Good morning Vietnam!

[Disclaimer: So, although I didn't get the chance to finish blogging about SAS in real time - 2 years later I am finally posting this piece that I actually wrote while we were in Vietnam (approx March 2011)... I just edited the end. :) ]

Sailing up the Saigon River to Ho Chi Minh City (known as Saigon before communist regime came into play), was amazing.  It was interesting to see how similar it felt to sailing up the Amazon River, but with Vietnamese boats and fishermen, rather than Brazilian.  This was my second visit to Vietnam, I visited the north back in 2007 with my classmates (see previous blog posts).  Saigon was definitely a different, more modern feeling city than Hanoi.  Since I have already seen HaLong Bay and SaPa, we decided to stay in the south.

We were fortunate to be traveling with our good friend, Annie, who is Vietnamese and had a family member in Saigon.  I feel like in our time there, I had the privilege of traveling like a 'local' and experiencing all kinds of great foods.  Service was also a focal point for our time here.

Our first meal off the ship was at a cute little place with a deceivingly westernized name, called "Wrap and Roll" (see yummy freshness above:).  Annie ordered for us and we had 3 different kinds of spring rolls, roasted chicken cooked in banana leaves, and a few other delicious things.  Saigon had a distinct Westernized feel.  In Hanoi in the north, I remember definitely feeling the French influence in the architecture and in the city layout, but Saigon felt much more cosmopolitan.  There were high end stores like Chanel and Louis Vuitton, modern malls, an oversized colonial post office, a replica of Notre Dame (see photo below), a backpackers district, and the all encompassing Ben Thanh Market. This market was a huge warehouse with hundreds of little stalls selling everything from fabrics and shoes, to candies, dried fish, and North Face backpacks.

On our second day in Saigon, we got to meet up with one of our friends from California who happened to be in Vietnam for business.  We met up for breakfast at a place called, Pho Hoa Pasteur, which is apparently where pho (a vietnamese soup) was made popular.  I've had pho before, but never for breakfast, and that is actually when most people eat it in Vietnam.  It was delicious and so authentic in a hole in the wall type place.  Here's the evidence...

The following day we went to a center called the Christina Nobel Foundation, which is a program for street children, and they have a variety of facilities.  They have a live-in center, a medical clinic, school, art program, and other locations throughout Vietnam.  This was one of the most organized and best kept programs I've seen.  We were there because our friend Annie made a connection with them, and through her involvements with Freedom in Creation, we were able to have the children in the art class paint some pictures and create a poster.  It was a great experience, and although there was a major language barrier, we were still able to elicit the smiles and hugs that melt your heart.  That night we went with a big group of friends to dinner at Nha Hang Ngon, which was a sister restaurant of one I loved in Hanoi.  It's an open air restaurant with French decor, and authentic Vietnamese food stalls lining the perimeter of the restaurant.  The food was amazing, and Annie and her cousin just ordered a bunch of different things for us.  We also did our fair share of karaoke in Vietnam... which was such a fun group activity with the private rooms.  So fun!

The next day we went on a Semester at Sea sponsored service trip to a school in a more rural area for children with disabilities and who are hearing impaired.  We rotated through a few different classrooms and played with them during recess.   When we were outside playing, these two little girls came up to me and wanted to take pictures.  I soon realized that they were twins, and they so reminded me of my own nieces whom I missed tremendously.  I showed them my nieces pictures, and they looked at each other and laughed as they realized they were twins too.  It was definitely a moment I won't forget.  I let one of them use my camera and she wanted to take a picture of me -- I'll never forget that - I was wearing my green SAS shirt giving a peace sign.  She was so excited to get to use my camera.  This 'service' experience and the other brought back memories of my dissertation research and the idea of ethics in service.  While I don't consider this a true service experience, I think it was more of an exchange that was still beneficial to both parties.  The teachers and principal at the school were extremely proud and excited to share with us all of their projects and initiatives.  At the end of the visit, they invited us to buy some art created by some of the children as a fundraiser for the school.  We could not resist.

