Saigon and Nha Trang, and the bumps in between

We are in our fourth and final country in Southeast Asia on our trip: Vietnam.  I had very high expectations for this country, and I am so pleased to say that they are being met!  We took a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City, but the locals say Saigon still) and spent three days in the huge city.  It was everything I had hoped for: insane motorbike drivers in unbelievable quantities, smiling friendly people, tons of shops and restaurants with pho (my favorite Vietnamese soup), and non-stop life in the streets.  Saigon is the cleanest and most developed city we’ve been to, although that doesn’t mean everyone has money.  We still had many people approach us for money or to buy things like hammocks and cigarettes.  The problem here is that everyone is so nice, we actually want to buy everything.

The most important thing we did in Saigon was visit the War Remnence Museum, where they displayed everything from their violent history, from the French colonization to the end of the war with the Americans.  Since America clearly lost the war, and Vietnam is now a unified, communist country, they describe everything in a very anti-American way.  They described the entire war as the battle for Vietnamese freedom from the American military and puppet government.  I didn’t study much about the Vietnam War in school, so I don’t know much beyond Forrest Gump and what my family has told me.  But I think Saigon was a good place to start learning.  To them (at least to the curators of the museum), America was messing with something that had nothing to do with them.  And I know it isn’t as simple as this, but Vietnam sure seems to be doing fine today.

Throughout all the anti-American words, I was looking for something good about my ol’ USA, too.  I found it.  One section of the museum was dedicated to stories and photos of Americans who protested the war, burned their draft cards, and spoke out against atrocities like Agent Orange.  I think it is these images that Vietnamese people think of when they meet Americans today.  We talked to people on the streets of Saigon who said they were glad Americans come to see Vietnam today.  I think it makes them feel proud and victorious all over again.

Saigon was a lot of fun, and I want to return to its hustle and bustle someday.  We stayed in a hotel above a dress shop, which was funny because we looked like we were going dress shopping everytime we went home.  We would have never found the hotel, but as we were wandering around with our backpacks when we arrived, a woman ran through traffic to tell us she had a nice big room for us.  Turns out she did, plus it had a little lizard in it.

We left Saigon very sweaty and tired (it’s the furthest south, closest to the equator we’ve been) and borded an overnight bus to Nha Trang.  Oh, the overnight bus.  How do I even begin.  I don’t think I can really begin without showing you the photo of the bus first.  So I will do that soon.  But basically a bunch of people “sleep” in “beds” on the bus, over the bumpy roads of Vietnam.  That really meant I slept about 2 hours.  And we get to do it again tomorrow night! YAY!

At least Nha Trang is worth it.  WE ARE AT THE BEACH!  I don’t even consider myself a beach person, but after three weeks of 90 degrees plus humidity, all I wanted was the ocean.  So here we are on the South China Sea, surrounded by islands and hills.  Nha Trang is comprable to any beach town around the world, except for the fiesty, friendly Vietnamese trying to sell us cigarettes and hammocks.  I made “friends” with girls on the beach selling food and bracelets.  Which really meant that they chatted me up and taught me Vietnamese phrases, and then came back later and guilted me into buying things.  Oy.  At least it’s entertaining!  One lady came up to us and offered to sell us a raw lobster and cook it right there for us!  Oh by right there, I mean under our coconut palm umbrella that we rented for the day.  It was really gorgeous and a great way to relax.  But somehow, even though I stayed under the umbrella the entire afternoon, I got sunburnt.  Apparently the sun is so strong here that it shines through an umbrella.

Tomorrow night we leave for Hoi An, pretty much dead smack in the middle of the Vietnam coast.  I will post more pictures soon, but in the mean time look at Jon’s awesome photos!

When would you sleep?

A lot of my deepest thoughts come from gchat conversations with my friends.  (Is that bad?)  The following may not be a deep thought, but it’s probably pretty unique, and at least thought-provoking.  Let me preface it with my views on sleep.  I was an awful sleeper when I was little.  At least once I week I would sneak down the stairs and watch Letterman from behind the banister so my parents couldn’t see me.  And eventually I’d stand up and say “my throat and stomach hurt.”  My dad always said, “Your throat has nothing to do with your stomach. Go to bed.”  What I was trying to get across to them is that I thought I was going to throw up.  I never really did throw up, but I was so scared of the possibility that I would that I kept myself up for hours and hours.  After I had been in bed for hours with no luck at sleep, I would cry to my dad and say I was never going to fall asleep.  His response was always the same: “You have fallen asleep every day of your life. Now think about ice skating.”  It really helped, and I think I just wanted to hear him say that every night.

Freshman year I used my lofted bed as a party cave more than a place to sleep.

My awful sleep kept up until college, where I probably wore myself out so much gabbing to my roommates that I fell asleep easier.  I know that regular yoga has helped me keep up the quick-to-sleep habits today.  But I still am not a fan of sleep.  I have a weird thing that if I nap lying down, I wake up really nauseous.  Sitting up is fine, like in a car or airplane, or even a beanbag chair.  But this takes me out of the “omg naps are glorious” category that so many people are in.  All of this leads to my general apathy toward sleep, and this question:

If there were a pill you could take that would make sleep totally unnecessary, with no negative side effects or disruptions to how your body functions, would you take it?  And if so, when would you sleep if it were purely for fun?

My answer is absolutely.  I’ve never liked sleep, and there are many more fun things I could be doing instead of sleep.  I only do it because it’s healthy.  The only times I would choose to sleep would be relaxing moments where it just happens naturally, like on the beach, after eating a big picnic in the park, or on a mountaintop after a grueling hike.  Oh and anywhere anytime in a hammock…I love those things.

Also a fan of falling asleep in moving vehicles, especially with Jon and Arselie! Photo credit: Heinz Healey