Ho Chi Minh City tour, Bargain Hunter, and Sweet Caroline

Finally the weekend! We did not have any class today so we went on a tour of Ho Chi Minh City. We started off at the Reunification Palace. It was pretty cool seeing something in person that I had only seen in history textbooks and on the internet. The amount of history that this building is involved is pretty incredible. Once the Vietcong reached the palace and successfully invaded it, the Vietnam War was basically over. The tour was slightly frustrating though. Our guide frequently mentioned how North Vietnam was liberated and the South Vietnam was not free. I understand that there are always two different sides to everything but it still frustrated me. But anyway, the building was pretty cool. It was huge and very beautiful. After that, we headed to the Notre Dame cathedral built by the French and the Post Office, also built by the French. It was interesting seeing how much the French influenced Vietnamese culture. In the Post Office there was a souvenir shop with some very interesting gifts… but I can’t say them because I’m not gonna give anything away! Next up was a pagoda. From what I understand, a pagoda is the Buddhist equivalent of a church. However, Buddhists hold their pagodas to be much more sacred. I thought everything there was beautiful. It was quite an experience.

After finishing the tour, we had the rest of the afternoon off! We decided to finally make our way to the Bến Thành Market. There are tons of markets in Ho Chi Minh and each one is just as crowded as the next. The market we went to (pronounced ben tahn) is a huge tourist destination. At the market, there are hundreds of stalls operated by local Vietnamese selling thousands of different things. The cool part about the market is that there are no fixed prices. You can bargain and barter your way to a lower price. It takes some getting used to. I browsed with my group for a little bit before I found what I wanted. I bought a pack of chopsticks (I am very confident using them now) and I bought a sleeveless Vietnam flag shirt. I didn’t bargain very well for the chopsticks but the t shirt I think I did alright on. I bought it for 70,000 dong but it originally cost 100,000. With our limited but useful knowledge of the Vietnamese language, we were able to communicate (although very briefly) with the locals there. And they loved it! Whenever I would say sorry or excuse me (pronounced seen loi) they would smile and say xin chao (hello)! I thought that was so cool. For dinner, the UEF kids took us to a local karaoke bar. And wow was I surprised. The image in my head of a karaoke bar was completely different than what it was. Karaoke is huge in Vietnam… there are karaoke bars on nearly every street. And I can certainly vouch for its popularity. It was so much fun. We had a private room to ourselves where we could order endless food and drinks and sing and dance together. It was awesome! I would have to say the highlight of the night was singing Sweet Caroline. I told My about the Pitt tradition and how we sing it at every football game. The UEF kids were eager to join our tradition. I got chills as I looked around and saw UEF and Pitt kids together singing Sweet Caroline and chanting Let’s Go Pitt. It was simple but incredible.