Well, I am currently en route to Michigan for a wedding this weekend. Had a nice red-eye from HCM to Tokyo, and am in the middle of my 8 hour layover here. To be fair, I'm pretty pleased with the accommodations here. My mom sent me a day pass for the skyclub, so i have full access to a lovely apple computer, continuous buffet with a strange assortment including my first REAL japanese sushi ever as well as toasts with spam and beans. Knew how much the Vietnamese like their processed meats, but wasn't aware it was more of a pan-Asiatic obsession. If I weren't alone it could be quite fun to take advantage of the endless booze as well, but as it is I don't wanna be THAT passenger. On the bright side, I had my own TV for the previous leg, and hopes are high for the 13-hour flight. It really does make all the difference.
Spent my day off (tuesday) at the Giang Dien Gardens, a Vietnamese cross between a water park, camping grounds, and a park-like resort. It's a huge section of land that is totally landscaped in a very pretty but also strange kind of way. The water part has man-made waterfalls in a river, and everyone swims around in the waterfalls. It's a very rocky area, and I'm surprised there aren't more accidents. I kept thinking the whole time how this would not be legal in the states. Everyone is required to wear a life jacket, which makes it just that much easier to be lazy. We were there the entire day, and I think I saw one other non-VN guest. To make us stick out even more, Vietnamese don't wear bathing suits. They just swim in their regular clothes. Some boys had swim shorts on, but mostly people wore t-shirts, and some wore their jeans and belts and stuff in the water. A bit bizarre to us, but then we looked like whoring expats to them. Because they don't like the sun, everyone got a tent to sit under, with a tarp on the ground. It was perfect for me, because tropical sun and my lily-white skin don't get along very well. It was all around a very nice day, and I am totally pumped to go again, preferably on a day when I did not stay out all night the night before (spent much of the morning napping).
Also witnessed my first truly wasted Vietnamese person. Now, VN people have decently low tolerance in general, but mostly they don't drink too much, and it is very rare to see someone so far gone they can't stand up. The lot of us had a field day observing a young woman who was absolutely trashed. Her friends clearly had no idea how to deal with it, and kept letting her fall down and fall into tents and things while helping her walk. They tried piggy-backing, but she fell backwards and got herself completely filthy. They ended up throwing her in the river before helping her across the bridge. I realize this doesn't sound too exciting, but the thing is, we hadn't seen anything like it since we all moved from our respective drunken countries. We were all thoroughly amused, as horrible as that is. Literally everyone was crowding around to watch her try to cross the bridge (most Vietnamese don't usually witness this type of thing ever). Interesting how in western cultures we wouldn't really bat an eye, yet here public drunkenness is blog-worthy. Talk about a difference in culture.
Amy, my friend from CELTA who lives and teaches in Phnom Penh, was in town last night, so on my way out to the airport (complete with GIANT tourist-looking suitcase) I stopped to have dinner with her and a few other friends of hers. The place was one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. Although it's just a nice but regular looking house from the outside, the inside is almost treehouse-like. There is a first floor dining area, but further back you must cross a mini-bridge over a pond, and go up ladder-like outdoor stairs to several other rooms or floors, and the entire inside is decorated with antique VN furniture, with exposed eaves and an amazing ambience. You can even eat on an antique bed, though i hear it isn't very comfortable. At any rate, definitely somewhere I'd go again. I love getting to the point living somewhere when you start to learn some of its hidden gems. One nice thing about having a small expat community-you can get all the goods. Though I will say it would be nice to have a few more friend options. I hang out with almost exclusively teachers, except for the handful of friends I've met through Tracey, who for some reason knows 3/4 of the expats in Saigon. Good person to know.
Call me crazy, but I can't wait for a little Michigan spring weather. Oh man, so excited! For once I wont be dripping sweat.
Got to run, that sushi isn't gonna eat itself!
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