Livin it up at the octopussy bar. Last night in hue!

So my classmates and I had been deeply disturbed by our tour guide Viet’s long hairs growing from his mole.  We couldn’t understand why it was so hard to pluck them.  But after I got over my disruption, I became simply confused.  There MUST be a reason why this hair was left to grow.

Today after the Imperial City of Hue, we ventured to a popular Buddhist temple by the Perfume River. We passed through a gate where there were two depictions of men; one represented good, and one represented evil.  But that wasn’t what was interesting. What was interesting was that one of the men had a mole which was sprouting some quite impressive hair.

It was then I knew, that the mole hair must be significant, at least within Asia.  After getting back to the hotel, to “refresh” as Viet keeps saying, I got on google. I found that : in Thailand and Vietnam, it is good luck to have hair growing out of a mole.  The longer the hair is, the more luck you have! This explains everything.

Well, kind of.  I can’t quite find out where the tradition came from, but rest assured, with a little more research I will be able to write another post hopefully detailing why this is so.

Oh, we went to the Imperial City too, which was cool.  The roof tiles were yellow, to signal royalty, and geomancers (Feng Shui experts) arranged all the walls around the city so it would be in an opportune position. It was extremely hot though, and Allison and I almost got left behind when we tried to go to the WC. 

well this blog is failing miserably

BECAUSE IM SO FUCKING TIRED!/ have to do our other blog for class where I write like 3 sentences of BS...

today we spent about 7 hours on a bus. SEVEN HOURS!! WHY!!! who cares what the 17th parallel looks like?!??!? I want to go back to Hoi An where there was a beach and a pool and I got a tunic tailor made for 18 dollars...

I'll give a quick overview of the Mekong Delta since I forgot..

We left at 5 and battled terrible traffic and speed bumps to get to the Delta.  Our driver almost killed several people.  When there we looked at a Pagoda which was very pretty and then I peed in a hole.

After this we wandered through a market which sold live snakes, then hopped on a boat to go eat lunch on an island in a bonsai garden.  I held a python.  I dont even know who i am anymore....

After that we looked at a brick kiln... SO EXCITING aka not really but hey, thats village life.

Then we went to a home stay which was like pretty legit camping; we got to cook and sweat to death and play BS.

Then we woke up at 430 to go look at coconuts or something, went back to HCMC, at lunch, then went to teh Cu Chi tunnels where the Viet Cong hid during the war.  They were pretty boring.  Steph climbed a ladder and then got yelled at.

SUPER EXCITING. pics to follow. that was such a scintillating blog post.

Yummy

noms in nam!

We landed in Da Nang and are now breakfasting.... there's wifi so cahill and khai are so technology

LUSH

I went to a club..... in vietnam!!!! I'm saooo adult.

not dead but tired as hell and a 4:30 plane to catch tomorrow... I'll write this eventually, I swear...

Photo time!!

Heres the zoo gates:

and here we are in front of dragon bushes:

Reunification Palace!

Collier and I dancing on the top of the palace

War Remnants Museum

Temple Club!

The Rex!

Yesterday I…

Woke up at six and walked to the zoo. Its free before 7:30 but they kick you out at 7, so we didn’t have much time. I saw a zebra for the first time, and SUPER CUTE OTTERS—they kept chirping at us, but their enclosure had trash in it :( come on Vietnamese, clean up your zoo!! There were tons of kids rides too, but they hadn’t started up yet. Too bad, I wanted to go on a roller coaster.  There was also a BUNCH of people playing badminton—wish I could’ve joined in!

Ate Bahn Mi- traditional Vietnamese baguette—they put PIGS EAR ON IT!!! Ooooops. Next time I’ll pass, but I wasn’t sick so YAY!

Listened to a Communist Party member talk about the war.  His accent was so thick—I could barelllly understand.  He’d lectured at Harvard tho so he must be legit.  However, some of the things he said were obvi just communist views, so its hard to get a legit opinion on the war.

Ate at a Korean fast food place for lunch- Lotteria. They have chili sauce for French fries! It was nice to eat a little western food—literally, little. Portion sizes are smaller!

