We flew from Danang to Saigon airport and arrived in the early afternoon. Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is really bad and it took over 45 minutes to drive the 5 miles into the city and to the hotel (sounds like driving into Cardiff on a weekday morning…)
After grabbing lunch at a lovely air-conditioned food court across the road from the hotel, I took myself off on my own walking tour of the city. After managing to cross the road (slightly easier than Hanoi and a few more traffic signals), I headed to the Post Office and to Notre Dame Cathedral. Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City – the locals use both names – has in my opinion the most French-influenced architecture of all the places I’ve been in Vietnam. Though the cathedral is not as far along in its renovations as its Parisian equivalent…
I walked back towards Independence Palace, and to find a Circle K convenience store (7-Eleven’s seem to be the convenience store of choice across SE Asia apart from Vietnam where Circle K’s are ubiquitous) for some snacks and supplies.
It was the weekend but it did feel somewhat easier to wander around HCMC than Hanoi.
After dinner we had a walk to Saigon’s Beer Street which, let’s say, is a different vibe to Hanoi’s Beer Street. Rather more dancing girls, bright lights and loud music.…
The next day we went on a tour out to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were used in the war by the Viet Cong and are an extensive network of underground tunnels with supply lines, living quarters, hospitals as well as lots of booby traps to deter the ‘Tunnel Rats’. They are quite ingenious but incredibly narrow and life must have been extremely difficult for the Viet Cong living in the tunnels. I think it is always good to visit these places, especially when this is very recent history.
After the tour we returned to the city and had a free afternoon where I went to look at the Opera House which I’d somehow missed the previous day. Instead of walking the 20 minutes there in the increasingly hot and humid temperatures, I used the HCMC metro which is a recent addition to the city (only 1 line at the moment) but was very easy to use (tap the contactless card) and I was there in 5 minutes!
This was the final night with some members of the group who weren’t continuing to Cambodia (and this was where my previous trip in Vietnam had ended) and we also met some new people who would be joining us in Cambodia.
However, we still had another day in HCMC and everyone in the group had opted to do a Mekong Delta day trip. We drove out of the city for a couple of hours before getting on a boat to cross part of the delta to Unicorn Island, where we enjoyed honey tea, some local music, discovering you can pop rice like you can pop corn, ate some chewy coconut sweets and discovered snakes in wine…
We also had a gentle narrowboat trip on the island before lunch. After returning to the mainland we visited Vinh Trang Pagoda which has a couple of quite large Buddhas in its grounds. As we left to drive back to the city, there were a few spots of rain in the air, which is the only rain I’ve seen so far in south east Asia.
I’m really glad I came back to Vietnam. A lot has changed in the last 9 years, not least the number of cars and tourists. It remains a wonderful country to visit, with awesome sights and scenery, a fascinating history and the most amazing food!!
Next stop – Cambodia
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