Good Morning, Vietnam!

Sorry...I couldn't resist the clichéd post title.

Since my stay in Cambodia was originally meant to be only a one-month adventure, I have had to approach my visa situation here in a bit of a piece-meal fashion. I will spare you all the details of the logistics of extensions and renewals, but suffice it to say that after 2 months on my previous visa, I had to leave the country to get a new one.

Vietnam is the simplest border for me to cross. Originally I had planned to go alone and take a bus to Ho Chi Minh City and turn around and come back to Cambodia all in one day. But in His providence, God timed things so that one of the other teachers at PIP happened to have planned a trip to Vietnam with his grandson for the very weekend that I planned to make my visa run. Gene was kind enough to let me tag along with him, his grandson, and Julie- the director of the English school for a 4 day excursion.

Thursday morning, we took a boat and traveled down the Mekong to the Vietnam border. It took about 3 hours to get there. After guiding us through getting our visas for Vietnam, the boat company was kind enough to provide time for a bathroom and lunch break. Though I don’t intend to make a habit of posting toilets on my blog, this one was just too unique to pass up showing to all of you.

Yes, this is a toilet. The tiles actually slope down towards the left so that things can run down that little opening in the side of the building. There is a bucket of water to help you rinse the tiles. I’m actually really used to what we call “squat pots”, so the floor wasn’t much different for me. I was more bothered by the curtain that was supposed to be the door, but because of the strong wind, blew in continually and basically exposed the person in the bathroom to the entire group of people eating lunch outside. Privacy is overrated.

From here, we took another boat into Vietnam to the town of Can Tho. That took another 3 hours, but the scenery was so great that I didn’t mind in the least.

In Can Tho, we spent the evening exploring the city on our own. Gene, Greg, Julie and I ended up taking 4 motos up a mountain to watch the sunset over the rice paddies. It was gorgeous.

The next morning, we got back on a boat and toured a village and a fish farm. Then we hopped on a bus and spent the next 7 hours driving to Ho Chi Minh City. Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted when we finally arrived at our hotel that evening.
Saturday was spent visiting Reunification Palace and the War Crimes Museum (highly biased and anti-American, but I think that’s to be expected). We also shopped a little and just took time to soak up Vietnamese culture.

Sunday morning we headed back bright and early to make it to Phnom Penh in time for PIP’s evening worship. I crossed the border, got my new visa and am now all set to stay in Cambodia for another few months.

I feel like this post hardly does my trip justice. It never ceases to amaze me how diverse the cultures are around the world. Vietnam is so close to Cambodia, but there are so many differences between the two countries. I hope these pictures give you all at least a glimpse into the rich traditions and heritage I experienced on this trip.