The replica of Notre Dame in Saigon

Overall, Vietnam was great and I feel like we got to have a unique experience with a good friend.  She hadn't been back to Vietnam in a number of years and it was fun to see the sights and foods from her perspective.  This was the only country I've been to before on this voyage, but I had never been to Saigon.  On an unfortunate note, for the first time in all of my travels - I got robbed in Vietnam.  It was our last day, in my last taxi to the ship... I was leaving the Ben Thanh shopping area, and my friend and I decided to separate because she had another errand to run and I had felt safe getting around.  I looked at the cab driver in the mirror, and I had a gut feeling (always follow your gut!!!)  He didn't really smile when he picked me up, and I knew something was up.  I only had the specific amount of dong left to get back to the ship, and I saw that the meter was skipping... as others complained about being scammed like this earlier in the week.  So I confronted him, and after a heated and somewhat scary exchange, he ended up with my iphone.  I had pulled it out to show him the numbers of $ that I had on me - and handed it to him to see (as I had been doing while shopping).  He took it, started yelling at me in Vietnamese, and tried to grab my bags.  Luckily we were parked right outside of the port, so I got out of the cab after giving him all the dong I had left.  I didn't realize that he had my phone until I got to the ship.  I am lucky that it wasn't a worse situation, and ultimately, it was just my phone and a bruised ego.  I survived and found it somewhat freeing to not have a phone (to the point that after we returned, I stalled on getting a new one!)  Overall, despite this incident, I really enjoyed this experience in Vietnam.  The food was amazing, the sights were sensational, and the service experiences provided more awesome opportunities for reflection and growth.

Sensational sights of Singapore

Marina Bay, Singapore

It's amazing how time is flying on this journey.  We have such a warped sense of time to begin with - adjusting our clocks forward every few days (and today is our 2nd April 12th because of the international date line).  It feels like our time in Asia - incredible as it was - went by in the blink of an eye.  When I last wrote, we didn't know if we'd still be heading to Japan, and soon thereafter it was decided that we would not be able to stop there.  The alternate options were South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwain.  Although I was wishing with all my might that we would get to visit the Philippines, ISE decided that our best and safest option would be Taiwan, so we added that to our itinerary.  We are now currently on the Pacific Ocean on our way to Hawaii, but I still want to try and capture the experiences and poignant moments we had at each stop… so since I left off with India, I'll pick back up with Singapore.

Singapore.  What an amazing city.  We came into the port in the early morning and got to see the sunrise over what appeared to be an extremely modern and well kept city.  There was a feel in the air that this would be unlike any place we've been yet, and it was foreshadowing of the modernity we'd see in our later visits to China and Taiwan.  Knowing that the season finale for Top Chef was taped in Singapore, Mark and I were ready to experience their culinary offerings.  Another thing that I was really excited for in Singapore was to reunite with my cousin who I haven't seen in 15 years!  

When we first arrived we got dropped off on the main shopping road, and the even the drive through the city was amazing.  In our pre-port lecture to prepare us for the visit, Prof. Kluge mentioned that Singapore was an extremely clean (and safe) place.  This couldn't be any more true - the streets were spotless, architecture was very interesting, and it felt like a really safe place as well.  It was an added bonus to be able to drink beverages with ice in it, and even order water from the tap.  No GI problems here :)

My cousin met up with us and she and her friend took the day off of work (they are nurses) to tour us around the city which was awesome because they knew the best ways to get to different places.  We started walking through some of the underground malls that are again, super clean and very well organized.  The subway stations are also there, so we hopped on and went to our first recommended place - Banana Leaf Apollo, which has a fish head curry soup that is the talk of the town.  We then toured around town - went to Marina Bay which is this huge Vegas-like hotel with a huge ship on top of the three full-size hotel towers.  It was right on the waterfront, where they also had a soccer field/stadium right on the water (not next to the water, but on the water).  Singapore is also known for their 'Hawker Centers" which are basically street food centers, similar to a food court, where you can order different foods from different vendors.  We went to the Newton Circus hawker center - and it was awesome!  We sampled their chicken rice, among other dishes, and the ever popular chili crab.

Chili Crab at Newton Circus (yumm!)

The distinctive statue of Singapore is the Merlion (half merman, half lion), but there was a special project with it by the bay.  There was another huge version of the Merlion on Sentosa Island, so we ventured out that way.   Sentosa Island was amazing - it was basically a resort island with a 'Disney/Universal Studios' feel to it.  Beautiful beaches, and a sky-luge - which my cousin bravely took us on despite her fear of heights.

Overall, Singapore was a complete highlight, even though we were only there for one day.  I hope we get the chance to return and spend more time there - it was such a treat.  Hands down, my favorite aspect of the day was getting to run around town and do all these fun things with my cousin.  It felt so great to get to spend that time with her and reconnect.  That was definitely another blessing to add to my list of things to be thankful for.

