We were so glad to have the opportunity to visit Saigon. We spent 2 days out in the Mekong Delta which is about 70 kilometers outside HCMC. Then we spent another 2 days exploring the Cu Chi tunnels and Ho Chi Minh city itself. I included lots of details again. I hope you enjoy it!
Night 1: we arrived late in HCMC and went straight to our hotel to get to bed for the night. I booked us a boutique “mini” hotel. It was only $50 per night including breakfast, taxes, etc. We really didn’t know what to expect, but luckily it was clean, the staff were friendly, and we had a nice room. The bed was a bit hard and our pillows were too big, but we would come to appreciate it after experiencing our home stay at a local farmer’s house on our second night.
Day 1: We got picked up by our private guide and driver bright and early on our first day in HCMC. After about 2.5 hours in the car we reached Cai Be.
Video of us starting our journey in Cai Be
After a short bike ride through a very bustling town we reached the pier with our private boat. We continued on to cruise over the mighty Mekong River for about 20 minutes. The river was about 1.5km wide in some areas. We arrived at Dong Phu Island and started cycling for about 3 hours. The island was lush, green, full of orchards, and other plant life. Although we were on a “secluded” type island for this part of the trip, we found the villages to be anything but quiet. We shared a very bumpy dirt trail with other bicycles and tons of motorbikes. Apparently everyone was preparing for family and friends to arrive for the Lunar New Year holiday. I almost crashed about 10 times in the first 15 minutes. Then I just finally relaxed and let the motorbikes pass by me. There were a few narrow bridges and corners that I got nervous on, but it all added to the excitement. Our guide was very fast and kept a nice pace for us to follow. The 20+ km went by pretty fast. The terrain was very bumpy as I mentioned before, so you can imagine how our bums felt after the ride. I also better mention that it was about 95 degrees out. We stopped for a few pictures and had a rest at a local “convenience” shop. The very nice shop owner was out of cold water and cold Pepsi, but had some random green tea drink. She didn’t speak a word of English but our big smiles and gesturing did the trick. A cold drink has never tasted so good! Cold drinks are a commodity out there. They have electricity and fridges, but they are very conservative. They have to get big blocks of ice delivered for coolers and drinks. We saw the iceman the next day. He has a little trailer that he pulled from a motorbike of course! After a nice, long, and tiring ride we finally returned to our private boat. We boarded the bikes and ourselves and were on our way to Ben Tre for our farmer’s home stay. We had a nice lunch served on the boat. Ramen noodle-type stir fry with tofu and veggies, white rice, green kale vegetable type thing, teriyaki grilled fish chunks, and fresh pineapple for dessert. We sat back and relaxed after lunch and cruised down the Mekong River for about 2.5 hours. It was nice to have a rest from the bike and from the heat. It was nice and cool out on the river.
Video of cruise down the Mekong River
We arrived in Ben Tre to stay with a local farmer. Not really knowing what to expect we were guessing it would be a very simple type hotel room. After a short bike ride to the farmer’s house I was so happy to see it was a nice looking large house. I got my hopes up a little too soon. Our guide showed us where we would be sleeping that night. Our room was not in the house, but next to the house. It was a large grass hut with very high ceilings. They were two other rooms in the hut separated by about 6 foot walls. Our beds were two twin-size cots raised off the ground and covered by a bug net. Chris and I were laughing immediately and already talking about how we would never forget this night! We walked around the island before sunset (6pm). There wasn’t much going on near the farmer’s house. We enjoyed a few pre-dinner beers after sunset with the company of some other foreigners. There were about 8 other French folks also staying the night. It eased our minds a bit to have other tourists there. It couldn’t be that crazy right? We had an amazing dinner prepared and served by the family. The main course was rice paper rolls filled with grilled fish, rice noodles, lettuce, & pineapple with a sweet dipping sauce. We also had deep fried spring rolls filled with chicken (I think), a soup with chicken, and fresh pineapple. After dinner we were served tea and grilled slightly sweetened rice paper crunchy things. Overall, it was a great meal. I needed some liquid courage to ensure I could sleep in my bug net covered cot. We found a new Vietnamese beer that we enjoy. If you can try 333, we would recommend it.
After dinner we decided to take showers and go to bed since it was pitch black dark and we were heading out to cycle at 7am the next morning. There were communal showers and bathrooms. I didn’t realize until I was waiting for the water to warm up that I realized that it wasn’t ever going to get warm. I should have felt lucky to have running water! Luckily it was still about 80+ degrees out, so it didn’t feel too bad. Nothing was going to keep us from showering after our sweaty day!
Chris and I decided to snuggle on 1 cot together to help each other through this experience. We stayed up laughing and talking for a bit until things started to get quiet outside. My survivor skill husband was smart enough to pack a flashlight with us (yay!). This was great since my baby bladder can’t make it through the night. He also got up and went with me twice.
