Xin Chao!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

I think Vietnam was my favourite country so far! Like I said before, Ho Chi Minh City (which is also called Saigon because Vietnam was once controlled by France) is the biggest city in Vietnam. However, HCMC is not the capital- that is a city called Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam. Many of my friends flew to see Hanoi, but I spent six days exploring HCMC!

I made many new friends in Vietnam! I was lucky enough to meet a student named Ngan who let me stay at her apartment for a few days. I felt like I was actually living in the city! She introduced me to all her friends and even took me to her class. Her friends were very nice and because they wanted to practice their English they loved to speak with me.

One of the craziest things about Vietnam is the traffic. There are 10 million in people in HCMC and there are 6 million motorcycles! They are the primary mode of transportation. Sometimes a whole family rides on one bike! Quite often, drivers don't listen to traffic lights or signs. This makes it very tricky to cross the street- it feels like you are going to be hit by a motorcycle every time you walk across the street. You have to walk confidently and at a steady pace, not running, and motorcycles will move around you! It's quite scary until you get used to it.

It's been very interesting learning how to use different currencies in all the countries I've been visiting! For example, in Vietnam the money is called "dong", and one dollar is about 20 800 dong! This meant that when ever I was going to buy anything, I had to do a lot of quick math in my head. Also, when you go shopping in a market, you are supposed to bargain! This is a kind of friendly argument to decide the price- for example, if a vendor said something cost 250 000 dong, I would tell them I would give them 100 000 dong. One trick to bargaining is to say what you want to buy is too expensive and then walk away. Quite often the vendor will grab your arm and offer a lower price.

This is a picture of a market I went to. Do you see everyone wearing those cone-shaped hats? These are a very traditional Vietnamese hat that is worn to protect people from the sun while they are working on a farm. 

Even though I was very warm in Vietnam and always wearing shorts, many people wore long-sleeve shirts, pants, and even face masks! In North America many people think it is beautiful to have a tan from the sun. However, in Vietnam, it is thought that lighter coloured skin is more beautiful so they cover themselves from the sunshine!

As always, I tried many new foods! I ate a duck egg, except it was the kind of egg where there is a baby duck inside. You crack open the top of the egg, drink the juice inside, then eat the inside with a spoon. Although it might sound very gross, it really just tasted like normal eggs!

Also, Vietnam is very famous for it's delicious coffee. Because of the heat, I tried this ice milk-coffee! It was very delicious.

Finally, I went to many museums in the city. Although you may not know this, but there was a war between Vietnam and the United States from 1956 to 1975. In Canada, we do not learn a lot about this war in school because we did not send anyone to fight in it! Unfortunately, the United States was very violent and did many bad things in Vietnam, including dropping very harmful chemicals in Vietnam. There are still many people effected by these chemicals today. Sometimes we may not be aware of the bad things that happened to others around the world because it did not happen in our country, but it is still important to learn.

As I write this we are crossing to Singapore from Vietnam! It is lunch time and the ship is rocking back and forth, so much so that some dishes have been sliding off the table!

Rebecca