Girls Gone Mild: Vietnam Edition

I've been on spring break this week which meant i went far far away from the city...so last friday i got on an overnight bus to rach gia and then at 8 am got on a ferry for PHU QUOC...Phu Quoc is an island that has at least one of the "top 5 hidden beaches in the world" and also has like 0 people/traffic compared to the city...we stayed at the sea star resort in a garden view bungalow for 40 dollars a night...we had a gorgeous view of like a garden and were a 2 second walk from a practically deserted beach...i've never seen water as clear and blue as phu quoc and i've spent my fair share of time at nice beaches on the "emerald coast" of florida...there were also only ever about 20 people on our beach at one time which was amazing...on sunday we went on a snorkel tour which was amazing and hilarious b/c the girl i was traveling with spoke vietnamese and our tour guide was intrigued so we got to hear everything 3 times (once in english for everybody, once in vietnamese for her, and then one more time in english for me seeing as how the only thing i can say is my name is helen, i'm from america, and i'm 20)...we spent all day on the boat laying out in the sun and snorkeling and it was amazing except for the part where i forgot to put sunscreen on the tops on my legs and thus burned the shit out of them...the next 3 days we pretty much just laid on the beach and got hour long massages on the beach for 60.000VND (3.60 USD)...i'm finally tan again which is probably the best part of the entire break for me...the only bad part was tuesday we went all out and had a really nice expensive dinner but they didn't cook the seafood in our green beans right so i spent a better half of wednesday curled up in bed...now i'm back in the city which is still full of skeezy men but now that i'm not ghostly pale they're a little less intrigued by me which is nice...now i just have to convince myself to do all the homework i haven't done for the past 3 weeks

Delta Delta Delta

This weekend (friday-sunday) we went to the mekong delta which was aaaaamazing...friday night we drove down to can tho which is about a 6 hour drive...but since our driver was probably a little under the influence we made it there in 4.5 or 5 hours...we got to can tho at like 8 at night and we just kind of walked around for a while then went to a coffee shop and got ice cream...then we went back to our hotel...let me just tell ya about hotel asia...it was amazing...actually it was just okay but it had...A SHOWER CURTAIN and one sheet that was actually the entire size of the bed so my feet didn't stick out and get cold...we woke up at 6 the next morning and had banh mi op la (bread and fried eggs...i now put soy sauce on my eggs..it's official i'm asian) and then got on a ghetto ass boat to go see a floating marekt which is way cool...a bunch of boats float around in the middle of the river with fruit tied to these big sticks they put up in the air so you know what they're selling...after the market we drove to the ho an research center like an hour away and met a group of japanese students (i was really hoping they would be cute europeans/australians...but now a bunch of asian girls...damn)...then we walked around in the woods (which pleased me to no end)...did i mention there were millions of ants that would crawl on you the minute you stopped walking...that was fun...so after our trek we went back to the center and ate more food than any one group of people should consume...still in our food coma we climbed back into the car and drove to vinh long where we met our tour guide who gave us FRUIT YEEEEEESSS...then we got on a nice boat and went about 20 minutes up river to a fruit nursery owned by an 88 year old man named Mr. Tiger...we got more fruit and listened to traditional vietnamese music (it was interesting)...then we got back on the boat and went for about 30 more minutes to mr. muoi's house...it was beautiful and there were hammocks...then we ate even more food and i crawled back into a hammock and explained what a food baby was to my roommate which led to us walking around the house the rest of the night telling people we were bon tam (4 months)...then i crawled under my mosquito net (yes mosquito net) and tried to go to sleep...which wasn't very successful...we got up at 630 even though we had pretty much been awake since 4 with the constant boat traffic on the river...for breakfast there was CHEESE...i was so happy i almost cried...then we got back on the boat and went for an hour and a half (i passed out after an hour) to a rice paper making house, a house that made candy, and a house that made popcorn...i of course bought candy...then we got back on the boat and saw a smaller floating market...then about an hour later we got off the boat and waited for our driver to take us back to saigon...well he showed up and was looking extra fidgety today but i was just like w/e and climbed into the back and lay down and went to sleep for like an hour until i was awoken by violent side to side motions and sudden speed changes...our driver was def coming off of his high and we were suffering as were the poor people on motorbikes around us...we got back to saigon in record time and i've never been happier to see solid ground in my life...now i'm putting off my homework...

Hey Honey Cookie

I'm so tired of skeezy vietnamese men yelling at me from motorbikes, sitting on the street, in garbage trucks, etc. ..although i give creativity points to the one who yelled HEY HONEY COOKIE...that's honestly one i haven't heard before...last night i went to the rooftop bar at the caravelle hotel which was absolutely beautiful (but expensive) i actually took pictures so i'll put them up soon...last weekend we went out bar hopping...i thought i was a light weight before well i now have the tolerance of a 2 year old which of course worked out fantastic for me...we went to go2bar which is in the backpacking district had a drink left went bar hopped a little then ended up at apocalypse now which had a really strange mix of people...old british men that thought i was british and sketchy south africans that "want to ear from us soon"...i'm going to the mekong delta this weekend which is exciting and i promise to take pictures