[You should know that on Saturday, Nov 6 one of our students was found dead in his cabin. He was on my Cambodia trip that had gotten back the night before. We have had a couple very difficult days on the ship, but still set sail from Vietnam this morning. You can read the statement from Les McCabe on the Semester at Sea website, underneath "More Headlines."
The day between Singapore and Cambodia was insanely busy. Meetings, programs, everything. And we were exhausted because we had all walked the entirety of Singapore.
I woke up early on Wednesday to see the sun rise as we sailed up the river into Vietnam. The sun rise itself was okay because it was so cloudy, but sailing up the river was beautiful. It’s weird to see land on both sides. The jungle of Vietnam really surprised me. It seemed so strong, so lush. I can’t even imagine what it’s like inland. Someone asked Hieu (ship psychologist who fled Vietnam as a boy) about the devastation left from the war and he said we won’t see it because the jungle reclaimed it all. I can see why.
We passed fish boats, other small boats, homes, businesses, more jungle, and then drifted into Ho Chi Minh City just before 8am (the harbor pilot had boarded at 4am). It was a very peaceful way to come into port.
I showered quickly before running back upstairs to help pass out landing cards. We, thankfully, don’t need to carry passports in this port, just a copy and a “landing card” to easily get through the port onto the ship.
A quick note: The US government line is to refer to the city as Ho Chi Minh City because that’s what Vietnam named it after Saigon fell and Vietnam was “reunited” but they’re obviously in the business of being diplomatic. The people, however, call it Saigon. I will call it Saigon simply because it’s easier to type than Ho Chi Minh City.
We caught the last few minutes of the diplomatic briefing and then I went to pack for my trip to Cambodia. I headed up to the Union (the meeting point) and Lauran from the Field Office came to send us off. We passed out detailed itineraries to everyone and called the 3 people who weren’t there. I was the trip leader for 55 other people, from ages 8 to 80 (no joke). There was a family of 7 (2 parents, 5 kids ages 8,10,12,14, and 16), 3 older lifelong learners, 1 lifelong learner who’s a few years older than I am, and the rest students. Typically when there are more than 30 people there is another leader (a bus leader, to be on the other bus) but I didn’t have that because I was the only faculty/staff member to sign up for the trip. I was on Anxiety Level SUPER HIGH.
Typically on SAS trips, there is a guide from a tour agency that is constantly accompanying us. However, since we were crossing a border, we had a relay team of guides, and this is what made me most anxious: getting people on planes, getting people a Cambodian visa, and getting people through customs and immigration.
So we hopped on our buses and went off the airport. SAS gave us a box lunch for the bus ride (which was only 35 minutes). We got to the airport and I met a new guide whose only job was to hand me passports and boarding passes. I passed them all out, and we all got through security and passport control relatively quickly and without problem. I told the students what time to be at the gate and headed off. Our gate got changed minutes before our meeting time, but everybody ended up at the new gate on time and I was feeling good.
I should’ve known that was too easy… after the original hour and a half wait to board, the flight got delayed 20 minutes, and then 30 more minutes, and then 20 more minutes, etc for the next 3 hours. You’d be surprised how waiting makes college students hungry. All of a sudden they were all starving and needed food. I reminded them that if our flight hadn’t been delayed we wouldn’t have stopped for a snack and would be at the art museum. Didn’t matter :) They also thought I had a secret update hotline because every 5 minutes they were asking me what was going on with the plane, why were we delayed, when were we leaving, and how that would impact our plans in Cambodia. I am now qualified to present the following seminar: “Ways to Say ‘I Don’t Know’ Without Appearing Incompetent.”
We FINALLY boarded and then had the shortest flight of our lives as we flew to the capitol of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. It was 20-25 minutes. I couldn’t stop laughing, it was ridiculous. But they passed out Refreshing Towelettes, which were indeed refreshing. Thanks Vietnam Airlines.
We landed and gathered, and I prepared myself for the visa application process. We had already filled out customs forms, arrival cards, and departure cards on the plane. The plan was to get everyone to fill out the form, collect their $20, gather the passports, and bring up everything all at once. Edgar, the lifelong learner who is close to my age, ran ahead to check out the situation. He came back with a form, showed it to me, and said “well the customs guy says if we pay $22 each, we won’t have to do paperwork.” Ahhh, only 5 minutes in Cambodia and I was being asked to bribe customs officials. I said “Absolutely not, they’re filling out paperwork” and went downstairs to get in line. The customs official came up to me and explained what he wanted and I told him no. Then he pulled me aside and made it clear that I didn’t have a choice to make. So. I talked with Edgar as well as Craig (the dad of the family) and got their support in case I got in trouble, and we collected $22 per person and every passport and passed them on for visas. Welcome to Cambodia :)
We hopped on our buses and I talked with our new guides. We had missed our visit to the National Museum as well as the sunset cruise along the Mekong. Bummer. We still had time to visit the Orphanage, so that’s where we headed. A lot of students had brought candy, pens, toys, etc for the kids, so we walked up to the orphanage that’s supported by Cambodia’s Hope, a non-profit started by a former SAS psychologist and her now-ex-husband. He was there to welcome us, and the kids each grabbed one of us and gave us tours. In typical fashion for my life, the kid who grabbed me didn’t want to talk at all. He didn’t speak much English (which is totally fair, I don’t speak Khmer) but he didn’t even respond to my AWESOME charade questions. He just leaned into me and I walked around with him at my side. Everyone else had these adorable energy balls, and I had Gloomy McGee. Anyway, Gloomy and I walked around, and we played Rock Paper Scissors. Anyway, it got to be time to leave and I experienced trip-leader-nightmare: pulling 55 people away from 90 needy children. It took awhile. But we got there.
Then it was time for dinner. We ate family style at this beautiful open air restaurant. I honestly don’t know what we ate, but it was delicious. There was rice, vegetables, rice cake type things, soup, fish, chicken, and more. We went to the hotel, where they greeted us with a glass of champagne, and I handed out room keys. I went up to my room, which was amazing ,and laid in my giant bed and watched a few minutes of CNN before I fell asleep. It was too bad that I was so exhausted – I didn’t even get through a full news cycle on CNN!
I'll write more tomorrow about day 2 in Cambodia.
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