Ho Chi Minh City is huge. Robby and I wandered around mostly three districts, but discovered there’s 24. We stuck to District 1 primarily since we were staying there and Bui Vien Street - notorious for gangsters, bars, massage parlors, and general tourists - is located. Robby and I tried a foot massage from one of the slightly cheaper places, but ended up with an hour of a dainty rub down of our calves and a 5 minute love tap on the shoulders. When we went to pay, the lady said that the masseuse’s are only paid via tip and asked for 250% tip. Robby got scared, tossed her a bunch of money, and ran out the store while the lady gave us dirty looks.
We visited the War Museum and learned more about how horrible America was to another culture. This museum was informative on the “atrocities committed by US soldiers”, complete with photos. But there was a large exhibit on the protested in the US of the Vietnam War and people around the world coming to help the Vietnamese people clean up the Agent Orange poison our troops dropped on their land.
If that wasn’t sad enough, we took a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels - a 240km expanse of underground tunnels that the Viet Cong (VC) built to live in during the Vietnamese/American War. Since the US was bombing the crap out of the country and destroying everything with Agent Orange, the villagers dug tunnels (with large openings to include a hospital, kitchen, sleeping quarters, water well, school, storage rooms, and other stuff) under the Earth and lived in them for 14 years. The entrances were well disguised with leaves and brush, the air holes were made to resemble an ant hill, and some entrances came in through the river.
Entrance to one of the tunnels
Entrance to another tunnel.
On our last day in HCMC, we booked an amazing, private motorbike tour to visit local and touristy parts of the city. It was my first time being on a motorbike in Vietnam (I rode them a lot in Thailand) and a Robby’s first time ever being on the back of a bike. Our drivers/tour guides were so friendly and safe that we didn’t once feel scared zipping through the heavy morning congestion of bikes, buses, cars, and pedestrians. Our first stop was the Central Post Office. It’s exactly what its name implies, built in 1886 as the main post office for Saigon, it now houses a tour agency, Knick knack stalls, old phone booths, and a working post counter. It’s a huge tourist attraction because of its gothic/renaissance colonial architecture. The Post Office is across the street from Saigon’s version of the Notre Dame Cathedral - the oldest and biggest Catholic Church in HCMC. Steve, one of our tour guides, said that the Post Office was originally painted a salmon color, but because the Church is pink, the city repainted the Post Office to its current day yellow.
Notre Dame Cathedral.
We zipped around the city picking up a chicken Banh Mi and coconut sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf before sitting down in the city’s first ever coffeehouse - Cheo Leo Cafe. This 80 year old coffee shop is run by the three granddaughters of the original owner. They still brew coffee the old fashion way - with a clay pot and a cloth strainer. The coffee is strong, dark, and intense. A little condense milk helps the spoon bend over in the glass.
Robby on the back of the bike s her driver navigates traffic.
Cooking coffee the old fashion way.
Since we enjoyed the first coffee shop ever, we drove to the oldest apartment complex in Saigon. Thanh Da Apartment Block was built in 1960, to house American troops, but turned into the a vibrant neighborhood of shops, housing, and community for the Vietnamese people after the war. There are 11, three-story buildings with about seventy 250 square foot units inside. Back on the bikes, we toured a fresh flower market, drove through China Town (which covers three districts by itself), visited Thien Hau - a 300-year-old Chinese temple that worships a water Goddess, and ate a shrimp pancake. If you’re short on time in HCMC, I highly recommend exploring the cultural vibrance of Saigon with “Scooter Ho Chi Minh”.
Old Apartment Complex.
Flower Market.
Saying “Tạm biệt” (Vietnamese for Goodbye) to Ho Chi Minh City, we hitched a ride on Vetjet Airlines to the small costal town of Hoi An. A driver picked us up at the airport and drove us 40 minutes to Love.Ly Homestay, an amazing hostel. The owners, Ly and George, are the sweetest people on the planet. A year ago they opened their home to random travelers and now they offer free beer meet-and-greet nights, Family dinners for anyone in the hostel, tour advice, laundry and spa services, and help with any and all questions. From the first cup of all day free coffee, we had a map of where everything in old town is located and how to walk the city.
Hoi An is the place to come if you want custom made clothing or custom leather shoes and handbags. Most of the stuff can be fitted and made in 24 hours. We met three Americans who came to Hoi An specifically to buy new wardrobes because it’s about $150-300 for a custom, top quality suit vs $1000’s in the States. Robby and I tried not to get sucked into the shopping frenize, but our resolve wasn’t strong enough. So now we need to figure out how to transport 5 pairs of fancy leather boots home, 2 of which we designed for our brother. Life could be worse.
Clothing shop where you can get custom made outfits made.
Aside from shopping, Hoi An offers history buffs and average tourists a little of everything. Old Town has 23 historical sites you can visit; including a performance on traditional Vietnamese dance, 300 year old Chinese houses, a Japanese Bridge, a riverwalk, night market with yummy street food, loads of bars, and colorful pagodas. We managed to visit a few of the locations during our stay.
Cooking lobster in the night market.
Japanese/Chinese gate.
Traditional dancers.
