Duncan's Vietnam Diary
My father took me and my grandmother to Vietnam for my 12th birthday. Here are a few days I wrote about during the trip!
Day 1
Yesterday I went to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. the people who were guarding it looked funny because they wore completely white suits. It was all very military in the way they ran it. It was military because they gave us a total of twenty seconds of time to watch. After that we went to the temple of literature. The temple has a college behind it which was vietnam's very first college. We walked into the temple and looked at the Buddha. He was huge and gold with tons of incense which made it smell good. After that we ate Pho for lunch at a place our guide loves. Then we went to one of Patrick's friends Diep's (pronounced zip) house. They gave us a tour of the house. It has five floors! On the first floor they have the lounge with two couches, on the second the kitchen, third bedrooms, fourth more bedrooms, fifth the garden and laundry room. There was a kid who is my age. He's been learning English for two years, and he's fluent! After that we went to a musician's house and he taught us how to use traditional Vietnamese instruments. In closing yesterday was the busiest day of my life!
Day 2
Yesterday I went we went to a contemporary artist's house. The guy we met was named Dao Ahn Khanh, he lives in a little thatched house which is on stilts, in his backyard he made a artificial rainforest. He made the rainforest by hooking up a network of pipes above the trees, all he had to do is flip the switch and BAM! Rainforest. After that we met more artists and their kids. I was supposed to play with the kids so I did. After being at their house for an hour we went to the hotel to check our bags. When we were done with that we ate lunch at vietnam's oldest restaurant named Cha Ca La Vong. It's been around since 1871! Then we went on little carriages around the city for an hour. But these carriages were powered by bikes!
Day 3
Yesterday at breakfast we ate amazing food (that we should have every day) such as croissant with chocolate, ham with chocolate, and pancakes with chocolate sauce. Then we went biking to the tomb of Tu Duc. The tomb has the three principles of Feing Shu which are that there must be a rock and water in front of the house.(the water represents purity and the rock represents protection from evil). Then we went on the most dangerous bike ride of my life. It was so dangerous because everyone was trying to kill you with mopeds made with maximum speed of fifty mph but it's going seventy. Also we had to cross a bridge that was about three feet across with mopeds on our backs, but we were going across on bikes. After that hairy experience we went to lunch at this really good restaurant whose name escapes my mind. Then we went to the pagoda and floated down the perfume river.
Day 4
Yesterday we went on a four hour drive to Hoi An that had seven stops (great choice Phong!) at many different places. During the driving we went through a really foggy pass that at the top popped our ears. After the very long drive and many stops we finally arrived at our resort called Life Resort. When we finished putting our bags in our rooms and setting up our room we went to wander around in the market. At the market me and dad found tons of pirated CDs that costed $1! So after buying one cd we went to find dinner. "But not any dinner, no it has to be perfect!" quote dad. So we set off to find the perfect Vietnamese dinner. After wandering around for about forty minutes we find a great place, but dad has some thing different to say "It has no people in it! No, we cannot dine here I need company!" So we wander for another restaurant. After 15m. we find some thing that dad likes. So we eat and go home.
Day 5
Yesterday we went on a three hour bike trip. It was rainy so it wasn't the best but we still enjoyed it. During the trip we saw things like chickens, shrimp farms, vegetable gardens, and nature. I'd say the best part of the bike trip was doing something active and not sitting around in the hotel. After the trip Phong freed us for three hours during that time we wandered about buying various items such as, a gong to alert Theo that he needs to come home and that actually all we got. At the tailor's place we fitted my suit. It turned out everything was fine with it so we brought it home. Then we went to a cooking class which educated us on how to make spring rolls, chicken marination, mango salad, and Vietnamese pancakes.