This weekend was a lot of fun. We first went up a small mountain and a statue of Jesus overlooking the Vung Tau beach, we then went to said beach and a pool connected to a hotel. On Sunday we went to the Cu Chi tunnels which was super cool to crawl through the Viet Cong tunnels and then learn about how they were made and operated. I also really enjoyed our visit to the factory that employed people physically impacted by agent orange because the artwork they made was beautiful.

Going back to our first activity of the weekend, climbing the mountain. This is a religious site because of the statue of Jesus at the top, but recently they imposed rule restricting the outfits that are allowed there, and we didn’t know of this rule change. We showed up after a two hour bus ride with most of us in shorts, including the Vietnamese students (it is typical to wear pants here). As we gather, we are told by security that everyone needs to have pants, which meant most people got a pair of pants from the stall at the foot of the mountain. I was already wearing pants because I knew we would be in the sun and I avoid the use of sunscreen when I can because then I don’t have to worry about reapplying.

After we were all clad in pants, we began the ascent of 814 steps to the top. We stopped a couple times along the way for pictures, and made it up. I then learned that we could climb up inside the Jesus statue, so I promptly did. This added another hundred steps or so, but it was nice and cool inside the stone. After squeezing past people headed down the tight stairwell, I got my turn to stand on the arms and see the view. Not only was the view beautiful, but so was the breeze after walking all those stairs and dealing with the sun. We then sat around the top in the shade for a little to recover ourselves and eventually went back down.