Day 2
We were sound asleep and suddenly woken up by the sounds of roosters crowing, but it was still dark outside. We check the time and it was only 3am! The roosters crowed off and on the rest of the night until we had to get up at 6 that morning.
Before we set off on our 35+km day we had a great breakfast provided by our farmer friends. We each got a small crusty loaf of French bread, a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese, homemade jam, and Vietnamese coffee. We were off on our bikes by 7:30.
It was only in the 80s at that hour which was a very nice change. This day was a much more comfortable ride. We took a lot more pictures and had a more relaxing pace. Most of the path was paved and thank goodness for that. We both had very sore butts from the previous day.
Cycling Video from our second day:
We stopped at a local home to relax by the canal and stretch out in hammocks and had a snack. We then peddled on to our lunch location where we had a similar meal to the dinner the night before. The food really was delicious and tasted very fresh. We then loaded up the bikes on one canoe and got in another and started down back toward the Mekong River. We had to take the small boats at this point because the water was too low. After about 15 minutes we were able to transfer to a bigger boat before arriving back to civilization.
We got back to the small city of Ben Tre where we went to visit a crazy market that puts all markets in HK to shame. It was bustling to say the least. Not only was there lots of foot traffic, but motorbikes were also allowed in a section of the market. There were all kinds of grains, fruits, vegetables, meats, etc on the first floor. Then the second floor had clothes, drugstore type items, house wares, etc. Talk about 1 stop shopping!
We ended the journey for the day with a 1.5 hour ride back to HCMC. Our driver greeted us with cold, wet wash clothes and cold water. I almost hugged him. We were back to the hotel by 4:30 and I had never been so ready to shower and stay in a room that was in a building. After getting cleaned up and sorting out plans for the evening we decided to head out to explore the backpackers area which was only 1 block over from our hotel. I was amazed by the utter chaos of this area. Imagine streets lined with shops, bars, and restaurants and completely packed with locals, tourists, and motorbikes! It was extremely overwhelming to take it all in. We walked up and down the streets and alleys just scoping things out. We settled on a crazy street corner to have a beer watch the chaos. It was a little too crazy for our moods, so we went on to search for some delicious food. It was very hot and I was starting to get hungry. This means grumpy Maggie (as most of you know). We finally decided on a very local Pho restaurant that looked and smelled great (Pho Bo Bo Kho).
They even had menus with pictures so we were able to order and knew what it was. It was probably the best Pho I’ve ever had and it was only $6 for 2 bowls of Pho and 2 beers. For those of you that don’t know, Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup served with rice noodles and choice of meat. The broth is usually cooked all day or longer and had just a delicious blend of herbs and spices. You can add been sprouts, Thai basil, and peppers to taste as well. We love it! We had it several more times this trip. Yum! After dinner we were exhausted, so went back to our nice clean hotel room to shower again (it was hot enough to make you sweat) and go to sleep. Good night!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Ho Chi Minh - Back to the City
Day 3
We got up as late as possible and went downstairs to scarf some breakfast before meeting our guide at 7:15 that morning. The breakfast at our hotel rocked. We had delicious omelets, more of that yummy crusty French bread, fresh pineapple juice, and strong coffee. It was about an hour drive out to the Cu Chi tunnels where we would spend the first half of our day. We started off the day getting down and dirty. Check out the video of Chris below.
The tunnels were quite incredible to see. We learned about how they dug them over a span of about 20 years. The interconnected series of tunnels go on for over 100 kilometers! Going down in the tunnels was a bit scary. I almost panicked and didn’t make it in because they are so small and dark. Poor Chris had to literally crawl as we toured through. I'm short enough to crouch down and walk through. The Viet-Cong lived in the tunnels at night and would come up during the day to farm and get fresh air. They built chimney tunnels to hide the smoke from their cooking. We also got to see the traps and defense techniques they used against the American soldiers. I’ll tell you what; they were a resourceful group of people. Chris got to fulfill another dream of shooting more guns. We got to shoot an M-60, AK-47, and M-30. They were all mounted on a wall, but it was still fun. My ears are still ringing they were so loud! We finished off the tour by watching a propaganda video condemning the "evil" Americans! It was very one-sided. Those "capitalist pigs"!
