This is really part 2 of the same day. After a hearty (sarcasm) lunch of alligator we decided to take a tour to the floating village. This was the most expensive tour we’ve taken this whole trip so far $15. It was a thirty minute tuk-tuk ride there and we were so happy to just sit. It was really cool to see the outskirts of the city. We saw where and how people actually lived. We had reached the point where there were no other white people around. It’s exactly what we were looking for.

We got on this dingy boat in the river. I don’t even think it was a river, it felt like a big muddy puddle, but huge. Like as far as you could see was brown water. We were traveling on this boat for a long time before we saw anything. Then we reached this place where the sky and the water were the same cloudy grey color. It was like we were at the end of the earth. Like if we went just a few hundred feet further we’d fall off into space. It was an eerie feeling. Where we were consisted of all floating homes. They were small one room areas maybe 12’ by 12’ with a porch. I was amazed they even floated. It looked like mostly tires and plywood.

I had another encounter with a monkey – this one broke the strap on my bag. They were starting to lose their charm. We stopped by a school where kids were playing. We bought books and pencils for the school but they were much more interested in playing. There was this little boy who was so adorable, just leaning against the wall eating broken raw ramen off the dirty floor. I wanted to take him home with me.

At another point a woman with three children came up to us in a little boat asking us for money. I’m pretty sure they probably lived in that boat. It was the saddest thing I’ve seen.

After we got back to town from the tour it was time to do our shopping. There were a few items I wanted to get and Leslie and I had started to perfect the dual-bargaining. If we saw something good the other person would walk over and say it was cheaper somewhere else… and then they went down in price. I got a carved wooden statue, little bracelets, trinkets.

We wanted to get to an internet cafe to check in back at home and just as we were thinking about leaving it starts downpouring. I mean POURING. It felt so good, and honestly, it’s the most of a shower we’ve had since we left Korea!

We finally made it back to the airport to fly back to Ho Chi Mihn City… to get our flight back to Korea. “Oh, miss, you didn’t pay your departure fee”. We spent more money for all the government sponsored travel fees than we did the entirety of the rest of the trip combined! We sat in the airport talking about our trip: tired, hungry, sweaty, sunburnt, dirty…. Probably smelly! We couldn’t stop laughing thinking about the monkeys. Landing back in Saigon was pretty crazy. Instead of highways of headlights of cars, it was motos, so only one light!! It looked so different. We had a redeye back to Korea and we landed at 0630…went through quarantine (infrared scanners and yellow paperwork) and I made it to my 0830 class only a few minutes late. THAT is the way study abroad is supposed to go!