5 Star Lunch Came in Clutch

Once again, we had another interesting day on our schedule. Instead of the usual UEF round of classes, we went to a hotel downtown for a cooking class. We got to observe one of the hotel chefs have a cooking demonstration for us, where we learned how to make spring rolls. Despite not being a professional chef, it was incredibly easy to make. The part that we loved was that we were able to eat our own rolls that we made. We also learned how to make fried spring rolls.

We then had lunch at the same 5-star hotel, where it was very good. There was so much variety of food, which was nice because it allowed us to throw a little bit of western food back into our diet. It was a really funny meal to watch, because pretty much everyone just stuffed themselves full of anything and everything they could get their hands on. It was also a buffet, so that added to the mayhem a little bit.

Dr Berman made sure to remind us that this hotel was not representative of Saigon, which was very true. Sure it was a 5 star hotel downtown, where many westerners stay... but it didn't feel like the Vietnam I've come to know over the short time I've been here. While sitting in the hotel lobby at a lunch table, one worker made it a point to say how you could look through the huge glass windows and see the Vietnamese having a great time at a huge city park. The thing that I thought was weird is that she said it pridefully, as if the separation between the two worlds was something to be proud of. That didn't really settle well with me, because it seemed like sort of a fish tank... where westerners stay in the hotel and can observe the Vietnamese all day within the bubble that is their hotel. I don't really know, it just makes you appreciate the way that our trip was set up aimed at getting us a real experience here in Vietnam.

Our last(!) company visit was today. We went to Saigon New Port, which was essentially a dockyard. The interesting thing about this dockyard is that it is ran by the navy, but deals with alot of shipping that relates to the economy of Vietnam... not just the military. It was very interesting to hear about how the company has expanded and opened ports all across the country in order to account for growing demand. Southern Vietnam has the most ports, then Northern, and then Central. This makes sense based off of the cities and provinces that lie in these areas. We got to go up into the control tower of the yard, and get a full arial view of everything that was happening. It was nonstop working; apparently last year the port worked all hours of every day with just a 2 hour break (thats only 2 out of 8760 hours on the year).

After we got back to the hotel, some of us went back to the market. Edziu, Beth, and I left the market for a little bit while others shopped and went to another coffee shop. That's one thing that I love about here... no matter where you are in the city, there's always an interesting place nearby to get some good coffee. I don't think we'll be able to function back in the US with the transition back to non-Vietnamese coffee.

The bread display at lunch. I think this picture lets you know pretty clearly the high end nature of today's lunch.

View from the Control Tower at SNP. It was really cool to be able to look around and see the complex environment that needs to be managed here.

The street we found our coffee shop on tonight. Always fun to people watch.

View of the market from the center of a circle. We had to cross through the traffic to get to this spot... it was really exhilarating. It's kind of like frogger only its real life and you only have one life.