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August 16, 2009
Everyday my dad calls and wakes us up to eat. We eat nonstop, it's kind of ridiculous and awesome. So we went to a place that I cannot recall for some reason haha. I guess I was too sleepy. But then for lunch we ate at some fancy Vietnamese restaurant with my dad's friends and our travel agent lady. Afterwards we went and got our hair washed and head massages. I decided that I do not like getting my hair washed by other people. I never...really liked it before but I wasn't so sure. Like I said with the facials, I can't sit still that long and I feel very uncomfortable...plus it hurts when people scratch my head :/ Anyhow, we went to this place called My-Anh and it was just a basic beauty salon. It's really strange though because the girls there are all dressed up with a lot of make up on and skank dresses and there were probably about...6 of them just sitting around doing nothing and one guy. They were pretty much hoes..for real. But two of them washed Amy and I's hair. They have lay down beds that are right next to the hair washing sink. They tried to talk to us in Vietnamese and uh...yeah not sure if that worked out too well haha. We are so bad, it's kind of embarrassing. They were basically trying to work it for a tip though, because the hair wash and blowdrying was terrible. They also kept trying to make us get a massage...
Anyway, after that we had to go pack up our hotel room in Saigon and head out to the airport. We were Da Nang bound. My grandparents live in Da Nang, and that is the city where my dad is from so we were headed out there for the next several days. The airport sucks as usual, we were almost late for our flight because my dad forgot he had scissors in his carryon and the security guard wouldn't let us into the terminal unless my dad sent the scissors in a check-in bag. So he had to run out to the ticketing counter and send the bag and then run all the way back and go through security again. We made it though, yay! It only takes 45 minutes to get from Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang by plane, so the ride wasn't too terrible.
We checked into our hotel called the Furama Resort, Da Nang and it is danggg nice. It's liek the ones off those brochures for tropical islands. There is a huge lobby with many seating areas, and when we got there this lady told us to have a seat and wait while we were getting checked in. She brought us these dragonfruit drinks with mint, and they were in the dragonfruit shell, which then sat upon a small wooden chair. I had no idea how to drink it because it was me holding a chair with a fruit on it...and sipping out of a straw. It was adorable though.
When we arrived there were tons of people at this place because apparently a huge wedding was going on. We heard from some people there that the costs for the wedding was $300,000 (USD). That's ballin! I mean their reception area was the courtyard of the hotel, which faces the beach so it's pretty nice. The groom was a 31 year old man who owns the cable company in Vietnam (a cable company?). The bride was a 16 year old girl/woman. She was pretty though and did not look 16. She had the craziest dresses, with a ton of sequins and tulle. She also had about 6 bridesmaids wearing full wedding gowns, which I thought was weird. There were also performances! A huge stage was set up with lights and fog machines and everything. Apparently some of the singers were big names because people were jumping up on stage and taking pictures with this one guy who I had no idea who he was.
One of the performances was a thai dance with several girls, and after the dance we met up with a couple of them because my dad is a player and told them to come have drinks with him and his friend after they were done. After some of the girls saw Amy and I there, I think it weirded them out because they decided to go home. One of them stayed though and went to dinner with us. She is really nice, she's 27 and a dance teacher. She seems like a pretty genuine person! Her name is Khi (I don't think I spelt it right) and she basically showed us around DaNang and has been telling us the best places to go. We drove around near the riverside to see all the new bridges that were built within the last few years. It was magical because they hung lights all over the streets, and the bridges themselves were lit with color changing lights. One of the bridges was lit underneath where the support columns were. Another bridge was lit along the suspension lines, and the lights would change colors and go up and down the lines. It was very pretty! We drove past this mountain cafe place and the taxi driver told us it was a cool place to go for coffee, so we stopped by. The name of the place translated to english is "Rock Mountain". But basically it was this outdoor cafe that is carved into the side of this mountain/cliff and there are different levels that people can on to drink coffee. They have railings and steps that lead up to little huts with thatched roofing. It was very darling! They also had tons of tropical plants surrounding the whole place as well as christmas lights hanging from the trees. After coffee we were pretty exhausted, so we took Khi home and she showed us around her house, she's a very sweet lady! Then it was back to furama for bedtime!
