Ho Chi Minh City, Formerly Saigon

Day 1 – May 1

We arrived into Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, around 5pm after an easy one hour and forty minute flight from Bangkok.  Unfortunately, the airline we took left a pretty bad taste in our mouth.  Jetstar, which is a budget friendly brand, charged us $40 USD per person to check our bags (carrying them on wasn’t an option).  You could imagine the resentment we had when we heard this.  Because we didn’t prepay online, it was 4 times the amount at check in.  Absolutely absurd.  Talk about taking full advantage of a customer.  The fee was almost as much as our original ticket.  Although I had fire coming out of my ears and rage boiling throughout my veins,  I forked up the money and took this as a lesson learned.  Not a fun lesson but are they ever fun?  I vowed to never use Jetstar again but we’ll see if that lasts.  Okay, moving on.  Vietnam has a more complicated visa process than most other Southeast Asia countries.  You either can send in your passport to the Embassy (no thank you) or you can apply for a 30 day eVisa online (yes please) but you can’t just show up with nothing.  We found a company via Lonely Planet called Vietnam Visa Choice who charges $30 per person for the processing fee in addition to the $25 upon arrival.  Through our research, we found this to be normal.  Luck was on our side though as the Vietnam Visa Choice’s website had a glitch in their system, causing our visas to take longer than the 3 days promised, so they willingly waived the $60.  Cha-Ching.  We still had to pay the $25 at the airport but every penny saved is well appreciated.  We’ll take it.

One thing I’ve noticed (and trust me, Vinny has made it very aware to me as well) is that I incur tremendous anxiety whenever we land in a new country.  You would think I would have the transition down by now but for some reason, I always freak out.  Waiting in line for visas while your bags are sitting on the other side, unguarded.  Needing to learn new words such as hello, thank you, how are you.  Obtaining local currency as quickly as possible so you don’t get screwed over.  Figuring out the conversion rate so you know exactly how much you are paying.  Finding transportation to your hotel hoping when they say they know how to go they truly mean it.  It always works out but I just can’t help but stress in the meantime.  Blame it on my OCD or blame it on being a passionate human being. Either way, I’ve made it this far so no backing down quite yet.

After a 20 minute cab ride and 220,000 Vietnam Dong ($9.85) later, we arrived at our Airbnb around 6:30pm.  For the next 5 nights, we will be staying at Christina’s, otherwise known as a “SUPER COOL Studio, IDEAL location“.  This AirBnB was very different than all the others we have stayed at.  It wasn’t a private room in someone’s house and we didn’t have the entire place to ourselves.  It was basically an apartment building turned into an adult college dorm.  The minute you walked inside, you instantly felt the warmth of the staff.  And I loved our $63 a night room – it was spacious, colorful, chic and homey.

That night, we went to La Fiesta for dinner.  The owners were a husband (from Maine) and wife (from Vietnam).  Not the most authentic food (Vietnamese nor Mexican/Tex Mex) but it sure did hit the spot for the time being.  We fully took advantage of Cinco de Mayo being around the corner,  La Fiesta being highly ranked on TripAdvisor as well as walking distance from our AirBnB.  It was a no brainer.  Andale, Andale!

Day 2 – May 2

This morning, Vinny woke up to some very tragic news.  His best friend since childhoods sister passed away at the age of 22.  Heartbreaking.  Something like this is never easy to swallow but I could tell Vinny was hurting even more since we are so far away.  He wanted to be there for his friend, physically in person, but couldn’t be.  Thankfully they were able to connect on the phone and I know that made both of them feel better.  I won’t mention names but you know who you are.  If you are reading this, we are truly sorry for your loss.  No words can bring her back or make this process any easier.  Just know you will forever be in our thoughts.  Given this, Vinny was in a funky mood all day (and rightfully so).

Around 12pm, we walked about 20 minutes to The Workshop for some coffee and lunch.  Vietnam prides themselves on having phenomenal coffee so we were excited to try it.  And Vinny was even more excited because they had the pour over style, which he hasn’t seen since we left LA in January.  The restaurant was super cool with a very industrial and hipster like feel to it.

On our walk back, taking in all the sights and sounds of a new foreign place, we observed two random things.  One, it looks as though 7-11’s from Thailand have been replaced with Circle K’s in Vietnam.  And two, Ho Chi Minh City seems like a relatively clean, well kept up, modern city.  At least for what we’ve seen so far.

