01/05/2023 From Bali to Vietnam
We were both pretty sad leaving Bali. But at the same time we were excited for the next country: Good morning, Vietnam!
What to expect
- 1 Ho Chi Minh City
- 1.1 Eat a traditional pho soup
- 1.2 Visit Bui Vien Street
- 1.3 Try an egg coffee
- 1.4 Shop till you drop at Ben-Thanh-Market
- 1.5 Send a postcard at the post office
- 1.6 Eat street food
- 1.7 Do a boat ride on the Mekong Delta
- 1.8 Do a free walking tour
- 1.9 Try a craft brewery
- 1.10 See a show in the Saigon Opera House
- 1.11 View the city from a sky bar
Ho Chi Minh City
Back in Vietnam
In 2015 I had traveled around Vietnam for three weeks whereas Blake had already been here twice. In 2016 he even worked in Saigon in a party hostel (where else 😉?) for four months. So understandably, Blake was quite excited to be back in Saigon.
Big city life
We stayed in the hotel “Homeaway”, which is located in district 1, right in the city centre.
Already on the taxi ride to our hotel we could see the craziness of the city where it was a common picture to see four people squeezed together on one scooter.
Eat a traditional pho soup
Pho is a Vietnamese soup consisting of bone broth, rice noodles, and thinly sliced meat (usually beef).”
allrecipes.com
In the evening we ate at Blake’s former favourite pho place, where phos and stews are the only thing served.
After dinner we wandered around town for a bit, soaking in the street food stands and all the Vietnamese people sitting on little plastic chairs for dinner. It really is a different world here!
So humid!
Besides all the different views, smells and tastes, there was one other thing that really stood out: the heat!
Even though we’ve been traveling with summer non-stop for the past then months (except for Canada for Christmas), there hasn’t been one place where the heat had bothered us so much – until now! The humidity is at 77% and even at night it’s still 38 degrees! It just never cools down!
Let’s see how we are going to cope with that in the next four weeks…
Visit Bui Vien Street
The party street of Saigon “Bui Vien Street”, where Blake used to take the backpackers in his “glory pub crawling times”, was complete chaos! I have to admit I was absolutely shocked about what was going on here.
What is happening here?
There was music blasting loudly from every single bar, bright lights were coming from every direction and every waiter was shoving his drink menu into our face as we walked by (“Special price – only for you!”). Furthermore, the female dancers all looked rather dead and impressionless when dancing while drunk people watching them. I really felt for them. Even though, it was supposed to be a “walking street”, there were so many scooters trying to pass through the crowds, that you couldn’t walk far without having to stop again.
At least Blake was as shocked as I was. He also reassured me that this street looked completely different when he partied here three times a week for four months straight in 2016.
02/05/2023 Ho Chi Minh City
Try an egg coffee
Last night we saw the sign “egg coffee” quite a lot. Today we wanted to find out what this special coffee was.
Egg coffee is a Vietnamese nationally acclaimed specialty made of egg yolks, sugar, condensed milk, and robusta coffee. This is a very popular drink in Hanoi, which can also be found in almost every coffee shop in other parts of Vietnam.”
vinpearl.com
For that we went into the café “Little Hanoi” which is a cute little hole in the wall.
And surprisingly, the egg coffee tasted very tasty! The egg top tasted like vanilla pudding to me and overall the coffee tasted quite heavy. So maybe it wasn’t going to be an everyday thing. But we were really glad we tried (and liked) it.
Shop till you drop at Ben-Thanh-Market
If we found it hot and humid outside, we hadn’t been inside the Ben-Thanh-Market yet. The market sold everything from shoes, over souvenirs to food and drinks.
We hadn’t completely planned on this, but one hour later we were sipping our fresh coconuts with lots of shopping bags next to us filled with sunglasses, shoes, shirts and shorts.
When you go here, make sure that you negotiate! We learned rather quickly that every price is negotiable. This is why we mostly paid 30% of the original price!
Send a postcard at the post office
Next we wandered around the city and stopped at the palace and then at the post office.