The Merlion on Sentosa Island

Reflections from India and thoughts & prayers for Japan

Shore Temple at Mamalapurum

Where to begin?  So much has transpired in the last week or so, both within our travels and in situations around the world, it's hard to know what to begin with.  Prior to arriving in India, I was preparing myself to see and experience a wide range of extremities: extreme poverty, intense over-crowded settings, lack of personal space, smells, dirt, etc.  In looking back at our time in India, it exceeded my expectations, and in the area we were in, these things were all tempered.  Before we even arrived at the harbor, you could smell a distinct, indescribable smell of India.  Many people mentioned that hours before we came to dock, the smell was in the air.  When I opened up our window shade, we had arrived, but to my surprise I saw rows and rows of Ford cars lined up, ready to be shipped (later we found out they headed to South Africa).  It was an odd but foreshadowing sight to welcome us to this country.

From the intense heat and dust, to the crazy rickshaw rides, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in India.  A lot of people chose to travel to different parts of the country including Agra and Varanasi (Taj Mahal and Ganges River), but we decided to stay in South India.  We were in Chennai, in the state of Tamil Nadu (apparently one of the wealthiest states in the nation).  On our first day we took a city orientation tour, which included a stop and a fort museum where colonial items and a church were preserved.  Then we were off to St. Thomas Cathedral, where supposedly the tomb of St. Thomas was buried.  It was a very interesting (and Western) introduction to Chennai and India that left me a little perplexed.  We got to drive through the town, see Marina Beach, which is the 2nd longest beach in the world, and finally we got to stop at an amazing Hindu Temple called, Kapalishvara Temple in the Mylapore area.  That was an amazing site.  We watched people smash coconuts onto the ground in a certain area, as an offering to remove evil spirits from their lives.  The complex was a bit of a courtyard with lots of other little temples around.  There was even one section where cows were milling around, and yes, this was in the middle of the city.  That was something that will stay with me, seeing cows, donkeys, and other large animals lounging, walking, pulling carts alongside cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, and buses in a pretty metropolitan area.  It was SO interesting.  We also visited a special needs school called, SANKALP.  We got to meet the founders, three women who created this school for children with autism, and another school for children with learning disabilities including dyslexia.  That was a powerful experience as well.

Hands down, the food in India has been my favorite thus far.  Although cautious, we were able to fully explore the spice-infused offerings and were not disappointed.  The first place we tried for dinner was great - we had chicken biriyani, rice, curries, etc, all served on a banana leaf on a tin plate to be consumed with our hands, well our right hand to be exact (it's rude to eat or use your left hand there).  It was awesome.  The following day we went to a chain restaurant called Saravana Bhavan (which, coincidentally has a location in Sunnyvale, CA, about 20 minutes away from where we live!)  Again, the food was amazing.  This is a vegetarian restaurant, but after eating here (a number of times), I did not miss eating meat, and felt fully satisfied, and not gross afterwards.  We tried dosas, which are a large thin crepe-like wraps that taste like a parmesan sourdough cheese crisp.  You dip it into a variety of sauces, and of course, eat it with your hands.  It was delicious.

Another highlight of our time here was our trip to Mamallapurum, which are ancient temples near the shore about 1 1/2 hours south of Chennai.  Our driver, Raja, took us down and was great.  There were huge original 7th century temples and stone statues carved out of a single rock called the Five Rathas.  We spent quite a bit of time here thinking these were all there was to see.  Then we found out that there were many more spots to see.  My favorite was the Shore Temple which was overlooking the beach and the water.  It was incredible to see such a beautiful temple so close to the shore, preserved and in tact for so long.  Amazing and awe-inspiring.

And, no trip to India would be complete without the experience of looking, shopping, and bargaining.  It is, after all, the home of many great and beautiful things we purchase and consume in the United States.  We got to see a variety of places from street vendors to state of the art westernized malls.  One thing to note, whenever going anywhere, if you appear in the least to be a tourist, your rickshaw or cab driver will take you to a 'shop' where they get commissions and perks for bringing customers.  The first night we got roped in and a few overpriced items were purchased by our group members, but after seeing the prices at the malls and shops we realized these shops were very overpriced.  It's part of the experience though, everyone had a story like this, where they wanted to go somewhere and were taken to one or two 'tourist shops' along the way.

