Arrival in Vietnam

I’m finally back from my three week trip to Vietnam, slightly tanned, tired and with a ton of laundry to do. I’ve had the most amazing time - definitely worth the three year wait to go! I know I promised to blog while I was out there but (shocker) I didn’t have time or the energy. So my next few posts will tell you all about my vacation: some of the sights we saw, loads of pictures of course, and my general thoughts about Vietnam.

Getting to Vietnam is not actually that arduous a journey. Travelling with Emirates definitely made it a lot easier, but neither of the two flights to get there took too long. And of course I got to watch loads of movies of my choice, which is one of my favourite parts of travelling.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in the evening. The airport in this massive city is actually quite small, but we got out quite quickly, managed to find a taxi and got on our way to the hotel. Besides the heat, what immediately struck us was the massive motorcycle presence in the city. We later found out from a tour guide that HCMC not only has a population of 7 million people, but also 5 million motorbikes. It was crazy!! Cars really struggle to get through this sea of bikes, and what would in Europe be a 15 minute drive actually took about 45 minutes. 

We got to our hotel, which was the Hoang Hai Long Hotel in the very centre of District 1. What immediately stood out about this place was the colour and ornateness of the decor. We were also struck by the amazing level of politeness demonstrated by the reception staff at this hotel. Our room was pretty great considering the cheapness of the place - mum was of course completely put off by the fact that our window didn’t look out on anything. I was just happy to be away from the sounds of the road.

As soon as we had dumped our rucksacks, we set off for a walk around the area and to grab some dinner. We headed towards the famous Ben Thanh market, hoping to get something from the food area in there but we were out of luck because it was already closed. We wandered around for a while, stopping to check out tour prices at a few different places. While walking around, the main challenge was crossing the street - this took some serious getting used to because there are no traffic lights or pedestrian crossings. The trick is to just walk out slowly into the street, allowing the motorbikes to manoeuvre around you. I honestly think this would have been safer if I’d just been blindfolded - the temptation is to dodge across the road but that is exactly what you don’t want to do. It’s very difficult to walk on the pavement as well - everyone parks their bikes on the narrow pavements and the few gaps are full of people selling fake products or cooking their dinner on little barbecue pots.

After finally selecting a place for dinner, I had to watch mummy and the non-English speaking waiter talk about what wine was on offer - very amusing. We actually had a pretty nice dinner in the end - we tried goat cooked in lemongrass, which was fatty but very good. I had my first (and one of many) Saigon beer that night and mum had her only glass of wine of the whole trip. Altogether an excellent first night, with loads of promise for the day ahead.

At this point,  I need to talk about the breakfast served at our hotel. Breakfast in Vietnam is totally different to in Europe - they treat it as a normal meal, and they don’t eat different food like cereal or porridge. The breakfast buffet we were presented with was absolutely incredible there was an omelette and pho station: pho is a noodle soup traditionally eaten as breakfast in Vietnam. Then there was the rest of the buffet: I was partial to the stir fried noodles, and the bang cuon in particular. The latter are rice flour steamed rolls, filled with ground porks. I’m not gonna lie, I ate these without knowing what they were for the first week or so, but they are delicious!!!

Mum posing in front of a plane

The War Remnants Museum was our first port of call. They had some military machines outside the museum, which were interesting to look at, but the true impact of this museum lies in the photographs of the war displayed throughout the three floors. The museum itself paints the Americans in a very bad light - I actually think that while they really emphasised the damage that the war did to Vietnam and the Vietnamese, they neglected to show the impact that the war had on the Americans. I also think that it would be great if a written history of the war itself is displayed at the beginning of the museum - it got very confusing distinguishing the Viet Cong (Liberation Army of South Vietnam) and the Vietnamese People’s Army (socialists) - in fact I am still very confused about the history of the Vietnamese war, and I’m intending to read up on it a lot more so that I can get my facts straight. However, I’m really glad we went to this museum - it was an incredibly depressing experience but I feel so much more educated about this country’s past. Some of the pictures shown were extremely disturbing but this place is totally worth a visit. Note that I didn't really take photos inside the museum itself - the material is quite sensitive.

Our first full day was planned as our HCMC sightseeing day. It is possible to go on a city tour, but we decided to do it by ourselves. We set off walking through Tao Dan park, which on a Sunday morning is a place where the locals go for a drink, and they take their birds+birdcages along as well. This is actually quite incredible as the whole park is filled with birdsong, and the coolness of the shade is a welcome relief from the heat and humidity of the city.

 

 We stopped for lunch at a food court in a (thankfully air conditioned) mall - I convinced mum to share a Korean hotpot with me, which was delicious. She was a bit skeptical about this kind of food, but ended up loving it. I love hotpot - it’s such a unique way of eating, and after this one I think I can say that I am a mushroom convert!!!

These guys were everywhere, trying to sell drinking coconut.
Their selling tactic is to make you carry their wares for a while.

HCMC Post Office

Notre Dame

We then got walking towards Notre Dame (the Vietnamese one not the French one). This was a pretty beautiful church - we couldn’t go inside unfortunately (I think there was a wedding going on) - and it was really weird seeing this clearly European architecture in the centre of this Asian city. Across the road from the church is the Post Office, which isn’t a place most people go for sightseeing in other countries, but here is actually really worth a visit. It’s a big space, and they still use it as a post office, but mostly there are a bunch of shops selling Vietnamese souvenirs. It was lovely to walk around in there.

Our final sightseeing spot was the Reunification Palace. This place doesn’t seem to be in use anymore, except perhaps for formal events, but it was quite interesting to look around. Actually, my favourite part of this place was when we wandered through the underground bunker, required for the president and his family’s safety during the bombings in the war. This bunker was huge, two floors of tunnels and communication rooms - absolutely crazy. I could not imagine spending days and weeks buried in there!!

Reunification (Independence) Palace

Sightseeing was done by three-ish, so we decided to head over to Ben Thanh market to check out the merchandise. This was the highlight of the day for mum - not really for me. Ben Thanh is basically a massive indoor market selling loads of clothes, Vietnamese souvenirs and fake brands. It’s all about the haggling there, and while we were in HCMC we did manage to pick up a few things; however the combination of heat, tourists and frantic sellers is totally not for me.

We finished off the day with dinner at a place we found near the Palace. Called BBQ Garden Restaurant, I would totally recommend it because you BBQ your own food on your table, which is one of my favourite ways of eating. Mum and I went meat crazy, ordering specialties such as corn cakes, beef wrapped cheese, ribs and just a lot of food. And a couple of Saigon beers of course. A pretty good end to a pretty good day.