Vietnam of all places on earth.
I would never even dream of visiting Vietnam but then this happened due to the the mandatory educational trip for a week as part of my my MBA at UT.We stayed at the historic Caravelle hotel. Vietnam always brought the picture of a war ravaged land in my mind having watched those war movies where Charlie Sheen and co go crazy on local Vietnamese guerrilla soldiers.
But then this visit was an eye-opener. The people were very friendly.The place looked similar to any town in India. Ho-chi-minh city or the old Saigon buzzed with activity the entire day. It is a shopper's paradise with knock-offs of every known brand available for very cheap prices.The key to shopping in vietnam is doing cut-throat bargaining never minding the ridiculous prices quoted by the vendors.Whether it is a 1 $ item or a 20$ painting, it took the same amount of time to agree on the price which was around 30 minutes on average.Ended up buying a lot of supposedly Nike and adidas t-shirts for self and the misses. Also, Dhwani now has dress for the next 2 years after my visit. :)
The only disappointment was the entire hype of this being an educational trip.There was probably 10% education and the rest being sight-seeing and mindless time passing.It was a fairy tale come true for my american classmates who have never seen any place other the US or Europe and were flabbergasted by the cheap prices of every commodity - read Booze in particular.Ideal location to indulge in all kinds of fun activities for them namely - bar hopping,drinking, gluttony and such.
Just wanted to jot this trip down the blog archive.
Few things that I can put a check mark on my list of things to do. Actually some of them were not in the list to begin with.
-Visit to Cu-chi tunnels in vietnam
-Firing bullets using an AK-47
-Raapi
Posted by rajesh | 
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