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In front of City Hall with Uncle Ho!
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The day started with a few humorous mishaps. First I awoke thinking it was 7:45am when in reality it was before 6am. I didn’t notice until I was out of the shower. Then a hotel staff member came with an abrasive and sudden knock in addition to a lack of English, which greatly restricted lingual communicative abilities. (We eventually figured out he was asking Lucas to not hang his clothes on the balcony.) A good start to any day.
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Lucas and I then proceeded to breakfast where we found Ms. Hamilton exploring the vast selection of Vietnamese delicacies. I am always excited to eat, but seldom had I been that excited. After three courses plus a dragon-fruit dessert, and thanks to the fact we woke up far too early, Lucas, Ms. Hamilton and I took an hour long walk exploring the river and the Saigon city hall. Both were great experiences of cultural amalgamation, especially the city hall, as it was a 19th century French colonial mansion with a Vietnamese flag at the top in addition to a statue of Ho Chi Minh just in front. Then I returned to the room and packed everything we needed for the day trip. We met in the lobby and left of our first real adventure together.
The Poly group boarded the bus and we traversed to the first religious site of the day: a pagoda. I personally enjoyed the Chinese characters carved into the walls, which told an ancient story and were gladly and somewhat surprisingly understandable (considering they were written in traditional script). I was amazed and felt privileged to be able to understand what was etched into the walls a grand two centuries before. I understood even better why many Chinese speaking people are proud of and fighting for (the preservation of) their language. After exploring a Confucian temple and seeing people wholeheartedly worship in a place their ancestors centuries before also worshipped (which was very powerful), the group explored more of Saigon by bus. We experienced a view of the slums, which was like absolutely nothing I had ever seen before. We experienced life on the Saigon river, which was just as well absolutely nothing like I had ever seen before. Then we returned to the hotel for a break of playing cards and attempted to understand some Vietnamese soup operas. We didn’t do that well. At this point I know how to say hello, thank you, goodbye, and chicken. None of which I learned from the dramas.
We started today by waking up early so as to get to the buffet breakfast by 8 AM. The night before, we both took showers after arriving, putting us in bed at around 1:30. Breakfast provided a variety of selections: personally made omelets, tomatoes containing cheese, cornflakes, ham slices, sausage, toast, passion fruit, broken rice, fried fish, dragon fruit, unidentifiable white jelly-like substance, and guava juice. After breakfast, the team headed down to the lobby and boarded the bus headed around Ho Chi Minh City. The tour bus made several stops around different districts of the city formerly known as Saigon. We walked around and photographed several pagodas and temples. At these religious locations we noted a pond full of turtles, many burning incense sticks, and collections of shrines.
Turner focused on citywide themes for our assigned project when filming in various locations around the city. We visited local slums and traced the river around the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. When returning to our hotel, we visited the top floor of the Palace Saigon Hotel and dined at the buffet once again, but this time with some quality grilled chicken and eel, fried spring rolls, and more interminable substances that appeared to be gelatin-based and/or chia seed based. After lunch, we were dropped off at one of the few Catholic churches in Vietnam and were greeted by eerie vocals that echoed around a Western-modeled marble cavity. In contrast to the perceived familiarity of Buddhist and Confucianism-oriented pagodas and temples, Sach proffered that this single example of primarily European influence spoke a lot about the differences in each of the separate customs. In Vietnam, traditional religious areas are intended to welcome connections upon which Buddhism, Confucianism, and more Eastern Religions were founded. Western-based Catholicism, on the other hand, uses its marble ribcage-shaped interiors, dramatic lighting, and single point of focus of pews towards an altar to give the attendees the feeling of the presence of “God” while simultaneously paying homage to the Catholic value of self-devaluation and a feeling of interminable inferiority and resulting duty to God and by proxy backbone of the religion.
After visiting the church, the cabal headed over to an imposing post office modeled after Notre Dame during the reign of French imperialism. This building paid homage to Ho Chi Minh via a story-tall image of him at the center of the main space. To the sides of this main space, vendors sold various pieces of merchandise. Following this expedition, we walked back home to where we are writing this now.
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| Shrine for the poor on a street corner |
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| Ms. Hamilton lights an offering to protect our Poly student travelers |
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| Sign outside of Jade Temple to welcome Obama |
After breakfast we had a tour of the city and all of its districts inside a nice air-conditioned bus. However, we did leave the bus to visit temples and cathedrals, and as soon as we stepped outside we were greeted by moist air and stifling incense and heat. We visited two temples, the first was extremely crowded and small, whereas the second temple was open and had very few people so it was easy for all of us to go and see all the differ statues and writings on the wall. Even Ms. Hamilton got to burn a incense candle! The city was very crowded and there seemed to be no traffic laws. Everyone was on mopeds going down the street of title packed stores stacked on top of each other. The people seemed to take up every inch of the city. Once we got back to the hotel, a purple junior and freshman boys and I went to the roof (16th floor) and enjoyed the view of the city while swimming in the pool. That was the coolest part of the day, going swimming after a hot humid day and looking out over the city. After, we took a short bus ride back into the city to see a historic cathedral and then took a short walk in the pouring rain to the national post office. When we got back to the hotel, most of us just crashed right before dinner, where we tried a variety of Vietnamese dishes. Now we hope to get a good night's sleep before another busy day tomorrow. --Alex
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Semi-hatched duck egg for lunch?
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Turner focused on citywide themes for our assigned project when filming in various locations around the city. We visited local slums and traced the river around the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. When returning to our hotel, we visited the top floor of the Palace Saigon Hotel and dined at the buffet once again, but this time with some quality grilled chicken and eel, fried spring rolls, and more interminable substances that appeared to be gelatin-based and/or chia seed based. After lunch, we were dropped off at one of the few Catholic churches in Vietnam and were greeted by eerie vocals that echoed around a Western-modeled marble cavity. In contrast to the perceived familiarity of Buddhist and Confucianism-oriented pagodas and temples, Sach proffered that this single example of primarily European influence spoke a lot about the differences in each of the separate customs. In Vietnam, traditional religious areas are intended to welcome connections upon which Buddhism, Confucianism, and more Eastern Religions were founded. Western-based Catholicism, on the other hand, uses its marble ribcage-shaped interiors, dramatic lighting, and single point of focus of pews towards an altar to give the attendees the feeling of the presence of “God” while simultaneously paying homage to the Catholic value of self-devaluation and a feeling of interminable inferiority and resulting duty to God and by proxy backbone of the religion. 