Went to the Reunifcation palace—this place used to be French and prettier, but then they redid it to look more ugly.  The presidents lived there until the capital moved to Hanoi.  Now they just have conferences there and stuff. This place was hot as fuck and we were all sweating balls the whole time. Pardon my French, but this heat is HORRIBLE!! One of our guides said it was hot, even by local standards.  TMI but I didn’t even have to pee that much because we just kept sweating out all we drank. Our professor kindly informed us he had a “swamp in his crotch.” TMIx200000

Went to the War Remnants Museum, aka "The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government [of South Vietnam]." Yeah.  It’s hard to see photos of things your country has done that you don’t support.  Pictures of victims of Agent Orange, the cages where they kept prisoners, what they did, etc… so tough.  I love you USA, but some of this shit is WRONG.  It’s good to see it from a different perspective though—everything can’t be Pho and fun all the time! Then we walked back and had to hurry to shower because…

We went to the Temple Club for dinner, which is co-owned by a W&L law alum. Brangelina has patronized this restaurant, as has Michael Caine.  The dranks were great—I’m 21 IN VIETNAM, BITCH!! Dinner was also good, seemed expensive but really still under 15 dollars.  However, we had to pay for everything—come on lady, help out some fellow Americans, ya own the place! Our cab ride there was also difficult—apparently we kept giving the driver the wrong money and he got impatient! Sorry dude, we’re just silly Americans…

After this we were goingggg to walk home but instead detoured to the Rex Hotel, which has a SWANKY ROOFTOP BAR! Good idea, Julian.  This drink cost more than my meals for the past two days combined, but well worth it.  I recommend the Singapore sling… There was some great music (sounded Spanish?) and views.

Then we had to go back to a watch a movie… but our professor went to gosleep and so did Alyce… so did we really watch it? Use your imagination. When in Vietnam…

So yeah. 

Today it was hot. Hot by VIETNAM standards.
This was us:

This is essentially how I feel EVERYWHERE WE GO: http://www.mymilkglassheart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/cat-in-a-car-gif.gif

And now, picture time!!

Bringing this little guy along to take pictures at landmarks... forgot him today though. Here he is on our 14 hour flight....

Colleen's and my room... As Cahill wisely put it, these mattresses are like memory foam with no memory. Yikes!

This is an alleyway called 18... where there are some street food noms. Lots of raw meat and veggies to avoid, though!

As religious as I get... outside a cool Catholic church! (thanks french architecture!!)

Cool penguin trash can

Pho restaurant!

Outside the market! Cho means market.. I think.

Fabric inside!! Pretty

Chillin by a statue

Girls by the Saigon river!

Cahill and I are so stylish!

This is the outside of our guesthouse. 

HELLO FRANNNNS

Today I woke up at the lovely hour of 7 to go forage for food on the crazy streets of Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon/ District One of Panem.  Kind of a struggle--we heard so much about being careful with food we were at first too worried, but then found a place with good pastries. Chocolate croissants are probably good in any country...

Everything is SUPER CHEAP. Its pretty awesome, but if something is like, 3 dollars, I think its too expensive--weird because when I was in Europe I was fine paying an exorbitant price. We ate Pho for lunch, a Vietnamese classic. The place was called Pho 2000 and Clinton AND Bush have eaten there. So I'm basically presidential!!

(Kelly Mae, Collier and I, nomming in nam)

They charge you for moist towels though--what a trick!! In America its free.  We also went to a cute ice cream place in this FANCAYYYYY mall--but one scoop of ice cream was basically the size of a melon ball. UM WUT. Our waitress, however, said serving us made her very happy (even though we made her give us separate checks).

We also went to the Ben Thanh market (spelling? who cares...) where they sell EVERYTHING. I got scared to bargain people down so I didn't get anything but I will probably go back.  Everyone keeps touching you though, and trying to get you to buy things.  Personal bubbles don't exist here.  

Deep thought of the day: TOTAL DIVIDE between high end end poor.  I see people napping on the street but then go past a Chanel store... the way the city has developed is really interesting!

More pictures to come...

BLOGSPOT IS IN VIETNAMESE.

my face:

Currently sitting in the airport in South Korea!! This thing is like that Kreayshawn song, Gucci Gucci Louis Louis Fendi Fendi Prada.... designer stores galore.  Who feels like buying a handbag when they are traveling on excessively long flights? The smoking lounge also looks like a forest....

Things I did on my FOURTEEN HOUR FLIGHT:
Watched: My Week With Marilyn, A Dangerous Method, and the Iron Lady.  Didn't finish Twilight because my Benadryl finally kicked in. Thank god.  Airplane = saoooo hot. I can only imagine what the nam will feel like...

My internal clock is probs so screwed up right meow...