I know this post is getting long, but I cannot leave without mentioning the tragedy in Japan.  It was interesting because while we were in Chennai a few of my colleagues and I were trying to buy a Japan Rail Pass because you can only purchase them before arriving in the country.  Due to a variety of random but fortuitous circumstances we weren't able to buy them, and afterwards just thought that it wasn't meant to be.  Three days later, news of the earthquake and tsunami came, and it was mind blowing.  It's hard to describe the feeling of being at sea, supposedly on our way to this country, and seeing what has happened there.  Our shipboard community has been in the process of making 1,000 paper  peace cranes for travels Hiroshima, and now that project has taken on new meaning.  We don't know for sure what this will mean for our voyage to Japan, but more importantly we are holding in our hearts and minds a peaceful recovery for them from the devastation.  With a huge world event such as this, we also learned that the ship is able to receive satellite news - so we have Aljazeera News on our TVs in our cabins now (which, by the way, is such a succinct, different, uncluttered, and direct approach to worldwide news).  Seeing the images and hearing stories riles up our interests in helping out if we do end up going to Japan.  Many people are talking about and asking how we can provide support or relief, and it's nice to see that interest amongst the community.  We will see what happens next…but in the meantime, our hearts and prayers are with all those who were affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Hanoi and Halong Bay

Hanoi was a great city. We stayed in the French Quarter and ventured by foot around town. The French influence on the buildings were not as striking as I thought, but the architecture and feel were definitely distinct (as well as the communist flags on every house and business - even the little pineapple stands along the road). After a day there, we headed on a bus 3 hours northeast to Halong Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin. The drive up was awesome - passing rice terraces, villages, palm trees, homes and shacks right next to each other. The tall narrow homes (to avoid property taxes) and the big corporations stood out as well. It was very interesting. Apparently three years ago, the government built a bunch of tall homes outside of the city of Hanoi to create 'suburb-like' areas outside of the city, but no one wanted to move there, so now they are just abandoned.


Once we arrived at Halong Bay, we boarded a boat, had fresh seafood, and embarked on an overnight journey on the water. It was absolutely breathtaking (pictures coming soon) - the rocks and islands were peeking out of the water which made it look like a huge dragon - hence the name (?). We got to explore different caves in the bay, and climbed the highest point in the bay (about 500 steps) for some more amazing views. That part was really fun, but literally by the morning we were all suffering from cabin fever. Let's just say we weren't staying on any luxury cruiseliner on the water.

Then we headed back to Hanoi, and then onto a flight to Dien Bien Phu. There we visited a war memorial, cemetary, and history museum. It was reminiscent of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. One of the most memorable moments was climbing up A1 Hill, a famous site where the Vietnamese defeated the French, and all of a sudden 3 young men came running down the hill as fast as they could. We all stared with bewildered looks, then within a matter of seconds, the hardest fiercest rain we've encountered thus far hit with strong winds. We were all soaked, and our Vietnamese tour guides (who have been with us the whole time here) said it looked like the gods were shooing us away from the bunker. It was pretty powerful to see the areas, and the cemetary.




The REAL highlight of Dien Bien Phu for me has been visiting the ethnic minority village to begin some of our service. We spent an afternoon at a local schoolhouse (with walls made of bamboo and dried mud, and roofs of banana leaves and straw). Our first stop in the journey was to the Xa (Kho-Mu) people. Unfortunately the community secret police were there and the chief of the village was made to distribute the items we brought. We gave the children clothing, basic school supplies, and much more. The biggest challenge was the language barrier. I had to try hard to fight the tears away, the children looked so sad and scared to see us. Then when we started playing with them, they started to warm up to us. I played catch with this young boy (about 4-5 years old), and he wouldn't stop. I also was able to leave a SWLC bag with the teacher of the village, and took a picture with her. We were taking pictures of the children and showing it to them on the cameras... they were amazed and intrigued.

Now, I am in Paso, a small village in NW Vietnam, near the Red River, on the way to Sapa. We will be here for two nights, and will be visiting some more small ethnic minority villages, thje Black Thai (Thai Dam), and Red Zao. The road here was insanely beautiful. I don't think I've experienced a more scenic drive (other than Big Sur). The mountains were green and lush, and the road was winding all over the place. This part of the journey is definitely the heaviest and the most rewarding. Its very weird though, as we want to capture the moments on film, I can't help but to feel bad about taking pictures. The only way I can is by connecting with the kids/families and showing it to them afterwards - as part of the experience.

That's all for now. Overall, it's been absolutely amazing, humbling, and refreshing to experience another culture, interact with the people here, and enjoy the sights. The conditions of some of the homes have been eye-opening (again, somewhat similar to some areas in the Philippines). It definitely makes me appreciate everything we have, and in some ways makes me envy the freedom of simple life some have here too. I've definitely questioned the lens and perspectives by which I'm experiencing different feelings and reactions to what I've seen. It's all about the journey.

p.s. the food in Vietnam has been fantastic, and it's been fun being adventurous with our meals, but I'm definitely going to stay away from certain specialties (Thit cho). Next on the agenda after a few days in Paso, Sapa.