Goooooood morning Vietnam!!

Not only a great way to greet people, but also a fantastic movie. I would say head to blockbuster to rent a copy, but even with my limited internet and complete lack of contact with the civilized world I have managed to remain updated on the lowly video rental company’s unfortunate miseries. Luckily, however, I cannot even remotely relate to these miseries: Vietnam was awesome.
Our trip to Vietnam began in Hanoi. It was September 2nd and Ho Chi Minh had just delivered a speech declaring independence. Oops that wasn’t me; wrong American trip, I apologize.
My trip, contrarily, began in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)(formerly known as Saigon) on February 26th. Upon debarking from the ship we were cordially greeted by about 500 men standing under 5 feet tall, inviting us to share a motorbike with them for the scenic trip to downtown. As tempting as it was, we respectfully declined. Instead, we opted to walk the 1km. Along the way we saw many great things: we saw an all you can eat/ all you can drink restraint for $5, exchanged money at a rate of 18,640 to 1, and entered the Rex hotel—the hotel where soldiers and reporters used to gather over drinks.
From the Rex we walked to our hotel, the Spring hotel, where we squeezed about 10 people into a two person room. We more needed it as storage and a place to shower than anything else, because we were taking the 6 am train the next morning. So, after we threw our bags down, took advantage of their free unlimited (yet censored) internet, we headed to lunch.
As usual, the eating scared me as I never know if there will be anything I can eat. Luckily, at my very first meal, I found a food that would revolutionize my life: Pho (pronounced fu as in fun). Though it is normally a meat dish they have recently begun to make it vegetarian. It was delicious, and, fun fact, I ate it 7 times in my 5 days in Vietnam.
For those of you who have remained updated on my blog you will recall that I went to the Hiroshima Peace Museum just a few weeks back. I was impressed with how unbiased the museum was and by how the central message was not anti-American but rather anti nuclear war. This museum could not have been more different. In fact, until recently it was known as the museum of American war crimes. One must bear in mind that in a one party country the museum tells the story the way the dictator would like it to be told. Even though I knew of this extreme slant coming in, it was very  difficult to see many of the images and hear all of the stories. Further proof that war is a disgusting solution, and should be only the last resort (and rules of war should not be considered oxymoronic). Along the way we also saw the reunification palace; the true Vietnamese symbol of what they call “the American war.”
From there we had to quickly change our emotions as we headed to the Ben Thanh Market. The market is like a gigantic shuk where you can by anything and everything. Some more illegal than others. We started of searching for suites; they custom makes suits for $60. These amazingly nice suits are $300 right outside the market. We decided to agree that we would only pay $50 each. Apparently that was too low, and we left suitless. I’m over it. Instead I spent $28 on DVD’s. I purchased every episode of Weeds and How I met Your Mother, as well as every cartoon Disney movie ever made. As we were walking away, celebrating our awesome purchase, I ran into Eric Cooper, my roommate next year.
Let me rewind…Cooper and I were supposed to hang out in Nam because he is studying in Singapore. Instead, we ended up only bumping into each other twice because my phone stopped working, and he didn’t check his email once (or answer texts I sent from my friend’s phone). Either way, it was wonderful to see him even only for a bit.
Side note, it was 95 degrees out. With that in mind, we all decided to shower at the hotel and head out to dinner. For dinner we went to restaurant that picks up orphans and street kids, trains them in English and hospitality, and prepares them to work in the restaurant business.  Not only where there stories amazing, but the food was actually very good.
The night ended with a beer at the bar at the Rex hotel, and a trip on the motorbike to another historic bar, Apollo. The day ended with the feeling that the war remained ingratiated into the countries essence; how far from the truth this will soon seem to be…