Good Morning Vietnam!

I opened my window at 6:00 am to see the quintessential view that you would imagine Vietnam to be. We were traveling down a wide muddy river with each coast lined with lush tropical vegetation, and we could see men in wooden boats with rice hats, fishing for the morning catch. I was really excited to finally be at the first port that is very widely removed from Western culture. In Japan and China, there was still English everywhere and familiar companies and advertisements. Here in Vietnam, that is not the case.

Our agenda for the day was to go with our teacher to view shrimp farming in the Can Gio Biosphere. For every class we must go on FDPs (faculty directed practicum) to make up for the loss of five days in the classroom due to our time in spent in each port. I wasn’t necessarily too eager to view shrimp farms all day, but my attitude soon changed when our tour guide diverted us from our original schedule to take us on an ecotourism adventure I will never forget. After viewing a few shrimp farms, and learning about the process of growing and harvesting the shrimp, we went to a delicious lunch at a resort about an hour out of Saigon. We had all fresh seafood and fruit. Then we were taken to a huge nature preservation that housed over 1300 monkeys and 80 crocodiles. We got on a small speed boat and whipped through a narrow river in the middle of the jungle. We had no idea where we were going, nor did we know if we were going to survive the boat ride because the driver was clinically crazy. I later learned he had been doing this for ten years so I felt a wee bit safer. We arrived at our destination, which turned out to be a former Viet Cong Guerilla camp during the Vietnam War. It was a bunch of huts in the middle of the Vietnam jungle. The only way soldiers reached the camp was by swimming over a mile. Each hut and walking path was raised about 5 feet off the ground to stay clear of the water. They had meeting room huts, weaponry huts, hospitals, mess halls, and bomb shelters. The camp was protected by the canopy of trees, and therefore could not be seen from the air. The waters were infested with crocodiles further deterring Americans from searching for it. It was extremely interesting to hear how the Viet Cong exploited their knowledge of the Vietnamese landscape to assist them in the war.

















Bomb shelter:


This is a replica of a soldier killing a crocodile. The guide told us a story of how a person fell into the water and was attacked by a crocodile, and killed him with a small knife:


We luckily made it through alive the boat ride back, and began walking down the path in the nature preserve to observe the hundreds and hundreds of monkeys. The guides would throw out pebbles of food and a hundred monkeys would come swarming in to gather it up. There were monkeys of every size, and some would jump up on you or steal water bottles from your backpack. The monkeys and me did not get along well. Multiple times they would come up beside me and growl, flashing their tiny razor sharp teeth. It goes without saying, that I was the first one on the bus when we were leaving. They also had a crocodile preserve. One rather brave monkey meandered around the confines of the 80-crocodile preserve. I was full on expecting to capture a pretty cool youtube video of a crocodile mauling a monkey, but my dreams unfortunately were unfilled.



I thought they resembled rats:




After leaving the monkey kingdom, we drove to a small harbor where we got on another boat and winded through a beautiful river to reach a dock that led into the middle of the jungle. We then got on a small canoe and slowly paddled down a muddy stream. We saw hundreds of vampire bats nesting in the trees, and ended up at a crab farm. We caught crabs and held them for some great candid shots. Jason was not too enthused by taking a picture with me with a clawed creature in my hand.

River and the boat we took:


Canoe:


Vampire Bats:




Afterwards, we got back on our boat and went further down the river to stop off at yet another small dock in the jungle. Our guides informed us that we were going “crocodile fishing”. I could only imagine what crocodile fishing was and how I’m pretty sure it would be illegal in all 50 states back at home. Turns out it definitely would be. We were taken on small lawnmower-esqe trucks to a giant pond. From the fence we could see dozens upon dozens of crocodiles swimming in the water. We then were guided onto a small boat lined on all sides about 4 feet up with a double wall of fence. This was the first sign we might be experiencing some contact. Once we were off in the water, the guide handed out wooden poles with string attached and a fish head dangling at the bottom. Then we were off fishin’. Once the fish was dangling over the side of the boat, about 15 crocodile eyes would emerge at the top of the water and slowly make their way towards us. One would get closer and closer and then it would attack. They would jump nearly 5 feet out of the water, jaws fully open. The snap of their jaws vibrated my whole body. It basically turned into crocodile wrestling once they caught the fish and we would have to hold on to our pole. It was by far the craziest experience I have ever had (I feel like I will be saying that a lot this trip).









They had a huge tower at the crocodile park that had a beautiful view of the river:






Once we were done fishing for crocodiles, we were yet again back on the boat headed home. We got on our bus and then headed to a ferry to return to Saigon. After all the counting is complete we took over seven different modes of transportation this trip.



Once back on the boat, Jason and I showered and headed out into the city. We ate a recommended restaurant and enjoyed traditional Vietnamese cuisine. We then went to the world renowned Rex Hotel. The hotel has a rooftop bar that is one of the top one thousand places to see before you die. It was where Vietnamese military officials would enjoy a drink at night during the war. It was a beautiful bar. The rooms were pretty inexpensive (basically everything in Vietnam is cheap, you can get through the day on about $5), so we booked it for two nights. At the bar we spent time with some other semester at sea students and were serenaded by the club singers. It was quite a fantastic day.





Annecdote:
2/27/2010: If there is one way to die in Vietnam, it is death by motorbike. The main form of transportation in Vietnam is by motorbikes, and when I mean main form it is essentially the only form. There are thousands of motorbikes on the roads. 1, 2, or even 5 people cram on one motorbike to get around. The traffic is insane. The motorbikes do not follow rules of the road, zipping in and out, and going to the opposite directions on streets. Being a pedestrian, where there is maybe three pedestrian crossings in the entire city of Saigon, is not safe. The trick, however, is to find a Vietnamese person and walk directly beside them when they are crossing the street. We received a number of weird looks, but at least I am not roadkill.

Huge line of motorbikes waiting to get on ferry: