Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), Vietnam Trip

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!