The rest of the day we planned our 3 weeks in Vietnam.  I know, you are probably thinking, arent you there already?  Yes, we are but we have absolutely nothing booked after HCMC.  We had no idea where else we would be going, how long we would be there for, how we would get there, what we would do while there, etc.  So for 5 hours, we sat on our bed and made lemonade out of lemons.  Or should I say we made soup out of noodles?

That night, we took a stroll down Phạm Ngũ Lão street, otherwise known as “backpackers district” and had dinner at Baba’s, which is Indian food.  We suck at keeping to the local culture sometimes.  But the good thing is we have about 60 more meals to make up for it.

This little, compact area is Times Square meets Las Vegas in the East.  So much going on from restaurants to bars to flashing lights to bumping music to loud motorbikes to tourists from all over the globe.  Definitely need to be alert at all times or else who knows what could happen to you.

Lights, camera, action.  Vinny and I stood on a corner of a busy intersection for at least 20 minutes just watching all the modes of transportation zoom by.  There were cars, motorbikes, regular bikes, buses, pedestrians.  Green means go.  Yellow means go.  Red means go.  I’m not quite sure how we didn’t see any accidents.  It was mind blowing.

Day 3 – May 3

Today we are going on a full day motorcycle tour with OneTrip.  They picked us up at 7am, gave us helmets and brightly colored dust masks, showed us how to properly get on and off the bike, and away we went.  We drove through the city, saw a handful of older people performing Tai Chi (internal Chinese martial art practiced for both its defense training and its health benefits) in a glowing green park,  soared past lakes and rivers surrounded by trees, bridges and well kept fences, streets lined with Vietnamese flags every 5 feet, children being dropped off for school in matching uniforms and bumper to bumper motorbike traffic.  It was all just so fascinating.

For breakfast, I had a local dish that consisted of noodles, tofu, spring rolls, veggies and a delicious sesame chili sauce.  And get this.  I ate it all with chopsticks.  I am almost a pro now.  Locals probably think I’m from Asia at this point. Vinny had a Banh Mi, which is a product of Vietnam’s colonial past and referred to by many as the “world’s best sandwich”.  The beloved concoction combines a crunchy French baguette with pork, pate and an ever-changing array of fresh vegetables.  The guides were asking us and an Australian couple what some of the craziest, most adventurous foods we’ve eaten are.  Of course, I lost before the game even began.  But the Vietnamese had everyone else knocked out harder than a punch from Evander Holyfield in round 1.  Their list consisted of crickets, rats, frogs, ducks, birds, horses, crocodilea snakes.  Yeah, I don’t need to compete with that.  I prefer those animals alive, even if they aren’t the friendliest to humans.

Once we got out of the city and into the countryside, we started seeing more rural areas…

We then stopped at a rice noodle factory.  Let’s just say if the Department of Health made a surprise visit, I don’t think they would get an A.  But hey, it works for them.

Next, we drove through a rubber plantation, which is basically a forest of trees.  The material from the trunk is made into furniture, tires, condoms, etc., making Vietnam the 5th (although some sources say 3rd) largest producer in the world.  It started back with the French in the 1940’s and unfortunately 42,000 Vietnamese died during that time due to rough working conditions.  By 2020, Vietnam’s goal is to produce a total volume of 1.2 million tons of latex and earn approximately 2 billion USD in export revenue.

After being on the bikes for a few hours in the heat, we stopped at a local shop and had fresh sugar cane juice to help cool us down.  So yummy, especially since it was made with love from Vinny.

The main attraction on this tour were the Cu Chi tunnels.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with these tunnels, let me give you a little background (don’t fully quote me though as I never claimed to be a history buff – I’ll leave that to my Dad).  Most Americans refer to the war that took place from November 1, 1955 – April 30, 1975 as the Vietnam War (makes perfect sense to me).  However, the Vietnamese refer to it as the American War (which also makes perfect sense to me).  During the Vietnam/American War (I’ll stay neutral) thousands of people in the Vietnamese province of Cu Chi lived in an elaborate network of underground tunnels. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces, and played a major role in North Vietnam winning the war.