Our first night in Hoi An though, was a bit of craziness in running around the city because we don’t know how to read signs properly. As we sat to enjoy a Banh Mi for dinner, I noticed a sign for a Cat Rescue Cafe’s Xmas Party fundraiser that just happened to be that evening. Thinking we were going to get to hug fluffy, animated teddy bears, we walked the 1.5 miles to the cafe, only to discover the lights were off and the door closed. Upon checking Facebook, we realized we’re idiots and the fundraiser was at a bar 10 mins from our original start location. Luckily a cab found us and brought us to the main walking street in town, where the bar was located.
Within 5 mins we had a drink in our hands and were reading about all the kitties up for adoption on the fliers posted along the walls of the bar. There were no furry beasts to hold, but we did buy one raffle ticket each to support the Cafe’s cause - stopping the production of kitty meat being consumed in Vietnam. (Now I need to double check I’m actually eating chicken from the street vendors.) Turns out, we’re lucky because Robby won the grand prize raffle of 5 million Dong (about $250 usd) to use on a tattoo at a local shop. She was so excited until the tattoo artists printed the picture of a creepy cat that Robby’s always wanted for a tattoo, and she realized it didn’t look as good as she thought blown up and in the location she wanted. Needless to say, neither of us got a new tattoo, we spent three days trying to sell the gift card, but in the end, ended up donating it back to the Cat Cafe to re-raffle out. We’re still deciding if we’re idiots or smart.
We lucked out on staying at the hostel one of the nights that they threw together a “family dinner”. Anyone staying at the hostel is welcome to show up at 5pm and help cook the evening’s meal, or just come at 6:30pm, and enjoy one or all of the 5 vegetarian and 1 meat-home cooked dishes. We had about 15 people sharing fried mushrooms, fresh spring rolls, egg noodles, sweet potato pork, and morning glory. We made friends with three of the ladies and decided to wander the night market with them, looking for desert and enjoying a 20 minute boat cruises along the old town river. Somehow we ended up at a Sky Bar playing Janga and drinking overpriced beer, but the company was enjoyable and we weren’t going to bed at 9pm, like old people.
We spent a day visiting Ba Na Hills, a giant lush green mountain an hour from Hoi An that was only known to locals in the beginning of the last century, then to only Vietnamese tourists in the middle of the 1900’s, before finally becoming popular to everyone in the last 5 years because of vast improvements. Ba Na Hills is now considered one of the most beautiful destinations to travel too, all thanks to the Golden Bridge - a 150 meter bridge that is held up by large stone hands, sitting atop the mountain, giving visitors a wide view of the countryside below. We lucked out because the day before it was raining and cloudy, but our day on the mountain was a beautiful clear morning with fog rolling in, in the afternoon.
Golden Bridge
Afternoon fog on the way down the mountain.
The mountain also hosts 9 gardens ranging from demented pig statues to a French love garden to a Japanese Buddhist temple. You take a 15 minute sky tram ride to the top of the mountain and then get out to explore. There’s also an amusement park on the second mountain top that has a rollercoaster thing where you can control the brake. We wanted to try it, but the line was super long and we wouldn’t have been able to see anything else with our tours time constraint. Ba Na Hills is expensive to visit, but I believe the beauty from atop the mountain is worth the price of admission.
Artsy staircase at one of the Ba Na gardens.
Peacock Garden at Ba Na Hills.
For our last day in Hoi An, we woke up at 5am to see the local My Son Ruins at sunrise. Apparently when you book a sunrise tour in Vietnam, it means they pick you up at sunrise, but you don’t actually get to see what you’re hoping to when the sun crest’s the mountains. We saw the golden rays of morning stretching over rice fields on the hour long drive to the ruins, instead over 1100 year old temples. But, when we arrived, we were essentially the only people in the park, so in the end, the tour was worth it for that fact alone.
Morning at My Son.
My Son consisted of 70 Hindu temples honoring the god Shiva, ranging from the 4th century to the 14th. At onetime it was the largest inhabited archeological site in Indochina, but a large majority of its structures were destroyed through out one week during the Vietnam War. Conservation efforts have salvaged a lot of the buildings and preserved the history.
Robby enjoying the morning sun.
Sun rays inside a temple.
Lady from our tour posing in front of a temple.
Speaking of history, Robby and I decided to go on a ecotour cooking class. We wandered the local food market with a guide, who told us what a lot of the strange veggies and fruits were and how they are used in Vietnamese cooking. She then took us to the river where an old woman allowed us in her coconut boat. During the war, people who built proper boats and canoes were charges a tax, so the local villagers built round boats that resembled half of a coconut and used them as fishing boats instead.
After our fishing women spun us in circles on the lake while madly cackling, she paddled us into the water coconut forest and handed up short fishing sticks. We were told to place the bait inside the reeds of the coconut plants and wait for crabs. Robby caught one in the first minute and the fishing women clapped with joy. We managed to catch 5 tiny purple clawed crabs in 15 minutes, which we luckily got to release back into the water. They were too small to eat and so cool to look at, I wanted them to live.
We finished the tour with a semi cooking class and dinner. The company had pre-prepped all the stuff we were to make, so there wasn’t much dinner prep, but our tour guide instructed us on how to fry a shrimp pancake; season shrimp for egg rolls, along with rolling them and putting them in a cast iron pan with hot oil to cook; plus we sautéed our evenings fish stew. The tour could have been better with other people (somehow we needed up with private tour), but at the end, we had a good time and left with full bellies.
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