My whole Saigon experience

YYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Hi everyone and I am back with another blog post for you today about my very first day in Vietnam! I finished the last post with a sad feeling that I was no longer going to be staying in Thailand, but that is ok because I am pretty sure Vietnam will be an experience, even if it is a bad one(which I highly doubt). So anyway, last time we flew all the way to Vietnam and Meril got held back because her visa wasn’t good! We eventually solved this problem and after a day at the airport, we got to our new, cozy(ish) apartment and had dinner there. We went to sleep and started our first official day the next day. We woke up at 7:00 this morning and then we got dressed and brushed our teeth. We then embarked on our long day journey and went to a nice bakery where we had a nice chocolate muffin and for some strange reason, Ella had a pizza… but it was a fun meal and the place was absolutely astounding to be in. After the delightful meal, we walked in the extraordinarily humid humidity even though the sun was ok. I was boiling from the inside out and I felt like a shriveled raisin before finding and buying water bottles that I drank from. The rest of the day was touring all the nice little shops and we even went to a hotel called the Rex hotel for a small bit where Aba had seen an old film back in the ‘90’s! We also went to the market where we saw very cool artifacts and the war museum which contained stuff from the Vietnam War. It was very sad to see and all the pictures there that showed the victims were terrified. I felt very bad for them and I sincerely hope that this never happens again. After that, we arrived at our apartment and after a refreshing dinner, we went to bed.

YOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOOYOYOOY! How is everyone doing today as I am back today with another super duper cool blog post for you today about my second day here in Vietnam! Anyways, today was mainly touring the streets of Vietnam and seeing how everything worked out, so enjoy! Anyways, today started off the same way as yesterday by me waking up and brushing my teeth peacefully in no rush. After all of that stuff, we began our very long day of peacefully touring by going to the same bakery as last time. I had a gigantic baguette and the same chocolate muffin and they tasted incredibly well together. I really like that bakery, I think we might be going there a lot more on this trip. Anyways, we started to tour the different places that were surrounding where we were and we eventually after a long time of walking and looking at stuff in the blazing humidity reached a nice mall where we had lunch. I had a mushroom pizza and it actually tasted very good to me and everyone actually agreed that I had the best meal of them all! We also checked out a few stores where everything was seriously overpriced and we eventually left the mall to go to the Rex hotel, where we had a rest break last time. While we were there, we discussed much stuff like news and family and we had a few snacks there as well. We actually had a water puppet show scheduled at the hotel that we went to shortly after! Basically, water puppet shows are a tradition in Vietnamese culture and although some parts of it were good, to me it wasn’t that good. It just didn’t appear to me as well as I thought it would and I wasn’t sure what the whole thing was about. Anyways, today’s very long walking-and-touring experience was very cool and was one of my most exciting and fun days to count here in Vietnam.

HHHHHHEEEELLLLOOOOOO everyone on the other side of the screen of recreation(SOR)! I am back today with another super duper exciting blog post of coolness about days 3 and 4 of Vietnam and much more stuff. Please enjoy this blog and a happy Thanksgiving to you all! So anyway, we all woke up at the delightful time of 6:30 am and we, of course, were in a rush to get touring and stuff. Day 3 was basically touring Chinatown and day 4 was going on a tour to a nearby islandy place very close by. They were both fun, so on day 3 we got dressed, brushed teeth, and then had breakfast at a NEW cafe that wasn’t the nice another one. The food there was not good and as a result, I was starving the whole time despite everyone getting a really small tasteless meal. I prefer the other place better even though it is farther as it was nice there and I literally said in my last post that we were going to go there more often(If we don’t I’d be considered a liar and that shouldn’t happen). So then, we got a cab and drove a small distance to the town’s Chinatown, which is a small market which is supposed to be China-themed. A lot of touristy places have them, but this one wasn’t what I was expecting. In fact, this was the exact opposite of what I had in mind. It was literally just another everyday market but crowded with junk and 99% of the people were locals. I’m not saying this is bad, but the smell and crowdedness of the place killed me. I am pretty sure I have agoraphobia, which is the phobia of crowded spaces and a nod to social embarrassment. Also of crowds and big empty spaces, which is sad considering the trip we are currently on. We left the market afterward and then we traveled other blocks for the rest of the day. We even went to see a new movie called Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald that was actually pretty good in my opinion. It was fun actually and we had a very nice dinner where we saw a lot of tourists walking around and socializing. The next day started off the same way, but instead of going to a bakery, we drove an hour and a half to the docks, where we then took a relaxing boat ride to a small settlement a bit far from the city. We saw many people harvesting coconuts and we had a nice lunch that consisted of different fruits and other vegetarian stuff. It wasn’t the best, to be honest, but variety is the spice of life. After that, we took an awesome canoe ride down the delta that the place was located in and we then took another boat back to the city, where we rested and did homework. These two days were a very interesting cultural learning experience and taught me a lot about Vietnam.

YOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOYO! I am back today with another awesome blog post about our fifth day here in Vietnam and the last day with our friend Meril, who is leaving tomorrow morning. It will be sad to see her leave us after the awesome journey we have had with her since Cambodia, but life will go on and I’m glad that we had this nice experience with her. Anyways, today after waking up and doing the usual routine, we went to yet ANOTHER bakery that was TONS better than the last one, although it wasn’t as good as the original in my opinion. Everything was too fancy for me and I had a chocolate muffin there that was pretty average and dull compared to the other one I had in the first place twice. After that, we started to tour the rest of the city and we went to a few interesting sites, including the mall for a short while, another really great tourist attraction whose name I forgot, but we had a really fun time, and a really cool looking building that looked like the Avengers’ tower(Called the Bitexco Financial Tower)! We toured a really cool street with loads of awesome stores and although the day was very hot, it was totally worth it to go into all the shops and seeing the cool stuff that they were selling there. There were lots of heavy accessories and even unique sets of silverware and thread. After touring for so long in the hot sun, we finally finished that part of our day and went to the Bitexco Financial Tower because we thought that it looked cool and was a very big tourist attraction. The place was very well kept with clean floors and nice people, and even though I didn’t find any spare Ultrons lying around, there were binoculars located in some places and we could use them to see the whole city! It was very cool and it was a lot more awesome than I thought it would be. Next, we went to the mall but before that, it was starting to get late and we had a nice lunch at a closer mall with excellent food. Then, after a few hours of walking, we stopped for dinner and then went to the original mall that we were going to buy tickets for the upcoming movie Wreck-It-Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet. It looks fine, but I think the first was will be better than this one because the first one rocked. After that, we gratefully returned to our apartment after a long day of walking and went to bed.

HHHHHIIIIIII everyone out there that is probably far away from Vietnam right now. That’s right you all, I am back today with another blog post for you today about another day(Day 6 to be exact) in Vietnam touring and stuff, but this time without our friend Meril who left this morning. I’ll get into that in a little, but right now it’s important to tell you all that today wasn’t as action-filled as all the other days were. We did some limited trips mostly because we saw all the tourist attractions and I feel like tomorrow will be the same way. This was just to let you all know that. Anyway, we started off our day by waking up at 7:30 to say goodbye to Meril, who was leaving very soon. It was really sad to see her go because she was with us on our wonderful trip since Cambodia, and she has been a really great addition to our crew as we have explored places from the world’s largest temples to coconut-harvesting islands. We will all miss you while you’re in New York relaxing as we are constantly moving Meril!!! So yeah, she left and a little while afterward, Ella, Troy, and I went to my favorite bakery here in Vietnam(Finally!!!)! I had my delicious chocolate muffin as usual and then we went back to the apartment to do our long, boring homework. Really, 90% of today was doing homework and a few hours after that, we went to a restaurant for lunch where I had a steak for one of the first times on this whole year-trip! It tasted fine, but it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had. After our nice lunch, we went back to our apartment and did homework for a little while before having dinner at home and then going to bed. Today was short, but it didn’t mean that today was awful. It was actually pretty cool(minus the homework part)! Tomorrow will be our last full day here in Saigon, so wish us luck!

Hi everyone out there! I am back with another blog post for you today on how we have finished our final day here in Saigon. After this, we will still be exploring Vietnam all the way up to Hanoi, but this is the conclusion of our time here in Saigon and I hope you enjoy this blog post, although it was as eventful as yesterday. So, enough talking and let’s start talking! About today, not about what we were just talking about, but let’s get on with this blog on how today went for me and all the points that happened. So today, waking up was just like yesterday and after eating and doing the usual boring stuff, we went off to the bakery as we did yesterday and ordered that amazing chocolate muffin, for probably the last time :(. Afterward, exactly like yesterday, we went back to the apartment after that and we spent the majority of our day there doing our homework as we are still in school. Yup, just plain old boring homework, although a few hours after that we went to the Rex hotel to meet a very old friend who we met 4 years ago in Australia. His name is Sean and he is the head of a company; we met him while we were at the hotel right before New Years in Australia and we interacted and had a fun time. So we met him here again and we talked a lot about random stuff and how we were doing. It was fun, but afterword we drove to the mall where the nefarious Black Friday was in action!!! It was a war zone there and there were massive lines of people that we couldn’t get past! Although it was tricky, we managed to get past them and watched Wreck-It-Ralph 2! It was actually pretty good and although the first one was better this one was very creative and funny. After that, we went to sleep and celebrated our very good time in Saigon.

Saw this in a shop. You had 1 job and FAILED people!!!

Wonders of the Fruit Market.

Canoe trip! Aw yeah!!!

Inside a Vietnamese bunker that was used during the Vietnam war. It was a very interesting hiding and infiltrating device.

(Beneath Fake grass!)

Wouldn’t step on that if I were you…

(Bitexco Financial Tower)VS(Avengers Tower) You see it, don’t you?

Pennywise the Dancing Clown was stalking me right next to the mall and I caught him redhanded.

May I present to you the Durian, also referred to as the spikiest and stinkiest fruit on Earth!