August 15, 2009
Still in Vung Tau, got up at 6am due to jetlag. It kind of sucks big time haha. Anyway, my dad called and told us to go downstairs for breakfast at the hotel. They had the strangest foods there. Vietnamese of course! Some of it I can understand. Banh cuon with cha, understandable. Eggs with bread, yes. Fruit..yes. Fried rice and stir fry noodles? Yes, I guess. The one thing that stood out to me was ca kho...fish cooked in a savory sauce. It was really random? Oh well. After breakfast we headed over to this place called Lan Rung, it's a resort hotel that was on the beach. My dad's friend apparently knows the owner, who is from San Jose and built this resort for $2 million. It was so beautiful! There are plants everywhere, beautiful architecture, covered areas with reclining chairs and a view of the ocean. There was also a private beach area, which was wayyyy nicer than the first beach we went to. We pretty much relaxed there for a few hours, had some smoothies and just watched the boats in the water. I saw a man in a basketboat (as I call it). He was fishing pretty close to the shore along these rocks. It was kind of cool because he had only one oar and the had to use it a very specific way so that he wouldn't row in circles! At the resort they even had these jugs that said "Nuoc rua chan" meaning "Water to wash feet", which I thought was pretty cool haha...why am I so easily amused?
Checkout for our hotel was at 12 noon, so we had to head back to our hotel and then go back to Saigon. It was a three or four hour drive back, and Amy and I slept the whole time. We got back and had Chao Vit, Duck Congee. It was soooo gooood. There was a dog at the restaurant that looked like a small German shepard. It was hanging out and walking around eating stuff off the floor. Amy tried to give it some food but apparently it's a really picky eater! Beggars can be choosers after all. Then it was massage time! But not ghetto massage...fancy massage. We went to this place called La Cochinchine, it's a pretty nice massage parlor. The prices were steep for Vietnam, but in comparison to the US it's wayyyy cheaper. We got massages and facials. But first they had us sit in this seating area and served us ginger tea. For the massage there were a few steps. First was this stone bed that had water spouts on top coming down. Basically a water massage, you lay there for 5 minutes, then head to the sauna for 15 minutes, and then there were these two baths of cold water that you stay in for 5 minutes. Amy and I were super noob and retarded so we tried to go into the sauna first with our robes on...they sort of laughed at us and told us what to do after that. Then, it was off to the massage room! The lady I had was pretty nice, I was completely awkward though haha. She spoke to me in Vietnamese, which I can understand but it's difficult for me to respond in complete sentences without making a fool of myself. It was still nice though. Then, she did my facial which consisted of applying these creams/lotions/facial cleansers and massaging it in, and also leaving a mask on. It was pretty nice, I'm not sure if I liked the facial though :/...I can't sit still for that long, I get bored easily.
Post-massage, it was food time! We went to this place called "The Sushi Bar", it is amazing how cheap the food is! Like...a 16 piece nigiri combo was roughly 12 dollars. Which is pretty good in comparison to the US! The food was good too. We were going to go karaoke-ing afterwards, but man...doing all of that stuff is tiring, not to mention still being jetlagged! So it was home time and sleep time.
August 14, 2009
I was granted the awesome opportunity of being able to see Saitex International, the manufacturing company that owns Fresh Ink, with whom I interned with over the summer. We drove 30 minutes outside of Ho Chi Minh City to Phuong Phu textile compound to visit. My contact was this lady named Thao and she is Sanjeev's assistant of sorts. She showed us around the office area where they had the Merchandising, Accounts payable and Shipping departments. There were also showrooms for their different brands. Then we went to this place called the Laundry, which was a couple buildings away. There, they had to "wet building" and "dry building". At the wet building, they did all the washes for the jeans, as well as destruction. They had grinders and they also did the wrinkling and whiskers were done there. All of the samples are also constructed in this building. At the "dry" building they did the washing and drying of all jeans, so that any extra dye will come off. They also have a research/laboratory area where they would test new washes. I'm really glad to have been able to see all of this! The inner workings of a manufacturing company. They also had a sewing building, but it is 45 minutes away from their main building, so I am going to try to go back there before I leave Vietnam sometime.
