Right now Vietnam is the worst ever in my book of World Tour
experiences! Today was a day of
emotional highs and lows. I just simply
cannot handle this place. I know there
could be much worse things in life, but everyone has things they cannot deal with;
mine is dirtiness. Ever since we have
been in Vietnam I have had major issues with this. For example, I will probably have to get some
new tennis shoes soon because mine are so filthy from just walking through the streets
this week! We ate at Fo Restaurant and the floors
were so slippery with filth, I almost fell a couple times. The smells differ on every street corner, but
they all have one thing in common; they smell terrible! Restaurants wash their dishes in the street. I could go on, but I think it would just freak
me out more.
I was looking forward
to a relief from it all when we arrived at our hotel; however, it only seemed
to magnify things. To begin with, as we
were unloading the bus our driver started chucking bags into the dirty
street. Les was so mad about it that
he slapped the guy in the back and started yelling at him, which seems like a
bit of an overreaction, but then again, Les has a very short fuse! Anyways, several bags were affected and
covered with things I do not even want to identify.
We got our keys to our rooms, but there was is only one elevator, so I decided to take the stairs. Between the first and fifth floor there were 3 mattresses in the stairway along with random pieces of furniture, to the point where it was hard to make it up the stairs. That was my first indication that something funky was going on here. I walked into our windowless room and my heart dropped into my stomach. It looked like one of those motel rooms in movies that drug dealers work out of.
Used, worn-out sandals were the first thing I saw in the room, followed by the sound of my shoes sticking to the floor. The walls were a yellowish color with dirt; our beds the same. My roommate and I immediately began to check for bed bugs. One bed had a blood stain on it. Another just a foam mattress with three layers of aged mattress covers. Thankfully though, no initial signs of bed bugs, even though our friends found some in their room. Tonight I will not be sleeping in my bed, rather on top of it with my luggage because the floors are not fit to set anything on them. I do not even feel comfortable using a pillow. I laid towels on top of the comforter thinking it would be a bit cleaner to sleep on, turns out the towels are stained as well. We opened our refrigerator to get a drink, maybe help us relax a bit, only to find mold and warm beverages because it wasn’t working right. And I have not even mentioned the smell; imagine a mixture of smoke and mold. Sarah just came out of the bathroom and told me our tub will not drain at all, so now we have to use Adam and Dan’s bathroom to shower. Last but not least, there is mildew growing on the ceiling in the bathroom.
All that being said, I think I can begin to talk about the rest of my day. We had an early flight that I dozed through most of the time, and immediately began a tour of the city after that. We visited a temple, ate lunch, walked through an architecture school, and sat in on one of the world’s best water puppet shows, which I also happened to doze though. For some reason I have been really sleepy today. Since it rained pretty much the whole day, we were not able to walk around and experience the city much; I am really not too mad about that either. Anyways, we had a little time to kill before dinner so our guide took us to a nice coffee shop. Yes, I just said a NICE coffee shop. I ordered a Vietnamese Coffee with milk and enjoyed it so much I decided to order an iced Vietnamese Coffee with milk. Monica, Jen, and I also split two desserts while we were there and had a pretty great conversation about our futures. I told them about the EMI internship I would like to apply for and they seemed to be excited for me, which got me excited for it as well. So this was definitely my emotional high of the day. Everything else was pretty much downhill after that. But I quote my friend Aubree, “If you can survive this, you can CONQUER ANYTHING!” The key word being if… She was right, though, when she said, “God led you here for a reason.” There is a reason in everything, so the best thing to do is embrace what I do have and let Him work through all the rest. Once again, God sent me a positive influence just when I needed it! Will I ever learn?
We got our keys to our rooms, but there was is only one elevator, so I decided to take the stairs. Between the first and fifth floor there were 3 mattresses in the stairway along with random pieces of furniture, to the point where it was hard to make it up the stairs. That was my first indication that something funky was going on here. I walked into our windowless room and my heart dropped into my stomach. It looked like one of those motel rooms in movies that drug dealers work out of.
Used, worn-out sandals were the first thing I saw in the room, followed by the sound of my shoes sticking to the floor. The walls were a yellowish color with dirt; our beds the same. My roommate and I immediately began to check for bed bugs. One bed had a blood stain on it. Another just a foam mattress with three layers of aged mattress covers. Thankfully though, no initial signs of bed bugs, even though our friends found some in their room. Tonight I will not be sleeping in my bed, rather on top of it with my luggage because the floors are not fit to set anything on them. I do not even feel comfortable using a pillow. I laid towels on top of the comforter thinking it would be a bit cleaner to sleep on, turns out the towels are stained as well. We opened our refrigerator to get a drink, maybe help us relax a bit, only to find mold and warm beverages because it wasn’t working right. And I have not even mentioned the smell; imagine a mixture of smoke and mold. Sarah just came out of the bathroom and told me our tub will not drain at all, so now we have to use Adam and Dan’s bathroom to shower. Last but not least, there is mildew growing on the ceiling in the bathroom.
All that being said, I think I can begin to talk about the rest of my day. We had an early flight that I dozed through most of the time, and immediately began a tour of the city after that. We visited a temple, ate lunch, walked through an architecture school, and sat in on one of the world’s best water puppet shows, which I also happened to doze though. For some reason I have been really sleepy today. Since it rained pretty much the whole day, we were not able to walk around and experience the city much; I am really not too mad about that either. Anyways, we had a little time to kill before dinner so our guide took us to a nice coffee shop. Yes, I just said a NICE coffee shop. I ordered a Vietnamese Coffee with milk and enjoyed it so much I decided to order an iced Vietnamese Coffee with milk. Monica, Jen, and I also split two desserts while we were there and had a pretty great conversation about our futures. I told them about the EMI internship I would like to apply for and they seemed to be excited for me, which got me excited for it as well. So this was definitely my emotional high of the day. Everything else was pretty much downhill after that. But I quote my friend Aubree, “If you can survive this, you can CONQUER ANYTHING!” The key word being if… She was right, though, when she said, “God led you here for a reason.” There is a reason in everything, so the best thing to do is embrace what I do have and let Him work through all the rest. Once again, God sent me a positive influence just when I needed it! Will I ever learn?
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