Pulling into Ho Chi Minh City port through the Mekong River was quite the sight to see. The Mekong River is the 12th longest river in the world and connects six different Southeast Asian countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
For my first day in Vietnam I went with a group of SASers to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cu Chi Tunnels were an intricate, underground tunnel system that connected Ho Chi Minh and most of the country. They were built by the Vietnamese during the war between Vietnam and the United States during the 1940s and took over 25 years to complete building. I was able to spend roughly 12 minutes crawling around in the dark, dirt-floored tunnels to get a sense of what the war was like from the Vietnamese side. In just that short amount of time in the narrow, dark tunnels I felt the stuffiness of the confined space, the blazing heat and lack of fresh air quickly closing in on me. I could not imagine having to live underground for more than 15 minutes. One of the tour guides we met at the tunnels was a soldier in the war and lived underground in the Cu Chi Tunnels for 12 years of his life.
It was very interesting getting to hear about the war from the Vietnamese perspective. And compare it to what I’ve learned through school back in the States.
The rest of my week in Vietnam was spent in Ha Noi, the capital city of the country. Our SASer group walked through and explored the Ha Noi Bao Tang Quang Ninh Museum. The museum covered the history of the formation of and culture of Ha Long Bay and the land animals and marine life of the area. We spent a night on a small cruiser boat in the middle of Ha Long Bay, one of the Natural Wonders of the World.
While we were venturing around in Ha Long Bay, we made a pit-stop by a beach that is a popular plastic waste collection spot. As the volume of tourists has increased in the most recent years, more and more plastic waste is produced and not properly disposed of; which in turn, ends up washing-up on the beaches of the many small islands in the bay. Our group made it a mission to clean-up one of the beaches while we were boating around in Ha Long Bay. We kayaked from our boat to the beach and proceeded to spend a few hours picking up trash. We found an array of disposable items such as plastic bottles, clothing, and styrofoam. After cleaning up as much trash as we could from the beach, we hopped back into our kayaks to collect trash floating around the island.
Naturally, we made the water trash pick-up a competition and split our group into two teams. We were tasked with collecting as much trash from the water we could in one hour. We got to enjoy the sunset on this Natural Wonder of the World from our kayaks while lending a helping hand in plastic waste clean-up. It was a wonderful end to a productive and self-rewarding day.
Later that evening, a few of my friends and I joined our tour guide on the back platform of the boat to attempt squid fishing. We sat and talked late into the night about family, work and Semester at Sea. We didn’t catch a single squid, or even spot one for that matter. We did however, see a bunch of tiny fish swimming around the light we had shining into the water to attract the squid. I poked around at them with my bamboo fishing pole and they would jump so high out of the water trying to get away from my fishing pole and swim off, only to come swimming back to be poked at again. I must have poked at about 300 of those little fish and each time they jumped out of the water was just as fascinating as the last time.
Early the next morning, our group woke up to try Tai Chi and watch the sunrise over the Bay. The serenity of the landscape and the fluid, slow motions of Tai Chi early in the morning was the best way to start our last day in Ha Long Bay. After our Tai Chi lesson ended, a few of my friends stuck around and I taught an impromptu Karate basics lesson. It was really neat getting to learn a new martial art form and teach my friends a bit about my own martial arts practice. And none-the-less, in the middle of Vietnam on a boat!
After breakfast, we took a short row-boat ride around a water village in Ha Long Bay. We got to see the livelihood of the Vietnamese people who live and work on the Bay. Most of them are fish farmers and spend all their time on the water and tending to their aquaculture nets. The houses in the village appeared to be floating on the water as they stood proudly on their stilts supporting their local, fishing community. The view from the low-riding boat in the center of the village left me breathless as I peered up at the towering rocks that surrounded the houses. It was like a make-shift water valley that the village sat in. It was beautiful and so peaceful.
After we left Ha Long Bay, our group went to the Lotus Water Puppet Theater in Ha Noi to watch a play. Water Puppetry is a rare type of theater and can only be found at a few select theaters around Asia, one being this theater in Ha Noi. The show was brightly lit with multi-colored lights and bouncing with musical enthusiasm. It was such an interesting and rare experience to take part in with my fellow SASer friends.
Vietnam has such rich culture and sights to see while visiting. If you ever find yourself in Vietnam, make sure to venture around Ho Chi Minh City and make the trip to Ha Noi and see the Natural Wonder of the World that is Ha Long Bay!
Thanks for traveling with me!
Jaiden 🙂
Next stop: China! 🇨🇳
Journeys with Jaiden 