So I officially have the coolest, most awesome parents in the world (it was official before the past five days but this just makes it even more official). I remember walking in Kobe and talking to my dad on the phone quickly about activating my credit card when he shadily informed me that my mom went to San Francisco to “take care of some business.” After the call I turned to Jenny and told her my dad was being really weird and that my mom was in SF. The day before arriving in China I had a text conversation with my dad:
Dad: “There is a possibility mom and I can meet you in Vietnam and Cambodia. What is your reaction?”
Me: “Um. Amazing.”
Dad: “As in happy?”
Me: When has amazing ever been bad?
I later learned that the sketchy San Francisco visit was to get their visas for Vietnam and Cambodia. Since being a Pop means that you literally do everything at the last second, I was not surprised to hear that my parents would not be able to get a flight to Viet Nam early enough and instead that they would meet me at the airport on the way to Cambodia. I went along with it but immediately talked to Sami to ask if they were still planning on surprising me and coming early. I thought they would land on Saturday and since my twin is more loyal to me than to my parents (sorry Mom and Dad) I learned that yes a surprise was in the near future! The one problem: Sami was vague in terms of when it was actually going to happen. Whenever it was going to happen I did not expect for it to happen the day that we arrived in Nam. They were waiting for me (and had the Purser’s Desk intercom me on the loud speaker over the entire ship) before I even stepped on land. Mommy and Daddy- I still don’t really have words for you except that you’re both amazing.
One thing that you should know about Viet Nam (that the consulate was very keen on telling us) is that traffic rules are nonexistent. If a person needs to get from point A to point B they will get there the quickest way possible and will break as many traffic rules as needed (including driving against traffic) to accomplish that goal. We were told by the consulate to walk “slowly and confidently” when crossing the street into Vietnamese traffic. The first time we crossed the street, my dad, who obviously knows all, stepped into the street followed by mom who was yelling at my dad for stepping into the street followed by a screaming, handholding pair of me and Rachel. Crossing the street in Nam was like a life and death obstacle course. Though nine out of ten times the cyclists will maneuver their way around your crossing it is definitely a rush. I would compare crossing a normal street in Viet Nam to crossing the 405 freeway blindfolded. I say blindfolded because the crosser does not have any choice in whether they get killed or not.
On the night of the second day in Ho Chi Minh City I needed to go back to the ship from the hotel, which was less than a three minute taxi drive away, before dinner and my mom made my Dad go with me in fear of something happening. We went outside the hotel and two guys approached us on motorcycles asking if we needed a ride. My dad is way cooler than I thought because he turned to me and asked if I wanted to ride them. Up until this point I thought my dad would kill me if I ever got on a motorcycle because of all his cases with cars and stuff. I jumped at this opportunity. The motorcycle ride was SO FUN. Our two cyclists would speed up next to each other and dodge in and around other cyclists, trucks, and cars. The best part about the ride was having to make a U-turn around a center divider against oncoming traffic. Good thing my dad was the only one chaperoning me back to the ship- my mom would have probably freaked out let alone got on one in the first place. Jeff Pop personally asked me to share this picture with the blogging community as proof that he really is THAT cool. Which he is.
Anyway thanks again Mom and Dad. One Sea Pop made VERY happy. To the rest of my faithful followers, the Nam and Cambodia blogs are coming and should be up tonight or tomorrow. Here’s a cool fact: we stop in Singapore on Friday to refuel but are not allowed to get off the ship. Also we lose an hour tonight which does not really make sense to me since we are traveling west and have been gaining hours. At least I only have one class tomorrow!
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