I got about three and a half hours of sleep last night due to the blogging, but with the circadian rhythm still messed up, I still seem to be taking it fine. The advantage with having a distorted sleep cycle is that you're able to easily wake up early in the morning, so you can do more during the day. Unfortunately, in the afternoon, your body begins to bog down, and when you lay down for a presumably short nap, it turns into a deep sleep for five to six hours.
We got up at 700 this morning and headed over to the house at 800. After gathering some family members, we took a taxi down to the restaurant for breakfast. This time we stopped at Quynh Restaurant, where we had some hu tieu noodle soup. It's a good thing that the weather today was fairly cool and rainy. Having a bowl of hot soup in a warm, humid environment doesn't really work too well. But I guess, again, it's normal in Vietnam. As I was eating I saw a sign that said "Follow us on Facebook", yet I questioned it since I tried to log into Facebook and it was blocked. I wonder if people already knew the loophole around the block by using a proxy or just getting the Facebook app on their phone.
After breakfast we began the tour of the city, and for our first destination we stopped by the address of Mom's home. It's been over 30 years since she's seen the area where she used to live, and she wanted to know how much it had changed. When we arrived, she noticed the staircase of a familiar building she used to know, but the surrounding area had been altered to one housing many businesses. The house itself was turned into a bank. However, there were some buildings that were left untouched, as Mom pointed some of them out. While taking pictures, we also ran into a woman who looked to be in her 60s, and apparently she knew the people that Mom used to live with. We quickly took a picture of her and then headed off to our next destination: The Ben Thanh Market.
The market was massive, and was placed indoors. Here you could practically find anything you wanted; shoes, clothes, clocks, backpacks, hats, wooden structures, paintings, food, drinks, etc. There were tons of people walking around in the market, with many foreign tourists from other countries shopping. As a result, it was extremely cramped and hot, and we had to continue taking refuge in little shops that had fans so that we could cool down.
Now, you might be asking yourself: What are the chances of Khiem running into someone who's attending the same college as he is?
Well that's a good question, because it is quite possible. In fact, as we were sitting down and drinking some sugarcane juice, I noticed a boy around my age wearing a "Texas Engineering: Class of 2018" T-Shirt. It's a shirt that the School of Engineering gets at the new student orientation. Immediately I pointed him out and said, "HEY. YOU'RE GOING TO UT AUSTIN!!!!" He looked at me and noticed my Longhorns shirt, and without saying a word, he smiled, flashed the Hook 'Em Horns sign at me, and walked away into the crowd. His mother seemed bewildered that a random stranger was speaking English to her son, as she stared at me with a serious face, then proceeded to follow him.
I decided to allot 100 dollars for spending in Vietnam, and I began my spending by buying two T-shirts. One of myself and one for my cousin. I think he'll like it. ;D Then we headed back into a taxi and continued with the tour.
For our next stop, we went to a cathedral called Nha Tho Duc Ba, and took some pictures. Again, there were lots of foreign tourists (I suppose you can call that us now too), walking around taking pictures. There were also lots of wedding pictures being taken there. We took some pictures with the family and then went back into the taxi. Our next stop was Tau Ban Park, a place with large, tall trees surrounding an open plaza area. Hundreds of people sat around the nice place, and we simply drove around the park to get a feel for what it looked like. The taxi driver and my uncle continued to tell us facts about the locations we visited, and Mom tried to find familiar buildings and structures that she recognized. As we continued on, we took a stop at a temple, Chua Vinh Nghiem. It was a very large, pagoda-like structure, and it seemed like it could house many people. It was far larger than the temple I go to in ABQ. Fortunately, no one populated the place either since the temple opened at 1330, making it a great time for us to take pictures. My grandma was following us along our tour, and she seemed to keep up very well, without asking for a break at any time. The weather was overcast, so it was very nice. Lastly, we headed down to Dinh Doc Lap, which according to the taxi driver, was like the White House of Vietnam. Again, it was a large, gated structure, and it looked like tourists were even allowed to come in. We snapped a couple of photos, and then proceeded back home. Overall, it was a really overwhelming experience. Along the way to each destination, there were thousands of people in each street and corner of the city who were walking, shopping, or selling. Hundreds of different shops with names I never heard of before, that would take weeks to go through. There was honestly so much to do in Ho Chi Minh City, and my visualization of Vietnam really changed after today.
To end the tour, we stopped by a mall, and got tickets to see "How to Train Your Dragon 2" in 3D. Now this mall was a very familiar sight. Apart from the 100% Asian demographic rate, the mall looked pretty close to what one would find in the US. For fun, we stopped by a KFC to see what fast food tastes like here. I ordered the chicken sandwich, and it tasted similar. French fries also tasted the same, but ketchup had a more sour taste to it than the Heinz. More of a soy sauce-ketchup. In addition, my aunt and uncle ordered a piece of fried chicken, and for sides they were given rice with gravy, and some soup. I expected the whole "rice on the side" thing, but it was still unusual nonetheless.
The movie was great. We watched it in English with Vietnamese subtitles, and Mom told me some of the translations were funny. Other than that, it was just cool to watch it, as we were probably the only ones who were actually able to understand the movie without needing to read text every second. On funny parts, we all still laughed.
For the rest of the evening we headed back to the house, and did yet another reunion. I'm having a great time in Vietnam so far (no food poisoning yet), and I'm excited for what's next. I believe we're going to be visiting the countryside tomorrow. In terms of picture posting, I've decided to just post one picture on Instagram, and one collage picture on Facebook, to sum up the events of the day. Anyway, it's almost 3am here. Time to sleep. Until tomorrow.
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