We woke up arriving on the Saigon River, and we’re doing our awesome 3 hour trek into the Heart of Darkness (actually, that’ll be in the Mekong River in Cambodia), but should be arriving in Ho Chi Minh City in a couple of hours. The river is narrow and twisty and crowded and in the middle of what appears to be some pretty dense jungle – I’m amazed at how well this huge ship handles these tight turns. The ship has gotten in some serious collisions here before. Let’s hope for the best.
This is so, so cool right now. I’m working on my Myanmar report, but I’ll be honest with you, I might get easily distracted and not finish it. But I’ll get it done, for sure.
A little about what I’m doing in Vietnam. Once we arrive, I plan on visiting the War Museum and meet up with a local named Cuong, who had befriended a friend of Anne’s. We’ve been in touch by email and he said he’d be happy to show me around.
Also, I’m trip leading one of the Cambodia, into the Killing Fields in Phnom Phen and the temples of Angkor Wat. These have been the most popular sign-ups on this trip, with hundreds of students not getting a slot, so snagging the trip-leader spot was a pretty sweet deal. I actually chose not to do much research on the subject. So why am I going if I don’t know much about where we’re going?
When I started researching what I was going to do on this trip, Anne gave me three pieces of advice:
1. Don’t let money be a concern – if there is something you really want to do, figure out how to do it, because you never know when you’re going back there.
2. If you go on SAS trips, pick the ones with the fewer maximum number of people.
3. Whatever you do, go to Cambodia.
So that was it. I was sold. We never talked much about it after. I signed up, got the trip, became so excited I started a media campaign to get the rest of my group excited – I would post on the television screens slide shows essentially saying that the “Best Trip Ever” is coming. It worked a little too well, because I brought to a halt when one student told me people who didn't get a slot were starting to get really jealous.
So yes, I’m excited. I’ll get back to the Myanmar stuff since I like writing about things when they are fresh. I’ll keep y’all posted.
1 comment:
The killing fields make you question how so many people were killed by authorities, and how so few people know about it. I could not believe how many emotions went through me there.
Like your friend said, be prepared to be amazed, but at the same time you will value your life more every second of your experience.
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