Day 2 and 3…

Hello everyone!

Today was a rather exciting day.  It was our first full day here in Vietnam.  We started the day with a great breakfast buffet that had very good food.  We then met up with Michael, one of the teachers at American Pacific University, and booked our day excursion to Cu Chi.  Cu Chi was a major battle ground during the Vietnam War and has many military attractions such as the Cu Chi tunnels.  The Cu Chi tunnels were used by Cu Chi gorilla warfighters to fight against the American and South Vietnamese armies.  (Pictures below) We also visited a holy city of which the people follow a religion called “Cao Thi”.  It has been described to us as a mixture of Catholism, Hinduism, Buddism, and Taoism.  Here the people worship every six hours at the temple for 40 minutes.  Each person wears one of 4 colors to represent their religion.  It was a very delightful adventure.  The next day we visited American Pacific University and met up with some of the IT staff there and took a tour of the building.  We also had the chance to sit with some of the seniors and juniors and talk to them about their plans for future studies.  After the meeting, a car took us to Binh Tay market place.  Here they had tons of fresh food, clothing, and other sorts of great things to buy.  Just like any other country, you can always negotiate the price.  Professor White was quite impressed with my negotiating skills.  After the market, we traveled back to our rooms and waited for another dinner consisting of 6 courses.  The food seems like it just keeps coming and coming.  The food is amazing and is nothing like the Asian cuisine found in the USA.  This stuff is authentic and absolutely fantastic.  Here are a few pics from the trip thus far:

Hotel Windsor (Awesome btw)


Busy traffic

Here I am at Cu Chi firing a M16 rifle

Some up close traffic action

Some tall residential housing

Me at an intersection

A cool alley way

Another one

Some street vendor items…

So many people…

Cao Tai temple worshippers

An American with a Vietnamese family

“Black Lady Mountain” on the other side is Cambodia