We made it back in time to enjoy a half day of exploring HCMC which we really hadn’t seen that much of yet. We set out on a nice long walk to check it out. We stopped at Pho 24, a fast food Pho place we heard was good. We thought it was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. It was only about $5 for 2 bowls of Pho and cold drinks. Our next stop was the War Remnants Museum, formerly known as the “Museum of American War Crimes”. I bet you can guess the perspective of the museum was a bit anti-American. Regardless, it was interesting to know what other cultures think. We continued on to visit the Norte Dam Cathedral and the Opera house. It was late in the afternoon and we were scorching hot looking for some relief. I was so excited to see off in the distance, a Coffee Bean shop! We popped inside to get an iced frappacino type goodness drink and use their western bathroom. We set back to explore the area near the opera house which was more upscale than the backpacker’s area we had been the night before. There were tons of cute shops and more designer ones too (Gucci, Cartier, etc). The area was also decorated nicely for the Lunar New Year holiday. We headed back to the hotel for showers so we could come back to watch the sunset from a rooftop bar on top of the Caravelle Hotel called Saigon, Saigon. It was a beautiful bar with a great view of the sun setting and most importantly there was a breeze up there! We indulged in some overpriced cocktails and Chris enjoyed a Cuban cigar. It was nice to get away from the bustling city below. We stayed for a couple hours until our dinner reservations at Lemon Grass restaurant. It was recommended by our travel book and a friend, but we really weren’t impressed. The service was bad and ambience wasn’t great. The food was OK and reasonably priced, so that was good. I wouldn’t recommend going. We walked around after dinner to find that outside was even more exciting from when we left. The streets near the restaurant were blocked off and extravagantly decorated for the Lunar New Year holiday. The streets were packed with locals celebrating the holiday. After walking through this area we discovered the streets were even more packed with motorbikes. It was quite the sight to see – all the lights and decorations for the holiday and a million motorbikes packed with people. All the bikes usually have 2-4 people riding per bike. We got some great pictures and videos of this madness. They had every kind of street vendor you could imagine including some colored flavored rice, cotton candy (fresh), popcorn, dried squid, soft serve ice cream (of course I had to try it), etc. We worked out way through the people and made it back to our hotel to get away from it all. Check out the video of the madness.
Day 4: We were planning on sleeping in, but I guess after getting up early so many days in a row our bodies naturally woke us up around 6am. We rested a bit before heading down to breakfast and out for another day of touring. We had already seen a lot, so we were planning on having some relaxation time too. We walked around for a few hours looking at shops and visiting a few small markets. We stopped for lunch at a random place and had yet another bowl of Pho. Again it was about $5 for 2 bowls of Pho and cold drinks. We loved the prices. Also, Pho is pretty safe to eat because it’s their specialty and because it’s served nice and hot. Nothing is living in it!
After lunch we decided we were sick of the heat and wanted to relax after 4 days packed with excitement. Since we were staying at a boutique mini hotel we didn’t have a pool. I had read that you can pay to visit the 5 star hotel pools even if you aren’t a guest. We had randomly spotted a swimming suit shop earlier that day and headed back to pick up a few suits (we didn’t think to bring ours). $12 later we had 2 suits and were ready to hit the pool. It was 95 degrees out yet again and the passes to the pool at the Caravelle hotel were some of the best money we spent. We ordered pina coladas, went for a dip in the cold pool, and enjoyed the rest of our vacation day! A few hours later we wanted a pre-dinner snack so we stopped at a famous ice cream shop with gorgeous and delicious ice cream treats, called Fanny’s. We indulged in 2 yummy creations and walked back to the hotel to shower. Our last hours awake in HCMC we enjoyed a few beers at a sports bar in attempt to catch some of the Olympics (we weren’t successful). We did chat with some other foreigners and locals which was fun. We grabbed dinner and a “grill it yourself” type place and enjoyed prawns, beef, and fried rice. This was our most expensive meal at a whopping $30 including a few beers. We found a great people watching corner and sat and relaxed with a cold beer. My energy started to fade so we started working our way back. We popped back in the sports bar to grab one last beer since it was our last night in the city.
We had cheap airline tickets and were catching the 6am flight back to HK. That means our alarm went off at 3am. Not so much fun, but worth the cheap tickets! Overall, we had a great time in Vietnam and plan on going back to some of the Northern parts such as Hanoi, Halong Bay, and Sa Pa.
We got up as late as possible and went downstairs to scarf some breakfast before meeting our guide at 7:15 that morning. The breakfast at our hotel rocked. We had delicious omelets, more of that yummy crusty French bread, fresh pineapple juice, and strong coffee. It was about an hour drive out to the Cu Chi tunnels where we would spend the first half of our day. We started off the day getting down and dirty. Check out the video of Chris below.
The tunnels were quite incredible to see. We learned about how they dug them over a span of about 20 years. The interconnected series of tunnels go on for over 100 kilometers! Going down in the tunnels was a bit scary. I almost panicked and didn’t make it in because they are so small and dark. Poor Chris had to literally crawl as we toured through. I'm short enough to crouch down and walk through. The Viet-Cong lived in the tunnels at night and would come up during the day to farm and get fresh air. They built chimney tunnels to hide the smoke from their cooking. We also got to see the traps and defense techniques they used against the American soldiers. I’ll tell you what; they were a resourceful group of people. Chris got to fulfill another dream of shooting more guns. We got to shoot an M-60, AK-47, and M-30. They were all mounted on a wall, but it was still fun. My ears are still ringing they were so loud! We finished off the tour by watching a propaganda video condemning the "evil" Americans! It was very one-sided. Those "capitalist pigs"!
