Video produced/edited by Niven & Will

First Day in Vietnam

Our day started bright and early at 6 am. We all got ready quickly and headed to our first meal of the day! We ate banh bao for breakfast. Banh bao is a hamburger-like food with a disc shape surrounding it; it contains egg, cheese, and chicken or beef. All of us devoured it! After that, we went off to the Cu Chi tunnel, which was 2 hours away. The Cu Chi tunnels were an underground system during the American Vietnam War. During that ride, we took naps and vee’ed to see how the Vietnamese got on with their day. Once we got there, we watched a movie about the history of the American Vietnam War.

Then we got into many different tunnels that connect to each other. The tunnels basically look like underground dirt/sand, so it got us dirty. The tunnels were so small and very very very hot. It was literally like a full workout going through those tunnels. All of us had a ton of fun learning more about this and getting to try the tunnels out. We also saw how the Viet Cong trapped the American soldiers. There were so many methods of trapping them. After that, we tried tapioca with crushed peanuts and a small cup of tea. Most of us did not really like the taste of it, so we did not finish it.

We went on our way to the reunification palace, which is another museum. The reunification palace was built for the president of the South during the American Vietnam War, but he never got to see it because he died. The reunification palace had a movie theatre, disco bar, library, and game room. This building represents the reunification of Vietnam. There are also original tanks outside to remind us of history. We all thought it was pretty cool and very huge. 

After we visited that museum, we went off to another museum. It was the herbal museum. The herbal museum explains the history of herbs and how Hai Thuong lan Ong and the Tinh helped people heal by identifying what they had and solutions to it. There were also herbal medicines for sale. We also tried on Vietnamese clothing they had, and we all had fun trying it on! 

After a long day, it was time for dinner. We went to an outside eating restaurant and ate spring rolls, banh Xeo. Banh Xeo meal has 2 parts to it. The first part is lettuce, leaves, and fried rice paper with either shrimp or beef. Some of us liked it, some of us did not. We ate it with fish sauce and peanut sauce. The 2nd part is squid; we all tried it out, and surprisingly, most of us loved it. After dinner, we stopped by a gas station to find food for the following day. After this, we were on our way to the hotel, got ready for bed, and slept!

Savannah