Day 10: Fine Dining and Breathing - 13.5.15

Chefs Pete and Akhil

The day started late today with our bus leaving around 9:45 instead of the usual 8:45, so I was pretty excited to sleep in. We also kind of got to skip class today (which was awesome). Instead of the usual cultural lesson followed by language class, we had a cooking class. We went to an amazing five star hotel, and first took a brief tour of it. Afterwards, we reconvened next to their kitchen. There, we were taught how to make spring rolls. So it wasn't really a cooking class, as much as it was a rolling class. After we finished rolling, we had lunch courtesy of the hotel. They provided us with a buffet that was amazing. A lot of us were immediately drawn in by some amazing bread and a variety of cheeses. We were sure to stuff ourselves with as much food as we possibly could. Afterwards, I could definitely see why they're a five star hotel.

We also had our last company visit today! This visit was to Saigon Newport, the leading terminal operator in Vietnam. This basically means that they have a shipyard. They offer terminal, yard, and warehouse services, so they aid in the importing and exporting of goods to and from Vietnam. I think the most interesting thing about the shipyard is the fact that it's ran by Vietnam's navy. While we were there, we got to go into the control tower to see how everything's done (it didn't help that everything was in a different language) and we also got to take a bus tour of the facility. This was definitely really interesting, being able to see one of the major sites that provides Vietnam with their goods and also exports for the country.

Saigon Newport

After Saigon Newport, some of us went back to the Bến Thành Market to get some stuff that we missed the last times we went. Of course, we're going to end up going back again Friday. But this time, I managed to bargain a lot more and got some good gifts for my folks (if you're reading this (which you better be) I promise it's not knockoff stuff (or at least I hope it's not)). While we waited for the vendors to transition from their indoor shops to their outdoor shops, we went to get dinner at a nearby place with our friend Vy, a student at UEF. After we blew all of our money buying everything that looked cool, we headed back to the hotel. AND THEN I RODE A MOTORBIKE AROUND HO CHI MINH AND IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!

Motorbiking with Vy!