good morning vietnam

so, i promised myself over and over again that i would think of a
more clever title to this blog, but now as i'm sitting in front of
the computer, i am at a loss for creativity. and with my arrival to
hong kong just hours away, i figured i better get writing about
vietnam before it is all a faint memory.

arriving to all of our ports has been a great experience. it is
always a spectacular sight to sail into a new city and watch its
skyline come closer and closer. sailing into vietnam was a bit
different though. around nine in the morning, we approached the
mouth of the saigon river and spent the next three hours sailing up
the twisting waters toward Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). as we rounded
each bend of the river, we saw more and more local villages, full of
people waving from the banks at us. it must have been an interesting
juxtaposition to see this big cruise liner sailing past small, wooden
fishing boats being rowed by a single person. it definitely felt
like an interesting contrast from the decks of the ship. the crew
treated the shipboard community to a great barbecue as we sailed
toward HCMC, and it was really a nice introduction to vietnam.

once visas had been inserted into all of our passports and the ship
had been cleared by immigration, it was time to venture into the
city. HCMC, or saigon as the locals still prefer to call it, is
really a pretty modern city. for me, it had the feel of a mix
between washington, dc and new york city, but a lot of people felt it
also had a parisian feel for it (which isn't too surprising since the
french played a large role in developing the city). one of the
things saigon is known for is tailor-made clothes, so that was on the
top of the agenda for karen, shari, krista and beth. i wandered into
town with these crew and yas, but getting clothes made wasn't in the
cards for me. upon arrival into the center of the city, krista and
beth broke off from the larger group, and shortly afterward, yas and
i broke away from karen and shari. for some reason, we were both
feeling a bit anxious about nothing in particular, so we ended up
just wandering through the streets of district 1 and finally taking a
break to have a glass of wine and chat. we chatted right up until it
was time to meet everyone for dinner, which turned out to be a more
challenging task than expected.

that morning, krista had passed around a name and address of a
restaurant she remembered eating at on her previous voyage and set a
time for all of us to meet. we knew that this place would be
difficult to find because it was a small little joint on a small side
street, but yas and i ended up riding around in a taxi for thirty
minutes or so trying to find the place. what made it even more
difficult is that our taxi driver didn't speak english and we didn't
speak vietnamese. he tried his hardest to find the place though,
stopping on every other corner asking other drivers if they knew
where it was. we finally ended up getting out of the car in the
general neighborhood and walking in stores and hotels until we
finally found the place. when we arrived, a small group of friends
were already there and a few more joined us later.

after dinner, a another glass of wine and a really bad game of pool,
i headed back to the ship. i was leaving the next morning early on a
trip, and i was definitely feeling like i needed some decompression
time...not to mention, i needed to pack.