I thought to put this down somewhere before I forget, and also because it seems that I’m taking too long to do a video/long post about the whole trip.
On the first day, we arrived at the airport, and found that Grab was the main form of transport now. It was a busy scene at the airport with many other taxi drivers, locals and foreigners trying to get themselves out of the airport region and towards the city, or whichever city and street they were staying at.
Essentially, we stayed within a nice area of town about 2-3KM wide. The main street we stayed on was Ly Tu Trong. Later we found out at a museum that Ly Tu Trong was actually a boy who died during the revolutionary wars. He died at 17, as a revolutionary martyr, and his boyish form is spotted in the different museums.
As soon as we arrived, we went to the travel agent, a short walk away from our hotel Sanouva, and got ourselves some money changed, and tickets for our activities the next few days. Unfortunately, because we arrived on the 30th of April, it was the actual independence day of Vietnam. 1st of May would be labour day, and a lot of shops and tour locations were closed. So we booked tickets for the Cu Chi Tunnels on Tuesday the 2nd. We also booked for the Water Puppet Show, after touring the tunnels. Settling our plans, we walked a little further down to a family restaurant that had a lot of local dishes, but priced a bit higher than the usual roadside pricing of Ho Chi Minh. During dinner, the F1 Baku Grand Prix started, and I tuned myself to start watching the race, even though it was running on my data. Later I went back to the hotel to try the WiFi there, but it seemed to go against the programming of the app, so I still ended up using data roaming anyway. I also managed to pick up a beer before I headed back to the hotel, and my in laws went around the Ben Thanh Market for an evening stroll, and the hope to catch some fireworks later in the night.
We slept to the sound of the fireworks of the independence day, and awoke to a bright morning with the Vietnamese sun rising at about 5AM. Outside our hotel, a number of street hawkers were preparing breakfasts, and we had some Banh Mi, a delicious cold cut sandwich, and brought that to a local juice bar around the corner. It was called Juceciti, and it had an extremely kind owner who made all the juices with much love. Also he allowed the hawkers around his shop to bring food into his shop. This gave everyone a great time of sitting and enjoying his very cool juice bar, and also having their local food.
We went over to the war museum, where the front yard was littered with war machines from the American Vietnam war. Helicopters, tanks, armored vehicles were all on its front lawn. Inside, a building held all the memories of the pains and hurts of the country, inflicted by the American soldiers. It was a gruesome sight, and made the reality for a lot of the war movies I had watched growing up.
After that, we made our way to the Bitexco tower, where we went to the 49th or 50th floor. A panoramic view of the city below us, and we spotted all the old and new buildings of Ho Chi Minh. The rivers that flowed around and through the city were also beautiful, and extremely crowded.
Coming down from the tower, we made our way to the Cafe Apartments, but along the way, we stopped over at a bookstore and picked up some English books. They had a pretty interesting selection for a good price, and I ended up buying 3 books. We walked over to the Cafe Apartment after that, full of cafes and restaurants, and found some lunch and tea for ourselves. My in-laws left to see the casino, and Clarice and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the building, exploring many things. We took a nice stroll back to the hotel, and napped, before going out again to the same area at night.
We had dinner at a mall in the city area, and it was quite a fun local dinner again. It was the mall that was the mark difference this time, and it looked like a Singaporean mall, one with all the brands plastered around it. Had a great dinner, and we walked off towards our night spot.
The street we saw in the morning and afternoon was empty in the heat of the day, but at night, it was a vibrant and crowded spot. Locals and foreigners were crowded in the area, looking for a place to observe the sights around us. We walked around a bit, and slowly tried to make our way back to our hotel. We decided to try walking back, and it was a fun experience of seeing a lot of the street from the day, but darkened by night instead.
The next morning, we had breakfast in the hotel, and got ourselves ready for a day out at the Cu Chi Tunnels. A two hour bus ride with a bus load of other tourists, and we found ourselves in the middle of the forested areas that once was a warzone. We spent a good two hours in these areas, learning the history of the place, and I also started listening to an audiobook called The Sympathizer, about a double agent during the Vietnam war. It made so many of the scenes so real for me.
Coming back to the city, Clarice and I decided to try explore more of the city and have lunch at a vegan restaurant. We were determined to try find a range of vegan options, or vegetarian at least, because the food seemed to be extremely tasty. We strolled around a bit more, and went back to rest before our water puppet show that night.
We had Pho for dinner, at a famous Pho shop called Pho 2000. Apparently Bill Clinton had come by for a bowl in the years before. We weren’t anywhere that famous, but it was still good fun to try the Pho that he ate. I thought it was simple tasting Pho, and might have had better ones elsewhere. It still filled me up for dinner in any case, and I tried their Creme Caramel for dessert. I found out later that most of their Creme Caramels tended to have more burnt caramel than just sweet.
The water puppet show was very exciting. I was quite impressed by the control of the puppets through the water, and it was worth the watch, despite a very dingy theater experience. The guests were also horrible, constantly using their phones to record, or just sitting in a way that blocked everyone else behind them. But it ended nicely, and we strolled back to our hotel, stopping by an orchid flower fair at a nearby park. I picked up some water and drinks with my father in law before crashing for the night.
On our third morning, we had steamed rice noodle rolls, or Chee Cheong Fun, as we commonly call them. The vietnamese variation had meat and some fungi placed inside, and it tasted great! After that, we decided to attempt a recommendation coffee place from our friends, and it was a jazz bar. Funny enough, nothing in the coffee shop appealed to my in-laws, and after our coffees, we were out, and started heading towards the Revolutionary Museum just around the corner.
After understanding the Vietnamese fight against the French, we went over to the Post Office, which still works as a post office, but also a place for souvenirs. Next to it was the Book Street. There were nice places to sit down and read books, but most of the bookshops were in Vietnamese, as they should be.
We took a short Grab trip to the Fine Art Museum, clearing through generations of fine arts of Vietnam in an hour, including sculptures of all sorts. The intense hour left us a bit overwhelmed, so Clarice and I went for a short walk to find a few other cafes, while the rest of the family went back to the hotel for a short rest.
My father in law very determinedly brought us to eat seafood in the evening, and we walked through streets of extremely loud party music, and everyone calling out for us to join their bar and their dance floor. Thankfully, we found our seafood store, and had an awesome night of crab, shellfish, and other kinds of seafood. It was delicious Vietnamese barbecued seafood. We walked back to our hotel again, and strolled along the way and almost got Clarice a nice helmet for her future cycling adventures. Unfortunately, they didn’t have her size.
The next morning, we had more juice at Juice citi again, and Clarice and I went around to another cafe to explore. After all, we were leaving the country that very afternoon. It was the 15th day of the lunar calendar that Vietnam was following, so they gave us some mandarins as part of our cafe moment there. After that, we walked around the gardens in front of the Independence Palace, arranged in beautiful French fashion, and circled our way back to the hotel.
We packed up, grabbed one last bowl of Pho, and made our way to the airport, only for our flight to be delayed by an hour. We arrived back in Singapore later than expected, and tremendously hungry, about seven hours since our last meal. After eating at the airport, we went home separately, and I went for a short jog before falling asleep for a good long rest.
What a holiday, and what a packed 5 days we had. It was all in all a great experience and I wouldn’t mind traveling for a short trip there again.