Vietnam:
Language: Vietnamese (Thank You – Cam On, Hello – Sing Chao, Goodbye – Chao)
Currency 1 USD=21,000 Dong
Time Zone: 12 hours ahead of EST
Days it rained = 3
Places we've been: Ho Chi Minh City, Cu Chi Tunnels, War Remnant Museum, Mang Chit in Mekong Delta, Mountains in Da Lat
Transportation:
Bus 19
Motorbike 5
Van Taxi 12
Ferry 2
Number of times asked to buy sunglasses, lighters, fans, maps, bracelets, weed: 287
Hours on a bus/van: 31
Price of Gas: $4.40
1. Feeling secure as we went through the border in Vietnam as the luggage screener was sound asleep the entire time.
2. Having Christmas decorations, carols, and lights all over Ho Chi Minh.
3. Converting $61 USD and receiving 1,272,000 Dong in return! (Exchange rate is $1 USD to 21,000 Dong)
4. Going to an international church that spoke English and signing Christmas songs. Felt like I was home!
5. Meeting a group of students from Boyce College in Louisville on our first morning at church. One girl was from Cecilia. Crazy small world.
6. Finding a smoothie stand where we could get LARGE smoothie for under a dollar that included as many fruits and veggies as you wanted complete with sliced fruit on top.
7.Visiting/Crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Viet Cong lived and hid during the Vietnam War.
8. Seeing hundreds of pictures and artifacts at the War Remnant Museum.
9. When I had 6 different guys ask to shine my shoes all during a 35-minute breakfast.
10. Visiting a drug rehab center that serves as an underground church. There were about 25 men who were some of the most passionate, on fire, and hungry Christians I’ve ever worshipped with.
11. Worshipping on a rooftop on the main strip in Ho Chi Minh City and singing over a very lost city!
12. Getting to Skype with friends for the first time on the race.
13. Playing shuttlecock (Vietnam version of hacky sack) in the park in the late evenings and having lots of Vietnamese come join our circle.
14. Chocolate dipped ice cream cones from KFC! Thank you Kentucky!
15. Doner Kabobs (lamb on pita bread with lettuce, tomato, and sauce).
16. Riding on the back of a motor bike in the pouring rain weaving through rush hour traffic to go play ultimate frisbee at the university with some college students we met.
17. Spending the day at a water park with about 12 underprivileged kids.
18. Sitting in a restaurant and feeling an arm graze my back and then 2 hands began massaging my shoulders. To my surprise it wasn’t someone I knew, but a random man who was going table to table working for money.
19. Trying bubble tea for the first time. Peach milk bubble tea with tapioca pearls.
20. Sitting in Pizza Hut and having a Vietnamese couple walk in and begin singing “Feliz Navidad" and "Jingle Bells.” They of course to wanted money, too.
21. Finding 3,000 Dong ice cream (12 cents) at the corner Lotteria store.
22. Nights spent watching Friday Night Lights with members from 3 teams.
23. Visiting a leprosy hospital that housed 12-15 patients. We were able to share and sing with them. We also played Heads Up 7-Up and The Musician with them. So good.
24. Making two really good Vietnamese friends who happened to be mechanical engineers. I spent several nights with at the park and the smoothie stand. Also had the chance to share the gospel with them.
25. Visiting Vung Tau with Alison and the Vietnamese friend we made. We went to visit a 50ft statue of Jesus, the beach (well really it was just an ocean…not much sand), and ate a fish/frog hot pot for lunch.
26. Being told by the police that we couldn’t stay at a families house in a village we were visiting within 20 minutes of arriving at 9pm. After some effort by our contact they allowed us to stay at the house one night, but at a hotel our second night there.
27. Playing Vietnamese monopoly and visiting a brick factory.
28. Meeting a Christian man with an incredible testimony who spent the early part of his life as a Buddhist monk.
29. Riding a bus for 3 hours that included a duck, a rooster in a bamboo bag, and a pool basket full of baby chicks.
30. Practicing for a Christmas program at an underground church where Chip had to sing a solo dressed up as Santa Claus and I had my iPod taken from me by the choir director.
31. Having a 12-hour ministry day where I put snow (cotton) on a tree for about 30 minutes. I was supposed to share my testimony and our team was going to sing a song that night, but was later told we wouldn’t. A LONG day where we didn’t really accomplish much.
32. Trying to slack line in the park, but having the police tell us we couldn’t do it because they didn’t want us to step on the grass.
33. Having an incredible Christmas Eve dinner with my team and 2 others that were staying with us.
34. Skyping with my family on Christmas Eve!!!!
35. Having Christmas breakfast of French toast and eggs while singing Christmas carols and exchanging secret Santa gifts that had to come from our packs.
36. The nativity scene Kaitlyn made out of toilet paper rolls that made Christmas more like home for all of us.
37. Successfully completing the Black Cat Challenge. A 3.3lb hamburger. The Big Cheese!
38. Getting out of the city to visit a waterfall and to camp on a mountain in Da Lat. Finally got to see the beauty of Vietnam.
*Disclaimer: Pictures are so incredibly difficult to upload here in Uganda, so I, Tyler Gregory Vessels, apologize for the lack of photos.
