Day 2: Creepy Mannequins and other stuff
Today is our second day in Vietnam but our first full day in Vietnam. We had to wake up early today to catch the ferry. We went to buy the tickets around 7:15 but had to wait till 8:00 am for the ferry to actually leave the dock. The ride was about two hours and the ferry was considered a speed ferry. Seems like a regular speed ferry to me, but I'm not a sailor so I may not be accurate. The ferry was to Vung Tau, which is a resort town.
Numero uno scavenge, the Jesus one. This one is where we had to walk up the stairway to heaven, which leads to a huge Jesus statue. Unfortunately to get up to the statue we had to climb a bunch of steps. This has scarred me forever and I will have a strong aversion to steps for the rest of my days. Although it was a good workout for my legs and made me feel super fit after, except that I've learned my endurance is poop. At the top, to go into the statue I had to wrap some towels around my waist as a makeshift skirt. Once inside we saw the best thing ever. More stairs. But after the stairs we got a pretty sweet view of the ocean and stairs and a refreshing breeze. Going down was a lot easier than going up.
Second scavenge was we had to play some golf. So we went to a resort that had a gold course and rented a club and some balls. Daddy is pretty good at golf since he plays with his old business friends. Me on the other hand, I found out, is famously horrible at golf. I think its because a) I've played golf about three times in the fifteenish years of my life, b) It feels awkward to hold the club and c) I think my hand eye coordination is not the best but only in golf.
Next we went to a creepy mannequin museum. It was actually a museum starring ancient firearms and armor from a variety of different armies; all of them on creepy mannequins with eyes. Mannequins with eyes are not right, it always feels like their always looking at you. We also got to talk to Robert Taylor who the museum is named after. He started this museum because he had collected all these things since he was eighteen as a hobby. I know, such a unique hobby.
After a few more small scavenges and a ferry ride, we had a cooking class at the Vietnamese Cooking Center. We had a fancy chef teach us and a translator/chef help us. We first cooked the salad. I used this super fancy knife that had a wavy blade to cut the carrots, but it was a bit floppy. Then we cut some onions, without crying. Bingpot! After the salad was done, we made some filling for spring rolls. Although it didn't smell good when being made, it tasted super good. We then learned how to make Vietnamese pancakes. They look and taste like an omelette with some shrimp and pork. The last dish we made was beef pho. After we finished everything we sat down to eat all our dishes. Everything was super good! It was all fresh and warm and absolutely delicious.
Once we finished eating and cooking, we decided to do two more small scavenges. One of the scavenges was to eat a Vietnamese pizza. We bought one at a street vendor but couldn't finish it after all the food from the cooking class so we ended up throwing away half of it. While throwing it away
a huge, fat rat jumped out of the trash! He scared the crap out of me and he was the first rat I've ever seen. What a great experience.
Finally we got back to the hotel and took some showers. This was a very long and tiring day but a great experience. Though I will forever be scarred by the stairs. #Elevators or anything besides stairs.
Numero uno scavenge, the Jesus one. This one is where we had to walk up the stairway to heaven, which leads to a huge Jesus statue. Unfortunately to get up to the statue we had to climb a bunch of steps. This has scarred me forever and I will have a strong aversion to steps for the rest of my days. Although it was a good workout for my legs and made me feel super fit after, except that I've learned my endurance is poop. At the top, to go into the statue I had to wrap some towels around my waist as a makeshift skirt. Once inside we saw the best thing ever. More stairs. But after the stairs we got a pretty sweet view of the ocean and stairs and a refreshing breeze. Going down was a lot easier than going up.
Second scavenge was we had to play some golf. So we went to a resort that had a gold course and rented a club and some balls. Daddy is pretty good at golf since he plays with his old business friends. Me on the other hand, I found out, is famously horrible at golf. I think its because a) I've played golf about three times in the fifteenish years of my life, b) It feels awkward to hold the club and c) I think my hand eye coordination is not the best but only in golf.
Next we went to a creepy mannequin museum. It was actually a museum starring ancient firearms and armor from a variety of different armies; all of them on creepy mannequins with eyes. Mannequins with eyes are not right, it always feels like their always looking at you. We also got to talk to Robert Taylor who the museum is named after. He started this museum because he had collected all these things since he was eighteen as a hobby. I know, such a unique hobby.
After a few more small scavenges and a ferry ride, we had a cooking class at the Vietnamese Cooking Center. We had a fancy chef teach us and a translator/chef help us. We first cooked the salad. I used this super fancy knife that had a wavy blade to cut the carrots, but it was a bit floppy. Then we cut some onions, without crying. Bingpot! After the salad was done, we made some filling for spring rolls. Although it didn't smell good when being made, it tasted super good. We then learned how to make Vietnamese pancakes. They look and taste like an omelette with some shrimp and pork. The last dish we made was beef pho. After we finished everything we sat down to eat all our dishes. Everything was super good! It was all fresh and warm and absolutely delicious.
Once we finished eating and cooking, we decided to do two more small scavenges. One of the scavenges was to eat a Vietnamese pizza. We bought one at a street vendor but couldn't finish it after all the food from the cooking class so we ended up throwing away half of it. While throwing it away
a huge, fat rat jumped out of the trash! He scared the crap out of me and he was the first rat I've ever seen. What a great experience.
Finally we got back to the hotel and took some showers. This was a very long and tiring day but a great experience. Though I will forever be scarred by the stairs. #Elevators or anything besides stairs.
me playing golf
Robert Taylor
cooking class
a test trial to send you comments
ReplyDeleteAh-Ma
I'm sure you meant daddy's "lifelong" business friends when you used the adjective "old". Would love to see pictures of the food or views that you are experiencing to get a flavor of the places you are visiting. Based on Sydney's experience, the more stairs there are, the higher points the scavenge is worth; so I would bet this is not the last of the stairs on this trip--now you know you can do it!
ReplyDeletethe magic about this trip is what happened in this leg. we're climbing hills and statues to get this incredible view, then playing golf, then meeting this eccentric british guy historical munitions curator, then we eat the very best vietnamese meal i've ever eaten over a three hour cooking class. it felt like three days. when we were eating that meal, it didn't even feel like we had just been swimming in the south china sea earlier in the day!
ReplyDeleteso, robert taylor collects so much authentic historical war garb and weapons (apparently very successful oil and gas entrepreneur), he has no place to store it all. so he comes to vietnam, ends up marrying a local woman, retires, and decides to petition the government to establish the world's largest (and only) historical warfare and munitions museum. this takes six years of negotiation with the vietnames govt, and they establish a plot of land for him and he's got a permanent museum in ho chi minh city! the guys' story is incredible.
This day sounded amazing! I am imagining looking up at all of those stairs and then climbing up one-by-one. The view from the top had to be amazing too. You make it all sound like so much fun! I have never heard of this type of scavenge before; what a great experience. Looking forward to reading the next entry. Have a great time!
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