When we first arrived, you would have never been able to tell there was a war fought here.   However, once we dug deeper (literally – underground), you start to feel the eeriness of how many people lost their lives on this very soil.  The network of Cu Chi stretched from the South Vietnamese capital to the Cambodian border.  At least twelve thousand Vietnamese guerrillas and sympathizers are thought to have perished here during the War.  According to BBC journalists, these tunnels were ‘the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated and generally devastated area in the history of warfare’.  For the first time, I can honestly say I wasn’t necessarily proud to be an American.  I know there are 3 sides to every story but regardless of how you spin it, we turned a country upside down in a war that we didn’t even belong in (of course that is my bias, uneducated opinion).

Today, the Vietnamese have turned the Cu Chi Tunnels into a living museum almost.  Tourists can visit a short stretch of the tunnels, drop to their hands and knees and squeeze underground for an insight into life as a tunnel-dwelling resistance fighter, which wasn’t a pleasant life at all.  Air, food and water were scarce and the tunnels were infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, scorpions, spiders and vermin. Most of the time, guerrillas would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge for supplies, tend their crops or engage the enemy in battle. Sometimes, during periods of heavy bombing or American troop movement, they would be forced to remain underground for many days at a time. Sickness was rampant among the people living in the tunnels, especially malaria, which was the second largest cause of death next to battle wounds. Almost everyone had intestinal parasites of significance. Only about 6,000 of the 16,000 cadres who fought in the tunnels survived the war.

Here is what the ground looked like normally, covered in leaves and dirt…

But what you don’t see is the hidden passageway to the underground world…

And here I am sneaking into that underground world.  Talk about a tight squeeze…

Here is Vinny crawling through the dark, tight, narrow passageway.  Some sections of the tunnels have been widened but it’s still an uncomfortable, sweaty, claustrophobic experience that certainly isn’t for everyone.

No big deal, just a few fruit bats hanging around (HA!)…

This is a replica of what the medical team used to look like underground…

And this is a replica of what some of the traps used to look like.  Ouch.

Although it wasn’t an uplifting experience, I learned more in one day about the Vietnam/American War than I did in 12 years of schooling.  It’s kind of like that saying: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”  You can have me read textbooks all day long and you can tell step by step what happened but it wasn’t until I was actually at the site, going through the motions, seeing what they saw, doing what they did that I truly understood what this war entailed.  Of course, Forest Gump gives you perspective as well.  Run, Forest, Run!

Now that we were all stunned and speechless, we got back on our bikes and rode to lunch at a very, very, very local spot.  I don’t even think it had a name.  But they sure did cook tons of food for us.

You know when you eat so much and your tummy is beyond full, all you want to do is lay down and take a nap?  Well, move to Vietnam.  They love their hammocks here.  Every restaurant tends to have them so people can rest up after a big meal before they return to work.  I mean, this is genius.  I’m definitely adding this to my list of things I want to introduce the USA to.  Do you think Trump or Clinton would respond to me if I dropped this in their suggestions box?

We stopped for an ice cold water break at the half-way point.  One because it was so hot.  But also because our butts were super numb from sitting on the back of the bike for so long.  I had to shake and wiggle, shake and wiggle to wake it up.

Who needs an SUV with a big trunk and two rows of seating when you have a bike?

Who needs an automatic railroad crossing when you can do it manually?

What an awesome day with awesome guides and an awesome overall tour.  We learned, we laughed, we saw, we cringed, we ate, we enjoyed.  And don’t be scared, it’s just us below.  I promise we won’t steal your things.

It was about 4pm when we got back so our two options were nap or grab coffee.  We chose the latter and headed to Chat Bistro, which was right across the alley from our AirBnB.

That night, we had dinner at Five Oysters, also on Phạm Ngũ Lão street and finally got Pho. Not amazing but not horrible, until we saw two cockroaches racing across the floor.  Eeewwwwwwww.  One of the waiters came over, squashed them with his shoe and went right back to taking orders.  Oh the cultural differences between countries.

Random side note.  My friend Becca adopted a one eyed pug and named her Junebug, the Pirate Pug or Joonz for short.  Every time I see a pug now I automatically think of them.  And this one was no different.  Although her tank top and underwear don’t match, I still think she’s an adorable, fluffy, round little creature.  Miss you, Becca!

That wraps up our first few days in Ho Chi Minh City.  There is so much culture, so much history, so much energy and so much eating here that I don’t think you can handle it all at once, which is why I’ve decided to break it up into two parts.  Hope you don’t mind.

Stay tuned for what we have in store during our next few days in this lively city…