vietnam = my heart

nicole and i broke away for yet another weekend, this time, just the two of us. as much as i enjoy the people in my group, it was nice to have it be just the two of us for a few days.

i have been feeling lately like i have lost my sense of adventure. well, the trip there was sure enough to get me jump started on finding it. so, here we go:
     the night we left was also the night that the world cup started. our sleeper bus was scheduled to leave at 12:30 am. this is cambodia, so i was not surprised when 1:30am came around and we had not left yet. however, when i found it to be 2:20am i suddenly got super angry. i don't know if it was because i was tired or what, but i sure flew off the handle. the bus drivers assured me that we were waiting for another bus that was carrying some transfer passengers to come before we could leave. meanwhile, the entirety of the staff was sitting around a tv watching the first game. i spent until 4am!, yelling sometimes, with the drivers, even faking a plane to catch, and finally setting a designated time to leave (3:45am) with our without the supposed other passengers. turns out there really was a bus that was just hours late. oops..... but they should have told us before hand and not surprised us with a 3 1/2 hour late bus.
     we finally got going and made it to the vietnam boarder. once arrived, we slowly started to trickle off the bus. this all changed when someone realized that the bus WAS ON FIRE. yes, the bus was on fire from somewhere down below. i all ran for the hills, which couldn't be that far because i was not legally allowed to leave that square kilometer of land yet. finally they were able to stop the smoke.
     after receiving my stamped passport (one more stamp and visa, wooh) we all went outside to reload the bus. upon seeing that the bus was smoking yet again and having previously been told that cambodians know nothing about cars, i refused to get back on the bus. while feeling stranded and a sudden wave of desperation, something to the left caught my eye. what was it, you ask. another bus! with the words cambodia-vietnam on the side. it was driving full speed but i sure flagged it to slow down. i yelled to the man "ho chi min?". he confirmed. i yelled again "2?" he confirmed. nicole and i hopped on the bus while i'm pretty sure it was still moving, leaving the other 30sum odd passengers only to (literally) eat our dust and began our less eventful portion of travel to vietnam. we were able to make friends with some charming english folks along the way, love you rafael.

nicole's friend ahn is vietnamese and invited us to come visit her for a few days. we didn't stay with her, but we did stay at NgocThao-GuestHouse while we were in Ho Chi Min. we wish we had time to go to hanoi, but to no avail. she and her friends spent their weekend driving us around the city on the back of their motos. they were so kind to do so and so friendly the whole time.

that was a delicious green tea sort of a thing. oh i can taste it now

we went to church while we were there and learned that there are only about 300 members in the whole country! i realized that everyone i was meeting was a rare gem.

i look like a giant sister missionary here. i am neither

we thoroughly loved our time there. the streets were so colorful and the narrow side allies were even more charming, especially when lit up at night. ahn's house was perrrrfect! i wanted to never leave. also her mom, so cute! she reminded me of my mom, so casual and smiley, just laughing and giggling all the time.

the food was fabulous. such a nice break from khmer food, no offense cambodia, pho all day long! i used to make fun of my little sister for saying that she liked it, but i believe her now because is was so delicousss.

we spent a good chunk of our time visiting war museums and the like. not exactly a pleasant experience, but it was important to see the realities of what american forces did in vietnam, not cool guys. paired with that, the cu chi war tunnels were playing some old propaganda videos from during the war that kept referring to certain vietnamese people as "american killer hero". kinda weird to hear...

eating corn to the sound of people trying out guns that shot american soldiers

they actually expanded those tunnels for tourist....wah???

we spent our last few hours there taking the city in by night.

my first coconut because ohm wouldnt let me
eat one the last time since i had drunken a coke.
cambodians are very stitious, super stitious even,
and they won't let you drink coke with a tone of
other things

this whole park was full of people just hanging out. there were a few
vendors walking around selling drinks and food. it was the coolest thing
and i feel like the states need more places like this.

ahn is the Facebook selfie queen! so getting a picture
of her not posing was nearly impossible. i had to go
stealth ninja mode to get this one

nicole and i had spent the entire time trying to figure out why we were both individually so taken by saigon. i still can't put my finger on it, but i know i loved it and would love to go back!

i couldn't help myself, i had to have the shirt
because.... i do

on the non fire death bus

on the way back, our bus stopped on a fairy. i hopped off without looking around.
out of nowhere, i heard the loudest snort of my life and turned around to
find this right next to me. a khmer girl across the way was laughing so hard
at me that i thought she was going to pass out.