It is hard to explain the craziness of Ho Chi Minh in a simple article without writing a novel. We’ll try our best to keep it concise.
We arrived in pouring and traffic-mad Ho Chi Minh City on the 24th November. After an EXTREMELY long wait at border control, we made it through and got our passports stamped with a 30-day visa. Yipee!
Our hostel was the most backpacker-type hostel we had experienced in our whole trip to date. Conveniently located close to the Bui Vien walking street (resembling the Thai Kao San road), it was pretty perfect (clean, bar, breakfast) however we felt a bit out of sync with some of the travellers there, looking to pub-crawl every night.
In spite of this, we had a super time in HCMC!
Here’s our Seven Top Sights and Activities:
Learning to Cross the Street
Getting to grasp with the art of street-crossing takes time and practice. We read somewhere that the only thing to do really was to go slow and trust that the scooters will avoid running you over. If this sounds too dangerous, well, you have no choice.
Visiting the War Remnants Museum
This was definitely one of the hardest museums to see, purely due to the contents of the exhibitions. The pictures of the hurrendous effects of Agent Orange on people are not for the faint hearted. We are so glad to have heard a different side to what we had been taught about the Vietnam war.
Sweating in the Cu Chi Tunnels
We went on a day tour to visit this massive network of underground tunnels built by the Viet Cong during the war. Going through the 50m tunnel was definitely a challenge as the space is super tight and the pace is very slow. Very informative tour though and totally eye-opening.
Photographing Sleepy People in Markets
What started as a simple photo grew to a bit more of a collection. To our amusement and the discontent of said sleepy people.
Checking out the old Post Office
Wandering about the streets of Saigon is pretty lovely. The Post Office which was designed by Gustave Eiffel was nice and located right across the street from the Cathedral.
Eating Laughing Cow Banh Mi
This is a dream long held by Julia. Being able to order sandwiches in the street that contain her beloved Laughing Cow. The other foods were pretty great too. But might have been improved with the addition of laughing cow in them.
Making Rice Crispies in the Mekong Deltas
This day tour which was meant to bring us to the floating markets ended up being something totally different. Still enjoyable though. We learnt how rice crispies, coconut caramel and rice paper was made. We also cycled around a little island and had the craic with lovely Janne from Denmark.
Our week in Ho Chi Minh and its surroundings was very instructive, even in spite of the weather!
A Year With The Sullys 