Day 2

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Day 2:

           We started off the day with a Vietnamese wake up call... a loud festival right outside our hotel, with techno music blaring at 5:45 AM. Knowing they wouldn't fall back asleep, Milo, Lamont, and David watched the festival through their window for another hour. After, we had a buffet breakfast upstairs, which was pretty good with the exception of the slightly funky milk. We met downstairs to head off to the War Remnants Museum, a grim reminder of the atrocities of the Vietnam War and the role that the U.S. played in it. In a beautiful juxtaposition, as we entered the museum and began our self-guided tour, our group was approached by Vietnamese person after person, most of them young-looking, who wanted to take selfies with us and introduce themselves in English. It is interesting that as we were learning about how our country was responsible for devastating Vietnam, the Vietnamese of only one or two generations later are eager to make our acquaintance. After the museum tour however, the mood of the group was heavy. We went to a local park nearby to relax and reflect on what we learned at the museum, which was really nice. After about an hour of walking around the park and talking to locals, dancing, playing catch with little kids and even doing some Tai Chi, we got back on the bus to head to lunch. Lunch was at the same buffet of our hotel as breakfast, and the options were wide, ranging from normal noodles, spring rolls, etc. to boiled duck fetus. Kai tried the boiled duck fetus, and according to his post-fetus interrogation "It wasn't even thaaaat bad." After lunch, we got a tour of the Reunification palace, and learned more about Vietnam before the war, as well as the legacy of Ho Chi Minh. Following the palace tour, we went to Chinatown.  This tour (by our same guide Hao, who is a totally cool guy) consisted of a walk through the local meat market, as well as the Chinese center of worship. We placed burning incense in the bowl of ash to represent a respect for the dead with an odd number of incense sticks, and a respect for the living with an even number, as is according to Chinese tradition. Some time to chill at the hotel, which the girls used to play bananagrams and (some of) the boys used to swim in the hotel pool. Then, we had dinner and prepared for a night exploring. Maddie, Lamont, and Jordan chose to wait at the hotel and relax, and Kai, David, Melissa and Milo went out to check out the scene within the blocks surrounding the hotel. We discovered a stray cat, some slightly overpriced pistachio ice cream, and a little bit of live music. Now, we're all exhausted, but today was a great day.
-Milo and Melissa