I will say that by the time I left Vietnam it was amongst my favourite countries that I’ve been to, and I was revitalized and excited about continuing on my travelling adventure. But I didn’t arrive to Vietnam that way. I was exhausted both physically and emotionally and was considering going home. Despite having slept pretty much the entire flight from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh (HCMC) aka the city formerly known as Saigon, I was still tired as I walked down the stairs of the plane into the Vietnamese heat of the tarmac and made my way into the airport.
Since I had an E-Visa I went straight to the passport control line, hoping that I had made the right choice and didn’t need to go to the letter of arrival part first. My fear was somewhat elevated when a Dutch girl in front of me was escorted away from the booth by a guard. The look on her friends face was sheer horror, I never found out why, but I hope they made out ok. Luckily, I reached the desk showed a smiling guard my e-visa and passport, got my stamp and was on my way in less than a minute. Phew!
After getting some Vietnamese Dong from the ATM I got a SIM Card and used my phone to hire a Grab to take me into the city. Want to be a millionaire? Go to Vietnam the exchange rate is ~ 1 CDN to 18 000 VND (it fluctuated a bit while I was there).
The first thing I noticed as I left the airport was the motorbikes. They are everywhere. I thought Bangkok was crazy with motorbikes but this was next level! I’m planning on writing a separate post on the motorbike and Vietnam so stay tuned for that! The second thing I noticed is this city had a soul. It’s different from that of Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore. It was more of the experience that I had imagined when I planned on going to Asia. It was chaotic, dynamic, and overloaded your senses. But this is what made it great!
I got dropped off on the street and told that my hostel was down this road. I made my way thru this crazy labyrinth of narrow “walking only” roads and even narrower side roads. None of them seemed to go in a straight line, and all of them had the occasional motorbike that you had to dodge. Luckily my phone and Maps Me navigated me to the right place. The included breakfast at this hostel made it worth it alone. After breakfasts of toast and maybe a banana the smorgasboard of fruit and a menu of way too many options was a nice change. I particularly liked the brewed coffee and smoothies. I was not the only one that agreed, I met an American who had been staying at this hostel for almost two months while he was learning Vietnamese. He later showed me the best local place to have Pho, it was delicious and the 3.50 dollar price tag (beer included) made it even better!
The next morning I set out on a planned route that would take me to some of the highlights of the city. This started with a walk along a park that ran adjacent to the main tourist area where I saw several groups of seniors engaged in a morning dance exercise routine. From there I made my way to the Independence/Reunification Palace. It was the presidential palace and the site of the South Vietnamese Government until it fell in 1975. It has been preserved as it was at that time and included a number of relics including the presidents rolls royce. It also has a replica of the North Vietnamese tanks that first entered the palace. I took an audio tour of the place and it was interesting to hear about the Vietnam war (or the American war as they call) it from the Vietnamese perspective.
From there I walked by one of the impressive cathedrals that date back to the period of French colonization. After this I made my way to the old post office and nearby statue of Ho Chi Minh. After checking that out I had started on what should have taken me to the War Museum which is a must see in HCMC. However, the streets along my way were blocked off due to a fire in a nearby office building. With paramedics arriving and police and firefighters redirecting traffic I decided not to continue that way and gave up on going to the museum in favour of have my first, and definitely not my last Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sub) in Vietnam.
I then returned to the hostel and figured I’d try again the next day. However, the hostel was full the next day and instead of trying to find another place I decided that I would just continue onto Vung Tau as originally planned. It was here that I was going to meet up with Aliona and Alex for New Years. Although it was a short trip to HCMC and I didn’t get to see some of the key things it’s an exhilarating city to visit and made everywhere else in Vietnam (and Asia) seem sedate by comparison!
The Travelling Scientist 