We made it back in time to enjoy a half day of exploring HCMC which we really hadn’t seen that much of yet. We set out on a nice long walk to check it out. We stopped at Pho 24, a fast food Pho place we heard was good. We thought it was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. It was only about $5 for 2 bowls of Pho and cold drinks. Our next stop was the War Remnants Museum, formerly known as the “Museum of American War Crimes”. I bet you can guess the perspective of the museum was a bit anti-American. Regardless, it was interesting to know what other cultures think. We continued on to visit the Norte Dam Cathedral and the Opera house. It was late in the afternoon and we were scorching hot looking for some relief. I was so excited to see off in the distance, a Coffee Bean shop! We popped inside to get an iced frappacino type goodness drink and use their western bathroom. We set back to explore the area near the opera house which was more upscale than the backpacker’s area we had been the night before. There were tons of cute shops and more designer ones too (Gucci, Cartier, etc). The area was also decorated nicely for the Lunar New Year holiday. We headed back to the hotel for showers so we could come back to watch the sunset from a rooftop bar on top of the Caravelle Hotel called Saigon, Saigon. It was a beautiful bar with a great view of the sun setting and most importantly there was a breeze up there! We indulged in some overpriced cocktails and Chris enjoyed a Cuban cigar. It was nice to get away from the bustling city below. We stayed for a couple hours until our dinner reservations at Lemon Grass restaurant. It was recommended by our travel book and a friend, but we really weren’t impressed. The service was bad and ambience wasn’t great. The food was OK and reasonably priced, so that was good. I wouldn’t recommend going. We walked around after dinner to find that outside was even more exciting from when we left. The streets near the restaurant were blocked off and extravagantly decorated for the Lunar New Year holiday. The streets were packed with locals celebrating the holiday. After walking through this area we discovered the streets were even more packed with motorbikes. It was quite the sight to see – all the lights and decorations for the holiday and a million motorbikes packed with people. All the bikes usually have 2-4 people riding per bike. We got some great pictures and videos of this madness. They had every kind of street vendor you could imagine including some colored flavored rice, cotton candy (fresh), popcorn, dried squid, soft serve ice cream (of course I had to try it), etc. We worked out way through the people and made it back to our hotel to get away from it all. Check out the video of the madness.
Day 4: We were planning on sleeping in, but I guess after getting up early so many days in a row our bodies naturally woke us up around 6am. We rested a bit before heading down to breakfast and out for another day of touring. We had already seen a lot, so we were planning on having some relaxation time too. We walked around for a few hours looking at shops and visiting a few small markets. We stopped for lunch at a random place and had yet another bowl of Pho. Again it was about $5 for 2 bowls of Pho and cold drinks. We loved the prices. Also, Pho is pretty safe to eat because it’s their specialty and because it’s served nice and hot. Nothing is living in it!
After lunch we decided we were sick of the heat and wanted to relax after 4 days packed with excitement. Since we were staying at a boutique mini hotel we didn’t have a pool. I had read that you can pay to visit the 5 star hotel pools even if you aren’t a guest. We had randomly spotted a swimming suit shop earlier that day and headed back to pick up a few suits (we didn’t think to bring ours). $12 later we had 2 suits and were ready to hit the pool. It was 95 degrees out yet again and the passes to the pool at the Caravelle hotel were some of the best money we spent. We ordered pina coladas, went for a dip in the cold pool, and enjoyed the rest of our vacation day! A few hours later we wanted a pre-dinner snack so we stopped at a famous ice cream shop with gorgeous and delicious ice cream treats, called Fanny’s. We indulged in 2 yummy creations and walked back to the hotel to shower. Our last hours awake in HCMC we enjoyed a few beers at a sports bar in attempt to catch some of the Olympics (we weren’t successful). We did chat with some other foreigners and locals which was fun. We grabbed dinner and a “grill it yourself” type place and enjoyed prawns, beef, and fried rice. This was our most expensive meal at a whopping $30 including a few beers. We found a great people watching corner and sat and relaxed with a cold beer. My energy started to fade so we started working our way back. We popped back in the sports bar to grab one last beer since it was our last night in the city.
We had cheap airline tickets and were catching the 6am flight back to HK. That means our alarm went off at 3am. Not so much fun, but worth the cheap tickets! Overall, we had a great time in Vietnam and plan on going back to some of the Northern parts such as Hanoi, Halong Bay, and Sa Pa.
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