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.