We made it to Ho Chi Minh City early in the afternoon. Since we had heard that cab drivers tend to take longer routes and overcharge you here in the busy city, we were very happy to hear from someone who worked at the airport that there was a bus that took you straight to the downtown city area where everything that we wanted to see was at. The bus was super cheap (less than a dollar for the two of us) and was surprisingly not crowded. The streets were an entirely different story though! This was the busiest city in Vietnam and even topped the busy traffic that we saw in Hanoi. There were hundreds of motorbikes, bicycles, cars and buses at every direction! It was so insane and nothing I had ever seen before that I had to take a video to show people at home. The 20 minute bus ride dropped us off at exactly the street we wanted to find a hotel on. This was where all the markets, restaurants, bars, park, monuments, and all the foreigners were at.
We checked out the first flashy hotel sign we saw and were very happy with our selection. The room was only $24 for the both of us and looked pretty fancy. It was a brand new hotel so they also gave us 20 percent off. We couldn’t believe how inexpensive this was, considering it looked very nice, was very clean, and had the usual…mini-bar, hot shower, hair dryer, internet and computers to use in the lobby, etc., plus it was on the street of all the main sites/ city life, and also a 2 minute walk from the company that we booked our Cu Chi Tunnels tour with. That meant waking up 5 minutes before having to meet at that office for tomorrow’s early tour. Yippee.
After confirming our tour at the office, we spent the whole afternoon walking around checking out the clothing and souvenir markets, as well as the fruit market. We had read about all the unique Vietnamese fruit that you could only get in this area, so we picked out about 10 fruit that we had researched, and kept it in our fridge in our hotel so that we could snack on it during the bus ride the next morning.
We also saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and walked by the Reunification Palace, as well as spent some time relaxing in the main park where there was a small concert performed by children and adults singing and playing instruments. There were many older Vietnamese kids playing a game similar to hacky sack (but more similar to the Korean-style hacky sack). There were tourists everywhere…a lot of backpackers, and restaurants galore, with every type of food you could imagine. And of course, there were street vendors and many poor people everywhere selling fruit, magazines, cds, dvds, newspapers, sunglasses, etc. A few of these people were land mine victims (innocent people who have been randomly hit by hidden land mines that are still buried underneath the ground in the fields from the Vietnam War), so Keith made sure to give him some donations when they asked him.
With all the many restaurants to choose from, we had an easy time finding good prices (still about $3 for a big meal) and great food. One dish that was new to us was a pumpkin (literally) with cooked pumpkin in the middle, as well as an assortment of veggies…onions, mushrooms, broccoli...and a little cheese, with tofu on the side. We also ate a rice, chicken, veggie dish that was served in a coconut! Delicious! We had more egg rolls as an appetizer, a dragon fruit smoothie (a type of fruit found in Vietnam/ tastes similar to kiwi) and Vietnamese coffee, which was interesting because here they served it so that it actually brewed into your cup right in front of you. It had a syrup type of cream/sugar that was at the bottom of the cup, so you mix it together after it was finished brewing. I already miss this coffee! It has an excellent and strong coffee flavor to it, with just enough sugar and cream.
Later in the night, we treated ourselves big time with a fancy 3 flavor ice-cream dish that had all sorts of fresh Vietnamese fruit on the top! Also, we shared several small bakery items that tasted similar to an éclair, but with many different fillings and toppings, including chocolate, oreo, peanut butter crunch on the top, and almonds on the top. We sampled a few of these, but each time we bit into one, the cream on the inside would squirt out…either on our plates or all over our mouths! The staff at the bakery seemed to be used to this because they warned us and also laughed with us when it happened. We also tried an amazing drink which was their specialty and named after their bakery, called the Chewey Junior. It was a triple chocolate oreo shake! Was heavenly but I was sure going to regret all those treats later!
More interesting buildings that stood out in the city were gigantic and fancy hotels, the People’s Committee Hall, and many expensive clothing stores. You can see the People’s Committee Hall (which looks like a huge white fantasy palace) with the statue in front of it. The building had bright lights shining on it and was in front of a small park that had green glowing lights. It seemed as though the entire city was filled with lights, lanterns, animal lanterns and huge, tall buildings... even the leaves from the trees were gigantic (as you can see in the picture; it’s 3x bigger than my foot!). And, you can also see from the picture the huge bull's head on a restaurant/ club. This was right across from our apartment and always caught our attention. Biggest bull's head I've ever seen! There was a crocodile skin clothing store, an enormous Louis Vuitton (I made sure to avoid entering!) There were hotels that cost around $300/ night and a very large opera house with a life-size picture of Ho Chi Minh on the front of the building.
It was a relaxing and exciting day touring HCMC. We got a lot of rest that night, knowing that we had one more early tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels the next morning, and then we were off on the plane heading back to Cambodia, then a stop into Bangkok, then an overnight flight back to Busan/ Korea, then finally returning to Jeju. This makes me tired just hearing of all the flying! It was all worth it though because with Keith by my side, all the transportation throughout the trip was relaxing and entertaining.
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