Ho Chi Minh City

Travelling to Ho Chi Minh City from Da Lat in our VIP luxury bus was suppose to be enjoyable and certainly the bus didn’t let us down. The driver on the other hand was as dangerous as we have seen and it wasn’t long before Rach was using the translator app to let him know she was scared and could he slow down!

We arrived in HCMC and the hostel we were in was ok but the location wasn’t the best so we decided after the first day to move to a hotel with a pool as we felt we deserved such comforts now that Rach is getting older.

HCMC is a very cosmopolitan city and I guess we were expecting it to be more like Delhi but it really surprised us with how clean it was for a city, easy to get around and unthreatening, except for the odd shoe cleaner! The first night we hit the back packer bars and actually eat Western food.

We walked the City and went up to the Saigon Skydeck, the largest building in the city with great views over the city.

We then took a water bus for 30 minutes cost 50p each to see the city from the Saigon River. Pronouncing words is often difficult and creates the odd funny moment. One such example was when Rach got our boat tickets. The lady at the counter told her to be at the check in gate 10 minutes before departure. Rach looked around and in a confused voice said “sorry which one is the chicken gate” before realising the error.

We went on a scooter food trip around Ho Chi Minh City where we joined the masses on the back of a scooter and tried 7 different local dishes with our guides. Great way to see the city and food plus experience the buzz of wave of scooters that shoot around the city. Our guide liked a little music so I obliged accordingly.

We did more walking the next day and visited the Norte Dome Church and historic post office still operating in the same tradition. We decided to send a post card each their. If you haven’t received it yet it’s fair to say we didn’t send it to you!

We also visited the War museum which was dedicated to the American invasion. The pictures, stories and GI accounts of what went on are too graphic and horrific to put into words, other than to say the mood of the public was very very somber.