Day 7

Our first weekend in Vietnam began in Ho Chi Minh city where we got to "sleep in" a little bit... breakfast at 8am.  After breakfast, our tour guide Thanh led us to the Independence Palace, otherwise known as the Reunification Palace. We snapped pictures and took videos of the different rooms and sections of the palace as we followed Thanh throughout the building, we learned about the history of the rooms and the purpose of each of them, the most interesting room of them all was obviously the cinema and the projection room. 

As our time at the Palace came to an end, we took the bus to the museum dedicated to the American War; the name given to the Vietnam war by the Vietnamese. In the museum, we walked through different exhibits and examined pictures of children affected by Agent Orange. Some pictures of the war which really interested us were pictures taken by American Journalists at harrowing moments, opening our eyes to the desensitizations of war upon humanity. Leaving the Museum, a stack of minimalistic movie posters caught our eyes at the gift shop on the way out and we spent a solid thirty minutes looking through our options. 

At one o' clock, as our hunger started setting in, we headed towards Pho 2000 where we had our favorite Vietnamese soup once again, at a restaurant where Bill Clinton once dined. As we noticed the pictures, Troy started to chant the "Bill Nye the science guy" theme song. "Bill! Bill! Bill!" and soon enough the rest of the group blindly started chanting along, embarassing Omeed and the tour guide.

When lunch ended, we headed towards our next destination, the Ben Thanh market. A tightly packed room filled with many vendors and merchants trying to sell us all of their products for a higher price, since they knew we were foreigners. But we weren't too easily fooled, as we masterfully bargained our way to the prices we desired, even lowering a price from 1.2 million Dong to 300 thousand. 

We concluded our time at the Market with all our new toys and headed to the post office, sending a few post cards, and took a slight detour through Chinatown to see the different cultures.

We finished the day with a light, traditional Vietnamese dinner of pork ribs, chicken and seafood.

The day has yet to conclude as we write this blog, but we are all excited to get some rest to wake up in the morning and venture to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Day 6

For our 6th day, we woke up before the crack of dawn to participate in one of Hanoi's most beloved activities, Tai chi. Our party groggily walked the typically packed streets around our hotel. As we approached Hoàn Kiếm Lake, the notable body of water in the center of the city, we learned why the streets were barren.

People of several different age groups (Primarily older people) were partaking in several aerobic activities around the lake (biking, dancing, etc.). When we reached the statue of Lý Thái Tổ, a multitude of dance groups were actively moving to the beat of famous pop songs (i.e. Gangnam style, Timber, and We Can't Stop).

Additionally, a soccer game was intensely being played by locals of different generations. In the back, ballroom dancing took place with the old teaching the young how to dance with precision. At first we were hesitant to join the locals, however they eagerly invited us to partake in their activities. Several people learned ballroom dancing while others duked it out in a soccer exhibition.

Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel to recoup after the early wakeup. A couple of people decided to hop onto a rickshaw tour around the city, becoming one with the hectic traffic. The immersive experience of driving on the roads of Hanoi gave us memories that will never be forgotten.

Following the morning events, we gathered our belongings and had our last meal in Ha Noi. 

After lunch, we said our goodbyes. We sadly parted ways with our beloved tour guide, Quan, before running to our gate in order to catch the plane. We barely made it xD. 

After a two hour flight populated with crying children, we stumbled out into rainy Saigon. We introduced ourselves to Thanh, our Saigon tour guide. Our bus then stopped at The Palace hotel in which we dropped off our bags.

At first glance, Saigon is much more modern than the traditional architecture of Hanoi. Capitalistic influence was evident with the mass advertisements and presence of Western culture.

Thanh took us to a local food joint where we tried southern variants of the Vietnamese food we experienced in the North (ex. spring rolls). 

Finally, we sleepily made our way back to the hotel.

Day 5

The 22nd of June began with an early morning endeavor at the Thanh Xuan Peace Village where we befriended many of the children who were affected by dioxin poisoning and interviewed a few volunteers and teachers for short 90 second promotional videos. The children greeted us with a welcome song/dance and then we got to give them the gifts we brought them. We then spent our lunch chowing down on Bami King sandwiches, an array of fresh fruit, and Bobapop Boba (it refreshed our day) while playing a perplexing riddle game by the name of Black Magic. 

    

  

Once our time at the Peace Village concluded, we proceeded to explore the nearby Vietnam Military History Museum that consisted of authentic war vehicles and exhibits of war propaganda, photographs, and documents. Some of us instantly flocked toward the movie posters that were sold in the gift shop (Monsters, Inc., Ratatouille, Pulp Fiction, 500 Days of Summer, etc.) while others of us attempted to flip water bottles on the flag tower of Hanoi until we could achieve self validation.

In the late afternoon, we trekked into the city with our pen pals and experienced a plethora of events: bartering, interviewing the locals, purchasing friendship bracelets, and witnessing exploding mochi. After a memorable hour out and about, we wrapped up our time with our pen pals while dining at a pizza place named Pepperonis Pizza, and as we arrived back at the hotel, we said our final goodbyes and departed ways with our newly made friends. 

 #quansringtone