A local icon at the post office
At the end of a wooden table inside the post office sits Mr. Duong Van Ngo, a man who has been recognized by the Vietnam Guinness Book of Records for 27 years spent writing letters for those who cannot write for themselves. The 87-year-old writer is reportedly fluent in both English and French and continues to write letters every day despite his advanced age. He starts his working day at 8 a.m and ends at 3 p.m, writing several letters per day while charging 50 cents per page. Mr. Duong has become an icon at the post office over the past several years.”
theculturetrip.com
Here we both sent some postcards home before heading to the Opera.
The Opera is a very beautiful building. At this moment we hadn’t known that we were going to see a wonderful play inside the opera two days later.
Eat street food
In the evening we caught up with Blake’s former Vietnamese boss Miss Thao who used to run the party hostel (which doesn’t exist anymore unfortunately – you can imagine how sad Blake was about that).
With Miss Thao we did our own food tasting tour in district 4. Blake and I were the only non-Vietnamese people here. We loved the authenticity! Sitting on small plastic chairs and eating different types of seafood with the locals was pretty cool. However, I don’t need to eat snails and mussels any time soon again.
After dinner Miss Thao showed us a different street filled with so many locals eating street food while sitting on little plastic chairs again.
The three of us shared another dish here, which included macaroni with fried eggs and some spring onions inside. Even though I was already filled up after the seven different seafood dishes from earlier, it was really tasty and interesting to try.
03/05/2023 Ho Chi Minh City and Mekong Delta
Today we were about to see something new for the both of us: we were going to do a boat ride on the Mekong Delta.
Do a boat ride on the Mekong Delta
The tour started at 7.45 a.m.. We first drove to a temple area with a big laughing Buddha. (Around 80% of the Vietnamese people are atheist though and only 5% are buddhist.)
Then we started our boat ride on the Mekong Delta. I guess we both had different expectations, but it all felt veeery touristy to us. All the tourists from the different boat companies had the same stops and we had a certain time slot at each spot. On paper it sounded great, but for us the authenticity was completely missing.
Sounds better on paper
On our tour we:
- learned how coconut candies are being produced (with a lot of free tastings)
- had a big Vietnamese set lunch
- saw a big typhoon and lots of crocodiles in very small cages (so cruel and sad)
- sipped on self-produced honey in tea
- tried different tropical fruits
- listened to Vietnamese songs
- and went on a smaller boat on the Mekong Delta
Sadly, a lot of information and education were missing and we kept feeling rushed before the next group would arrive.
In the end it’s one of those things where we were glad we did it, but still wouldn’t really recommend it.
A home cooked Vietnamese dinner
In the evening we were invited to Miss Thao and her sisters’ restaurant where they had cooked a Vietnamese dinner for us. We had fresh Vietnamese spring rolls with peanut sauce, a fish soup, marinated tofu, veggies and steamed rice. It was all very delicious.
Furthermore, it was so kind that Miss Thao went out of her way to meet us twice during our stay in Saigon.
I guess this was the authenticity we had wished for on our day trip to the Mekong Delta.
04/05/2023 Ho Chi Minh City
Do a free walking tour
We had another early morning today as we were taking part in a free walking tour at 7.45 a.m..
But this walking tour was actually one of the best ones we had done in a long time (especially after the bad walking tours in Brisbane and Sydney).
The guide from “guru walks” had a lot of knowledge, told us interesting stories about the Vietnam War and showed us fascinating buildings and sights. We ended the tour at a typical banh mi shop (=Vietnamese sandwiches) and with some local beers while sitting on small plastic chairs together.
Try a craft brewery
After the walking tour Blake and I sat down in one of the many craft breweries and had a cold beer. The humidity in the big city is really something else here! (At least this is how we justified the beer at 2 p.m..)
See a show in the Saigon Opera House
In the evening Blake and I saw our first opera show together. The opera building itself was beautiful from the inside and outside. Even though we had no idea what story the play was trying to tell with its dancing, acrobatics and acting, we still enjoyed it a lot. We were amazed by all the flexible actors while we were already feeling sore after a bad night on an uncomfortable pillow or mattress.
View the city from a sky bar
To end our time in Saigon accordingly, we went to the Chill Skybar on the AB Tower. From the 26th floor (and with very expensive cocktails) we enjoyed the amazing view over the chaos of the lit-up city.
Continue reading:
Leave a Reply