Today was quite a long day. Also hot. It was a long, hot
day. It was super fun though! We woke up early to get on the bus and drive
about 2 hours to the coast of Vietnam. I tried to sleep on the bus being that
it was 7:30 AM and we had a late night last night, but not much sleep actually
happened. When we got to the coast, our first mission was to climb the
6,794,032 (exact number) to the top of a mountain to see the statue of Jesus
the overlooks the South China Sea (called the Eastern Sea by the Vietnamese
because of their feud with China). On the way up to the statue, there were
little gift shops where they sold quite a few different things. I bought a rice
paddy hat. I rocked that rice paddy hat. The hat cost 30,000 dong (about 1.50
USD). Totally worth it!
Snowball enjoying a new book series on the bus.
Sam, Evan, and I rocking the paddy hats.
As we
walked up the 8,493,748 stairs, a thought occurred to me: “Damn it’s hot!” We
walked and sweat and climbed and dripped all the way up 10 million stairs to
get to the statue of Jesus. (It is similar to the Christ the Redeemer Statue in
Rio de Janeiro, but I believe it is smaller.)
I bet his arms get sore after a while.
In order to
walk up inside the statue, we had to remove our shoes. The statue did not have
elevators unfortunately. So we took more stairs. (Can you see a theme?) There
was a line up inside the statue so we had to wait to get up to the top where
you can walk out onto the statue’s arms. That was the only staircase though, so
as tourists finished looking out over the city, they had to walk down the same
staircase. Now, I don’t know if you know this, but the Vietnamese people are
quite small. Americans are not quite so small. The Jesus statue was made for
Vietnamese people. If your brain is putting two and two together, you should be
coming to the conclusion that this staircase was quite small. As tourists came
down the steps, they saw the Americans chilling in the staircase and they had
to squeeze by us (sweaty bodies rubbing on sweaty bodies). Imagery.
The wait
was finally over and it was my turn to walk out onto the arm (which only held 3
Americans, or approximately 10 Vietnamese people). The view was indescribable
and pictures do not do it justice! (Of course I am going to post them anyway
though.)
This is not what I picture when I think of Vietnam.
(I think this video works better)
After we
sweat all over Jesus, we walked back down the 200 billion stairs to the bottom
of the mountain and got on the bus to head over to the resort on the beach. We
got to the beach and immediately jumped into the ocean. The water was like
bathwater. It was so warm but SOOO refreshing. It was also surprisingly shallow
for quite a ways out. My favorite part was that there was no seaweed. We stayed
in the water for a while, but a jellyfish stung Rachel. (She took it like a
champ and stayed in the water anyway.) Honestly, it wouldn’t be a beach trip
for me if I didn’t get stung by a jellyfish and sure enough I got stung on the heel.
It could’ve been worse. We stayed in the water and had a blast regardless.
Eventually
we moved over to the pool (where the threat of jellyfish drastically decreased)
because other people began getting stung as well. I have to say, the sting
didn’t hurt nearly as bad as other times I’ve been stung, it was just
uncomfortable.
Bry Guy—
our coach, team leader for the day, and mother bear—called us out of the water
in order to get lunch at the resort restaurant. The restaurant overlooked the
sea and the lunch was delicious as usual. (Insert obligatory food picture.)
Shrimp is a staple here. I ain't even mad.
After eating, we headed back down
to the beach and most of us just hung out under umbrellas on the sand.
Eventually a group of Pitt and UEF students started playing games that UEF kids
showed us. I watched the bloodbath ensue. By the end of their games, many were
bleeding in various places, but all of them had smiles on their faces. The
games were rather “contact”, which explains the blood. (Go hard or go home.) We
eventually left the beach, cleaned up, and went on the bus back to the hotel.
It was quite a long day, but definitely a memorable one. Oh, I also forgot to
put on sunscreen…
Ow.
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