So far, this trip has resulted in the most physical injuries. Thank god I’m taking my malaria pills because my ankles swelled up so much that I had to take my shoes off and waddle around and start antibiotics to stop a staph infection. Zoe fell off her bike, totaling her crying count for the day at 3. The first time she cried was because she was too short to use the bikes so she had to get back on the bus. Also while biking, Fogel got distracted by a dog on a tuk tuk, fell off, and bruised her entire leg and has a cut on her hand. More dysfunctional stories to come later.
Since we signed up for a field program to Cambodia, in the best been there done that manner, we only had one half day in Vietnam before we left. The first day we went to the Cu Chi tunnels, about a two hour drive away from Ho Chi Minh City. The tour guide gave us these bread rolls on the bus that tasted like challah. I think I had four of them. The tunnels are in a jungle area where meters of long tunnels connect and served as a military safe zone for Cu Chi natives during the Vietnam War. The intricate network took 20 years to build. American troops set up bases on top of the tunnels and didn’t realize until much later on that they were operating on top of fully functioning tunnels. We crawled through the tunnels, stopping to see an underground hospital, boardroom, and kitchen.
That night we came back to the ship. We had a short dramatic episode when Fogel couldn’t find her passport picture needed for Cambodian visa. Frances (my best friend that works at the reception desk) gave her a passport picture of another girl that looked eerily like Fogel that was just sitting on her desk but then we got that taken away. Last resort was using Caster’s polaroid camera. An hour and a half into the drama, a girl walked by and told us she didn’t have her picture and that they can just get them at the airport. Game over.
Cambodia wake up time was 4:15 am and we had a quick breakfast before going to the airport. Once we landed, Savy (our tour guide) picked us up from the airport and brought us to the Angor Wat Museum. There was a big room that had 1,000 buddhas. That was cool. We had lunch at a Cambodian restaurant, checked into the hotel (which was SO nice. When Emma approves thats when you know). That afternoon we went to EGBOk, a non-profit organization that takes Cambodian teens from extremely impoverished areas and teaches them hospitality and social life support skills. They set up 5 stations for us: scarf wrapping, spring roll making, bug tasting, lotus peeling, and banana root snacks. Zoe ate snake and a cricket, she said the snake tasted like jerky. Then they made and served us dinner and we had a huge dance party.
The next morning we woke up, had an amazing breakfast at the hotel buffet and hiked up to a small waterfall. After the hike and stopping at a small temple we had lunch up in a tree house. Next, we made our way to Angkor Wat, the largest religious temple in world. It used to be Hindu but turned to a Buddhist site and can hold up to 20,000 people. We climbed the vertical steps up to the 3rd level and views of the entire compound. Savy promised we could get ice cream, so after a quick ice cream stop we went back to the hotel. Everyone was hanging by the pool for a little, but Julianne and I left and took a tuk tuk into “downtown” Siem Reap. We shopped in the markets and wandered before meeting everyone for dinner and ending up at Pub Street (think New Orleans minus ten notches) with neon pink paint all over our faces.
The next day, we woke up at 5am to watch the sunrise over Angor Wat. I personally thought it was slightly anticlimactic but I guess it depends who you ask. We went back to the hotel for another amazing breakfast buffet and went to pick up bikes. Let me preface this situation- first, I HATE bike riding, but I decided that SAS is a learning experience and that I was going to suck it up. Zoe couldn’t find a bike that was small enough so she had to get back on the bus and almost started crying. Before the bike ride even begun Julianne and I were already at the back of the group. There was plenty of falling and near death experiences. When one girl quit mid-ride, Zoe got off the bus and took her bike. After biking through some temples, we ended up in the middle of the jungle. The sand was so deep and I actually don’t think I have ever heard so many complaints in my life, and shockingly not many of them were from me. Rachel’s elephant pants ripped in like 12 different places and we saw a little boy peeing at the temple, which is definitely illegal in Cambodia. It was a long morning.
After the bike ride, everyone was so dead and tired we went straight back to the hotel and had a free afternoon. Julianne and I went back into town, had an amazing sandwich and gelato, then got a pedicure and 30 minute massage for 23 dollars total. We went to an interesting/odd dance show for dinner then to the airport. We flew on a small 2x2 propeller plane. Hearing everyone freak out on the plane was a highlight for me. I got a DQ blizzard at the airport so that was another plus.
Back in Vietnam we made it to the ship by 1 am and were picked up in the morning at 8 am for a Mekong Delta tour. We drove two hours and got on a small motorized river boat. We saw floating markets, people living on their small boats, and the small homes on the side of the river. We got off and saw a rice/coconut factory and tried all these amazing snacks and candy, and of course bought the traditional Vietnamese straw cone hats. We got back on the river, drank from fresh coconuts (AMAZING) and went on a paddle boat down smaller canals of the river. We had a great lunch (a fried fish that still had its eyes) and spring rolls, among other things and came back to the ship. That night we went on a vespa food and drink tour. I think its safe to say that it was the actual best night for all of us. We each had our own vespa driver and a tour guide named Katty who was the coolest person ever. We went to two restaurants and two bars. The vespa part was so much fun- there is no regard for any traffic rules in Vietnam, so we were weaving in and out of traffic. Caster and I did a pass off her beer while on the back of our respective vespas. They dropped us off that night and we were incredibly sad to say goodbye.
The last day we explored HCMC, going through a big market of tchotchkes, had lunch at Pho 2000 (Bill Clinton’s fav. ) and came back to ship, beyond exhausted but full and tired and happy.
Fogel, a self proclaimed vegetarian, brought a cliff bar with her in her bag but would never eat it. One afternoon we distracted her, which is pretty easy to do, stole the cliff bar, and hid it from her. The next day when we asked her to look for it and she couldn’t find it and we told her we ate it. later that day we took a picture of the cliff bar behind her head and airdropped it to her. She still has no clue where the cliff bar is and this went on for days.
Next stop Myanmar! But first, Sea Olympics. Go Red Sea lol.
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