After seeing Saitex, we went to eat at this place called Pho 2000, apparently Bill Clinton ate at this place a while ago. There were pictures of him with the employees all over the walls. It was really random and weird. Then, we headed home to the hotel to pack our things and head out to Vung Tau, this small beach town a few hours outside of Ho Chi Minh City. I liked looking out the window while we were driving, there's so much to see! The traffic is here wild, people are EVERYWHERE. There's not really any defined lanes, people just do as they please and honk constantly. People drive around in mopeds and honda bikes and crowd the streets. Anyway, we got to Vung Tau and immediately went to the beach. No swimming involved, just relaxed and ate some seafood. Watched people playing soccer, apparently it's a popular thing here. Afterwards we checked into our hotel and went to dinner at this Korean-owned shopping center. "The Imperial Department Store". It was pretty nice and large but apparently business was bad because no one was there! We had dinner on the rooftop. Very relaxing and nice because it looks over the beach, too bad it was night time though so we couldn't see anything. After that, it was coffee time. There is a coffee franchise here called "Highlands Coffee", I thought that was interesting for some reason.
Travel log:
August 11-13, 2009
Left Houston from IAH Bush intercontinental airport on the way to Vietnam! It took a total of 28 hours for the whole trip, including the plane ride and layovers. We stopped in Moscow and Singapore on the way there. Moscow's airport was kind of rundown and the landscape was mostly farmland and small clusters of suburbs. They also had a bunch of red roofs! Singapore's airport was sooo nice. It was very clean and decorated with flowers and plants. They really like the whole natural look. At Vietnam's airport, it was kind of weird. They have this area where they screen people's temperature for swine flu, and then they check passports. There's a very strange communist feel there. All the uniforms are that military green with red and gold trim. Then, as we went through customs, they tried to stop us saying we had too many laptops. Not really sure what that's supposed to mean, but I think they were looking for a payoff.
When we got out of the airport, we met up with my dad's friend Tan. He got us a taxi and took us back to the hotel we're staying at, Hien Anh. Then we went to a Hue restaurant and they had a deal where they'd give you 5 small dishes for 37,000 dong. Also found out that 18,000 dong = 1 US Dollar. After that shopping times at Diamond plaza, this department store at the center of Saigon. It's like...6 stories tall I think? There's a bowling alley/arcade/game area on the top floor. Amy and I played pool there, kicked her butt of course! On the way home...I saw a guy picking his toe nails while smoking his cigarette. The feet and cigarette were too close for comfort. :/
For dinner we went to this Korean BBQ restaurant, it was pretty cool. They had the low tables where you sit on the floor and eat. The food was pretty good, very different from Korean BBQ in the US! After dinner, Amy and I walked around the area while my dad drank with his buddies. Since I had been to Vietnam in 2001, sooooo much has changed. They've built countless amounts of buildings. They have high class shopping now! Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Chloe, Marc Jacobs, Dolce and Gabbana and more. It's really crazy to see because there are so people living in poverty, yet right next to that is a Versace store. The disparities between the rich and the poor in this country are shocking! Luxury hotels that are 50 stories tall are also being built, none of this for the Vietnamese people. It's all for foreign business people who come here. It's sad, but compared to 2001 it's so much better.
Post dinner, my dad and his friends wanted to show us a club...that was interesting. We went to some place called MTV (I think) and it was so weird. First of all, they only played Techno. Secondly, there was a dance floor that...no one was dancing on. Third(ly?), Vietnamese people are weird. HAHA. There was people all over, but it felt so awkward. Like no one was really dancing, they were all sitting at tables, and they just...stood around not doing much. The service industry here is ridiculous because everyone's working hard for a tip. So there would be people surrounding us, lighting cigarettes, pulling out chairs, leading us to the restroom, opening doors, bringing food, refilling our drinks, doing anything they can for a buck! My dad got wasted..it was crazy to see because he's never been like that around us. It was pretty bad...not going to go into detail. OH! Not only were there waiters/bouncers around us helping...but there were prostitutes coming around too. Pretty young girls who would come up and dance and like chat it up. They were basically escorts, and possibly more if that was what a person desired! Makes me come to appreciate my life a little more, not having to turn tricks for money.
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