemingly valiant ideals they were fighting for.
       I bought a phone card to call my parents and was happy to talk to my dad, but a bit dismayed to miss my mom, who had left for the bay area. I also talked to Nick for like 3 and a half minutes, until my phone card was depleted of Dong. It was so nice to hear familiar voices after such an exhausting morning. I went to a tailor and got a crazy dress made out of this purple cotton fabric with off-white piping and it looks like an airline steward’s retro outfit mated with a thrift store housewife’s dress and I dig it. That night I met up with Chau again, and went to a hookah bar with her friend, then got this stuff called sweet soup at a mall. It was so very delicious…like creamed corn but with coconut milk and tapioca balls, all seasoned with…delight!!!!! My stomach was doing cartwheels and blushing all night long. I went to Chau’s the next day and had Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup that I doused in chili sauce, kiwi bubble tea, and Vietnamese coffee, which made the back of her motorbike sag a little bit when I got on again! We hung out at her house, jumping in the pool and nibbling on another magical mystery fruit, and then came back to the city and picked up Vin. He mailed an enormous package back home, I bought a screamingly orange duffel bag and some big DVD collections for people, and then Chau took me to her mom’s friend’s salon where I got a manicure for 3 bucks that makes my fingernails look like the sky! I have clouds on all my fingers and suns on my thumbs and it is just grand. We had to say goodbye to that wonderful wonderful city that night, and I was so sad to leave Chau after 3 days. She was so gracious and fun and welcoming, and I can’t wait to see her again!
Hong Kong is in 1 day, and we find out via CNN radio broadcasts who the new president is. WOWEE!!!