vietnam

this is day two of our vietnam tour group. oliver, rickie (two of my best friends from high school), and i joined an ever-popular chinese tour group known for its low fairs, talkative tour guides, bright neon caps, early morning starts, and buffet meals. fortunately the tour guide did not make us wear the neon caps. i never understood how these tour group companies can put us up in 5 star hotels, hire a private bus for us, pay for decent meals, cover the airfare, and pay for entrance fees to tourist attractions... all for a decent price.

so far so good.

yesterday we met at the hk airport at 6.20am. that meant i had to wake up at 4:30am. ouch. we visited the cu chi tunnels that the viet cong used during the vietnam war. and we dished out HK$9/bullet to shoot an old rifle at some dirt. the evening was spent on a dinner seafood cruise. we were entertained by local bands singing old school vietnamese songs & the table beside us full of rowdy middle-aged drinking malaysian men.

today we went to the mekong delta, stopping by "coconut" island and "fruit" island (i made up the names b/c i can't remember the real ones). on the bus ride there and back we decided to get to know each other better as friends. so we played "hot seat". one of the topics of discussion was high school crushes. ha ha. good times.

easter's coming up. we'll still be on the tour on easter sunday. it's hard to focus on the season while being on a tour. but we've decided to hold our own simple easter sunday "service". i think that would honour the Lord. considering how much Jesus sacrificed for us, it's the least we can do.

(i was looking for the verse in isaiah to put it... but i ran out of time... i'll add it in later)

edit: at 7:15am on easter sunday, the three of us transformed our hotel room into a place of worship. it wasn't that we changed the appearance of the room, but that we joined together with hearts of worship. after a few songs in acapella, we read the last two chapters of the gospel of john and shared what the Lord was saying to us. we finished with a time of prayer, praising God for who He is and what He's done. then we followed Jesus' instructions in john 21:12, "come and have breakfast." and we went.

"but He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His wounds we are healed.
we all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
~isaiah 53:5-6~